Books I Read in June

It's July already, the half way mark. How is 2023 half in the bag already?!

Looking back at what I managed to read last month, I clocked in a total of 8, (with one book that I read for publicity purposes which I will not list below). Clearly not the best I've done, but it was a pretty month so I'm cutting myself some slack!

Let's see what I read, shall we? 

Fever House by Keith Rosson

When you pick up a Keith Rosson book, you know you're guaranteed a good time. And Fever House is no exception. This one took me by surprise, and took me places I hadn't expected.

It starts off simply enough - Hutch and Tim are out on the hunt for people who owe their boss Peach drug money. But after kicking the door in at one particular junkie's place, they discover more than they bargained for. The dude had a severed hand hidden in the freezer. And not just any severed hand, mind you. This one starts messing with your head. The closer in proximity you are to it, the darker and more violent your thoughts turn.

Scared of the thing, and desperate to get rid of it, Hutch calls his buddy Nick, a man who makes his living locating rare items for clients. Meanwhile, dark goverment agents are employing the remote viewing skills of a "subject" by the name of Saint Michael to narrow down its whereabouts, hot on the hand's trail. We learn that it once belonged to them and they are not going to stop until its back in their possession.

Hutch, Nick, and everyone else who crosses paths with this cursed thing are now running for their lives. A strange hell is about to be unleashed in Portland, and they are going to have front row seats when the madness begins.

Rosson seamlessly weaves multiple narrative threads together throughout the book, building character backstories that just continue adding layer upon layer to the main storyline, culminating in one big spider's web of death, deception, and destruction.

Be warned: there are some intentional loose ends here, as this book is part of at least a two-book series. You won't find a fully realized end, but the one we were served up should hold us over nicely until the next book drops.

House of Rot by Danger Slater

Danger Slater does it again! Body horror and fungal fiction for the win!

In House of Rot, we meet newlyweds Eleyna and Myles. They are happy, and in love, and moving into their first apartment together. It really feels like it's too good to be true, and well, that's probably because it is. Eleyna wakes up in the middle of their first night in their new place to the sound of footsteps moving through the rooms. Doorknobs being jiggled. Cabinets being opened. A toilet flushing. She wakes Myles up but after a thorough check, they find nothing. Noone. They try to explain it away and salavage what sleep they can before dawn breaks.

In the morning, they wake up and find the house is being overtaken by mold. Filaments have sealed the door and windows, snuck up through the floorboards, and no amount of disinfectant or posion seems to affect it. In fact, it appears to be regenerating faster than they can kill it. And to make matters worse, their strange next door neighbor seems content talking his face off at them through their front window, rather than come to their rescue.

Before long, Eleyna and Myles begin to change. The fungus is inflitrating everything, including their bodies. There seems to be no way out of this mess. Until there is. It's a path they are not sure they want to travel down. But really, what choice do they have?

I read this book cover to cover in nearly one sitting. I had to know what was happening and couldn't put it down until I did. It's a story of not losing hope, of still finding beauty in one another no matter the circumstances or conditions, and of determining whether you have what it takes to face your fears when that means leaving what you know behind - do you hang on to the cards you were dealt, or risk it for what's behind door number one?

And oh lordy, you guys... that ending!!

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica

I am a huge fan of TitF so I could not wait to get my hands on this one. I listened it on audio. The collection is made up of mostly very short stories so it ran a total of 3 hours at 1.5x, omg that's blink-and-you-miss-it short! And the narrators they chose were paired up sooo well. Each one is such a mood! Dark, speculative, and ewwww why does she like referring to spiders so much?! Arachnids aside, I really enjoyed where these stories took me.

Is this one on your radar? If it's not, it really should be.

Song of the Sandman by JF Dubeau

Song of the Sandman is the second book in the 'A God in the Shed' series. So of course I ordered it, used online, the moment I finished God / Shed because I didn't want to waste any time in between... my memory isn't what it used to be and if I read too many books in between these, I knew I'd forget half of what happened and would feel compelled to reread the first book again to make sure I clearly remember everything that happened before cracking open the new one and who the hell has time for that when your TBR pile is longer than the days you might have left on this planet? Huh? Tell me. Who?

