I sat down (digitally speaking) for a long-form interview with an old friend, Brad Willis, from the poker world. Poker.Org has a new series, Inside the Boom, covering the glorious online poker boom of the early 2000s from different angles and perspectives. I offered a unique lens as the mastermind behind Tao of Poker blog while covering the WSOP in Las Vegas and the international poker circuit.
I "retired" from poker in 2012 and pivoted to sports betting, but the legend an legacy lives on. Those gravy days in Las Vegas -- which I detailed in LOST VEGAS -- feel like eight lifetimes ago. I had not thought the poker boom in 15-plus years, so Brad and I took a fun and nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Don't worry, this is a long-form written interview and not a podcast or video if you're truly an old-school blogger or blog reader. I got to plug my two most recent novels, which was cool.
Some of the topics we touch on:
• Behind-the-scenes vibes at the WSOP • Covering the most prestigious poker tournament in the world • Making up my coverage style as I went along • Finding stories on the fringes that ESPN never covered • Unfiltered Gonzo poker blogging • Fond memories and hjinks • Shady mofos on the edges of the WSOP • Why modern poker is missing wild characters from boom era • Shifting vibes in the WSOP after the UIGEA and Black Friday • Living in Vegas, working in gambling industry to inspire my fiction • How the poker boom influenced PARANOID ANDROID • My "disappearance" from poker explained • Tao of Poker is a time capsule for post-9/11 America and before the rise of social media and smartphones
Thanks to Brad and Poker.Org for a fun interview and a walk along memory lane underneath the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip.
New novel! PARANOID ANDROID is now available in paperback and a Kindle ebook. If you still read my blog, then you're in lucky and can buy your copy before the public release date on 7/4/26.
I began writing PARANOID ANDROID less than 13 months ago. I had read back-to-back Thomas Pynchon novels the sat down to write the first draft of a thriller and murder mystery inspired by my favorite Hollywood neo-noir films from the 1970s and Michael Clayton by Tony Gilroy. It's probably my best work since FRIED PEACHES.
Here's the description on the back cover of PARANOID ANDROID:
Six friends. Multiple deaths. A coincidence or a kill list?
Two decades after graduating from an elite Manhattan prep school, a Las Vegas gambler named Jasper Zen is pulled back into the lives of his fractured friend group after a series of mysterious deaths. A search for answers takes him from Las Vegas to Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and New York City.
PARANOID ANDROID is a noir thriller and murder mystery inspired by paranoid conspiracy films of the 1970s. It follows one man's attempt to understand what happened to his friends and the cost he pays to uncover the truth.
Check out Paranoid Android playlists: official soundtrack, character mixes, party mixtape, and background writing music
***
Moving to Colorado sparked on of the most creative periods of my life. PARANOID ANDROID is my third novel published novel in the last three years. It's my fourth novel since December 2021 and my sixth overall.
PARANOID ANDROID is also the second book I released in 2026. In April, I published a self-help book titled WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME.
Visit my Amazon author page to read any of my other novels in paperback or ebook. You don't need a physical Kindle to enjoy an ebook. Simply download the app to read on your phone or tablet.
***
Listen to a PARANOID ANDROID podcast I recorded with change100 about the new novel, it's influences and inspiration, plus some behind the scenes stuff:
I created multiple playlists as a companion piece to the novel. Head over to Spotify (my username is @taopauly) and check out various PARANOID ANDROID playlists.
I always create a special writing mix for every new project that I listen to while writing and editing. From that massive playlist, I narrow down an official soundtrack of songs that would be perfect as background music for specific scenes.
I also created character mixes. If these characters made a mixtape (or burned a CD), what would be on it? They graduated high school in 2001, so I listened to a lot of NYC bands featured in Lizzie Goodman's oral history Meet Me in the Bathroom.
PARANOID ANDROID follows a friend group that graduated high school in 2001, so I spent a lot of time listening to music from that era. The soundtrack is heavily influenced by Radiohead, and the early-2000s NYC music scene with artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, and The Strokes shaping the atmosphere and vibes of the book.
Music is one of the most powerful triggers of memory. You can hear a song you haven't thought about in twenty years and suddenly you're back in a particular room, with particular friends, feeling exactly what you felt then. PARANOID ANDROID is about old friendships, nostalgia, and the stories we tell ourselves about the past.
Music is always an essential part of my writing process. It's the soul and backbone of the latest novel. These playlists and character mixes were woven into the DNA of PARANOID ANDROID. The songs shaped the mood, vibes, atmosphere, and emotional landscape of the novel. Music hasn't played such a pivotal role in the creation of one of my novels since FRIED PEACHES.
Hopefully this can help answer some of your most popular questions about my new novel, PARANOID ANDROID. If you have a question that hasn't been covered, please leave it in the comments below.
Q. What is PARANOID ANDROID about?
A. Twenty-five years after graduating from an elite Manhattan prep school, members of a once-tight-knit friend group begin dying under suspicious circumstances. When Las Vegas poker pro Jasper Zen starts investigating, he uncovers long-buried secrets connecting his former classmates to a sprawling international conspiracy. The deeper he digs into the past, the line between coincidence and murder becomes harder to ignore and he realizes he may not be prepared for what he finds.
Q. What is PARANOID ANDROID really about?
A. There's a deeper exploration of friendships, especially your high school friends you made as a teenager, and why some bonds last forever and how some friends eventually become strangers. It's about the stories we tell ourselves about them, and how those stories fall apart over time.
