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Born and raised in a very haunted house on the North Shore of Massachusetts, I developed an early interest in horror stories and world mythology. In high school, under the pall of bipolar I encountered the Divine Comedy and the Great Gatsby, two works that would change my way of seeing and writing forever. I started my first novel then, a journey through Hell and into Heaven called City of Circles. Ponderous, perhaps a tad pretentious, depressing as hell and nigh unreadable, I was slave to it for years. After leaving college with my girlfriend and coming to Central Pennsylvania, I saw how people can be rendered near bestial, walking down the street to shouted insults, hearing my girlfriend not subtly propositioned by apes in muscle cars and watching people breaking their backs for minimum wage, I thought of how fragile our humanity is, how fake the veneer of civilization. This, alongside my interest in true crime inspired me to begin the Murderland series, a ten part serial about an alternate America where killing is socially acceptable and a media sensation above all others. It's the story of Jeremy Jenkins, a pharmacist who kills because he feels the incursion of alien beings who are stealing our humanity and trying to take over the earth using young blondes as breeding stock. He is left deciding whether the war in his head is real or he could do more good in other ways and goes on a bizarre journey of self discovery, toward what might end up being heroism.
The book was picked up by Evil Nerd Empire and I began interacting more with the Bizarro fiction community, an awesome group of in-your-face modern surrealists with a sense of humor, fun and adventure about their work. Later that year, I drew attention from my peers not only by winning The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown, an insane contest of mad weird skillz, but with my story "Mr.Plush, Detective", a tale about body image, identity and sexuality set in a pulpy simulacrum of Batman's Gotham and wherever Dick Tracy lives...I forget. Cleveland? Whatever. I found a surrogate family and community of writers that respected me and that I respected. Even later that year, I met Matt Revert from Legumeman books on MySpace and he picked up my book Archelon Ranch, a deeply personal, very warped meditation on the creative process, existential fairness and how cool dinosaurs are. With Archelon Ranch, my work got more experimental and daring and I never want to stop doing so.
My next book, Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective takes the world of Mr.Plush, Detective, examines it deeper and takes the pulp writer turned teddybear detective hero into darker, more uncomfortable places. The book contains martian mummies, giant mobsters, Furry prostitutes and all kinds of other mindblowing surprises and you can preorder it for only ten bucks here: http://www.jimmyplush.blogspot.com
While you might find yourself waiting, you will also find yourself getting free chapters of two Bizarro Neopulp serials in your email every week or two until the book comes out. You can't beat that offer with an offerbeating stick.
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