Interview 2010

A conversation with David Mario Callan

Callassa Media Company. January. 2010

The 'Let's Say What We Really Think' Interview

by ELIZABETH M. (David's confidant, ie. wife)

I am from Yorkshire, England. I'll be in the USA, for a while longer. Me? I'm ** (no comment).

Let's make this exciting. My father was a coal miner. I have his ambition. My mother was Welsh. I have her looks. Can't you tell? I was brought up in a small village and I'm still in it psychologically. If you're an artist you can't be held still but the important things do remain. They're like some kind of empowerment, I guess.

Hey, it's really something, the way things have grown. Callassa is a force to be reckoned with now. We aren't to be superficially felt.

Whose talking rubbish? Me? I know you're right. I went to a great school, great university and I have aristocratic friends spread across the horizon. Sure. So I'll start again. What I just said is true! Hey, we're like the city of LAS VEGAS, in that we are who we are, glitz, glamor, success and all! What do you mean? All right some things get exaggerated! Hey and I'm married to Liz. We were wed in the State of Nevada, USA. You can get married there by a Flying Elvis. Don't you just love that!

Yes, the books have broadened in scope. Understatement! The new books are what you're asking me about. Just let me say that the intention was to widen our appeal. This meant a massive departure both in subject and the way of writing. Especially the latter. We had arguments about this, but I don't think you can go into certain places without using the appropriate language, its vernacular. I'm seeing what I did as an admission of the world we are in. Look at the movie industry, its realism. There's a scene in THE REINCARNATOR where I wanted the words to jump out at the reader, they are frantic, fear-filled, because the person in question is being bayonetted to death. 'The suck of the fast filling and bloody squirt...' I'm referring to trench warfare during The First World War. I'm moving away from that now and back to the non-expletive, classical style. Hey, I've not even touched on the extreme of what I was referring to. Beyond the extreme, more like. I'm also thinking of THE OCCULTANT and SATAN RISING both of which feature sex kitten Ursula Lawrence. We could talk all day about how to create high impact drama. I enjoyed FATHER'S ICON, because it gets the reader into the proper mind-set. I'm referring to Victorian England, at its finest sleaze and horror and and and...Hey, what's up? I know, it's a scary book that one. The characters...Wow!

Having said that, I'm working on the book, CALLASSATRON. It's two books and the first one is ready now. THE JOURNEY. I wanted to make something where the reader became so affected, so intoxicated by its romantic depth that nothing is the same as it was before. Believe me there are certain things you can say...Yes and ways of saying them that only CALLASSA could. Got you thinking?

GET THE KICK-ASS GIRLS! WOW! Tell you, THE COSMICALLA, THE OCCULTANT and MARY ENGLAND. Who has the edge? They are all different personalities, but... Can't say. THEY KICK WHERE IT HURTS. THEY'RE A NASTY BUNCH, BUT NICE GIRLS really and I'm not the best critic as you can tell...

Little Hampton? Yes, it's based on a real place I knew while a kid. It used to be a pit village, built around the 1890's, I think. The mine exploded, leaving just the houses. I used to go ride my bike down the street. Those back-to-back houses, that faced each other with the washing hanging over the road, the tin baths, and the characters. Boy, oh boy, the characters! 'THE CHIPPERS,' for instance, some of their gang lived in the very end house, across from the pit stack. They were 'Rockers', or Hells Angels, with British bikes. They really did throw eggs at people. They threw them at me. When the council came to demolish the houses and there was no one there, I went into that end house. I can remember standing in an empty upstairs room asking myself, 'Is this really where The Chippers lived?'. All that remained of them, their contribution to posterity, the Rock and Roll, the chain covered jackets, the long hair, the terror they instilled in all and sundry, was a bit of graffiti scraped into the wall. 'The Chippers' it said, with a circle around it. Their song was, 'Hey You, Get Off My Cloud', by The Stones. They were notorious. I wanted to bring them back to life in the book about the rock band of their name. THE CHIPPERS.

