Community

With Friday’s wet weather not expected to stick around too long, a fun-filled weekend awaits local residents with three community-centered events scheduled through Sunday.

A motorcade of about 75 participants, some riding Harley Davidsons and others in cars, passed through downtown Morgan Hill led by widower Mary Jo Cetani in honor of her late husband Rocci Cetani Jr.

The Irish are coming!

The local Relay for Life planning committee’s “Paint the Town Purple” campaign struck downtown Morgan Hill in the early afternoon April 14, as a growing group of organizers and team members left a purple haze of ribbons, flags, banners and posters up and down Monterey Road between Main and Dunne avenues.

The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill will host its 11th annual Dazzle fundraiser beginning at 5 p.m. May 27 at Clos LaChance Winery, located at 1 Hummingbird Lane in San Martin.

John Bisceglie, a director, producer and filmmaker, is searching for local youth ages 8 to 21 to appear in “Broadway Movie Musical,” an original production recreating Broadway’s greatest moments on film.

One Step Closer Therapeutic Riding recently received a $2,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill to purchase a portable round pen. The 60-foot diameter round pen will be used to teach horsemanship skills to U.S. military veterans, and to train and exercise program horses.

Before the early days of spring begin to quickly change to the scorching days of summer that will host the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open in San Martin, tournament organizers—along with one of the biggest names in the golf media world—invited a small group of guests to see up close the venue that will be crawling with thousands of spectators for an entire week.The U.S. Women’s Open will take place July 7-10 at CordeValle golf course. While this venue is no stranger to professional-level, star-studded competition (Tiger Woods played in the 2012 Frys.com Open there), the U.S. Golf Association’s annual women’s open is a special event, according to organizers.“For women’s golf, this is the pinnacle,” 2016 U.S. Women's Open Vice President and CordeValle Director of Sales and Marketing Jeff Holland said at the resort for the March 28 preview.CordeValle has been working with the USGA for about seven years to attract the U.S. Women’s Open, Holland said. “This is the biggest event the club has ever undertaken. A USGA championship is what we’ve been after.”Joining tournament officials for the March 28 preview of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open course was Mitch Juricich, founder and writer of the popular “Hooked On Golf” radio program, podcast and website.“We have a big major championship coming, right here in our own little backyard,” Juricich said.U.S. Women’s Open Creative Director Ian Long said an event like the one coming in July happens only “once in a generation” in a locale such as San Martin and South County. “Champions play here,” he said.The tournament officials gave a brief tour of CordeValle’s grounds and how they will accommodate the thousands of visitors expected to descend on the course in July. A key site is Clos La Chance Winery, where the outdoor patio and terrace—where the general public is invited when the tasting room is open or for outdoor concerts—overlooks CordeValle. “Upgraded ticket” holders will have access to a restaurant and bar on the winery grounds.Guests were also invited March 28 to play the exact 18-hole layout that the top USGA women will play in July. Measuring more than 6,800 yards, the length alone—combined with CordeValle’s deviously cunning and abundant placement of sand traps throughout the fairways and protecting the greens—is enough to challenge the best amateurs, be they men or women.The early spring greens at the San Martin course are as immaculately groomed as the rest of the course, and as consistent as one would expect at a championship caliber venue, even though they weren’t lightning fast. But CordeValle Caddie Quin Boulger said that will change by July 7.On March 28, Boulger said the greens were rating about a nine on the “stimpmeter” (a device that measures green speeds on golf courses). During the U.S. Women’s Open, which will take place in the middle of a likely dry summer, he expects that number to climb to 11 or 12—about the maximum recommended by the USGA.CordeValle hosted the Professional Golf Association’s Frys.com Open from 2010 to 2013, bringing such golf stars as Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and more to South County for the October event. In 2014, that tournament moved to Silverado Country Club in Napa.Organizers estimated that the Frys.com Open brought millions of dollars into the local economy, and they expect the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open to have a similar impact.Another event to help promote and celebrate the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open is coming up April 6-10, with “San Pedro Putt Putt” set to take over San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose. The six-hole pop-up golf course will be open for everyone to experience “the fun of golf in a family-friendly, easily accessible format at no cost,” reads a statement from organizers. Scorecards and equipment will be provided. Photo opportunities will be available.The putt putt event will be open 4 to 9 p.m. April 6-9, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. April 10.

The 33rd running of the American Association of University Women’s Wildflower Run brought out more than 1,000 competitors who hailed from South County to the far reaches of the globe.

