
VIETNAM WAR ERA NOVEL — REVIEWS by
HEMINGWAY'S EDITOR FORMER US DEPUTY UNDER-SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, AND:
- NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS
- NPR
- FOREWORD REVIEWS
- RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
- FREDERICKSBURG FREE LANCE-STAR
- Univ Profs
- Publishers
- Editors
"I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK"
-THE JEWISH NEWS
"SCHNADER'S WRITING IS MULTI-SENSUAL & POWERFUL"
-NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS
"AUTHENTIC, INTENSE TALE OF COMING OF AGE IN VIETNAM ERA"
-RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
"One of the best books you will ever read"
-Jon Ostrow, Teacher
“Right at the top of my reads ever...
"I was a student in 1970, and this book is like walking back to those times—a great story well written”
-Skip Keith, Hampton Roads Writers
"This is an important book. This is a piece of literature that makes you happy that literature exists.”
-Reviewer of The Serpent Papers on Audible
Cover Photo: Columbia Daily Spectator/John Taylor Lewis & Andrew Farber
"TELL US THE TRUTH"
Abridged Interview 2 min 15 sec
https://twitter.com/TellUsTheTruth0/status/1519395356399783936
"THE TOM SUMNER RADIO SHOW"
Complete Interview (Spotify)
https://rss.com/podcasts/tomsumnerprogram/406332/
Jeff Schnader was at Columbia University in 1972 where he participated in sit-ins, marches and protests against the Vietnam War. He took part in marches and demonstrations, including a protest in front of Hamilton Hall where students were beaten by the New York Tactical Police, who were in full battle regalia. Scenes in his novel are authentic because he was there.
His short story, “The Champion,” won first prize in the 2020 Annual Quills Contest, and he was a short-listed finalist in the 2021 Blue Moon Novel Competition for his novel, The Serpent Papers (see Author's Guild announcement: https://www.authorsguild.org/member-awards/jeff-schnader-wins-quills-creative-writing-contest/). Chapters of The Serpent Papers and, more recently, his short stories, The Oma and Durango, have been published in THE WRITE LAUNCH literary journal (see: https://thewritelaunch.com/author/j-schnader/)
After graduating from Columbia with a BA in physics, he received his medical degree (MD, CM) from McGill University with further work at Johns Hopkins. He recently retired as full Professor of Medicine after authoring over 50 scientific publications and chairing & speaking at over 130 national medical conferences. He was a frequent guest on NPR's “Sound Health” and has been awarded for teaching and for editing a medical journal. He worked full-time in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for 22 years, serving American war veterans, including those of The Vietnam War.
The author in the Marais, Paris, France
J-Bee, son of a military officer, is raised in a violent milieu during the 1960s. After his little brother is persecuted by bullies, J-Bee commits a retaliatory act of brutality, the nature of which scars him. When his best friend, Gilly, volunteers to fight in Vietnam, J-Bee—repulsed by his own violence—refuses to follow either his father or Gilly into the military. Instead, he matriculates at Columbia University in 1971, an era of counterculture, drugs and sex and rock ‘n roll, in order to seek his redemption.
While there, he is introduced to the mysterious Serpent, who recites in the campus café, and to the politically active Margo who schools him in anti-war politics and the virtues of peace. Although he feels loyalty to his best friend (Gilly) fighting overseas, he increasingly sympathizes with Margo’s rationale against the war. Torn between supporting the war or protesting against it, J-Bee’s paradoxical feelings are ignited when his friend Gilly, on furlough from Vietnam, visits him at Columbia. With ratcheting tensions and bullhorns leading students in protest, pro-war and anti-war factions collide in campus riots, and J-Bee makes the choice that defines his life, solidifying his outlook on violence.
EXCERPT FROM: THE SERPENT PAPERS
Abruptly, something deep inside me—a ragged hairy beast locked away, chained for a lifetime to dungeon walls—was roaring, his sound percolating from the depths of my subconscious into my waking state. I felt him shake off his chains, stretch his arms and legs and burst forth from his shadowy cell. Stupefied, I felt life renewed. As cars and people danced down the street, I sat spellbound at the spectacular parade, consumed by love. I had magic within me, and though the people I saw were grotesque—striped, angular, dogfaced—they were magnificent, and I was the gifted witness. Enraptured, I feasted on beauty, grateful to be alive in such a vibrant, colorful painting. So abject yet so privileged amongst all living things, I sobbed to be gifted such sensual wonder.