Like all my novels, PARANOID ANDROID delves into late-stage capitalism and the ways economic systems affect people differently depending on where they sit in the hierarchy. This novel explores class, educational elitism, ambition, power, secrets, and corporate greed.
The deaths of multiple classmates reveal a conspiracy woven into the architecture of global power and surveillance, and how technology is manipulated to give powerful institutions unprecedented visibility into our lives. It touches on the arrival of fascism and surveillance capitalism, and the emergence of a technocratic class that increasingly shapes society without democratic accountability.
Q. Your main character is a poker pro. Is this a poker novel or another gambling book?
A. Let me be clear... this is not a poker or gambling novel. Yes, the main character is a professional gambler who got his start in online poker before moving to Las Vegas. He eventually pivoted to sports betting and used his gambling earnings to start multiple businesses including a tech startup.
Q. Your main character is a poker pro. Is this a poker novel or another gambling book?
A. Let me be clear... this is not a poker or gambling novel. Yes, the main character is a professional gambler who got his start in online poker before moving to Las Vegas. He eventually pivoted to sports betting and used his gambling earnings to start multiple businesses including a tech startup.
Q. Does your novel take place in Las Vegas?
A. Several chapters take place in Vegas and Macau is featured in another chapter. PARANOID ANDROID has other chapters set in Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York City, Amsterdam, and Costa Rica.
Q. Why is PARANOID ANDROID relevant today?
A: Although I'm much older than the characters in this novel, I wanted to write about a generation caught between two worlds. The characters are millennials and came of age before smartphones, social media, and AI. They now live in a society increasingly shaped by algorithms, widespread surveillance, and data collection.
Politically, the book asks who holds power in a technological age. Nostalgically, it asks what happens when we revisit the people and memories we thought we understood. Those questions felt relevant when I started writing the novel 12 months ago, and feel even more relevant today considering global events and domestic malaise.
Q. What are your inspirations behind PARANOID ANDROID?
A. Thomas Pynchon was the starting point. I read Vineland and Bleeding Edge back-to-back and became fascinated by the way Pynchon combines paranoia, technology, politics, and humor into stories that feel both absurd and unsettling. Those novels convinced me that conspiracy fiction could be about much more than secret plots, but a way of exploring how power operates in modern society.
After finishing the first draft, I read Adam Ross's Playworld, which was one of the best novels I'd read in years. It was the kind of book that kicks a writer's ass while simultaneously inspiring them. Reading it pushed me to raise my standards and approach the second draft with much deeper ambition.
Slow Horses, both the source novels by Mick Herron and the streaming series about British spies who are washed up or total fuck-ups, was also a catalyst.
On the cinematic side, Michael Clayton was probably the single biggest influence. I love stories where ordinary people slowly realize they're confronting systems much larger than themselves. More broadly, I drew inspiration from 1970s paranoid thrillers and neo-noirs that reflected the political and social upheaval happening at the time in the wake of the Kennedy and MLK assassinations, Vietnam War, Watergate, and the OPEC crisis. The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, The Conversation, Chinatown, Night Moves, Klute, Serpico, Marathon Man, and The Long Goodbye were films that created a mood of distrust and uncertainty. I wanted to capture that on the page, but reflecting upon our own economic, political, social, and tech tumult.
I was also influenced by journalism films such as All the President's Men, Spotlight, Shattered Glass, and Zodiac. At its heart, PARANOID ANDROID is an investigation. After one of his journalist friends die, Jasper Zen is constantly trying to separate truth from misinformation. Those films provided a blueprint for how a determined person uncovers hidden connections that powerful institutions would prefer remain invisible.
Q. What are the best comps for this novel?
A. The DNA probably comes from Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo on the literary side, and conspiracy thrillers on the commercial side. I wanted to write a novel that explored surveillance, technology, and power, but with the momentum of a murder mystery.
Q. Why the title PARANOID ANDROID?
A: The title comes from the Radiohead song, and one of the characters is a huge Radiohead fan. The Radiohead song references the fictional character, Marvin the Paranoid Android, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
The title also reflects the novel's two major obsessions: paranoia and technology.
The characters live in a world dominated by surveillance systems, corporate power, and the collection of personal data. The novel explores what happens when people begin to realize how much of their lives are being monitored, analyzed, and monetized. Are they paranoid? Or are they finally seeing the machinery that's been operating around them all along?
The android is a metaphor for a society becoming increasingly mediated by technology and the rise of AI. Algorithms shape behavior, screens shape perception, and human beings are often treated as data points within larger systems. That's the tension at the heart of the book.
Q. How is PARANOID ANDROID linked with your other novels in its own literary universe?
A. I crafted the concept that my novels occupy the same literary universe. The books are all standalone stories, so readers don't need to read any of the others first, but longtime readers will notice connections, recurring references, and the occasional familiar face. Everyone loves Easter eggs right? It's a way to reward loyalty explicitly with an added layer of enjoyment for devout supporters who read any of my other books.
PARANOID ANDROID contains Easter eggs from several of my previous novels. A character from GUARD THIS makes a brief cameo, a character from FADED is mentioned, and readers of THE KICKER will recognize the GIL, my fictional version of the NFL, which exists in both books.
There are also smaller references scattered throughout the novel for attentive readers to discover. None of these references are necessary to understand the story, but they're a little reward for readers who've been following my work over the years.
I like the idea that all of these stories are happening in different corners of the same universe. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes they're subtle, but they create the sense that the characters and events from one novel continue to exist long after that particular story ends.
