A TRAVELER'S JOURNEY IN BABEL: Oct 14, 2013

KALI'S DAY excerpt

"Candice hears the sounds of birds. The last traces of light stain the cave’s entrance far from where she sits in full lotus covered only in the ashes of the dead. She drifts in and out, sometimes jolted from a vast emptiness by the grumbling of her stomach. So far she can silence hunger by simply focusing and re-focusing on her breath. But the stomach is a dumb animal and its indifference to “mind over matter” is becoming more apparent in the increasing volume of its complaint. It clenches itself like a fist and it’s all she can do to keep her eye closed, though she hears something scratching along the ground somewhere to her left. She’s conquered fear, never feared the dark until right before she conquered it. In another lifetime, there was a longing that she barely remembers. So it’s not fear or need that distracts her now. It’s the knowledge that, other than herself, something animate, something alive is within reach. Most likely it’s one of those large succulent beetles, thickly armored against what she is now in most danger of becoming—a predator, since she hasn’t really conquered appetite, has only concealed it, and despite having risen above the desire for even the simplest bowl of rice, is about to succumb to defeat for the taste of something that until now has been far from tempting or even remotely relevant to the satisfaction of any desire, let alone hunger—especially hunger.

She doesn’t open her eye. But she imagines it crawling heavily over the various obstacles in its way: pebbles and clumps of damp earth, a random search for whatever nourishment, dirt, dead insects, bits of excrement, it might stumble upon."

KALI'S DAY available from

Amazon U.S.:http://www.amazon.com/Kalis-Day-BonnyFinberg/dp/1570272816

UK, NZ, Australia & Europe:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kalis-Day-Bonny-Finberg/dp/1570272816

SAINT MARK’S BOOKS (signed copies) 31 3rd Avenue NY, NY

UNNAMEABLE BOOKS 600 Vanderbilt Ave. Brooklyn, NY

BOOK CULTURE (signed copies) 536 W 112th St, NY

BLUESTOCKINGS 172 Allen St. NY, NY

Monday, October 14, 2013

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.

nextbigthingnextbigthingnextbigthingnextbigthingnextbigthi

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.