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WORK TITLE: The Neon Lights Are Veins
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.nolanknight.com/
CITY: Long Beach
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.nolanknight.com/Knight.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
not found
PERSONAL
Married; children: one son, one daughter.
EDUCATION:California State University, Long Beach, graduated.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and journalist. L.A. Record, Los Angeles, CA, staff writer, 2007-10.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short stories to publications, including Needle, Thuglit, Beat to a Pulp, Plots with Guns, and Shotgun Honey.
SIDELIGHTS
Nolan Knight is a writer and journalist. The Los Angeles native earned a creative writing degree from California State University, Long Beach. He has worked as a staff writer for the L.A. Record, a music publication based in Los Angeles. Knight has written short stories that have appeared in publications, including Needle, Thuglit, Beat to a Pulp, Plots with Guns, and Shotgun Honey.
In 2017, Knight released his first novel, The Neon Lights Are Veins. The protagonists of the book, Rocco Felix and Alvi Drake, are separately looking for Gabby Gretsch, who has recently gone missing. Gabby is a former member of rock band featuring only female musicians and a former girlfriend of Alvi’s. Alvi was once a professional skateboarder with the nickname Ratboy. Since his career tanked, he has been abusing drugs and alcohol and fraternizing with shady characters, including Vance “Mongo” Mongalez. Alvi enlists the help of Mongo and others to look for Gabby. Meanwhile, Rocco searches for her, as well. Rocco works for his criminal uncle, Raymond Satin, though he wishes he could be attending college instead.
In an interview with S.W. Lauden that appeared on Lauden’s self-titled website, Knight stated: “Neon Lights was inspired by the happenings in my Los Angeles neighborhood from roughly 2006 to 2009. A young girl was murdered on our local pub crawl route. An article about it in the LA Weekly started the gears in my brain for the setting of the novel. The book is in no way related to the incident, but the dark atmosphere solidified what I had envisioned. I wanted to implode the standard L.A. Detective story and jigsaw it back together, both structurally and stylistically, into a novel that I had always wanted to read.” He told Steph Post, writer on her own self-titled website: “Los Angeles is a predator in Neon Lights, another antagonist that lures characters with beauty into a doomed existence. When I look at the story overall, I see the main characters as puppets, their strings popping to the fingers of L.A. The City as The Beast was imperative to the text. I’m not sure that it could be told in another city—only for the fact that I don’t know any other cities as well as I know Los Angeles.”
A reviewer in Publishers Weekly offered a favorable assessment of The Neon Lights Are Veins. The reviewer asserted: “Knight’s slangy prose … is a perfect fit for characters whose dreams die slowly or explosively.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, November 21, 2016, review of The Neon Lights Are Veins, p. 94.
ONLINE
Book Depository, https://www.bookdepository.com/ (August 28, 2017), synopsis of The Neon Lights Are Veins.
Nolan Knight Website, http://www.nolanknight.com (August 28, 2017).
S.W. Lauden Website, https://badcitizencorporation.com/ (January 17, 2017), S.W. Lauden, author interview.
Steph Post Website, http://stephpostauthor.blogspot.com/ (March 16, 2017), Steph Post, author interview.*
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BIO
A native of Los Angeles’ South Bay, Nolan Knight’s short fiction has been featured in various publications including Thuglit, Needle, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp and Shotgun Honey. He was a staff writer for Los Angeles’ Biggest Music Publication, the L.A. Record, from 2007 to 2010, and holds a degree in Creative Writing from Cal State University Long Beach. He currently resides in Long Beach with his wife, son and daughter. His debut novel, The Neon Lights Are Veins, is scheduled for release January 10, 2017 from 280 Steps.
