Jess Gulbranson
By Jess Gulbranson
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Bio: Praise for 10 A BOOT STOMPIN 20 A HUMAN FACE 30 GOTO 10: "Reads as if someone cloned an amphetamine-addled Philip K. Dick and told him to come up with his own version of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity." "Not Irreal or Surreal but just plain REAL. What "High Fidelity", "The Lone Gunmen" and that "Jim Morrison In Hell" thing all could have looked like". "How many novellas feature appearances from the ghosts of Joy Division's Ian Curtis and Jim Morrison, not to mention Graceland itself being blown to smithereens? Bizarro fans should dig this." Hello Jess and thank you for taking the time to talk to me. No problem, brother. It’s always nice to take a turn at the business end of the questions. What is it that made you want to write? Do you remember the first time it actually clicked for you and you realised that writing was what you wanted to do? What were some of the works from which you drew early inspiration? Well, how are early are we talking? My mom started reading to me as soon as I was born- and nothing appropriate. Wall Street Journal and Henry Miller and Tom Robbins. So I started reading at 2 and writing not longer after. I’m not sure that there was a ever a specific point where I really decided I wanted to- it just kept happening. What are some of your current compatriots that you continue to draw inspiration from? And what are some of your recent reads that have impressed you? I have recently joined the Willamette Valley Sorcerers, a writing group helmed by the esteemed speculative fiction author Edward Morris. Some of the other core members are David Agranoff (Vegan Revolution With Zombies, Hunting The Moon Tribe), JD Busch (graphic novelist with Image and Dark Horse), Larry Hall, Steven Mcguire, Serena Appel, and Justin Montgomery, with appearances by several others. We’ve had William Nolan (Logan’s Run) stop by a few times. It’s a very supportive and challenging group, and I think we’re going places. And of course I have an excellent group of remote friends and colleagues. Ash Lomen’s poetry these days is amazing. He is blowing up. What is Jess Gulbranson’s writing process like? Are you a superstitious writer? Do you have any writing rituals or set times and places that you need to write? Are you a planner or a fly by the seat of the pants-er? Pen or keyboard? Yeah, I am the worst planner. I’m also the worst finisher. Writing is like the other arts to me- I am always mixing up what I am doing. So it could be interviewing people over instant messaging for Crappy Indie Music, or scribbling things illegibly into a Moleskine… I wish there was a good way to write on my phone. Or with holograms or something. That would be badass. Who do you think would win in a fight between a chicken and a duck? Both are armed with the identical 88 mm Raketenpanzerbüchse 54 Panzerschreck. Dude, there is a reason it’s called “rocket tag”. Whoever gets off the first shot is going to win. That’s a tossup with fowl. As well as being a talented writer, you are, from all reports, uber musician extraordinaire and your love of music shines through in a lot of your written work – particularly in 10 A BOOT STOMPING 20 A HUMAN FACE 30 GOTO 10. How would you sum up the influence that music has had on your life and writing? I don’t know that I’d go with either “uber” or “extraordinaire”- maybe “hack”. The fancy-pants word I use to describe my lack of depth in any particular field is “bricoleur”. Which I suppose, in a certain sense, is very apt. Everything comes together for me in one way or another- music informed STOMPING in the creation of it, chapter by chapter, and then when I was done I recorded a soundtrack for the preorder supporters. It’s the same way with everything else I do. I’ve done concept albums- my friend Ryan Niswonger and I are working on turning it into a board game- and machinima scoring and backing tracks for my poetry. I don’t there’s any reason not to do all these different things. If you can write a novel that’s saturated in song, or compose a poem in sfumato- then shit, you’ve won. And I don’t describe all these things to brag. I’m very fortunate and humbled by the opportunity to even try- and I’m trying to repay that all the time. Any musical projects currently in the works? Any that you currently have floating around out there? I’m always busier than I should be. A project that’s been stewing in my brain for a while has been a compilation album of collaborations between me and all the awesome lady vocalists I have either worked with before or really want to. Hopefully it happens. Otherwise I’ve been teaching myself how to DJ and score films. Which incidentally, is my own personal writer’s block remedy, that I recommend to anyone: go see a movie in the theater. You will get all jacked up and come home ready to write. What about a fight between a chicken and a duck but this time the chicken is equipped with a 10.5 cm leFH 18/40 leichte Feldhaubitze whilst the duck merely possesses a Maschinengewehr 34 and a Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Hewer? This one is a good gedankenexperiment. Does a chicken have the eyesight to calculate fire control? Can a duck fly and strafe with 30 pounds of awkward machine gun? I would say no to either. The DRK would normally be the tie-breaker- but it’s not exactly the most functional blade in the world. The duck could probably wield it in its beak, but would probably not do any damage unless it dropped from a significant height. Edge: duck. But just barely. Let’s talk your written work. Firstly 10 A BOOT STOMPING 20 A HUMAN FACE 30 GOTO 10. I believe that this was originally written for a competition. In three days, no less (not that anyone’s showing off). Can you take us through the inception and writing of this book? Were the ideas with you for a long time before you sat down to write? Also 10 A BOOT (my own