AMERICAN LEGION: https://www.legion.org/yourwords/books/253579/serpent-papers
Legiontown: http://www.legiontown.org/ownwords/8024/serpent-papers
AUDERE MAGAZINE:
PUBLISHED ESSAY- "Revisiting Columbia's Vietnam Protests: Why I Wrote The Serpent Papers"
AUTHORS GUILD:
Author's Guild Spotlight: https://www.authorsguild.org/the-writing-life/member-spotlight-jeff-schnader/
Author Site: https://go.authorsguild.org/members/5798
Awards Announcements for Jeff Schnader: https://www.authorsguild.org/member-awards/jeff-schnader-wins-quills-creative-writing-contest/
Book Announcement: https://www.authorsguild.org/whats-new/new-books-by-members/
BOOKSCOVER2COVER
BOOK REVIEW: https://bookscover2cover.com/reviews/fiction/the-serpent-papers/
PUBLISHED ESSAY- "My Pilgrimmage to Publication" by Jeff Schnader: https://bookscover2cover.com/essays/my-pilgrimage-to-publication/
BOOKSCOVER2COVER
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR:
https://bookscover2cover.com/interviews/jeff-schnader/
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY: https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S75C8127533
CHESAPEAKE BAY WRITERS
Book Page: https://www.chesapeakebaywriters.org/historical-fiction
Author Page: https://www.chesapeakebaywriters.org/members-corner?page=2
April 2022 Newsletter of CBW: See Spotlight News page 6
COLUMBIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
BOOKSHELF: https://alumni.columbia.edu/content/serpent-papers
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
BOOKSHELF: https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/issue/winter-2021–22/article/bookshelf
Class Notes 1975 CC (type in "1975" to see the article): https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/issue/winter-2021–22/article/class-notes
COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR: https://www.univmeta.com/XX/Unknown/58365309913/Columbia-Daily-Spectator
COLUMBIA FICTION FOUNDRY:
Book Announcement: https://fictionfoundry.alumni.columbia.edu/day_of_days_by_frank_napolitano
PUBLISHED ESSAY- "My Pilgrimage to Publication" https://fictionfoundry.alumni.columbia.edu/jeff_schnader_debut
SHEILA DEETH BOOK REVIEW (on GOODREADS):
FREDERICKSBURG FREE LANCE-STAR
BOOK REVIEW:
FOREWORD REVIEWS:
BOOK REVIEW: https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-serpent-papers/
FOREWORD REVIEWS:
BOOK OF THE DAY: https://www.forewordreviews.com/articles/article/book-of-the-day-roundup-january-10-14-2022/
FOREWORD REVIEWS:
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: https://www.forewordreviews.com/articles/article/reviewer-kristine-morris-interviews-jeff-schnader-author-of-the-serpent-papers/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58231696-the-serpent-papers
JAMES RIVER WRITERS:
November 2021 News: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#all/FMfcgzGllCdWmwkNmDqgxSsWSSDSrGkC
Member Bio: https://jamesriverwriters.org/members/membership-account/profile/?pu=267
JEWISH NEWS (UJF of Tidewater, Virginia), March 2022
BOOK REVIEW: http://www.jewishnewsva.org/close-to-home/
OR: https://issuu.com/ujft/docs/12_march_28_2022_passover_issuu/1?ff
JEWISH NEWS (UJF of Tidewater, Virginia)
Book Preview October 2021: http://www.jewishnewsva.org/new-novel-the-serpent-papers-focuses-on-vietnam-war/
Salute To The Military Supplement: https://issuu.com/ujft/docs/military_supplement_jn_2021
McGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH e-NEWS, Faculty of Medicine
https://healthenews.mcgill.ca/scratching-the-fiction-itch/
OR: https://www.mcgill.ca/facmed-alumni/article/scratching-fiction-itch
NPR, BAUM ON BOOKS (WSHU)
WRITTEN REVIEW & PODCAST:
https://www.wshu.org/podcast/baum-on-books/2021-12-09/book-review-the-serpent-papers
NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS
BOOK REVIEW: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/serpent-papers
OAKWOOD REGISTER: https://reader.mediawiremobile.com/TheOakwoodRegister/issues/207708/viewer?page=9
THE PERMANENT PRESS:
Website: https://thepermanentpress.com/collections/forthcoming/products/the-serpent-papers
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ThePermanentPress/posts/
PERFIDY PRESS:
Website: https://perfidy.press/the-serpent-papers/
Featured on Amazon Author Page of Geoffrey Dutton: https://www.amazon.com/Geoffrey-Dutton/e/B001K6KWSS
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
GRAB A GALLEY, WINTER-SPRING 2022:
https://grabagalley.publishersweekly.com/contest/winter-spring-2022/?dt=thumb&dc=fiction#display_nav
THE RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
BOOK REVIEW:
Same Review on PressReader site: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/richmond-times-dispatch-weekend/20220220/282458532394911
VIRGINIAN PILOT
LITERARY NOTES:
THE WRITE LAUNCH LITERARY JOURNAL
Author Page: https://thewritelaunch.com/author/j-schnader/
Writer's Spotlight: https://mailchi.mp/thewritelaunch/writers-at-the-write-launch-spotlight?e=bfa5dc5ca0
Nov 21, 2021
PODCAST INTERVIEW (by Benjamin Kitchings): THE HISTORY VOYAGER, Atlanta, GA
https://thehistoryvoyager.podbean.com/e/the-serpent-papers-with-jeff-schnader-author/
Feb 21, 2022
RADIO INTERVIEW (by John Shannon): Radio Free Galisteo, Albuquerque, NM
Hear the show at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1768260/10166958
Feb 24, 2022 (posted April 26, 2022)
PODCAST INTERVIEW (taped): Tell Us The Truth with E "Duke" Bennett in partnership with iHeart Media & Radio 1040 AM (WBZ), Greater Boston, MA
On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/17iuDA5McbHrxxq3sBqYU2?si=XP6Z8JNQTzissG-g1DI-nw&nd=1
On Twitter (2 min 15 sec abbreviated show segment): https://twitter.com/notifications
Feb 25, 2022, 11AM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (by Frankie Boyer): The Frankie Boyer Show (WCRN), Worcester/Boston, MA
Hear the show at: https://www.spreaker.com/user/biztalk/fb-031022 (minute 21)
Feb 28, 2022
RADIO INTERVIEW (by Warner Lewis): Lewis At Large (KLWN), Lawrence, KS/Kansas City, MO
https://www.klwn.com/lewis-at-large-w-warner-lewis/
March 1, 2022, 9AM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (by Tom Sumner): The Tom Sumner Program (WFOV), Flint, MI
Hear the show at: https://rss.com/podcasts/tomsumnerprogram/406332/
March 2, 2022, 7:05 AM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (live by James Lowe): 1110 AM & 93.5 FM (WTBQ) and 1500 AM & 98.3 FM (WGHT), The Frank Truatt Morning Show (NY and NJ’s #1 Drive Time Morning Show), Orange County-Northern NJ-New York Metro
https://wtbq.com/the-frank-truatt-morning-show/
March 9, 2022
RADIO INTERVIEW (by Nick Burns): KRCL (FM 96.5 & FM 90.9), Salt Lake City & Park City, UT
See complete timeline of Columbia protests and Schnader interview here: https://krcl.org/blog/radioactive-030922/
March 10, 2022
PODCAST INTERVIEW (by Alain Guillot): Alain Guillot,, Montreal, PQ, Canada
https://www.alainguillot.com/jeff-schnader/
ON YOUTUBE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxx7zvzOgA8
March 11, 2022, 8:30AM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (by Jimmy Mac): Dave Nemo Weekends, Trucker Radio, Ocean Springs, MS
https://www.radionemo.com/weekends
https://www.radionemo.com/library
https://www.facebook.com/davenemoshow/photos/a.578427958850952/5747254021968294/
March 15, 2022, 11PM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (live): Warriors for Peace, Lakewood, WA
The Donna Seebo Show (recommended listening speed = 1.25):
March 19, 2022, 1PM (ET)