But guess what? Now I'm done reading Song/ Sandman and just fml because the third book isn't even ANNOUNCED yet so with my luck it could be YEARS before I can finish this thing and now I'm sad. Because the second book was JUST AS GOOD as the first. JF Dubeau isn't messing around, and I'm hooked!

The god is no longer in the shed, and the two cults are still killing one another trying to get their hands on it, for two completely different reasons, while Venus and the gang, still battling their own demons and licking their initial wounds, are searching for a way to kill it once and for all.

There are just as many deaths, just as many wtf moments, and just as much blood and gore. I can't wait to see where he takes the god of death and hate next.

Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

This was my first Kevin Barry and it was hand selected for me by a very wonderful fellow book reviewer, @drewsof who I've known for a crazy amount of years. And I can see why he chose it.

I love stories that don't follow the traditional he said/she said "quotations around conversations" kind of writing and this is sooo much that!

Here we have two aging Irishmen, Charlie and Maurice, sitting around a boat terminal one evening, waiting for a glimpse of Maurice's estranged daughter. They are crotchey, and assumptious, and gently terrorize disembarking boat terrorists. While the men don't really move from the bench, besides occasionally asking the desk clerk about the next boat due in or grabbing themselves a drink, the story swings from past to present and through it, we uncover thier dark history, and learn why it is they find themselves sitting, waiting, and hoping.

<spoiler>

I was really really hoping that this was a kind of pergatory for Charlie and Maurice, a way for them to make amends in the afterlife sort of thing, but it turns out it wasn't. And so I was a tad disappointed because, c'mon, how great would that have been??

<end spoiler>

I found it to be kind of similar in style to Cynan Jones and a bit Per Petterson-ish.... both writers I absolutely adore. If you like them, you'll really like this!!

Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson

Aw man. I wanted to like this one more than I actually did. It sounded so good, too.

There's a popular and super creepy children's program threaded throughout the book that teaches kids to be afraid of misbehaving or else Puckeen, an unseen entity that hides in a black box on the set of the show, will come out and get them.

There's a young woman named Etain who, on her way home from a party, comes across a dead man in the middle of the street being eaten by a stray dog and decides to drive the body to a nearby farmhouse, where she ends up being held for days before somehow making her way back home to her mother and fiance, forever changed by the trauma of it but unable or unwilling to discuss what took place there.

And then there's Etain's daughter Ashling, 20 years later, who struggles to understand and undo the strange curse that's been haunting her family ever since that night.

Sounds wild, right?! While the book definitely has its moments - creatively blending the Irish forklore and horror aspects - it bounced too frequently between Etain's storyline and Ashlings, sometimes going a little too heavy on Ashling's relationship with her girlfriend, which frequently interrupted the flow and had me questioning why so much time was being spent on it when it didn't appear to be immediately connected to the spookier parts of the storyline.

I'm so disappointed. Usually I end up loving Tor books. But this one really dragged for me. So much so that I nearly DNFd it three times. While I don't regret sticking it out and seeing it through to the end, it's not one that will linger with me. There weren't any 'gasp' moments that shocked or wowed me. Honestly, looking back, DNFing wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing.

Weft by Kevin Allardice

Weft is Madrona Book's debut release, hitting shelves this August. Nostalgically set in the 90's, it involves a con artist named Bridget who bounces around from motel to motel with her teenaged son. They haunt malls and small town festivals pretending they are casting directors for the upcoming star wars prequels, looking to squeeze some fast cash out of unwitting parents before moving on to a new town, for a new sucker.

The scam life seems to be working out pretty ok for them. That is, until her son Jake gets bored with his role and strikes out on his own, sinking his con claws into a kid named Caleb. Going along with it, even though she's not thrilled with the deviation from the plan, they arrive at Caleb's home to record him reading from the fake script. Only, Caleb and his family are in the midst of turing the entire place into a haunted house for halloween.

Bridget finds herself stuck there, quite literally, and is forced to come to terms with her poor decisions. Has she finally gotten in over her head? Will she make it out of the creepy house of horrors alive? And where the fuck did Jake disappear to?

