Interview with M. Christian

It’s my true pleasure to introduce you to my friend Chris, also known as M. Christian. He’s a fine writer and is capable of incredible range, from the erotica he cheerfully describes as “smut” to haunting science fiction and engrossing nonfiction. Get to know this “literary streetwalker with a heart of gold” here, and at his website http://www.mchristian.com.

Would you mind introducing yourself to my readers?

Well, let’s see … Hello, my name is Chris, and I’m an alcohol .. I mean I’m a writer, usually under the name “M.Christian.”

When did you start writing?

I’ve pretty much always known I wanted to be a writer .. hell, I remember trying to write my first story in the 4th grade … but it wasn’t until high school that I really began to work at it.  Unfortunately it took about ten years or so of trying before I got enough of the bad stuff out of my system to get published.  But since then I’ve done okay: 300 short story sales, edited 20 anthologies, and published five novels (Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, and Painted Doll) and four collections (Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, and Filthy).  Oh, and some articles, reviews, couple of columns, two felony … I mean, a whole bunch of other things as well.  Yeah, that’s what I meant ….

How would you describe your work?

I like to call myself a “literary streetwalker with a heart of gold,” meaning I consider myself a noble hack: willing to do pretty much anything for anyone anytime … just leave the cash on the dresser.  Kidding aside I really just love to write, to tell stories.  When I first started out I tried to be the next R. A. Lafferty, Sturgeon, Bester, Zelazny, Dick, etc. — pretty much what every writer does but then something clicked and I really started to enjoy the work itself.  When I got an opportunity to write smut I gave it a shot — and sold my first story, and then another, and another, and another, and so on.  I still write a lot of erotica but because I’ve published so much of it, I’ve been able to expand out into lots of other genres: horror, SF, thrillers, non-fiction.

To this day I love a challenge, more than anything because I didn’t know I’d be a good smut writer until I tried.  Who knows what else I might be good at?  Sometimes it doesn’t work, but when it does … oh, man, it’s a kick in the pants.

What are some of your best-known works?

Tough call: I know lots of people enjoyed stories like “How Coyote Stole the Sun” (that was in Best American Erotica) or “Friday Night At The Calvary Hotel” (recently in my collection, Filthy), and my most recent book, Me2, and the one before it, The Very Bloody Marys (which was recently reprinted). I still get people saying that they liked stories or articles I barely remember writing, which is very sweet, very touching.  I’m still shocked when people refer to me as a “master” of erotica or somesuch, or ask me to blurb their books.  It doesn’t feel real at all.  Down deep I still feel like I’m just starting out, that I’m still very green behind the ears.  But I guess a lot of writers feel that way too.

Out of all that you’ve written, what are you most proud of?

Everything pretty much, I guess.  Even though I playfully consider myself a hack I always try to do the best job I can with whatever I’m doing, even if it’s a silly little thing for Truckstop Transsexuals in Trouble.  That aside, I particularly liked the way Me2, my recent novel, came out.  The Very Bloody Marys as well — and the new ones that should be out soon: Brushes and Painted Doll.  I’m still learning about doing novels so there’s more of a sense of satisfaction when I get one done.  Hopefully the new ones I’m working on will come out as well.  Fingers crossed.

But here’s a fun little story I like to tell about being a “literary streetwalker.” Roughly, oh, eleven or so years ago, close to when I sold my first story, I was at a party when this guy and I realized we’d just been published in the same erotic magazine.  He told me about his and I told him about mine, which I had written under a different name than my usual “M.Christian” handle, a female one.  That’s pretty rare for me, but the publisher actually insisted.  After I told him which story was mine he got this weird look on his face.  “I masturbated to that story!” he said.  While I felt weird at having ‘tricked’ him, it still felt good that he never once doubted that the writer had been a woman.

Have you ever written something you regretted?
Respect for my subject is very important to me.  That I’ve gotten so many opportunities and some very nice reviews from gay and lesbian publications is something I’ve really cherished.  To this day I get all giddy when someone says that this stry or that book touched them — especially when it might be a ‘gay’ book.  I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m straight …or, as I like to say “Sexually straight, socially bi (meaning a kiss is a sign of love and affection no matter the gender), and politically gay” … but I do worry about being accused of being insincere or an opportunist.  Luckily that hasn’t happened but I do lose sleep over it.  So, anyway, to answer your question: so far I haven’t regretted anything but I do worry about it.

