Our Fascinating Queers Columnist Has a New Book Out!
Weird Monologues for a Rainy Life (irreverent ramblings from the end of the world)
a new book by our very own Fascinating Queers columnist, Lorette C. Luzajic
www.thegirlcanwrite.net
Handymaiden Editions, 2009
Q. That’s a long, unusual title. What’s the book about?
Lorette: In a world where we are supposed to focus and niche, I’m presenting the full tide of my chaotic, creative mind. It’s about everything. Tammy Faye Bakker, the Teletubbies, monkeys on crack, Canadian curmudgeon Crad Kilodney, why Eminem is like Dr. Seuss and also like Johnny Cash, an artist who painted 999 portraits of Borat, a few requiems, and living with wild mood swings.
In the beginning, I quote Homer Simpson. He says, “Never, Marge, never! I can’t live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles.” It’s about that.
Q. The cover art is really striking. How does it relate to the content?
Lorette: Amazing pop artist Iaian Greenson created this specifically for the book. I felt that with so many stories that showed me as a hot mess spilling open, I was kind of naked before the world. So I said what the hell, would I be brave enough to show up naked on the cover with all my curves and all my flaws, too? I was saved by Iaian’s brilliance- standing in the rain, naked but in my flasher raincoat, blushing. The raindrops are diamonds. I interpret that as meaning the hardest things on earth are also the most valuable.
Q. So this is something of an autobiography?
Lorette: I call it a self-portrait, not a biography, and I probably think in terms of art because I’m also a painter, and my primary element is collage. So this is a collage that forms a kind of picture of me- wild mood swings, up and down, one impulse to the next. I don’t really write reviews per se- I write about my experience with a book or film or whatever that cultural marker may be. Yet essentially, this is not a biography after all. The stories I tell about myself are just a facet of the whole, and your story may be parallel, or opposite, but exists alongside mine. These stories may be disguised as journal entries, as book reviews, even as essays, or columns, or articles- but they are most of all about others, writers and artists who have inspired me and many others, about famous people, about people no one has heard of but who have touched me. Our stories are all intertwined.
Q. When did you discover that you were a writer?
Lorette: I’ve always been a writer. Mom says I refused to go to kindergarten and spent the afternoons typing stories on my sister’s Fisher Price typewriter. It’s scary because I couldn’t be anything else. My artwork is an extension of my creativity. I used to feel guilty because telling stories for a living is not really work, now, is it? But it is. And the more I experienced in life, the more I saw how important storytelling was to human culture. All of the arts are based around it. All of history is. Religion, too, and the earliest myths, film, opera, ballet, soap opera, gossip magazines, word of mouth folklore, novels- these are all about storytelling, and it sets us apart from other animals. We reflect, we share, we learn.
I thought about Johnny Cash, Eminem, Ovid, Jesus, Van Gogh- and decided storytelling is the most important thing, regardless how humble my fortune would be.
Q. In what ways is this a book for the LGBTQI community?
Lorette: The gay community is my community. Being my zany, fierce fruit fly occasionally bi self means some of my characters and subjects and passions are gay. I mean, my friends touch my life, topics like AIDS and homophobia touch my life, Madonna touches my life. I go to a gay church. There are profiles and interviews of an amazing Toronto drag legend, Donnarama. But it’s not a gay book, per se. The subjects- life, death, suicide, addiction, spirituality, humour, joy, fear- are neither gay nor straight. Some of the characters are gay. Some aren’t.
The official launch in Toronto is part of the Queer West Fest Festival, which is an alternative queer prequel to the big Pride celebrations that rock this awesome city every year.
And then there’s the piece about me and my big blonde buoyant babe reading Philip Larkin’s poetry in the bathtub… Seriously, I can make dead people interested in literature!
Q. What kind of criticisms or obstacles you come up against?
Lorette: Well, getting published is always an obstacle, ha ha! The main criticism is that I’m not objective. I don’t work for the daily news even though I’m trained in journalism. I can research vigorously, do great interviews, write amazing features, but I refuse to squeeze all the human life out of a story unless I’m asked to by an editor. Objectivity is a myth, anyhow, so when profiling someone or something, I include my experience. People respond to subjectivity because they have their own response, too. That doesn’t mean I have to leave out facts. Even hard journalism is not objective. Advertising interests, editors, liberal or conservative slant, interpretation of facts- all of these make all writing subjective. Readers really enjoy my people profiles, for example, but I do use my own reactions- if someone just wants a list or a chronology, they can go to Wikipedia.
Q. What’s next?
Lorette: The follow up or sequel will appear later this year- Dendrite Pandemonium: Hits, Misses, and Random B-Sides. There’s an anthology of short fiction coming, too, early 2010. I’m always investing time into my Fascinating People series (www.fascinatingpeople.wordpress.com). I have several spin-offs like Fascinating Queers here and Fascinating Writers at www.bookslut.com. I write several other columns, too- a foodie one at www.gremolata.com, and one about mythology in history and modern life. And of course, I’m painting, and I’m working on a novel.
Q. Why should anyone spend $30 of their hard earned dollars on this book?
Lorette: Because it’s a beautiful book to have on your coffee table or the back of your loo. Because you can read a piece quickly and have 400 other pages to discover. Because it’s good to have me around when you’re falling apart with grief, or when you need a good laugh. Because the artists I worked with- Gonzalo de Cardenas, Iaian Greenson, Caroline Bacher, are amazing. You should also pick up a copy of my first book, The Astronaut’s Wife: Poems of Eros and Thanatos. I want to be the kind of writer whose books you keep beside your bed.
Visit Lorette C. Luzajic at www.thegirlcanwrite.net. You can order her books there, or through Amazon online.
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