David Given Schwarm

So many of the things we take as a given in everyday life were actually the result of a bitter struggle between two opposing forces. Take, for example, the custom of saying “Hello?” when answering the phone. It seems like a natural extension of a face-to-face conversation, right? I telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell had…

Weird fact: Before Jerry Springer launched his brawling freak show on daytime TV, he was a serious progressive politician and highly respected mayor of Cincinnati. In his heyday, many Ohioans even saw him as a likely candidate for the U.S. presidency. As you begin worrying that you might be pushing the bounds of believability for…

One of the best ways to learn to do something is to emulate those whose work you admire. The treat (and task) for today is to drop by the bookstore and pick up a novel by an author whose voice you’ve always loved. Read the first few pages of you purchase before you start writing,…

Demographers have been noting the decreasing size of families in industrialized nations for decades. They pin it on everything from rising education rates among women to the decrease in family famring. But I know the real culprit: With skyrocketing number of baby names to pick from, would-e parents avoid having children because they can’t decide…

One of my favorite books is called Rules of Thumb 2. The volume offers thousands of guidelines for any number of essential day-to-day activities, such as properly estimating a submerged crocodile’s length and surviving a pistol duel. The dueling hint was submitted by historian Jim Barber, who writes: “When dueling with firearms, always aim lower…

Writing a novel is like working with clay. You first create a rough shape, then massage that shape into something beautiful, such as an ashtray or a fearsome army of worms. Unlike potters, though, who can simply buy clay at the art supply store, novelists have to pull off the supernatural feat of creating their…