\m/ New Hotness \m/

An Appreciation of Fin Sorrel’s Caramel Floods

Caramel Floods

335 pgs.

Pski’s Porch Publishing

$25.00

In an age of literature where irony is dying out faster than you can say Tao Lin, author Fin Sorrel is teaming up with Pski’s Porch Publishing to prove that, for some, it’s as alive as ever.

Sorrel saw the release of his new short story collection Caramel Floods this year and to call the work surreal doesn’t really begin to cover it.

Take the following for example:

“Been tendrils, snake wired effects, snore from lungs, the leafless tree at seventy miles an hour, and falling / The skin is the leather, the hands are the stories to little rock — An orange mist in the eye — A giant and a puppy —

It took the length of mazes to thin purple crushed velvet almost a century even trade avocado to the tongue and feed the mind its alphabet, Conway sign is pointed out pebbles and the semi’s are like wandering cows and make the mud flaps into curled lips.”

Sorrel is clearly tossing narrative out the window and plot devices, for the most part. What he’s replaced those with are acrobatics the likes of which I’ve rarely seen before. While reading his collection for review I often stopped to read parts to friends. More often than not, those listening would be equally as confused as they were impressed. This is a kind of success difficult to attain.

To be as linguistically inventive as Sorrel manages to be so consistently in Caramel Floods takes a lot of hard work. And I can’t stress the trait of inventiveness enough. The language pouring through the collection is an endless parade of fireworks, fireworks in which every explosion is entirely unique from the one immediately before it.

Take as another example the beginning section of the story “Year In a Seahorse”:

“My mind is still a balloon full of helium. I am wandering the shale cliff, I store a few balloons, and a dream, like a good idea, in your home. I found a glass of water in the forest vines, and filled my wandering legs without a doctor.”

In perfect honesty, it took me a few stories into the book to warm up to Sorrel’s pacing and loop-de-loops. My writer mind, no matter how experimental and fun-loving, still seeks out a semblance of formed plot and character development, et cetera. And that’s not to say there isn’t some of that in Caramel Floods. But it is at all times secondary to language.

With a creative abandon unmatched by most writers working today, Fin Sorrel jumps boundaries and builds new ones and then hides them in this story collection. He creates new phrases and immediately puts them up for adoption to the reader’s mind. The risks at play in Caramel Floods is, I can safely say, charting a new course in literature for its author. And I have a notion that’s exactly what he was hoping for.

PURCHASE CARAMEL FLOODS

December 11, 2017 0 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/Conversation Future Literary Darlings Literary Scene Writing

An Absurd So Close To Reality: An Interview with Mannequin Haus Editor Fin Sorrel

written by Sheldon Lee Compton

FIN SORREL is the founding editor of Mannequin Haus, a journal publishing surreal and innovative writing. I sent MH one of my footnote poems earlier this year with little hope that it would be accepted. I’ve written a handful of these kinds of poems over the past year and they’ve been roundly rejected across the board. I know they’re good poems and innovative in a way that’s interesting, so it had been really hard to get those particular rejections. But Fin accepted one and has since published it at MH. An editor willing to go places other editors won’t was immediately intriguing to me, so I was happy to talk with him about MH and more about his aesthetic and how he came up with it. The interview took place over the course of a week and, as far as I understand it, on his cell phone for Fin, for the most part.

SHELDON LEE COMPTON: Hey Fin. Buddy it’s good to get a chance to talk with you. I feel journals like Mannequin Haus and a handful of others are the lifeblood of literature right now. Fiction and poetry has never moved an inch forward or in any interesting direction at all by playing it safe and moving away from the risks. Any writer or any journal doing this, working the front lines of change and innovation, has my immediate attention and loyalty. How much of this kind of thinking was at play for you when starting the journal?

