I sat in a German restaurant called Uli’s with a cup of coffee and a big wedge of a delicious cake called “black cherry forest” and began reading Stranger Souls by Jim Cherry.
I can’t resist this comparison: The short stories in Jim Cherry’s Stranger Souls are like cherry blossoms in various stages of bloom. Some are fully formed others are promising buds (Hemingway would call them vignettes), moody slices of life. But I say “black cherry” because most of these tales are noir in nature. Dark streets and bars, hustlers and whiskey drinkers, Goths, vampires, and a 1947 Robert Mitchum quote, of all things.
My favorite of the bunch, The Softest Metal, is a sci-fi vehicle about a female- shaped “pleasure accessible” android. Even that story leads into an old dusty attic – but that’s all I can say -- I don’t want to give away anything.
Here is the conversation I had recently with author Jim Cherry.
Bill: You are obviously a fan of Jim Morrison and The Doors, having written for the Doors Collector Magazine.
Jim Cherry: And let's not forget the doors4scorpywag site. Alex Patton there has also been a big supporter of mine. I kind of wear my obsessions on my sleeve, and my next novel The Last Stage is a farewell to fandom. I'm a Doors fan from Apocalypse Now, No One Here Gets Out Alive generation. I discovered them when I was about 19, and I kept hearing these songs and I kept asking people who they were, and only was able to find out they were The Doors and Jim Morrison was the singer. One day I was at a mall and I saw the book No One Here Gets Out Alive... and saw Morrison's name. By the time I finished the first chapter I was at a record store buying the first album with the last of the money I had. The appeal for me I guess is in the details of Morrison’s biography. He was the son of a strict father, who loses himself in poetry and is interested in film and had a bit of a wild side - I saw my reflection.
Bill: I think my favorite story in Stranger Souls is "The Softest Metal." It sounded so true to life when the characters were discussing the android.
For example, as they were unpacking the android from the crate:
"It's pretty unusual for someone our age to
own something like this."
"Why wait until we're too old to enjoy this
luxury? They're our Maseratis."
and
"I was reading in Time Magazine that some
experts are saying it's like a third sex and
maybe the next step in evolution."
Which science fiction writers do you like, and why?
Jim: I've been reading Science Fiction since I was 15, I've read so many writers - Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Bova, Bradbury, Philip Jose Farmer, David Gerrold. I think the biggest Science Fiction influences have been Harlan Ellison with Dangerous Visions, he wrote a small introduction to each story describing how he came to write the story and I was able to see how a writer takes everyday situations from life and extrapolates on them. A few years later I discovered Heinlein, and he reinforced that notion. I like Science Fiction that has markers the reader can identify, where you have that suspension of disbelief where the can say "yeah, I can see that happening."
Bill: What about gothic and/or horror? Anne Rice? Stephen King? Do you have any favorites in this genre?
Jim: Those are genres I really haven't read widely in, it's just not my taste. I read both Carrie and Interview With The Vampire when they came out and didn't like them, so I guess history shows how prescient I was.
Bill: Some of your stories have that noir atmosphere. The dark side of life and even the 1947 Robert Mitchum quote. I love it. Do you like old movies? Which ones? What about newer movies? Any certain directors?
Jim: I started out wanting to be a film maker, I was taking film courses in college but realized film is an expensive medium, and since making movies seemed an excuse to write anyway, I decided to just write movies. The biggest influence on me is Orson Welles he was a master of mood and tone and also of taking artistic chances. Another big influence is Billy Wilder movies like Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, and Sunset Boulevard, which I used somewhat as a model for my next novel The Last Stage. I love movies I've been watching them my whole life I can recall my mother taking us to drive-ins when I was really young and I still remember seeing those movies I can put myself back in those moments.
And of course I'm still a big fan of movies waiting for the next Star Wars.
Bill: You seem to have sweeping interest in both past and contemporary culture. I mean, not only do you quote Mitchum, but also the Smashing Pumpkins. Your characters vary from medieval knights and sorcerers to Elvis Presley to modern day vampires to futuristic 'pleasure accessible' androids. Do you read magazines, watch the history channel, hang out at the library, or what?
Jim: Yes, to all of them. I'm a product of the times and environment I grew up in. I've always seen the artist as having to be a participant in the culture that surrounds him or he doesn't have the vocabulary of his contemporaries. I do read a lot, I lifted some things straight out of Discover magazine for The Softest Metal, I have been refreshing my history with the History Channel, so you're guessing all my secrets.Besides any writer is an amalgam of his influences.
Bill: Your story, 'The 1000th Chimpanzee' is about a writer who commits a high-profile crime just to get published. Do you think the media is heading in that direction?
Jim: The 1000th Chimpanzee is really a work of frustration, I was trying to get my novel Becoming Angel published and sporadically writing stories and trying to get them published and nothing was working, and this story just started as my thinking what is it going to take to get published? And the story is an answer, but it's one I've never sent out because I knew it would never be taken by anyone, because if a magazine rejected it they already knew I thought about an answer to the rejection. I think the publishing industry is really being short sighted in looking for "blockbusters" that will make them shitloads of money NOW, but they aren't willing to take chances on an unknown writer who may have to publish a book or two before he hits his stride, but will still be selling books in eighty years ala Hemingway, Faulkner, Kerouac, Fitzgerald, Wolfe. I think the next great writer will come from the Internet.
Jim Cherry’s books, Stranger Souls and Becoming Angel are available from the publisher at www.xlibris.com/bookstore
Click Here: http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/search.asp
Billectric Interviews Author Jim Cherry
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