Joining us today is author David Grant. David is the author of Corporate Porn, The Last Breakfast, and the short story collection Emotionless Souls. His latest release is the dual novel Bleach/Blackout.
Q: Welcome to Divine Caroline, David. It’s a pleasure to have you with us. Can you tell us where you got your start?
A: Silverthought Press published my first book, Corporate Porn, in 2005. Earlier this year Brown Paper Publishing published my short story collection, Emotionless Souls and novella, The Last Breakfast. Bleach|Blackout is my latest work, a double novel through Offense Mechanisms, an imprint of Silverthought Press.
Q: Tell us about Bleach/Blackout.
A: Bleach opens during the last sixty seconds of 2003 in a bathroom where a girl lay dying and a jaded thirty-year-old named Jeremy, who navigates the reader through the endless repulsiveness of the world, watches. The entire story builds up to the climax of the “The Party” on New Year’s Eve where all the men are dressed as prostitutes, all the women look like pimps, and decadence and debauchery dictate the rules. Everything seems to be spiraling out of control, and Jeremy realizes there are no guarantees for him or anyone else.
Blackout picks up two years after Bleach in Las Vegas, where Stoner and friends are celebrating his bachelor party complete with strippers and crack cocaine. The ride home is blurry and the next morning in Los Angeles brings a surprise when Stoner’s friends, Chip and Jeremy, wake to find police officers and a dead body they are allegedly responsible for, but neither can recall.
Q: Where did the idea for this book come from?
A: Bleach is somewhat autobiographical in terms of the main character (Jeremy) going back to the Midwest for the holidays. The stories within are a mix of actual events, stories from friends, and fiction. I’ll let the reader guess which areas are embellished. Blackout, written three years later, was more my curiosity of where these characters would be. Bleach ends on a somewhat sour note and I was curious to see where they were three years later and how they had changed, if any. As I wrote Blackout, the story was less jaded than Bleach; however, I believe I stayed true to the rule that people never totally change.