FIN SORREL: A ton of thinking about the literary norm, the accepted status quo, and formalities had made me very angry as I cautiously, and with great disdain, began sending out my first book. Ten years prior, writing for me was an escape from the status quo, (I was reading Les Chants de Maldoror and living on the street, it was not a business, it was my passion, another an act of creation, just like painting was, or drawing. I was not as much the authority (or author) but something else, the wizard, casting long, aimless spells of reality-bending- surrealism like in Teacup Galaxy, a story I wrote during that time period, which is being released in a collection from Pski Porch Press in October. That story is a good example of how I approached the conversation with the literary underground world. As the rejections poured in for the first ten years, I realized I had to tighten up my style, or go back to painting, and normalize my experiments, if I wasn’t very strong, this would have killed me. I might have given up, and I think this is a real danger with some these journals, they are trying to act all coy, they act unapproachable, kind of reminds me of a yuppie attitude, looking down on a homeless man or woman. I saw a whole platform for the elite, and powerful, and rich. I felt the underrepresented people of this country and the world needed a journal they could send their weirdest, most ridiculous out of control, surreal writing to and have acceptance. That is why I started Mannequin Haus.

SLC: That’s an amazing reason for starting a journal, to give voice to the under-represented in the literary world. So you’ve went a level further than indie and started focusing on the underground, which is great. I’ve most frequently thought along these lines when considering journals such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, etc. You’re not getting into to those places unless you meet certain strange criteria. I say strange, because exposure shouldn’t really depend on having already been exposed. But there is certainly a level of this sort of thing in the lower tier journals. So what if Mannequin Haus received a submission from George Saunders? Would you give him serious consideration or would you actually prefer work from new writers doing new things with new tools, so to speak? And, building on that question, what is the near perfect or perfect submission for you as an editor?

FS: If George Saunders submitted something to us, I’d probably be interested only if his work showed me something curious. Personally, I am a fairly moody reader, some days I want to read ancient Chinese fiction, and some days I want to read Harmony Korine. I publish a lot of authors who are experimenting with formatting, and I really enjoy seeing some new spin on how an author tells a story or presents a scene in a play, the voice they choose, diction, and I do really look for experimental authors who are breaking any of the rules. I get a lot of submissions from people who consider what they are doing experimental, and it is not anything of the sort, I also get a lot of stuff where people think cruel scenes of violence is surreal, I don’t normally take these kinds of things, unless the work can somehow reveal both sides. A perfect submission would be something that pushes the reader outside of themselves, and takes them to a new place. I really like the work Kobo Abe, and I would love to publish an author who is doing something similar to what he was doing. I’ve yet to see that.

SLC: I read Kobo Abe earlier this year (The Woman in the Dunes) and didn’t care for it very much. But I’m eager to read The Box Man. I feel like I was maybe in the wrong head space to read him at the time. I did enjoy his style, though. What aspects of his work are you thinking of when you say “doing something similar” for writers out there working? And building on that thought, do you think innovation in writing comes from experimentation or more from a sense of originality?

FS: I guess I shouldn’t name drop too much here. I haven’t read The Woman in the Dunes, but I saw the movie, and it wasn’t the best. I read The Box Man, and I loved it. A Face of Another is also good. Kangaroo Notebook was my favorite. I feel like authors today hide behind their voice, they maybe milk it too long. It’s interesting to see someone who can write many different styles, blending them together. I guess they call this a hybrid, which I like. It’s like a mixed media painting, art work. I request literary art writing in my submission page, so I call it literary art, but hybrid is similar, I suppose. Innovation in writing comes out in quite a few different forms. Sometimes it is from a life in academia, personal study, or diy. But the point is the innovations usually come way after the experimental stages, when an author has tried all the known styles and can now come into their work knowing how the will approach. Others may be natural story tellers, who once they can create a flow working with equipment like computers, recording devices, can delve deep into subterranean worlds and take us on wild rides. There are some who cannot see their work become too absurd, who create this other kind of absurd that is so close to reality that it almost breaks us in two, choosing which reality that we need to occupy.

SLC: That sounds really interesting, an absurd that is so close to reality it almost breaks us in two. What are some examples of work like this? If there are certain writers you’re thinking of, who are they? Do you have any links to their work you could include here? In regard to the second question, you are the one and only editor who has accepted for publication one of my footnote poems, the poem “Psychedelic Death Shroud” and for that I’m eternally grateful. I had given up on those poems (I have others and am working on a collection of them now) finding homes due to rejections that had piled up. Do you actively seek out work that seems innovative to the point of strange?