You might be interested in this Liz. There was this guy aptly called Fat 'Bastard' Turner, who lived on the same street as The Chippers, I think somewhere near the middle. I can remember him chasing his wife (a big woman too) into the street, she screaming and howling. There was him, wielding this leather belt. He used to wear these really baggy trousers pulled up to his chest, with suspenders and with a 'V' cut out the rear. He used to hit her on the arse with the belt. Crack. Crack. You should have heard it! Anyway, I looked in their house once and I saw this mountain of jam scones on the kitchen table. Actually they don't use the word 'scone', they're 'tarts'. I've nothing against the latter, but most might not know what I'm on about...Tarts covered in jam? I really daren't mention what some of the other residents were like. Stinky Knickers Herbert, and the Robertshaw sisters and Tracy Clapper, for example. (She used to hang out near the chapel, under the old light). I can still see her to this day. Hey, there was this nutty guy who used to stand outside his door all day, bawling out stuff, "I've been here for ****ing ages." "All these ****ing ***ts ****ing each other, what the ***k have they done for ****ing me?" "I only ever saw a ***t once. ****ing horrible." He was the 'person' who introduced me to expletives. There was also this really geeky kid, who dressed up as a cowboy and advertised chocolate bars on the telly and someone who became a pro soccer player too. Hey, I've just remembered there was a guy called Lock, who also dressed as Wyatt Earp and played bowls. Bowls, as in bowls and not balls. He probably did that too, but I don't know. Mrs. Lott. 'Licker Lott', was her nickname. Never mind. And..And...Not to mention the criminals and the Devil worshippers. Har. Har. The Satanists, from Number thirteen, Fawcet Street. The 'glitter folk' too. You know they all, I mean all the family, used to wear glitter, multi colored glitter. Do you think that's odd? I can remember seeing them, mother and daughter walking by the sewage works.

When I was a young kid, there was this other, more recent pit (colliery) nearby and a mate of mine, Brian, his father, was the manager. They had this big house. Trouble was, to get to the house I had to walk down Pit Lane. At night it was kind of scary. There were scrap yards and other stuff. I can remember walking down there, (I was about 14, I think) wearing my RAF greatcoat I'd bought from the Army Stores. There were these two big alsations that used to come running out from somewhere. Snarling and trying to bite. I was carrying these LPs. 'Sticky Fingers', was one and some others, Led Zeppelin, I'm sure. All I can remember was these big teeth grabbing the records and running off into the dark with them. We used to smoke cigarettes and Brian had all the records I liked then. I used to get a lift home with his brother so the dogs wouldn't get me on the way back. There was Anne and Megan, too, who were the authority on all things carnal. I saw Megan in Tesco's a while back and I hardly recognized her because she looked real old. She was dead pretty when she was at school. She recognized me though. She kept hitting me with her trolley. I thought she was someone's mother. I ended up buying her a drink and she told me all about her arthritis. Why would she have that? Barney, a guy who used to drive a Lambretta, he looked totally wiped out when he asked me if I remembered him. It was like he was about a hundred year's old. What's this got to do with the books? I really don't know. Do you?

The rapper, BLACKER STILL. He's in the book, NASEBY. I wrote a few rap lyrics for him too. You're talking to one Hell of a versatile man here. Blacker appears in THE REINCARNATOR. He's sat on his own having dinner...Ha. Ha. Ha.

The transsexual, MARY ENGLAND. I don't know what to say, other than she becomes attractive and sings counter-tenor. Sure. I wrote this when I was in Texas. There was something about Texas that inspired me to write it.

Idolatry? Hey, I guess I invented that word. Are there many guys who emulate a beautiful and talented woman? I think there ought to be. Let's not get into why I'm an idolator, idoleriser, idolatrator...Ha. Ha. Ha. OK. Do you care? Of who? Weird, eh? Me weird, you say? Ha. Ha. Ha. Sure! I might have invented that word too. Remember, I wrote A SHORT PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN TRILLING and that's real weird. WEIRD..

I don't box any more. I just work out. I'd be sat on my ass all day otherwise. Notice the American version of the anatomy. It's more relatable don't you think?

The book THE ZAMMOTH, THE ZEBIP, THE MALTON AND THE EZZILIA, is actually about the Pre Raphaelite artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Frieda, this girl, keeps seeing a man, who stares at her, and he looks intriguingly unusual, out of time too. (not surprisingly). He meets up with her in strange ways and begins painting her portrait, while telling her a fascinating story. Frieda looks like Fanny Cornforth, who was Rossetti's model and 'mistress'. See I managed to describe that without recourse to the base inclinations resident in my head.

Yes, I had to write 'BENEATH AN ENGLISH SKY' to redeem myself after the SATAN / Little Hamp books. I enjoy the young boy, older woman thing and what they get up to. What don't they get up to? I liked this book. It's also about a ghost.

