This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Tony Nesca, author of the short story collection, Junkyard Lucy and founder of Screamin’ Skull Press. Tony is a fearless writer who is always exploring new styles and new themes. Check out what he has to say about breaking the mold and finding your own voice.
When did you first know that you wanted to become a writer?
Well it started with music—I spent many years as a professional musician playing local bars in a band that wrote all their own songs. Once my twenties started rolling along I started to slowly write prose and poetry and at the same time began to get tired of the music scene, all the hanger-on’s, the constant socializing, I felt I wanted a more solitary art form to take part of. So I started writing and publishing my own books at the age of 27.
You grew up spending time between Canada and Italy, do you find that living between these two cultures has had an impact on your work?
Very large impact. If you read my short stories they fluctuate between my Canada experiences and my Italy experiences—I was born in Italy, but we came to Canada when I was 3 years old. However it didn’t end there—we moved back to Italy several times during my childhood, the last time being in my early teens. And even when I lived in Canada, which was the bulk of my childhood, my life at home was 100 percent traditional Italian. We spoke Italian, we ate Italian, and we lived in Winnipeg’s little Italy. Being bicultural, having been raised by two entirely different cultures, has kept my mind open and my experiences varied. Of course, that can do nothing but aid you in any artistic pursuit.
You’ve published 16 novels, including your latest collection of short stories, Junkyard Lucy. How have you managed to produce such a large body of work? Can you tell us a little about your writing habits?
18 books, only 6 are novels, the rest are short stories and/or poems. I write at night, for the most part, though I can, and have, written at any time. The only requirement is that I am alone— I can’t see someone walking by out of the corner of my eye, or hear someone having a conversation on the phone. I need to inhabit the space I am writing in entirely. And I need music, always music. I don’t know where the inspiration comes from to write so much, I honestly don’t. I have this compulsion that I can’t control. Even when a book doesn’t do well and I get down on myself and angry, and I start ranting about quitting and never publishing another book and no one appreciates what I do, blah blah, etc., I find myself back at the keyboard within weeks, even days.
You started your own small press with your wife, Nicole I Nesca, called Screamin’ Skull Press. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind Screamin’ Skull?
That’s not entirely correct, pardon me—I started Screamin’ Skull Press in 1994 with the publication of my first book, a 50 page chapbook of stories and poems called “Stale Anchovy Kisses”. I didn’t know Nicole yet. She joined in 2008 with the publication of her first book, a collection of poems called “The Sexual Repression Collection”. The inspiration came from not liking what I was seeing in the writing world—the geek culture wasn’t in full bloom yet, but it was beginning. You could feel the culture changing—the books, the music, the movies—I felt the passion and the experimental element to art slowly disappearing. Everything became genre, you know, horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, all things began to follow set formulas and standards. I wanted to write in the spirit that my heroes did—like the Lost Generation of the 1920’s, the Beat Writers of the late 40’s and 50’s, like the songwriters and musicians of the 60’s and 70’s, I wanted to rebel, to scream out against the mainstream, to experiment with style and content. Rebel against both, the artistic output of the time, and also against the lifestyle—the work-dreary, chase the almighty dollar type of mentality. I was going to University at the time and I was studying literature and hanging out, meeting new people, partying, all that stuff. But I found the literature they taught us in class, and the books people were reading, was not the type of writing I liked. After rejections galore from publishers from all over the world, I decided to do it myself, write my own way, publish my own work, and the hell with the mainstream world.
Do you plan on accepting work from other authors at Screamin’ Skull for publication in the future?
We’re not going to publish entire books by other writers, but we would like to publish a book of short stories and poems by ourselves and a few other writers. We’ve only talked about it with one writer so far, but this is a project we would like to do. There are a handful of writers, male and female, in the underground today that we dig and that would work well with our own writing.
You talk about how a lot of what’s out there now if formulaic, recycled or a “rip-off of another rip-off.” What, in your opinion, do you find to be some of the most overused ideas or concepts in modern writing?
Now you’ve hit on my favorite rant—this genre culture, “geek culture” as they call it, has ruined the way we perceive art. All this standard formulaic drivel is forcing our minds to accept and to expect a typical story—a beginning, middle, end, a hero, a villain, action sequences, if the pace isn’t lightning-fast, people get bored. No time for reflective work, for poetry, for a story simply about people dealing with life, a story without a dragon or a wizard or spaceship, or even a single gun being fired off. People writing about people has gone out of style, and the sad thing is it’s all over the underground as well—it used to be that the underground writers were fighting against the mainstream, now, with the exception of a handful of writers, they are imitating the mainstream
What advice would you give to authors who are trying to find their own, unique voice? How can they break out of the mold?
