Bleach/Blackout by David S. Grant

Join David S. Grant, author of the literary fiction dual novel, Bleach/Blackout (Offense Mechanisms, May '08), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in December on his third virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

About the author:

David S. Grant is the author of Corporate Porn, published by Silverthought Press in 2006. David's first novel Bleach and sequel titled Blackout are now available through Offense Mechanisms, an imprint of Silverthought Press. Also, newly published in 2008 the novel The Last Breakfast and short story collection Emotionless Souls through Brown Paper Publishing. David lives and works in New York City.

About the book:

Fans of fluffy romance novels and that all-too-familiar, over-hyped, edge-of-the-seat crap should steer clear. This is life at its most jaded. Offense Mechanisms is proud to present Bleach | Blackout by David S. Grant, two novels about drugs, sex, revenge, the corporate crunch, and the inevitable unpleasantness of life and death.

You can visit David's website at www.davidsgrant.com/ to read an excerpt!

I had the chance to interview the author and here's what he had to say:

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

Bleach|Blackout explore a group of people living in the moment, yet not necessarily aware they are in the moment, but rather wasting time to get to the next point in their lives. Is it boredom, or more a feel of today’s generation and lack of cause, or motivation to find a cause?

Bleach is more the type of in your face read that forces you to either accept or not accept the lifestyle being led, there really no room for the in between. Blackout details more of these same characters pulling from their past and being forced to use instinct, rather than wait for life.

Bleach opens during the last 60 seconds of 2003 in a bathroom where a girl lay dying and a jaded 30-year-old named Jeremy, who navigates the reader through the endless repulsiveness of the world, watches. Before diving into an explanation of what the is going on, Jeremy doubles back eight days where you find him in the office ready to embark on a vacation back home to the Midwest. The question is whether Jeremy makes it back to New York.

The entire story builds up to the climax of the "The Party" on New Year's Eve where all the men are dressed as prostitutes, all the women look like pimps and decadence and debauchery dictate the rules. Everything seems to be spiraling out of control, and Jeremy realizes there are no guarantees for him or anyone else.

Blackout picks up two years after Bleach in Las Vegas where Stoner and friends are celebrating his bachelor party complete with strippers and crack cocaine. The ride home is blurry and the next morning in Los Angeles brings a surprise when Stoner’s friends, Chip and Jeremy, wake to find police officers and a dead body they are allegedly responsible for, but neither can recall.

In the last year have you learned or improved on any skills?

As a writer, being able to interconnect multiple stories and plots while keeping the reader looking off to side focused on the guy with a shaved head chain smoking cigars.

What are you currently working on?

Next year my novel, Blood-the New Red, will be published through Offense Mechanism. Blood-the New Red begins at an after party where Mickey, an ex-adult movie star turned supermodel, is aligning himself with a top Designer of Seventh Avenue.  In addition to landing a runway job, Mickey is thrown into the center of a scene where sex is used as motivation, the wine is served by year, and cocaine is back in style.

I am also working on a travel memoir titled “Locations, Libations, and Locals”. This will be many travel stories with a “Fear and Loathing” tone searching out the corners most tourists pass by.

Do you have any advice for writers or readers?

Continue to read and write. Between Guitar Hero and flat screen televisions we as readers and writers are the minority. The good thing is there are rarely any lines when you go and by a book. The bad, well, let’s keep this positive…

Is there an author that inspired you to write?

Several authors have inspired me. The way Bret Easton Ellis displays a scene to the reader with no emotion, true literary story telling. The sharp wit of Hunter S. Thompson, how it bites you as you read his work. The romance, with an edge of F. Scott Fitzgerald during a time America was finding itself. And finally and maybe most important in today’s age: Chuck Palahniuk's ability to shock through social commentary.

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?

Transgressive novels are everywhere. This is a good thing (remember, keeping this positive). I believe the humor in my books, specifically in Bleach|Blackout, is what sets my book apart from the others. The humor with the use of the corporate world as a backdrop, a party of debauchery that kicks off my story, and the strippers. My God, let’s not forget the strippers.

WIN PRIZES!

THE BLEACH/BLACKOUT VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR '08 will officially begin on December 1st and end on December 23rd. You can visit David's blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/ in December to find out more about his latest book!

As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors' blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available. The winner will be announced on December 23rd!