Kali's Day- from Autonomedia/Unbearable Books.

MY NEXT BIG THING PROJECT

The Next Big Thing project is flying around and has landed here. Each of us posts a self-interview and tags 5 others to do the same. I was invited to participate by Amy Hollowell, who was invited by Pansy Mauer-Alvarez, who was invited by my Paris publisher, Dylan Harris of Corrupt Press.

Steve Dalachinsky, Ron Kolm, Diane Spodarek and Bart Plantenga have agreed to participate. I'll be posting their interviews here starting on March 30, 2013. 

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What is the working title of the book?

Kali’s Day, which has stuck.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The confluence of the lost and found, victims and perpetrators, living and dead, rivers, mountains, roads, cities, streets, rooms.

What genre does your book fall under?

Fictohagiography.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Charlize Theron would be perfect for the female lead, Candice, who combines an animal nature, monstrous intelligence and statuesque physicality.

Henry, the male lead would have to be played by some prematurely junked-out beauty, late-twenties, dark-haired wonder who could pull off both Hedy Lamar and Johnny Depp (depending on the scene) and look good in a black silk slip. Seeing Jared Leto in Dallas Buyer's Club makes him a promising candidate.

For teen-aged Stella I’d cast a young Clare Danes who could span the ages of 15-25. 

Bryan Cranston would be perfect as the Bostonian alcoholic, Harry Moon, once a well-paid copywriter, now living in a welfare hotel.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Sex, drugs and God on Canal Street under a Himalayin’ moon.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

13 years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I decided to invent the wheel while staring out a window at crows, chewed some gum, walked to an Iron Age burial ground, kissed a gypsy, sang in the temple, didn’t avert my eyes at the animal sacrifices.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s all true and full of lies.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It will be published in the fall of 2013 by Autonomedia/Unbearable Books, NY

What is it that you want of a book?

I want a book to organize experience into some kind of whole where the narrative accumulates rather than drives it as an organizing principle. And a moment of recognition goes a long way.

TWO READINGS IN BARCELONA

I’ll be doing two readings in Barcelona with Jennifer K. Dick and Michelle Noteboom and two other local Spanish and Anglophone writers. Let any people you know in the area to come and hear  new work in what looks like two cutting edge art spaces.

       Wednesday, October 30^th, 20h30

     TrilenguaSeries, 

7 Sins, Muntaner 7, Barcelona, Spain

                                                   Photo: 7sinsbar.com

Jennifer K Dick will be reading with Michelle Noteboom, Paris-based poet, Bonny Finberg, a NY-based author of prose and poetry, Nicky Thornton, an English fiction writer who lives in Barcelona and Sonia Barba, a Spanish poet-actress-director. Organized by Georgina and Ed. 

********************************************

Friday November 1^st  21h

TheCollage Series

Sant Salvador 96, Barcelona, Spain.

 Jennifer K Dick, Michelle Noteboom, Bonny Finberg and Carlos Cabrera, will read in English.  Event organized by Edward Smallfield, publisher and editor of Apogee Books.

Photo: collagebarcelona.com

STEVE DALACHINSKY'S NEXT BIG THING

steve dalachinsky, Prague, 2011

(c) Bonny Finberg

What is the working title of the book?

A Superintendent's Eyes

Where did the idea come from for the book?
a good part of my life from early adulthood until my 50's (when i was actually the super of my building)incorporating many episodes & dreams as they occurred but making it seem timeless while at times poetic - this is a revised edition with updates.

