Got a note from Matthew Asprey that he’s got another publishing deal gone down — the magazine Contrappasso.
Haven’t seen it yet, but a star feature for Up and Down These Mean Streets types would be a new autobiographical piece from Floyd Salas, doubtless covering his youth as a streetfighter in Oakland. All Floyd is Floyd’s life — actually, a grand tradition, especially in tough guy writing. Pretty much the same for Jim Tully. Edward Bunker. Eddie Little. And extending out from strict tough guy lives, for a Jack Kerouac. William Burroughs. You like the autobio and fiction, you get roped in on the lives — and from there, you can head off in a thousand directions. I’m betting this new piece is a retitle or extract from the last thing I heard of that Floyd was working on, The Dirty Boogie.
Plus, this first issue includes an interview with the late great James Crumley, a.k.a. Crumdog, author of the classic The Last Good Kiss, once described as “the bastard son of Raymond Chandler” — Crumley ranks among the greats, and I’m really glad I got the chance to meet him. And as we’ve demonstrated here for Biography Month, a good interview is essential for putting together a life.
