 | Yeats1 is a 43 year old single guy from Hermosa Beach, Ca, California, USA. |
- Apr 10, 8:09pm
- Passion, jealousy in Hermosa Beach
by Austin Siegemund-Broka
Published April 3, 2008
Scott Michael Gallagher sits in front of Jamba Juice, his red Border Collie at his feet, while 9-year-old son Dylan sucks a Chocolate Moo’d in a nearby chair. The sun shines through a thin blanket of clouds as mothers survey their shopping lists on their way onto Vons.
It’s a typical scene for beach cities locals, but fans of Gallagher’s writing will know it from somewhere else: his novel Geneva, a semi-autobiographical account of life, love, and loss set mainly in Hermosa.
Gallagher, 43, has lived in Hermosa for over 20 years. In that time he’s pursued his writing avidly, raised a kid, and touched the community on many levels. Geneva, his second book and first novel, plays greatly off his community life.
“Men and women all read it, and say ‘Wow, that sounds like something that happened to me.’ So yeah, it’s fiction, but semi-autobiographical at points,” said Gallagher.
Geneva is a down-to-earth work about a simple beach-loving Hermosa local whose random brush with a beautiful young woman leads to romance, marriage, and a child. As the story progresses, bitterness and resentment begin to grow between the couple, threatening the life they’ve built together.
Gallagher’s approach to storytelling is direct. His first-person descriptions of growing love and hate are well-crafted, not overly-stylized, and capture an authentic “beach bum” tone. The novel explores the beauty and the foibles of life and love.
It’s possible to misjudge Geneva by its somewhat sexy cover, which does little to convey the range of themes that are explored within.
“It looks like a romance novel, and it has nothing to do with that,” he said. “It’s about life, passion, love, jealousy, feelings – you know, it’s a human story.”
Gallagher describes the work as “literary fiction,” citing as influences not William Shakespeare and Danielle Steel, but Ernest Hemmingway and Franz Kafka.
‘Love to write’
Gallagher’s start in writing was modest, beginning with a few pieces on the Internet and some published poetry. But with a little perseverance and some careful thought, Gallagher hopes he is developing his product into a maturing entity.
“I [started] with poetry at about 23, like most people do, and then I realized I wanted to expand,” Gallagher said with a chuckle. “I love to write, and when I don’t write, it just feels like there’s something missing there.”
Geneva came in 2007 after four years of work. Gallagher said he based the book on actual events that occurred in Hermosa about 1996, which gives the book both its detailed story and its close ties to the community.
“It took four, four-and-a-half years to write because there were a lot of chapters I had to get rid of and a lot of editing. The basic story was there, and I just had to know what to put in, and that takes time,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher himself was introduced to the beach cities in 1983. He followed the footsteps of his father, who did business in Manhattan Beach and finally settled in Hermosa. Gallagher owned two video stores – Hermosa Video on Hermosa Avenue and Manhattan Video in Manhattan Beach – perhaps ironic for a budding writer of books.
“My dad worked out here in Manhattan Beach; I was born in Philadelphia but I came here in ’83 and stayed ever since,” Gallagher said.
And he put down roots.
“I was commissioner of basketball about three years ago, and I’ve coached baseball, basketball and soccer every year but this year,” said Gallagher. “But besides the video store and doing stuff with the kids, I know a lot of people just from living here so long.”
With the publication of Geneva, Gallagher is looking forward to a May reissue by the Amazon imprint Book Surge of his 365-day meditation book Search Your Self, under a new title, Words of Wisdom. The book, originally published in 2000, includes contemplation-provoking quotes from sources as varied as Gandhi, Rousseau, Bertrand Russell, Blake, Maslow, Jung and the Bible.
His next writing project is kept under his hat.
“I am going to write another novel,” said Gallagher. “I have two ideas, but I’m not sure yet, so like Hemmingway said, it’s bad luck to talk about it.”
Geneva by Scott Michael Gallagher, 404 pages, paperback, $24.95. Available at Amazon.com and bookstores. E
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