Q. Is there a playlist or soundtrack?
A. Of course! Music is always a huge part of my creative process. I curate playlists to be listened as a companion piece to the novel.
The title of this novel comes from a Radiohead song. Radiohead is the favorite band of one of the characters, Stevie Tan, so Stevie's mix is heavy on Radiohead.
Music is always an essential part of my writing process, but these playlists and character mixes were woven into the DNA of PARANOID ANDROID in a way that few soundtracks have been since FRIED PEACHES. The songs shaped the mood, vibes, atmosphere, and emotional landscape of the novel.
****
If you have
any other questions about the new novel, please ask them in the comments or contact me.
I'll be happy to update this section to include your questions and my
answers.
Sometimes forces beyond your control result in a serendipitous result.
GUARD THIS became my bestselling novel of 2026 even though it was originally published in 2021. A tidal wave of 1990s nostalgia, fueled by Gen Z, BookTok, and a fascination with the Ryan Murphy series Love Story: JFK Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, gave the novel an unexpected second life.
GUARD THIS is an experiment in autofiction inspired by my experiences working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I befriended a group of artists, musicians, and other creatives.
As interest in 90s nostalgia and the NYC art scene surged, younger readers discovered my novel in surprising numbers.
When I noticed accelerating sales in early 2026, I did not raise the price, Instead, I leaned into the momentum with two targeted ebook promotions: a $4.20 sale in late April followed by a $5.55 sale for Cinco de Mayo (which I extended through all of May).
The sales data revealed a dramatic shift in who was buying the book. It was impossible to ignore the metrics and demographics. BookTok recommendations and Gen Z's growing obsession with 90s culture resulted in an influx of younger readers and first-time book buyers seeking stories set in mid-90s NYC.
I lowered the price point for all my ebooks. My shifted pricing philosophy is to make my books affordable and accessible to younger readers, aspiring writers, and recent college grads. The results were both humbling and enlightening.
I'm grateful for the support that came out of nowhere. Gen Z gets a ton of crap, but I’m fortunate many of those new readers (Millennials and Zillennials too!) took a chance on a jaded Gen X writer like myself.
Listen to this podcast interview clip where I discuss the wild and unexpected journey GUARD THIS took in 2026:
I wanted to give back to the writing community by sharing advice I dispatched to friends, family, readers, and strangers over the years.
I also wanted to make this self-help book accessible to as many aspiring writers as possible, which is why the ebook is only $4.99.
Here's the book description:
WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME is for aspiring writers from age 13 to 113. It is a self-help book for new writers... teenagers, 20-somethings, and adults returning to a long-delayed creative goal... who want honest, practical guidance without cliches, gatekeeping, or false promises.
Most people who want to write quit because no one explains what writing actually looks like at the beginning.
This writing advice book focuses on what actually matters early on. So new writers can avoid confusion, self-doubt, and wasted time.
Included are 50 short writing exercises to help generate ideas, overcome writer's block, and help you start writing right away.
****
BACKSTORY
This book would not be possible without Jen Leo. I have a vivid memory of the first time she told me I should write an ebook sharing writing advice. We were playing blackjack with my brother at the Plaza Casino in downtown Las Vegas when she pitched me this idea. Over the years, she's often brought up the concept. "When are you going to write that writing advice book?"
Well, here it is! Better late than never.
WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME is advice I would tell my younger self. I suffered pletny of bad beats and made poor decisions along my journey, so I hope this book can help you avoid the same pitfalls and heartache.
No cheesy affirmations. Just the straight dope and clarity about what matters early on, and how to approach writing as a learnable skill rather than a mysterious calling.
The goal is not to promise success, but to help readers start on the right track and to help them avoid the mistakes that cause most beginners to stall or quit.
****
TARGET AUDIENCE • First-time writers unsure how to begin • Aspiring writers seeking realistic, no-hype guidance • Adults returning to writing later in life • Readers tired of inspirational but impractical advice WHY THIS BOOK STANDS OUT • Focuses on the beginning, where most writing advice fails • Drawn from real-world writing experience, not theory • Calm, practical, and non-romanticized • Relevant across age groups and genres
P.S. If you're waiting for a new novel... there's one on the way. Stay tuned.
I'm excited to publish a third new novel in three years since I moved to Colorado, or my fifth book in the last six years. To put that in perspective, it took five years to finish LOST VEGAS and another five to finish FRIED PEACHES. Yup, only two books in ten years. This year will feature two books in 2026 with one non-fiction self-help and one fiction.
THE KICKER is now available in paperback and a Kindle ebook.
I began the first draft of THE KICKER at the end of 2020. I sat on it for a few years before revisiting it last spring, when I finally had time to write a second draft. I reworked that draft earlier this year, and now it's complete. It's crazy to think that I wrote and published two other novels since I began this project, but this was a story that I had to tell eventually.
And yes, it's my first gambling-themed book in 15 years. Can't believe it's been that long since Lost Vegas was published.
Here's the description of THE KICKER:
Former college football kicker Chilly Waters thought his playing days were far behind him. But when his friends challenge him to a bet to kick a field goal in a snowstorm, a video of the moment goes viral, changing Chilly's life forever. Almost overnight, the 42 year-old single father goes from running a pest control company to kicking for the Colorado Blizzard, his hometown professional football team. However, when Chilly and his teammates are approached by criminal entities to fix games, he's sucked into the dirty underbelly of sports gambling and forced to make a monumental decision.
