Ask the Author: David David Katzman
Answered Questions (9)
David David Katzman
Thank you for the comments, Sophia. Yes, the evils of Trump 1.0 were starkly obvious and yet now here we are, in a society doubled-down on Trump 2.0--or evil raised to the second power. Evil again except this time with more evil. I deal with high levels of anxiety every day. And your comments are well said, this book would be more meaningful if we could build a society where knowledge and expertise were actually valued instead of subservient to ideology. George Orwell had it right.
David David Katzman
Hello Joao! Thank you for posing this thought-provoking question. It is rather a terrifying time with numerous fascist movements, including the MAGA movement in the U.S., increasing their power, controlling and manipulating media and either cheating or manipulating election across the world with lies, propaganda, delusions and literally guns and threats. It has a feeling of Nazi Germany rising. I wish I had good book recommendations for you. I do think On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder is a good quick read, and I certainly recommend the Society of the Spectacle, but that is more esoteric and theoretical. I did a quick search and this looks to be a promising book that you might take a look at: How to Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance by Paul Mason.
David David Katzman
No and no.
Nor do I have two brothers. I did have two parents though.
Nor do I have two brothers. I did have two parents though.
David David Katzman
Hi Moo. Thanks for asking. No, I did not outline the book in advance, it developed organically and then refined through many revisions. I wrote the raw material of the story, the scenes and characters, over the course of about 4 years in dozens of notebooks. During that time, I was allowing myself to visualize scenes rather than plotting them out. And I was inspired by tone and style and setting rather than a script. And I was also inspired by art. After about 4 years of writing, I suspect because I was allowing my subconscious mind to generate much of the material, I actually could see the entire story from beginning to end assemble in my head. The beginning and end and most of the major shifts in the plot were all there. At that point, I transferred everything to the computer and began editing, which took another three years. I went through 14 full manuscript versions, each time making new discoveries and connections, adjusting scenes, moving scenes and tightening and tightening the story until in my final edits I was focused only on sentences and words and so on. Started on the illustrations about six months before I was done. The entire concept and material was driven by my subconscious imagination and "trance writing," but then my rational mind did significant editing and revising.
David David Katzman
Satan Donut married Custard Nipplewait and then retired to a small farm in upper Lower Upperton where he attempted to grow marijuana-infused French fries, but unfortunately, the fries never sprouted. They just sort of sadly poked out of the dirt in his bathtub (it was a very small farm, but who are we to quibble?) Further, the marijuana infusion process he developed of sitting in his bathroom smoking weed and blowing it at the fries never seemed to cheer the fries up. They just slowly hardened and became stale, like his dreams.
David David Katzman
There does happen to be one great mystery in my life that could help drive sales of mystery novels on Amazon. This mystery is such a mystery it's a mystery what it even is. It's the most mysterious of mysteries filled with mystery. In fact, I've named it Myster Mystery, and last I saw it my mystery was robbing banks in Mystery City. I guess I shouldn't have named it that because look what I started. But anywho, I am worried about Amazon, poor thing. But maybe if we all pool our mysteries together, we can help out our lil' buddy. I'll do my part. Probably.
David David Katzman
Thanks for asking, Tyler! I've been working on a kid's book for a while. Trying to wrangle an illustrator at the moment.
David David Katzman
Hi Kelly!
A very good question...there really is no way to find an audience for surrealist fantasy fiction. I'm not sure there is one. I think you just need to write a great book and then offer it up to all readers of literature and fantasy. It's a pretty modest niche. I never really sought out specific fans of surrealism although I did send a copy to a few websites that review psychedelic writing. I used to be very active on this site and wrote many reviews, but I got kind of bored after a while. I made some great connections with other writers here. And people did discover my book from writing lots of reviews. Doing a couple giveaways isn't a bad idea.
I made up my own name for the genre of A Greater Monster because it's not any one thing. It's experimental. Psychedelic. Fantasy. I felt Psychedelic fairytale was the closest description because it's a bit like Alice in Wonderland. But that's not a genre so much as a description. Just do your best to be true to the book itself. What feels closest?
Good luck!
A very good question...there really is no way to find an audience for surrealist fantasy fiction. I'm not sure there is one. I think you just need to write a great book and then offer it up to all readers of literature and fantasy. It's a pretty modest niche. I never really sought out specific fans of surrealism although I did send a copy to a few websites that review psychedelic writing. I used to be very active on this site and wrote many reviews, but I got kind of bored after a while. I made some great connections with other writers here. And people did discover my book from writing lots of reviews. Doing a couple giveaways isn't a bad idea.
I made up my own name for the genre of A Greater Monster because it's not any one thing. It's experimental. Psychedelic. Fantasy. I felt Psychedelic fairytale was the closest description because it's a bit like Alice in Wonderland. But that's not a genre so much as a description. Just do your best to be true to the book itself. What feels closest?
Good luck!
David David Katzman
Zero feet. They are now making Starbucks within Starbucks for added convenience.
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Apr 06, 2025 10:34PM