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PARKERSBURG -- Nearly seven months ago, Stephen Hupp was preparing for a program at the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library about his novel "On a Sunday in May."
But he never got the chance to share insights into his intertwined stories about the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR World 600 because the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to in-person gatherings.
As restrictions have been lifted, the library has resumed programming, albeit with an eye toward preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus. So circulation clerk Jeanne Michie asked Hupp to share his work in a different format: an online video.
"Prior to the COVID, I would have at least one author a month here to do a discussion," Michie said.
Instead of the racing novel, Hupp, the library director at West Virginia University at Parkersburg, is discussing "Wings in the Night," a novel he released last year that puts his own spin on the Mothman legend.
It brings back Kat and Erin, characters introduced in another of his novels, "Daughters of the Valley." After an encounter with the Mothman in the fictional Ohio Valley town of Collinsburg, they set out to learn the truth about the mysterious figure.
Michie asked Hupp to record a video discussing his book. It took him two takes to nail down the 16-minute clip.
"The first session, I was visibly nervous," he said.
Hupp, a fan of John Keel's "The Mothman Prophecies" as a teenager, said he likes to write about what he knows.
"I've been working in academia since I was 25," he said of setting two of his books in a college based on WVUP and Marietta College, "and I've been following motor racing since I was a kid."
Michie asked Hupp to focus on "Wings in the Night" to go along with an October library program called "Create a Cryptid," in which people of all ages are encouraged to dream up their own creature in the vein of the Mothman or Bigfoot and share it online.
"It's an all-ages event," Michie said. "I'd be happy to have kids as well as adults participate. The more creative the better."
Information about the event can be found on the library's Facebook Events page. Participants are invited to share their creation through drawing, painting, photography, sculpture or other media and post their work on the page. Submissions will be accepted through Oct. 31 and shared Nov. 6 in a live Facebook event.
Meanwhile, Hupp's video has been viewed more than 800 times, and Michie hopes the response convinces more authors to give it a try.