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You wrote a book entitled Vampire Cabbie. Was it your first book? Tell us a little about it.
FRED | Vampire Cabbie is my first published novel, but it’s actually my third novel. I wrote a mainstream, literary novel and then a science fiction novel. The first novel I think was actually publishable. The second one may not have been.
Vampire Cabbie is about a 1000-year-old vampire who loses his vast fortune in the stock market crash of 1987 and is forced to get a job. He moves to Madison, WI, where I live, for a job that had been found for him working in a laboratory on the University of Wisconsin campus, but when he arrives here, he finds that the job had fallen through. He’s stranded and desperate. He gets a sudden inspiration that maybe cab driving might be something to do for a living, as it were. He applies for a job at a worker-owned-and-operated cooperative cab company, which is based on Union Cab Coop where I’ve worked for the last 21 years. I can tell you the details about cab driving are accurate. The details about the inner workings of a worker’s cooperative are accurate. As to the vampire details, well, I’m only guessing.
I wrote the novel in the mid 1990s, but I’m amazed at how the vampire’s economic circumstances are so similar to what’s going on right now. I’d have to say, that’s kind of a happy accident in terms of the timing of the book’s publication. I think that gives the story so much more meaning. Also, I have to say, I’m really proud of the fact that the book portrays mostly working class characters and does so in a positive and honest way. One of the conflicts in the book concerns how the vampire deals with working side by side with people he considers to be his inferiors.
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To write Vampire Cabbie, from where did you get inspiration? Some writers dream about their stories, another get a hint by some other book. How was the creative process to write Vampire cabbie?
FRED | The idea of a vampire cabbie just came to me one day while I was in the cab driving. I think I remember exactly what street I was on, but I’m not sure. Suddenly, it hit me, and it just seemed so obvious. I liked vampires, and I knew about driving a taxicab. Ah ha! I should write about a vampire cab driver.
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Al Farkus, the protagonist, has to work as a cabdriver. We could easily see that he is not the vampire stereotype. Do you think the readers will enjoy it? Did you think specifically in one kind of reader when you were writing?
FRED | I intentionally created Al to work against the standard vampire archetype. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with the archetypes, but there’s a lot to be said for working against type. That’s what originality is all about. I should mention that I wrote a short story called, “These Guys Really Suck,” which concerns vampires on an afternoon talk show. The story’s mostly for laughs. Al appears on the show along with three other vampires who all portray and thus skewer three well-established vampire archetypes.
I think intelligent readers appreciate this approach, and those are the kinds of readers I want to appeal to. However, I do have to say that because the book wasn’t like most other vampire novels, and because Al wasn’t like most other vampires, that’s probably why it took a good 12 years for the book to get published. The big time book publishers play a high stakes game, and I don’t think they wanted to take a chance on something unproven. I guess if I wrote like Anne Rice, the publishing industry would’ve felt more comfortable with it, but I don’t. Also, given that in the United States we don’t like to talk about class and we don’t like to portray workers in genre fiction, that might’ve had something to do with it as well.
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In the book, you discussed some important topics, such as cooperatives. Were they reflection of your work at Mobius (The Journal of Social Change)?
FRED | I’m so glad you asked me that question. It’s good to see that the rest of the world isn’t as freaked out about left wing politics as the United States. That’s the problem here. The range of accepted political discourse is so narrow. If you’re to the left of the Democratic Party, you’re considered a radical and potentially dangerous.
I’m a card carrying member of the International Communist Conspiracy. In fact, if you look in my wallet, you’ll see my card. By the way, that’s a joke. I do have a card. It was one of many made by my best friend when we were all in college in the early 1980s. Back then we all used to be heavily involved with activist work on various social justice causes. And most of us still are involved, though in our own ways. I don’t really do activist work anymore. I changed tactics, but not strategy. I believe that to change our society for the better, we need to educate ourselves. That’s why I write fiction. That’s why I publish and edit Mobius. That’s why I blog. It’s all about what I can do to help create a better tomorrow.
Oh, and politically, I should say I’m essentially a syndicalist with Marxist leanings. Specifically, I’m a neo-syndicalist. For details of what I mean by that, check out my blog.
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About Mobius: “At Mobius we believe that writing is power and good writing empowers both the reader and the writer”. Which are the elements that characterize a book as worthy to be read?
FRED | First and foremost, I look for good writing. However, to be honest, I’m first looking for bad writing as a means to weed out those stories that won’t make it. I have to confess that as an editor, I’m looking for reasons to not publish your fiction.
A story needs to be technically proficient. It needs a strong plot and well drawn characters. But to be a Mobius story, it needs to have something to say. It doesn’t need to be politically partisan, but it needs to offer some kind of social commentary.
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” ‘Well don’t forget it, Count. The customer is always right, that is, unless they’re a raving psychotic.’
That last remark gave me pause. Raving psychotic? Just how psychotic might a raving psychotic be?” When Al Farkus (called ‘Count’ by his coworkers) is learning how to work as a cabdriver the story gains a lot of humor. Does your real work as a cabdriver give you a lot of material to write fiction?
FRED | Well, there’s crazy and then there’s crazy and then there’s batshit crazy. I recently had this guy in my cab who was absolutely batshit crazy. I mean schizophrenic. It came out in the local news that they found the mummified remains of his aunt a week after he was in my cab, and I dropped him off at his house. His aunt had been missing since sometime in July. I had him in my cab in early August. This is all absolutely true. If I ever write a Vampire Cabbie sequel, this will have to make it into the story somehow.
So, yes, there are always real life cab driving stories that could and do work as fiction. Vampire Cabbie has a few real stories. In fact, there was one incident that happened after I had written the book. It was so funny I had to add it to the manuscript.