Don't mistake this book for horror. The only scary things you'll find in these pages are the gross advances some of the men make on Bridget, lol. But the deeper we get into the book, the longer the latest scam plays out, the more we're asked to suspend our belief, and the more interesting things get for our con lady!

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I think you will too!

Consumption and Other Vices by Tyler Dempsey

Naughty girls go to Papa's house down roads made of dirt that curl like curliques. A pen is where he hid the thing naughty girls like best. He asked do they want to get down. Fuck yeah, they are going to get down. They are going to get in trouble.

Tyler's latest, a novelette clocking in at just under 70 pages, is some of the tightest, darkest noir I've ever read. Two detectives find themselves in a small town investigating the strange deaths of two girls. The townsfolk might know more than they are letting on, but that doesn't stop our guys from digging through the detritus to uncover the mystery and identify who's behind the murders.

I mean fuuuuck, even the writing's hiding something! I love its twisted, sing-song style. This is what stands out. (If you read it, you'll know, and you should totally read it!)

The 40 But 10 Interview Series: Neema Avashia

 

I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!

Today we are joined by Neema Avashia. Neema is the daughter of Indian immigrants, and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003, and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. Another Appalachia was a finalist for the New England Book Award.

Why do you write?

I write to figure out what things mean to me. Why particular moments or relationships or interactions continue to be so salient, while others have faded. And I hope that in writing, and offering a window into my meaning-making, it helps readers to both make further sense of their own questions, and to know that they are not alone with those questions—that I have them, too.

 

What do you do when you’re not writing?

My partner and I just had a baby in November, so I’m definitely doing no writing at present. But I am reading a lot during the baby’s marathon naps when I’m trapped under her!

 

What’s the most useless skill you possess?

I can read words backwards on the page, as well as visualize and say them backwards. I honed this skill in high school Physics, where another student in the class was named Ameen (the inverse of my name), and we therefore decided to invert everything we read or said for the whole year. (Yes, I was that kid!)

 

What’s something that’s true about you but no one believes?

I was born and raised in West Virginia!

 

What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?

Paying to attend workshops (shouts to Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and the Appalachian Writers Workshop!) has given me time and space to really hone my craft, and to build relationships with other writers.

 

What is your favorite book from childhood?

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. In my copy, I crossed out everywhere it said Mike and wrote my name in its place!

 

What are you currently reading?

I’m on a Claire Keegan kick. Small Things Like These and Antarctica are my reads this week. Such powerful prose–tightly written. Not a single word feels extraneous.

 

Do you read the reviews of your books or do you stay far far away from them, and why?

I read them. I wrote the book in the hopes that readers would connect with the ideas and experiences I grapple with, so I want to know how they are responding. That said, I also have learned how to take what’s helpful from reviews, and let go of what doesn’t serve me or my writing. I taught middle school for 2 decades, so I’ve gotten pretty good at taking unvarnished feedback!

 

Do you think you’d live long in a zombie apocalypse?

No way. With my Appalachian upbringing, I’d try to say hello to the zombies and invite them to sit on the porch and chat and have some tea, and that would be the end of me!

 

Are you a book hoarder or a book unhauler?

I try to offload books as soon as I read them, but I seem to acquire them faster than I can give them away. So, an unwilling hoarder!

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When Neema Avashia tells people where she’s from, their response is nearly always a disbelieving “There are Indian people in West Virginia?” A queer Asian American teacher and writer, Avashia fits few Appalachian stereotypes. But the lessons she learned in childhood about race and class, gender and sexuality continue to inform the way she moves through the world today: how she loves, how she teaches, how she advocates, how she struggles.

Another Appalachia examines both the roots and the resonance of Avashia’s identity as a queer desi Appalachian woman, while encouraging readers to envision more complex versions of both Appalachia and the nation as a whole. With lyric and narrative explorations of foodways, religion, sports, standards of beauty, social media, gun culture, and more, Another Appalachia mixes nostalgia and humor, sadness and sweetness, personal reflection and universal questions.

buy the book here: 

https://bookshop.org/p/books/another-appalachia-coming-up-queer-and-indian-in-a-mountain-place-neema-avashia/17469574

Page 69 Test: Under the Blue Moon

Disclaimer: The Page 69 Test is not mine. It has been around since 2007, asking authors to compare page 69 against the meat of the actual story it is a part of. I loved the whole idea of it and so I'm stealing it specifically to showcase small press titles - novels, novellas, short story collections, the works! So until the founder of The Page 69 Test calls a cease and desist, let's do this thing....

