There are also brief personal tributes to John Elliott by Quentin S. Crisp, here and here.

An audio interview with him, conducted by Quentin S. Crisp and recorded by Joe Campbell, may be listened to and downloaded at SoundCloud here:

Chômu interview #2: John Elliott

It is a privilege today to be able to present our readers an interview with a writer who has given the world of writing something of great originality and value whilst remaining, perhaps enigmatically, a little off the radar. Please enjoy the following interview with John Elliott.

Chômu Press: There was a slight gap between your first novel (Another Example of Indulgence) and your second (Dying to Read). Are there reasons for this that you feel like sharing?

John Elliott: Slight gap is an understatement. Basically, my commitment to work and my alcohol consumption—socially that is—out of it eroded writing time. I’m also a slow writer even in the best of sessions.

CP: You are a jazz enthusiast; has this influenced your writing in any way?

JE: Yes. Along with books and the movies it has been a constant source of inspiration to me. A veritable ocean to dip into. In a purely personal way when I sit down to write—apply bum to seat as PG Wodehouse advised—I say to myself, ‘Let’s play a little bebop.’ It’s the idea of improvisation and the more remote possibility of transcendence that leads me on. Musicians talk about playing inside and outside at the same time. I translate that as creating surface but also trying to convey something below and beyond it. In other words, getting the combination of words, phrases and themes to achieve several levels.

CP: Did you have any particular impetus for writing Dying to Read?

JE: Yeah. I wanted to write something lighthearted with the aforementioned Mr Wodehouse and more especially Raymond Queneau as my guides. I’d recently read his A Harsh Winter (Un Rude Hiver) which I loved. As a youngster I consumed a lot of detection fiction so that attracted me as a background and genre. Once the characters appeared my fondness for them propelled me onwards. Making people laugh in the writing group I belong to was also a boon and a spur.

CP: What are you working on at the moment?

JE: A novel called Fake Book, which is a jazz term. It’s largely set in Glasgow at the time of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and is a love story. I’m a sucker for lost causes.

CP: Do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

JE: I recently greatly enjoyed Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi. I’d encourage everyone to read Witold Gombrowicz, Cosmos—Pornografia—Ferdydurke. Thomas Bernhard whose mordant wit and scathing denunciations I love. His technique is brilliantly shown off in The Loser, The Lime Works and Extinction. Robert Walser, greatly admired by Kafka, is worth exploring.

October is upon us. It’s time to walk bleak city streets, with our coat collars turned up against the chill and gritty wind, to find the yellow-lit window of a barely inhabited cafe, somehow dazzling in the soft blue of the evening, to step inside, remove one’s gloves, order a coffee (or similar beverage) and lose oneself in an existential mystery novel exploring the labyrinth of human identity. Fortunately, Human Pages, by John Elliott, has just been released. The story weaves its web around and within Chance Company, a pre-internet Second Life, which gives its clients the opportunity to take a holiday in prefabricated identities. One such client, Agnes Darshel, makes use of her assumed identity in her search for an errant father. And as the tagline says, “What begins as a masquerade becomes Russian roulette. This may be a game of chance, but the dice, like the guns, are loaded, and someone is marked to lose.” Pick up a copy of Human Pages here, or read on for further information:

Human Pages is a matryoshka doll of a novel, where style and characters nest one inside the next inside the next, the latter being occasionally revived with brandy and the former at once displaying and twisting the traditions of such masterpieces as The Waves and The Saragossa Manuscript.

- Brendan Connell

For those of you who missed it the first time around, the following is an audio interview with John Elliott, in which he talks about Human Pages, about his second novel (Dying to Read, also published by Chômu Press), about Philip K. Dick, H.P. Lovecraft, Georges Perec, and much more:

John Elliott Interview by chomuradioarchive

At this link you can also view a YouTube interview with Quentin S. Crisp in which he talks about (amongst other things) John Elliott’s work. Details of this month’s prize draw follow:

Prize Draw for uniquely inscribed copy of Human Pages

The prize this month, naturally, is a uniquely inscribed copy of Human Pages. Here are the rules here for anyone unfamiliar with them: To be entered for this draw, please sign up here to our mailing list (or using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘Why are there things in the world?’ (not forgetting the question mark) to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, of course there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘Why are there things in the world?’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 1st of November.

