Culpeper Star-Exponent: June 9, 2023 Issue
Read the full press release/story here.
Prince William Living Magazine: January 2022 Issue
You might say Victor Rook does it all. Not only is he a beloved local author, but he’s also a book designer, editor/publisher, web designer and an award-winning filmmaker. In Search of Good Times, one of several of his published books, was just re-released as an audiobook, voiced by Andrew Pond.
In Search of Good Times follows the cross-country adventures of Joseph Manley, “Joe for short,” who’s recently become unemployed during the 2009 economic recession. Joe is suddenly convinced the characters from the two TV sitcoms, All in the Family and Good Times, are real and he needs to find them. So he sets off from Idaho to visit Chicago (where the Evans family lives) and New York (where the Bunker family lives). Along the way, he discovers lots of interesting people and places and even picks up a beagle!
Potomac Local: 8/20/2019
The brainchild of WbtR vice president Jan Rayl, the arts initiative is meant to encourage residents and visitors to “stop and read a piece of literary art they might not otherwise even glance at, something short that will get them thinking in a different way.”
According to Gotthardt, “It works very simply. We create and print a design with a member’s poem on standard size paper. Each poem is put in a clear stand or frame for placement wherever the hosting organization would like. The more visible, the better.”
Graphic designer and WbtR member Victor Rook created simple templates for participating members’ poems, carefully designed so as not to detract from the power of the words.
Gotthardt said the poems are family friendly. “There is no cost to the location owner, and we will advertise on social media, on websites and in local publications where people can find these exhibits once they are installed. Promotion of the hosting organization will remain active as long as the installation remains visible there.”
Black Friday elicits different responses from different people. Some can’t wait to shop pre-dawn holiday sales. Some set the day aside to shop locally. Still others boycott mass consumerism altogether. For Victor Rook, watching the chaos of Black Friday on the news last year inspired a dark, satirical short story.
Graphic designer and WbtR member Victor Rook created simple templates for participating members’ poems, carefully designed so as not to detract from the power of the words.
Gotthardt said the poems are family friendly. “There is no cost to the location owner, and we will advertise on social media, on websites and in local publications where people can find these exhibits once they are installed. Promotion of the hosting organization will remain active as long as the installation remains visible there.”
(Download .pdf)
People Who Need to Die. That is the unforgettable title of Victor Rook’s newest book. He is a diverse individual whose talents extend to filmmaking as well as writing.
“This is a book of satirical horror stories where in the year 2021 you are allowed to kill bad drivers, obnoxious cell phone users, horrible bosses, spammers, litterbugs, mean neighbors, and more. I had just finished a full-length novel entitled In Search of Good Times, which took three years to write. It’s about a man who believes the fictional sitcom families from ‘Good Times’ and ‘All in the Family’ are real and goes on a road trip to find them.
The first short story I wrote for People Who Need To Die is entitled “Black Friday Revenge.” I was inspired by all the mall tramplings you see during Black Friday. I thought, these people should die (laughing). So I wrote a story about a father whose son is trampled to death on Black Friday and seeks revenge by luring unsuspecting shoppers into a warehouse he has decked out to look like a discount
store, then makes them play shopping games to survive. From
there I thought of other groups of people who tick me off, and
came up with catchy title. It’s funny how people react to it at
book signings. They love it!”
Southern Writers: Sept. 2015
“This is a book of satirical horror stories where in the year 2021 you are allowed to kill bad drivers, obnoxious cell phone users, horrible bosses, spammers, litterbugs, mean neighbors, and more. I had just finished a full-length novel entitled In Search of Good Times, which took three years to write. It’s about a man who believes the fictional sitcom families from ‘Good Times’ and ‘All in the Family’ are real and goes on a road trip to find them.
Washington Post: 12/07/2014
In “Black Friday Revenge,” a father seeks retribution after his son is trampled to death during the annual shopping extravaganza. The father lures shoppers to an abandoned warehouse and makes them play shopping games to survive.
That story and several others are in the Manassas author’s latest book, “People Who Need to Die.”
“People get a kick out of the title because it’s so straightforward and shocking in a funny way,” said Rook, 51. The collection of short stories is set in the year 2021, with characters seeking vengeance on the likes of bad drivers, horrible bosses and cyberbullies...
(Download .pdf)
Prince William Times: 11/26/2014
Haymarket Beat: 11/18/2014
Washington Post: 7/20/2000
Three years ago, Victor Rook was a highly paid Northern Virginia computer consultant and Web designer, clocking long hours. There was little time to stop and smell the roses. But he did. And it changed his life.
While relaxing on a wooden bench near his rented Manassas cottage, he realized that his landlord's sprawling garden was alive: A flower had bloomed overnight. Turtles slumbered in the pond. Goldfish swam lazily.
Birds flitted from apple to cherry trees. Rook wondered if he could capture the dance on film.
He roamed the entire three acres, now with a sharp focus. He learned that some flowers bloomed in minutes; others lazily, gently spreading their petals to the sun. Hummingbirds came to the feeder on a preordained schedule.
A film hobbyist, Rook, 36, decided to quit his job and resolved to make a documentary of the garden, and the natural world that inhabits it. He began planning days around the opening of magnolias, hunting for baby praying mantises, watching a family of brown snakes visit a pond...
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