I recorded a brief podcast with change100 who interviewed me about the new novel. It's a glimpse behind the scenes and we discuss the long journey I took to bring this from a first draft to its final form.
THE KICKER is now available as a Kindle ebook and in paperback!
Here's answers to frequently asked questions that you might have
about the new novel with a quickie Q & A and FAQ about THE KICKER...
Q. What is THE KICKER about?
A. Here's the tagline:
Former college football kicker Chilly Waters thought his playing days were far behind him. But when his friends challenge him to a bet to kick a field goal in a snowstorm, a video of the moment goes viral, changing Chilly's life forever. Almost overnight, the 42 year-old single father goes from running a pest control company to kicking for the Colorado Blizzard, his hometown professional football team. However, when Chilly and his teammates are approached by criminal entities to fix games, he's sucked into the dirty underbelly of sports gambling and forced to make a monumental decision.
Here's my elevator pitch: What happens when a 40-something single father and rookie kicker is approached by criminals to fix a football game?
Q. What is THE KICKER really about?
A. It's a novel that explores proliferation of legalized sports betting and the underbelly of gambling world. Like my previous three novels, THE KICKER also delves into celebrity culture.
My most recent novels have a similar theme with creatives being crushed by the gears of capitalism. The characters are vying for survival while they're stuck in the crossroad of art and commerce, whether it was the music industry (FRIED PEACHES), the 1990s NYC art scene (GUARD THIS), or on the fringes of Hollywood (FADED).
With THE KICKER, I wanted to focus on the impact of a monumental collision between professional sports and the gambling world.
Q. Is the GIL supposed to be the NFL, or a different pro league?
A. I did not want to worry about getting sued by the NFL, so I changed the league to the GIL. It's essentially my version of the NFL. By changing the name of the league and teams, it provided more creative freedom and flexibility. Figuring out team names might've been my favorite part of the project and research.
Instead of the Denver Broncos, the main team is called the Colorado Blizzard. They play in the Mountain Division which also includes the Kansas Twisters, Salt Lake City Angels, and the Albuquerque Aztecs.
Q. What's different between your GIL and the NFL?
A. The GIL is regional based with an Eastern and Western Conference instead of the AFC/NFC. There's only one team in major markets like NYC and LA, which allowed me to add teams to cities that do not have a pro football team or any major sports franchise like El Paso or Louisville. I also made sure Oakland has a team after both the Raiders and A's abandoned the city.
There's also a 16-game season (instead of 17 now in the NFL), and I do not recognize the NFL's new kickoff rule.
Q. Where does THE KICKER take place?
A. Denver, Colorado is the primary location. FADED was my LA novel. New York City, especially NYC in the mid-90s, is where GUARD THIS took place. FRIED PEACHES is considered a road book because every chapter covered a different city while the band was on a tour. Obviously, I wrote about Las Vegas in LOST VEGAS. Q. How long did it take to write this novel?
A. I began the first draft at the end of 2020, but there was a 3+ year gap before I tackled a second draft. I worked on draft #2 in March/April of 2024 and wrote subsequent drafts in Jan/Feb of 2025. In all, I probably spent six total months writing THE KICKER but it was spread out over 52 months.
Q. Did you really write four other manuscripts between the first draft and final draft of THE KICKER?
A. Yes. Two were published including GUARD THIS and FADED. Two others are unpublished, which are either highly personal (DEBASER) or experimental sci-fi (2088), and I have no intentions to publish either at this moment.
After finishing the first draft of THE KICKER, I had spent three months in early 2021 in research mode (aka reading football books and watching films). However, after rereading the original draft in March 2021, I realized I did not set aside enough time to write the second draft. I had scheduled two weeks off from work, but needed a much bigger block of uninterrupted time. Since I had set aside a two-week writing session, I did not want to squander the opportunity. I needed to come up with something that I could write quickly and decided to experiment with a novelized memoir, or auto-fiction. That's how GUARD THIS was born.
FADED was another project that materialized quickly in the summer of 2023. Once we published FADED in early 2024, I set aside an unlimited amount of time to delve into the second draft of THE KICKER. I let the second draft marinate on a shelf for nine months before revisiting THE KICKER at the start of 2025.
Q. Is THE KICKER linked with your other novels its own literary universe?
A. Yes. Two characters are brothers including Mingus Christmas from FADED and Julius Christmas from THE KICKER. If you like Easter egss, you can find references to other novels including FRIED PEACHES, GUARD THIS, and even JACK TRIPPER STOLE MY DOG. I also figured out a way to link an unpublished manuscript just in case DEBASER gets published one day. 2088 is a sci-fi novel that takes place 60 years from now, but I'm sure if I'll figure out a way to link it with the other novels if I ever decide to revisit it.
Q. Did you read any books to research THE KICKER?
A. Yes, I had read EIGHT MEN OUT a month prior to writing the first draft, so the Chicago Blacksox scandal was initially on my mind. I enjoyed a few memoirs from Eric Dickerson, Brett Favre, and Nate Jackson. Also, Jeff Pearlman's book on Bo Jackson resonated deeply with me.
Q. Are you really going to pitch THE KICKER as a film or series?
A. That would be the next step, especially for what I've been told is my most commercial novel. Stay tuned!
Q. Are you working on any new novels?
A. At the present time... no. The screenplay is my primary project until inspiration strikes.
****
If you have any other questions, please ask them in the comments or contact me. I'll be happy to update this section to include your questions and my answers.
