| David White August 9, 2008 |
About David White
David White is a writer and a teacher in New Jersey. He
teaches 8th Grade English and writes crime fiction. David's stories
appear in The Adventure Of The Missing Detective and 19
Of The Year's Finest Crime And Mystery Stories and
Damn Near Dead: An Anthology Of Geezer Noir, plus
one forthcoming in Best New Noir. His first novel, When One
Man Dies will be published by Three Rivers Press in 2007.
To learn more about David White, please visit his website at
www.davewhitenovels.com and read his blog at
http://jacksondonne.blogspot.com.
David White is a writer and a teacher in New Jersey. He
teaches 8th Grade English and writes crime fiction. David's stories
appear in The Adventure Of The Missing Detective and 19
Of The Year's Finest Crime And Mystery Stories and
Damn Near Dead: An Anthology Of Geezer Noir, plus
one forthcoming in Best New Noir. His first novel, When One
Man Dies will be published by Three Rivers Press in 2007.
To learn more about David White, please visit his website at
www.davewhitenovels.com and read his blog at
http://jacksondonne.blogspot.com.
Post Meeting Write-up
Dave was a lot of fun, as was the meeting. Of course, Aubrey
hogged the conversation when it was discovered that Dave is a
BIG comic book fan - lol! Aubrey is going to have to fill in the
comic book information because the two of them were talking
fast and furious, even Thom Purdy jumped in. I can tell you one
thing - do not get Dave started on the awful travesty of the
Spider Man storyline - he is not a fan of what they've done, at all
(we have a few of those in the group, much commiseration).
Seriously, we all had a lot of fun with our guest. He was
refreshing and seemed to enjoy sharing his likes, thoughts and
views. He not only talked about his books, When One Man
Dies & The Evil That Men Do, but talked about his comic
book addiction, role as 8th grade teacher, influences, moods
while writing, settings while writing, baseball, Sherlock Holmes
and so much more. He talked about his books being very Jersey
- set in New Jersey, etc. If you're from Jersey, you'll know the
locations. He talked about his mystery influences (like me, he is
"not sure" about Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes. He's
"willing to give it a shot, but".....(he said this with chagrin). I
myself see Daniel Day Lewis in that role - tall, lanky, kinda snooty
looking when necessary. Come on, people, doesn't anyone else
see this?!). People kept tossing out mystery authors, and Dave
told us who he had read and those he didn't think he'd like. He
likes "character" driven stories and is not a fan of shows/stories like
CSI.
I asked if he was going to stick with mystery. He said, "Yes, for
now." But, he did say he wanted to write a ghost story, and a
western. The group decided that he should combine all three
elements - a Western mystery ghost story. He told us he'd give us
the acknowledgment when the story comes out. I placed a
request for October....no pressure.
He had some very funny stories about his writing experiences
(the whole "ex" thing putting him the correct frame of mind),
getting embarrassed about sex scenes when his students read his
books, having to face the "did you write about me" question
when school starts, not wanting to pay for Internet at B&N, and
his storyline for Batman for DC comics (he would like to write a
comic book story line - did I mention he was a fan?).
Thom asked about the curriculum he has to teach and how he
adds books to it or if he can add books. Dave said he does have
a curriculum, but that he tries to bring in others works by making
them relate to the topic. This way, the students get the classics
and/or required reading, but also get more contemporary
selections. He feels it's good as long as kids are reading, within a
reasonable limit. He talked about his upcoming book, The Dark
Knight and several other fun topics, then wrapped up to sign
books for us. He was a great guest and a lot of fun. (Ann-
Marie)
The Whispers From Beyond portion of the program opened
with your humble co-moderator (Steve Spinosa) reading an
excerpt from The Garden of Forked Paths, a detective/fantasy
story from the pen of South American author Jorge Luis Borges
(reflecting our theme this month: International SF/Fantasy). We
then had a relaxed chat for a while, and then I read the prologue
of our guest speaker's newest book, The Evil that Men Do
(Thom Purdy and I both recited the quote from William
Shakespeare AT THE SAME TIME!!!) I asked if anybody had
anything they wanted to read and Thom read from the back of
his Listerine breathe mints...lol!
We then continued chatting until 8:01,and then I started the
meeting and introduced the "totally awesome" Dave White.
Dave started by explaining that that reference (which I took from
his blog), came from the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother
(which features Neal Patrick Harris, formerly Doogie Howser and
OUR Willow from Buffy, Alyson Hannigan), in which the
characters say the phrase "totally awesome" a multitude of times
(Dave added that his own friends refer to him as "totally
awesome”, which is why he took it down from his blog recently).
He then continued to talk about his Jackson Donne short
stories & novels, which have a lot of Jersey references in them (he
revealed that the current Clifton school stadium was formerly a
dog-racing track in the thirties, which is mentioned in the
prologue of his current book). He also said that he's working on
a third novel, which has Jackson down after breaking up with his
girlfriend (Dave admitted that he was inspired by his OWN ex-
girlfriend, which puts him in the kind of mood to write the story...
BAD!). He explained that he usually works either at home with
either the ballgame on or listening to Pearl Jam on his iPod, or at
the Barnes & Noble store in Clifton (where he's not distracted by
the Internet). He said that his biggest influences as a kid were
reading novels from the Sherlock Holmes, James Bond & Hardy
Boys series. He said that the children in his class want to read his
books, but he tells them to ask their parents first, because he's a
little nervous about his 8th graders reading a sexy or overly
violent scene (he also mentioned the fact that one of characters
in The Evil That Men Do is based on one of his kids, and that
when school starts next month, they’ll be asking him,"Oh Mr.