FS: I don’t actively seek out much work. When Cassidy Rios Kane was on board as editor, he did actively troll the internet in search of some of the most amazing authors. I leave it up to authors to approach me, but there is a rare case when I will approach an author, requesting submissions. I do, though, look for in people’s submissions, for something a bit amiss, something off in it. Something vulnerable, and strange and human.

PILL COLLAGE 2017 By FIN SORREL

SLC: At what point will innovative writing require a return to traditional forms and concepts? Or do you feel this circular tendency doesn’t apply to literature?

FS: I think it returns to traditional forms all of the time, and will most likely always do so. I think in anything there is a point where you get to diminishing returns, and a lot of experimental writing can risk this danger, I enjoy writing that follows some kind of theme, but goes off into many unsettling areas and returns in a way back to the place, I feel like there is a danger to go off the rails and lay there crashed. Instead of getting back on the line. The end, end of story, I find this to be a bit of a waste of time, and energy, but it happens to me personally in my writings all of the time. There is always this idea for me that I am having fun with it, so there are no risks, just the act of writing or not writing. If I am not writing, why should I beat myself up, I am not interested, do not have a plan, or the energy, if I am writing, why should I always push myself to make something like a Hollywood movie, or a Stephen King story if that is not how I write, I mean if I cannot get published so be it, I will continue to write no matter what.

SLC: Tell me a little about the first few months operating Mannequin Haus, the early stages, those first few weeks reading submissions. At what point did submissions begin matching the aesthetic?

FS: My first call was an awfully quick return, everyone in my circle is pretty odd, so it makes sense. I was staying with friends in a hotel room in Biloxi, Mississippi, basically draining off the gambling world, for free rooms and drinks, buffets, we had it made for a week. After three years of traveling, this was much needed down time, and I had already been getting submissions, Anyway, they have these free printers and computers that you can use if you’re a guest at the hotel, so I printed out my manuscript for Caramel floods, (Pski Porch Press, 2017) and built the first issue of Mannequin Haus. They tried to kick me out, the security thought I was a vagrant who had wandered in and was using the computers, which I essentially was, but not this time. I had a room number and they had to apologize to me personally, that was how i knew this would all work out in the end.

SLC: How often do you work closely with submitting writers on aspects of their work before publication? It seems editing is a disappearing art in the independent lit world. Do you accept a piece that shows promise but might need a little editorial guidance? And lastly, do you traffic in form rejections?

FS: I do not use rejections, I simply accept or you do not hear back, (unless I lost the email, this means I cannot use your work). I hate getting rejections, it slows my wave of madness. Creative intentions have a flow; rejections are a waste of time, and a waste of words in my opinion. I don’t want to do that to others. they will find publication somewhere, on their way to the top, if they send out only one thing at a time, I wouldn’t want to break someone’s heart, because it breaks mine to see half of the journals reject my voice. Timing is a big thing. If I have a ton of time and an author requests to work on their piece with me, I would be more than happy to help, or add my two cents, but no one has really done that yet.

September 16, 2017 0 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/Poetry Spotlight

“poems (& possibly other forms)” an interview with Amy Saul-Zerby

written by Alexandra Naughton

In this interview, Alexandra Naughton, editor in chief of Be About It Press, speaks to Amy Saul-Zerby, author of Paper Flowers Imaginary Birds (published by Be About It Press in January, 2017).

Alexandra Naughton: Okay, so I thought I would start off by asking: when did you first start writing this book? What was the impulse to create it, or what was the inspiration? And what has the journey been like from then to now?

Amy Saul-Zerby: The book came into existence gradually over the past four years or so. In 2012, I’d just gotten out of a six year relationship, and had also just stumbled upon this community of young writers & poets sharing their work with each other online. I’d been writing poetry since college, but the poems in this book began to come when poetry was really becoming the center of my life in a way it hadn’t been before then.

While creating a full-length collection was always a goal, I didn’t set out to make this book. The collection of new work just kept growing until I had enough raw material to begin to think about whether it could even become a cohesive whole. Because the work is so confessional & draws so much from things I was going through during those years, I was able in early 2015 to create something that felt cohesive from the previous three years of very constant writing.

