The amazing folks at The Collagist just did a little post-publication interview about the Vegaboy Chronicles, pentacostal vibes in Las Vegas, and drugs. It has been fabulous seeing my work in this rad magazine. Huzzah for Matt Bell and the whole team.
Here’s a piece:
Your opening paragraph feels supremely biblical, mysterious, full of pause and premonition – can you speak a little towards placement – why lead this way, departed from the story’s primary affect?
Las Vegas is a profoundly religious place. People are praying all the time, on free cable, in front of the slots, in the thousands of churches all over. I wanted that pentecostal power to sort of seep into the text from those first words— I wanted signs, suspicion, sideways luck. Because Las Vegas gets to invent everything again (Paris, the Pyramids, etc) it reinvents religion too, in the form of casino chapels and Criss Angel shows. Jimmy wants to see stallions and flaming torrents, but really he’s just watching a cop on a horse, or melted foam dropping from the roof of the Monte Carlo. This says a lot about Las Vegas; people want Sin City to be magical, a place where God could deliver a miracle at the blackjack table. But no. Jimmy’s miracle is divined by Vegaboy of the Desert, and it comes in the form of crystal meth.
Read the interview here!!!