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WORK TITLE: American Static
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.tompittsauthor.com/
CITY: San Francisco
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: Canadian
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born September 26, 1966 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Skid Row Chatter, host. Gutter Books, acquisition editor. Worked formerly as a singer, songwriter, and one of two guitarists for band Short Dogs Grow and as one of the editors for Out of the Gutter Online.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Tom Pitts is a writer and former musician. He was born September 26, 1966 in Calgary, Alberta. He moved to San Francisco in the mid-1980s and joined the band Short Dogs Grow as a singer, songwriter, and one of two guitarists. The band had two albums released on Rough Trade Records.
In the 1990s Pitts began writing. It was also during this time that he fell into drug addiction. He eventually kicked his drug habit and began writing full-time. Pitts writes dark crime fiction with a focus on street life. In addition to writing, he works as an acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and is the host of Skid Row Chatter, a live monthly broadcast on the “Authors on the Air” network. He lives in San Francisco.
Hustle
Pitts’ first novel is a noir that follows the paths of two male prostitutes, hustling and doing what they can to get off of the streets. The story takes place in present-day San Francisco. Donny and Big Rich, the protagonists of the story, look after one another. Having lived on the street for longer than Donny, Big Rich leads the duo. Slightly older and more street-smart than teenaged Donny, Big Rich has developed a keen eye for trouble. The two are heroin addicts and they work the streets to maintain their addiction. Though they are both young enough that their bodies do not show the ware of their lifestyles, they are always mere hours away from painful withdrawal.
The two men decide they are ready to leave their dangerous lifestyle behind, and Big Rich hatches a plan that will grant them a way out. He convinces Donny to film one of his sessions on his cell phone. The client, a wealthy lawyer, is secretive about his sexual exploits, and the young men know he will do whatever he can to keep his second life private. When Donny and Big Rich threaten to put the film on YouTube, they learn that the lawyer is already involved in a much dirtier scheme, and the two young prostitutes get sucked in.
Scott Adlerberg, on the Criminal Element website, described the book as “a fearless exploration of a bleak, harsh slice of the world.” A contributor to the Dead End Follies website wrote: “It’s an industrious book with ideas that requires you to work, but it’s also extremely rewarding,” adding, Pitts “has one of the most unique voices in crime fiction.”
American Static
American Static, Pitts’ second book, opens with twenty-year-old Steven lying bloody in a parking lot in Willits, California. The young man was just beaten up by a group of men who steal his weed. A friend appears in the form of Quinn McFetridge, a stranger who offers Steven a cigarette and a ride. The reader soon learns that Quinn has dark motives, but it takes Steven a bit longer to come to this conclusion.
Quinn offers to take Steven to the next bus stop to see if they can catch the guys that jumped him. When they have no luck in that venture, Quinn asks Steven if he wants to join him on his drive to San Francisco. Without giving it much thought, Steven says yes. Quinn claims that he is going to San Francisco to rescue a girl named Teresa, who he says is his daughter, from her speed-addicted boyfriend.
As they head toward the city, Quinn needs to make a stop at an old friend’s. The reality of the situation finally sets in for Steven when he sees Quinn knife the supposed friend. The story becomes more complicated, and violent, when the duo finally make it to San Francisco, and Steven must keep his wits about him if he wants to survive. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described the book as “an absorbing and highly charged story of violent payback with considerable collateral damage.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of American Static.
ONLINE
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (March 31, 2014), Scott Adlerberg, review of Hustle; (June 28, 2017), Scott Adlerberg, review of American Static.
Dead End Follies, http://www.deadendfollies.com/ (August 8, 2014), review of Hustle.
Lit Reactor, https://litreactor.com/ (March 31, 2014), Christopher Shultz, review of Hustle.
Out of the Gutter, http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/ (May 10, 2016), Derrick Horodyski, review of Hustle.
Tom Pitts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pitts in 2012
Tom Pitts (born September 26, 1966) is a Canadian-American author and former musician. He specializes in dark crime fiction, in which street life is a prominent theme. Like his friend and fellow author Joe Clifford, Pitts had to put a struggle with addiction behind him before emerging as a writer.[1]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Recognition
3 Bibliography
4 Additional literary activity
5 References
Early life
Pitts was born in Calgary, Alberta. He moved to San Francisco in the mid-1980s and became singer, songwriter, and one of two guitarists for Short Dogs Grow.[2] This band, which took its name from the Tom Waits song "On the Nickel", had two albums released on Rough Trade Records.[3]
During the 1990s, Pitts fell into the grip of drug addiction, yet it was also at this time that he began to write. His initial influence was the criminal activity he'd encountered personally, as well as true crime books — notably The Westies by T. J. English. Eventually, Joe Clifford invited Pitts to read as part of the series Clifford hosted in Oakland. The confidence Pitts gained from that outing encouraged him to continue writing.[4]
Recognition
The 2017 novel by Pitts, American Static, has been recognized as follows:
Authors on the Air: 2017 Crime Novel of the Year. The 11 authors nominated for Book of the Year, along with Pitts, also included Lori Wilde, Julie Ann Walker, and Jeff Abbott (Abbott's Blame was the winner).[5]
The Mysterious Book Report: one of the Best Books of 2017[6]
The New York Journal of Books[7]
The Big Thrill: The Magazine of the International Thriller Writers[8]
In 2014, when Pitts' novel Hustle was first published, LitReactor recognized it and the author as notable examples of the Noir fiction tradition.[9]
In discussing the 2015 novella by Pitts, Knuckleball, Fjords Review drew a comparison to Ian Rankin's use of Edinburgh with regard to how Pitts utilizes San Francisco, his longtime home, as a backdrop.[10]
Among the notable crime fiction authors who are associated with Pitts' work: Ken Bruen and Owen Laukkanen (cover copy); Les Edgerton (foreword to Hustle).