What genre does your book fall under?
prose/poetry -  prose poetry - haibun - semi-auto-biography

What actors would you choose to play the the part of your characters in a movie version?
Pacino, Kinski, Hoffman, Brando, Bardot, Rod Steiger, Veronica Lake, Belmondo, Jean - Pierre Leaud, Gerard Philipe, Jean Gabin, Nakadai, Mifune, any well mannered lovely Japanese woman etc.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
proletariat meanderings - the life & times of a disgruntled partial servant of the people - life as art & vice- versa

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
it was in fragments - not originally meant as a whole - so i can't really answer this accurately. the revised copy was of course easier.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
me. my little life & some of what transpired within & around it.
reality/dream/laughter/tears/black comedy/poignancy/a place where one's insides mingle with one's outside(s)

What else about this book might pique the reader's interest?
the mixing of styles & processes. glimpses at reality & surreality

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
it will be published by unbearables/autonomedia press

What is it that you want of a book?
that it be both infinitely readable as well as unreadable & that it meet all the qualifications, standards  & desires i imagined it would when i created it & of course to sell it.

* * * 

steve dalachinsky was born in 1946, Brooklyn, New York right after the last big war and has managed to survive lots of little wars. His work has appeared extensively in journals on & off line including; Big Bridge, Milk, Tribes, Unlikely Stories, Ratapallax, Evergreen Review, Long Shot, Alpha Beat Soup, Xtant, Blue Beat Jacket, The Brooklyn Review. He is included in such anthologies as Beat Indeed, The Haiku Moment, Up is Up But So is Down: NYU Downtown Literary Anthology, the Unbearables anthologies: Help Yourself, The Worse Book I Ever Read and The Big Book of Sex (of which he is a co-editor) and the esteemed Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He has written liner notes for the CDs of many artists including Anthony Braxton, Charles Gayle, James "Blood" Ulmer, Rashied Ali, Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp and Roscoe Mitchell. His 1999 CD, Incomplete Direction (Knitting Factory Records), a collection of his poetry read in collaboration with various musicians, has garnered much praise. His chapbooks include Musicology (Editions Pioche, Paris 2005), Trial and Error in Paris (Loudmouth Collective 2003), Lautreamont's Laments (Furniture Press 2005), In Glorious Black and White (Ugly Duckling Presse 2005), Dream Book (Avantcular Press 2005), Christ Amongst the Fishes (A book of collages, Oilcan Press 2009), Insomnia Poems (Propaganda Press 2009), Invasion of the Animal People (Propaganda Press 2010), The Mantis: collected poems for Cecil Taylor 1966-2009 (Iniquity Press 2011), Trustfund Babies (Unlikely Stories Press The Veiled Doorway & St. Lucie (Unarmed Press 20012) and Long Play E.P. (Corrupt Press, 2012). His book The Final Nite (complete notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook, Ugly Duckling Presse 2006) won the 2007 Josephine Miles PEN National Book Award. His most recent books are Logos and Language, a collaboration with pianist Matthew Shipp (Rogueart Press 2007), Reaching into the Unknown, a collaborative project with French photographer Jacques Bisceglia, RogueArt 2009). His latest CD is Phenomena of Interference, a collaboration with pianist Matthew Shipp (Hopscotch Records 2005). He has read throughout the N.Y. area, the U.S., Japan and Europe, including France and Germany. He is a contributing writer to the Brooklyn Rail. His book A Superintendent's Eyes (Hozomeen Press 2000) is being reissued by Autonomedia/Unbearables in an expanded/revised edition in late fall 2013. His latest cds are collaborations with saxophonist Dave Liebman, bassist Joelle Leandre and an experimental French rock Group the Snobs.

RON KOLM'S NEXT BIG THING

                                      RON KOLM  
                                    Photo by Bonny Finberg
              

What is the working title of the book?

Divine Comedy.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I wanted to do a collection of my newer poems for awhile.  I got the idea of using Fly By Night Press from George Spencer; I really liked his book, Unpious Pilgrim.  I also admire Steve Cannon, and the other books he's published.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

It's always Hollywood in this culture; celebrities.  This time period is the worst of the fucking fifties; not the Beats, but the fear of being different -- everybody with their short hair; all ready to go off to war, or away to summer camp -- this culture is awash with kids; shallow immaturity -- jeez, fuck Hollywood.  Watch Tarkovsky, Bunuel... something with some depth... Jarmusch even.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Wow, ok -- This sequence of poems is an attempt to delineate, not understand, the sequence of emotions involved in falling into and out of love. along with a bunch of other stuff.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Fifteen years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Peter Handke.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The sex bits.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

No and no.