Those on our mailing list can also expect exclusive interviews from Chômu authors. The next interview will be with D.F. Lewis, author of Nemonymous Night.

Deeper inside the customised book, a tantalising glimpse of the continuing bricolage.

Below are the full cover and a detail from the prize draw Dadaoism anthology, the cover being decorated with stickers that feature – rather dizzyingly – the photographs of the decorated cover. Madness! The interior is yet to be enhanced:

The world-within-world magick sticker enhancement of the Dadaoism cover.

A close up of one of the stickers. Either that, or something the nature of which we don't understand.

And here is a glimpse of Michael Cisco’s signature:

Michael Cisco's anagrammatic signature.

Our next Chômu release is Quentin S. Crisp’s All God’s Angels, Beware!, due out very soon. For all those of you who will be in the UK this September, do remember that Chômu Press have a table in the dealers’ room at FantasyCon 2012, and that Quentin S. Crisp and Reggie Oliver will be signing copies of All God’s Angels, Beware! and The Dracula Papers, Book I: The Scholar’s Tale respectively late on the morning of the Saturday of that weekend.

Finally, the cover of John Elliott’s masterpiece, Human Pages, has been uploaded to the Chômu website here. Cover art for Anna Tambour’s Crandolin and Brendan Connell’s Lives of Notorious Cooks will be unveiled soon.

Next week, we release Dadaoism (An Anthology), a book that has been absorbing a great deal of our energy for some time. A review of the anthology has already gone online here. Gordon Hauptfleisch describes the book as:

…an often challenging but ultimately rewarding collection of angst, anxiety, and alienation as conveyed in whimsy, wit, and wordplay.

In June and July, we return to single-author volumes, with the novel Celebrant, by Michael Cisco (a work of which China Miéville, has said, “With Michael Cisco doing things like this, sometimes it feels like the rest of literature might as well get up and head home”), and a debut collection of short fiction – I Am a Magical Teenage Princess – by the inestimable Luke Geddes. This latter features a cover design from special guest designer, Rian Hughes. Both books have been reviewed favourably by Publishers Weekly. And here are the links of the Publishers Weekly reviews for Celebrant and I Am a Magical Teenage Princess.

Christopher Conn Askew, who produced beautiful wraparound cover art for Celebrant, will also be producing another lush wraparound cover for the September paperback reprint of Quentin S. Crisp’s collection All God’s Angels, Beware! (previously an Ex Occidente limited edition). October, November and December willl bring work from John Elliott, Anna Tambour and Brendan Connell. Please watch this site or subscribe to our mailing list at this link (or using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) for further details.

For a more in-depth view of what is happening at Chômu, and greater detail on some of the books mentioned here, as well as some of those not mentioned here, please read Jason Rolfe’s interview with Quentin S. Crisp at Bibliomancy.

Finally, Chômu would like to congratulate Reggie Oliver and Michael Cisco for their nominations in the novel category for the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards (thank you for entrusting your novels to us), and to thank whomever nominated Chômu Press to the shortlist for the PS Publishing Independent Press Award. Thank you, and get suavée!

In further news, and on the subject of The Orphan Palace, we are very pleased to announce that Issue #117 of Rue Morgue magazine contains as spotlight feature on Chômu Press, which includes a look at The Orphan Palace and an interview with Quentin S. Crisp. It also has a very fetching image of Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera on the cover.

Coinciding, by chance or fate, with the Quadrophenia Director’s Cut box set next week, we have the release of Jeremy Reed’s brilliant Here Comes the Nice, more details of which will follow on the 16th of this month. For those living in London, or able to travel, don’t forget that there will be a book launch at Jamboree on Cable Street, featuring Jeremy Reed performing with The Ginger Light.