Bibliography
Pitts is the author of two novellas:
Piggyback (republished in 2018, originally released in 2012): ISBN 978-1480100626.
Knuckleball (2015): ISBN 978-0692370773.
Pitts has also written two novels:
Hustle (republished in 2016, originally released in 2014): ISBN 978-1496048875.
American Static (2017): ISBN 978-1943402847.
Pitts has also had numerous short stories published in various magazines and anthologies, as well as online.
Additional literary activity
Pitts is also an acquisitions editor for Gutter Books. Previously, he was one of the chief editors for "Out of the Gutter Online" (a website for flash fiction affiliated with Gutter Books).[11]
He also supports the writing community as the host of Skid Row Chatter, a live monthly broadcast on the Authors on the Air network.[12] His guests have included Joe R. Lansdale and Max Allan Collins.
Tom Pitts received his education on the streets of San Francisco. He remains there, working, writing, and trying to survive. He is the author of AMERICAN STATIC, HUSTLE, and the novellas PIGGYBACK and KNUCKLEBALL.
His new novel, 101, will be released by Down & Out Books November 2018.
Find links to more of his work at: TomPittsAuthor.com
Tom Pitts
Tom Pitts received his education firsthand on the streets of San Francisco. He remains there, writing, working, and trying to survive. He is the author of two novellas, Piggyback and Knuckleball. His shorts have been published in the usual spots by the usual suspects. Tom is also an acquisitions editor at Gutter Books and Out of the Gutter Online.
Find Tom Pitts online …
Website: http://tompittsauthor.com/
Blog: http://www.tompittsauthor.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tom.pitts.5201
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/mrtompitts
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Pitts/e/B009XOC82M/
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6558352.Tom_Pitts
American Static by Tom Pitts
JUNE 30, 2017 by GEORGE EBEY 0
By George Ebey
Fast-paced thrills await in author Tom Pitts’s latest novel, AMERICAN STATIC.
After being beaten and left for dead, Steven finds himself stranded alongside the 101 freeway in a small Northern California town. When a mysterious stranger named Quinn offers a hand in exchange for help reuniting with his daughter in San Francisco, Steven gets in the car and begins a journey from which there is no return. Quinn has an agenda all his own and he’s unleashing vengeance at each stop along his path. With a coked-up sadist ex-cop chasing Quinn, and two mismatched small town cops chasing the ex-cop, Steven is unaware of the violent tempest brewing.
The Big Thrill recently caught up with Pitts to learn more about this supercharged new tale of crime and suspense.
Tell us a little about your main character, Steven. What’s his journey been like up until now?
In many ways, Steven is like all of us were at his age. He’s naive, but he thinks he knows everything about anything. He grew up in a hip but sheltered household, raised by hippies in the deep woods of Northern California—the kind of parents who thought they were doing their boy a favor by keeping him from the world’s evils.
What do you enjoy most about writing crime fiction?
I enjoy being lost in the process, the wonderful feeling of not knowing where the story goes next. It sounds trite, but it’s like being writer, director, and actor in your own film. It’s a unique all-encompassing freedom that’s hard to replicate in other mediums.
Why did you choose this setting for your story?
Northern California is not only my home for the last thirty-four years, but also the setting for all my books thus far. AMERICAN STATIC is number two in my Northern California quartet. I tried to stretch the setting a little further than my previous novel, Hustle, by starting the action way up in wine country. I did my best to cover the highs and the lows of living in the Bay.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
Empathy with the criminal. This novel is a study in having sympathy for the devil. It’s designed to view from the bottom up, with the anti-hero taking center stage.
How does this book make a contribution to the genre?
It’s the anti-procedural. It’s a view from the criminal’s perspective. I hope that it sheds some light into the darker regions of the criminal psyche. I also hope the multiple POV approach accelerates the tempo. The decentralization of both protagonist and antagonist is intended to create a richer study of all the characters.
No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?
There’s an underlying theme of parenthood in this book. It’s the antithesis of family values. The dark side of unconditional love.
*****
Tom Pitts received his education on the streets of San Francisco. He remains there, working, writing, and trying to survive. A new edition of his novel, Hustle, is also out from Down & Out Books.
To learn more about Tom, please visit his website.
Tom Pitts received his education firsthand on the streets of San Francisco. He remains there, writing, working, and trying to survive. His shorts have been published in the usual spots by the usual suspects. His novel, HUSTLE, is available from Down & Out Books. He is also the author of two novellas, Knuckleball and Piggyback.
Tom’s new novel, American Static, will be released in June 2017 from Down & Out Books
Tom is an acquisitions editor at Gutter Books and the host of Skid Row Chatter, a live monthly broadcast on the Authors on the Air network.
Guest Post & Interview with Author Tom Pitts
MAY 1, 2016 / THELIBRARIANTALKS
I often hear two things about my novel Hustle. 1) That it’d make a great movie. And of course, I blush and agree. I don’t really know if that’s true though. I suspect people say it because the exposition can be very visual, it’s in third person, and it’s dialogue heavy. All of which lend to adaptation. 2) That it could never be made into a movie. Which I think is completely wrong. Not because it’s un-filmable, but because I see much more risqué subject matter being showcased every day. When people say it’s too raw and gritty for the big screen, I take it as a backhanded compliment. No, it’s not Spiderman or Titanic. It was never intended to be.