The key realization that really enabled me to craft the manuscript from all that work, which really surprised me at the time, was that the narrative arc was already there. All I really had to do at that point was arrange the pieces to tell the story that it honestly felt like they already wanted to tell, if that makes sense.

AN: Totally makes sense. When did you write it? How did you write it? Do you set aside time specifically to write? Describe a place that reminds you of making this book.

ASZ: I was jumping between occupations during that time, so my schedule wasn’t consistent. I wrote what I could when I could. When I began working on the book, I was helping my grandfather care for my grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s and to whom the book is dedicated.

If there is one place that reminds me of the making of the book, it is probably the house they lived in, where I would stay while taking care of her. She had been hugely encouraging of my writing since I was a kid, and would often ask me to read her my latest work. (My mother is also very supportive, so I am lucky for that as well! But Louise & I shared a very unique bond.)

I also spent six months in Austin, TX, working in publishing, and a good chunk of time in Philly working as a hostess and then an office admin in the restaurant industry. So my work schedule has changed several times, but I write whenever I can, which will always, always be the case no matter what else I’m doing. & which has really always been the case since I decided in (I believe) first grade that I wanted ‘to be an author’ when I grew up.

AN: That’s awesome that you’ve known since the first grade. I feel like that is when I discovering my passion for writing, though I didn’t take it seriously until later.

What kind of writing career would you enjoy the most? Do you see yourself writing as an occupation?

ASZ: I have a lot of hopes & goals with regard to my writing. Experimenting with forms other than poetry is a long-term goal, but I also feel that I have so much work still to do with poetry. I’m a huge fan of Melissa Broder’s work, in terms of content but also in terms of the breadth of forms she utilizes. I could see myself enjoying having a column, writing personal essays, experimenting with short-form prose / flash fiction. Screenwriting & playwriting are also really attractive forms, though somewhat more intimidating because they’re so foreign to me still.

But to answer your question: yes, I want to write as an occupation.

AN: What kind of stuff did your grandmother like to read? Was there a piece you wrote that she was especially fond of?

ASZ: Oh, she liked to read everything she could get her hands on, but I think short stories & novels were her favorite.

She was a very early riser, and one of my earliest poems was about reading with her in the mornings as a kid before anyone else was awake. She had me email her a copy of that one, printed it out directly from AOL (with the subject line and everything), then framed it and hung it in her study. So I think it’s safe to say that one was a favorite.

AN: Are you enjoying this interview?

ASZ: Yes, I am enjoying it very much, thanks!

AN: Who do you want to read this book? Who would you like to see holding a copy of your book?

ASZ: Honestly, I want whoever would get the most out of it to read the book. Whoever needs it, anyone it might help in any way.

I don’t want to see anyone in particular holding a copy of the book. I just want it to reach people with whom it might resonate. I would rather hear back from someone who found something helpful in one of the poems than see my book in the hands of a literary idol or a public figure or celebrity.

AN: BUT IF YOU COULD SEE IT IN THE HANDS OF A PARTICULAR PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE????

ASZ: Haha, OKAY FINE, but I didn’t want to have to say this… it’s a tie & I would like to choose both Lena Dunham & James Franco.

AN: Why those two?

ASZ: It would just mean a lot to me.

AN: Okay, fair enough. There are lot of great pieces in Paper Flowers, Imaginary Birds. Lots of funny and sardonic quips. My favorite piece is probably the Craigslist missed connection. It’s too real.

What’s your favorite piece in the book?

ASZ: That’s one of my favorites too. Currently I really like ‘Celestial Bodies’. A lot of the poems in the book were written during such a different time in my life that I feel somewhat distant from them now, but that one still feels like me.

AMN: It’s so weird to see stuff written from years or even months ago. It can feel so foreign, like did I really write this. Do you see any growth in your writing now to some of the pieces in the book? Or maybe not even the poems, but personally?

ASZ: Absolutely. My writing has changed a lot, and I’ve changed a lot as a person, even just since putting the manuscript together in 2015. So the poems in the book from as far back as 2012 feel very foreign to me now. For me personally, the book feels like a kind of time capsule. It never feels like I didn’t write the poems, because I remember the things I wrote about so vividly (to the point where it’s almost painful to read parts of the book). It’s more like, ‘Wow, I feel so far from where I was when I wrote this.’ And I am grateful for that distance, and the book reminds me of how far I’ve come, which I often forget.