===stories===
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STORIES
"Mouth Bay " - Crimespree Magazine (forthcoming)
"That Dreaded Undertow " / Thuglit Issue 22
"Mondo Cargo " / Shotgun Honey
“Not Even a Mouse ” / Thuglit Issue 8
“T-Town Blue” / Shotgun Honey
“Bleeders Abound” / Needle (Vol. II, #2)
“Rise, Charlie, Rise” / Shotgun Honey
“Full Bloom” / Beat to a Pulp
“At Long Last” / Beat to a Pulp: Round One
“Tip the Barkeep” / Needle (Vol. I, #2)
“White Horse” / Plots With Guns #9
“Daytime Drunks” / Thuglit Issue 35
“Sleazoids” / Out of the Gutter #6
“Rad Dudes” / Pulp Pusher
“And Oh What Heights We’ll Hit” / Out of the Gutter #5
“Lousy Cons" / Thuglit Issue 25
The Neon Lights Are Veins
4.33 (6 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback English
By (author) Nolan Knight
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The Neon Lights Are Veins is a cocktail mix of Hubert Selby Jr., Jay McInerney and Josh Stallings, with "L.A. Woman" playing in the background. Skewing the line between literary and noir, The Neon Lights Are Veins is a peephole into the underbelly of modern Los Angeles; a place where hometown hard-lucks and wayward hustlers scrounge for hope in gutters. Top of the heap: Alvi Drake, an aged pro skateboarder whose lone thrill nowadays is a pill-fueled escape from the terror of past ghosts. Once news hits of the disappearance of an old flame, Alvi's plummet smashes through rock bottom, sending him on a quest to find her. With help from his fellow damned (Mongo, Chester and Faye), he spirals through neon wilderness, stumbling upon an underground of sex and drug trafficking, the depths of which street life has yet to take him. Blinded by love and dismissing the reality of his actions, this hunt for another lost angel could be the biggest mistake in his track ridden life.
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QUOTED: "NEON LIGHTS was inspired by the happenings in my Los Angeles neighborhood from roughly 2006 to 2009. A young girl was murdered on our local pub crawl route. An article about it in the LA Weekly started the gears in my brain for the setting of the novel. The book is in no way related to the incident, but the dark atmosphere solidified what I had envisioned. I wanted to implode the standard L.A. Detective story and jigsaw it back together, both structurally and stylistically, into a novel that I had always wanted to read."
INTERROGATION—NOLAN KNIGHT
January 17, 2017 — Leave a comment
Who: Nolan Knight
What: A fourth generation Angeleno whose short fiction has been featured in various publications including Thuglit, Plots with Guns, and Needle. His debut novel, THE NEON LIGHTS ARE VEINS, comes out in paperback Jan. 17, 2017, from 280 Steps Publishing.
Where: Los Angeles
Interview conducted by email. Some questions and answers have been edited.
Congrats on the release of your debut novel. How did THE NEON LIGHTS ARE VEINS come about?
Cheers, Steve!
NEON LIGHTS was inspired by the happenings in my Los Angeles neighborhood from roughly 2006 to 2009. A young girl was murdered on our local pub crawl route. An article about it in the LA Weekly started the gears in my brain for the setting of the novel. The book is in no way related to the incident, but the dark atmosphere solidified what I had envisioned. I wanted to implode the standard L.A. Detective story and jigsaw it back together, both structurally and stylistically, into a novel that I had always wanted to read. The title pertains to The City as The Beast, a giant meat grinder that beckons dreamers and shits them out, generation after generation. A more specific meaning is held by the main character, Alvi Drake, involving his tragic past.
neon-lightsYou and I both grew up along the Southern California coast, where skateboarding is ingrained in the culture. Do you have a background in skating?
Being from the South Bay, skateboarding was a major part of my life. Got my first board at age 5, a Roskopp Big Ugly with Tracker Trucks, Slimeball wheels and clear grip. That’ll mean nothing to most people reading this, but any skater will dig the set-up. After skating well into my twenties, the injuries piled up; still need my right hip labrum reattached.
I still cruise with my kids, but what was so impactful from this background was the importance of individuality, style and progression. Progression is king in skating, and I hold it to the same degree when it comes to writing. If I am not pushing myself to consistently progress my prose, then what’s the fucking point?
How much of you is in the lead character, Alvi Drake?
I’d be lying if I said “none.” Alvi and I are definitely prone to some of the same vices. I could say that in my late teens, Alvi’s character is a figment of what I could envision my future becoming, if I kept going down the wrong path. This City will destroy you, if you let it. Luckily, writing became an obsession. Alvi has a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles, much like myself. In Alvi, I see the ghost of a past life that never came to fruition.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the virtual neon tour that you provide. Do you have a personal neon fetish, or was this something you researched?
Neon has always cast a spell on me. Los Angeles, in particular, is like a sprawling zoo of glowing tubes; however, less so nowadays then what I remember from my youth. Most are sirens calling you to experience life in sordid ways: drink this, eat here, come fulfill your wildest desires. The loudest signs harbor the most questionable joys.