Writing a book is a major accomplishment. But if you are 23 years old, have an identical twin, have written the book together and have published your first in a series of young adult novels, that is astounding.Brittany and Nicole Pettibone spent their early years in Kansas, before moving to Morgan Hill over a decade ago. They are known in the literary world as T.S. Pettibone, a pen name created by using the first letters of their parents’ names, Theodore and Sabrina.The twins attended freshman year at Thomas More High School in San Jose. The following year Nicole traveled to New York, where she attended a boarding school, while Brittany remained at home.It was an experiment of sorts as the twins wanted to experience life apart.“We realized that we’re better together,” Brittany said.“We feel we complement each other, although we’re very different,” Nicole added.Three years ago the Pettibone family, with 10 kids, moved to Gilroy, and in January the twins completed their first book, Hatred Day, in the young adult (YA) fantasy/sci-fi genre.The Gilroy community can meet these local celebrities on Saturday, April 2 at 3 p.m., when the Pettibone twins appear at Gilroy Library to read from Hatred Day.The library visit is something the twins look forward to; they see it as an opportunity to meet avid readers of YA fiction.As it happens, Brittany and Nicole are not only identical twins; they are mirror image twins.Many of their physical traits are exact opposites of each other, such as Brittany being left-handed, and Nicole being right-handed. The same can be said for their personalities.“I was more outgoing when we were younger, and Nicole was more withdrawn—not really shy, just withdrawn—and her focus was on writing,” Brittany said.“For example in writing, [Nicole] has strengths where my weaknesses are, and my strengths are where her weaknesses are,” Brittany said, adding, “I can see things more broadly, like plotwise, and she’s better at the details and dialogue. It really works.”The girls don’t consider their relationship any different from other sibling relationships, although they’ve been told otherwise.“People have commented that they find us as unapproachable because we have that twin bond, and we’re always talking,” Nicole said.The twins admit they’ve had fun with the fact that they are identical. When they were in second grade, Brittany, the eldest by 15 minutes, proposed the idea of switching identities, they wanted to see if their teachers would notice.The ruse worked, and for three days the twins pulled it off.Throughout their grade school days Brittany spent most of her time with friends and playing sports, while Nicole created her own world through her art and her writing.“The things I imagined, or the things that moved me, I loved to be able to put into physical form,” Nicole said. “It’s sort of without leaving the house you’re exploring on your own. You’re building worlds, you’re learning and discovering new things.”It wasn’t until the 10th grade that Nicole decided to share her writing with her sister.“I was mesmerized by it. I loved it,” Brittany said.Inspired by Nicole’s work, Brittany tried her hand at writing and formulated the premise for their first book, a sci-fi/fantasy thriller set in 2052.“It was absolutely terrible back then,” said Brittany. “We were about 15 when we thought of the idea for the story, but Nicole actually wanted to write it with me because she saw some potential in it.“We didn’t have the theme, we didn’t have moral arguments, and all these kind of things way back then, and our characters were completely different too.”The twins explained that the idea of the main character, a teenaged girl, volunteering to be bait for a hunt, is the only aspect of the story that has stayed consistent.Many might be surprised to discover that writing together is something the twins really enjoy, and according to them, they rarely argue.“Normally, for the most part, we agree,” Brittany, said.They also agree on the genre of their writing, which is centered in the world of fantasy.“We’ve always loved the idea of no limitations. We loved the idea of being able to do what we want, to do really imaginative and crazy things in our book,” Nicole said.The twins love writing so much they admit that it has been a stumbling block for them.“Honestly we feel that we can always do better, we’re never satisfied,” Nicole said. “We just kind of have to cut the cord at some point and end it, because otherwise we’d probably write a million times, until we’re like old, and never get it out.”When it came to their writing process for the first book, the twins would brainstorm for hours; then each would write their own draft of the story. The process turned out to be very counterproductive, as they wound up with over 20 revisions. It wasn’t until they created an outline for the story, which provided structure to their writing, that it all came together.Hatred Day, released on Jan. 29, is the first installment of the authors’ planned seven-book series. They also aim to write two stand-alone books. The projected completion date for all nine books, according to the twins, is in five years, if not sooner.“Our long range goal is within three to five years to be able to fully support ourselves. That would be the ultimate thing for us, and it’s what we’ve been working towards for so long,” Brittany said.Even with numerous offers from publishers, after a great deal of deliberation the twins decided to go the route of self-publishing.“We like doing it on our own. We wanted to do everything ourselves,” Nicole said.“It is getting a lot more credibility, self-publishing, and it’s a lot easier to do than it was just a few years ago,” Brittany said. “Now a lot more people are open to it.”“I think that YA is mainly in that age [15-19], where you have a lot of firsts in life, you try a lot of new things,” Nicole said.“We don’t actually have that in our book,” she continued, “because they are in such a ruthless world, and they have to survive from a young age, and have to mature more quickly. So ours isn’t really coming of age, but there will be, throughout the series, there will be a lot of firsts, because it’s about growing up, first heartbreaks, and so on.”For more information about the Hatred Day series, visit the authors’ website at:http://tspettibone.com.