AMN: All right, let’s wrap this up. What do you think? We’re indie writers who work with indie presses, right, so that means we have to do a lot of our own promotion. What are your plans for promoting the book? Are you going on tour? What are your hopes for 2017? Any fun plans? Any fun projects in the works?

Also, please use this space to say whatever you’d like that you want to talk about that I didn’t ask about or whatever. 🙂

ASZ: Yeah! I’m doing a bunch of readings in Philly, including a release party. Working out the details of a release event in NYC, as well. And I’m in the planning stages for a west coast tour this spring! I’m fortunate to have a lot of energy to devote to book promotion at the moment, so I’m really just throwing myself into it.

I’ve also just started working for a local literary mag here (Apiary Magazine). So I’m looking forward to involving myself further in the Philly poetry community, continuing my work with Voicemail Poems, and touring / promoting the book.

And, as always, to continuing to work on new poems (& possibly other forms)! There have been times when I’ve really questioned the value of what I’m doing and let my self-doubt get the better of me, but at least for the moment, I feel motivated & determined to keep working at this.

AMN: Thank you for doing this interview. What did you think of it? Any areas in which I could improve as an interviewer? Please be honest.

ASZ: …
Amy Saul-Zerby is a Philadelphia-based poet. Her first collection, Paper Flowers Imaginary Birds, was published by Be About It Press in January of 2017. Her writing has also appeared in TheNewerYork, Painted Bride Quarterly, Spy Kids Review and The YOLO Pages, and she is managing editor of Voicemail Poems & multimedia editor of APIARY Magazine.

February 23, 2017 0 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/#7daysofcoping Announcement Community

WE’RE OUTTA HERE #RoadtoCoping2016

written by Michael Seidlinger

Ever just want to walk away from your desk and never again return (like that Onion article)? Or better yet, get into a car and just drive without any clear destination beyond the determination to forget, at least for awhile, every shred of responsibility and pressure that awaits you in your professional life? Well, that’s how this all started—the idea tossed around between myself and Janice Lee via our various CCM/Entropy Skype meetings. All it takes to turn an idea into something instantaneous and necessary is the mutual enthusiasm for said idea by friends and confidants, in this case Chiwan Choi and Zachary Jensen.

So we’re going to turn that idea into a reality.

From August 5th through August 7th, the four of us will get into a car, heading north of Los Angeles, with only the will and willingness to get away.

Coinciding with CCM’s #7daysofcoping series, Janice and I will be livetweeting this experience; additionally, I will be posting and tweeting our coordinates in hopes of direction—that is, me (us) reaching out to you—be it a place to stay (seriously, we’ll need places to crash), a place to eat, or even a chance to write and read our latest work.

This is all in the name of four tired and wired writers looking to cope with the exhaustion of the dead heat of summer with a few long days behind the wheel of good times and good words.

We’re outta here and we’d like to bring you all along. We’re coping.

July 26, 2016 0 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/Fiction

REVIEW OF AMERICAN MARY BY ALEXANDRA NAUGHTON

written by Jeremy Hight

Experimental prose that plays with form can be an exhilarating exploration of breaking form, playing with the fourth wall, breaking down text to parallel emotional collapse or motion. The play is an intellectual exercise and when done well it adds context, layers, meta-textual commentary and the raw excitement of form breaking with cohesion and intent. The rarer work is the one that both plays with form in fresh ways and resonates emotionally with the experimentation building the resonance. In her new novel American Mary, Alexandra Naughton has told a narrative that is emotionally raw and profound with ruptures of form throughout the text that are both conceptually exhilarating and immediately rich with emotional resonance. The novel is a moving and at times harrowing ride through the journey of a young woman in the world and relationships as well as a thrilling example of the emotional and intellectual ballast of experimentation with blank space and form.

April 27, 2016 0 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/Announcement Literary Scene Random

Interview with Alexandra Naughton

written by Jeremy Hight

JH: What made you want to become a writer?

