If you’ve got light on in your office or workspace at Nebula, or if you’re phone’s charging smoothly while plugged into the wall, you can thank the efforts of Mark Pannebecker, the co-working facility’s electrician and that of South Side Spaces, generally. A resident of the Cherokee neighborhood, Pannebecker’s been in-and-around the complex for a good while and is a familiar face to a variety of Nebula’s members.
“With anything that happens in all the different properties, it it’s electrical stuff, I’m the one doing it,” he says. “Communication lines, receptacles, lighting. My connection to Nebula is definitely being a part of the family for several years now. I have a lot freedom working for South Side Spaces. It’s a really nice relationship. And I live around the corner, so it’s really sweet.”
His life, he says, is based the idea of working roughly 30-hours a week, allowing him a decent payday, but also enough time to explore some outside interests, with writing and literature high among those pursuits.
Last year, Nebula was home to the inaugural St. Louis Indie Book Fair, which brought together writers, publishers and fans of the written word. This year, the event’s moving downtown to main branch of the St. Louis Public Library, where it’ll be held on Saturday, May 7, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Though the word “Indie” is the title, the event’s open to all sorts of interests.
“It’s open to all authors, fiction or non-fiction,” he says. “We had over 100 titles represented through publishers and authors and we had 13 authors on-hand with their books, reading, selling books and doing autographing them. This year, we’ll have basically the same thing, along with a ‘pitching hour,’ when writers can come in and pitch to publishers and maybe get signed, or get a deal. Throughout the day, authors will be reading excerpts of their works. All genres are represented and you’re able to mill about, meet the authors and find a good book to read.
“Fast-forwarding five years, hopefully we’ll be able to get more-recognized, even by national authors,” he says. “But the main goal, or mission statement, is to foster authors and introduce readers to writers. The only guidelines to take part are that you need a finished a finished book, something that people can buy and walk out with; you can make that on a Xerox or have a chapbook. It’s open to all.”
And one of the books sold this year will be Pannebecker’s own, “Fraternity of Fractures,” which is described online this way: Set in the blighted city of St. Louis in the ‘80s, ‘Fraternity of Fractures’ is a love triangle played out in an urban setting full of nocturnal adventures, danger, sex, and drugs, with all the players fractured in their own way. Justin Sunder is a master cat burglar who is in love with his best friend Phoenix, but his romantic love is unrequited. Phoenix is a streetwise beauty enthralled by Justin’s elegance and is excited by his lifestyle, and their friendship is an important and deep bond to her. Dylan Panicosky is the bad boy who gets the young girl’s heart, and their infatuation with each other – and Dylan’s actions – threatens to destroy everything Phoenix holds dear. The novel focuses more on the criminals than the crimes, providing readers with affable lawbreakers with engrossing backstories.”
You can buy “Fraterity of Fractures” as an ebook or in print on-demand here: http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000992498/Fraternity-of-Fractures.aspx.