 

In this installment of Page 69, 

we put Joan Schweighardt's Under the Blue Moon to the test.

OK, Joan, set up page 69 for us.

 

Lola, one of two protagonists in Under the Blue Moon, is broadsided by another car in the first chapter. Jamie, the man who hit her, makes a run for it when the police arrive on the scene, but after a chase through a neighbor’s yard, he is shot and killed anyway. Several chapters later, Lola, who feels connected to Jamie’s death, almost responsible for it even though he hit her, decides she must visit Jamie’s mother. The woman speaks no English, but her teenage granddaughter, Jamie’s daughter, is there (it’s clear that she lives there), and following Lola’s awkward attempt to explain why she’s visiting, the granddaughter informs Lola that her grandmother is not in the mood for company but she can return the following week.

 

On page 69, we find Lola leaving the house, sad that Jamie’s mother would not see her but thrilled that she has been invited to try again. She is already wondering if she should bring her dogs, Pete and Blue, along, to cheer up the granddaughter, who she assumes is, like Jamie’s mother, in deep mourning. As she begins to drive off, her mind wanders, and before she knows it she is going over the details of her own daughter’s wake and funeral, which occurred ten years earlier.

 

 

What Under the Blue Moon is about:

 

Under the Blue Moon is about a woman who has been living for years with grief and regret and a man who, as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, has recently become homeless. The book cuts back and forth between her story and his. Outside of the fact that they both live in the same city (Albuquerque, New Mexico) and that their paths intersect every now and then, they don’t really know each other and their situations are totally different. What they have in common is that they have both reached the end of their respective ropes; they have been wishing and hoping for change and it has not arrived, so now they’re ready to try to trick it into making an appearance.

 

 

Do you think this page gives our readers an accurate sense of what the book is about? Does it align itself the book’s theme? 

 

Page 69 gives the reader a sense of what Lola has been through and the kind of person she is. The chapters in the book alternate between Lola and Ben, and since page 69 doesn’t mention Ben at all, the page can’t really be said to align with the larger theme of the book.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Page 69

Under the Blue Moon

 

Lola was already thinking that she could bring Pete with her. Or maybe Blue. She was imagining running that by Janet. Now that Janet had called George and told him not to come, she was happy with her old friend again. But regarding bringing the dogs over to the Hernandez house, she already knew what Janet would say. She would say it was entirely inappropriate. She was already hearing herself responding, “But the girl,” and Janet listing all the reasons: The people could be dog haters; did she see any dogs there? No! They could have allergies; they could have cats. Janet, Lola conceded, would be right, this time. But she still couldn’t keep the vision from playing in her head—the girl smiling, bending to pet both dogs, Jamie’s daughter laughing, maybe, forgetting for a moment that her father was dead and she’d have to find a way to go on without him. The girl and the grandmother stood at the door and watched her leave. She felt as if she was walking on rocks, or as if her legs were different lengths. Finally she reached her car, her van. She looked over her shoulder in time to see the door close.

 

On the way home Lola thought about Valerie’s wake, a scenario that was always right there, a dark shadow from the past that fell over any number of activities performed in the present. She thought about how shocking it had been to see so many young people pouring in for those two days. The funeral home had had to open a partition wall between what had been two reception rooms to make one big one. Good thing we only had the one body, she’d heard the funeral director’s assistant say to the director. Lola remembered thinking—cruelly, she knew, but she couldn’t help it—that if all these kids who were coming in clutching one another, sobbing their little hearts out, had been kinder to Valerie when she was living, maybe she still would be.

