DON WALLACE latest book is THE FRENCH HOUSE: An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village that Restored Them All (Sourcebooks, June 3). It's a memoir of over 30 years that he and his wife Mindy have spent on a tiny island off the coast of Brittany called Belle Ile. They first visited the island as wandering writers in 1980, and were lured by a siren (actually, a former college abroad professor of Mindy's at Stanford) into buying a house in her village.
It turned out to be a ruin. It nearly ruined their finances for 7 years and yet the simultaneous immersion in their romantic Breton passion and the realities of family and work life back in New York City taught them lessons about themselves and dreams in general. Over the 35 years covered by the story, change and revelations abound, joys and challenges rise unexpectedly; as much as they learn from the rural villagers of the Cote Sauvage, they also find amusing wisdom from the collection of Parisian psychiatrists who begin buying houses in the villages around them. (The beach therapy sessions are priceless.) In return, they introduce baseball, BBQ, guacamole, and in particular surfing--excerpts from THE FRENCH HOUSE have appeared in Islands and Hana Hou! and one is forthcoming Surfer's Journal.
Meryl Streep calls it: "A lovely, shimmering story... The French House moves to a soulful, very funny rhythm all its own."
DON WALLACE has written fiction and non-fiction, journalism, films, reviews and opinion pieces, even the odd poem and song. He writes about a number of diverse environments: France, surfing, military history, business and entrepreneurs, the boating world, bass fishing, high school football, civil rights and Hawaiian music. He has been a magazine editor at Time Inc, Hearst, the New York Times, and Conde Nast and was most recently Film Editor at The Honolulu Weekly. From Long Beach, Calif, he attended Long Beach Poly, UC Santa Cruz, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop; with his wife Mindy Pennybacker (The Green Guide, DO ONE GREEN THING) he lived in New York City for 27 years before returning to Mindy's native Honolulu in 2009. Their son Rory Wallace lives in Manhattan.
DON WALLACE published A TIDE IN TIME: The Log of Matthew Roving, Book One on Kindle in 2014. This YA novel, a time-traveling tale of the American Revolution, is an expansion of his award-winning serialized novel that ran for 3 years in Naval History Magazine, published by the U.S. Naval Institute of Annapolis. Wallace received Author of the Year honors for the novel in 2002 and even addressed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he thanked the examples of his father, USNA 46, and grandfather Wallace, youngest chief petty officer at age 19 in 1917.
Don's last book in print and Kindle was ONE GREAT GAME: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First-Ever High School National Championship Football Game (Atria, 2003; paper 2004; Kindle). It chronicled a year in the football life of Concord De La Salle of Northern California and Long Beach Polytechnic down South. De La Salle was undefeated for 11 seasons and coached by a legend, Bob Ladouceur; Poly, which as sent more players to the NFL than any high school, was coached by Raul Lara, a probation officer in his first season. These two high-contrast schools--De La Salle private and Catholic, mostly white, LB Poly public, located in the inner-city, the most diverse high school in America in the 2000 Census--jockeyed for position, trained and worried about a football game that was destined to go down in history. The path to the Oct 5, 2001 game is fascinating, but there's more: a sociological study of public and private education, an inside story of how high school sports was being turned into a big business, and a moving personal account of kids, parents, teachers, coaches, fans and the author's own family. When the tragedy of 9/11 alters ONE GREAT GAME'S trajectory--and, of course, America's and the world's--the story takes on added spiritual and human resonance. Finally, the game itself does not disappoint.
Don's first novel, HOT WATER (Soho, 1991), is a comedy about a "rod and gun" marriage. Gar, the husband, wants to leave his job as a Coca-Cola bottling manager and become a pro bass fisherman. His mind is filled with the ways and wiles of the small-mouth bass. His wife, the formidable Virginia Roy, is bored with her life and filled with unformed ambition, thwarted by their provincial Southern life. A die-hard conservative, she turns to paintball, learns to love camouflage, and she decides her destiny is to be a mercenary. The genial put-upon Gar and the proto-Sarah Palin Virgina Roy are also a great love story, united above all by their devotion to each other--even if she does shoot him once in awhile (with a paintball gun).
Don has also written for The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Fast Company, Kirkus Reviews and many other publications. Along the way he has won awards such as the James Michener Copernicus Prize for a novel; the Pluma de Plata Mexicana for reporting about Mexico; the New York Times' Eagle Award; a MacDowell Colony Fellowship; and contest selection in Next Stop Hollywood: Short Stories Bound for the Screen (St. Martin's, 2007).
Don is a featured subject in and contributor to WE WANTED TO BE WRITERS: Life, Love, and Literature at the Iowa Writers' Workshop (Skyhorse, August 2011).
Don was the writer of a documentary about Hawaiian music, aired by PBS Hawaii, the Pacific Rim Film Festival in Santa Cruz and the Honolulu International Film Festival. THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae, aired on July 28, 2011.
Don has worked, among others, as Executive editor at Time Inc and at The New York Times Magazine Group; as senior editor at Conde Nast and at Hearst; he has founded and created magazines, including Traveler's Advantage and Golf Digest Woman. He has experience in all types of publications, including business, sports, women's, travel, literary/general, environmental. He is a specialist in start-ups and custom publishing.
WEBSITE: www.don-wallace.com
BLOGS: www.don-wallace.com; donwallacefranceblog.tumblr.com; A Salty Blog, at www.asaltydog.blogspot.com.
On the topic of "What It Means to Be a Writer Today" on wewantedtobewriters.com
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