Starting now, Synchronized Chaos will provide periodic updates on events and information involving our authors and artists! If you have an update you would like to share, please email cedeptula@sbcglobal.net with Synchronized Chaos in the title and we will share your creative progress with the rest of the community.

First off, George LaCas, author of the poetic pool hustler epic The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue recently spoke with author and poet Laura Lascarso concerning his novel, live on authonomy.com with an appearance by James Hagen. Interview transcript available at the end of the post. 

Also, Susy Flory, author of So Long Status Quo: What I Learned from Women who Changed the World will be hosting a book launch party at the indie bookstore Jordan’s Village Books on Saturday March 28th at 1pm. Jordan’s Village is a lovely little indie store in the Castro Valley shopping center near the BART station, near the Starbucks and the bike shop. I (Cristina Deptula) will be there…also she’s looking for suggestions of other women who have/are making a difference in the world for an upcoming blog/spinoff series. Here’s the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1068481587713&mbox_pos=0#/event.php?eid=54896490938&ref=mf

* Right after Susy’s book launch, in San Francisco’s Women’s Building (3543 18th St. near the Mission/16th BART and Dolores/Guerrero Streets), Free Battered Women is hosting its annual art show/awareness event, Our Voices Within, from 3:30 to 6 pm. This event features artwork and writing by incarcerated domestic violence survivors whose crimes were related to abuse they lived through (i.e. self defense) and explores community-based grassroots strategies for safety, nonviolence-building, and alternatives to over-reliance on the criminal justice system. I know many of the organizers personally – they’re a great, creative, talented group of people and I encourage you to come.

* San Jose’s Poets and Writers’ Coalition is hosting our spring semester’s Four Minutes of Mayhem open mic (and still possibly looking for another featured reader!) Synchronized Chaos authors Dan White (Cactus Eaters) and Kate Evans (For the May Queen) spoke and read at events sponsored by the San Jose PWC…and we’re looking forward to finding more talent through that venue. Mayhem is open to all and features a diverse group every year…will be Thursday March 12th at the Market Cafe on the SJSU campus at 7 pm.

* Heads-up for a Food not Bombs benefit concert, featuring some of the musicians we’re going to interview in upcoming issues. Still working out the lineup based on people’s schedules, but the event is at Station 40 (in San Francisco’s Mission District, on 16th St. across from BART) on Sunday March 29th – will let you know the time when they decide. Some of the musicians we’re considering are simply amazing…all unsigned local talent but fun and worth listening to! Food not Bombs is looking for someone to host  Saturday’s serving in the Mission too.

* Ashlee Rose Holland, author of a memoir on growing up deaf, Turn the Lights On, I Can’t Hear You! has made a community for her book on Facebook. Currently they’re having a contest where people can win free books and chat with the author! http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=47067223183

* The Northern California Science Writers’ Association, of which I’m a member and which includes many creative people with interdisciplinary projects, is hosting a dinner in San Francisco Wednesday March 25th at 6:30. The topic is the latest research into the function of glial cells in the brain – the matter which insulates the neurons.

You must sign up in advance and pay for the dinner (maybe $35 or so for non-members) but anyone can walk in to hear the speaker.

NCSWA Spring Dinner: What’s happening in the other ninety percent of your brain?

WHO: Neurobiologist Ben Barres
WHEN: Wednesday, March 25
WHERE: Helmand Palace, 2424 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

Practically all of brain scientists’ attention has gone to the study of neurons, which account for perhaps 10 percent of the cells in the human brain. But what about the other 90 percent – what are those cells, chopped liver? Nope, they’re glial cells, and their importance is only now beginning to be understood. Our guest speaker on Wednesday, March 25 will be Ben Barres, MD/PhD, award-winning scientist, chairman of Stanford University’s neurobiology department, and the proponent of a paradigm shift in brain research.

