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.
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