David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "to-kill-a-mockingbird"
Interview with author of SOLDIER'S GAP
Q. What's your work schedule like?
A. I do about three hours a day. I used to think I should be able to do at least eight hours as I did as a teacher, but it's just so draining. After you hit, three hours you're basically just typing. There are exceptions. John Gardner was a working fool. Everybody should read ON BECOMING A NOVELIST.
Q. What's your process?
A. I make a scene outline for just about everything I write, including short stories. Sometimes I barely glance at it, but if I get stuck it's always there. I change it a lot as I write.
Q. Do you write on the computer?
A. Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. I know some writers work in longhand or on the typewriter, but I just see that as redundancy. I was a teletype operator in the Navy and being able to edit the tape as I drafted messages was such a gift. I also started writing before computers and
being a lousy typist makes me appreciate workprocessors even more. Then there's rewriting. You can move things around so easily on a wordprocessor and you can save your chapters as stand-alone projects. I like to think my chapters sound like short stories.
Q. What's the best movie you've seen based on a novel?
A. I have a special place in my heart for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I taught that book every year for sixteen years and never got tired of it, and the movie was almost as good. I used to do an exercise in class where the kids watched the movie, then picked out the elements from the novel that were missing in the movie. No Aunt Alexandra was the biggest complaint. No Uncle Jack.
Q. Do you have Kindle?
A. Nope, but I might have to get one if the Minneapolis Star Tribune stops delivery. Hopefully they'd still provide computer access. I must have a morning newspaper!
Q. What about women characters? How do you deal with them?
A. Well, they're just human beings, but I won't say I'm not influenced by stereotypes, mainly the women's intuition thing and that permission to change their minds thing they've got going on. My old girlfriends are always sneaking in there, too. One of them threatened to sue me if I ever wrote about her, but she's an old lady now so I doubt that she'd even care anymore.
Q. What male author do you think handles women the best?
A. There's a joke there someplace, but I'll play it straight. That would have to be Wally Lamb in SHE'S COME UNDONE. One would think that was written by a woman. Oprah put it on her list so she must not disagree.
Q. I see quite a few references to quirkiness in your Amazon reviews. Where does that come from?
A. I was a class clown so there's somewhat of a smartass component in my work. Then there's the Joseph Heller influence. If you haven't read him, just about everybody in CATCH-22 is quirky. And to think, I didn't like it at first. I was assigned the book in an English Humanities class; I guess I just wasn't used to something that original. Hello, Mr. Schell! I hope you're still kicking.
Q. You were a journalism teacher. Any influence there?
A. Not like Hemingway. Just a check your sources thing and double and triple checking your spelling. I still have trouble with research. I never know how much I can use or how much to paraphrase.
Continued.
Dave Schwinghammer's published novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at Amazon.com.
A. I do about three hours a day. I used to think I should be able to do at least eight hours as I did as a teacher, but it's just so draining. After you hit, three hours you're basically just typing. There are exceptions. John Gardner was a working fool. Everybody should read ON BECOMING A NOVELIST.
Q. What's your process?
A. I make a scene outline for just about everything I write, including short stories. Sometimes I barely glance at it, but if I get stuck it's always there. I change it a lot as I write.
Q. Do you write on the computer?
A. Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. I know some writers work in longhand or on the typewriter, but I just see that as redundancy. I was a teletype operator in the Navy and being able to edit the tape as I drafted messages was such a gift. I also started writing before computers and
being a lousy typist makes me appreciate workprocessors even more. Then there's rewriting. You can move things around so easily on a wordprocessor and you can save your chapters as stand-alone projects. I like to think my chapters sound like short stories.
Q. What's the best movie you've seen based on a novel?
A. I have a special place in my heart for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I taught that book every year for sixteen years and never got tired of it, and the movie was almost as good. I used to do an exercise in class where the kids watched the movie, then picked out the elements from the novel that were missing in the movie. No Aunt Alexandra was the biggest complaint. No Uncle Jack.
Q. Do you have Kindle?
A. Nope, but I might have to get one if the Minneapolis Star Tribune stops delivery. Hopefully they'd still provide computer access. I must have a morning newspaper!