But it always gets me thinking of books that are un-filmable. I tend to go with the classics. And they tend to fall into two categories. Those that can never be made, and those that should never have been made. I’ll give you an example of each. A book whose film options are legendary is Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. It’s the white whale of film, the holy grail of screenplays. People have tried and failed, directors have been bandied about and scripts have been attempted on spec, but it never comes to fruition. Why? Not because—as many have guessed—its subject matter, its ghoulish content, or its bleak storyline. Those are tough to stomach, yes, but it’s been the prose that’s stepped in the way. The word you often hear when Blood Meridian is described is biblical, and not because of the storyline. The plot, if you stand back and look at it, if quite simple. But it’s the majesty of the language that connects people with biblical prose. It has a quality so unique, there’s no way a film is ever going to do it justice. Not without narrating the whole text unedited.
A few years back when James Franco was hot off Howl and had his finger in a few esoteric film pies, he was considered for the project. He’d won the rights for a brief time and made a test reel to prove he was not only serious, but talented enough. What surfaced was a dry, wooden western that had none of the magic Blood shared from the page. If you’ve read Blood Meridian and want to take a peek, you can see the Franco fiaso here: Franco’s test reel. But if you haven’t, don’t look. I don’t want to dissuade you from reading one of the greatest books of the twentieth century.
The second book I set my sights on, the one in the “should never have been filmed” category, is On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, the literary polar opposite of McCarthy. Where McCarthy is disciplined to a fault, Jack is freewheeling and consciousness streaming as many of the beat poets he inspired. His story, too, should never have made it to film for the same reason: the prose. There is such an easy flow, a brilliant rhythm to Kerouac’s work it should never have been hacked and slashing into a screenplay. What’s the point? The film version, which took over half a century to make it onto celluloid, isn’t a bad film. They didn’t destroy it. It’s just that it should have been left alone. Like Blood, there’s no way to capture the color of the text unless you literally read the whole book as the film rolls. That may have been a way to make it. Who knows, maybe some amphetamine fueled film student is trying that right now. We’ll probably never see it, but chances are it captures the heart of the work better that the 2012 film. And if you want a taste of Hollywood’s version of the beats, here’s the trailer. On the Road.
My point is, most books will always work better than the film. Why? It’s the music of the language, the precision of the prose. There’s nothing that can replicate the connection between a skillful author and a fine tuned reader.
That being said, I’m still open for film options. Hello? Hollywood? Hello?
AuthorInterview (1)
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?
Really, the genre chose me. I think there’s something to the old adage ‘write what you know’, at least when you’re starting out, and for me, that’s crime fiction. I mean, I understand that you don’t have to be an astronaut to write about space, but I’ve had a rough background with a sordid history of drugs and crime and I wanted to inject some of what I learned out there on the street into what I see in fiction.
What cultural value do you see in writing/reading/storytelling/etc.?
As far as my own work is concerned, that’s a question for someone else to answer. I’m not really doing what the anthropologists say storytelling is for, the handing down of traditions or cautionary tales. I think it’s dangerous to start thinking about how your work is assimilated into the culture. If I do start musing on it, I get very existential and start wondering if any work has an impact. In the great scheme of things, I don’t know if these little universes we create have any value. The world will keep evolving—or eroding—with or without artistic contributions from man.
But on the bright side, we writers are here to entertain and hopefully enlighten, right? If you get something more from my own work, God bless you, but it’s sheer hubris for me to assume anything else.
What do you think most characterizes your writing?
I hope authenticity. I try to capture real characters. How people actually speak, how they act, and—more importantly—how they react. I like the idea of taking extraordinary events and seeing how they play out in the ordinary world.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
This was my first full-length novel. I was in completely uncharted territory. I loved the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen each day. The epiphany I had sitting down at the keyboard and realizing the characters were driving the story forward, not me.
Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured if your book? If so, discuss them.
The story is about two drug-addicted gay hustlers. If that’s not an underrepresented group I don’t know what is. But the idea of the story is not to represent them, they’re just two lost souls who kickstart a series of events that allow the action to unfold.
Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work? What impact have they had on your writing?
Elmore Leonard for his Spartan use of the language. Denis Johnson for his shifting voice. Richard Price for his easy dialogue. And Charles Bukowski for his honesty.
Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
Tricky question. Writing—and its related activities—take up a huge part of my life. I’m an acquisitions editor, I edit an online magazine, I host a live podcast, there’s promotion, copy editing, the juggernaut of social media, and let’s not forget the ever-present work in progress. But I’m also a family man and all these things don’t pay the bills, so I have a job. A real job, as they say. I dispatch taxis in San Francisco—the graveyard shift. And how that gig affects my writing is I’ve had to learn to carve out time to create. With all that other stuff going on, it takes some discipline to make sure the novels get the attention they deserve.
What are some day jobs that you have held? If any of them impacted your writing, share an example.
I’ve held a lot of low-wage day jobs over the years, but the vocation that impacted my writing most was being a petty criminal while I was strung out on heroin. There’s no substitute for that kind of education.
What do you like to read in your free time?
Since I’m so immersed in the crime genre, I read mostly crime fiction. Joe Clifford, Benjamin Whitmer, Josh Stallings, the list is endless. I seem to have lost the courage to spend more time reading outside that narrow room. I think it’s probably a little unhealthy. I’m promising myself right now to rectify that.
What projects are you working on at the present?
Right now I’m writing another novel called 101. Its backdrop is the marijuana industry in Northern California.
What do your plans for future projects include?
I have an agent who’s working hard to sell my two completed novels. One is called American Static, and the other, Coldwater. I’m trying to be a good client and not harass her too often. It’s funny, you always dream about being able to leave the business to someone else and just write. Then you finally have an advocate who tells you to focus on your craft and all you want to do is meddle in the business end.
What question do you wish that someone would ask about your book, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it.
In regards to Hustle, the one that gets hinted at but no one ever comes right out and asks is: Were you a gay hustler? And the answer is No.
