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If you could bottle his panache and writing style, you'd pour a tangy vintage. Member Sam Graber lives in Bala Cynwyd, a "suburb right next to Philadelphia". Although his home for over a decade, he's lived in Pennsylvania over 20 years. Sam recently caught his foot in the door at TV Guide, so we're shining the spotlight his way.

How long have you been a member and staff member at WVU?

Just over a year now, in both cases. The two are almost completely in sync. Basically, I joined up for one of the writing classes and a day or so after my first visit, I sent an e-mail to find out about becoming staff.

Tell us a bit about Sam's philosophy.

Well, I wouldn't feel right if I did not take some time to talk about my past. Much of which took place in a little cafe called La Tazza. Sometime ago, '94 I believe, myself and another writer had been pestering the owners (Frank and Tammy) to have open mic[rophone] nights. Their answer was "sure, you host it." With that other writer (Jeremy), we took turns hosting open mic for the local college and high school kids. Eventually, Jeremy took on a project of his own and founded d' magazine, which I am currently (and have been since the first issue) an Associate Editor.

I think, as a writer, it's important also to be an avid reader. It's easy to look at Dante or Shakespeare and find a gem. But there is a patience and respect taught to you once you've searched through a pile of a hundred submissions to find one gem.

You have such an extraordinary outlook on life, writing, and writing life. What drives the personality behind your pen?

Now that's an intense question. I'd love to be able to start with, "Well I've done a lot of things in my life..." and it's possible that I have. But I have a sheltered little boy from my past deep inside who wonders just how much "a lot of things" are when pertaining to life. The interesting thing is that sheltered little boy is constantly watching old 80's movies, and those slogans seam to seep into my every thought.

Also, I have a large cluster of close friends. We've been together for a long time now (over a decade in instances). Now, even with us spread around the country, we stay in touch daily. Every once and a while I find myself saying something like, "I'm so overwhelmed, I cannot stand having so many friends." I then realize what a horrible bastard I am for saying that. Together we've shared a lot of dreams, obstacles, and personal triumphs. It is truly uplifting to watch them achieving their own goals. It makes you know your own dreams are within in reach.

What are you currently working on?

One of my favorite topics--my projects. According to my zodiac (Gemini), I'm a "jack of all trades". Coincidentally, I'm a "jack of all trades".

At any given point you can find me totting around my bag of projects. stuffed full of note books, folders, sketch pads and various pens. I'm constantly working on multiple projects. Each one unique in its own way. These are the three that I'm most feverishly working on.

First, in the written word category, I've been working on a poem. In my few years of working for d'magazine, I've seen several hundred 1 page or even 1 paragraph poems. You rarely see anything longer than a full page, and generally when you do it's disappointing. I've always wanted to see something that told a full story, instead of simple a full thought. I've talked about this before so I'll skip the lecture. Oddly I never thought I'd be the one to do that. I admit it, I've written almost 100 one page poems.

One night however at the crack of dawn I went down to a café and wrote for five hours. I smoked, I drank coffee, and I wrote. I did it again the next day. In fact, I did this same routine for almost two weeks. Then I let the piece rest. About a month later I picked it up again, and cut it down a bit. Then, I went to a different café and did very much the same thing as the first time. I've been letting the piece rest again. It's my lather rise, repeat process... always repeat.

In the meantime I've been starting a comic book. An odd thought, from a poem to a comic book, yes. I'm sure you're thinking something like "It must be some kind of crazy new age, non super hero, intellectual graphic novel." You'd be close, but mostly wrong. It's of all things--an introspective super hero, comic book. Currently I'm doing mostly dialogue parts, and sketches. The comic is called If Tomorrow... Comes. It's about a super hero, Daniel. It's my new five-hour fix. I've been working on it for over a month now. I go to the café two or three times a week minimum. I usually stay for no less than 5 hours. (It helps knowing people who own or work at the café).

