Deep Sea Fishing Magazine Interviews
Jon Bassoff
When I first got the opportunity to interview Jon Bassoff, I must admit that I was apprehensive. After all, I’d heard all the rumors about him: that his basement was filled with shrunken heads he’d collected in South America, that he’d married both of his first cousins, that he had a terrifying temper, and that on weekends he alternated between watching snuff tapes and Hallmark movies. But upon meeting him, I was pleasantly surprised. He was kind and well groomed. He smelled like butterscotch. He smiled constantly and laughed occasionally.
We sat at his kitchen table, which was filled with miniature glass Buddhas. He offered me lemonade and cash. I accepted the lemonade and refused the cash. Throughout the interview, he was thoughtful and articulate. He only lost his temper once, when I asked about his relationship with Bette Midler. Honoring his request, I have removed that portion of the interview. The following are some excerpts of the interview. The entire interview is available on the deep web.
Deep Sea Fishing Magazine: Do you fish?
Jon Bassoff: No.
DSFM: Do you like to eat fish?
Bassoff: Only caviar. I have a Pez dispenser and I eat it from there.
DSFM: Caviar from a Pez dispenser? You must be doing well then.
Bassoff: Well, how do you measure success? Do you measure it by books sold? Then, yes, I’m very successful. Do you measure it by the number of groupies? If so, then, successful again. Intelligence? Good looks? Any way you look at it, I’m about as successful as they come. But forget about all of that. For me, it’s all about being humble. And I am probably the humblest person in the world. I don’t forget where I came from. It’s that little town somewhere in the Midwest. The name escapes me right now. But I’ll remember by the end of the interview.
DSFM: Tell me about your writing routine.
Bassoff: I’m a very disciplined person and my routine is pretty inflexible. That’s the key to being a great writer. Not that I would call myself a great writer. Very, very, very, very, very good. Oh, who am I kidding? Great. What was your question again?
DSFM: Your writing routine.
Bassoff: Right. Typically, I wake up at about 1:00 in the afternoon. I have a nice breakfast, smoke some dope. After breakfast, I’m usually pretty tired, so I take a nap. I typically wake up at about 4:00, when it’s time for lunch. I eat from 4:00 to 5:00. I also use that time to read—usually magazines like Good Housekeeping or Penthouse. After that, I usually go out drinking with my mistress and her three kids. I get home at about eleven. I eat dinner. Pig tongues and pickled herring. And then I go to bed. And so it goes. Day after day after day.
DSFM: But what about the writing?
Bassoff: Excuse me?
DSFM: When do you write?
Bassoff: I have a ghost writer do that. I’m no fool.
DSFM: Tell me about your latest novel.
Bassoff: I have a new novel?
DSFM: Yes. Captain Clive’s Dreamworld.
Bassoff: Remind me of which one that is?
DFSM: The one that takes place in that creepy town and that creepy amusement park.
Bassoff: Right. I remember that one well. My team says it’s one of my best. Let’s see. Let me look at my notes. Yes. Yes. That’s the one with Deputy Sam Hardy. He’s reassigned to the town of Angels and Hope, which, within its borders, holds the once magnificent amusement park, Captain Clive's Dreamworld. When he arrives, however, Hardy notices some strange happenings. The park is essentially empty of customers. None of the townsfolk ever seem to sleep. And girls seem to be going missing with no plausible explanation. As Hardy begins investigating, his own past is drawn into question by the town, and he finds himself becoming more and more isolated. The truth—about the town and himself—will lead him to understand that there’s no such thing as a clean escape.
DFSM: It sounds incredible.
Bassoff: It is. And you know what else is incredible?
DFSM: What?
Bassoff: My new yacht. It has two helipads, an indoor swimming pool, and 3,800 square meters of living space. Want to go for a ride?
DFSM: I don’t know. I—
Bassoff: Come on. Don’t be shy. I don’t like to name drop, but Leo will be joining us.
DFSM: Leonardo DeCaprio?