When neurobiologists talk about “brain cells,” they’re invariably talking about neurons, those glorified strings of fat that evolution has tarted up to convey the electronic impulses that add up to thought, memory, emotion, and action. But something like 90 percent of the cells in your brain aren’t neurons. They’re called glial cells, and until recently their function was believed to be somewhere between that of packing peanuts (filling space so our neurons don’t rattle when we run) and nannies (serving up nutrients to and picking up after those clever neurons).

We all know what happened with “junk DNA.” Once assumed to be little more than packaging for our genetic material, it’s turned out to be loaded with gold nuggets. Likewise, glial cells’ known roles are expanding to include not only metabolic support but also immune activity and such crucial tasks as creating and degrading synapses (those specific inter-neuronal connections, uniquely arrayed within each person’s brain, that shape thought, memory, feelings, and activity). Come and listen to what Dr. Barres, a pioneer in the burgeoning study of glial cells and a top-tier brain scientist, has learned about glial cells – what they are, how they interact with neurons, and which neurological conditions they may trigger when they act inappropriately. Dr. Barres will also let us know where he sees this research heading, why it’s so important, and how soon practical payoffs are in the offing.

SCHEDULE:
6:30 Happy Hour
7:30 Dinner
8:30 Speaker

Please reserve your seat for the dinner by March 18. You can pay online through Paypal using your credit card by going to http://www.ncswa.org/dinner_03-09.html and scrolling down to the bottom of that file. A Paypal account is *not* required.

Please select your entrée when you pay. If you fail to select an entrée at that time, the default is the chicken. (Vegetarian options available.)

Transcript of the Authonomy interview with George LaCas, author of The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue:

INTERVIEW with GEORGE LACAS, author of  THE LEGEND
OF JIMMY GOLLIHUE now available on Amazon.com in trade paperback and in
Kindle format!

http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Jimmy-Gollihue-Novel-George/dp/0615274668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236099906&sr=8-1

and on Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-of-Jimmy-Gollihue/dp/B001UHN7O8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236297469&sr=8-1

[What follows is an edited transcript of an interview conducted with George LaCas, the author of The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue.  The interview took place live on Authonomy.com and was conducted by author and poet Laura Lascarso, with an appearance by James Hagen]

Laura Lascarso:

Hi, George. Welcome to the show.

*nods*

Your book, The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue,is a loose interpretation of The Odyssey. My first question to you is, which came first? The character of a pool-hustler named Jimmy, or the idea to give a new spin on an old classic?

George LaCas:

They said you were a tough interviewer.

Jimmy was always supposed to be a hero—bigger than just a winning pool hustler. There was, from the beginning scenes that I wrote, an element of epic heroism.

As I explored the character, and as he moved through the events in the novel, I began to realize that in certain respects he echoed major heroes from the classics: Odysseus, Beowulf, Don Quixote.  And others.

So, to answer your question, both. But it was only later in the process that I
chose The Odyssey to use as a framing device.

LL:

How familiar with The Odyssey were you, when you chose it? And how did that affect the story after you’d made the decision.

GL:

I’d read The Odyssey in college, in a verse translation, but back then it was just another book you have to get through. So you might say I had to take some refresher courses.

And I’ve got to hand it to two of my early manuscript readers. Both of them
recognized the elements of The Odyssey before I’d even told them (like it’s a dirty secret!).

But about ten months ago, I got ahold of two other versions of it and studied
it: the Introductions, the storyline, and I looked for things I could use. I
did not do what James Joyce did, but then who could?

It affected my story after I made the decision, mainly, because with the
Prologue and Part Four my book is unmistakably a tribute to The Odyssey. Before that only a few people might recognize it.

LL:

I admit it has been awhile since I’ve read The Odyssey, but the compulsion that Jimmy feels, along with the disorienting effects from his travels on the road, are really reminiscent of Odysseus and his wayward ship. And then there’s the Cyclops….

Where did you draw inspiration for the bewitching, emerald-eyed Iris?

GL:
Iris is the Penelope figure, of course, who weaves tapestries and puts off suitors while her man is on the road.