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Speaking about you and about work as a cabdriver: could you tell us a little about your daily routine? When do you write?
FRED | I hate to admit this, but I really don’t find the time to write right now. My wife quit her job last summer, and she’s in grad school. I’m working an extra shift every other week to make ends meet. Plus, I’m often working past my end time. I’m probably working about 48-50 hours a week, which doesn’t allow much time for much of anything. I have fewer days off, so I’m exhausted during my days off, and I have to spend the time doing stuff I don’t get time to do otherwise.
Still, I steal time here and there. I’m doing the rewrites on my next novel, Guitar God, which I describe as a Jewish, suburban rock and roll fantasy with a 1970s soundtrack. I’ve done two complete rewrites, but I need to find a routine to get going with the third rewrite. Ideally, I’d do one chapter every day, but so often I work, get home, get to bed about three AM, get up about 9:30 the next morning, drink some coffee, read the paper and get out the door just in time for my next shift.
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Your story offers to the reader murder, romance, suspense and humor. Those are essential elements to a catchy story?
FRED | Yes and no. The main essential element to a catchy story is tension. The reader needs a reason to turn the page. Tension can be achieved in various ways, but it’s key.
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Let’s talk about humor. It is important to put humor in a plot?
FRED | I’m reminded of a story of some great actor who on his deathbed said, “Dying is easy. Comedy is difficult.”
I think humor is important. Some plots get so deadly serious that they need some kind of comic relief just to keep the reader from slitting their wrists. Humor is certainly important for me because I’m a funny guy. If I’m not using humor in some way, shape or form, I’m not working to my strength as a writer. On the other hand, if you’re not funny, don’t try putting humor into your work because it just won’t work. And that’s just the way it is. Some writers are funny. Some aren’t. Christopher Moore is funny. John Milton is not funny.
I’m also reminded of my English lit teacher giving an example of “humor” in Daisy Miller by Henry James. Winterbourne is chatting with Daisy’s younger brother. He asks the kid where their father is. The kid says, “He’s in a better place.” “Oh, I’m sorry,” an embarrassed Winterbourne replies. “Yeah,” he kid continues, “he’s in Schenectady.”
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About your reader: who do you like to read your book? There is any kind of reader that you dislike or that you do not like to read your book?
FRED | I like anybody and everybody to read my book. More importantly, I like anybody and everybody to BUY my book.
However, a funny story. At my book release party, I noticed the daughter of my best friend’s wife sitting in a corner reading my book. I was horrified. She was 13! I’m thinking, this book is indecent. A little girl shouldn’t be reading it. Then my wife tells me she’s seen what the girl is reading, and my book is tame in comparison. The kid’s a big reader and reads past her grade level. That’s great.
Since then I’ve done some research on the young adult market. I’m amazed at what’s considered taboo and what’s considered tame. My work is relatively tame.
Oh, I should mention that Flo has read Vampire Cabbie twice. I’m also using her as a focus group for my next book. Also, it turned out that Vampire Cabbie was hugely popular among freshman at East High School here in Madison. Unfortunately, I think the kids all read the same passed-around copy of my book.
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About vampires: it is still a good theme to write about? And what do you think about the vampire stories that have been published nowadays?
FRED | Vampires will always be a good thing to write about, but we may soon reach the saturation point of vampires, but I think from a narrative point of view, vampires will always be cool.
I haven’t actually read any of the Sookie Stackhouse books or any of the Twilight novels. However, I love True Blood. The premise is great. The characters are great. She’s done interesting things with the canon. The vampire power structure is interesting. As far as Twilight goes, based on everything I’ve heard, I don’t think I’d like it. It sounds a bit infantile, and my understanding is that the writing isn’t very good, but who knows? I might be surprised if I read Twilight. My sense of it, however, is that it’s very much in the romance genre, which, well, isn’t my favorite.
One trend I think is a bit overdone is vampirism as a virus. It seems a lot of people came up with that at about the same time, figuring it was an original take.
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Vampire Cabbie was conceived to be a book since the beginning? How much time do you apply to write it? And, when did you finish it, how was the response that you had from the publishers?
FRED | Vampire Cabbie started as short stories. Then I decided the short stories could be cobbled together into a novel, which is why the novel may feel a bit episodic. It took exactly a year to write, rewrite and complete the novel.
As far as the response from publishers, well, it wasn’t overwhelming. Again, I think the book was good enough to be published, but I think it was too atypical. Publishers weren’t sure what to make of it. It wasn’t gothic romance. It portrayed a pretty mundane setting. An agent said, “doesn’t grab me by the throat and not let go.” One editor called it “intelligently written.” Now that’s the kiss of death if I’ve ever seen it.
Part of the problem is that I picked a bad time to start writing fiction, roughly 1985. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s we saw more and more people writing fiction and less and less people publishing fiction. The big presses were all swallowed up by corporate conglomerates. Books have to make money so they can turn a profit, which is turned over as tribute to some far off board of directors. Small presses tried to make it, but survival was quite difficult. Technology was making life easier, but it wasn’t saving them money, not yet. Finally really just a few years ago, technology advanced to a point where small presses had a decent chance to make it, so now we’re really at a revolutionary time in book publishing. There’s now a good number of outlets for less established writers who aren’t regurgitating all the same old crap.
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About your editor: Has she suggested any modifications in the story?
FRED | No, she pretty much loved it as it was.
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And — I could not help myself –, as once was asked to Al Farkus, I would like to ask you: “If they made a movie of your life, who would you want to play you?”
FRED | No question. Johnny Depp!
Rs rs rs! My husband’s answer was just the same… Men…