Who are your biggest influences?

Aside from the folks I’ve already mentioned I’d have to say that comics are in my writing, a very few ‘classic’ authors, some of the cinema greats, and quite a few TV shows and writers (Hilary J Bader was wonderful).  Sometimes I feel … well, guilty, that more contemporary/famous authors aren’t on that list but to be honest I’ve always respected fellow hard-working hacks rather than the NYT bestsellers or the pompous twits in the New Yorker.  I’ve always said that good writing is good writing, even if it’s for a mainstream sitcom or a comic book.  That some writers get six-figure advances, or win awards, doesn’t make them better writers — mostly it just means they were lucky or pushed hard enough to make themselves celebrities.  Part of the reason I started my fun little blog, Meine Kleine Fabrik (http://meinekleinefabrik.blogspot.com), with my brother was so great stuff — writers, movies, weird history — wouldn’t be forgotten: the stuff that really affected who I am as a person as well as what I try to do in my writing.

Who do you NOT want to write like? Who are your anti-influences?

Well, aside from my snark about big name authors I think if I could point a finger at what I don’t want to be I guess it would be writers who are known more for their personality than as crafters of wonderful fiction, but then I think most writers probably feel the same way.  It really bothers me when magnificent books fall out of print in favor of warehouses packed with knock- and/or rip-offs, or when sites rave about books and authors who don’t need the help while ignoring folks doing good, solid work.  But — again — that’s a common song anyone creative sings.  Part of the reason I opened my other little blog, Frequently Felt (http://frequentlyfelt.blogspot.com) to anyone who wants to send me something is to give other writers a (kind-of) no-limits venue.  I also have made myself a promise that if ’success’ (whatever that means) comes my way I’ll work to give other writers as much help as possible, as well as try and get back into print some of the wonderful books that inspired me … books that have almost been forgotten but should never be.  But we’ll see how that turns out … If I do manage to get that million-dollar deal and this doesn’t happen you have permission to sock me in the jaw

What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about you based solely on your work?

The biggest one, aside from the one that I’m gay, is that I only write, or only want to write, smut.  To be brutally honest, smut was an opportunity.  A fantastic opportunity, a real fun opportunity, to be sure, and I loved writing it but I loved that people were buying my work and seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t really have anything I ached to say about sex.  As I wrote a lot of it I did find a kind of .. well, agenda is too strong a word but it comes close to describing what I mean to say.  I wanted to say something in addition to  simply telling a good story but that wasn’t the reason why I was writing.  A interviewer once asked me about my own fetish, since I wrote about everyone else’s, and I had to honestly say that my biggest turn-on was, and is, telling stories.

How does your life differ now from it did – say – ten years ago?

It’s weird but it doesn’t really feel that different.  Sure a lot of things have changed in my life but the down-deep nature of who I am hasn’t really changed that much.  Like I said, I still feel like I’m just starting out, still learning about what it means to tell a good story.  Thats why I’m still pushing myself as much as I can.  With each new project I try to do something … well, kind of scary — for me at least.  Running Dry was my first novel (and really hard to do), The Very Boody Marys was my shot at being funny as well as scary, Me2 was a whole new world of weirdness, Brushes was erotic romance, Painted Doll was noir SF …and the new one I’m working on is horror/suspense.  Hokusai said how I feel about working better than I ever could:

“From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs, but all I have done before the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self ‘The Old Man Mad About Drawing.’”

To me that says that the work is a voyage. I want to be always trying to be better and better — both to discover things about my art but also about myself.  I just hope I can keep doing this long enough to see where it’s all going to go.

Tell us about “Me2.”

It’s a novel that recently came out from Alyson Books.  The idea for the book, at first, was kind of simple: a novel about identity, and what could happen when it’s stolen. copied, whatever.  It became fun when I really began to play with the whole idea of the book, to push myself to make it a totally different take on the idea.  It’s a bummer that I can’t say too much about it without giving away what I think are the craziest parts, but let me say that even though the book seems to have a lot of continuity errors it really doesn’t! It’s all about duplicate lives. And it isn’t about robots, colones, aliens, or dopplegangers.  Beyond that, I guess you’ll just have to buy the book, won’t ya?  My favorite comment so far (and luckily there have been a lot of very good reviews) was that if it was more socially cutting, it’d drawn blood.