But inspiration for the character herself?  My first impulse is to tell you Iris is based on a girl I used to work with (though I don’t remember if her eyes were green).
The build, the short blond hair, the country-girl sassiness, and a strange way she had about her. As I wrote, when I needed to picture Iris, I pictured that girl.

But the whole Iris character (and the green eyes) was one I had to invent,
because she’s a witch, and also it’s implied she was a foundling child left by
fairies on her aunt’s doorstep. She took on superhuman proportions once I was in the final drafts of the book.

LL:
Let’s talk about the poolroom. It’s rumored that you spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on research for Jimmy. Tell us about that.

GL:
I started that rumor (or as they say here, “rumour”), so I know it’s true.

But I’d say, more than three thousand and less than nine thousand. Who the hell knows?

As for the pool room itself, I’ve been going to pool halls since 1989 or so.
That’s not counting bar pool. There’s a dividing line between casual bar pool,
and serious pool played on regulation tables in pool halls, pool rooms,
nightclubs, etc.

In other words I was a serious player there for awhile, but never really great.
I went through a couple thousand dollars in pool cues alone, and compared to some players that’s pocket change. Table time and/or membership fees costs, also, even if you pay by the year ($400 or so).

My research included casual pool games, gambling for cheap, not-so-cheap,
playing in tournaments (beginning/intermediate, and advanced). I frequently
played in local tournaments where, most of the time, professional players would take first place. I took lessons from a former snooker champion from the UK who’d gone pro in American nine-ball. When working 40 hour weeks I sometimes played pool for 25 hours a week, and sometimes more. Twice I spent paid vacation time in the pool room, playing and gambling and goofing off, sometimes for 12-16 hours. I would have slept in there if they’d allowed it.

I read extensively: instructional books, billiard magazines, online research,
nonfiction books. I talked with professional players, pool hustlers both
big-time and two-bit, and with the makers of pool-related equipment. With pool room owners and all levels of staff, even those who spoke little English.

Pool was my life. It wasn’t just “research”. Pool was my lover, my
drug, the world that took the place of the sun, which I didn’t miss.

Along the way I wrote little vignettes about a pool hustler, and thankfully
through all the hard knocks along the way I kept my notebooks. Always intending to make them into a book. And I did.

LL:
Tell me about Old Sheldon and One-Eyed Brock.  Are these
composite sketches of players you knew?

GL: 
Yes. Neither of those characters is based on actual people, but they are inspired by many, and then highly fictionalized.

And Brock has two eyes! Why’d you take away his eye? Are you trying to sneak in a Cyclops question?

It’s One-Pocket Brock!

One-Pocket, by the way, is a pool game.

LL:
Sorry, sorry, my mistake.

Jimmy does battle with quite a few characters in the poolroom, sometimes
getting away with only his life.

What’s the hairiest situation you ever found yourself in, in a poolroom?

GL:
I got pretty lucky. I’ve been bounced out of a couple of places for gambling, but mostly for doing it in such a way that it drew attention. I can get a little excited.

I never got in a fight in a pool room, or outside of one.

The hairy situations happen when you square off against some drunk at the bar (a swift and immediate ass-kicking), but in the pool room itself it comes from dishonesty: gambling when you have no money (“playing on your nerve”) or other forms of cheating.

And that’s one thing I would never do, is cheat. So I stayed out of trouble.
When you lose you pay off, and that’s it. You play fair, you gamble honestly,
and you’re usually OK.

LL:
What’s “the shot the Devil don’t know about”?  [Here Ms. Lascarso is referring to a plot situation in Part Four of the novel]

GL:
Laura, you promised!

My answer: I can’t tell you, for the same reasons Old Sheldon can’t tell the
reader. Because the secret would get out, and the Devil would get wind of it,
and then damnation for all.

Hint: “the shot the Devil don’t know” involves making the ball spin
in two different directions at once, a physical impossibility.

Then there’s the symbolic aspect of it: a bit of forbidden knowledge used
against evil (like Iris would!), hidden even from Satan, hidden from us all.

