Prose in the Sand: The 36th Street Beach is This Author’s Workshop
“The Beaches of Avalon” isn’t the name of a famous novel, but could one day become the birthplace of one.
For nearly three decades, part of 36th Street beach has already been the workshop for some good finance novels, produced by a prominent Avalon summer resident.
David Mallach believes this literary sandbox is more than just Cooler by a Mile. Since 2003, it is where he has penned 10 books selling on sites like Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, and davidmallach.com.
Mallach’s journey actually began in the mid-1990s with a seven-year, get-the-kinks-out process that produced his first book.
This is a labor of love for Mallach, whose annual self-publishing realm will resume here, probably in early June. Mallach is a 41-year Avalon second homeowner who spends several months each year investing money for wealthy clients. He is the managing director for one of the country’s largest financial institutions.
That entails traveling abroad and operating an office in the Philadelphia region, using his 50 years’ experience in the business.
Once summer comes, just as sure as baseball has an All-Star Game or the Avalon Beach Patrol begins its lifeguard-race campaign, Mallach comes here to renew the fiction-writing season.
He doesn’t author an investment manual using real-life connections. This is a financial world he invents.
Mallach will probably complete book No. 11 before Labor Day, slowly but surely compiling about 20 pages per day. It’s good that he’s not under time constraints because this isn’t about deadlines and money, he says.
He estimates that 100,000 book sales in 20 years have been a break-even proposition. Mallach can simply write and publish when he wants without worrying about revenue.
Once here, Mallach puts the umbrella up, sinks into the chair on the sand, and blends in.
“There is something special about being in Avalon,” he says. “It has the best sand of any beach I’ve ever been on in my life. I like the whole feeling that comes over me when I leave my house in Philly to start going to the shore. I start to feel more relaxed, and when you are relaxed, thoughts come to your head. This is a fantastic place to write a novel.”
Years ago, Mallach found that his own beach was one of the quietest in Avalon, perfect for this purpose. It was also a good place for the dual roles of writing and watching his five children. He can spend several hours on the beach, even walk up and down a few of them on breaks from the writing.
Mallach reaches a vantage point familiar to local residents. He vacationed here as a teenager, later rented, and then bought a home. The Avalon address has been a multi-generation sanctuary for Mallach, his wife Lisa, and their five children and two grandchildren.
Most people don’t know he’s an author creating something they may one day hold in their hands. Someone writing on a legal pad looks common enough on a beach, just like a person reading, working on a laptop, or navigating an app. Someone keeping to himself won’t attract much attention.
Residents who may own some of his books or see one converted to a Netflix movie (there have been discussions, he says) might think it’s interesting to have originated from someone sitting a few feet or a few homes away.
The first trilogy (“Dancing with the Analysts,” “Walking with the Analysts” and “Running with the Analysts”) helped sharpen his writing speed. As time went on, his pace quickened, up to nine months for a book.
Mallach leaves any obsession with creative flow or phrase-crafting to his editors. He uses dialogue between characters to convey investment choices.
“I noticed that there were not many books that were popular in the genre of financial fiction,” he indicates. “All of my books are fiction. They read like a John Grisham novel. You will learn about investing, starting on a basic level.”
The comparison to Grisham is interesting. That famed author wraps legal and judicial laws around fictional people facing the justice system. Plights of the characters provide readers insight into the legal process.
In Mallach’s first novel, investing basics are witnessed through the eyes of a boy who inherits a million dollars from his late father. He’s given the choice of spending this gift from the grave or investing with a tailored goal. A return of 15% a year for three years would lead to another $5 million.
“What you are conveying to the reader is, ‘This sounds just like me,’” he says. “If I got an inheritance from my parents, how would I know what to do with it?
“Three big investment principles are knowing what to do with the money, when to buy a stock, and when you should sell it. If someone you would invest with can’t answer these questions for you, then you should get up and leave.”
That foundation leads readers through the financial principles Mallach espouses in the books.
Mallach’s books also involve a central character named Johnny Long, the name of his personal mentor at Troy University in Alabama five decades ago. Long was in the audience when Mallach gave the 2014 commencement address at his alma mater.
A new set of characters will soon unfold, right in Mallach’s chair, right on 36th Street. On the beaches of Avalon, or at least his chunk of them, another writing season beckons.