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Joan Schweighardt is the author of novels, memoirs, and children’s books. In addition to Under the Blue Moon, Schweighardt’s recent fiction includes the Rivers Trilogy—Before We Died, Gifts for the Dead and River Aria—which moves back and forth between the New York metro area and the South American rainforests from the years 1908 through 1929. She also conceived and co-edited an anthology entitled The Art of Touch: A Collection of Prose and Poetry from the Pandemic and Beyond, which features contributions from 38 poets and writers, to be published by the University of Georgia Press in November, 2023.

The 40 But 10 Interview Series: Kimberly Oclon

 

I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!

Joining us today is Kimberly Oclon. With a BA in screenwriting and MFA in Fiction, Kim taught high school for six years before becoming a mom to the best girl and boy in the world. While teaching, she was fortunate to teach creative writing and film classes in addition to trudging through the classics. She also co-founded the school's first gender-sexualities alliance. Kim is a member of SCBWI and lives in East Dundee, IL with her husband and two kids. MAN UP is her first novel. Her second novel, THE WAR ON ALL FRONTS, was published in May, 2022.

What’s your kryptonite as a writer?

 As much as this would be another writer’s dream, my kryptonite is a whole day to myself to write. Having too much time makes me feel if I don’t use every minute, then I’m wasting time. I know this makes no sense at all. The Pomodoro Technique works best for me. I wrote my first book about 20-30 minutes at a time. It all adds up!

 

What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?

 The best money I’ve ever spent was the tuition to take Story Studio’s Novel in a Year class led by author James Klise in January 2018. I spent a year with eleven other incredible writers who have become friends. About nine if us still meet monthly to continue the habits and community we built during our time together. THE WAR ON ALL FRONTS wouldn’t be the book it is without those writers and our amazing teacher.

 

Would you and your main character(s) get along?

 I think so. Anthony and I could bond over our Italian-American families, their traditions, habits, and food. My dad would love to hang out with Anthony because they have similar taste in music. I’d love to have Sam for a friend. He understands the need for solid friendships.

 

What are some of your favorite books and/or authors?

 My favorite book (and subconscious inspiration for THE WAR ON ALL FRONTS) is THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O’Brien. I unwillingly read it for an independent novel unit in high school, volunteering to read it when no one else did because I loved my creative writing teacher. It was the first time I read something and knew I was reading something good and special.

 My favorite authors include Bill Konigsberg and David Levithan, both very successful in the young adult world. I tell everyone about David Levithan’s TWO BOYS KISSING because the point of view blew me away. The story is told from the perspective of a Greek chorus of gay men who died during the AIDS epidemic and features their observations of present day queer youth.

 

What is your favorite book from childhood?

 I loved THE BABYSITTERS CLUB and SWEET VALLEY TWINS. I still have #1-60 and the special editions in my parents’ basement. Kristy Thomas was my favorite character.

 

      What’s on your literary bucket list?

 I’d love for one of my books to be part of a high school summer reading list or book club selection. I’d also love to be invited to participate on panels at book festivals and literary events.

 

If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?

 Not sure about the meal as a whole, but it would definitely involve peanut butter and chocolate ice cream from Baskin Robbins. If possible, I’d request an extra hearty peanut butter ribbon going through it.

 

What songs would be on the soundtrack of your life?

 Lots of Frank Turner selections. He’s a musician from London. “Get Better,” “Be More Kind,” “Punches,” “Haven’t Been Doing So Well,” and probably “Why” from TICK TICK BOOM. That song wrecked me when I watched the movie for the first time.

 

What’s the one thing you wish you knew when you were younger?

 There’s a quote from BENJAMIN BUTTON where the main character talks about life having no clear rules or timeline and it’s never too late (or too early) to start again and try something new. I thought I had to have everything figured out soon after college graduation (whatever that means) but there’s time to try to new things, learn new things, and begin again.

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It seemed as though Anthony and Sam had just found each other, and now they were already being torn apart. Sam to college in Wisconsin; Anthony across the world fighting in the Vietnam War. Through their separate journeys, they discover themselves, and rely on the one way to share their secret together. Corresponding with secret messages, scary truths, and fears about the war, readers will follow Anthony and Sam's path to friendship, love, and survival.

buy a copy here: 

https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781736347409

The 40 But 10 Interview Series: James Brubaker

 

I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!