If you didn't guess my third main project is a graphical one. I've been running a website for a band called At the Drive-in. They're a band from El Paso, TX. They are also very creative people. Since I'll be talking about this in 3 questions from now I'll just let you check it out. It's at http://hblc.com/atdi

You work for TV Guide! What do you do? Do you plan to stay with the company but move on to another department?

Yeah that's new. I'd been making pizza for 3.5 years and then I realized it was a conflict of interest. If you want dinner you don't eat a bunch of cookies till someone else cooks it for you. I think I learned that when I was an 8 yr. old "latch key kid".

But yes I am now a scheduling reporter for TV guide. It's a temporary position I stumbled upon. The basic gist of what I do is contact roughly 25 stations and see what's playing. The more interesting part is going "copy". You take the 200 word press release and turn it into a 15 word blurb. It's not the most prestigious writing job, but it's not making pizza. Point being when you approach a paper or a magazine, what would you rather have on it "pizza technician" or "reporter"?

What are your career goals (in general and/or pertaining to writing)?

I think I'd better stick toward simply my writing career, or else I'll be writing a book, which is one of my goals, not the most immediate though. [The most immediate] would be the poem I'm working on. I'm planning very much to have all my revisions done by the first day of summer. The goal being [to find] a place to publish a 30 - 50 page poem. To me this will be the most significant mark in my writing career since I began. This is because it's the first piece I'm putting major efforts into publishing. I've already begun [searching for] possible markets.

After that my plan focuses on a stable, permanent writing job by October. A newspaper, or magazine. Within in five years, I aim to do three things: publish a full length novel, get a writing job for TV, and sell a screenplay. (I'd also like to make toys, but who wouldn't. Actually the screenplay is just so somebody will make the toys I want to play with.)

Are you still working on your website? How'd you develop the idea to construct one? How much time do you put into it?

As I was saying earlier, I've been focusing on the At the Drive-in Fan Site. The work I do for it now is primarily fact-finding and maintenance. The nice thing about a fan site is it shows you, among other things, how to do research. The fans demand it. I've spent a lot of time [looking for] a little fact of even a single link.

Development is generally simple. I sketch a simple framework/layout-- navigation here, image there, and choose a color scheme. Before I started for TV Guide I was a nocturnal beast. I would put roughly 2-6 hours of work per week, per website. (I do several). Now I do about 20 minutes total, but that's the beauty of [musical] band sites. It's all updates and answering email now.

Sam knows how to make an entrance, an impression, and a bang of an exit. Interesting being, isn't he? Our interview comes to a close, and this is what Sam leaves us:

I'll say it again-- "you are what you surround yourself with." I mean, everything you read or watch, every person you interact with, they all have an effect on you. The best thing you can do is choose what you let effect you the most. This is a list of books, movies, [and other things] that I know I've let effect me:

Of Human Bondage -W. Somerset Maugham

The Razors Edge (again Maugham) Also a great movie with Bill Murray

Ender's Game(the series) - Orson Scott Card

Freud, Jung, Plato, Socrates, Niestzche - various works

The Plague Dogs - Richard Adams, also an animated movie

The Upanishads

Movies by Hal Hartley and Mike Leigh

Kicking & Screaming by Noah Bombach

Kurt Vonnegut, especially for Breakfast of Champions

Paul Auster, Jim Carrol, Truman Capote

All though I've only glanced at The Time of our Time, I've open up to Norman Mailer

The X-files, Millennium, The Prisoner, Nowhere Man

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

And to give music it's due: Jimmy Eat World, Jets to Brazil, Jawbreaker, At the Drive-in, Sunny Day Real Estate, Brody, Burning Airlines, Tuesday, Hot water Music, and Pegboy.

And for that little kid inside Red Dawn.

Of equal importance to me are those late nights walking in the cold brisk air of Valley Forge National Park with a close friend and a warm cup of coffee in a dim lit café.