Do you have any strange writing habits (like standing on your head or writing in the shower)?
Silence! It’s not really an unusual habit, but I hear plenty of writers talk about what kind of music they listen to as they write. I can’t even fathom that. In San Francisco we have some noisy neighbors and I often use earplugs to deaden the sound. Stephen King was right when he said write with the door closed.
How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?
Names are crucial. Finding the right name is like finding the right chord when you’re writing a song. You know when you’ve hit it. Names are a shortcut to describing your character. If they’re rich and educated, or rough and tumble, or vicious or kind. A name has to roll off the tongue and have a musicality to it so it clings to the reader’s conscience.
Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? What is it?
No. I think anything is fair game. It’s more of a question of does a subject interest me. A lot of subjects that are supposedly taboo don’t really interest me. So it’s not the taboo that keeps me away, it’s the lack of appeal.
What literary character is most like you?
I’d like to think I was one of those cool even-handed guys in an Elmore Leonard book, but in reality, I’m probably more like one of those terrified introspective types in a Don DeLillo novel.
What is something you want to accomplish before you die?
I’d like to complete a novel a year till I’m gone. I promised myself this three years ago. So far, I’m still on schedule.
Thank you so much, Tabatha. It’s been a fun interview.
AboutTheAuthor (1)
boucher
Tom Pitts received his education firsthand on the streets of San Francisco. He remains there, writing, working, and trying to survive. He is the author of two novellas, Piggyback and Knuckleball. His shorts have been published in the usual spots by the usual suspects.
Tom is also an acquisitions editor at Gutter Books and Out of the Gutter Online. You can also listen to his radio show online on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network: Skid Row Chatter with Tom Pitts.
AuthorLinks (1)
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AboutTheBook
HUSTLE
A Crime Novel
HustlebyTomPitss
Synopsis: Two young hustlers, caught in an endless cycle of addiction and prostitution, decide to blackmail an elderly client of theirs. Donny and Big Rich want to film Gabriel Thaxton with their cell phones during a sexual act and put the video up on YouTube. Little
do they know, the man they’ve chosen, a high-profile San Francisco defense attorney, is already being blackmailed by someone more sinister: an ex-client of the lawyer. A murderous speed freak named Dustin has already permeated the attorney’s life and Dustin has plans for the old man. The lawyer calls upon an old biker for help and they begin a violent race to suppress his deadly secret.
Praise for HUSTLE
“Tom Pitts’ HUSTLE is the kind of in-your-face street level noir that
American crime fiction hasn’t seen in a long, long time. Bold, honest
and daring.” — Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce
“Tom Pitts is part of a rare and dying breed, a self-taught, instinctual
writer whose tight, pitch-perfect prose was honed the old-fashioned
way by reading and walking the seedy alleys of life. Pitts’ own
experiences on the streets of San Francisco make HUSTLE a novel
unlike any you’ve read before.” — Ro Cuzon, author of Under the
Dixie Moon
“What makes HUSTLE such a remarkable book — and Tom Pitts such
a formidable writer — is the juxtaposition of literary tradition versus
street ethos. This is in-the-trenches, first-hand, in-your-face
reportage, from a who knows what it takes to survive those streets.
Unflinching and without apology.” — Joe Clifford, author of Junkie
Love and Lamentation
BuyLinks
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B&N
KOBO
INDIEBOUND
Pitts, Tom: AMERICAN STATIC
Kirkus Reviews. (Aug. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Pitts, Tom AMERICAN STATIC Down & Out Books (Indie Fiction) $17.95 6, 26 ISBN: 978-1-943402-84-7
Ex-cops, killers, and junkies collide in and around San Francisco in this thriller. In Pitts' (Knuckleball, 2017, etc.) novel, 20-year-old Steven suffers a brutal beating by men who steal his weed and leave him lying on gravel in the small town of Willits, California. Quinn McFetridge, a stranger, offers him a ride and a cigarette, but his motives aren't altruistic. Just out of prison, he tricks Steven into helping him rescue a girl named Teresa, who he claims is his daughter, from living with a speed freak in San Francisco. En route to the city, the ex-con and Steven stop at a vineyard owned by someone Quinn calls an old friend; soon he's a dead one. Cokehead and ex-cop Maurice Tremblay finds the vineyard owner with a puddle of blood "still growing around his body." Tremblay discerns Quinn is the murderer. The two share a complicated back story, and for reasons yet unknown to the reader, they both want to find Teresa. Tremblay works for Ricardo Alvarez--aka Richard Allen, "a Mexican cartel guy, supposedly gone legit"--whose tentacles reach into San Francisco's "City Hall and upward." Widowed, retired cop Carl Bradley, assisting in finding the vintner's killer, contacts some sources, and then he too heads to the city, looking for Quinn, Tremblay, and Teresa. Steven finds her among addicts in the Mission District. Frail-looking and bruised from shooting up, Teresa connects with Steven. They go on the run, especially from Quinn, who brutally murders anyone who can identify him. From here, the pace of the lively tale accelerates, and the reason why Teresa is hunted and the truth about her identity are revealed. The characters are well-defined: bored, lonely Carl, devoted to his dog, Buford; Quinn, with an appetite for steak and an appreciation of the power of a muscle car; and fleshy-cheeked Tremblay, a devotee of loose women and top-shelf liquor. The author's attention to small details is a big plus--a mattress bends under Tremblay's weight; a reporter's eyeglasses look opaque with fingerprints--but identifying the make of every vehicle stolen or involved in a chase pockmarks the engrossing text. An absorbing and highly charged story of violent payback with considerable collateral damage.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Pitts, Tom: AMERICAN STATIC." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499572399/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7985e4c7. Accessed 15 Apr. 2018.
