A Brief EMail Interview With Jay Bonansinga
October at Twilight Tales has always been something special. This year we’re trying something exciting: a featured reader paired with a themed open mic for each week from now until Halloween!
Jay Bonansinga is a local author who has read and presented at Twilight Tales numerous times in the past. His novels include The Sleep Police, The Killer’s Game, and the Ulysses Grove series of thrillers (Frozen, Twisted, and Disturbed) among others. Jay also wrote The Sinking Of The Eastland: America’s Forgotten Tragedy, a nonfiction narrative accounting of the capsizing (into the Chicago River) of the S.S. Eastland in 1915. Several of Jay’s books are under option at major Hollywood studios, and he has more than one screenplay currently in studio development.
Following are Jay’s answers to our interview questions.
Let’s start with the basics, what’s your story called? If you can, please tell us briefly about it.
Jay: “STEAGAL’S BARBER SHOP AND SMOKE EMPORIUM,” which is an anti-war tale I wrote a couple years ago in the tradition of Rod Serling and Paddy Chayevski, first published in the February 2005 issue of AMAZING STORIES. I am so jacked up about what the current regime has done to our country, I cannot resist reading this again (I think I might have read it in public a couple of times).
Go Obama!!!
What inspired your story, or what inspires you to write?
Jay: I have always been attracted to the “socio-political fantasy” of Harlan Ellison, Rod Serling, George Clayton Johnson, Ambrose Bierce, Richard Matheson, and H.G. Wells. I have always attempted to tell surreal, weird, funny horror stories that have a deep and angry subtext about something real and relevant. I hope this story has that to some degree.
Each week in October features a specific genre, tell us what draws you to the genre featured your particular week (Oct. 20; Ghosts, Goblins, and Dead Guys).
Jay: Ghosts stories are all — to some extent — about one thing: GUILT. They were invented in the Victorian era when everybody was riddled with guilt. I — being a lapsed Catholic — understand guilt. I guess that’s why I LOVE ghost stories.
What sorts of books do you find yourself seeking out when walking the aisles of bookstores and libraries?
Jay: Since the horror genre is all but dead — no pun intended — I currently seek out dark and comedic stuff. I guess this is due to the fact that our world is currently a dark and comedic place.
Any advice you’ve been given as a writer that’s either very good, or very out there that you would like to share with us?
Jay: Don’t use adverbs or adjectives. This is one of the great myths among geeks who have bought that old Hemingway crapola about all great writing being lean and minimal and…yawn…boring. I say give me extra mayo on that sandwich, and while you’re at it, throw some brown mustard on it, and then deep fry it in seasoned batter!!!!
Anything else you’d like to share about your writing or upcoming publications/events?
Jay: Please, everyone, go out and order or purchase my new book, PERFECT VICTIM (Pinnacle 2008), which comes out in December, so that my children can get their dental work and text books and medicine. And also so we can put a gallon of gas in the tank.
We hope you’ll join us on Monday October 20th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear Jay’s fiction (along with open mic offerings in a Ghosts, Goblins, and Dead Guys theme), and perhaps more discussion!
