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Local Author Showcase spotlights Skokie-area writers and their work. In this installment, we talk to our former colleague, novelist Hal Schweig:

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I was a public relations executive for 42 years before joining the Skokie Public Library staff in the computer lab, where I worked for eight years before retiring. I have lived in Chicago and suburbs all my life. My wife and I have two grown children. When not writing I spend my time exercising every day at the Weber Leisure Center in Skokie, reading, going to plays, movies, concerts, dance and other entertainments, and most important, grocery shopping!

What are the titles of your books? How would you describe them?

The title of my first novel is The Strange Odyssey of Peter Sampson and my newly published psychological murder mystery is What Jennifer Saw. The first book I would describe as “a spiritual metamorphosis,” and the second, “scary.” I tell people about to read my mystery: “Don’t read this if you are home alone at night.”

What’s your writing routine?

During my working career my writing routine was to write in longhand on a legal-size yellow pad while traveling on the CTA to and from work. Although I had a full time job, a 2 1/2-hour round trip commute, two kids at home to raise and a dog [and] house to maintain, etc., I still managed to squeeze writing time into the cracks and crevices of my life. I have no sympathy for people who tell me they could write a novel, but don’t have the time.

What are some of your favorite books?

One of my favorite books when I was a young man was Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, and later I thought Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote to be a great books.

Who’s a writer you think is criminally underrated?

Take a guess!

What book are you embarrassed not to have read?

I am most embarrassed to say I haven’t read the great 19th century Russian classics.