Today we are joined by James Brubaker, who's books include We Are Ghost Lit, The Taxidermist's Catalog, Black Magic Death Sphere: (science) fictions, Liner Notes, and Pilot Season. He teaches writing and runs the University Press at Southeast Missouri State University. When he isn't at work, he is at home with his wife and three cats in St. Louis. 

What do you do when you’re not writing? 

Hang out with my wife, read, listen to records, teach, publish other peoples’ books, take pictures of my cats, play mobile games, browse screen savers on Roku, watch movies or shows.

What’s the most useless skill you possess? 

I’ve memorized and can sing all the words to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”

What’s your kryptonite as a writer? 

Research rabbit holes—I’ll pause to look up a small detail (ie., who drummed on “Deacon Blues” or find scans from 80s Yellow Pages) and end up spending an hour looking up a thread of adjacent details.

Describe your book in three words. 

Obsession. Grief. Solipsism.

Describe your book poorly. 

One guy dies under “mysterious” circumstances and his friend obsesses over the death, trying to figure out what happened, and understand why it happened, and there’s a being in the sky made of cosmic matter who watches the story unfolds and eventually comes to Earth and messes everything up. 

Would you and your main character(s) get along? 

No, which is maybe a problem because, in my latest, three of the main characters are  actually me.

If you could spend the day with another author, who would you choose and why? 

Pynchon, but so I can find out what he looks like so I can figure out if he actually briefly appears in the film adaptation of Inherent Vice.

What is your favorite way to waste time? 

Reporting obviously fake Twitter accounts created just to spread information, though nobody really seems to do anything about them since the new guy took over. 

What’s the one book someone else wrote that you wish you had written? 

William Kotzwinkle’s novelization of E.T., fully titled E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial In His Adventure on Earth – don’t laugh. If you know, you know.

What’s the one thing you wish you knew when you were younger? 

Everyone else is scared, too.

 

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Indie Spotlight: Richard Cabut's Top Post-Punk Records

 

Today, British author, journalist, playwright, and musician Richard Cabut joins us to share some his favorite post-punk records of all time. His novel Looking For a Kiss drops June 15th. He penned this 80s post-punk, twisted tale of love and hate, set in Camden, Camberwell and New York during lockdown a period which reminded him of the time following punk in the late 70s/early 80s with the same sense of isolation.

The book is a fabulous chronicle of our protagonists Robert and Marlene struggle to find themselves and their lives whilst immersing themselves in sex, magic, chaos and post-punk music.

 Top post-punk records 

Blood and Roses – Spit Upon Your Grave

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf2AT-CaKxY

I wrote an article titled Positive Punk for the NME in January/February 1983 and according to academic Matt Worley, in his book No Future (Cambridge Press, 2017), had a hand in the invention of goth: ‘Exploring the edges of light and dark and some of the areas in between – fetishism, sex, magic abjection, death, Richard Cabut – writing as Richard North, in 1983 –  was the first to outline the basis of what eventually became codified as goth.’ Well, in any event, as fun as the scene was at that time, Positive Punk was a bit of a disaster, mainly because the music was, in the main, fairly poor. But one of the bands to stand the test of time are Bob Short’s Blood and Roses. Spit Upon Your Grave is one of their best. The Positive Punk article is reprinted in all its glory in the new edition of my latest book Looking for a Kiss (PC-Press, June 2023)

 

Brigandage – Pretty Funny Thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_P9OQZpJw  (first track)

Brigandage, the other main band I wrote about in the Positive Punk article, were also very good. So, good, in fact, that I went on to join them. In 1984, we released FYM, a cassette-only live/demo compilation, which sold well. In 1986, we released a mini-LP called Pretty Funny Thing. One track, Angel of Vengeance, featured on Cherry Red’s 2017 Goth compilation Silhouettes and Statues. I wrote our sleeve notes, describing the LP as a facet of ‘the Velvet Underground archetype that spoke of viciousness, lust ‘n’ hate and leather (a fantasy of style); life as film noir, existential, nihilistic and a little apocalyptic, I guess; silver art – white heat, pale, glamour frail with the sheen of squalor that spangles; downtown slow dive low life, and other throwaway thrills. You get the idea. It was bound to end in tears.’ And it did! Ha.

