Thumbing Through Pages vs. Twiddling His Thumbs

After experiencing a royally wretched first half of my day (being stuck in traffic after having a medium iced latte, finally getting to my destination only to find out that there is no way in - the elevator was not functioning and all doors were locked) I make my way back home to ensure more traffic, trying to remind myself that this hiccup is trivial compared to the monumentally serious things going on in the world. Granted, I am still fuming and on the verge of tears when I speed by a man leaning up against his car reading a book. He is right by the Paramount lot parking structure. I decide to pull over by the Santa Monica Boulevard Elementary School and walk over to him.

This man is reading Model Behavior by Jay McInerney, a book he borrowed from the public library. He tells me it's about a writer who is dating a model. Prior to reading Model Behavior, he had read McInerney's short stories which led him to pick up this novel. The last novel he read was Ironweed by William J. Kennedy, set during the Great Depression.



I asked this man what he was doing reading a book against his car. He was actually waiting for a friend. Always armed with a book, he is able to pass the time for 15 minutes or so whenever he has to wait for a period of time. "I can't stand those idle moments. It frustrates me when reading time is taken away from me so I try to have a book handy to avoid having to twiddle my thumbs as I wait for friends, wait in line, and what not." His friend approached and popped open the trunk to dump in his stuff. "Yeah, that guy HATES books." His comrade rolled his eyes at this and shook his head as if in agreement. And off we went in our separate directions.

How thrilling!

Hank Schwaeble has authored his first novel, Damnable. He was kind enough to take the time to interview with yours truly.

The interview opens with the four words: "What are you reading?" Hank is currently reading A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss. It's a historical thriller set in 18th century England. "David Liss writes incredibly authentic historical novels, filled with rich imagery and fascinating detail", Schwaeble tells me. "I'm working my way through all his novels." Prior to reading A Spectacle of Corruption, he finished A Twisted Ladder by Rhodi Hawk. Up next is Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry.

Hank remembers liking Stephen King's Salem's Lot as a teenager, a lot more than more books. As a young boy in elementary school, he enjoyed Encyclopedia Brown and Stuart Little! "The first actual novel I ever read was Jaws when I was about seven or eight yers old, so that one certainly stuck out." I am starting to see a pattern: thrillers, detective novels and adventure themes.

Yes, Hank admits that he can't get enough of hard-boiled detective novels and thrillers. "I like the dark, gritty realism the good ones are imbued with, the clean, dry prose that tends to mark the style." Schwaeble frequently recommends Dope by Sara Gran. "It's an outstanding piece of noir." This is perfect since I have been looking forwrad to reading more noir novels. Gran also wrote "a nifty horror novel called Come Closer." (Extra points for using the word "nifty" in the interview!)

His recommendations don't end there. "Fans of southern gothic fiction with a supernatural twist will love A Twisted Ladder. I picked up Beat by Josh Bazell after reading a review somewhere online and I loved it."

We move on to talk about his own writing. He fills me in a bit on his latest book, Damnable. "It is about a disgraced ex-special forces interrogator who assumes he's going to Hell and realizes he may be the only chance everyone else has of not joining him. When I began it, I sat down with only an idea for a prologue. By the time I finished the scene, I had a general story in mind and a main character, so I plotted out the rest of the book and wrote it. It took about a a year from start to finish, give or take a month." Schwaeble was set to write a hard-boiled horror novel, a book that was part noir and part supernatual thriller, embodying the genres he most enjoys. However he was keeping his audience in mind. "I wanted readers to be able to like it even if they didn't necessarily go in for horror."

Book settings always play a huge role in any novel. I was curious to know why he set his novel in New York. "I wanted to start with a place people could readily identify with no matter where they were from, and thought the anonymity offered by that urban setting would lend itself to the cast of characters I was intending to populate the book with. I also needed a place with ready access to underground tunnels." Functionality - I like it! Hank is already working on his next novel. It's a mainstream thriller, and then will begin a sequel to Damnable.

Growing up, Edgar Allan Poe was a huge influence on him as were Stephen King and Clive Barker. "I'm an eclectic reader, though, so it's hard to narrow my inspirations down to a single work or author. I should give a nod to Dennis Lehane and Lee Child, also, as I aspire to write as well as they do."

As a matter of fact, if he could spend some time with one of these authors and ask them one question he would probably ask Poe if he had any idea he would eventually be credited with creating two separate genres of fiction, the detective story and the modern horror story, and whether he thought he'd be studied in literature classes a hundred and fifty years after his death.

Some of his favourite books? He would have to say 1984 and Atlas Shrugged. Moby Dick also deserved a mention and so does The Old Man and The Sea and The Maltese Falcon. These books stick out because of the themes they explore, powerful ones that provoke thought and raise questions.

And how thrilled was I when Schwaeble shared that he actually had his own "odd shelf"!

