"VIHORROR! Cocktales of Sex and Death": Thrillville Distilled
So it's the end of an era. A decade, anyway. I will turn 57 years old this April 2. That's a milestone unto itself. It feels strange, especially since I was just getting accustomed to turning 50. Now I'm staring down 60. The years are flying by, like my life is passing before my eyes before I have a chance to realize my own potential. (Plus it's "the Twenties." Again already.) Since 2010 I've been working hard to make up for lost time from my fiction writing (wasted while busy hosting/programming/promoting my cult movie cabaret Thrillville Theater, though it wasn't really a waste, more like a fruitful if frustrating detour), writing and publishing over a dozen books and numerous short stories featured in various anthologies since 2010. For rather convoluted but seeming inevitable reasons I founded my own imprint, Thrillville Press, morphing my "brand name" from a roving cult movie cabaret to online headquarters for my own gonzo, existential pulp fiction.
NOW AVAILABLE!
Though prolific, frankly I've been dealing with a lot of depression since the sudden collapse of the long-simmering and nearly-realized movie deal dream with Christian Slater. My proactive response to this devastating turn of events was to relocate to my dream city, Seattle, and write, write, write. I sublimated all of my disappointment and sadness into my work, as I've always done. The results, speaking subjectively, are artistically rewarding it not commercially successful. I'm very, very proud of my body of work. Every book I've put out has felt like it would be my last, particularly Vic Valentine, Private Eye: 14 Vignettes, which felt like a summation of not only Vic's life, but my own. I felt like I'd said everything I needed to, and now I would be content living out the extended epilogue of a career I never actually achieved.
But then I was struck with renewed, unexpected inspiration, as usual.
The reason I decided to put together this new collection was because not long ago I wrote a story called "Dismember Me" for a planned anthology of Tales from the Crypt inspired noir fiction. The editor who asked me to contribute decided to cancel or at least indefinitely delay his plans for the publication after I'd already submitted it, leaving it stranded in perpetual limbo. Since I was especially proud of it and wanted it out in the world, I once again decided to just Do It Myself. Of course, I would need to add some other stories to justify its publication, since I didn't want to just do an ebook standalone.
Almost immediately after making this decision, I accidentally came across an evocative image in this old book called CAD: A Handbook for Heels, originally published in 1992, now long out of print. It served as my introduction to the "lounge lizard" lifestyle, and largely inspired my "Will the Thrill" persona, since it was the dirtier if smoother and more mature flipside of midcentury "cool" not represented or replicated in popular mainstream depictions of the era like American Graffiti or Happy Days. Beatniks, West Coast Jazz, pulp, booze, sex, etc.
Anyway, the image in question, which I'd never even remembered seeing before--though it had been a while since I'd leafed through these hallowed, influential pages--instantly conjured and captured exactly the tone, mood, feel, aesthetics and themes of what would then almost immediately after become VIHORROR! Cocktales of Sex and Death.
I'd actually coined the term "Vihorror" some time ago when trying to explain my work to someone. Since I've effectively created my own genre blending elements of noir, horror and eroticism, this seemed like a perfectly meta-way to describe it. I hadn't planned on making the term the title of one of my books since that seemed a bit too self-reflexive. But then I never plan any of my books. They just happen, essentially concocting and writing themselves. I just do what the Muse tells me, when she tells me.
The image that served as the creative deal-sealer seemed to be a knockoff of Salvador Dali, if not an original by the master himself. There was no photo credit, and an extensive, exhaustive Google image search turned up no information on the origins of the piece. So I felt free to commission my go-to cover artist/designer Dyer Wilk to tweak the image leaving most of it intact, but replacing some of it with my own signature iconography (a fez and a tiki).
An example of Dali's trademark mixture of surrealism and sensuality.
This is the original, untitled, unaccredited illustrated piece printed in CAD.
And per my specific instructions, this is how Dyer reappropriated it for my own purposes:
Here is the back cover blurb that sums up the dozen stories within, which are all loosely connected, featuring protagonists that remain anonymous for reasons revealed within. There's even an extended cameo or two by a certain private eye...
SEX AND DEATH. The visceral impact of these simple words never fails to elicit a strong response in all peoples across every society and culture. Together these inevitable experiences constitute the core of the human condition, the essence of our shared existence, and yet they create conflict, chaos and confusion amongst us. The inherent fear and ignorance of our own corporeal realities results in religious oppression, tribalistic warfare, political scandal, corporate exploitation, and artistic censorship.
Not here.
