The California Lifestyle Channel
Beau Flemister is an award-winning journalist from Kailua, Hawai‘i. While working in the valet parking industry on O‘ahu for 8 years after college, he taught creative writing to high school students, and traveled the world extensively (off valet tips) reporting for publications along the way. A former editor at Surfing Magazine, he has been published in VICE, Complex, Outside, FLUX, The Surfer’s Journal, and Hana Hou! magazines, among others. In the Seat of a Stranger’s Car is his debut novel. Check out the interview with Beau and make sure you grab a copy of his book.
Tell us who you are.
My name is Beau Flemister and I’m a writer (magazine editorial and commercial) and author (of a new novel) from Kailua, Hawaii.
What inspired you to do this book?
Graduating from university, I think I was probably in the same boat as most of my peers where you don’t automatically have a career in the field you studied right out the gates. So, like a lot of young people I knew, I worked in the service industry here in Hawaii valet parking cars at hotels around Waikiki. I started to get published, but parked cars for most of my 20’s until I got hired at Surfing Magazine in California. I’d always come home with a lot of funny stories about the characters I’d work with and naturally, people would tell me: You should write a book about that. So, I did. But it’s also fiction, which I think helps the plot, since it’s not just “valet stories.” So, in short, the valets that I worked with around Oahu inspired me to write it.
Name your friends call you.
Just Beau. It’s pretty short already haha.
If you were an emotion you would be....
Curiosity.
Stick Shift or Automatic?
No preference. I’ll shift both ways, baby.
What is your least favorite book?
Boy, that’s a hard one. I don’t know if I have a specific one, but I suppose I don’t like self-help books very much.
What book do you gift/recommend the most?
Usually, I recommend these three: Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie. But lately I’ve been recommending The Overstory by Richard Powers, which just won the Pulitzer.
If you were a song, what would it be and why?
Hmmm. Maybe “Sell Out” by Neil Young because it’s kind of a rarer gem of his that makes you wonder if you’ve heard it before and then ends before you can decide on an answer. I also heard “The Obvious Child” by Paul Simon the other day and I’d love to be the drum beat in that tune. Shit’s primal.
Who inspires you?
People who balance work, their family and play really well and have figured out how to make a little dough off their passions.
Favorite curse word?
I say “dick-holes” a lot, for some reason. Feels good.
Do you believe in ghosts?
No, I don’t think so.
Drink of choice?
Coffee. Gawd I love coffee. Unless you mean alcohol, which in that case, I’m a sucker for the Zombies at La Mariana Yacht Club in Honolulu.
What has made you laugh your ass off recently?
John Mulaney’s standup specials have all been hilarious. I continually laugh my ass off to that.
What is your usual bedtime?
It varies, but my wife and I looooooove cashing in early. Let’s go with 10pm.
What turns you on?
The complex, dangerous calculus of wife’s hips, empty waves, and coffee.
What turns you off?
Dudes with large egos. Facebook. Big cities.
What would you like to be if you weren’t a writer?
Mmmm, maybe a travel guide. Those still exist right?
Something people don’t know about you.
I wanted to pitch for the Dodgers when I was in 5th grade.
How can we find you on the internet?
Peck my name into Google and my work should pop up.
What do you have coming up that you want us to know about?
I have a West Coast book tour for my debut novel In the Seat of a Stranger’s Car coming up July 15. Go to www.intheseatofastrangerscar.com for dates and locations!
Links:
www.intheseatofastrangerscar.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/summer-reads-that-fuel-automobile-nostalgia-11560530558