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FRESH MEAT
Review: American Static by Tom Pitts
SCOTT ADLERBERG
American Static by Tom Pitts is a fast-paced crime thriller set against the backdrop of Northern California's wine country, Oakland's mean streets, and San Francisco's peaks and alleys, written by a man who knows the underbelly of the city like no one else.
In classic noir stories—fiction or film—it only takes one bad decision or one wrong turn on the highway or one chance encounter with the wrong person to completely upend a life. A life unruffled and mostly stress-free can turn into a nightmare real fast. Such is the case in Tom Pitts’s novel American Static, a book that starts with a mugging at a roadside bus station and never once slackens after that.
The victim of that mugging, a teenager named Steven, accepts help on the spot from the man who offers it. And this one choice made by Steven—an understandable choice at that—leads him into a world brand new to him, where danger and betrayal and death are the norms.
The attackers, both Hispanic, take Steven’s backpack in the town of Willits, California. Without his phone, ID, money, and the three pounds of weed he was delivering to people in San Francisco, Steven has little choice but to say yes to the man named Quinn who offers him a ride in his truck.
Quinn also offers to buy Steven a meal. After they eat, Quinn drives Steven to the next bus station on the route to see whether they can catch the bus and spot the two guys who jumped Steven. Maybe they can get back Steven’s things. Quinn tells Steven to wait in the truck and boards the stationary bus himself. It’s here, with his typical understated skill, that Pitts begins the process of chilling your blood and making you see that Steven’s apparent benefactor must have his own agenda.
Inside the bus, Quinn walked down the aisle, looking from left to right. About two-thirds of the way back he saw two young Hispanic kids. The one closest to the window had a backpack clutched to his chest. They made eye contact. Quinn studied them for a moment, then winked. Both boys furrowed their brows. Quinn turned and walked off the bus.
When Quinn tells Steven his attackers weren’t there but that he can get him to San Francisco, Steven says, “Sure.” He’s not an idiot and wonders whether the stranger helping him can be trusted, but going with Quinn clearly is his best option. In noir, life gives you a very limited set of choices, and inevitably the choice you make is the worst one.
In short order, there is another scene where Quinn tells Steven to wait in his truck while he enters a large house on a Napa Valley vineyard. He meets a man there he knows, and they talk. Their interaction is calm but edgy, and then Pitts deepens our understanding of who Quinn is by presenting sudden though matter-of-fact violence.
The man straightened, turned, and saw Quinn with the knife.
“What’s that for?”
Without hesitation or explanation, Quinn reached forward and slashed the right side of the man’s neck. The man’s eyes lit up behind his glasses. He dropped the bottle to the kitchen floor where it bounced without breaking. Both his hands went toward his neck. Blood was pulsing out, spurting between the man’s fingers…
“What a mess,” Quinn said. “Let’s stop that heart from pumpin’ out all that blood.”
The reader knows more about Quinn than Steven does—which creates a wonderful tension—and from this point on, the book opens up to include a large cast of characters involved in a plot that gets ever more complex and absorbing till the final chapter.
Just released from prison, Quinn heads to San Francisco with Steven in tow. Quinn’s release from incarceration will prove to be the catalyzing event that animates any number of players. Pitts gives us a young, honest cop; a sympathetic retired cop; a corrupt ex-policeman; addicted drug users; low-level dealers; a conniving lawyer; bodyguards and goons; and a rich businessman hiding a vicious criminal history.
The range of characters presented is impressive, and the swirling narrative leads to people at the highest levels of power in San Francisco. Because Pitts knows his characters well, you get to know them intimately, and what’s great is that none of them ever act in an arbitrary manner. Nobody does anything that seems forced; no action undertaken feels thrust upon a character just so the author can advance the story.
American Static keeps a rapid pace and jumps around from character to character, but it never becomes confusing. There are several cat-and-mouse scenarios that unfold at once in various San Francisco neighborhoods—from the affluent areas to the scuzzy ones—and it’s a tribute to Pitt’s precision that the reader can always follow where somebody is in relation to the person they’re pursuing or fleeing. He is a splendid manipulator of action and novelistic movement.
Tom Pitts has written four books now, two novels and two novellas. I’d be hard-pressed to find a dull page in any of his work. He’s a writer who crafts propulsive narratives and expertly folds exposition into his stories so that their momentum is not sacrificed. Information dumps, so-called, are not something you’ll find in a Tom Pitts book.
If I have any quibbles with American Static, it’s only because he set such a high standard for himself with his earlier novel, Hustle. That San Francisco-set tale about two male, drug-using prostitutes who try to blackmail a wealthy lawyer in order to get off the streets and change their lives had more of an emotional heft than American Static does.
While I felt fully invested in the two protagonists in Hustle, American Static is a book I took in a bit more at arm’s length. This could be because I didn’t quite feel all that much for the two young protagonists at the book’s core: Steven and Teresa. Steven is the innocent in the story, and Teresa the one around whom the book’s central mystery revolves. The relationship that grows between the pair is the story's sole predictable development. You know they are going to connect, chastely or not, and sure enough, they do.
Neither is as complicated or interesting as the characters out to get or protect them. By contrast, the bitter, cocaine-sniffing ex-cop Tremblay is a fascinating study in moral rot. On the side of decency is the old warhorse Carl, whose motivations Pitts describes in beautifully succinct fashion:
That night, after a modest supper of canned black beans on toast, Carl sat on the couch before a picture of his deceased wife Barbra … It was his favorite picture of her, taken when she was in her early forties. To Carl, she’d never changed since the photo was taken. She’d never gotten sick, never deteriorated…
“Sweetheart,” he said. “I’m thinking on doing something foolish. Well, I’m not thinking on it,” he corrected himself. I’m goin’ to go ahead and do it. I know I promised you when I was out I was out, but I just can’t sit still anymore … I want to be of some use in this world. I’m not mistaking this for anything it’s not. I know I’m just an old fool, but I think I got a few more in me, honey. I’m not ready to hang up my hat just yet.”
