Ovoid, Illinois

‘Ovoid, Illinois – Fictionalized Accounts of Inconsequential People’, is a semi-autobiographical novel wherein the author hopes to settle some old scores, where villains finally get their comeuppance and wrongs are set right, metaphorically.

'Ovoid, Illinois' is set in a microscopically small town in the American Midwest of the late 1960’s. The tale tells of the final high school year of Cheryl-Jean Billingham, cheerleader, aspiring journalist and daughter of the ambitious ex-mayor and Duncan Reynard, singer, musician and eldest son of the town barber. Although of different social circles and circumstances, the two are brought together in a bitter-sweet romance by controversy resulting from faculty in-fighting regarding the high school musical. Cheryl-Jean takes it upon herself to fight on behalf of Duncan, who she feels has been slighted. She quickly finds herself embroiled in faculty politics, small town political wrangling and the larger societal picture of the tumultuous 1960’s. She is faced with the dilemma of creating a rift between herself and her loving yet patronizing father, undermining her own social status and taking a principled stand in defending both Duncan and the high school’s music director, Gordon Lehmann. Mr Lehmann, a closeted homosexual, is the target of a witch-hunt lead by the self-righteous and self-promoting, drama teacher, Mrs. Thalia Beaudelaire, who hopes to gain social prominence by threatening to ‘out’ him. Ovoid, Illinois is further populated by quirky, small-town eccentrics, religious fanatics, religious iconoclasts, fractious immigrants, drunks, war heroes, war protestors, cheerleaders, football jocks, nascent hippies, novice fascists, a teen megalomaniac, an over-weight and over-bearing sheriff, a sexually over-active vice-principal and a hard rock band which makes music so loud and so bizarre that it drives domestic animals to a primal frenzy. Ovoid, Illinois; a place of quiet, pastoral tradition. Ovoid, Illinois; a real nice place to raise your kids. Ovoid, Illinois; a place and a state of mind that most of the kids are frantic to escape from.

DC Rapier was born in a little log cabin he helped his father build in Kankakee, Illinois. Soon after, he whittled a guitar out of firewood and taught himself to play simple tunes. Born and raised an hour from the famous Blues and Jazz venues of Chicago, DC Rapier began his professional music journey with his first paying gig at the age of 15, as the lead singer, rhythm guitarist and harmonica player in a band playing Blues and R&B tunes learned from recordings of the vanguards of the British Invasion, the Yardbirds, the Animals and the Rolling Stones. For more than 45 years, DC has been singing madrigal, plain-song, oratorio, art song, opera, musicals, jazz, Blues, swing, rock, pop, country –western and even some jingles. He’s performed in choirs and choral groups in Europe and America; played sax, flute and bass clarinet in concert and jazz bands; guitar, harmonica, sax and flute in rock bands, Blues bands and show bands. A music school graduate, he majored in vocal performance and minored in piano, flute and saxophone at Springfield College in Illinois, a prestigious, private school with a conservatory music curriculum. A lover of music, his experience as a performer is as wide as it is varied. While living in Los Angeles, DC was performing and recording original songs in a New Wave rock band and during the same time-frame, was singing the role of Colline in a semi-professional production of Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’. For the past 22 years, DC has called Taipei, Taiwan his home base. Founder of the Blues Society on Taiwan, an affiliate of the Blues Foundation and creator and music director of the Blues Bash, the annual international Blues music festival, DC has also been the leader of BoPoMoFoㄅㄆㄇㄈ樂團, Taiwan’s premier proponent of Chicago-style electric Blues since 2004. DC is also the founder of the Taiwan Tolkien Society, ‘Tol Eressea’ and serves as the society’s ‘Lord-Mayor’, a tongue-in-cheek title of false pomp. In August, 2005, at the Tolkien Society’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of JRRT Tolkien’s first volume of his masterpiece, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, DC presented a paper he’d written entitled ‘Frodo’s Temptation; Frodo’s Failure’ at Aston University, Birmingham, England. The paper was subsequently included in a compendium entitled ‘Tolkien 2005:The Ring Goes Ever On – Proceedings’ published by the Tolkien Society, Coventry, England in 2008. ‘Ovoid, Illinois – Fictionalized Accounts of Inconsequential People’, is a semi-autobiographical novel wherein DC hopes to settle some old scores, where villains finally get their comeuppance and DC sets wrongs to right, metaphorically. It was written in 2010 and 2011. ‘Ovoid, Diaspora’, the first sequel in a planned five-volume series is currently and sporadically being re-written, revised, re-considered and proof-read. His 62nd birthday has come and gone and DC shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, he seems to be busier than ever. In 2010, DC checked off an item off his ‘bucket list’ by playing a key role in the first production of Cole Porter’s classic musical, ‘Anything Goes’ at Taiwan’s National Concert Hall. He then was asked to reprise his role of ‘Eli Whitney’ the following year in the 2011 production of the classic musical. In addition to being BoPoMoFo’s ㄅㄆㄇㄈ樂團lead singer, sax, flute, Blues harp-player and MC, DC also performs with the Blurrs Bros, a guitar duo and as a solo performer doing classic R&B, Blues, and his own original songs. He also plays tenor sax and sings in a funk band, ‘The Shiznits’ and as well as being the other half of a guitar duo which specializes in Tin-Pan Alley standards and is appropriately called ‘Tin Pan Alley Katz’. DC currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan with his wife, Yashan ‘Linda’ Huang and seven cats and teaches English as a foreign language (but neither to the cats nor to his wife).