What is it that you want of a book?

I was a dipshit fascist growing up in Pennsylvania when I stumbled upon the Beats and Catch 22.  Those writers (and books) made me realize, among other things, that Vietnam was immoral, and so I volunteered to work in Appalachia as a community organizer.  I sincerely hope that my tiny texts reach some kid out there in the hinterlands and steer him, or her, to a different shore -- maybe evern more than one person -- one tries to amplify as best one can.

Ron Kolm is one of the founding members of the Unbearables literary collective, and an editor of several of their anthologies: Crimes of the Beats, The Worst Book I Ever Read and The Unbearables Big Book of Sex! Ron is a contributing editor of Sensitive Skin magazine and an associate editor of The Evergreen Review.  He is also the co-author, with Jim Feast, of Neo Phobe, and the author of The Plastic Factory.  A new collection of his poems, Divine Comedy, is forthcoming from Fly By Night Press.  He’s had work recently published in Jeff Wright’s LiveMag, and Steve Cannon’s Gathering of the Tribes Kolm’s papers were purchased by the New York University library, where they’ve been catalogued in the Fales Collection as part of the Downtown Writers Group.  He has worked in most of New York City’s independent bookstores, including the Strand, St. Mark’s Bookshop and Coliseum Books.  He currently works for Posman Books in Grand Central Station.

You can see him interviewed on Poetry Thin Air.

DANGEROUS DIANE'S NEXT BIG THING

                                                   Dangerous Diane

                                                 Photo by Guler Ugur   

THE NEXT BIG THING PROJECT 

What is the working title of the book? 

“The Drunk Monologues.”

Not “The Drunken Monologues.” Some people think they are being helpful when they tell me the grammar is incorrect. But they don’t get it. (In some way it’s sort of a play on “show don’t tell,” isn’t it?) 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was drinking a beer in a brown paper bag on the corner of 78^th Street and Second Avenue when I saw a group of men looking under the hood of a car. I leaned against a deli wall and watched their ritualistic moves and thought it was hilarious. I went home and wrote “Men and Cars.” That was in the 80’s and I’ve been writing monologues about drinking ever since.

What genre does your book fall under?

I don’t know. Poetry, prose, a solo play, fiction, creative non-fiction. Excerpts have been published in fiction anthologies, arts magazines and monologue books. It’s part memoir. It could even be horror or thriller although those genres usually reject me like ex-husbands.

So I guess it’s a novel. Hopefully literature.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in the movie rendition?

Lily Tomlin or Tom Waits.

Tomlin is also from Detroit, where a lot of the stories take place, especially the music. And since there is music, my original drummer, Leonard Paul Johnson would play drums. Waits once said that he’s a musician because it was either that or air conditioning repair. That’s how I feel about being an artist.

I was the first actor. I read the monologues in all the usual poetry venues in NYC and then performed the solo show in a Horse Trade production, which they produced and directed (by their theatre director at the time, Russ Dobular). I went on to do it again at the NY and New Zealand fringe festivals. If Tomlin or Waits turn it down, I could be persuaded to do it myself but I don’t like pretending I’m drunk anymore. I want the real thing now. It might be because I’m in Florida.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A tragic-comedy about one woman’s drinking addiction with absolutely no reference to recovery.

