BIO:
Rick O’Donnell is a freelance writer from Oberlin, Ohio (25 miles northwest of Cleveland). He is co-founder of the Oberlin Writers’ Group and a pioneer in applying digital technology to creative writing. His 1983 master’s dissertation, “Special Watch,” was the first thesis ever presented in both the traditional paper format and on floppy disk. For the first time, stories and poems incorporated movement, sound, and animation. In the same year, he became the first American to have his short story collection, “Rice Wine,” published on disk. He was the founder of Bookware Publishing, and his children’s e-book, “Where’s Santa Claus?,” won the Ohio Arts Council’s 1986 Individual Artist Grant in Interdisciplinary & Performance Arts.
His online publication links are:
FICTION:
“Placebo Effect” audio download at Sniplits.com. Mademoiselle Necker unleashes more than she bargained for when she agrees to conduct a seance for the wealthy, bereaved Mr. Neville….Time: 31:56 / $1.08.
“The Inheritance” at Everydayfiction.com. ”The instant the Crawford gang entered the Farr Creek Savings Loan and interrupted his transaction at gun point, Bud Tucker knew the carnival fortuneteller was right; he was going to inherit young…” Free.
“The Thirteen Step” at Everydayfiction.com. A teenage girl is home alone at night for the first time when a storm knocks out the lights. Free.
“Lickwags” MicroHorror.com. “This is the epic tale of how I hunted down and eradicated the infamous lickwags, ancient demons that subsisted by licking words off pages…” Short-short fiction, Posted February 4, 2010, Free.
“The Perfect Fit” at EverydayFiction.com. Thad, a loving husband, believes he has handled his cougar wife’s funeral correctly. Free
CHILDREN’S STORIES
“Nothing Is in the Closet” SPACEPORTS & SPIDERSILK, Vol. 3 No. 2, June 2010, Free
CREATIVE NON-FICTION:
“Genesis of the Easter Seals Society: The Memorial Trolley Car Disaster” North Coast Review. Fall, 2007, Free.
“Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Mo” North Coast Review, Spring, 2010, Free. A three-part story, Part I tells of my father’s experience training and serving with African-American troops during World War II; Part II is the story of my first encounter with African-Americans and its lifelong consequence; Part III explains how pejorative language, especially the many derogatory and racist phrases embedded in the American language not only defames ethnic groups, but also demeans the user.
“Light Wars” Long Short Story, July 2010, Free. Two sisters, cold floors, and a light switch far far away are the makings for nightly trouble.
FILMS:
“Kill Switch” Written and Directed by Rick O’Donnell. Youtube short. People start dropping dead, when Margie tests her new anti-theft Kill Switch. 6:38 minutes, Free, Posted April 18, 2010.
“Giddyup and the Audacious Purse Snatcher” Written and Directed by Rick O’Donnell. Oberlin Film Makers’ salute to the Silent Film Era. 4:10 minutes, Free, Posted August 16, 2010.
“Break” A ghost gets an opportunity to taste life one more time. 7:59 minutes, Free, Posted June 17, 2010.
“Tree Me Right” YouTube short. A rubber tree gets a special delivery. 2:02 minutes, Free, April 25, 2010.
“The 13th Step: A Ghost Story.” Youtube short. The creature in the basement is waiting for anyone who dares to descend the steps in the dark. 8:27 minutes, Free, December 2009
“Another Day” Youtube short. A cowboy seeks help in a back alley that can’t be put off for ANOTHER DAY. 3:05 minutes, Free, July 2009
“Desperate Reference” Youtube short. A distraught man gets an unexpected answer when he asks a reference librarian for help. 2:03 minutes, Free. An OBERLIN COLLEGE’S FIRST FILM FESTIVAL selection, April 30, 2008.
“Give Me a Book” Youtube short. A library patron discovers he doesn’t have to check out books at gunpoint. 2:31 minutes, Free.
“Good Intentions” Youtube short. The Devil’s apprentice puts a hex on treat-or-treating and ruins Halloween for the children. 5:59 minutes, Free.
“Booger in the Nose” Youtube short. Campfire Ditty: music and lyrics by Rick O’Donnell 1:28 minutes. Free.
“The Warm Up” Youtube short. A pianist’s warm up technique is like making love. 5:16 minutes. Free.
