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Vincent Louis Carrella

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/serpentbox

born

in Manhassett, NY, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.serpentbox.com

genre

Literature & Fiction

influences

Hemingway, JD Salinger, Cormac McCarthy

member since

November 2007

About this author

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What do people want to know about people who write books? What I would want to know is how a person was shaped. How he or she was formed. I’d want to know how they became the writer of the novel I had just read. What made them? I’d want to see and feel the events, thoughts and people who formed the crucible that created a person.

I was born and raised on Long Island, New York. I spent my boyhood hunting snakes in vacant lots and exploring the vast terminal moraine left by the great northern glacier - the sand pits that provided the very substance for most of Manhattan’s concrete infrastructure. I fished, sailed and swam Manhasset Bay. I built tree-forts in the woods. I snuck into the public pool in the summertime and rode my Schwinn Sting-Ra...more What do people want to know about people who write books? What I would want to know is how a person was shaped. How he or she was formed. I’d want to know how they became the writer of the novel I had just read. What made them? I’d want to see and feel the events, thoughts and people who formed the crucible that created a person.

I was born and raised on Long Island, New York. I spent my boyhood hunting snakes in vacant lots and exploring the vast terminal moraine left by the great northern glacier - the sand pits that provided the very substance for most of Manhattan’s concrete infrastructure. I fished, sailed and swam Manhasset Bay. I built tree-forts in the woods. I snuck into the public pool in the summertime and rode my Schwinn Sting-Ray all over Sands Point, exploring private beaches and tidal lagoons. I built rafts, stole dinghies and stalked the garbage dump with a Daisy BB Gun. I formed a snake club. I hunted for fossils in the sand pits and rats with a bow and arrow. I read a hundred books. I drew pictures and invented elaborate games that involved sword-play and plastic guns. I played stickball. I climbed trees. I played Dungeons and Dragons on my kitchen table and Space Invaders in a bowling alley arcade. I lived a magical and sometimes terrifying Huckleberry Finn childhood. I started working at 10. I collected bottles and cans. I mowed lawns, shoveled snow, delivered newspapers, was a landscaper, a florist’s assistant, a bus-boy, a dishwasher, a clerk at a drive-thru grocery, a boat cleaner, a launch driver and scooped ice cream at a Carvel.

My mother was a reader. She read books and she read books to me. Our little apartment was filled with literature. I was surrounded by Hemingway, Hesse, Steinbeck, Kafka, Anais Nin. My mother taught me the joy of reading by reading. I cannot remember a time when she did not have a book in her hand, her purse, or open on her bedside table. Books, to her, were pathways to knowledge and self-discovery. And they became that for me. My mother’s love of books and her encouragement of my early reading and writing was her greatest gift to me. This was the foundation upon which I was constructed. She taught me to imagine and think.

My father left when I was five. It was not abandonment it was divorce. He was not a very vocal man. He did not sit down with me to explain the great wisdoms and mysteries of life. Instead he showed me these mysteries first hand. My father was in love with the woods. He took me there often. He showed me how to hunt and fish. He marveled at the living world and was always asking questions. Nature, to my father, was not just a refuge, it was a temple. Often we’d sit for hours staring at the ripples in a brook. He knew the names of birds and trees. He knew the habits of animals. He showed me their tracks and signs and how to read the wind. He taught me how to see.

I am not a writer by training or education. I studied no authors, no literature. I learned story by reading. I learned plot by living. I learned dialog by talking, by listening. I was a small boy who could not fight or catch a ball. This made me a target. I was bullied, beaten, threatened and robbed. I learned how to run and avoid conflict. I learned how to talk my way out of a jam. This required a certain form of analytical thinking. You weigh a threat quickly and make a decision. Stand or run. You measure distances to cover and you measure faces. You read attitude and terrain. Your powers of observation become sharp and animal-like. I lived mostly in a world of my own creation. I day-dreamed. I invented scenes and stories. My mother and father marveled at my memory and my imagination. There was no image, no event that I could forget. My memory for scenes and places was photographic. Pictures flashed through my head. Often what I saw was horrific. Plagued by insomnia throughout my entire childhood, I laid awake in the dark with the voices and faces of the living and the dead. I (less)

30 posts
Vincent Louis Carrella's Blog

The Thought Called God

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Vincent Louis Carrella's Books

Average rating: 3.99 · 153 ratings · 35 reviews · 4 distinct works · Similar authors

	Serpent Box: A Novel 3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 68 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Serpent Box 0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Warmed and Bound: A Velvet Anthology by Pela Via (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Steve Erickson (Foreword), Craig Clevenger (Goodreads Author) 4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews by Phil Jourdan (Goodreads Author), Stephen Graham Jones (Contributor), Stephen Elliott (Contributor) 5.0 of 5 stars 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2013 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Vincent’s Writing

600 Seconds (Literature & Fiction)

1 chapters — updated Mar 29, 2010 04:33pm

Description: The last ten minutes of a life.

The Serpent Box and the Poison jar (Literature & Fiction)

1 chapters — updated Mar 29, 2010 04:33pm

Description: I wrote this short story in 1999 shortly after my return from Belize. It became the foundation for the world upon which the novel Serpent Box was born.

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Vincent's Recent Updates

Vincent Louis is now friends with Pedro Donnantuoni
May 13, 2013 04:11pm · like
Vincent Louis made a comment in the group 2 Year Anniversary of Paperboy by Bob Thurber — Welcome topic "Two years since I read this book and I still can't get it out of my head. I don't know whether to damn you or thank you. Of course I should thank you....more "
May 01, 2013 11:21am
Vincent Louis joined the group 2 Year Anniversary of Paperboy by Bob Thurber
Apr 20, 2013 06:16pm · like
Vincent Louis is now following Bob Thurber's reviews
Mar 03, 2013 12:40pm · like
Vincent Louis rated a book 4 of 5 stars Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall read in March, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Blue Asylum meanders into your heart like a creeping jasmine, slowly growing until suddenly it's in glorious bloom. Kathy Hepinstall paints a vivid and sympathetic portrait of a plantation wife exiled to an island for the insane during the Civil War....more
Apr 03, 2012 01:15pm · see review
Vincent Louis added Goodreads to his Facebook Timeline Add your books to Timeline! learn more
Feb 28, 2012 06:53pm
Vincent Louis is now a fan of Kathy Hepinstall
Feb 13, 2012 10:26am · like · see all of Vincent's favorite authors
Vincent Louis liked Khaya's review of The Angel's Game: " When I'm reading something good, or even decent, I'll find myself reading just a few more pages when I should be doing housework or some other exciting chore. When I find myself finding all sorts of creative ways to waste time without even thinkin... " Read more of this review »
Feb 07, 2012 01:03pm · see review
Vincent Louis liked Lee Goldberg's review of The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2): " The book starts out so well, rich in a character, humor, and a powerful sense of place. It captivated me from the first few pages. I couldn't wait to keep reading. I rewarded myself with it each night. I felt I was reading a truly great book, one... " Read more of this review »
Feb 07, 2012 01:03pm · see review
Vincent Louis rated a book 2 of 5 stars The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón read in February, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Ugh. I hate doing this, I really do. Because I LOVED Shadow of the Wind and Zafon is a very talented writer, but he is way off his game here. The first 50 pages I just loved. I was totally sucked in and expecting a ride not unlike his debut, but the...more
Feb 07, 2012 01:01pm · see review