OR

Sobriety is over-rated. 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I never stopped. The first monologue was around 1988. There are more monologues than what ended up in the show so I'm excited to get all the monologues together again. Since 1988 I moved three more times in Manhattan, six times in New Zealand, once to Woodstock, three house sitting gigs in NYC, one sublet in Brooklyn (same hood as the Bensonhurt Butcher), and one roommate share in Hoboken, NJ. Now I’m in Florida. In 2004 I left New York for New Zealand to try a second hand romance. The marriage was in front of a portrait of the Queen of England!. It ended not well because that husband was drinking and I was jealous. My moving for the past ten years has a lot to do with writing and drinking, I’m just not sure exactly what it is.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Steven Canon invited me to be a feature reader at the now defunct Avenue B Social Club where the audience included people drinking and people in recovery. Because they all laughed at my stories I was encourage to go further. When I saw John Leguizamo's “Freak” I knew I had a Broadway show. I never got that far but off-off broadway has been good and getting some of the monologues published is  inspiring.

Now Bonny Finberg has invited me to do this. I couldn't say no. I'm inspired to go forward and finish. Thanks Bonny.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest.

Chapter One: Train Birth

I was born in motion. The train rocking and surging,  metal against metal I popped out on a double seat in a little town called Puce - which is French for flea or so  they tell me - fifteen miles east of Windsor, Ontario. Canada. Water blood afterbirth and my mother's tears mixed with clapping and cheering and a champagne toast. Some fell on me, and at birth I was already moving and drinking. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self published. 

Because: 

1. I can’t go through mass rejection again. Twenty years ago I had a top New York agent who sent my first novel, “Girl Culture” to all the big publishing houses. I received over twenty-two rejection letters all in a span of a few weeks. At the same time I had been dating a poet/cab driver who asked me to marry him over a few bottles of vodka. We flew to San Francisco.  In the middle of the ceremony the judge admonished me for laughing because  it was a “solemn occasion”. I stopped laughing, we got married and my friends Bobby and Marcie took us to a revolving restaurant in the sky where we ordered champagne. However, my new husband wanted a bloody mary instead and I knew I married the wrong man. 

2. I want to publish visuals and music with the chapters. There are old songs and cartoons that are appropriate and I want to create new stuff with sound and ink.  A blog is the only way to control that. As soon as I figure out how to create those menu blocks on the top of the blog and how to create links so the reader can “read more” I will go forward.

3. When finished I will toast the project with a glass of red wine. Lately I’ve been riding my bike to the grocery store where I browse the wine aisle. Once I picked up a bottle to see how it feels. This is an incredible incentive. When I’m finished I get to toast my success. After sixteen years sober, I think I deserve a drink. Recovery is so over-rated. I’m not having any fun since I hit bottom. 

What is it that you want of a book? 

I want my book to do what books do for me: EVERYTHING.

Truth! 

Gore Vidal says that a writer must tell the truth and the best way to do that is in a novel. I like deadlines. Now if my neighbors invite me for a game of golf I can say, “Sorry I’m on a deadline.”

BIO

Diane Spodarek is a Canadian-American artist, a recipient of an NEA artist’s fellowship in video-art and two New York Foundation for the Arts artist’s fellowship in creative nonfiction. Excerpts from, “The Drunk Monologues,” are published in “Young Women’s Monologues from Contemporary Plays,” “The Unbearables’ Big Book of Sex,”"Even More Monologues for Women by Women," and Gathering of the Tribes 12.” She was the "First Runner Up" at the Nuyorican Poets Café "First Grand Poetry Slam" in NYC and her short story “The Farmer in the Dell” will appear in the horror anthology, “Apocryphile” in 2013.www.dangerousdiane.blogspot.com

BART PLANTENGA'S NEXT BIG THING

Here's the next installment of the NEXT BIG THING PROJECT. I'm glad to host bart plantenga's self-interview. 

bart, formerly a DJ on WFMU, hosts a freeform radio show from Amsterdam called Wreck This Mess.

His blog is called Wreck This Cloud.

His novels Wiggling Wishbone (Autonomedia, NY) and Beer Mystic are underground classics. See a video excerpt here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEeL1QzGsc

                                           ***

                                photo of bart plantenga by Eddie Woods

NEXT BIG THING PROJECT 

bart plantenga

What is the working title of the book?

