Spotlight: The Lightning People Play by Tim Cummings

Fourteen-year-old Kirby Renton is a gifted theatre kid who wants to fix things, like his dads' marriage and his younger brother's epilepsy. When ten-year-old Baxter's seizures start involving visits from 'the lightning people,' who descend from the sky and show him strange symbols, Kirby knows he needs to protect his brother, but how? He thinks he's found the answer when the neurologist advises his family to consider a seizure-alert dog, but the cost is too much for his family to afford.

Determined to raise the money himself, Kirby enlists his best friends and a crew of brilliant teens from his theatre troupe to put on a play in his epic forest of a backyard. At first, the play brings its own pressures as the drama between Kirby's dads worsens and his fears for his brother intensify. But little does Kirby know of the magic that awaits him and his friends— and the portals that will open— from his daring to make a difference.

From the award-winning author of Alice the Cat comes another captivating tale set in the fictional town of Weirville, where strange magic transforms the inimitable teens who live there.

Buy on Amazon

About the Author

Tim Cummings is the author of the multiple-award-winning coming-of-age novel, Alice the Cat, published by Fitzroy Books. It was chosen as an American Book Awards 'Best Book' Finalist for 2023, received a Bronze Medal in the 2024 Feathered Quill Book Awards, and is a Finalist in both the 2024 National Indies Excellence Awards for Teen Fiction and the Independent Author Network's Book of the Year Awards. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and a BFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Since 1984, he has appeared in over 200 projects across theatre, film, television, voice-over, and new media. Recent publications of short fiction, essays, and poetry include F(r)iction, Scare Street, Lunch Ticket, MeowMeow PowPow, From Whispers to Roars, Drunk Monkeys, Hare's Paw, Lit Angels, and Critical Read/RAFT, for which he won the ‘Origins’ contest for his essay, “You Have Changed Me Forever.” He teaches writing for UCLA Extension Writers' Program, The Townies Inc in Ojai, runs private workshops, and coaches authors. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner of 19 years and their dog.

Tim grew up with a severely epileptic brother. His name was Matthew. They shared a room growing up. The seizure scenes in The Lightning People Play between Kirby and Baxter are drawn from real life. Matthew succumbed to epilepsy in the summer of 1997 when he died of complications caused by a grand-mal seizure. He was 26. With this story, Tim manifested a different destiny for Matthew–and for his heart.