Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m just an ordinary workin’ shmoe who likes to retreat into my imagination us much as possible to avoid common everyday existential anguish. I’ve written ten novels and two collections. Only the collections and one novel are currently obtainable. The others are still in the aging process, getting nice and yellow, curling at the corners, the writing growing clumsier and more anachronistic (do people still say “groovy” and smoke banana peels?). The obtainable books are called (in no particular order) The Membranous Lounge, Bleak Holiday and Conservatory of Death. I was also born at some point and enjoy scrimshaw and thinking about Tovah Feldshuh.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is often called Bleak Holiday and it isn’t particularly inspired. Most of the ideas came to me as I was watching television, specifically shows like The Love Boat, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, The Banana Splits, Davey and Goliath and The White Shadow. Oh, and that show about that guy with the mustache.
The stories in Bleak Holiday are glandular, effervescent and kind of chalky (if you know what I mean).
Here’s an excerpt: And then she
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes. It involves a lot of WD-40 and teriyaki skewers.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
If you’re only influenced by other writers you are a sap and deserve to be pointed at in public. I am influenced by many things, including: badminton scores, breakfast menus, The Butthole Surfers (the early Touch & Go stuff). Anything scary, funny, stupid, smart, punk and psychedelic; a combination to strive for in any endeavor. I’ve also been influenced by movies like Taxi Driver, Eraserhead, The Gruesome Twosome, Careful, and Saturday Night Beaver. Bookwise, I am inspired by the postmodernists (Coover, Barth, Pynchon, Brautigan, Carver, Barthelme, etc) hard-boiled crime writers (Leonard, Cain, Hammett, Willeford, Himes) and horror authors (King, Straub, Barker, Judy Blume), Also Surrealism, Dada and various fruits and vegetables.
I do want to point out that I’m not comparing myself to anyone or thing on this list. For I am mediocre and following my own path toward further mediocrity.
What are you working on now?
I just finished a horror novel called Razor Wire Kiss (about teenage vampires) and started another one tentatively titled Anosognosia. It’s about an alcoholic recluse who is diagnosed with testicular cancer and lives next door to a schizophrenic woman who seems to be trying to communicate with him using carefully-placed teabags and chicken nuggets. You know the drill; trials and tribulations and a rain of glaucous inchworms. It’s sort of a memoir. Of sorts.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and so forth. And a blog called Crumbling Asphalt (formerly Pepperoni and Cardboard). I also slip plugs into porn chat rooms.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Devote yourself to the WORD.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Steal as much as you can get away with. It’s all grist for the mill. Omit adverbs. Put butter on it.
What are you reading now?
I usually have several books going at once. Right now I’m reading Pinocchio in Venice by Robert Coover, Snow White by Donald Barthelme, Owsley and Me: My LSD Family by Rhoney Gissen Stanley, Here Comes Harry Reems by Harry Reems and Joyland by Stephen King.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Finish the novel. I also plan to write a short ghost story about a haunted spatula. I’d like to be a guest on The Dick Cavett Show circa 1973.
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?
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of film by Michael Weldon
The Poor Man’s James Bond by Kurt Saxon (1st 4 Volumes)
Larry, the Stooge in the Middle by Morris “Moe” Feinberg
Author Websites and Profiles
Hank Kirton Website
Hank Kirton Amazon Profile
Hank Kirton’s Social Media Links
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