Ignore what’s out there—don’t write with an audience in mind—forget the audience, follow your instincts and write down what you feel has to get out. Go deep, probe your unconscious and hit the streets. All you need is right outside your window, just keep eyes, ears and mind wide OPEN. Go to the bookstore and check out what’s on the shelf—whatever the trend seems to be, whatever the common sound is, that is what NOT to do. Oh, and drinking, or whatever else you need to take you outside of the typical, doesn’t hurt.
Who are some of your favorite authors and why?
Henry Miller, Arthur Rimbaud, Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, Hunter Thompson, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Silvia Plath, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Virginia Woolf, Tom Waits, John Lennon, Ted Prokash, Ali Kinteh, CS Fuqua, Anais Nin, GH Neale, Scott Laudati, etc.. These are all writers with different styles, different voices, but they all write in the same tradition—they are rebels, they are experimenters, they listen to their own hearts, they do not follow trends. Some write straight from the guts, some are more cerebral, but they are all unique.
Your write using a “free-flow” style. Can you tell us a little bit more about your unique style?
First of all, I want to say that I don’t always write the same way, or in exactly the same style. I’ve always wanted to experiment, always wanted to be the type of writer that tries different things. Out of the 18 books I’ve written, 6 are novels—4 of them are written in a free-flow style with sentences that can go on for pages, the other two are written in a more traditional manner—first draft, rewrite, edit, polish, all that stuff. My collection of short stories, Junkyard Lucy, alternates between short, declarative, tough sentences (a la Raymond Carver) and stream of consciousness, free-flow stories. But yes, most of my work is in that free-flow style, street-lyric. What it means is that I barely plan out anything, I have an inkling of an idea, then I sit down, get in a certain state of mind, then let it flow out of me as fast as it can. Sometimes you slow down, deliberate, then you press the gas pedal again, then stop, think, then do it again. Basically you have to surrender to your instincts and to your sense of rhythm, let them lead you. The words have to fly down the page like music. I don’t work with a conscious effort, I work closer to the subconscious. And I’ve always experimented with my prose—my first novel was written in 5 weeks and there isn’t a single rewrite or edit of any kind. Pure stream of consciousness. My second was written in 8 weeks and takes place in 12 hours and I put it through my usual one-rewrite method – finish it, and only go through it one time, keeping edits to a bare minimum. I never rewrite my free-flow work more than once, it has to always feel spontaneous. My 3rd novel was written entirely in poems, and so on…I don’t want to be that writer who becomes a prisoner of his own style and voice.
You’ve talked about selling your books going to different book shops and selling your books out of your knapsack. It takes a lot of work, courage, and determination for authors to get their work noticed. Do you have any tips for other authors looking to get their work out there?
I don’t have any tips except for one very important one—don’t limit yourself as far as your dreams—there are the artsy writers that will tell you that you should just be happy writing for yourself and shouldn’t care about who reads it, or how many people like it. Others will tell you to write for a specific audience and try to sell you work. I say, do only what you want to do—if your goal is to be famous, then the hell with the artsy writers—if your goal is to produce high-quality literature, then to hell with the mainstream and worrying about selling it (though I want as many people as possible to read my work). Listen to yourself, that’s all, and write however you want to, whatever gets you through the night.
You talk about not sugar-coating reality for fiction. Do you feel like many authors shy away from some of the topics you tackle in your novels? Such as death, sex, and rebellious youth. Why do you think this is?
It’s not so much that they shy away from them, there is plenty of death and sex all around in film and literature, but it’s rarely done in a literary or artistic manner, it’s done gratuitously. If there is sex, it’s erotica, if there’s death, it’s action thrillers. If there is rebellion, youth or otherwise, it’s done from the point of view of addiction, preaching about getting straight and so on. Why not write about these things realistically? Forget sex as erotica, write about it as the sometimes, always complicated, thing it really is. If there are characters that use drugs or drink, they don’t have to be addicts. I’ve known plenty of people that have lived that lifestyle without their lives falling apart, as a matter of fact, I’ve known more people that haven’t become addicts, though I’ve known my share of addicts. Of course, abusing any substance is just plain dumb, and if that’s the angle your writing is focusing on, then do it realistically. Tackle these topics with a keen eye on real life, even if the story is pure fantasy, and with a literary and artistic approach.
What’s next for you?
I am working on my first spoken word project with an underground writer that I dig called CS Fuqua, who is going to produce it, mix it, get it distributed, and just guide me along. Then I have another novel planned, that I want to get started, though I would like to approach some writers about that collaboration I spoke about, get that out first.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I just want to say that I have immense respect for Indie writers, self-publishers, all artists that do it themselves away from the machine. Even those writers that write in a style very different from my own, I encourage and support. As long as art is the goal, as long as they subscribe to their own personal vision without compromise, I, we, at Screamin’ Skull Press, support them.
For more of Tony’s work check out these links or buy Junkyard Lucy by clicking on the book cover below!
Screamin’ Skull Press
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