David A. Schwinghammer
Sitemap
My Blog
Contact Author
Message Board
Read
Reviews
Books
· Soldier's Gap
Short Stories
· Fisher of Men, Chapter 8
· Honest Thief, Tender Murderer, Chapter Eight
· Mengele's Double, Chapter Eight
· Bereavement Blues
· Fisher of Men, Chapter 7
· Speed Dating With 'Janeane Garofalo'
· The Cynic
· Honest Thief, Tender Murderer - Chapter Seven
· Mengele's Double, Chapter 7
· Mengele's Double, Chapter Six
Articles
· Bogus Political Cartoons
· The Devil in the White City, book review
· Norse Mythology, book review
· Capitalism, Is This the Best We Can Do?
· Bookworm (book review)
· Band of Brothers (book review)
· WWII Nurses (book review)
· Glory Fades Away (book review)
· Denial Is Not a River in Egypt, George!
· Thomas Jefferson, book review
Poetry
· Myth
· Alumni Game
· Stradivarius
· Snow-a-holic
· Girls Who Wear Glasses
· The Do Drop Inn
· Ode to Neve Campbell
· Jacks or Better 101
· Never My Love
· 3 O'Clock
More poetry...
|
|
David A. Schwinghammer, click here
to update your web pages on AuthorsDen.
|
|
|
|
|
Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions.
10/22/2009 8:51:57 AM
Continued question and answer session
Q. You seem to have a problem with best sellers. Are you jealous?
A. I don't have a problem with all best sellers. I've recently read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and loved it. However, I do have a problem with those authors who seem to be writing the same book over and over. Some of them don't even write their own books. If there's a co-author, think ghost writer.
Q. You said you got ideas from the newspapers. Can you give us an example from one of your novels?
A. MENGELE'S DOUBLE is based on the Jodie Huisentruit kidnapping. She was a television news anchor who was kidnapped in front of her apartment building at four-thirty in the morning. She's still missing. She grew up in Long Prairie, Minnesota, about twenty miles from where I live. She's still missing. I basicially fictionalized the whole thing, giving her a different name. The protagonist of the book is Charlie Zelnick, the Jodie character's high school journalism teacher. He's going through a mid-life crisis and he decides to go look for her. I was a journalism teacher myself so I guess you can see the personal tie-in.
Q. How about agents. How do you find one?
A. You don't in my case. But there are sources. THE NOVEL AND SHORT STORY WRITER'S MARKET has a section on agents, but I would recommend a professional organization that thoroughly vets these people. There are so many crooks in the business. Some agents have ties with freelance editors and they get kickbacks for sending people their way. Freelance editors can charge up to a hundred dollars an hour. I found one, William Greenleaf, who helped me a great deal, but I was lucky.
Q. What about workshops and writers' conventions?
A. I went to Splitrock in Duluth. I was the only male in a class with sixteen women. I'm a male chauvinist pig so that was a frightening experience. The moderator, mystery writer and poet Kate Green, was very helpful. A guy from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension even came to talk to us. I also went to Iowa City. I had about a hundred pages of SOLDIER'S GAP at the time and the twelve other people in the group and the moderator were encouraging as well as tough when they needed to be. Workshops tend to be a mix of the serious writers and the dreamers. There was a lady in our group at Iowa City who would not read her work, and it was supposed to be an advanced novelists group. I recently went to Taos, New Mexico, to get a chance to talk to a publisher. All I can say is, never pay to talk to anybody. You have to remember that these people are there on vacation, too, as well as raking in the bucks. I did meet a very friendly agent in one of the classes I took and I plan to submit STRANGERS ARE FROM ZEUS to her as soon as I feel it's finished if I ever do feel it's finished.
Post a Comment new!
More Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
• Skunks Believe Everybody Else Stinks - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• The Morning After Pill - Friday, April 12, 2013
• What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? - Saturday, April 06, 2013
• Boneheads - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Why Benedict XVI Resigned - Sunday, February 17, 2013
• Gabby Giffords Testifies - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Newspaper Caters to Gun Owners - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Piers Morgan Deserves a Medal - Monday, December 24, 2012
• The Red Devil and the Blue Devil? - Tuesday, October 30, 2012
• Is the new TV show, REVOLUTION, fantasy? - Wednesday, September 26, 2012
• Fanatical Moslems Aren't That Different From Our Fanatics - Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• We Need the United Nations - Wednesday, July 18, 2012
• Stop Catering to People's Basest Instincts - Monday, July 09, 2012
• Concerned Women for America political ad - Saturday, June 23, 2012
• Independent Voters Need to Pick a Side - Monday, June 11, 2012
• Romney's Solyndra Appearance - Friday, June 01, 2012
• Single Issue Voters - Sunday, May 20, 2012
• Bully or Sociopath? - Saturday, May 12, 2012
• Tan-orexic Woman Poor Role Model - Friday, May 04, 2012
• So Far Right They're Almost Left - Sunday, April 22, 2012
• Dog Eat Dog - Sunday, April 15, 2012
• The Tea Party is Back! - Sunday, March 25, 2012
• Gas Prices - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• "Doofus" - Tuesday, March 06, 2012
• Bon Iver Front Man Makes Important Statement - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• Contraception Blowback - Friday, February 10, 2012
• 800 vetoes! - Saturday, February 04, 2012
• Issa Hounding Holder over GOP program - Thursday, February 02, 2012
• Rick Santelli's Rant - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
• Corporate Raider President? - Thursday, December 01, 2011
• Is This the Best They Can Do? - Thursday, November 17, 2011
• Tea Party a non-violent Movement? - Sunday, October 30, 2011
• Wall Street Protests - Wednesday, October 05, 2011
• Three new stooges - Thursday, August 25, 2011
• Hypocrite enters the race - Friday, August 19, 2011
• Business Leaders Need to Speak Out - Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Rupert Murdoch and GOP Credibility - Monday, July 25, 2011
• Playing on the railroad tracks - Sunday, July 17, 2011
• Scapegoating - Sunday, June 19, 2011
• The Biggest Swindle in US history - Friday, June 03, 2011
• We're Still Here! - Saturday, May 21, 2011
• Improve education by improving teacher morale - Wednesday, May 04, 2011
• Tea Partiers Don't Know What They're Talking About - Thursday, April 28, 2011
• General Electric paid no corporate taxes - Tuesday, April 05, 2011
• The Flat Earth Society is at it again! - Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Crap fest - Thursday, March 03, 2011
• Egyptian Revolution - Tuesday, February 08, 2011
• Tucson - Wednesday, January 12, 2011
• Would you want a right-winger for a neighbor? - Friday, January 07, 2011
• Noah's Ark Museum - Monday, December 06, 2010
• Frick and Frack Shoot Off Their Mouths - Friday, November 05, 2010
• Enthusiam Gap - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
• Super Computer - Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• US Chamber of Commerce, conservative front group. - Wednesday, October 13, 2010
• 13 Reasons to vote the straight democratic ticket - Wednesday, September 01, 2010
• Breitbart Makes Segretti look like a choirboy - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• House on Fire? - Thursday, June 17, 2010
• The Blame Game - Friday, May 28, 2010
• National Prayer Day - Tuesday, May 18, 2010
• Conservative psyche (continued) - Friday, May 14, 2010
• Conservative psyche - Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Are you smarter than a half-term governor? - Wednesday, April 14, 2010
• Rewriting History - Monday, April 05, 2010
• Fred Phelps - Friday, April 02, 2010
• Combing the Daily Newspaper - Wednesday, March 17, 2010
• Noir - Friday, November 06, 2009
• Interview with SOLDIER'S GAP author continued - Tuesday, November 03, 2009
• More from SOLDIER'S GAP author - Thursday, October 29, 2009
• SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions. - Thursday, October 22, 2009
• Everything you always wanted to know about writing a novel - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Manuscript conventions - Thursday, September 10, 2009
• Revision - Monday, September 07, 2009
• Dialogue - Thursday, September 03, 2009
• Scene cards - Tuesday, September 01, 2009
• Point of view - Thursday, August 27, 2009
• Plot - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
• Arnie's dream - Friday, August 21, 2009
• Rituals - Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Dressing Arnie Vogel - Tuesday, August 18, 2009
• Character sketch continued - Friday, August 14, 2009
• Character sketch - Thursday, August 13, 2009
• Characterization - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
• Scene outline - Tuesday, August 11, 2009
• Warm-up activity - Freewriting - Monday, August 10, 2009
• Warm-up activity - brainstorming - Sunday, August 09, 2009
• Warm-up techniques (clustering) - Saturday, August 08, 2009
|
|
