Next Big Cock on the Block and Stuff

Note: This is the blog I'd intended to post last week, but put off after the events in Newtown. To remain consistent, I'm a day late again this week. Anybody who follows my writing knows this is a habit. A bad habit, but fuck it. I apologize to those I've tagged. They're free to say bad shit about me.

So, if you have any writer Facebook friends, especially those who write speculative fiction, you’ve probably seen the “Next Big Thing,” blog gang bang that’s been passed around like a cheap hooker at a bachelor party. And guess what? It’s my turn. Thank you, John Mantooth! I call sloppy seven-hundred and seconds.

Anyway, the idea is I answer a few questions about my work, and tag a number of authors who I’m interested in and they do the same next week.

Confession, like everything I do, I’m a day late. For some reason, I must have missed the day they taught how to read a calendar. I apologize to my vast sea of readers and to those whom I’ve tagged (not in the nasty way).

Without further adieu:

Question: What is the working title of your book/work in progress?

Answer: The Nines. Which is significantly more tame than the last project I finished in November – Mondo Blood Presents: Escape from Shit Town.

Q: Where did the idea for the book come from?

A: It’s a story that fits into my Money Run mythos (see American Gomorrah or, ebook). I’d realized I’d set stories in the southwestern desert, the Nevada desert, the corn fields of the heartlands, rural Louisiana and an unnamed large metropolitan area from the northeast, but nothing in my native Colorado. Thought it was time to write about someplace I’d actually seen.

Q: What genre does the book fall under?

A: While I’m probably mostly known for darker speculative fiction, I’d have to say it’s a magical realism piece with crime/suspense components. And no, magical realism doesn’t mean elves and unicorns. The explanation given to me is that magical realism deals with an element or elements that are bordering on outrageous, but treating them like they’re perfectly normal and socially acceptable in your setting. Of course, the person who explained it to me coulda been full of shit, too.

Q: Which actors would you choose to play the characters from your book?

A: There’s a lot of viewpoint characters in the book. It’s kind of actually how I structured it – for each chapter to be told from one of a cast of rotating characters.

He’d be too old to play them now, but Warren Oats (Sergeant Hulka in “Stripes”) would be perfect to play the dual roles of Henry and Artimus DeVine.

Tien Howard would be ideally suited to Lost’s Yunjin Kim, and Tien’s husband, David Howard, reminds me of Judah Friedlander.

The easiest one to pick out of all these would be for one of my favorite Money Run characters – Sister Dazy. Way, way easy – Christina Hendricks. Anybody who’s read any of the Money Run stories is going to immediately agree with me on that one. Let me take a second to catch my breath.

There’s several others, but in the interest of time and your attention span, I’m just going to move on.

Q: What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A: Like synopsis aren’t bad enough, but one sentence? I can make it a run-on sentence right? Fuck it, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to.

A down-and-out “cop” is charged with keeping a vital highway clean from "complications" so a very special shipment can go through with no interference or witnesses, but a mishap leads to complications and the assorted characters must deal with trying to secure the cargo reaching its destination, the possibility of a domestic terrorist permanently closing down their critical highway, and with every other characters’ competing (and usually not-so-savory) motivation.

Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?

A: The plan is to try and lure one of them agent thingies. I’ve published several things in the small press, cracked several pro markets with short stories, but if I want to put on the big-boy pants, I’m going to have to try the agent route sooner or later. If it doesn’t work out, I do have a couple of publishers who have already expressed interest.

Q: How long did it take you to write the first-draft of your manuscript?

A: I’ll let you know when I’m finished. I have about ten chapters left – they’ve been coming in at an average of about 1200 words. So, literally, I could be finished any day now. However, I think I began the thing over four years ago.
I’ve put it aside several times to work on other projects that, you know, pay and stuff.

The story started out as a flash fiction piece, then I decided I needed to show a little more and it was going to be a short story. Then more – novella. Finally, I said fuck it, let’s go for the whole enchilada. I know these changes in structure tripped me up more than they helped. And I had one character that my instincts told me to stay with, but her story wouldn’t reveal itself to me. I ran into a wall on that several times. However, I know the rest of the story now. I’m past most of the difficult parts to write.

Plus, I have an odd disadvantage on how I write when it comes to first drafts, but because my process is that way, final drafts aren’t usually far behind. That’s a story for another blog post, though. The one where I celebrate finishing this damn thing.

Q: What other books in your genre would you compare this story to?

A: I’m not so sure if they’re in the same genre, but I’d say it’s a mix of Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, Palianiuk’s INVISIBLE MONSTERS and Hunter S. Thompson’s FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.

Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

A: I’m not a big believer in inspiration. If you want to write, sit down and write. To this point, I’ve been more of a short story guy. I believe that maybe I’m a sprinter and not a marathon runner (although I’d probably have a heart attack if I actually tried either of those right now). But I couldn’t go without giving novel writing a try. This is that try. I’m hopeful I’ll like the result enough to give it another shot – especially since I’m excited as hell about my next idea (but I have three short stories due first – see how that works?!).

Q: What else might pique the reader’s interest in your book?