I also should say that even though Alyson Books is primarily a gay and lesbian publisher, the book can be read by anyone, no matter who you fancy.  In fact a lot of the best reviews have come from so-called ’straight’ reviewers, which means that the book has done what I’d hope it’d do and reached a diverse audience.  Also it isn’t erotic, though it does have some sexual tension, which has thrown a few folks who were used to reading my smutty fiction.

How long did it take to write the book?

From beginning to end it took me about six months — which has become kind of an average for me.  My first book, Running Dry, took about a year but that was because I kept rewriting it.  Now that I’m on the dole I hope to finish my next couple of books even faster but we’ll see if the allure of daytime television and video games screw with that plan.

When are you most productive? Are there some kinds of environments that are more productive for you than others.

It’s a real larf when I tell folks how I work.  Lots of people I know can’t stand any kind of distraction, or need only a certain kind of music, a special chair, the cat in just the right place, etc.  Because I began writing in a place where I didn’t have much privacy, I’ve gotten used to stimulation — lots of stimulation.   Right now, for instance, I’m sitting at the dining room table, clicking and clacking on my (so far) dependable ibook G4 while a DVD plays on my second, back-up, G3 (”Justice League Unlimited,” Paul Dini and Brune Timm’s wonderful series).  I usually pick a DVD to match what I’m working on, or at least something in the right ‘flavor.’  I don’t have a lot of them (though I do have a 5-at-a-time Netflix subscription) but the ones I have I’ve seen hundreds of times.  Weird, eh?

What about your other projects? Do you have anything else out there right now you might like to talk about?

I’ve already mentioned a lot of the stuff I have either just out or coming out soon: Brushes, an erotic romance from Phaze books, just came out; Painted Doll, an erotic SF-noir is coming soon from Lethe Books — who also recently reprinted my fun horror/comedy The Very Bloody Marys.  I’m also working on two new books, and maybe more if I can get some publishers interested.  One of them is a gay thriller/horror book, and the other is a surreal/allegorcial book.  I also recently agreed to do a fifth collection, this time straight erotica rather than gay or lesbian, so I have to put that together, and I’m still posting to Frequently Felt, Meine Kleine Fabrik, and — which is very cool — have taken a regular writing gig for the great site Dark Roasted Blend for strange and wonderful history, art, etc.

Basically I love to be busy or wanted for my work.  I don’t believe in a ‘muse:’  I believe in loving what you do and working to be better and better and better — stretching yourself as much as possible.  Part of that stretching is also working on a book on movie villains, trying to put together a collection of my how-to columns (”Confessions of a Literary Streetwalker”) for the Erotica Readers and Writers site, and maybe even trying my hand at a screenplay … though more as a challenge than actually wanting to get into that insane business.

One thing I need to mention is how important my-partner-in-all-things Sage Vivant is to my life.  Writing can be a brutal business: ego-bruising, frustrating, devastating, and futile but it, and life, can be transformed into something wonderful with the right person by your side.  I am really blessed to have someone incredibly special with me in all things.

Are there any other writers out there you’d like to bring to our attention?

Let’s see, right off the top of my head, in comics look at Adam Warren, Eiji Otusuka, Yamashita Ikuto, Pat Mills, Keith Giffen, Kevin Herault, and Don McGregor; in TV check out Paul Dini’s projects, classic British series like Danger Man, the original Outer Limits. My World and Welcome To It, Le Femme Nikita, Paranoia Agent (anime), and in flicks try anything by Satoshi Kon (who also did Paranoia Agent), Mamoru Oshii, classic Frankenheimer and Billy Wilder, Juzo Itami, and anything written by Nigel Kneale; for books … I’m afraid I’m an old geek, preferring rarer authors like Ernest Hogan, Ian McDonald, Andrew Jablokov, Christopher Hinz, Jonathan Littell, but also oddball (and wonderful) writers like Henri de Monfried, Edward Abbey, Brock Brower, and Karl Taro Greenfeld.

Where can we learn more about you?

The best place is at my site www.mchristian.com which has links to my other blogs, Meine Kleine Fabrik and Frequently Felt, but also to Amazon for all my books and directly to the publishers of my various books and such.