You care a lot about what happens to Carl, and you fear for him considering who he’s up against. A story doesn't need a great villain to be good, but having that great villain certainly helps. Pitts gives us two at odds with each other, and one of these two, Quinn—with his perfect teeth, composed demeanor, and movie star looks—ranks among the most bloodcurdling people I’ve come across in a crime novel since Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men.
Quinn is less philosophically inclined than Chigurh, but he’s just as dead inside and just as lethal. In fact, his icy pathology seems so complete and is so well-depicted, I’m not sure I totally buy the one warmhearted sentiment he displays towards a character near the book’s conclusion. On the other hand, even he is a human being, and this is the Tom Pitts way—to demonize nobody.
American Static is an exciting rush of a book, and the sense of menace it creates from its mix of damaged people is constant and palpable.
MON
MAR 31 2014 4:00PM
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FRESH MEAT
Fresh Meat: Hustle by Tom Pitts
SCOTT ADLERBERG
Hustle by Tom Pitts is a gritty, harsh story of two male prostitutes from San Francisco who attempt to blackmail a wealthy lawyer in order to get off the streets and out of the business (available April 1, 2014).
Despite all the good authors working in the field today, most noir is not exactly what you'd call mainstream. In noir's stubborn allegiance to darkness and loss, fuck-ups and crackpots, it may never be. From a fan's perspective, this is exciting. It means noir remains an area not entirely sullied by commercial concerns, and the result is books that can take risks. Tom Pitts' Hustle is that sort of book, a fearless exploration of a bleak, harsh slice of the world. In its frank portrayal of drug-addicted male hustlers angling and scrambling to survive, it's a novel with a transgressive edge, and you don't have to read very far into it to sense it will take you where it needs to go, not where it thinks the reader may want to travel.
We're in San Francisco, present day. Donny and his friend Big Rich are two addicts with no jobs who make whatever money they can as street prostitutes. Donny seems to be in his late teens; Big Rich is a little older. They are best friends who look out for each other, and Rich serves as a mentor to Donny. They are part of a group of boys who hustle, and from page one, Pitts gives us a clear-eyed view of their tight community:
...Down on that corner, everybody knew each other. Everybody was into each other's business. The boys depended on each other for information. Information was survival. They all knew the regulars, the older men who would cruise the corner in their luxury cars. They got to know who was married, who liked to party, who liked it freaky, and who was HIV-positive. Some of the tricks didn't care who knew, but some liked to keep it a secret.
Donny isn't there because he likes the sex; it's the party favors that come with the sex that he craves. Of course there are dangers, but with Rich as his buddy, he has the right person to guide him through everything. In his time on the street Rich has honed his survival skills well:
Big Rich had been down there longer than any of them. He was bigger, tougher, and more street-worn than the rest of them, but he was still handsome enough to be desirable. His few years on the corner added up to eons of experience. He was a seasoned pro. Rich could smell vice before they ever hit the block. He'd give a high whistle whenever he heard them coming and the boys would all start moving, walking, lighting cigarettes and talking on cell phones. It's not like they were fooling anybody. Everybody in the city knew what went on down there.
Donny and Rich's primary drug is heroin, shot intravenously, but they also do meth and coke. They love speedballs. They smoke cigarettes nonstop. Both are young enough that their bodies haven't started to break down yet, but they're always a few hours away from the first achy signs of withdrawal. Though content when in a nod in either of their rooms, Donny and Rich have had enough of the street and want to escape it.
Rich convinces Donny that they can use their cell phones to film a session with one of Rich's regular clients, a wealthy lawyer secretive about his sexual proclivities. They'll threaten to put the footage on YouTube unless the client agrees to pay them off and keep paying them off. But what they don't know is that their intended target, for all his money, is caught in a bad situation of his own. He's about to get engulfed in a scheme unrelated to theirs, a far nastier one which sucks Donny and Rich into its vortex.
Pitts packs his novel with precise details about San Francisco and the hustlers' milieu, but he never once stops the story's forward movement. The passage here is a typical example, folding in points about the lawyer's character:
It was already dark by the time he reached the intersection of Polk and Sutter. The corner was near empty. The wind was blowing and it looked cold. Regular foot traffic; people with their collars up hurrying home from work, homeless derelicts pushing carts, transsexual hookers in outrageous clothing heading back to their roosts on the next block. No young men out there. Gabriel sat at a red light wondering why he'd bothered. He had the boy's cell number, he could easily call and set up a meeting, a date, but he wasn't up for a face-to-face encounter, not tonight. A horn blared from behind and startled him from his thoughts. The light had turned green while he was staring at the corner. He didn't even want to be seen down there. Embarrassed, he hooked a right and headed back toward Pacific Heights.
Pitts manages to evoke his world without any sensationalism, nor does he plumb these underworld depths to give us a taste of the exotic. He does not shy away from presenting actual sex, encounters between the hustlers and their tricks. In these scenes, which are essential to our understanding of the people involved, Pitts is able to convey a number of things at once: sadness, humor, disgust, the yearnings of the characters. It takes guts to write scenes like this, not to mention skill.
What's more, Pitts presents the players before us as just human, not freaky or grotesque. Donny, Rich, and Gabriel are all fully-fleshed, idiosyncratic people, and their solidness makes you care about them. Despite the hustle they're trying to run on Gabriel, I liked Donny and Big Rich, and from the moment he's introduced, Gabriel comes across as a sympathetic person. You don't want to see him hurt. It's as if you're in the corners of all three participants, and added to the mix is the fourth main character, a fifty-year old biker named Bear.