White, is it me, Mr. White?"...Paul D. suggested he say "all of you
and none of you").
We also talked about comics, The Dark Knight movie, what
reading he assigns in school and other sundry topics before
wrapping up. We cleaned up while he was signing some copies
of his books, then a number of us headed over to the Stateline
Diner for more conversation about the Dark Knight, Mystic
Seaport in Connecticut, Disney World versus Disneyland, and
other fun stuff.
(Steve)
Dave was a lot of fun, as was the meeting. Of course, Aubrey
hogged the conversation when it was discovered that Dave is a
BIG comic book fan - lol! Aubrey is going to have to fill in the
comic book information because the two of them were talking
fast and furious, even Thom Purdy jumped in. I can tell you one
thing - do not get Dave started on the awful travesty of the
Spider Man storyline - he is not a fan of what they've done, at all
(we have a few of those in the group, much commiseration).
Seriously, we all had a lot of fun with our guest. He was
refreshing and seemed to enjoy sharing his likes, thoughts and
views. He not only talked about his books, When One Man
Dies & The Evil That Men Do, but talked about his comic
book addiction, role as 8th grade teacher, influences, moods
while writing, settings while writing, baseball, Sherlock Holmes
and so much more. He talked about his books being very Jersey
- set in New Jersey, etc. If you're from Jersey, you'll know the
locations. He talked about his mystery influences (like me, he is
"not sure" about Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes. He's
"willing to give it a shot, but".....(he said this with chagrin). I
myself see Daniel Day Lewis in that role - tall, lanky, kinda snooty
looking when necessary. Come on, people, doesn't anyone else
see this?!). People kept tossing out mystery authors, and Dave
told us who he had read and those he didn't think he'd like. He
likes "character" driven stories and is not a fan of shows/stories like
CSI.
I asked if he was going to stick with mystery. He said, "Yes, for
now." But, he did say he wanted to write a ghost story, and a
western. The group decided that he should combine all three
elements - a Western mystery ghost story. He told us he'd give us
the acknowledgment when the story comes out. I placed a
request for October....no pressure.
He had some very funny stories about his writing experiences
(the whole "ex" thing putting him the correct frame of mind),
getting embarrassed about sex scenes when his students read his
books, having to face the "did you write about me" question
when school starts, not wanting to pay for Internet at B&N, and
his storyline for Batman for DC comics (he would like to write a
comic book story line - did I mention he was a fan?).
Thom asked about the curriculum he has to teach and how he
adds books to it or if he can add books. Dave said he does have
a curriculum, but that he tries to bring in others works by making
them relate to the topic. This way, the students get the classics
and/or required reading, but also get more contemporary
selections. He feels it's good as long as kids are reading, within a
reasonable limit. He talked about his upcoming book, The Dark
Knight and several other fun topics, then wrapped up to sign
books for us. He was a great guest and a lot of fun. (Ann-
Marie)
The Whispers From Beyond portion of the program opened
with your humble co-moderator (Steve Spinosa) reading an
excerpt from The Garden of Forked Paths, a detective/fantasy
story from the pen of South American author Jorge Luis Borges
(reflecting our theme this month: International SF/Fantasy). We
then had a relaxed chat for a while, and then I read the prologue
of our guest speaker's newest book, The Evil that Men Do
(Thom Purdy and I both recited the quote from William
Shakespeare AT THE SAME TIME!!!) I asked if anybody had
anything they wanted to read and Thom read from the back of
his Listerine breathe mints...lol!
We then continued chatting until 8:01,and then I started the
meeting and introduced the "totally awesome" Dave White.
Dave started by explaining that that reference (which I took from
his blog), came from the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother
(which features Neal Patrick Harris, formerly Doogie Howser and
OUR Willow from Buffy, Alyson Hannigan), in which the
characters say the phrase "totally awesome" a multitude of times
(Dave added that his own friends refer to him as "totally
awesome”, which is why he took it down from his blog recently).
He then continued to talk about his Jackson Donne short
stories & novels, which have a lot of Jersey references in them (he
revealed that the current Clifton school stadium was formerly a
dog-racing track in the thirties, which is mentioned in the
prologue of his current book). He also said that he's working on
a third novel, which has Jackson down after breaking up with his
girlfriend (Dave admitted that he was inspired by his OWN ex-
girlfriend, which puts him in the kind of mood to write the story...
BAD!). He explained that he usually works either at home with
either the ballgame on or listening to Pearl Jam on his iPod, or at
the Barnes & Noble store in Clifton (where he's not distracted by
the Internet). He said that his biggest influences as a kid were
reading novels from the Sherlock Holmes, James Bond & Hardy
Boys series. He said that the children in his class want to read his
books, but he tells them to ask their parents first, because he's a
little nervous about his 8th graders reading a sexy or overly
violent scene (he also mentioned the fact that one of characters
in The Evil That Men Do is based on one of his kids, and that
when school starts next month, they’ll be asking him,"Oh Mr.
White, is it me, Mr. White?"...Paul D. suggested he say "all of you
and none of you").
We also talked about comics, The Dark Knight movie, what
reading he assigns in school and other sundry topics before
wrapping up. We cleaned up while he was signing some copies
of his books, then a number of us headed over to the Stateline
Diner for more conversation about the Dark Knight, Mystic
Seaport in Connecticut, Disney World versus Disneyland, and
other fun stuff.
(Steve)
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