There wasn’t much research done besides revisiting old haunts or keeping an eye on the streets for ghost neon, relics that remain on buildings but no longer work. Stuff I normally do anyway. Neon fetish has a nice ring to it; I’m going to steal that.
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Prior to publishing your novel, you published several short stories. How difficult was your transition from the short form to the long form? Do you prefer one over the other?
I prefer novels. Novels I get swept away in; short stories, I always hit that wall of, “What the hell was I doing here?” I look at all of my short story publications as a natural evolution into the craft. Honestly, I never thought that I’d really hammered a story until Thuglit #22 with “That Dreaded Undertow”. The feedback I got on it was really comforting.
Venues like Thuglit, Plots With Guns, Needle, etc. were such an integral part in progressing as a writer; I am forever indebted. With NEON LIGHTS, I am looking at it the same way I did with my first published short: How can I build upon this foundation and get better as a writer?
thuglit-nolanHow did you get hooked up with your publisher, 280 Steps?
NEON LIGHTS was originally written at the request of an agent. After a few drafts, they lost interest and I let it sit on my computer. After a year, I revisited it and got a final draft. Before sending it out to indie publishers, I took a good look at their backlogs. I was pleasantly surprised by the risks 280 Steps was taking with their book selections. They had locked down an aesthetic that was appealing and enabled them to take chances on fresh storytelling. Christopher Irvin, Ro Cuzon, Marc Rapacz, etc… I saw a pride in progression. They were the first press that I submitted to, cold.
Who are some of your favorite authors? What are you reading right now?
Nathanael West, John Fante, Nelson Algren, Eddie Little…
These days, I read everything by Steve Erickson and Richard Lange.
What other publishing plans do you have for the rest of 2017 and beyond?
I have a short story called “Mouth Bay” coming out in Crimespree Magazine; haven’t got a date for it yet. If you’re near Los Angeles, I’ll be reading at Noir at the Bar on March 5. Other than that, I’m in the end zone of another novel, lining up more readings and gearing-up for the next leg of this journey. They don’t call it “The Long Haul” for nothing.
QUOTED: "Los Angeles is a predator in Neon Lights, another antagonist that lures characters with beauty into a doomed existence. When I look at the story overall, I see the main characters as puppets, their strings popping to the fingers of L.A. The City as The Beast was imperative to the text. I’m not sure that it could be told in another city—only for the fact that I don’t know any other cities as well as I know Los Angeles."
Thursday, March 16, 2017
L.A. Noir With Attitude: An Interview with Nolan Knight
Today I'm bringing you an interview with L.A. native and neon-noir author Nolan Knight. His recent novel debut, The Neon Lights Are Veins, is unlike anything I've read before (and that's saying something!). The novel's story is a fast-paced mystery and caper, dragging the reader through the underbelly of the Los Angeles night, but most impressive is Knight's style: in your face and no-holds-barred.
https://www.amazon.com/Neon-Lights-Are-Veins/dp/8293326980/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Steph Post: The first word that comes to mind when I think of The Neon Lights Are Veins' style is "kaleidoscopic." There's a lot of color, a lot of flash, a lot of snap. It's a style I have seen in noir before, but it's still rare. How did you develop this unique style and how important was establishing this style to the development of the story?
Nolan Knight: First off, thanks for having me here, Steph. Referring to the visual aesthetic of the novel, I think that it is less a stylistic choice than just an authentic rendering of nighttime Los Angeles in roughly 2008. When it comes to the actual design of the narrative, that came out of being patient with the process. I started Neon Lights in 2010 and had a shorter draft (similar to what was published) by late-2012. I shelved it, then came back several months later, needing fresh eyes. I think that the time spent fleshing out the vision I had for it is reflected in the end product. Neon Lights became more fluid and dense with each given pass.
SP: In contrast to all the flash, however, The Neon Lights Are Veins also takes place in a world obviously jaded. The first section is aptly titled "Loveless Gutters" and that line in the opening scene- "too bad this world craved dreamers"- sets the tone for a story set among worldly and world-weary characters. Did you ever worry that this story would be too dark for readers?
NK: No. Fortunately, there’s only one reader I worry about when writing anything—and that’s me. The fact that most of my favorite authors’ books developed strong readerships over years/decades, that’s enough for me to believe that other likeminded folks are out there, ones who could possibly be interested in a story like Neon Lights. That’s all that matters.