Summoned for help by Gabriel to help the lawyer deal with his large problem (not the Donny and Rich plan), Bear is a guy who has done his share of hell-raising. Gabriel is his lawyer, and because of past legal assistance from him, Bear doesn't hesitate to help the old man. In this gruff, weathered guy who now lives a quite life transporting weed, drinking beer, and watching television, Bear has a presence that leaps off the page, and the scenes with him, Donny, and Rich are both touching and funny:
There was no way Bear was bringing these two mutts home with him. He had a rule in his house about guests. The rule was: No Guests. Especially not two heroin-addicted, speed-freak, boy whores.
Donny leaned in from the back seat and said, “We wanna help.” And in case it didn't sound sincere enough, he added, “We wanna help save him.”
Bear looked in the rearview at Donny. He felt bad; he was beginning to like this kid. Too bad he was so full of shit.
Bear comes to develop a somewhat protective attitude toward Donny, and as the story races along, the book touches on notions of friendship, loyalty and loneliness.
In Hustle, Tom Pitts has written a memorable book. It blends plot, character, setting, and pacing beautifully. It's a crime novel full of twists and suspense as well as an unflinching look at a drug-driven, sexual underworld. It seems to me that Pitts has the ideal temperament to be a crime writer; he's one of those chroniclers who presents behavior but does not judge. Not once in Hustle does he moralize. People do the things they do, and he understands that everyone, as the saying goes, has their reasons.
Aug 8
Book Review : Tom Pitts - Hustle (2014)
Order HUSTLE here
(also reviewed)
Order PIGGYBACK here
''This guys just wants to be pissed on. Easy money, a hundred bucks. If you're still here when I get back, we'll go back to the hotel and cop. Call it a night.''
Donny nodded. It was hard not to feel a little envious. A hundred bucks for taking a piss.. Easy money.
I like to believe I am hypersensitive to melodrama, like a vampire is hypersensitive to light. If your novel attempts to harvest my emotions without probable cause, there's a good chance I'll walk the other way and won't look back. Point is, go easy on the emotional side or make it fucking ring true. Tom Pitts' first novel HUSTLE establishes a cold distance with its own emotional content and leaves up to the reader to piece up the significance of its social commentary. It's not a novel that's easy to get into. It's going to require some effort and involvement, but the payoff is there. HUSTLE is not a novel for everybody. It's best suited for readers with a purpose.
HUSTLE begins with Donny and Big Rich, two underage dope fiends looking for a way out of the corner. Big Rich, the more ambitious of the two has a plan to film themselves performing sexual acts on one of their high profile clients and blackmail their way into a better life. What they don't know is that their client Gabriel is already being blackmailed by someone a lot more fearsome than Donny and Big Rich, a meth freak named Dustin who has a very impressive judicial wrap sheet. So the kids are unwittingly walking into a cut throat situation between a man with something to hide and a man with nothing to lose, and absolutely no one to watch their backs.
It's difficult to establish a point of comparison for the prose of Tom Pitts. He has a very particular, shapeless style that focuses on street vernacular. I guess the closest thing to Pitts, style-wise, would be Edward Bunker. Their respective fiction discuss very different things, but they read similar. Both have that raw, unadorned, almost telegraphic quality, that capacity to focus on what's real. Perhaps one of my favourite aspects of HUSTLE was these cold descriptions on the unspeakable sexual acts Big Rich and Donny had to perform to earn drug money. That unwavering, surprisingly sober outlook they had on themselves. Especially Donny. There is this amazing scene where he's asked to pleasure himself for a customer, but he cannot find anything to get horny about. Very intense in its own way.
That said, the main calling car of HUSTLE is its dynamic storytelling. Tom Pitts understands very well the mystery writing mechanics that a situation always veil a bigger, more complex and desperate one. HUSTLE begins with a common tragedy of two kids wasting away their youth and the first hundred page is rather difficult for a variety of reason going from the stern prose to the graphic depictions of a desperate lifestyle, but as the situation evolves and Tom Pitts slowly lifts the veil on his mystery, the pace ramps up and HUSTLE becomes increasingly more fun to read. The gaze-into-the-abyss social commentary is an important part of the novel, but HUSTLE never forgets to be fun either.
If you're one of these I-read-only-to-be-entertained readers, no hard feelings but HUSTLE might not be for you. It's not going to grab you right away. It's not that kind of novel, but it's fine because it's a novel that understands very well what it is : fast-paced noir loaded with social commentary. It's not an immediate pleaser, it works on your empathy skills, kind of like if it gave you an audition for the last part of the novel. Personally, I love that kind of Darwinian challenge in a novel, but not everybody reads for the same reasons than I do. HUSTLE is a novel where the cold, hard reality of the streets and epic crime fiction ride coattails to one another. It's an industrious book with ideas that requires you to work, but it's also extremely rewarding. That Tom Pitts guy has one of the most unique voices in crime fiction.
Ben
Review: HUSTLE, by Tom Pitts
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
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Posted in: book review, books, Derrick Horodyski, Down & Out Books, Review Tuesdays, reviews, Tom Pitts
My taste in books runs towards the dark side. The darker the better and if you can sprinkle in some realism, even better. Well, Tom Pitts has created a book that takes you further into the dark side than you have ever been taken before and probably further than you ever wanted to be taken. The re-release of Pitts’ masterpiece, Hustle, satisfied my love for books that are dark and bitter, but also ones that contain human emotions and heartbreak. A balancing point of these two aspects is hard for even the best authors to find, but Pitts proves his star is ready to be elevated into a category with the top authors of this noir generation with this book that I could not put down.