If you enjoy this Q&A format, then check out other ones I did for previous novels including FADED FAQs and FRIED PEACHES FAQs.
THE KICKER is now available in paperback and as an e-book.
I cranked out a new novel in the summer of 2023 and edited it in January 2024. FADED is the first book that I wrote, edited, and published via the new house in Denver.
Here's the book description:
Jackson McCool is the son of a prominent Beverly Hills psychiatrist, and for three years has quietly impersonated his now-ailing father in his medical and therapeutic practice. His success in this ruse is largely in thanks to his eccentric roster of self-absorbed patients, denizens of the entertainment industry who crave nothing more than a loose prescription pad and someone to listen to their complaints.
While providing an empathetic ear to Hollywood types, Jackson is also slinging (and ingesting) painkillers with his best friend, retired pro football player Mingus Christmas, as well as providing counsel at all hours to Westley Bolinger, the front man of a globally touring emo band. However, when suspicions arise and nefarious outside forces aim to expose him, Jackson must not only prevent his house of cards from falling but reckon with his own reasons for wanting to keep this charade alive.
A story about the ebbs and flows of fame on the fringes of Hollywood, FADED makes us question impermanence, ephemera, and celebrity culture.
FADED is currently available as a paperback and ebook (for those Kindle fans).
****
And here's a brief podcast with change100 about FADED including some behind the scenes info and Easter eggs.
****
My recent novels have an accompanying soundtrack which I curated via Spotify playlists. Once again, I created character-specific playlists (similar to GUARD THIS mixtapes). FADED has three playlists... if a character made a mixtape or playlist, what do they listen to?
Jackson McCool: The protagonist who wrote two books on music history/criticism. His playlist includes... Sly and the Family Stone, Steely Dan, Curtis Mayfield, Wilco, New York Dolls, David Bowie, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Phish, Beck, LCD Soundsystem, Tribe Called Quest, Chicago, Circle Jerks, Tom Petty, Edgar Winter, Doobie Brothers.
Ophelia McCool: TV producer and actress who is married to Jackson. Her playlist includes... Jungle, Parcels,Neal Frances, Grizzly Bear, The National, St Vincent, Hole, LCD Soundsystem, Fiona Apple, Phoenix, FLeetwood Mac, Wild Belle, Arcade Fire, The Smile, Mazzy Star, Dua Lipa, Nuetral Milk Hotel, Brittany Howard, Muse, Dandy Warhols, Concrete Blonde, Khruangbin, The Go-Go's.
Mingus Christmas: Former pro football player who breeds exotic cats and Jackson's best friend. His playlist is hip-hop heavy and includes... Sugar Hill Gang, Pharcyde, Warren G, Ice Cube, 2 Pac, Al Green, Cypress Hill, ODB, Run DMC, Snoop, Dr Dre, NWA, Fun Lovin' Criminals, DJ Khaled, Kuris Blow, Donny Hathaway, Biz Markie, Too $hort.
Here's some answers to frequently asked questions that you might have about the new novel. Time for a quickie Q & A and FAQ about FADED....
Q. Is FADED your LA novel?
A.
FADED takes place in LA on the fringes of Hollywood. We spent a decade
in LA (2012-22) after a short stint in San Francisco. We moved to
Colorado in the summer of 2022 and I wrote this last summer. After
spending one year away, the timing was ideal because LA was still
somewhat fresh in my mind and my perspective began to shift a bit.
Q. FADED is a comedy and satire?
A.
Yes. FADED is a a nod to Billy Wilder films, but the tone is a
throwback to some of my favorite comedies from the late 1970s and early
1980s. Jackson McCool, the protagonist in FADED, is a mix of Bill
Murray's film characters (Stripes, Meatballs) plus bit of Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller, WarGames) and Chevy Chase (Fletch). There's a sliver of Bruce Willis during a short time he was a budding TV star (Moonlighting) before he became a movie star.
Q. One of your characters played pro football, but I don't recognize the team names. Why?
A.
Mingus Christmas played linebacker for the Miami Sharks. In my literary
universe, the major pro football league is known as GIL or the Grid
Iron League. I wanted to avoid any potential legal entanglements with
the NFL, which is why the GIL is the stand in from the NFL in both FADED
and THE KICKER. The local pro football team in FADED is known as the LA
Demons.
Q. I thought you wrote two manuscripts last summer? What happened to the other one?
A.
Yes, that's true. I wrote a memoir -- DEBASER (tentative title) --
which takes place in NYC in 1989. It's based on the summer before my
senior year in high school. You're only 16 once, and that summer before I
turned 17 was a pivotal time. I wrote DEBASER fairly quickly (in less
than 3 weeks) in June 2023 after spending nearly six months in NYC
helping out with a family illness. The subject matter is a little too
personal and I doubt it will get published. I wrote for myself to help
make sense of an intense stint in NYC while I stayed in my childhood
bedroom for several months. I might revisit it sometime down the line.
Q. So, FADED is the second manuscript you wrote last summer?
A.
Yes. I began it in July 2023 and completed the first draft in early
August. I tend to write very fast, but edit very slow. FADED took around
three weeks to complete the first draft. I completed subsequent drafts
in January 2024.
Q. Are all your novels linked in its own literary universe?
A.
Yes. In an homage to Kevin Smith's cinematic universe, there are direct
references to characters in previous published novels including FRIED PEACHES, GUARD THIS, and JACK TRIPPER STOLE MY DOG. There's also
character connections to two unpublished manuscripts for THE KICKER and
DEBASER. I also incorporate the fictional world of other authors
including Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Donna Tartt, and Bret Easton
Ellis.
