In Conversation with Dominic Francis

In conversation with Dominic Francis:  

Today we have a versatile young writer, Dominic Francis [UK] with us.  Let us get to know him better through Five Questions.  His new book, God’s pretty Game of grotesque Puppets, has just been published, and is pretty gripping.
 So, here we go.  

Santosh Q 1 .Tell us something about Dominic, the man and Dominic, the writer. Writers are supposed to be idiosyncratic, are you too?

Dominic: I’m turning 27 on February 13^th. I’ve always been a little superstitious about both numbers. 27 is the age that a lot of my childhood heroes died… although I hope to outlive them, you can’t be disappointed when you’re dead and the romantic in me wouldn’t mind leaving the world with just my small body of work that is already in the public domain. 13 is supposed to be an unlucky number – in my more psychotic, drug-addled days I thought that ‘13’ looked like a standing figure being embraced by another, but I’ve since come to my senses and realized that the physicality of #s can’t have been intentionally symbolic.

I am currently living in supported accommodation for people with mental health issues in Enfield. I mostly spend my days at cafes, playing guitar, reading, writing prose and drinking lots of coffee. I’m trying to give up smoking, but I’ve been trying for years!

I’d say I’m pretty idiosyncratic, as far as individuals can be. I’m lucky enough to be able to devote almost all of my time to enjoying art or making art, these days. I used to volunteer for the British Heart Foundation, stacking shelves and shifting merchandise. Then I worked doing admin for another charity. But right now I’m happily unemployed. It’s a good quality of life: I get paid by the state to bite my nails and write all day. I get a little spare cash each month, so I can go on holiday once or twice a year.

But to answer your original question: yes, I am pretty weird. Sometimes I get paranoid, even though I’m on medication and don’t do hard drugs anymore. I say some pretty far-out stuff occasionally, I am told!

Santosh Q 2 Well, all writers have their own whims and fancies, because they live in two worlds simultaneously – the real world and the one they create, hence they tend to appear weird at times. Weird is normal for us, I believe, and nail- biting can be quite inspiring, I can vouch for that pastime!    Ha ha.

 
Jokes apart, Dominic, we would like to know something about your passion for writing. When did you realize that you could write? 

Dominic: From the moment I could, I loved to read. Reading lets one explore worlds that are unfathomable except in the imagination. I used to love fantasy stories as a child. The Pendragon Series, for example. Terry Pratchett, too.

To be perfectly honest, I always thought of writing as someone else’s game until I smoked my first spliff of marijuana at 14. After inhaling, I felt bizarre, light and creative. I wrote my first few poems after trying that. Mary Jane may be a gateway drug into writing. I can go without it now, but I can’t go without writing every day. I have to do something.

But yeah – in my early teens, I realized I could write pretty well. I tried stand-up comedy at 15, but that didn’t work to well. I think the writing was alright, yet the delivery was terrible.

Santosh Q 3 These days, I have noticed that the youngsters read very less, and look down upon the classics. One student in my creative writing class had the temerity to tell me, "madam, it is pointless reading the classics - we will create our own classics”, he quipped with a smug air. What would have been your answer to him? 

Dominic:  That’s a confident, bright kid with a dumb point of view! I would burst into laughter, if I’m honest. Then I’d say, “Please do, young man. The classics never appealed to me outside of my scholastic studies of literature until I was old enough to legally do most fun things & recognize my own error. The canon is embedded within the popular culture & literature of today. If they don’t want to understand the writing of ‘today’ or ‘yesterday’, from what can the writers of ‘tomorrow’ learn? Actually, forget I spoke. If you think you can create your own classic now: go right ahead and do it!”

 Santosh: Well, that is a very interesting and apt answer.

Dominic: Hah, I enjoyed pretending to be a teacher there, for a minute. Thank you! I should take this opportunity to also thank you from the bottom of my heart for granting me this interview & a place on your blog.

Santosh:  Q 4. It was indeed a pleasure talking to you. Tell us something about your latest book .I have always been fascinated with your style .There is a certain lyricism even in your prose, which I find very gripping.