Bassoff: Oh, heavens no! Leo Komarov. Center for the New York Islanders hockey team. Great guy. And a hell of a writer.
***
Jon Bassoff’s latest novel, Captain Clive’s Dreamworld, is available at all fine stores and brothels. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter, as well as Facebook.
Editor’s note: Leo Komarov claims to have never heard of him.
Jon Bassoff was born in 1974 in New York City and currently lives with his family in a ghost town somewhere in Colorado. His mountain gothic novel, Corrosion, has been translated in French and German and was nominated for the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, France’s biggest crime fiction award. Two of his novels, The Drive-Thru Crematorium and The Disassembled Man, have been adapted for the big screen with Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild; Once Upon a Time in America) attached to star in The Disassembled Man. For his day job, Bassoff teaches high school English where he is known by students and faculty alike as the deranged writer guy. He is a connoisseur of tequila, hot sauces, psychobilly music, and flea-bag motels.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: http://www.jonbassoff.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jonbassoff
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jon.bassoff
Title: CAPTAIN CLIVE’S DREAMWORLD
Author: Jon Bassoff
Publisher: Eraserhead Press (print & ebook) Blackstone Audio (Audio)
Pages: 234
Genre: Horror/Horror Literature
After becoming the suspect in the murder of a young prostitute, Deputy Sam Hardy is “vanished” to a temporary post as the sole police officer in Angels and Hope, an idyllic town located in the middle of the desert, miles from any other sign of life. Hardy soon learns that Angels and Hope was constructed as a company town to support a magnificent amusement park – one to rival Disneyland – known as Captain Clive’s Dreamworld. When he arrives, however, Hardy notices some strange happenings. The park is essentially empty of customers. None of the townsfolk ever seem to sleep. And girls seem to be going missing with no plausible explanation.
As Hardy begins investigating, his own past is drawn into question by the people in town, and he finds himself becoming more and more isolated. Soon his phone line mysteriously goes dead. His car’s tires get slashed. And he is being watched constantly by neighbors. The truth – about the town and himself – will lead him to understand that there’s no such thing as a clean escape.
Straddling the line between genre fiction and something more bizarre, Captain Clive’s Dreamworld is a terrifying vision of the collapse of the American mythos.
Praise
“Captain Clive’s Dreamworld winds its way through an eerie, Lynchian landscape, populated by Stepford citizenry, cursed lives, and all the bleak sensibilities of the most dire Cormac McCarthy tale. Bassoff’s latest is a must read for fans of the genre, or any reader who prefers their fiction with a sense of the off-kilter. Highly recommended!”
-Ronald Malfi, author of Bone White
“Jon Bassoff’s nightmarish bizarro novel Captain Clive’s Dreamworld reads like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone mixed with Twin Peaks mixed with Dante’s Inferno. Unremittingly dark, this roman noir is a trenchant attack on the empty promises of capitalism…a hopeless rebuke of the bright plastic flesh built around the broken, crumbling skeleton of the American Dream.”
-Jeffrey Thomas, author of Boneland
“Jon Bassoff mines an imaginative seam that remains unexplored by any other writer I know working today. I wish I knew his secret, but I’ll settle for reading Captain Clive’s Dreamworld.”
-Tony Black, author of Summoning the Dead
“Captain Clive’s Dreamworld is a masterfully rendered, very disturbing cautionary tale of pathological consumerism and nostalgia for a mid-century America that never was. Jon Bassoff’s vision is relentless and unsparing, his prose like a bone saw laying bare the corruption and perversion lurking beneath society’s superficial pieties.”
-Roger Smith, author of Dust Devils
“In Captain Clive’s Dreamworld, Jon Bassoff has created a haunting, suspenseful masterpiece that straddles the line between mystery and horror with expert skill.”
-S.A. Cosby, award-winning author of Blacktop Wasteland
ORDER YOUR COPY
Amazon → https://amzn.to/32O0X5R
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