“Dark Reality” Youtube short. It’s hard to sell a house with bodies in the basement. 5:32. Free.
“National Thong Day” Youtube short. Two Ex-hippies decide to “bare all” for National Thong Day. 3:56
“O’DEATH” YouTube short. Two angels battle for a dying woman’s soul. 4:06 minutes. Free.
POETRY
“Kettle of Hawks” Everydaypoets.com, Posted August 6, 2010, Free.
“The Soprano” Everydaypoets.com, Posted July 2, 2010, Free.
“The Near Occasion” Everydaypoets.com, Posted June 3, 2010, Free.
“Fast Food Dancer” Everydaypoets.com, Posted May 17, 2010, Free.
“April Is A Fickle Tease” Everydaypoets.com, Posted April 1, 2010, Free.
“The Photograph“ Everydaypoets.com, Posted February 17, 2010, Free.
“Bus Stop” Everydaypoets.com, Posted January 9, 2010, Free.
“Evenings” Everydaypoets.com, Posted December 18, 2009, Free.
“Graffiti Sunset” Everydaypoets.com, Posted November 1, 2009, Free.
“Saturn On My Sole” Everydaypoets.com, Posted October 5, 2009, Free.
“Top-Heavy” Everydaypoets.com, Posted September 20, 2009, Free.
“Poetry Makes the Best Bathroom Books” Zygoteinmycoffee.com, Post September 2009, Issue 125, Free.
“Appetite” Everydaypoets.com, Posted August 12, 2009, Free.
“Fresh Baked Bread” Everydaypoets.com, Posted July 5, 2009, Free.
Rick is currently seeking a publisher for his novel, Measure Twice/ Cut Once, a murder mystery set in Cleveland, and he is at work on a collection of horror stories and on a collection of stories for children.
Rick received two prestigious Ohio Arts Council individual artist grants for fiction and performance arts. His poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in: Everyday Fiction, Sniplits audio downloads, North Coast Review, Zygote In My Coffee, MicroHorror, Binaryorganic, Mind Fair, Kaleidoscope, Heartlands, Many Voices, The Gamut, Diskazine, The Alchemist, Telescope , Intro and Plum Creek Review. Two plays, Mary and The Last Dragon in the World, have been produced at Lorain County Community College where he earned the college’s Outstanding Performance and Outstanding Dramatis awards.
He is the author / artist of the MPD University comic strip, and he also created the comic strip, Worms’ View, with his sister / artist Gail Darmstadt.
Rick enjoys writing macabre humorous film shorts and acting with the Oberlin Film Makers; his films are available on YouTube.
His bumper stickers, God Created Sex / I Only Perfected It and Marriage / The Post-Romantic Stress Syndrome were published by Bad Habits, and his button Throw Parties / Not Bombs is available from the Northern Sun catalog with order #0873.
A frequent workshop presenter, Rick has led groups titled Jump Start Your Novel, Jump Start Your Family Story, and Journal Keeping. He developed an empowering workshop, Creativity for Recovery, for the Lorain County Rape Crisis Center.
Rick’s hobby is researching and collecting family stories for the O’Donnell family tree, especially those of the last one hundred years in Lorain County, Ohio. One story from this collection, Genesis of the Easter Seals Society: The Memorial Day Trolley Car Disaster, is available on-line free of charge at the North Coast Review.
Rick earned an associate degree from Lorain County Community College, a BA degree from Oberlin College, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. He has served on the writing faculties at Bowling Green University, Cuyahoga Community College West, and Lorain County Community College.
He is proud to be a Vietnam era Veteran, having served in the U.S. Navy on the USS Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600) submarine, the USS Fidelity (MSO 43) minesweeper, and as senior corpsman in pediatrics at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Building Number One, the nation’s oldest naval hospital. While aboard the Fidelity, Rick was “A member of the Task Force One Four Zero Manned Spacecraft Recovery Force, Atlantic, providing direct support for the Extra-Terrestrial Flight of Apollo 17” to the moon December 7, 1972.
Rick is the father of five grown children and he has two grandsons.
Rick invites other writers to stop by and share their writing with the Oberlin Writers’ Group. It meets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Oberlin Public Library, 65 S. Main St., Oberlin, OH 44074. The welcome mat is always out.
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