Playwright, singer/songwriter, filmmaker, journalist, and author David Sherman is in the hot seat today to share about his pro-hockey-inspired sports novel, Crossing the Line.
Bio:
David spent much of his career as a print journalist and editor. He’s written for feature films, documentaries, produced documentaries, is a playwright, novelist, performing singer/songwriter, and likes to spend time in the gym and loves to cook. He lives in the mountains north of Montreal.
Welcome, David. Please tell us about your current release.
The book is the tale of a struggling family whose career aspirations didn’t work out while their nephew, who took refuge in the backyard rink to escape his troubled parents, ends up a hockey star. His burgeoning conscious and the chronic pain he suffers makes him question the huge salaries he and his contemporaries earn while he runs the gauntlet of the poor and hungry with outstretched hands when he is traded to his hometown, Montréal. His colleagues resent him, the press love his outspokenness and his love for a woman he plucks from a snowbank helps him sort through his priorities.
What inspired you to write this book?
Hockey is a fascination and an addiction for some but in Crossing the Line, it serves as a unique backdrop to tell a story of how in the digital, fast-food, food delivery age and streaming era, many people are being squeezed, desperate to make a living while others earn more than they’ll ever need. The huge money in sports is another way to look at the vast income inequality today and how the game Canadians are weaned on has, like all professional sports, has become a business, our heroes are pieces on a chessboard, loyalty to players or fans jettisoned. At the same time, many Canadians grew up on the game and take it for granted, not realizing this sport played on ice hard as steel, with players wearing blades traveling at speed of over 30 km/hr, with clubs or sticks in their hands and walls to slam each other into, makes ice hockey the fastest, most skilled and dangerous sport there is When played well, it is a thing of beauty that hides the pain most players are burdened with.
What exciting project are you working on next?
A musician secretly packs his bags, empties his bank account and line of credit and drives away in the middle of the night, leaving his wife of 20 years fast asleep. He ends up outside Rochester, NY. The home of Kodak, now a shadow of what it was, a metaphor for the digital age which has almost killed the protagonist’s career. Here, on the shores of Lake Ontario, working in the kitchen of a diner/motel, he plays a few shows and finds himself falling in love with the owner as he tries to kick a painkiller habit.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I started writing for a living when I was 25 on a small newspaper in a small city. But I never considered myself a writer until my plays started getting produced.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I write full time when I’m working on a book or a play and I work on songs every night. I work in the morning for three or four hours, take a couple of hours off to eat and nap, and then go back until dinner, unless my brain says enough. But, work like this, you carry with you to friends’ homes, to the supermarket, to the restaurant with your spouse and to bed. It’s a 24/7 job for me, even when I was working for newspapers.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I always work in bed or a gravity chair. Save my back and I make a point of getting up frequently just to walk around the house for three minutes or get a glass of water to avoid stiffening up. I like to think through scenes at the gym, write notes into my phone. Or play the guitar but think about what I’m writing.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Exercise is a terrific way to get oxygen to the brain and work through problems.
Links:
INDYpress | Author website | You’re Going to Die. Live with It (blog)
Thanks for being here today, David!