Gabriel Ricard: CPR for Dummies struck me as the sort of book that came about in stages. I felt like the development of this book came about with one element being a catalyst to other parts falling into place. What would you say was the genesis of CPR for Dummies? Where did it begin?
Mickey Z: I wrote my first novel when I was 22 and have been trying—in vain—to get published ever since. Needless to say, I was open to new approaches. So, here's the sordid truth behind my first published novel: My opportunity came a few years ago when some of the regulars on my blog—a.k.a the Expendables—decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month. I joined in and devotedly banged out 50,000 words in 30 days. For me, this required some serious cutting and pasting from several of my unpublished novels and non-fiction books, unproduced screenplays, and even some of my published work. These odds and ends combined with brand new material to create something that could be loosely termed a "novel" and I decided I really liked it. With a few edits, additions, and redecorating, I had CPR for Dummies and voila: I'm a published novelist (thanks to the good folks at Raw Dog Screaming Press).
GR: What compelled you to include the direct notes and thoughts from yourself that are scattered throughout the book? Was it a concern over the reader's ability to understand/handle the material?
MZ: The commentary is there, both for my own amusement and, yeah, to make sure everyone gets what I'm doing. I've learned the hard way to never assume that sarcasm, irony, and satire are easily recognized and/or appreciated.
GR: Throughout the narrative you make references to certain parts of the book originally appearing in various previously unpublished works. Is CPR for Dummies as close as we're going to get to seeing those books?
MZ: That's not up to me. If I had a willing publisher, I could easily write at least one fiction and one non-fiction book every year. Probably more.
GR: So, you're not at loss for ideas...
MZ: I can honestly say I've never dealt with anything close to writer's block.
GR: You seem to be very fond of your main character, Janie, which I can certainly understand. Where did she come from?
MZ: If there's someone you wish you knew but so far have never met, well, you create her. Janie started as a character in a film screenplay called Critical Mass. I wrote it maybe ten years ago. Eventually, she found a home in CPR and became my hero.
GR: One thing I thought was interesting about the book was the way you seemed to be particularly critical of religion and yet you also appear to be fairly fond of the book's most religious characters: David, Father Gil, Florence, Tracy and so on. Is it religion itself that bothers you or is it the way people use faith as an excuse to be cruel and stupid?
MZ: I spent twelve years in Catholic school. This effectively inoculated me against irrational faith…but it's remains part of my intellectual architecture. I've known many amazing people who'd be accurately described as "religious" (starting with my Mom). So yeah, I'm of two minds on this and I do believe people can sometimes channel their irrational belief into very positive avenues.
GR: My own mother is much in the same way. C.S. Lewis kind of struck me as someone like that as well. Trouble is, there doesn't seem to be too many people in that vein around. It seems like it's easier to hook into religion and leave your common sense at the door.
MZ: When my Mom was dying in Texas, almost all the health care workers (hospital and hospice) I encountered were devout Baptists who appeared to see their work as a mission from God. I'm eternally grateful for the way they treated my mother and my entire family during that challenging time.
GR: Virtually every character in the book has a secret of some kind, behaviors or events you wouldn't expect them to be associated with. I'm thinking of Florence in particular and what can only be described as a very strange sexual relationship with a younger man. By doing this are you hoping to shake people's perception of a character after the initial introduction? It seems to me that you don't want the reader to get too comfortable with their impressions of your characters.
MZ: At the risk of sounding like I'm mocking your question, I'd say every "real" human has a secret of some kind, and it tends to gravitate towards behaviors or events you wouldn't expect them to be associated with. I'm often surprised to learn something about a fellow human that shakes my perception of them. So, I guess I'm just doing the whole art imitates life thing.
GR: I suppose I mean that I'm generally not that surprised by the so-called secrets of some of the characters I've encountered as a reader. Like...the tough guy's been to prison, the aspiring actress did porn, the priest raped a kid, etc. I guess what I was asking was if you were going out of your way to shake up people who might be used to...I guess you could call them "obvious secrets."
