Tag Archives: casinos

3 Questions

Many thanks to Red Cell at the Santa Fe Reporter for doing this short interview  where we talk about casinos, addiction and my love of pulp fiction. An excerpt:

Your book has the attitude of a crime drama in the vein of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. Was the hard-boiled genre an influence on your writing?

Yes, absolutely! When I got out of the Navy and college, I wanted to be a writer, but I had no idea how to go about doing it. I really didn’t feel like I learned how to write in school. I started reading crime novels by Jim Thompson and David Goodis, and a lot of pulp writers that were published in Barry Gifford’s Black Lizard series.

Read the rest of the interview here.  If you’re in Santa Fe this Friday, I’ll be reading at Collected Works.

Available Now!

When I worked at the Indian casino, there was a sign in our office posted right above the security camera that read, “THIS IS NOT A CAMERA.” I loved that sign. It was both a bit of da-da absurdism and a reminder that big brother was always watching. Naturally, I stole it.

THIS IS NOT A CAMERA is a zine about my experiences working at the casino that served as the inspiration for Thunderclap Casino in my novel Forest of Fortune. The zine is free. I’ll be giving it away at readings like at Noir At The Bar-San Diego this Sunday, the AWP book fair and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books to name just a few. Or you can order it online.