'MAD JACK BAILEY (PSYCHO KILLER)' I don't know about this. When I finish it, it will be as different as you can get from 'Beneath an English Sky'. It's ironic, but I guess that most will like Mad Jack. Organised crime? What's that? I based Jack on certain real people and they're still around so.....Shhhh. This is a violent book. The character Jack, not the actual book *Now Available! Note, real, real violent.

There's a heroine in 'KILL CALLASSA,' called Callassa, whose kind of a scary gal. She emerges through the technology of the computer. She's an alien and sexually very, very rampant. Barry, doesn't mind. All of the women in the books are extraordinary. You're not an alien are you, Susan? (No). Are you sure? Rampant?

How far am I supposed to go here, without risking credibility-death and likely ostracism? A little way? OK. I'm thinking of the High C and the 'lubricated and rear-thrusting finger', (Marianna Canali, the opera diva, in 'QUEEN OF THE SECRET HOUSE') and of the 'Hacksaw Maiden', (Ursula Lawrence, in 'THE OCCULTANT'). I got the first idea from something I read about Mick Jagger. The other from a really bad nightmare. I'm telling you. Yes. That one scene... There's some powerful stuff here. It's Ursula, she's SATAN'S LITTLE GIRL, the ultra sex kitten..

Lizzy you've been doing a lot of work with the material for the CALLASSA WEBSITE. I have to thank you. Good 'old' Lizzy. Are you still on that diet? The custodian, who can't spell. It needs more illustrations and pictures of her too. Tell her. The words 'which' and 'that' are a problem, I think.

What kind of reactions have we been getting? You know! Every reaction there is, I'd say. How far can you push people? Over the edge? So while they're holding on by their fingertips and screaming for mercy, the words just press and press on them. Some words pull them up to a smile, others just kick them down into the dark hole and laugh. I jest. I really do jest because this isn't the only reaction I want to make. Dear, deary me.

Are poetic words, classical style, graphic, fear-provoking violence and the transcendingly erotic, extreme opposites? I suppose, but not really. I get into things. Not usually made in one head, you say? Ha. Ha. Ha. I was just thinking how different is TALSAW, than MAD JACK. Of course, I wrote TALSAW. Hey, hey, never mind. I also wrote: IMAGICALLA. FANTASTICALLA. ASTROCALLA. COSMICALLA. GOTHICALLA. DARK CALLA. More? More? OK. The book CALLASSATRON. This is the ultimate journey. I mean into something really profound.Wow. It has a magical effect. It's much more than a book. I had to write this because it says something about me too and flies over much if not all of what's around. I love the imagery.

I think you have to be unusual to be creative. I'm creative, therefore, Ms. Unusual is a bed soul of epic making...Red hair? Ha. Ha. Ha. Red hair and CATRIONA. What a creation!.

Which book might give a Psychiatrist a nightmare? I don't know. All of them. I hope. Who cares? Really, I don't. Hey, I take criticism like I do so and so's voice. Got you thinking, have I?

It's better to admit to knowing nothing. I know absolutely nothing. I've a reason for saying this. Seriously. Have you seen how some people introduce themselves by telling of what exams they've passed, what awards they have, et cetera. I'm not into that because I don't have any.

Have you seen the paintings in our 'private art collection'? No, they weren't nicked, 'bequeethed' sounds better. They ought to appear on the website. Well, I think so. That one is a Rembrandt, (avery loose forgery). Stephen Lewis owns originals. I mean, what can you say? I don't think he has a Rembrandt though. I know, the MIRANDA BOOK is provocative. Ask him. He knows all about that. It's as far from fish n'chips as you can get. The Miranda Book is actually THE SEANCE BOOK. Yeah, yeah, I know.

The Costa del Sol? When? I can't wait for the beach in Torremolinos...Malaga...The taste and the smell...It's great here in San Francisco too. This city has much by way of amor. Giradelli Square...Let's go! I think the city is female in character so it suits me.

Elizabeth. I've loved seeing you. Fancy a drink? You wouldn't believe how much I miss The Old Lantern. And...ambitions.. are weird I guess, to do what's the ultimate and not possible. Strange is this world and I don't know anything...And though there is much done there's everything still to do...Come on!

Conversation with David Mario Callan, the 'man with much amor'. January. 2010.

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