Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an obscure author of satirical conspiracy thrillers. I’ve written three books in the Crash Gordon series (each over 500 pages) and a slimmer novel called The Snowden Avalanche.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest is called Crash Gordon and the Illuminati Underground. It was inspired by a deep desire to be doing something semi-productive while spending time in a Korean coffeehouse in midtown Manhattan on my days off.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The bulk of my books have been written on trains and inside Korean coffeehouses.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
The comparisons my books get are to the works of Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson, P.J O’Rourke, Hunter S. Thompson, and Douglas Adams. Pretty good company, I’d say. All five of those authors have influenced me a great deal, of course, along with many others. I’ve also been called “the conspiracy world’s Nick Cave” by British scholar Dr. Matthew Alford, but I’m pretty sure he was just blowing smoke up my a– that day. It makes for a nice blurb, though.
What are you working on now?
Actually, I’m getting back on track with my other career as a commercial artist in New York City, after taking some time off to finish the last book. I have no idea what the next book is going to be about. It’ll examine another lurid Deep State conspiracy or two, no doubt, but beyond that, I’ve got nothing.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far, I’ve found nothing that has rocketed me to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, so I’m counting on you Awesome Guys.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Eat a bowl of muesli with fresh fruit every morning and you’ll find that your writing routine becomes more, uhm… regular. And if that’s not good enough for you, try drinking approximately a gallon of hot, strong coffee at a Korean coffeehouse every day, like me, and you’ll find that the words just blast right out of you.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you name a bulldog Fireball Roberts, he’ll end up an alcoholic. Wait… is that advice? It’s more like a universal truth. Let me try again. How about the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” That sounds more like advice, doesn’t it? You could interpret it as: “You shouldn’t be in a rush to conform to a society ruled by billionaire sociopaths.” (And you definitely shouldn’t make a billionaire sociopath your next President. Oh shit… too late.)
What are you reading now?
I’m midway through Jonathan Lethem’s new book, A Gambler’s Anatomy. I’m also rereading The Dog of the South by the great Charles Portis and I’m skimming around in Barry Hannah’s posthumous story collection Long, Last, Happy (rereading most of those stories for a second, third, or fourth time). Last week I read a collection of stories by Alexander Weinstein called Children of the New World, which I highly recommend if you want to do some deep thinking about how new technologies are changing our society in insidious ways.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Probably more obscurity—nothing new.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
1.) The really fat Webster’s Third New International Dictionary that I have on the shelf in my living room, which I never consult because it’s almost too heavy to lift (and asking Google questions about words is easier, anyway…). If I ever got tired of reading it, it would make for some great kindling.
2.) The complete works of Shakespeare in one volume, because everyone says that, right?
Revised 2 through 4.) Actually, I take that back… I’d skip the Shakespeare and just take the three volumes in the Crash Gordon series with me, instead, so I could read about my own life—and remind myself how it all went down—after I start losing my mind from too much sun and chronic malnutrition from just eating mangoes and coconuts and barbecued sea turtles all the time.
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