Q. What about women characters? How do you deal with them?
A. Well, they're just human beings, but I won't say I'm not influenced by stereotypes, mainly the women's intuition thing and that permission to change their minds thing they've got going on. My old girlfriends are always sneaking in there, too. One of them threatened to sue me if I ever wrote about her, but she's an old lady now so I doubt that she'd even care anymore.
Q. What male author do you think handles women the best?
A. There's a joke there someplace, but I'll play it straight. That would have to be Wally Lamb in SHE'S COME UNDONE. One would think that was written by a woman. Oprah put it on her list so she must not disagree.
Q. I see quite a few references to quirkiness in your Amazon reviews. Where does that come from?
A. I was a class clown so there's somewhat of a smartass component in my work. Then there's the Joseph Heller influence. If you haven't read him, just about everybody in CATCH-22 is quirky. And to think, I didn't like it at first. I was assigned the book in an English Humanities class; I guess I just wasn't used to something that original. Hello, Mr. Schell! I hope you're still kicking.
Q. You were a journalism teacher. Any influence there?
A. Not like Hemingway. Just a check your sources thing and double and triple checking your spelling. I still have trouble with research. I never know how much I can use or how much to paraphrase.
Continued.
Dave Schwinghammer's published novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at Amazon.com.
The Little Friend
Donna Tartt had to have been thinking of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD while she was writing this book. There are too many similarities to ignore. The book is set in Alexandria, Mississippi, just a stone's throw from Maycomb, Alabama. Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, the lead character, could be Scout Finch six years later. The villain of the piece, Farish Ratliff, will remind you of Bob Ewell. Harriet even has a little boyfriend who worships the ground she walks on.
Harriet is a great character, feisty and brave, willing to take on a copperhead in order to get even with Danny Ratliff, whom she blames for the murder of her brother who'd been found hanging from a black-tupelo tree when she was a baby. Just as captivating are Harriet's great aunts, Edie, Addie, Libby, and Tat. These are truly original characters; no one has written senior citizens better since LADIES OF THE CLUB. Edie, Harriet's grandmother, is an older version of Harriet. When she looks Harriet in the eye, she sees herself looking back at her.
This is a finely textured book, with lots of atmosphere and
folklore that Tartt positions between action sequences. Tartt is great at foreshadowing. There's a scene at the beginning where Harriet learns how to hold her breath (like her hero Houdini) that will come in handy later on.
There's so much to like about this book I have to give it at least a four, but it's not a seamless novel. There's too much description, the kind that the author had to have put in later to give the book verisimilitude. Much of this is repetitive, lots of light playing off of the sides of buildings. I'm not the type to skip description, but I can understand why some readers might want to skim over some of this. The ending is also disappointing, leaving the reader dangling. Any mystery lover (as I am) is going to want to throw the book up against the wall when he finishes. What happens to Danny Ratliff is also completely unrealistic. You'd think at least one of the forty-some people Tartt thanks in her acknowledgments would have balked at some of this.
Harriet is a great character, feisty and brave, willing to take on a copperhead in order to get even with Danny Ratliff, whom she blames for the murder of her brother who'd been found hanging from a black-tupelo tree when she was a baby. Just as captivating are Harriet's great aunts, Edie, Addie, Libby, and Tat. These are truly original characters; no one has written senior citizens better since LADIES OF THE CLUB. Edie, Harriet's grandmother, is an older version of Harriet. When she looks Harriet in the eye, she sees herself looking back at her.
This is a finely textured book, with lots of atmosphere and
folklore that Tartt positions between action sequences. Tartt is great at foreshadowing. There's a scene at the beginning where Harriet learns how to hold her breath (like her hero Houdini) that will come in handy later on.
There's so much to like about this book I have to give it at least a four, but it's not a seamless novel. There's too much description, the kind that the author had to have put in later to give the book verisimilitude. Much of this is repetitive, lots of light playing off of the sides of buildings. I'm not the type to skip description, but I can understand why some readers might want to skim over some of this. The ending is also disappointing, leaving the reader dangling. Any mystery lover (as I am) is going to want to throw the book up against the wall when he finishes. What happens to Danny Ratliff is also completely unrealistic. You'd think at least one of the forty-some people Tartt thanks in her acknowledgments would have balked at some of this.