PODCAST INTERVIEW (by Vaughn Joy): Impressions of America, London, UK
Hear the show: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3N1m69ePEv8G2CgsgXET30?si=aGduImnVS0idduBH0-0XTw&utm_source=copy-link
March 21, 2022, 12:20PM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (live, unrecorded): Mornings in Sonoma (KSVY FM), Sonoma, CA
https://ksvy.org/mornings-in-sonoma-monday/
April 19, 2022 RADIO INTERVIEW (Interview by Jiggy Jaguar, BGE Radio & KJAG FM 92.1; 53 Stations-Syndication), KC, MO & Atlanta, GA
Interview: https://app.talkshoe.com/episode/19362064
Show Announcement: https://jiggyjaguar.com/jigg/jeff-schnader/
May 19, 2022, 830AM (RADIO INTERVIEW, in English)
Talk Radio Europe (TRE): Spain, Europe
https://www.talkradioeurope.com/the-book-show/
July 11, 2022, 8:05 AM (ET)
RADIO INTERVIEW (live by Neal Steele): Neal Steele Morning Show (WXGM, FM Xtra 99.1), Gloucester, VA
MARCH 12, 2022, 2PM
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING & READING
Slover Library, Plume St, NORFOLK, VA
MARCH 13, 2022, Noon-4PM
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING & READING
Book Warehouse, 5625 Richmond Rd, WILLIAMSBURG, VA
https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/williamsburg/stores/book-warehouse
March 26, 2022, 10am - 4PM
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING: Book Parade-Chesapeake Bay Writers
Midtown Clubhouse, 221 Monticello Ave, WILLIAMSBURG
https://www.chesapeakebaywriters.org
April 9, 2022, 1-3 PM
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING:
BARNES & NOBLE: Peninsula Town Center, Newport News, VA
https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062148326-0
April 13, 2022, Noon
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING: @Shakespeare & Co Booksellers
939 Lexington Ave (at 69the St), Manhattan, NY
https://www.facebook.com/ShakeandCo.Lex/
April 14, 2022, 6-8 PM
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING: @Columbia University
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE, 2922 Broadway at 114th Street, NY, NY
https://columbia.bncollege.com
April 30, 2022, 4-6PM, postponed
AUTHOR READING & BOOK SIGNING
THE MUSE, 2200 Colonial Ave #3, Norfolk, VA
MAY 21, 2022, BOOK READING & DISCUSSION
Van Wyck Library, Debree St, Norfolk
MAY 21, 2022, NORFOLK LOCAL AUTHOR FAIR
Slover Library, Plume St, NORFOLK, VA
June 18, 2022, Noon-4PM AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING & DISCUSSION
Book Warehouse, 5625 Richmond Rd, WILLIAMSBURG, VA https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/williamsburg/stores/book-warehouse
July 9, 2022, 2PM AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING & READING
Van Wyck Branch, Norfolk Library, Debree St, NORFOLK, VA www.norfolkpubliclibrary.org
July 16, 2022, Noon-4PM AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING & DISCUSSION
Book Warehouse, 5625 Richmond Rd, WILLIAMSBURG, VA https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/williamsburg/stores/book-warehouse
NOVEL: THE SERPENT PAPERS
-Review by Editor of Hemingway, Baldwin & Ludlum
-Review by Former U. S. Principal Under Secretary of Defense
-Testimonials & Reviews by journalists, editors, professors, PhDs
-Reviews by three decorated Vietnam War veterans
-Testimonial of Kent State University 1974 graduate
PRIZES
-Finalist in Blue Moon Novel Competition
-1st Prize in Quills Short Story Contest
WRITING COACH FOR AUTHENTIC MEDICAL FICTION
-Jeff is sharing his expertise as a physician & Professor of Medicine on writing authentic medical fiction
- Recent or upcoming conferences where Jeff will speak
To Email Jeff Schnader or
To Order THE SERPENT PAPERS
click below:
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