June 18,
2004
Today is the day to play our exciting new slots and tables.
Today's interviewee is fascinating. At the age of 18, established as a horror fanatic, she published her first book, a Southern Gothic vampire novel, Lost Souls. She has also edtied a volume of erotic vampire fiction and written a biography of Courtney Love at the musician's request. Her current book, Liquor, is a departure for her, as she writes about the cooks and kitchens of New Orleans.
The Poppy Z. Brite Interview: Just Under Twenty Questions
How did you come to write a book about restaurants?
I've been married to a chef for fifteen years, and I am a native
New Orleanian -- everyone's obsessed with
food and restaurants here. Eventually I just had too many good stories
and characters not to do it. I didn't expect it to take over my life to the
extent that it has -- I've already written two more novels and several short
stories about these characters, and there will be at least one more novel,
probably more.
Do you watch many cooking shows, or The Restaurant?
I used to watch "Iron
Chef," which was great, but I think I've seen all of the episodes
several times now. I hated the first season of "The Restaurant,"
which I found totally unrealistic, but liked the second season where everything
was falling apart and Rocco
was showing his true, pathetic colors -- that much more closely resembled
the real restaurant world as I know it. I liked "A Cook's Tour,"
except the one about New Orleans, and I do check out Emeril every now and
then. Generally, though, I prefer reading about food to watching shows about
it.
You had to change agents when you changed genres. Have your fans been
excited about the writing divergence or are they mad like the folkies were
when Dylan went electric?
Almost all of them have been incredibly supportive and kind, and the ones
who haven't been were mostly the pinheads
who only wanted a Lost Souls sequel anyway, so I don't mind being rid
of them.
What do you like about working with small presses?
The creative control, the personal relationships, the beautiful books. Although
I must say Three Rivers (the division of Random House that published Liquor)
has offered me these things too, more so than any other major house I've worked
with.
What is your writing schedule?
Mostly at night. Minimum of four pages a day.
Do you plot stories out ahead of time or are you able to create stories
as you write?
I don't like to do a great deal of advance plotting. With novels, in particular,
I seldom know what's going to happen more than halfway through. The fun of
getting there would be lessened if I had it all meticulously worked out, I
think.
Do you ever get writers
block? What do you do?
I'm not aware of ever having had it. I've had periods where I felt uncreative
and discouraged, but I tried to see them as recharging
periods rather than "blocks."
Other than cuisine, what's the difference between a New Orleans kitchen
versus an East or West Coast one?
I'm really only familiar with East/West Coast kitchens through reading
about them and talking to people who've worked in them; I don't know those
scenes like I do the New Orleans one. A few readers have mentioned slang they
think may be unique to New Orleans kitchens: "G," "Freak of
the Week," "taint," "shoemaker" -- though I feel
certain I've heard cooks from elsewhere say "shoemaker."
A lot of writers would kill to be published in their twenties,
let alone earlier
than that. Were there any pitfalls of having your first book picked up
at such a young age?
Sure. You do a lot of dumb shit, and people expect you to keep doing it
forever. Doesn't mean you have to.
To write horror, is it necessary to study the genre pretty
closely, or is it something anyone with a good imagination and writing skills
able to do?
I cherish the fond, foolish hope that no one would set out to write in any
genre unless he enjoyed reading it enough to be familiar with it. I've been
reading horror fiction since I was very young, and I still read it even though
I'm no longer writing it, though not as much as I used to. I don't think you
necessarily have to know your genre inside and out, but certainly you should
WANT to be familiar with it because you like it.
You seem like you've grown up to be a pretty different person from when
you were 18 (as most people have.) Do you regret now anything that you said
or did publicly?
Sure redux. I can't read interviews I gave in my twenties or even my early
thirties; they're pure cringefests. But I don't know if I'd actually go
back and change a great deal of it, since I like where I am now, and all that
silly stuff played a part in getting me here.
Do you still think of yourself as being more male than female? How does
this play out in your day to day life? I have never been certain what it means
when a woman says she feels more like
a gay man.
I don't know what women mean when they say it. For me, it means I think of
myself as male, and that I am attracted to males. There are as many different
forms of transsexuality as there are transsexuals. I suppose I would be a
non-operative, non-transitioning one -- I have no plans to seek gender reassignment
and I make no attempt to pass as male or even appear male. It's a purely internal
thing, and at this point it's really only relevant to my personal life.
You don't see many Girls Gone Wild and drunk frat boys with camcorders
in New Orleans goth lit, do you?
Couldn't tell you -- I don't read much New Orleans goth lit.
Who was your favorite Beatle?
Gotta be John. He's the
only one I have a tattoo of!
Speaking of which, some people draw parallels between Courtney Love and
Yoko Ono. Do you think this is accurate in any way?
I honestly haven't spent enough time thinking about Yoko Ono to know.
You say about her, "Courtney can be a very stressful person to have
in your life." Can you give any details about how she was stressful to
have in your life in particular?
I know I'm a big old wet blanket (sorry!), but I'd really rather not. That's
in the past, and I'm a lot more interested in discussing other things now.
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to write
an erotic scene but was struggling?
Hmmm ... that's a good one. I'm not really sure. I won't claim I have never
gotten embarrassed while writing an erotic scene, but I always just plowed
ahead with it, so to speak. Sex doesn't figure as prominently in my work as
it used to, and it's hardly a part of the Liquor novels at all. I discussed
this in my Livejournal not too long ago, and here's what I came up with: These
characters, Rickey and G-man, seem to value their relationship more than any
others I've written about. The relationship is not a brand-new source of wonder
and passion for them; it's life as they know it, which is a whole different
ball game (again, so to speak). They're comfortable in it; they're honest
about it; they know what it is, and it's not a source of angst for them. They
tolerate my flashing the reader a glimpse of their sex life when the story
seems to require it, as in my short story "Bayou de la Mère,"
but they're not about to let me splash it gratuitously all over the page to
titillate myself or anyone else. I respect that, and as far as possible, I
do what they tell me; I'd certainly be lost without them at this point.
Do you still write while on drugs
or drunk? Does this ever backfire?
No, I've given up that interesting but ultimately not very productive habit.
How does it feel to be the 96th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Not as sexy as being the 69th, that's for sure.
[Ed. note: She is actually the 97th, which is even less sexy]