Dominic: 'God's Pretty Game of Grotesque Puppets' is a pornographic love story about the traversing of the multiverse. Absurdly comic, erotic and poetic, the novel is about the traversing of the multiverse. The short epic is a series of vignettes: 'Happy Tears in Love with a Cold', 'The Inauguration of Insanity', 'The Mother of Infinity' and 'The Devil Can't & God Won't', which all form a cohesive narrative whole.

Although it is pornographic, it might amuse you to know that I consider myself a pretty asexual guy nowadays. I wanted the sex in the book to read like a page-turner, some kind of thriller. In some ways it is the reward for sticking with the characters. I don’t think the narrator isn’t a particularly likeable person, though the writing style is based on a few authors I know and my own perception of what is ‘good’.

Writing about love has always been my passion, and out of a certain kind of love blossoms desire. Most of the sex scenes are at the beginning of the book… I kind of hoped to turn the right people on and turn the people who wouldn’t enjoy the book off right from the get-go. It can be disconcerting to the reader to be suddenly hurled into such carnal description, but since the first part of the book takes place in another Universe, I don’t mind that all that much.

Santosh: Would love to read an extract from your book …..
 

Dominic: This extract from the book represents my writing style pretty well, and breaks the fourth wall to develop the point I was just making:

As soon as we get to his room, Rockland picks up an acid tab from his drawer and places it in his mouth. “What strikes me most about this whole ‘Reality’ ordeal is that if you are not me, you are someone else or something else. Stupid is as stupid does.” And he throws his hands up exasperatedly, as if he is stating a circular reason.

“I follow you,” I offer, though I don’t know where I follow him.

“I… uh… I have something to tell you. This acid is a truth serum.”

“Okay. I’m all ears. Could I have some acid as well?”

“How about you decide whether you still want to take acid after I tell you what I have to say? If you could do that, it would be helpful.”

“How about you tell me what you have to say after I’ve taken acid?”

“Okay, Doctor-In-Training Tonnan. Really, though, I am the victim of your public sexual extravagance. I saw you hold hands with Xinx.  If this were a book, your revolting behaviour in the spirit world, too, would unquestionably cause a high proportion of readers to never read past the eighth page. You’re the Darting Duck to my Hugo Hepner,” he says apparently randomly, laughing sarcastically then genuinely, probably at the sound of his sarcastic laughter.

Santosh Q 5 This is indeed very interesting, I am sure, the readers are going to love your book. Tell me something about the new books that you are working on? Fiction /Nonfiction /Poetry?

Dominic: I just started a novel called ‘The Sun Always Sets in the West’. This, like ‘God’s Pretty Game of Grotesque Puppets’, will be about love, but it is set in Camden Town, London, UK and will be totally realistic (rather than the ‘magic realism’ style of GPGoGP). I’ve made up my mind that there will be no sex scenes in the book, though there will be a few kisses.

Here is the opening of the novel, though this is only a first draft:

Chapter 1: ALWAYS

Zelda always wanted to be a writer. I suppose I always wanted to be a writer too, but things never worked out for me until now due to my terrible time management skills & a series of misunderstandings with CatWest bank that rendered me homeless. These difficulties, in turn, were compounded by a couple of serious confrontations involving ill-informed members of my immediate family, the bitter details of which bore me like an out-of-tune guitar or pasta without cheese. While such people may believe they are well-informed, in actuality they are the most despicable of creatures. Suffice to say, these people wouldn’t closely inspect a piece of paper with their name written on it even if it fell with some ferocity onto their foolish face.

As for poetry, I think I’m kind of ‘done’ with it for a while. Often I will start a poem and then later transform it into prose. Lyrics are something a little different – sometimes the inspiration hits me, and I write a wonderful piece of work very quickly. But I don’t really consider that a craft, unless I get truly pedantic about the metre.

Santosh: Dominic, it was a pleasure interacting with you. Honestly speaking, I really love your style, your tongue -in -cheek humor, your mental agility and spunk.

Hope this book of yours is a bestseller. Looking forward to reading more books from you in the near future.  All the best.