 

Rema Rema – Rema Rema

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgquvlF2NE

In 2017, my book Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night was published. I edited and co-wrote the anthology which takes in sex, style, politics and philosophy, filtered through punk experience, while believing in the ruins (of memory), to explore in depth a past whose essence is always elusive. Significant contributors include Jon Savage (England’s Dreaming) and Jonh Ingham (the journalist who wrote the very first interview with the Sex Pistols, for Sounds). One of my favourite pieces is by Dorothy Max Prior, who was also in Psychic TV and Rema Rema. The latter were ‘the psychopath’s Velvet Underground’. Their Wheel in the Roses EP, released on the 4AD label in 1980, remains a dazzling and essential art-gone-afraid howl. The track Rema-Rema has been aptly described as ‘the post-punk Louie Louie.’

 

Brian Eno and Snatch - RAF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1hhD_oxgM4

Judy Nylon wrote the foreword to Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night. She was part of the pre-punk London demi-monde – Derek Jarman, Andrew Logan, et al – belles of the epoch – so many amazing people concentrated into such a small space. In her foreword, Judy wrote about how that divine creativity fed into punk. She was also in the band Snatch, who collaborated with Brian Eno on the brilliant 1978 release, RAF.

 

Max – Little Ghost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkssFXD2hxs

 

Leslie Winer - Skin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB8Ao9xvD8g

Ten years after the events described by Judy Nylon, a different glittering London crowd gathered at places like London's infamous Taboo Club. Life at this time was being lived at high speed, with peddle to the metal. Kevin Mooney (ex-Adam and the Ants) and his then partner, Viv Westwood model Leslie Winer were at the centre of this avant-garde arts'n'drugs scene. Situated in Leicester Square and run by the late Leigh Bowery, Taboo was home to a bunch of provocative eccentrics following their own mad logic. Mooney and Winer were mates with doomed artist Trojan, a leading Taboo figure, who half-sliced his ear off as an artistic act and later died of a drugs overdose. In 1987, Mooney’s band Max released Little Ghost, about Trojan – ‘One for the blue boy, and two for the dead kings’. Leslie went on to ‘invent trip-hop’ with her LP C, featuring the track Skin.

 

The Fall – Repetition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKCKBu8CLI

Before I took the IPC shilling at the NME, I wrote and published a fanzine called Kick. I liked the punk scene in the early 80s –another punk Spring. Punk at that time became a way of life for an increasingly large and motivated group of people. Moreover, folk were, to paraphrase Malcolm McLaren, creating an environment in which they could truthfully run wild. We were making scenes that took people away from the confines of school and work. Instead of just listening to records in isolation and going to the odd gig, people were having life adventures – documented by fanzines like my own. One of my favourite articles in Kick was an interview with the Fall’s Mark E Smith. Repetition is one of their finest. Listen on repeat.

 

  

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Richard Cabut is author of the novels Looking for a Kiss (PC-Press, 2023) and the modern/beat poetry book Disorderly Magic and Other Disturbances (Far West Press, 2023). He co-edited/-contributed to the anthology Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night (Zer0 Books, October 2017), and was also a contributor to Ripped, Torn and Cut – Pop, Politics and Punks Fanzines From 1976 (Manchester University Press, 2018) and Growing Up With Punk (Nice Time, 2018).  

Richard’s journalism has featured in the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, NME (pen name Richard North), ZigZag, The Big Issue, Time Out, Offbeat magazine, the Independent, Artists & Illustrators magazine, thefirstpost, London Arts Board/Arts Council England, Siren magazine, etc. His fiction has appeared in the books The Edgier Waters (Snowbooks, 2006) and Affinity (67 Press, 2015). As well as on various sites on the internet. He was a Pushcart Prize nominee 2016. Richard’s plays have been performed at various theatres in London and nationwide, including the Arts Theatre, Covent Garden, London. His poetry has appeared in An Anthology of Punk Ass Poetry (Orchid Eater Press, 2022), and magazines such as Cold Lips, Foggy Plasma, 3ammagazine, etc. He published the fanzine Kick, and played bass for the punk band Brigandage (LP Pretty Funny Thing – Gung Ho Records, 1986).

