Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest Calvin Barry Schwartz author of Vichy Water.

Good day Calvin and thanks for participating in our interview

Norm:

How did you decide you were ready to write Vichy Water?

Calvin:

Four years ago, almost to this day in March, I was supposed to play tennis but it was raining. No tennis. I had all this energy and no where to go.  I'm quite spiritual and things have been popping into my head for a long time. Some of these things are quite random but I've learned over the years to "go with the flow."

So, "something"(this has come to be one of my favorite words, hard to define, it keeps changing intent) said to watch Casablanca, which I've seen 44 times. I watched it again. Then, the last scene when Bogart(Rick) shoots German Major Strasser(Conrad Veidt, a wonderful character actor) "Round up the usual suspects."

Claude Rains(Louis) wants to celebrate the death of Major Strasser, so he picks up a bottle of 'Vichy Water', opens it and is about to pour, when he realizes anything "Vichy" was connotative of the collaborationist French regime, so he drops the bottle into a steel garbage can(like what I used in high school). The moment the bottle hit, I let out a blood curdling scream, "oh my God."

My wife thought I was having the big one like Fred Sanford. I yelled down to her, "There's a novel that just came into my head." 'Vichy Water' was ALL there in that second. And because I'm so spiritual, I knew it had to be done (my first novel). I went downstairs and spent two weeks outlining. Here's where this gets hauntingly eerie. Four years later, when I finished the design for the cover, I discovered (with all kinds of hard copy, witnessed proof) who  put this "something" into my thought: my Grandfather who passed in 1937.

I never knew him. Sure, this all sounds a bit out there. I'm quick to mention to those with raised eyebrows, that I'm quite well-rounded, after all I go to 50 Rutgers University sporting events a season, play beer pong and go to environmental seminars. One other thing, all this Grandfather stuff is haunting; it eventually becomes book #4. More later.

Norm:

What do you want your novel to do? Amuse people? Provoke thinking? Is there a message in your novel that you want your readers to grasp?

Calvin:

A perfect question to ask me. Strictly to provoke thinking. There's much I put into the novel to make people think; issues of our existence on earth today. Part of the message is we are running out of time and I'm not even going to use the worn global warming excuse. We, as a species, don't seem to get it or are not moved. Maybe that's why people still smoke. The people next door will get cancer. Or I'll be long gone anyway so why care about environment. Or do some elite folks know already and why bother telling us? Keep the patient comfortable. Then look at skin color (and other issues of differentiation) versus sustainability of the planet. What's really important? Yes, Norm, messages.

Norm:

You have a very distinct style of writing. Who or what has influenced your writing? As a follow up, how has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

Calvin:

Funny thing about writing influences. Up until two months ago, I've done very little reading (my wife and son can attest) There isn't an author I can reach out, touch, identify, emulate. I walk down the book aisle of a membership warehouse store and pick up novel after novel and thumb through, glancing at style. If only, Hemingway.

His words, "less is more" reverberate every day I write. My mother was a pioneer environmentalist and didn't know it, practicing conservation (maybe spurred on by limited financial resources) But she preached being grateful for everything. From the very first Earth Day in April, 1970, I became an environmentalist, aware that we waste, pollute, throw things away and that getting a bunch of fourth graders to draw pictures of a green planet isn't going to help. Skin color issues as Newark was evolving sensitized me for life.

The murder of those three civil rights workers in Mississippi changed me forever. The sixties filled me with awe, challenge and reality; we are all brothers. So, yes, my upbringing, good versus evil, toleration, acceptance of difference and prioritizing what's really earthly important has colored me.

Norm:

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? 

Calvin: 

I'll be writing, walking, riding the exercise bike(even playing tennis and I can't tell you how many times an easy ball passed me by) and I play a cerebral game with myself.(some call it day dreaming, drifting) I let random, minutia come forth, out of no where (I'm doing it now) filling a visualization.

Some of it is so deep that I smile, shake my head and wonder where and how such ridiculously absurd thoughts arrived. If I happen to be writing, then some of it is recorded for posterity and amusement. Maybe this is a by-product of the deja-vu that I live with daily and it sharpens my writing skills. Writing quirk: the strange presence of minutia. I'm in the Capital rotunda now with a group of Newark Boy's Club students posing with N.J. Representative Kean. He is tall and distinguished. We had hoped President Eisenhower would show up. At least I got to stand next to Kean.

Norm:

Are the characters in your book based on people you know or have encountered or are they strictly fictional? As a follow up, how much of you is in Vichy Water?

Calvin:

I'm smiling. Of course, it's all fiction. It really is. However, I have an Egyptian friend, so that congeals into an image. I've heard first time authors draw from personal experiences because after all, what do we know most and are expert about, ourselves. I do know that conflict and controversy sell. To bolster up the fiction angle, I created characters that are just that, controversial and intense. I've gotten enough phone calls and e-mails (I'm quite the accessible author) questioning morals and characters. "Calvin, did you really?" "No, that's not me. Sometimes I wish it were."  Even my wife loosely questioned a few things. Yes, I've been to Key Largo. I need to get to that Chicago cemetery and Montana on Christmas Eve. My spirit and I'll leave it now, is all over 'Vichy Water.