John Elliott Interview by chomuradioarchive

Last and not least, something calling itself the ‘Chomu Radio Archive’ (thanks to Joe Campbell) has uploaded a long, in-depth, audio interview with Chômu writer John Elliott. John Elliott talks to Quentin S. Crisp about Philip K. Dick, Lovecraft, Oulipo, John Calder, Queneau, Georges Perec, and many other things.

Other winners, previously unannounced are Steve Duffy and Marc Lyth (sometimes known as Weber). The former won not only an inscribed copy of Nemonymous Night, but the entire ten-volume set of the acclaimed Nemonymous journal, pictured here:

The latter won a copy of Link Arms with Toads! personalised with a poem about himself by the author, Rhys Hughes:

Also included with the prize were a copy of the anthology Cthulhu Unbound and other goodies detailed on Rhys Hughes’ blog.

Here is the poem:

Caught in a weber spun by himself
Marc waits patiently for the secret
spider of his mind to come
and suck out his juice
with all the stealth of an eight-legged elf.

“Fangs for that!” he’ll say. “Most kind of
you, dear spider. Have a nice day!”
or words to that effect.

He lives alone with his books and his cat
and a balding head
which he has never yet read
because he prefers hair-raising tales.
He dismantled radiators in his youth
and we find that’s proof (if any were needed)
that he deserves to be eaten
by the secret spider of his mind.

The cat’s name is Balrog:
that’s another reason.

A jujitsu black belt, Marc should be able
to handle himself in any situation
but the secret spider of his mind is an expert too
and knows all his moves.
Before closing its jaws on his quivering flesh
it will dance for him
an eightfold Can Can,
the sort of thing we can all do without.
But that’s Lyth, I guess.

As mentioned in a previous update, Jérôme-Luc Paulin and Steve Poupard won inscribed copies of Dying to Read and The Great Lover, respectively.

Our next book to be released will be The Orphan Palace, by Jospeh S. Pulver, Sr., of whom Matt Cardin speaks thus: “Joe Pulver is like the answer to some arcane riddle: What do you get when you cross one of Plato’s Muse-maddened poets with a Lovecraftian lunatic, and then give their offspring to be raised by Raymond Chandler and a band of Beats? His work caters to a literary hunger you didn’t even know you had, and does it darkly and deliciously.”

We hope you will enjoy what remains of the summer until that release, and use your time wisely in catching up with the Chômu catalogue. Please also look forward to our November and December releases, Here Comes the Nice, from the legendary Jeremy Reed and The Secret Life of the Panda, a wonderful collection from Nick Jackson.

Finally, the exclusive Brendan Connell interview was sent out to all our subscribers (check your spam if you missed it); remember to subscribe to our e-list for future interviews (John Elliott and Joe Simpson Walker coming soon), to receive updates and to be eligible for future prize draws and competitions.

We are proud of each of our releases and are gratified to know that our titles are now enlivening bookshelves and enriching readers’ lives around the world. Therefore, first of all, please allow us to introduce a small selection of links here relating to those titles and/or their authors:

Reggie Oliver was featured in Suvudu’s Take Five series, telling us five fascinating things about The Dracula Papers. Signed copies of The Dracula Papers, Book I: The Scholar’s Tale are available from the Aldeburgh Bookshop.

Chômu authors Michael Cisco and Brendan Connell were interviewed together by Jeff VanderMeer for the Amazon blog Omnivoracious.

Gestalt Mash features a characteristically lively interview with Justin Isis, author of I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like, and the review blog of stalwart Theaker’s Quarterly features a review of Revenants by Daniel Mills.

Musings on the cover of The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales, by Mark Samuels, are to be found at Grim Reviews, and Quentin S. Crisp talks about “Remember You’re a One-Ball!” and other things, at Matt Cardin’s Teeming Brain.

