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Where can I buy your books? Both East of Denver and The Lonesome Trials of Johnny Riles are available from all sorts of booksellers. If the book is not at your local bookstore, they'll be happy to special order it. If you're in Denver, I recommend Tattered Cover or The Bookbar or The Broadway Book Mall. If you're not in Denver, Indie Bound can point you to a store near you (assuming there is a store near you). The book is also available at Barnes & Noble, and, if you care to support their predatory business model, Amazon. What's your favorite thing about being an author? Writing. Are your books autobiographical? No. Am I in your books? No. How do you feel about being awarded the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award? Conflicted. Why don't you have a facebook page? Why don't you tweet? Why don't you own a cell phone? None of those things are necessary to my survival. If you'd like a longer explanation, I invite you to read one of these terrific books: Alone Together Sorry. Am I being curmudgeonly? I'm really a fun guy. I just don't like doing interviews, especially when I'm interviewing myself. What are some of your favorite books/authors? Here are a few off the top of my head... I love Jim Thompson, especially Pop 1280. Anything published by FC2. Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin. Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Dog Christ by Lucian Morgan. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. A Night of Serious Drinking by Rene Daumal. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. And I'm a slobbering lunatic for rock and roll writers: Peter Guralnick, Nick Tosches, Richard Meltzer, Lester Bangs, Chuck Klosterman, Mark Lewisohn, Richie Unterberger and on and on. Do your works portray rural America as a warm and fuzzy place full of kittens and hard working, temperate salt-of-the-earth types who work together to overcome any obstacle, no matter how difficult? Not really, no. I write about humans and nature. Humans are insecure and desperate. Nature is violent and opportunistic. Put 'em together and things can get rough. Funny, too, if you're the type of person who thinks that kind of thing is funny. Which is to say, sorry about the dead animals. Speaking of dead animals, what's the significance of the loop of creatures floating at the top of this window? Those are all the animals that appear in all three books, in order of appearance. Can I hear some songs by some of these bands you've allegedly played in? Oh, yeah. Out of my garage, I've played on or produced three-dozen no-budget albums of varying degrees of greatness. You can hear 'em all for free at http://sparkythedog.bandcamp.com/ Video #2, Courtesy of Brett Duesing... Video #1, Courtesy of Lucas Richards... I said I want to hear the music, not watch it, okay? The Tigerbeats address tiger-related issues: What are you working on now? I'm recording two or three albums at the moment (I'm always working on two or three albums); trying to get the Massey Harris running (I'm always trying to get the Massey Harris running*); repairing electronical stuff in my underground lair; and trying to convince myself that writing unpopular novels is a worthwile activity. Occasionally, when the mood strikes, I'll write a few paragraphs in the new book, which follows a pair of French lesbians who will stowaway to America on the ship that hauled the Statue of Liberty to New York and then receive telepathic messages from the ghost of Auguste Comte who is trapped inside the belly of a large narwhal alongside a Baptist missionary named Sister Gravity. Would it kill you to write a happy ending? Go to hell. My endings are always happy. Seriously. The happiness doesn't smack you in the face, but it's there and it's waiting for you to find it. |
You can order my books from any of these fine booksellers (and many others). |
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