Weekly Literary Supplement: Summer Fiction Sampler

I started to say something, but Walter clapped his hands on his knees, said, “And we’re off,” and stood up. In the hall he said, “That was good. So Monday,” his hands wafting me onto the elevator.

There was a vending alcove off the parking garage. I wasn’t a candy bar enthusiast but I started feeding dollars into a machine and didn’t stop till I’d bought a Payday, a Hundred Grand, a Butterfingers, a Snickers, a NutRageous, and a Dark Milky Way. I finally have a job with dental, I thought. I should use it. I ate the Snickers before I started the car but I couldn’t touch the other ones. When I got to Santa Cruz I left them on top of a newspaper machine, figuring that with all the kids and homeless guys walking around, someone would end up eating them. No one said it had to be me.

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More About

• Charlie Haas
• Michelle Huneven
• Staten Island
• Silver Lake (Staten Island)
• Peter Gadol

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Excerpted fromThe Enthusiast by Charlie Haas. Copyright (c) 2009 by Charlie Haas. Reprinted by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers.

Charlie Haas wrote the moviesOver the Edge,Gremlins 2 andMatinee. He reads from his first novel,The Enthusiast, on Thursday, June 18 at 7:30 p.m.; Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz.

Further reading from the Weekly Literary Supplement:

"How Fiction Works: King James and the Battle for the Novel," by Nathan Ihara

"Geoff in London, Interview in Absentia," by Tom Christie

"Henry Bay’s America: An Excerpt From The Enthusiast," by Charlie Haas

"Wet Metal: An Excerpt From Blame," by Michelle Huneven

"The Calm: An Excerpt From Silver Lake," by Peter Gadol

"Old World Meets New Age in Thriller Nowhere-Land," by Judith Freeman

"Publishing Your Novel Online," by Alan Rifkin