A: Oh, it’s got something for everybody. Well, the depraved side of everybody – hookers, nuns, alcoholics (and that’s all one character), lot lizards, car crashes, sex slaves, ‘roid rage, explosives, speed knitting, strippers, dudes shot from cannons, dudes not shot from cannons, Winnebagos, nest eggs, domestic terrorism, hand puppets, explosive dildos and Nipsey fucking Russell. That should cover it.

This concludes the first part of our show. If you need to use the bathroom, now would be ideal.

Cue intermission music - doobie-doobie-doo...

You back? The second requirement to this is I tag five writers. It wasn’t made clear to me that I can tag people who’ve already participated, so I went with some that haven’t been. And yes, I can count, but I only went with one less. I figured if I’m going to be a day late, might as well be a writer short. That’s how I roll.

With even less further adieu than before:

First, Jason V. Brock, an opinionated, conflict-loving writer and editor and film maker and...all that stuff. His most recent work has just been released from Bad Moon Books, but I'm sure he'll tell you about that.

Brett Williams is a very promising and prolific young writer, and a hell of a nice guy. FROM MURKY DEPTHS is his latest release, but at the pace he writes, there might be six more available by the time I post this.

A guy whose been banging around the small press for years, John Paul Allen, is a veteran writer with a ton of "street cred." Good effin writer.

The wild card here is Cindy Leimgruber. She's new. She's young. She models, she acts, she sings, she writes paranormal romance. She'll also be interesting to follow.

And, with that, ladies and gentelmen, our show concludes. Thank you for your patronage and drive safely. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!

PEACE!

I could do better...but I probably won't

Yeah, another blog! I know, who'd a thunk it?

And what to choose from the myriad of topics available? The election? The replacement refs? Project Runway cutting its early season favorite? KillerCon review (hint - it was The Awesome!)?

Yes, I'd love to write about all of this, but, I'm lazy and I won't. I will talk about something near and dear to me, though.

This month Gallows Press released my new collection, AMERICAN GOMORRAH: THE MONEY RUN OMNIBUS. This contains all the Money Run stories in a single printed volume. If you're unaware, The Money Run is a setting - the vast black market underground across all of the United States. It's the back alleys and forgotten highways, the abandoned warehouses and empty airfields that we all drive by and rarely give a second thought to.

My stories focus on the minutia of this world, and while that might hint at boring, it's actually the details of this world that make up the more interesting stories. How would such a world work? What kind of fucked-up people would populate this place? How many midget handjobs can I describe? (Answer - you don't want to fucking know.)

I'm really proud of this collection. I think it's really, really good. But, what do others, like, you know, writers with readers, think? Funny you should axe:


Wow! Sam Anderson is one REALLY messed up dude! When I first started reading AMERICAN GOMORRAH I honestly thought he'd gone out of his mind, but the more I read and learned about the Money Run I started to realize the genius behind it all. The stories are seriously twisted but that's a good thing here. Fans of Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein and David Wong's John Dies At The End will go gaga over this unique collection. Highly recommended!

-- Gord Rollo, Author of VALLEY OF THE SCARECROW and THE JIGSAW MAN.


"The Money Run is a place I'd love to visit often, but living there might be for the stronger hearted. This place is a wasteland on the outside, yet within, follows its own chaotic path to establish order. It's a brutal land, yet simulataneously hilarious. It's twisted, at times perverted, but somehow manages to save room for real human sentiment. It's a world where pyrite has value and gold has none, where horror is lovely and where happiness is sad. Only writer Sam W. Anderson could come up with such a confusing, upside-down setting with perfectly matching stories. I am now and forever a fan of Anderson's Money Run stories. We should all make a point of bugging him for another installment the second he announces he's done with writing them."

--Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Bram Stoker Award® winning author of BLACK & ORANGE and BOTTLED ABYSS

"Sam W. Anderson’s writing feels warm because there’s human blood flowing through it. Whether I like his characters or not, I always feel in some way connected to them. No matter how dark, frightening, funny or bizarre his fiction is, it never loses its humanity."

--Ray Garton, LIVE GIRLS, LOT LIZARDS, BESTIAL

The Money Run--that under-the-radar-black-market of sex, drugs and bootleg Rock 'n Roll DVDs--may technically tie together all the eight tales in AMERICAN GOMORRAH. But of course it's the multi-talented Sam W. Anderson who is driving the eighteen wheeler on this trip with his biting wit and absurd sense of humor. There is no literary juking in this collection; but make no mistake, characters are three-dimensional, the prose engaging and precise, the plotting very sharp and compelling. This is indeed first class writing. Snag a copy of this collection, thank me at the next convention; or better yet, do yourself a favor and search out all of Mr. Anderson’s body of work. Highly recommended.

--Gene O'Neill, THE BURDEN OF INDIGO, OPERATION RHINOCEROS HORNBILL, CHRONICLES OF THE DOUBLE SPARROW


"Sam W. Anderson's AMERICAN GOMORRAH is one of the strangest books I've ever read, and I mean that in the best possible way. Weird, wild, and wonderful! Sam W. Anderson delivers a set of tales that will take you places you have never been before. Great stuff. I'm gonna keep my eye on this guy."

--Rick Hautala -- author of GLIMPSES and INDIAN SUMMER, HWA Lifetime Achievement recipient

So there. Maybe I'll try another of these bloggy things someday, too! Don't hold your breath, though...unless you're into that sort of thing.