MZ: That's a tough question to answer. I don't think I consciously tried to shake up readers but I was certainly trying to avoid the "obvious secrets."
GR: I'm guessing based on the book's ending you don't see much of a happy-ending for humanity, eh?
MZ: To say I'm pessimistic would be overly optimistic.
GR: At this point in time would you consider this your definitive work?
MZ: Since this is the only novel of mine that's been published, it has no choice but to be my best and worst work of fiction, right? Ask me this again in ten years.
GR: I guess I was also including unpublished work. I mean, this isn't the first thing you've ever finished, right?
MZ: I'm not 100% sure of the exact number but I've probably completed at least 10 novels and novellas in my life.
GR: I understand you appeared once on C-SPAN 2's Book TV. Tell us a little about that.
MZ: Ah yes, my 15 minutes of fame. I gave a talk in DC before the 2004 election and it was filmed by C-Span. Those were the days.
GR: Did it do any good? Or did it cause any problems?
MZ: As far as I can tell, it went essentially unnoticed.
GR: In addition to your novels you also maintain an excellent blog over at www.MickeyZ.net, focusing on many of the subjects that appear in CPR for Dummies. Could you tell us a little bit about it?
MZ: I come out of the pre-Internet zine culture so my blog is a little like that. On any given day, you could encounter a historical essay with footnotes. The next day, I might offer a homage to Groucho Marx. The best thing about my blog, however, is the regular crowd (the aforementioned Expendables). I invite everyone to join us in the comments section. You won't regret it.
GR: You've written a few other books and the one that I found especially intriguing was The Murdering of My Years, the title taken from a famous Bukowski quote. It sounds as though it was a very enlightening and possibly even surprising project.
MZ: No one featured in The Murdering of My Years climbed Mount Everest or won an Academy Award or appeared on a reality show (at least that I know of). But their stories are authentic: no laugh track, nothing re-touched by computer software, very little editing on my part. These folks are working without a net to create and/or disseminate art and dissenting opinions within a commercial framework designed to co-op such output and feed it back to us as "trends." They are challenging the status quo. They are living their lives outside the cookie cutter formula. Still, that said, I'd love to re-do that book. I chose that project too soon in my career and it'd be a much better book if I took it on now.
GR: Anything stopping you? I could honestly see a publisher seriously interested in something like this.
MZ: Thanks, but I could wallpaper Yankee Stadium with all the rejections notices I've gotten for book proposals.
GR: Would I be correct if I were to state that political activists such as yourself, ones willing to take it as far as you're willing to take it, are becoming exceedingly rare in the American landscape?
MZ: I'm not sure I'd agree that I'm taking anything very far at all. Most of us—each to our own degree—are doing the Titanic-deck chair thing. What is "exceedingly rare" is someone willing to step out of their comfort zone and risk it all.
GR: What would you say keeps you going, fighting?
MZ: As Alice Walker sez: "Activism is my rent for living on this planet."
GR: And would you say you've been keeping up with it?
MZ: I may not always pay the rent on time but, on balance, I think I'm a decent tenant.
GR: Any thoughts on the upcoming election?
MZ: I predict the Democrats and Republicans will tell different lies to get elected but act the same once in office. Anytime someone tells you America has a two-party system, demand a recount.
GR: You think it's worth voting at all?
MZ: Something like 80 million eligible voters opted out in 2004. If enough of them came out and pulled the lever for Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader, it would be a lot of fun.
GR: I can't resist asking: How many MickeyZ.net classic thong panties have you managed to sell so far?
MZ: We've got a sweatshop in Vietnam running twenty-four hours a day just to keep up with the demand.
GR: What can we expect from you through the rest of this year and heading on into 2009?
MZ: I wish I knew.
Mickey Z.'s latest book is No Innocent Bystanders from CWG Press. Get the details at his blog.
Gabriel Ricard is a Staff Interviewer at Unlikely 2.0. You can learn more about him at his bio page.