These titillating tales of erotic, existential terror are cinematic fever dreams in literary form, individually and collectively conveying the delirious desire that overwhelms our senses and the deep dread that undermines our spirits when confronted with the seemingly contradictory but essentially complementary twin fates of mating and mortality. There is only one entrance and one exit in this brief, beautiful, horrific cycle of precious, ephemeral Flesh.
Welcome to the uniquely stylized, conceptually uncompromising world of VIHORROR.
macabre, erotic elements:
Anyone familiar with my stuff can see that this collection is a companion piece to previous works like A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge (still my personal favorite), Freaks That Carry Your Luggage Up to the Room, and perhaps my most artistically accomplished piece, Things I Do When I'm Awake. In any case, it's a distinct distillation of the main themes recurring throughout all of my books and stories, namely loneliness, lust and longing.
But since I never like to repeat myself, VIHORROR! Cocktales of Sex and Death is unlike anything I've written before, or will ever write again, especially since it might be my final published work before I just finally give up after forty years and resign myself to the quiet, peaceful life of an aging dog walker.
Or maybe not.
Even if nothing else special happens to me this year, or any coming year, I'm still greatly looking forward to what will likely be one of the most memorable events of my entire existence: the 30th Anniversary Twin Peaks Convention being held at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee - on my birthday weekend. As you know, it's my favorite show (in fact, The Return is both my favorite series and favorite movie of all time), and I'm a lifelong Elvis fan. This will be my first visit to Mecca. It feels made just for me. I'll take it!
I started out the decade a 46 year old doorman at a tiki bar in Alameda CA. I’m ending it a 56 year old dog walker in Seattle. Not exactly upwardly mobile, other than geographically, but in between and I wrote and published over a dozen books and numerous short stories. Didn’t change the game, but I’ve never really been a player. It is what it is. No expectations, no resolutions, no aspirations for the coming year and decade. I’ve learned the hard way not to plan or hope for the future at the expense of the moment, which continually dissipates like moisture in the heat. Just going with the flow, making waves when possible, even if I never make a splash. Peace and cheers and TCB.
I started out the decade a 46 year old doorman at a tiki bar in Alameda CA. I’m ending it a 56 year old dog walker in Seattle. Not exactly upwardly mobile, other than geographically, but in between and I wrote and published over a dozen books and numerous short stories. Didn’t change the game, but I’ve never really been a player. It is what it is. No expectations, no resolutions, no aspirations for the coming year and decade. I’ve learned the hard way not to plan or hope for the future at the expense of the moment, which continually dissipates like moisture in the heat. Just going with the flow, making waves when possible, even if I never make a splash. Peace and cheers and TCB.
Celebrating the book's release at the University of Washington Club
with a customized cocktail, "The Sex and Death", 3/6/20
Here's to the Roaring Twenties - but this time, with legal booze. Cheers!
Gig Harbor, WA
Fabio Frizzo performs his score for Lucio Fulci's The Beyond live at Fremont Abbey, 12/12/19
In and around Port Angeles and Olympic National Park for Monica's birthday weekend,
12/14-15/19
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| Damn good vegan cherry pie and ice cream at Pie Bar in Ballard High tea for the holidays at my favorite spot on Earth, Salish Lodge (The Great Northern) and Snoqualmie Falls, or as I call it, Twin Peaks |
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| "The Dale Cooper" |
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| Accidentally found the location used for the Elks Lodge #9 in Twin Peaks: The Return, Smokey Joe's Tavern in Snoqualmie |
CHEERS AND ALOHA FROM THRILLVILLE!
VALENTINE'S DAY 2020:
Vito's Restaurant, Seattle
Noir City Seattle with Czar of Noir Eddie Muller
Bachelor Pad Magazine #50 featuring my 50th movie column, now on sale!
Bachelor Pad Magazine #51 now on sale!
You may also dig:
WILL THE THRILL'S 50 FAVORITE SCI-FI MOVIES
WILL THE THRILL'S TOP 75 GRINDHOUSE MOVIES
THRILLVILLE TURNS 20
WILL THE THRILL'S TOP 75 GRINDHOUSE MOVIES
THRILLVILLE TURNS 20
"Thrillville," my official theme song by The Moon-Rays |
Interview conducted by Drive-In Radio host Alec Cizak, October 24, 2017,
broadcast from Missoula, Montana.
Podcast interview by Steven Gomez for The Noir Factory, August 2017
Promoting the first edition of A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge on San Francisco's Creepy KOFY Movietime, 2010
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PEOPLE BUG ME (2013)
ESCAPE FROM THRILLVILLE (2014)
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BOOKS:
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LOVE STORIES ARE TOO VIOLENT FOR ME from Gutter Books!
BUY
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THE "MENTAL CASE FILES":
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