AN: I have always been writing. Since I was like 4 years old I have always been making up songs or writing poems and stories and putting on shows for people or imaginary friends. When I was a baby my parents put a video camera in my bedroom for an afternoon and called the video ‘Allie takes a nap.’ It’s basically an hour of me mugging for the camera and walking around in my crib and singing to myself.

I don’t think it’s something I ever really decided to do, I’ve just been doing it. Something like ten years ago I started to take this shit a bit more seriously and got more involved in getting my work published and doing readings, but honestly it all feels like a compulsion. I wrote about this feeling of being compelled to write a while ago on htmlgiant and someone commented saying ‘you’re not a writer, you have an addiction.’ And that’s chill and all. Not everyone can be like me.

September 14, 2015 1 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/Small Press

Interview with Wendy C. Ortiz

written by Alex Kalamaroff

Over at Entropy, we just explored Wendy Ortiz’s new book, Hollywood Notebook, from Writ Large Press. Now let’s talk a bit about its genesis and also where’s the one place you should visit when you swing by LA. (Read the review at Entropy: here.)

AK: First off, let me say how much I enjoyed Hollywood Notebook. I lived in Pasadena for a year, so I have some sense of LA as an actual place, versus as somewhere that just exists in the American imagination. Even though as an East Coast person, it was overall too sunny for me. I need more clouds and moldy, overcast afternoons. Anyway, let’s chat.

WCO: Thank you. That’s funny that you mention Pasadena, because that’s an area of Los Angeles I know next to nothing about!

AK: In many ways, Hollywood Notebook is a study of daily life, with its difficulties, frivolities, good times, and minor epiphanies. I’m wondering then, given this broad context, what compelled you to focus on the particular experiences in each chapter. Did you set out to explore a specific array of emotions or did you cull the material in any way?

WCO: The text was written on my blog Lab of Lux as it happened. It’s possible that I was unconsciously exploring a specific array of emotions, but at its core, I was trying to integrate and describe particular kinds of loss. The overall text took heavy edits later, a kind of culling.

AK: Going off that, given the diary-like nature of the work, I’m wondering if you could talk about its creation process. The timeline seems expansive, with a focus of being in your (early) thirties and the changes in perspective that brings. Was there a specific date / reason for beginning this project? Over how many years were you working on this? Could you talk a little about that?

WCO: The project began simply because my friend Karrie Higgins gave me the web space and I could do anything I wanted with it. So I started the blog and felt like my audience was mainly my friends, with a few other random spectators whom I came to know over time through their own blogs. Hollywood Notebook moves roughly in and out through parts of 2002 to 2006 but also jumps around in some vignettes, such as from 1996, 1997.

AK: The power of place — not just the city of LA itself, but specific streets, neighborhoods, bars, bus stops — is of preeminent importance here. How do you see place influencing you as a person and an artist?

WCO: I’ve only lived in two places in my entire life (not counting transitory living, like a month in Mexico, three weeks in Ecuador, or weeks on an island in Washington state). Los Angeles—the San Fernando Valley, then over the hill to Hollywood, Koreatown, West L.A., Mid-City, West Adams—and Olympia, Washington. Place to me is character. Los Angeles will always be a character in my work just as Olympia will always be a character in my work.

I was recently asked for some fiction that took place in California and realized I only have one thing, a novella, that takes place in California. The rest of my fiction takes place in the Pacific Northwest, mainly in the areas around Olympia. I was kind of struck by that because I hadn’t consciously realized that was the case. These places have left deep imprints on me and I interact with them as though they are people—sometimes as lovers, or as parents, or friends I’m in love with.

AK: Along with being a real place, LA is very much a city that exists in the American imagination as lalaland of silver-screen dreams and a certain kind of unreality. You tap into this a bit, thinking about Joan Didion and The Industry, but for the most part your Hollywood seems, well, uninfected by this fantasy. I ‘m wondering then about this distinction between LA as real place vs. LA as dreamland, and how you navigated that when writing about the city?