Pitts brings you into the seedy side of male prostitution, drug addiction, and blackmail. Big Rich and Donny are two down on their luck prostitutes who may have dreams of getting out of their current life, but they are too tied up in the never ending cycle of needing to get a fix before they go into withdrawal to do much towards finding a life off the seedy streets they currently use to peddle themselves to the highest bidder. Since their need for a fix comes on quicker and quicker, they need to hustle johns at a quicker pace. With no means to break this cycle, Big Rich finally hits on a scheme to videotape a liaison between them and Gabriel Thaxton, a mega-rich, older man who is a popular defense attorney and then blackmail their way onto Easy Street. But his get-rich-quick scheme doesn’t factor in everything that Pitts throws his way. In typical noir fashion, they find themselves sucked deeper into despair with every step they try to take to find happiness.
This book sings a beautiful song. It is gritty, raw, unflinching, and realistic, which is what elevates this book into the must read category. Most people would rather turn a blind eye to people like Big Rich and Donny, but the truth is they’re out there. Pitts takes a situation—drug addiction—that is facing countless communities and families today and puts a face and name to it. He forces you into not looking away and not being able to shove it into the back of your mind. This book sucks you into its gravitational pull and leaves you gasping for breath. This is an uncompromising look at addiction, self-loathing, and lives that have spiraled out of control. You will want to shower after reading this one.
Highly, Highly Recommended.
Reviewed by Derrick Horodyski
Bookshots: 'Hustle' by Tom Pitts
REVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER SHULTZ MARCH 31, 2014
IN: BOOKSHOTS HUSTLE NOIR REVIEW TOM PITTS
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Bookshots: 'Hustle' by Tom Pitts
Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review
Title:
Hustle
Who Wrote It?
This book may never forge a brand new category, as Edgerton suggests, but it does effectively...carry the torch of noir onward and upward, and Pitts will surely be counted among the best 21st century writers of the genre.
Tom Pitts, a street-taught author of numerous short stories and the novella Piggyback. Hustle is his debut novel. More info at his website.
Plot in a Box:
Donny and Big Rich, two San Francisco prostitutes, hatch a scheme to blackmail regular customer/big-shot attorney Gabriel Thaxton. Their plans get muddled, however, by Dustin, a speed-sucking felon with his own designs against Gabriel, prompting biker bad-ass Bear Mayfield to step in and, hopefully, save the day.
Invent a new title for this book:
Killers, Thieves and Lawyers (borrowed from the Tom Waits song "God's Away on Business")
Read this if you like:
The unconventional crime-noir of Jim Thompson, the unflinching sexual depictions found in Chuck Palahniuk's work, and the sympathetic junkies of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.
Meet the book's lead:
Technically speaking, Donny, the redemption-seeking street hustler/heroin addict, is our protagonist, but I found Bear the biker a far more compelling character. He's basically a bearded, overweight Philip Marlowe without a license, slugging down whiskey and beer in-between puffs of Camel Lights and bouts of no-nonsense ass-kicking. If you ever get into the kind of trouble Donny, Big Rich, and Gabriel get themselves into, this is one dude you want in your corner.
Said lead would be portrayed in a movie by:
Mark Addy, best known as King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones. He would perfectly capture the character's blend of toughness and charm.
Setting: Would you want to live there?
The cold street corners and dingy flop houses frequented by Donny and Big Rich: nope. San Francisco in general...Well, it's near the ocean, and it's pretty...but it gets too chilly in the winter there, and the rent is too damn high. I'll pass.
What was your favorite sentence?
There was so much blood up there it looked like a Jackson Pollock painting.
The Verdict
There are some pretty grandiose claims in Hustle's introduction, written by Les Edgerton ("author of The Rapist, Just Like That, and The Bitch," we're told), the biggest being that this book will give birth to a whole new offshoot of the noir genre—"Hustle Noir," he calls it. Edgerton also states that some critics will find the book "abhorrent" for its unapologetic depictions of drug addiction and prostitution, and its general lack of "PC" values.
So when I began reading Pitts's novel, I had a strong sense of what-have-I-gotten-myself-into? I mean, if a guy who wrote a book called The Rapist was this enthused about Hustle, it must be one morally-depleted tale, right? Well, as it turns out, Edgerton's introduction is more a product of the hype machine than a warning to sensitive readers. Save for one particularly nasty scene close to the end, I didn't find anything overtly unsettling in the pages of this book—nothing so stomach-churning as the climax of Palahniuk's story "Guts," or as insidiously unnerving as the machinations of Lou Ford in Thompson's The Killer Inside Me, for instance. Perhaps my brain is just warped, or perhaps the old saying rings true here: don't believe the hype.
Now, this isn't to say Hustle is a bad book. Far from it. Pitts knows the conventions set forth by the twice-aforementioned Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain, and uses them in a way wholly his own. His characters (with a few minor exceptions) aren't necessarily "good people," and yet we root for them all the same, showing Pitts's knack for writing compelling antiheroes. The overarching mystery offers as many twists and blind turns as a California mountain highway without ever resorting to cheap red herrings or meaningless MacGuffins. The requisite hardboiled language is here, but with an understated, plainspoken flair that reminds me more of Stephen King than any of the direct influences already discussed. And finally, just as every good author should do, Pitts answers all questions by narrative's end, but asks a few more in the last few pages, leaving the reader to ponder on the (surviving) characters' paths beyond the confines of Hustle.
This book may never forge a brand new category, as Edgerton suggests, but it does effectively (and, therefore, lovingly) carry the torch of noir onward and upward, and Pitts will surely be counted among the best 21st century writers of the genre. Like printed books, vinyl records, and a functioning democratic government, we need dedicated people to keep noir going, and Pitts—so far—is doing a damn fine job.