SP: One of my favorite things about The Neon Lights Are Veins are the characters and their names in particular. Mongo, Elvira, Rocco- the names are fantastic. Where did they come from? Are any of the characters based on real people?
NK: Most of the characters in the novel are based on random people I would come across in my old East Hollywood neighborhood. Drug dealers on skateboards, crust punks busking for beer, etc. As far as names are concerned… I remember when my wife and I were first dating, introducing her to my friends brought something to light: So many of them had odd nicknames that it made it hard for her keep track of everyone. This was something that I had never even considered growing-up in L.A. It got me thinking of how bizarro names had become household in my everyday life. So, when it comes to naming characters, most of the time I find myself taming down versions of what I’d like to call them.
SP: Another defining element of your book is the cracking, whip-smart dialogue and slang-filled prose. From the first sentence, the reader is dropped right in the middle of this world, with no narrative reprieve. It's an immersive reading experience, you might say. Do you write your first drafts in this voice or is this a carefully cultivated style?
NK: This is just the voice that I feel most comfortable with. Anyone can look back at my short fiction catalog and see the footprints. Immersive is a good way to describe Neon Lights. Sink or swim. If I’ve done my job, the story will hook a reader and remove their safety net at the same time. For me, there’s nothing more satisfying than reading a book where I can trust that the writer is in complete control while he/she takes risks with a progressive story.
SP: The city of L.A., particularly it's underbelly scene, really functions as its own character in The Neon Lights Are Veins. How important was this specific setting to the storyline? Could this story have been told in another city?
NK: Los Angeles is a predator in Neon Lights, another antagonist that lures characters with beauty into a doomed existence. When I look at the story overall, I see the main characters as puppets, their strings popping to the fingers of L.A. The City as The Beast was imperative to the text. I’m not sure that it could be told in another city—only for the fact that I don’t know any other cities as well as I know Los Angeles. Born and raised. Thirty-six years. I’m still learning great things about this city every day and plan on growing old with it.
SP: You are clearly a noir writer. In addition to The Neon Lights Are Veins, you've written stories published in Shotgun Honey, Thuglit, Needle and other noir-friendly or centered outlets. What draws you to the noir genre?
NK: When it comes to literary interests, I’m not drawn to any specific genre. If it’s a solid story, I’ll devour it. Most of the shorts I’ve had published definitely have a noir tendency, and Neon Lights is a noir novel; however, the novel I’ve just finished doesn’t read like noir to me, but I bet it will to readers. I think it’s just the setting that I’m drawn to. I like to be out late at night and so do my characters. Not much good happens in Late-Night-Los Angeles, and that’s often the tone reflected in my writing. Call it noir, call it whatever—just have a peek and see for yourself.
http://www.nolanknight.com/
And you'll need to read The Neon Lights Are Veins for yourself. Be sure to pick up a copy and check out the other killer lit coming from indie press 280 Steps. Thanks so much to Nolan Knight for stopping by!
QUOTED: "Knight's slangy prose ... is a perfect fit for characters whose dreams die slowly or explosively."
The Neon Lights Are Veins
Publishers Weekly.
263.47 (Nov. 21, 2016): p94. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Neon Lights Are Veins
Nolan Knight. 280 Steps, $16.95 trade paper (282p) ISBN 978-8-293-32698-4
Set in Los Angeles, Knight's dark first novel focuses on two lost souls, Alvi Drake and Rocco Felix, who are seeking the same missing woman, Gabby Gretsch, who once played in an all-female band. Drake, who used to be a skateboarding legend known as Ratboy Drake, now drifts through the seedy side of the city on pills and liquor with an assortment of misfits such as sex worker Vance "Mongo" Mongalez, who roomed with Gabby, and runaway Faye Green. Rocco is the nephew of Raymond Satin, who runs casitas where one can get anything, but what Rocco would prefer to be is a student at UCLA--a far cry from dumping bodies and transporting drugs for his uncle. In this sordid noir, young women who disappear tend to turn up dead or are never seen again. Knight's slangy prose ("Still couldn't believe this was his life now: a carnal underworld tucked in the ass of a meat market") is a perfect fit for characters whose dreams die slowly or explosively. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Neon Lights Are Veins." Publishers Weekly, 21 Nov. 2016, p. 94. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471273965&it=r&asid=2a5b99d21155cea0d777d2cfdafae85b. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471273965
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