 

 

 

 

The 40 But 10 Interview Series: Buick Audra

 

I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!

Today we are joined by Buick Audra. Buick is a Grammy-award-winning musician and writer living in Nashville, TN. She is the guitarist and primary songwriter and vocalist in the melodic heavy duo, Friendship Commanders. Her new album, Conversations with My Other Voice, was released on September 23rd, 2022. The album is accompanied by a memoir in essays by the same name.

Find her online at buickaudra.com, and on most socials @buickaudra

 

Why do you write?

 My writing started in music as a songwriter, and I suppose it happened because I heard melodies in my head and had sentiments I wanted to get outside of my body. Writing prose is not so different. I tend to write memoir and personal essays to tell what I’ve seen, lived, and felt—and to put it somewhere else. I wrote my memoir in essays because I had carried the stories around for years and had never seen a story quite like mine on the page. I’ll say that I write—music and prose—to tell, and to mark that I was here.

 

 

What do you do when you’re not writing?

 I’m a musician first, writer second, so my life is largely centered around my solo project and my Metal band, Friendship Commanders. I/we tour, write, record and release music, and then do it all again. Writing prose is something I have learned to build in time for, and that goes for reading, too.

 

 

What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?

 Scrivener. When I was starting to write the essays that would later become my memoir, I had documents all over the place, notes here and there. When I got Scrivener and was able to sequence the scraps and move them around freely within the project, the work became much clearer. And able to be finished. That was important.

 

If you could spend the day with another author, who would you choose and why?

 Nora Ephron. I love her work so much, but I also feel like spending a day with her would have involved some truly memorable food. I would kill to see her order, knowing that she based Sally Albright (When Harry Met Sally) and her noteworthy ordering habits on herself. A day in New York with Nora would have been a dream. Alas, I have her books, films, and recipes, and my Gibson 335-S guitar is named after her. It’s the best I can do in real life.

 Of the living, Miriam Toews. Brilliant, makes tough work, stays off of socials. I have nothing but respect for her.

 

 

How do you celebrate when you finish writing a new book?

 I’ve only written one so far, and I’m afraid I missed celebrating its completion! I was too wracked with nerves at the time. I later celebrated the release of the album and book together by getting pizza with my love. It was perfect.

 

 

What songs would be on the soundtrack of your life?

 I’m in the somewhat unique position to have written it myself! I’ve been writing and releasing music for most of my life, and I’m so grateful to my younger selves for documenting all of those different chapters. When my album, Conversations with My Other Voice, was released, some people called it the soundtrack to my book. But it was actually the other way around. The book was written to expand on the album. Maybe that’s what I’m doing now, writing prose to support the music! Flipping the script.

 

Do you DNF books?

 Absolutely. Life really isn’t that long, and if I’m not enjoying something, I don’t need to see it through. I file it under “someone else’s interest.”

 

 

What is your favorite way to waste time?

 I taught myself how to build guitar effects pedals in 2020 and it’s become my favorite hobby. I don’t do it as much as I’d like to, but whenever I have a few unassigned hours, I solder, wire, and assemble pedals. I find soldering to be oddly soothing.

 

 

    What’s the most useless skill you possess?

 The ability to identify and talk about various types of cigars! I worked at an old, legendary tobacco store in Cambridge MA when I was in college and learned more than anyone might need to know about cigars, pipe tobaccos, and cigarettes from all over the world. The rub? I’ve never smoked anything in my life. But I swear the knowledge will never leave my head. Ha!

 

 

 What’s the one thing you wish you knew when you were younger?

 That what other people think of me is none of my business—and if they insist on making it my business, they’re not my people.

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In her debut collection, Buick Audra revisits events that have shaped her relationship with her own voice, literal and figurative. The essays are companion pieces to the compositions on her third album Conversations with My Other Voice. Between the music and the prose, the audience is given an intimate look into the life of a woman in music.

Buy the book here: 

https://www.buickaudra.com/the-book