Radio Activity Kills

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea came out of desperation & experiences beyond the ken of normal sentient beings down a dead end where the chosen & discarded confuse one another. the idea also arose out of the fact that no one has ever written a novel of some caliber on the subject. Don’t get me started; OK, but now that you have... In 2012, after 8.33 years of bickering with my latest book YODEL IN HIFI: From Kitsch Folk to Contemporary Electronica that addresses people’s comfortable preconceptions & socially determined prejudices on culture, here specifically related to yodeling; & after a decade-long protracted birthing process that produced the twin books PARIS SCRATCH & SIN PHONEY IN FACE FLAT MINOR, consisting of urban zen snapshots; & after the routine rejection of yet another version of the novel BEER MYSTIC by some 100+ gatekeepers [editors, agents, publishers] & then publishing the entire book online in a global pub crawl & producing a guerilla film of the book’s last chapter: Beer Mystic: Last Day on the Planet; I decided it was time to tell daughter Paloma Jet [13] that she must at all costs never harbor the delusion that writing can ever be considered a worthy, well-respected pursuit commanding any prestige or means for survival. In our rush to democratize we forgot criteria like talent. & since Paloma is smart & visually oriented, I am not worried. It is however then, never at a loss for words or rather not knowing what else to do, that I suddenly decided to give various shapeshifting experiences some definition at the peril of risking my mental wellbeing yet again.

What genre does your book fall under?

Somewhere between speculative-neurotic-metro-nerd-quasi-fiction & transgressive-black-humorist-implausible-memoir-manifesto: imagine characters from the old sitcom WKRP played by Monty Python offspring in a script written by Dostoyevsky, the channeled voice of Lester Bangs & the comedic talents of writers fired from the sets of various harebrained teen sex comedies.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

They will be unknown but gifted non-actors with a link to the milieu & zeitgeist [not a type of beer, although why not]. They would reside well outside the realm of the entitled & connected few & they will not have been tainted by formal training, Hollywood, or any professional workshopping-networking activities ... They will like both Jacques Tati & the Three Stooges, both Antonioni & Animal House & will have formidable music collections consisting of bands no one has ever heard of & they will have noticed something poetic about Doris Wishman’s movies & something inherently humane in the spirit of Jon Peel. They will have spent some time doing menial, underpaid labor & take that with them on their journey.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Radio as lived environment, sexual aid & alternative reality; a space where the cultural battles will be fought. & those [wo]manning the barricades will have only their wits & their encyclopedic knowledge of obscure & neglected musics as their weapons.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

26.2 years experience + an estimated 1.44 years of scribbling...

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Squat-pirate-illegal-alternative radio, faceless radiomakers with homemade egos – & their mothers, partners & enemies operating in straight/compromised media outlets...

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Their deep understanding of irony & satire will not be enough to save the main characters from a perdition that will be bearable only to some. Their sexploits will redeem certain bad decisions they have made although the STDs contracted will not. The novel will not be your standard musical although many of the main characters will speak in lines cribbed from the lyrics of obscure & sometimes touching soul, hillbilly, blues & novelty songs. The revolutionary impact of their actions will surprise even them.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Neither - it will be via a third way...

What is it that you want of a book?

The book should – or rather the text or rather the texture & ambience of the text – should serve as a lived environment, as an auxiliary, alternative halfway house somewhere between fear & imagination, entertainment & the discomfort that comes with revelation. For instance, if the main character was a tongue s/he would be located equidistant from the teeth, cheek & throat. The main characters’ ventures into performed & recorded music can best be described as charming & portentous fiascos.

LORD OF BEASTS, excerpt from "Kali's Day" due out in 2013

Just up on Evergreen Review. Lord of Beasts, an excerpt from the forthcoming novel, Kali's Day, which is due out in 2013.