"I have numerous books dealing with the golden age of magic, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, books about magic and magicians at the time, biographies of Houdini, Chung Ling Soo, and the like. Novels set in that general time or dealing in that milieu, such as Carter Beats the Devil. Don't ask my why. It just fascinates me. Magicians have always been so far ahead of their time in understanding human psychology, I find the concept of them plying their trade a century or so ago using principles that still fool people to this day intriguing."

Want to find out more about Hank Schwaeble? Visit his website: http://www.hankschwaeble.com/

poetry to my ears

For any budding poets on here, www.flatmancrooked.com is launching a poetry contest on November 1st. Click Here for more info. Should be fun and you get some a wad of cash money for your superb work! Mary Karr, whose new memoir Lit is being release on HarperCollins, will be the guest judge for this competition.

Good Luck!

you're blowing my mind!

Upon getting off the tram at SFO in search of my sister to board BART I see her coming toward me, a book under her arm. We have our usual high-five and make our way into the car. Z immediately expresses her awe for her current book, "An Anthropologist on Mars" by neurologist, Oliver Sacks. She had heard about this author a little while back on PBS and via Jason Hammel, one half of Mates of State. Jason had been reading Oliver Sacks' works on music and brain studies. Z was fascinated by this and decided to do a bit more research on his other works.

One evening while visiting perusing the bookshelves of a friend's new apartment she happened to stop on "An Anthropoligist on Mars". Her eyes lit up because she was meaning to read it and before she could ask her friend if she could borrow his copy he nearly could not contain himself! He was excited to lend it to her. This happens to be his favourite book of all time and he happened to snag this copy from his brother. The topics in this book blow his mind!


There are 7 case studies about the worlds of Sacks' subjects. The first chapter is about a colorblind artist. He was in a car accident which resulted in some brain damage affecting his color recognition. Immediately my mind is blown and my sister and I partake in heavy discussion about this a colorblind artist! Color was his world and now here he was, getting these headaches and finding out that he has what's seems like amnesia of color. Since he stops seeing color on a regular basis he starts to forget what color is. You mention 'green' to him and he has no idea what you're talking about. Fascinating...absolutely fascinating! My sister starts showing me photos of what they think this artist sees. Then she starts raving about the footnotes. It's so saturated with information that it's like reading a second book within the book.

Z started telling me about the chapter on the woman who was motion-blind. Can you imagine sitting somewhere and seeing someone in the far distance then all of a sudden they are smack-dab in front of you? I would totally freak out! And I would not have any idea of their movement. Blip - they are here. Blip - they are there. Moving vehicles, moving people, bouncing balls, flying birds - ahhhh! Z explained that the woman did have a heightened aural sense so it helped this woman "hear" things coming at her.

Ghosts over Toast

Sunday brunch at Blu Jam Cafe with my mom. After finishing my meal and bidding farewell to Kamil (the owner) I see Shundreya leaning over an opened book while she waits for her beverages to arrive. Just her and her book out in the sunshine. Accompanying her this beautiful Sunday is a copy of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. She has just started the book but does know that the novel is set in England, comprising of a family's ghost stories. Shundreya found out about this book at her job. She happens to work at the Barnes & Noble at the Grove. While she is not required to read the new books that come in and write up reviews and recommendations a la independent bookstores B&N do encourage their employees to read up on the current reads so that they can answer questions patrons may have about certain works.


The last book she read was Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom, his latest work. She absolutely loved this book and admits to being a full-fledged Albom fan. She's read every one of his novels and thoroughly enjoys his work.

When asked what her favourite book was Shundreya immediately knew the answer. Most people I encounter have a hard time pin-pointing this but Shundreya was quick in coming up with hers. "Oh, I know exactly what this is. That's easy. Jazz by Toni Morrison. I first read it in college and I instantly new upon reading the final paragraph that this was going to be my all-time favourite book."

Now that is a horse of a different color if I ever saw one! I rarely meet people who refer to a book's final paragraph as the selling point. But I can see how the final paragraph is important. It's the author's final moment to speak to you. For Shundreya it is this along with the fact that she often utilizes a book's final paragraph as a monologue. "That final paragraph is everything. It has to move you." She's an actress hence it is important for her to find something that moves her and will move her audience.

As for Toni Morrison's Jazz she's read this book in its entirety only once however she regularly reads random passages and digests it for a period of time.


Growing up she remembers Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume as being the first book to make her cry. "Judy Blume really understood the angst and anxiety of that time in all our lives. She fully captured the lack of attention kids felt and I think that is what many of us could relate to her books. Dear God, It's Me Margaret...what girl didn't relate to that book! Blume spoke to us like she truly understood how it felt to be that age."

Shundreya would love to incite a similar sentiment in her own work. She's actually working on her own book about being lonely. "I want to have a discussion about the concept of lonliness. Everyone always says to write what you know. I've been single my whole life and while most people see this as debilitating they don't realize that we are all interconnected. Therefore we are never really alone. I want to tap into this universal consciousness." Shundreya laughs a bit then tells me that her book even has "walls that talk" to emphasize that one is never alone. "I want to tap into the symmetry, the balance, and the harmony around us. I'd love to move people in hopes that they see and fully understand this."