Q. What's up with the eye patch? Did you really write FADED with one eye?
A.
The rumors are true. I have been experiencing vision problems in my
left eye since the summer of 2022. We had a setback in July 2023, and I
was sidelined for two weeks when I went blind in my left eye. I wore an
eye patch during that time and started FADED. I wrote one chapter per
day mostly to keep myself sane and laugh with the characters. As my
vision improved, I quickly finished the first draft before a potential
surgical date. I essentially wrote FADED because I freaked out that the
vision loss would be permanent, and to address the anxiety over the
question -- what if surgery doesn't work?
Q. What's up with THE KICKER?
A.
It's still marinating. I hope to take another crack at sometime in
2024. I wrote the first draft at the end of 2020. I set aside time to
work on a rewrite in April 2021, but I had too many things I wanted to
change yet didn't have enough time to pull off a proper rewrite in the
time I had allotted. That's why I pivoted and cranked out GUARD THIS
instead. I wanted to work on the new draft of THE KICKER in the summer
of 2022 when first moved to Colorado, but it got sidetracked when my
vision issues began. I planned to work on it in January 2023, but then I
had to move back to NYC to help my brother and mother.
Q. Were you listening to a lot of audiobooks before/during FADED?
A.
I was sidelined for two weeks in July with vision problems, and spent
that time in total darkness while holed up in our guest bedroom because
it's the darkness room in the house. I listened to a dozen audiobooks to
keep sane because it was difficult to watch/stream with one eye. I
devoured audiobooks and consumed like two per day, so I revisited Infinite Jest by
David Foster Wallace. The book is over 1,000 pages and the audiobook
clocked in at 55 hours. I started/stopped reading the massive tome multiple times in
the 1990s. When I finally conquered it, I has spread it out
over several months. I listened to the Infinite Jest audiobook at 1.5x speed and it took me a week or so. There's one character in FADED who is a former tennis prodigy, which is my homage to DFW.
I consumed other audiobooks during this stretch that influenced FADED because it was fresh in my mind.
Blue Movie by Terry Southern
Pappyland by Wright Thompson
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska' Album by Warren Zanes
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir by Sly Stone
Q. What were some of your other inspirations behind FADED?
A. I listened to the first seven Steely
Dan albums (recorded/released between 1972-80) while writing the first
draft and it was in heavy rotation during the rewrites.
I revisited two books including Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem and Heat 2 by Michael Mann.
I also had three books about Hollywood on my mind. Hello, He Lied & Other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches was written by Lynda Obst who produced some big films in the 1980s-90s. I was also heavily inspired by The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon, which chronicled the insanity behind the film adaptation of Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. Lastly, there's The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West about Hollywood in the 1930s.
Jon Favreau hosted Dinner for Five
on IFC back in the early 2000s. During the show, he ate a meal with
four guests who shared funny and strange stories about working in
Hollywood. Many of those throwaway stories were an inspiration for this
book.
I love a good show biz story, and the odder the better. I
attempted to fictionalize a
few I heard over the years. Wil Wheaton told me a few bizarre stories,
and Kevin Smith often shared hysterical stories during his Q&As with
his legion of fans.
I was not even an hour into watching Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood when I made a decision to write an LA novel sooner than later.
All of Noah Baumbach films, especially Greenberg, were on my mind during the first draft.
Paul Thomas Anderson flicks especially his ones set in LA were an
inspiration. PTA is heavily influenced by Robert Altman, and his films
were a creative beacon.
Richard Linklater,Whit Stillman, Kelly Reinhardt, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, and Jim Jarmusch are all excellent filmmakers and their work has always been a massive influence on me.
Damien Chazelle's film Babylon
-- about the rough transition from silent films to talking films -- was
also an inspiration.Hollywood just survived multiple guild strikes and in the era of streaming wars and the rise of AI, so it felt compelling to write a story about this transition phase almost a century after silent films gave way to talkies.
Thanks for waiting three plus months for the paperback release of Guard This. Yes, the print version is finally here after Guard This debuted as an ebook on Christmas Eve. I appreciate everyone who bought the ebook, especially those of you who read it! If you're a Luddite and were waiting for the paperback version, then here's your chance to get your own physical copy.
What is Guard This? It's a novelized memoir that takes place in NYC in 1994-95.
Here's the book description:
Guard This
depicts New York City's art community during the last vestiges of
gritty Gotham in the 1990s. Tenzin McGrupp takes a security job at the
most famous art museum in the world while he saves up money for film
school. He's welcomed into an enclave of painters, musicians,
photographers, nonconformists, and freaks that hold day jobs as museum
guards to fund their late-night creative endeavors and drug-addled
antics. The guards are defiant artists at the dawn of the new millennium
before every nook of the City is gobbled up by corporations and
transformed into a capitalist theme park.
I curated different musical playlists to help market the new novel. You can listen to any of them in the background while reading Guard This, or listen to it before you crack open the book to help set the mood. Some of these Guard This mixes are great stand-alone playlists that many friends crank up for their morning commute or pre-party situations.
There's a trio of playlists that represent the soundtrack for Guard This if it were to ever become a film or limited TV series. In creating those initial playlists, I tried to use only music that was released prior to 1995, or stuff that I actually listened to 27 years ago.