preference for shortening the title; sounds Canadian) has a wonderful feeling of out-of-control, careening, escalation to the plot. Do you think this was enhanced by the situation in which the book was written? That book was an amazing experience. I had just been talking over lunch with my good friend Tim about some videos on autism I had watched (by activist Amanda Baggs, who appears in the book as “Anna”), and we had one of our crazy rambling discussions about distributed computing and conspiracies and whatnot. The next day I found out it was the deadline to enter the contest, so I fired it off. The ghost of Ian Curtis has been with me for a few years. He haunted me for a while and helped get me through a very bad time in my life. As far as the crazy plot goes, it was only minimally outlined(read: scribbled gibberish) right before the contest started. Sleep dep, alcohol, and Buddhism kept things exciting. Halfway through, right after I shot my author avatar in the face, I had a so far unverified kensho experience. So yeah… interesting times, or something. 10 A BOOT is a thick mélange of science, music, magic, aliens and conspiracy theories with a nice subtext regarding Autism going on, yet it also features a breakneck narrative that starts fast and only gains momentum from there. Was this a difficult balancing act to pull off? And what are some of the themes and ideas lurking beneath the surface of this book? The autism subtext was lost on some people, which is fine. “Autism” is such a nebulous concept anyway. We haven’t defined it any better than we’ve defined anything else about consciousness. So for different people to take things away from it based on their own perceptions, I’m coming to see that that is a success. The pace of the narrative came naturally with the tight time frame it was completed in, but it also mirrored a sort of desperate struggle going on in my mind, wrestling with my kneejerk intolerances and my very valid desire to cut through to the truth. That was consistent with reality, I hope, even if some of the supernatural and pseudoscientific shenanigans are not. I mean, the protagonist is in many ways a very average person. If you were dragged into what Erik was dragged into over the space of a couple weeks, it would be very hard to deal with. As well as 10 A BOOT, you also have your novel MEL currently available as an eBook. Care to give us the spiel and talk a little about how this book came to be? MEL was written as a serial in the arts and culture zine NWDrizzle, over a period of four years. Ed Morris was writing for the Drizz at that point as well. I was really flying by the seat of my pants with it, doing a chapter a month, and I think it’s schizophrenic enough that it makes for a fun ride without ever taking itself too seriously. I’m told that it falls into the “Slipstream” genre of scifi- is that what the kids are calling it these days? Anyway, I’ve always dreamed of having an illustrated version of Mel. That would be awesome. Maybe someday. Another of your books, Antipaladin Blues has been on the cards for a long time too. In fact, there was an advert for it in the back of 10 A BOOT. Do you have an update on when we may possibly be seeing this title released? “Antipaladin Blues” is cursed. Seriously. Everyone involved in its production has been afflicted with disease, death, divorce, douchebaggery… I’m not sure what to say. As far as I can tell, the publishing house that was going to put it out has been eaten by a Grue. Which is a shame, because not is it an awesome satirical ultraviolent dark fantasy, and first of a trilogy, but I got a tattoo of its cover on my arm and was interviewed while that happened. On film. So I am hoping to entice someone else to put it out. The D&D grognards will eat it like candy. If a chicken was to take to the skies in a Focke-Wolfe Fw-190 and just happened to stumble across a duck in, say, a Junkers Ju-87. In the ensuing dogfight, who do you think would come out victorious? There’s not going to be a whole lot of dogfighting happening when one of the aircraft is a Stuka. Without a fighter escort, that duck is toast. Toast. Any other projects that you are currently working on and are at liberty to discuss? I recently contributed an essay, a song, and the cover design to the “Children of Mercy” book and accompanying CD. It benefits Cystic Fibrosis charities. I’m contributing to the upcoming “Kizuna”, another charity anthology benefitting Japan in the wake of the earthquake. As far as long form work goes, I am writing a dark fairytale retelling set in a dying-earth type future. So far I’ve incorporated dark versions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and Pinocchio. It’s going to be disturbing and surreal. What is a book everybody should read and why? I’ve already touted “Foucault’s Pendulum” and “Shadow of the Torturer” elsewhere, so I’ll lay down something really hardcore. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Autumn of the Patriarch”. This ain’t your grandma’s Marquez. Sentences go on for pages and pages, the dark side of the human spirit is exposed and subverted… What is a film everybody should see and why? “Marebito”. Because I want to make a creepy movie about tunnels, and everyone should help me! What is a song that everybody should hear and why? “There Stands the Glass”, by Ted Hawkins. It’s hard to choose one, because everything he does brings a chill down your spine. This one is the first track off his final live album, and he leads it off with scream that’s unequalled in music. In your opinion, what is it that attracts today’s fowl to the exclusive use of German WW2 armaments? Unfortunately, there is a resurgence of fascist sentiments among birds, and the ready availability of not only surplus armaments, but media such as “Die Entenmesserlied” is not helping matters. Thank you, Jess. Thank you, Robert. Remember, if you hear those bombs come shrieking down on your bunker, just duck. |
