Steven Meloan has written for Wired, Rolling Stone, the Huffington Post, Los Angeles, BUZZ, the San Francisco Chronicle, and SF Weekly. His fiction has appeared in SOMA Magazine, the Sonoma Valley Sun, Lummox Press, Newington Blue Press, and Roadside Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, Library Girl, and other literary events. His short fiction collection, St. James Infirmary, was released in 2023 on Roadside Press. He is a recovered software developer, co-author of the novel The Shroud with his brother Michael, and a former busker in London, Paris, and Berlin.
Author Links X (Twitter) | Facebook | Instagram
10 Things You Might Not Know About St. James Infirmary
By Steven Meloan
Many of the stories were spawned by semi-annual “Sonoma Writers’ Workshop” literary events in my town—raucous, coffeehouse-style readings set to acoustic live music. The below picture was taken at one such gathering—and is on the back cover of St. James Infirmary.
In writing/compiling the stories, I came to see that they often centered around “wounded people in need of care.” And since the title story makes mention of an old folk-blues standard, “St. James Infirmary,” it seemed the perfect encompassing title for the collection.
“St. James Infirmary” (the song) has been recorded by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Josh White, Dave Van Ronk, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Rickie Lee Jones, Danny Elfman, and many more. Jim Morrison delivered a drunken rendition of the song during his last live performance with The Doors. An entire book has been written about the history of the song.
During WWII, my mother was friends in Greenwich Village with the folk singer Josh White. (White was later honored with his own commemorative US postal stamp, and was mentioned in Bob Dylan’s autobiography.) I grew up hearing his version of “St. James Infirmary,” and the song plays a key role in the title story of the collection—centering around a wild cocktail party given by my parents during my teen years.
Jacket blurbs for St. James Infirmary note that the stories “vividly capture lost times and lost places,” taking readers on “a dark and uncanny journey through everyday life,” exploring “complex human relationships and the often-mysterious forces that shape them.” The cover image—of a cocktail glass surrounded by ‘60s/’70s era Pop Art colors—evokes such lost times and places. But while the cover is celebratory at a visual level, the title hints at these darker undercurrents.
The collection offers tales of arriving in LA as a young boy, where our hotel room was given-up to seedy convention goers; of an addict woman soliciting money from passing motorists; of freshman college experiences involving psychedelics, car thieves, the FBI, and a nude woman in a student art film; of an ill-fated 20-something one-night stand at a Redondo Beach dive bar; of reconnecting decades later with a college-era romance that ended too soon; of a high school girl visiting the Manson ranch just days before the murders; of a past lover’s near-death experience and final days; of busking in the shadows of the Berlin Wall, belting-out "Psycho-Killer" to a club crowd, and a torturous near-romance with a German local.
A book of short stories by Steven Meloan.
Steven Meloan’s writing has been seen in Wired, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles, BUZZ, the San Francisco Chronicle, and SF Weekly. His fiction has appeared in SOMA Magazine, the Sonoma Valley Sun, Lummox Press, and Newington Blue Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, and other Bay Area literary events. He has regularly written for the Huffington Post, and is co-author of the novel The Shroud with his brother Michael. He is a recovered software programmer, and was a street busker in London, Paris, and Berlin.
“Reading these stories, I felt like I was hearing an original voice for the very first time. They are surreal, cinematic, poetic, and have real punch-with everything I could want in a collection of short fiction. Set in California and Europe, from the 1960s to the 1980s, they vividly capture lost times and lost places. They have echoes of Jack Kerouac and Paul Bowles, and can be read again and again with a sense of wonder and pleasure.”-Jonah Raskin, Author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955
“St. James Infirmary is a captivating collection of stories that takes readers on a dark and uncanny journey through everyday life. Meloan’s writing has a haunting subtlety that draws one in, as if witnessing the events in real-time. With sharp insights and unexpected twists, these stories explore complex human relationships and the often-mysterious forces that shape them. Meloan vividly captures the gritty reality of each setting, throwing a column of light into the underground of the ordinary. For fans of evocative writing that stays with you long after the final page, St. James Infirmary is a must-read.”
– Roadside Press
St. James Infirmary is available at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/fv3zr2hn and Roadside Press at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/james/129 .
No comments:
Post a Comment