WCO: When I left L.A. I was a cynical twenty-year-old looking to get as far away from L.A. as I could, and in fact, I wanted to land in a forest. I was away for eight years. When I returned, I felt the infection of the fantasy, often, it’s inescapable, but it never touched me particularly. I’m often outside of contemporary pop culture so the fantasy doesn’t really do it for me. And I often felt defensive about people’s perceptions that Los Angeles is only one way. I feel less defensive now, because now I don’t care what people’s perceptions are about Los Angeles. My family, my friends who still live here, have their own perceptions that’s so far away from the dreamland that it’s occasionally forgettable Los Angeles wears that mantle. Occasionally.

AK: Do you have any favorite chapters?

WCO: Chapters one, seventy-five, and seventy-six.

AK: Music comes up repeatedly as something that defines your life and specific experiences. What are a couple songs that would serve as the soundtrack to Hollywood Notebook?

WCO: I’m working on a playlist right now that will hopefully be shared—and on that playlist there is definitely some Neko Case and Sally Timms.

AK: If an out-of-towner read Hollywood Notebook, afterward what’s the one place in LA area you’d recommend they visit?

WCO: Frank ‘n Hank, and I would suggest they take a wad of dollar bills, an entire afternoon and early evening, and me.

May 28, 2015 0 comment

\m/ New Hotness \m/

New Hotness – The Revertian Renaissance

written by Michael Seidlinger

Welcome to “New Hotness,” an ENCLAVE series dedicated to featuring new and exceedingly metal developments in the publishing industry. Given how quickly social media and the media industries at large continue to develop, it’s really easy to lose track of all the great work being produced and promoted by literary citizens industry-wide. For every well-deserved profile by a prominent blog, there are dozens of lit citizens going relatively unnoticed. Well, here’s my attempt to help draw some attention to the people, the powerhouses, operating in publishing.

The inaugural edition features one of the most prolific artists working this side of surreal fiction, experimental music, and book design. His name is Matthew Revert, author of “Basal Ganglia,” the album, “Not You,” and single-handedly the man that gave over hundreds of books a face to stand behind. I state, with no hyperbole, that without a lit citizen like Revert, indie lit would not be the strong, DIY showcase it has surely become. Revert makes more than splash with his work; he leads us to new oceans of intrigue. He’s forging new rivers of Revertian design. We are, quite possibly, basking in what could be called, a “Revertian Renaissance.”

It wouldn’t be “New Hotness” without handing over this space to the lit citizen, allowing them the ability to speak about their work, showcases some of their favorite pieces, and provide a first-hand exclusive or two to what they’ve been working on lately. Without another sentence, I pass it over to Revert.

***

“I became a designer by accident. I still don’t consider myself a designer and when people attribute that label to me, I’m not sure how to take it. Whenever something I design is made public, I always imagine real ‘designers’ who can comfortably have that label attributed to them shaking their head in bemusement when they witness my flailing attempts. Despite any opinions I may hold regarding my own merit, in the last few years I have had the opportunity to work with more labels, presses and artists than I can count. This has led to great professional and personal relationships and in that regard, I am very grateful.

“I was asked to present a handful of new designs. A good number of what you will see below have not been seen before now. They are very much hot off the press and I thank the presses and labels that have given me permission to share these pieces.

How to Successfully Kidnap Strangers by Max Booth III (Bizarro Pulp Press, 2015)

Although this design has recently been made public, I wanted to include it in here as an example of one of my very few predominantly handmade pieces. The method by which I approach a design varies wildly from press to press. Often my contact remains with the press and during the design process I have little to no contact with the author themselves. Bizarro Pulp Press operate a differently in that the design process consists of direct conversation between the author and myself. I have designed several books for Max before and enjoy a very easy working relationship with him. He is one of those who will give me a couple of general ideas and then let me do whatever my whim dictates. For this design, one of those general ideas was that of a ransom note. I liked the possible directions such a concept might take. I knew from the start I had no interest in seeking out some generic ransom note-like font and figured if I were going to go down this path, I needed to make it myself by hand. This led to every aspect of the design being assembled by hand (a hand which was cut by my x-acto knife on more than one occasion). I was very happy with the end result but knew it was out there, even for me. I thought there was a very good chance this design would be rejected and was overjoyed when Max and the press responded with such enthusiasm.

February 2, 2015 0 comment