Guard This 1.0 (aka Act 1)... Talking Heads, Radiohead, Lenny Kravitz, Black Crowes, Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Tribe Called Quest, Soundgarden, Phish, Blind Melon, Stone Temple Pilots, Wu-Tang Clan
Guard This 2.0 (aka Act 2)... INXS, Jimi Hendriz, David Bowie, Warren Zevon, Jungle Brothers, Primal Scream, Tom Petty, Blur, Sonny Rollins, Beck, Morphine
Guard This 3.0 (aka Act 3)... Elliot Smith, Drivin N Cryin, Bill Evans, Luna, Tom Waits, Gomez, Television, Steely Dan, Mazzy Star, Funkadelic, Ween, Widespread Panic, Velvet Underground
I also curated character mixes, or mixtapes that each character from Guard This would make if you gave them a blank tape in 1995. Yes, these are the names of some of the main characters and you can catch a glimpse into their headspace by listening to their mixtapes and music that they had access to in 1995. Hey, I did not really make these... the characters crafted each mixtape themselves.
Izabella... Digable Planets, Los Amigos Invisibles, Brick, Fugees, The Cure, Sly & the Family Stone, Queen Latifah, Arrested Development, The Breeders, Belly, D'Aneglo, Luscious Jackson, Liz Phair, Mary J Blige, Pulp, Dee Lite
Cube... Jaco Pastorious, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Doobie Brothers, David Bowie, The Pixies, Stone Roses, The Cars, Phil Collins, Captain Beefheart, Roxy, Jan Hammer, The Beatles, ELO, Big Audio Dynamite, Beastie Boys, Beck
Jazzman... Kenny Burrell, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan, Willie Bobo, Billie Holiday
Zelia... Air, Giorgio Moroder, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacqus Dutronc, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Johnny Hallday, Les Merseys, Charlotte Leslie, Portishead, The Wailers, L'Imperatrice, Daft Punk, Garbage, Michel Sardou, 10,000 Maniacs
Guard This is my third novel and fourth overall book that I wrote and published since 2010. Guard This is now available as an e-book. Stay tuned for information on a print version and paperback, which is due out in early 2022.
What is Guard This?
Here's the book description:
Guard This depicts New York City's art community during the last vestiges of gritty Gotham in the 1990s. Tenzin McGrupp takes a security job at the most famous art museum in the world while he saves up money for film school. He's welcomed into an enclave of painters, musicians, photographers, nonconformists, and freaks that hold day jobs as museum guards to fund their late-night creative endeavors and drug-addled antics. The guards are defiant artists at the dawn of the new millennium before every nook of the City is gobbled up by corporations and transformed into a capitalist theme park.
Guard This is a project that I started over 25 years ago. It had so many variations and formats that it's hard to keep up. It started out as a screenplay. Then a comic book. Then a novel. Then a stage play. Back to a novel. Then a series of short stories. Back to a screenplay. Then a limited series. Flirted with an animated series. And now, back to a novel.
The current novel version of Guard This came together quickly and almost by accident. In April of 2021, I blocked out a couple of weeks to work on rewriting a second draft of a project called The Kicker, which I penned at the end of 2020. After sitting on a shelf for the customary 90 days, I read The Kicker for the first time in three months and realized I did not have enough time to fix all the problems and rewrite a second draft. I still set aside two weeks without anything to work on, so I decided to give Guard This another pass. It had been 18 years since I last told a version of this story, but was surprised ho quickly the first draft of a the new novel wrote itself.
It took me five years to write Lost Vegas. Took me another five to work on Fried Peaches. It might take me five years to finish The Kicker. But, I didn't have five years to work on Guard This. Call it laziness, or just PTSD from the pandemic, but I didn't have the patience to hold this story back. I'm starting a major project in 2022 and just don't have the time to devote to a prolonged process of re-writing and editing and re-writing Guard This. I convinced myself to put out a less than desirable version of it out now, than let it grind away at my insomnia until 2025. Instead of five years, I gave this project less than five months time from start to finish.
Guard This will eventually become a paperback version in the Spring of 2022. For now, it's an e-book while I accumulate all the typos and errors that I missed to rush this version out before Christmas. I'll thank you in advance when you catch something. As soon as I successfully crowdsource all those typos, I'll convert Guard This to a print version in a couple of months. I promise that it won't take three years in between e-book > print conversion like what happened with Fried Peaches, which finally became a paperback in October 2021.
I appreciate your assistance, support, and understanding. You can purchase your e-book of Guard This here. You do not have to own a Kindle to read it. Your phone or tablet has a Kindle app that makes it easy to read. If you're a Luddite and detest e-books or Kindles, then grab one of my other paperbacks: Fried Peaches, Lost Vegas, or Jack Tripper Stole My Dog.
The print version of Fried Peaches novel is currently available. Buy a print copy here. If you read the e-book version, here's your first chance to fondle a print copy of Fried Peaches.
If you've been waiting three-plus years for a print version, I appreciate your patience. The moment has arrived for all of you Luddites and old-school book purists.
I curated a special Spotify playlist for Fried Peaches as an accompanying soundtrack to listen along in the background while you read it. It's three different playlists broken down into three acts with 33 songs on each playlist. Check out the Fried Peaches playlists here: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3.
****
Q. Why did Fried Peaches print version take so long?
A. Laziness. That's the quick, quirky, and pithy answer.
Q. Seriously, why?
A. The real answer is a little more complicated. I had the opportunity to work with an old friend on a new project in the fall of 2018 and didn't have time to convert the e-book to a print version. In 2019, I was simply too lazy to get it done. In 2020 the pandemic hit and I didn't think anyone gave a shit about a book I wrote two years prior that takes place in 2015. Since late 2020, I cranked out two new manuscripts including something I hope to publish soon as an e-book.