LL:
I know, I know. I just had to throw it out there.

Q: What does the side story of the hound dog represent and how did that come about?

GL:
An incisive question, about the hound dog.

That one’s no secret. It all goes back to a talk Jimmy and One-Pocket Brock
have, in which One-Pocket tells Jimmy: “Fear is your hound dog”. And
then goes on to tell him that fear has to be dealt with and put to good use,
for it will always be there.

From that point on, the reader is given a symbolic anchor for all appearances
of the hound dog, a few of which take place in dream sequences before that
point, chronologically, in the story. I made it very easy for the reader,
because The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue is literary fiction for everybody. “HOUND DOG” = “JIMMY’S FEAR”

The hound dog has no actual existence in the story, until… well, no plot
spoilers. He is metaphorical in nature, a figure who even pulls free of Jimmy’s dreams and Iris’s visions. His battle of the monster in the fog, his
determination in the face of overwhelming discouragement, parallels exactly
Jimmy’s battle with the red-haired man. The hound dog, having become
transcendent, enables Jimmy to do the same (i.e., rise above fear and act
according to his mission, which is greater than himself).

It was some pretty weird shit, writing that.

LL:
I really liked it, the weird shit. I also loved your colloquialisms. Where did you learn all those backwoods expressions? Or did you make them up?

GL:
One or two expressions, I made up. But I grew up in various locales in the Deep South, and my mother and her people came straight out of Appalachia.

I’m no linguist, or dialect expert, but I grew up hearing that kind of stuff.
Those few things I made up are nothing compared to some stuff you’ll hear.

The colloquial speech/dialogue, I feel, is pretty realistic (as opposed to
mimicry), and true to the real rhythms. It shapes the rhythms of the narrative, also.

LL:
Yes, and your use of color was wonderful as well. The attention you gave to detail is to be admired, the chalk stains, the grit and grime of the road, the bankroll growing like an erection, etc, etc.

What’s your favorite scene and why?

Jim Hagen:
Keep him on his toes Laura! Reading this has triggered a few questions of my own so if you like we can double-team him.

LL:
Ask away!

GL:
Ooh boy. Do I have to pick one single scene?

I don’t know if it’s my favorite (or if I even have one), but one stand-out
scene is the first road scene. That’s the one where Jimmy, unprepared, gets off the bus and finds a pool room, goes in, and even though it’s loud and rowdy, he runs into a money game with a couple who are holding money for drug dealers.
They’re drunk and high, he hustles them out of all their money, and they come and pay him a visit in his motel room. (again, no plot spoilers! you know what happens!)

That scene was a breakthrough. That was a scene I wrote after practically
nothing for about six miserable months. Then I sat down and opened a document and that scene came out. I let go. I took my character and let him go where he wanted, or where his stupid head led him.

I have other favorite scenes, like with Jimmy and Iris, and Iris alone.

JH:
You mentioned The Odyssey—did Joyce’s Ulysses have any influence on Jimmy?

GL:
A very astute question.

I read Ulysses while I was writing my book. It’s such a monumental piece of fiction that I don’t think it influenced me (except maybe that I had to rewrite an extra three times or so!)

But of course Ulysses is based on The Odyssey. Joyce used it as a template,
but the creatures from The Odyssey were expressed in Irish life. For example, the Oxen of the Sun, Lestrygonians.

My version of The Odyssey is different, and more loosely-based. No one can touch Joyce.

But if Ulysses influenced me, it was in my language. And in that department, Joyce is also untouchable.

My book is a tribute to Joyce, as well as a tribute to The Odyssey.  At the same time, because of that, my book is an act of literary hubris, one which has been punished, and will be punished further, if I escape obscurity.

But Jimmy is not Leopold Bloom. He’s a pool-shootin son of a gun.

AVAILABLE NOW ON
AMAZON.COM
http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Jimmy-Gollihue-Novel-George/dp/0615274668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236099906&sr=8-1