Norm:

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your debut novel?

Calvin:

I learned that this writing "stuff" has been inside me all this time (decades), wanting to come out. It made me look at my whole life, the ups and downs, happiness and discontent, and realized that when I fell down, left a profession, moved to another job, another wife, auditioned for "The Apprentice' or 'War of the Worlds,' it was because something was inside me, a force, like what was inside Heathcliffe, that wouldn't let me rest. It really is strange; writing my debut novel has given me the pure happiness and fulfillment that I've been searching for my whole life and surprisingly I realize now, touching my novel cover, this is what the journey is all about. It's almost completed.

Norm:

What has been your overall experience as a published author?

Calvin: 

My reign has been somewhat short lived. This began a few months ago. But wow, I've learned lessons about human nature and life's relationships as a published author. This authorship has heightened awareness about people, family, friends, accounts, school alumni; a plethora of people I've met on the way up. It's been humbling and intensive, perhaps like a lifetime of experiences shoved into a bottle, waiting to explode under pressure. Maybe it's best not to open the bottle. My experience as a published author has taught me not to worry about anything, to forgive and be free of negativity, live REAL simply (spartanly), to give of myself more, and EXPECT NOTHING from ANY earth inhabitant.

Norm:

Do you worry about the human race?

Calvin:

You amaze me Norm, with the insightful questions you ask. It's as if we've known each other for that lifetime. Maybe? Yes, I really really (two of them) worry about the human race. I think we're running out of time. I write about it. I think we're among the silliest of species. I even sat down with my 24 year old son a few months ago and had that talk with him(not sex) and apologized for what's in store for his generation. He's a good kid and forgave me.  I could go on for a long time now but it occurred to me, I wrote 'Vichy Water' to help explain but also suggest other universes waiting for us. So maybe I'm not so worried. Intelligent design will take care of us. Oh good, I'm not worried anymore.

Norm:

Are you working on any books/projects that you would like to share with us? (We would love to hear all about them!)

Calvin:

Yes, I'm working on a trilogy of books. Two fiction and the third, kind of like a memoir, explaining in a small way, everything that has gone into me(input) to bring out the writing( like a gigantic stew, simmering with every conceivable vegetable, but no meat cause I stopped eating red meat while Jimmy Carter was President and I honestly don't know why I did) In 'Vichy Water' I hinted about something( a secret world of oil. Yes oil. Imagine a guy from Jersey thinking about the oil industry. In 'Vichy Water,' I introduced characters involved in oil, one with a strange office behind the ROTC building on Rutgers campus). So novel #2 takes the reader on all kinds of journeys (some oily, some thoughtful) for strange reasons. Novel #3 picks up after #2 and travels down a yellow brick Orwellian road. Novel #4 tells you why I do everything I do. Remember the catch all phrase, "the devil made me do it?" I say, "Angelic intervention made me do it!"

Norm:

How can our readers find out more about you and your endeavors?

Calvin:

As authors go, I'd like to aspire to be wonderfully hands-on, therefore responsive and reachable. If you haven't guessed, I'm burdened with a verbosity that helped me set a sales record, calling on an optician at noon and leaving at midnight. What this means, check out NOVEL WEBSITE  (updated, stream of consciousness blogs), (http://vichywater.net/index.html) e-mail me, let's talk while the going's good.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Calvin:

One other important thing. Thought you'd never ask. "Vichy Water' is hauntingly introspective, with my typing fingers resting on a certain contemporary pulse and I need to expound. What I mean is no, I'm not Nostradamus incarnate but I need, just have to say(horn blowing) I've touched on a lot of things in my novel which have now come to be.(I almost worry about other things I talk about) Spelling it out, I wrote a scene talking about car companies hesitant to recall bad cars(what's in the news every day now). 

I wrote about drug companies with the same hesitancy( last week the maker of a diabetes drug admitted keeping product on market without revealing it causes a 43% increase in heart attacks. Hmmm.) I wrote about health insurance companies being bad (like a 'Bad Santa'). President Obama has been yelling at them almost daily. I'm in the middle of a 'denial' fight with one of them right now.

President Obama gave a speech in Egypt in June 2009 when he spoke to the Muslims, saying how America will now look to their world with respect and understanding. I recognized that need long before Obama decided to run for office so one of my main characters is part Muslim and is treated with that same respect and understanding. On March 14, 2010, HBO(Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks) are presenting a ten-part mini-series entitled "The Pacific" dealing with WWII and the Pacific and Guadalcanal. 'Vichy Water' has a poignant scene when a character travels all the way to Guadalcanal to pay respects to our soldiers (and Japanese) who died there.

Two days ago the United States offered to join a ban on Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna fishing because, yes, extinction. Throughout 'Vichy Water' I tongue and cheek the notion of tuna becoming extinct and talk about a 'small' war between two countries fighting over the last 'tuna catch.' Am I Nostradamus? Please, no, but well, you all read for yourselves. Finally Norm, this interview has been sumptuous. I got that word from the last scene in 'Norma Rae'. Yes, I am a Hollywood romantic. Thanks you for your time and energy.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors

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  Click Here To Read Norm's Review Of Vichy Water