Q. When does the next novel come out?
A. I wrote a new novel titled Guard This about my experiences working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as my first job out of college. It's also a period piece about the 1990s art scene in New York City. Keep your fingers crossed for a late December release of Guard This. The e-book should be available before Christmas, at least that's the current plan. I promise that the print version of Guard This will not take three years before it's available. I'm eying a print release for Spring 2022.
Fried Peaches is here. The ebook drops at Midnight ET on 6-12-18. Yes, that's tonight.
The print version will be published in November 2018. For updates on the print version, follow @PeachesNovel on Twitter or @FriedPeachesBook on Instagram.
For now, enjoy the e-book version. You do not have to own a Kindle to read it. Simply download the app for your device. You can also read it via your laptop/desktop.
I created a soundtrack, or special mixes as a companion to the novel. Three Mixes. The Fried Peaches mixes can be found on either Spotify or YouTube (same mix, just different channels).
I write to music all day long. I watch 90% of sports on MUTE and listen to music instead of going on mega-tilt from moronic announcers. Music is the soundtrack to the majority of my daily life activities.
I curated three mixes for Fried Peaches. 99 songs. 3 mixes. 33 songs on each. You can find them on Spotify and/or YouTube.
You can call these mixes a soundtrack if you want. Each mix fits in with a specific segment of Fried Peaches. To simply things, I titled the mixes: Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. I'd recommend listening to each corresponding act while reading the book to enhance the overall experience.
These mixes can be enjoyed any old way. Stand alone or with Peaches. Listen on shuffle. Listen out of order. Listen to one. Listen to none.
I had fun whipping up each mix, yet faced a nightmare trimming down the entire set to 99 songs. At one point I had over 350 songs, before I diced that down to 200 or so. Yeah, at least 100 songs missed the final cut. Perhaps I'll release those in a couple of months titled Peaches Deep Cuts.
Mix 1, Act 1 is heavy on the 1990s and late 20th Century nostalgia... Beastie Boys, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Pixies, A Tribe Called Quest, Mother Love Bone, Drivin N Cryin, Mazzy Star, Stone Roses, Garbage, The Black Crowes, Gomez, Sublime, Oasis, Veruca Salt, TAD, Stone Temple Pilots, The Gits, Luna, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Polyphonic Spree, Huey Lewis and the News, INXS, James Brown, Dana Imanuel, Big Star, Bowie, Rolling Stones, Eagles of Death Metal, The Beatles, LCD Soundsystem, and Greensky Bluegrass.
Mix 2, Act 2 is the drugs/party mix. It starts out with a coke bender then goes full blown UNTZ.... Curtis Mayfield, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sturgill Simpson, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Future, Dr. Hook, JJ Cale, Pharcyde, Phish, Queens of the Stone Age, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Cash, Grateful Dead, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Blind Melon, Juno What?!, Kraftwerk, YAMN, Moving Matter, Daft Punk, Brick, The Bar-Kays, Tosca, TJR, Opiuo, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, and LCD Soundsystem, STS9, and Turkuaz.
Mix 3, Act 3 is an everything bagel.. Tom Petty, Mojo Nixon, Dylan, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Maggie Koerner, Traffic, The Go-Go's, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Foxygen, Blind Melon, Albert Hammond, Television, Art Blakey & Jazz Messengers, Colleen, Mazzy Star, Meco, Kenny Rogers, Golden Smog, Bikini Kill, Wilco, Ana Tijoux, Divinyls, Dana Imanuel, Bowie, The Cars, Cardi B, Kim Wilde, Shuggie Otis, LCD Soundsystem, Pink Floyd, and Bomba Estereo.
There's an actual theme to Mix 3/Act 3, but I'm being vague on purpose. After you read the last 1/3 of the book, you'll see the obvious connection between those 33 songs and the storyline.
I usually shun traditions and try to mix things up, but every Christmas morning over the last 15+ years, I do the same thing. I wake-n-bake and re-read Auggie Wren's Christmas Story.
I know, I know... I barely posted anything on Tao in 2017 and when I do, it's a friggin' repeat! Yeah, I'm a lazy stoner who recycles content.
If this story sounds familiar... it's because I pimp it out every December 25th. By chance you are a fan of 90s indie cinema, then you've heard this monologue from the Brooklyn-centric film Smoke directed by Wayne Wang.
Happy Christmas to your consumer-addled family members!
RIP Johnny Hughes. Poker historian, author, professor, former band road manager, hustler and Texan.
Best gift Johnny Hughes gave me was believing in me at a time in my life when I didn't believe in myself. Thanks for that Johnny Hughes. You will be missed, dear friend.
Johnny Hughes also gave me best advice on surviving Vegas and being on road nonstop: "You can have one vice, one drug, and one girl. Never have more that one of each. Otherwise you askin' for trouble son!"
Image: Johnny Hughes with Amarillo Slim at The Horseshoe snapping pic with $1 million display in downtown Vegas.
It's that time of year again! Chasing back pay from delinquent clients on some projects from last summer/fall. Having difficult and frustrating time getting paid and getting stonewalled by salaried employees who just don't get it.
I should have hired Harlan Ellison as my literary agent. He'd make sure I get paid...in full.