In other news, we now have winners for the Dying to Read and The Great Lover prize draws, and can announce that inscribed copies of the books will be sent to Jérôme-Luc Paulin and Steve Poupard respectively. The winner of the prize draw for Link Arms with Toads! by Rhys Hughes will be announced soon. Please look out for prize draws with our future releases.

Speaking of which, those following developments on the site will have noticed that after Nemonymous Night, we have also scheduled releases for two very different (to each other and to just about anything else we’ve encountered) novels, Jeanette, by Joe Simpson Walker (July release), and The Orphan Palace, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (October release). The former is in the transgressive tradition of Pauline Réage, with a gritty British sixties setting. This will also be the longest work we have so far published. The latter comes from one of the rising stars of the weird, for whom, we believe, the stars are now right; a novel of madness, written in poetry, or perhaps a novel of poetry, written in madness.

Those awaiting news of the Dadaoism anthology should also rest assured that gears are invisibly turning, and we are working hard on making this something special. However, it should be noted that, due to the high number of submissions, it is taking us some time to sift out the very best. We are excited, however, to have already found a considerable quantity of gold in our prospecting. We will release more information on the contents, scheduling and so on for the anthology when it is available. At present, we are still carefully sifting.

Other things to look forward to include mini-interviews with our authors. Interviews with Brendan Connell and John Elliott have already been conducted, and will be sent out in the near future to everyone on our e-mail list. Please note, you must subscribe in order to receive the interviews and other planned exclusive content. Please also subscribe or keep watching this site for news on further releases and developments.

Thank you.

And now for something completely different! In keeping with the Chômu mission to bring you works that are of the highest quality and (maybe not just) a little unusual, we are very pleased to present a murder mystery that is also something of a literary conundrum. Dying to Read, by John Elliott, is a crime thriller as comic as it is gritty. Its evocation of its chosen milieu (“Heathrow perimeterville”) is masterly, the dialogue and characters are up-to-the-minute, and the text delights in the small, real and very odd details of so-called ordinary life. But beneath the surface it takes as much from the European tradition of existentialism as the Wodehouse and Ealing Studios tradition of British comedy. Get on the case, by ordering a copy here.

To quote the ever quotable Rhy Hughes:

It’s always a particular pleasure to chance upon a cunning, erudite, stylish, inventive, unique but relatively obscure writer who, perhaps because of dissatisfaction with their own obscurity, makes a sudden wild attempt to break into the limelight, to write something more commercial, but who actually fails to ’sell out’ because they simply have too much integrity and talent. The result is often a curious hybrid between the popular and the avant garde, the low and the highbrow, with each component doing its best to sabotage its opposite. John Elliott’s brilliant novel falls squarely into this category, but the self-sabotage becomes symbiosis. Dying to Read is a marvellous slide along the high tension wires of a vast imagination with nothing but a frayed belt to keep you above the intertextual chasm.

Prize Draw for uniquely inscribed copy of Dying to Read

We would also like to announce a prize draw for a signed and uniquely inscribed copy of Dying to Read. To be entered for this draw, please sign up to our mailing list and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘Dying to Read’ to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, naturally there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘Dying to Read’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 12th of May.

The Man Who Collected Machen by Mark Samuels

A veritable Rosetta stone for scholars of wonder and terror.

The Great Lover by Michael Cisco

A visionary novel of eros and thanatos.

Dying to Read by John Elliott

A post-Ealing comedy murder mystery.

Nemonymous Night by D.F. Lewis

A spiralling towards the event horizon of weirdness.

Link Arms with Toads! by Rhys Hughes

The perfect introduction to the work of this speculative whimsicalist.

We have also announced the deadline for submissions to the Dadaoism anthology – the end of March.

2011 will be the year in which the Chômu vision for the world begins to come clear, but even this will only be the prelude. Soon our newsletter will be operational. Please subscribe to our mailing list for behind the scenes insights, news and exclusive rarities.

Whatever you are expecting from Chômu, be prepared for some surprises; Chômu Press is not a comfort zone.