Drew Stepek’s new book, Knuckle Supper, explores an underworld where vampires are drug lords, using destitute teens as prostitutes and drug mules in Los Angeles. After reading this gritty horror tale, I was eager to speak with the author about the inspiration behind this novel.
Tell our readers about your upcoming book.
On a very superficial level, Knuckle Supper is a vampire book… albeit an exceedingly violent one. However, it deals with much deeper issues than the current crop of vamp lit on the market. The story follows RJ, who is the leader of a heroin dealing gang in Los Angeles called Knucklers. Essentially, this gang (one of many in the book) can only get high by ingesting heroin through warm blood from a beating heart. So, without revealing too much, they trap pimps, other (non-vampire) gang members and Los Angeles scumbags, rip their arms off, shoot heroin into their wrists, break off their knuckles and suck down the nectar. However, the story goes much deeper than that. It turns out that the pimp they decimate at the beginning of the book brought a 12 year-old prostitute named “Bait” with him. Reluctantly, RJ develops this protective relationship with Bait (much to the chagrin of the other Knucklers) that takes him on a journey of self discovery. More than anything, she wants him to bite her neck and make her a vampire. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works with these vampires. You can’t become a vampire in Knuckle Supper, they don’t live forever and they have no idea why they’re even alive to do anything besides get high.
How did you first come up with the inspiration for this story?
My first novel Godless (www.godless.com) was a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age account of the time I spent in a hospital for bulimia. Although, people really wanted me to write a sequel to that book, because I left it open-ended, I kind of didn’t want to be in that state of mind again. So, instead I chose the much lighter subject matter of drug addiction and sexual exploitation (smile everyone). I spent a year and a half after the release of Godless trying to decide what to do and I was coming up empty, but I knew I wanted to write a horror novel. Anyway, I was watching the incredible British television show “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” repeated on Adult Swim in 2007 (which, ironically, is about a hack horror author). One of the characters said, “Cool it Sanchez, or you’ll get a knuckle supper.” SNAP! It was one of the moments when your mind just lights up. I grabbed a pen and paper and immediately drafted the opening kill scene in the book.
What do you think makes your main character relatable to readers?
RJ is a tough nut to crack. After all, he is a brutal killer and no one you’d probably ever want to be friends with. However, as he begins to understand his origins, you understand his relationship with Bait and why he jumps into a father figure role. At the end of the day, he’s just your typical LA gutter punk. Through her innocence and naivety, however, the reader begins to see quite early on that there is much more going on in the mind of RJ. In other words, there is much more to his actions than you’d believe after reading the first chapter. His personal road to discovery takes him from serial killer to caregiver to avenger and it is quite a transformation. It turns out that he is much more than just another schmuck with budget-ass tattoos and a really lethal heroin addiction. Is he perfect? No. Is he this romantic hero? Nope. Can people relate to him? Absolutely. He is just as troubled as each and every one of us and you reluctantly root for him to win because he is such an underdog. I hate when gangsters and drug addicts are portrayed as these dumb bullies. You’d be surprised how smart some are and I tried to capture that in the book. I didn’t go as far as to have RJ playing chess with his enemies for turf or anything dumb like that. He’s just a real person.
What has surprised you the most about the story as it has taken shape?
Besides the relationship Children of the Night, I think that there is this strange sense of unjustified celebrity that developed organically in the book. In other words, all the celebrities want to be vampires and all the vampires want to be celebrities. It’s really apparent whenever we are introduced to a new gang or a new character because the vamps have this unbelievable need to be in the spotlight or on stage. They are strangely theatric as far as gang members go.
I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 16 years now and it is something that I’ve witnessed firsthand constantly. There is this unusual sense that everyone in the world has right now (with everyone broadcasting themselves all day long) that they all deserve to be celebrities. It’s such a unique period in history. People will do anything to get on TV (including faking their kid is flying away in a balloon) and it’s more annoying to me than anything. I love seeing people on reality shows and overnight pop sensations because they have no shelf life and are so unaware of that. “Hey look at me; I’m on the picture box… that’ll be two Ferraris.” It’s insane. Just like I propose that not everyone has the right to live in this book, not everyone should be a celebrity either.
Beyond that, I really feel that I am kicking sexual exploitation (as well as the Catholic Church) right in the nuts. I can’t really get into it (because it will ruin who the vampires really are) but let me tell you… it’s not as simple as being bitten by some count or living forever. The vamps in KS don’t live forever. As a matter of fact, they usually die quite young because… well… they live everyday on the streets of Los Angeles.
How long did it take for you to write the book?
From the night I was watching that episode of “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” to the day I put down my pen and closed the final composition book, it took 2 years and 3 months. Knuckle Supper was a difficult task for me because I wanted to cross examine the vampire genre in general and ditch all the clichés that have become… well… standard fare. I can absolutely assure you that you’ve never read a vampire book like this. If I felt I was writing something that was anyway connected to the work of Bram Stoker and the thousands of replicants after that, I trashed the entire chapter. I want nothing to do with the scene or its followers. It had to feel real. I think of it this way… if Twilight is the literary equivalent to The New Kids on the Block… then it might be time to graduate to the Sex Pistols. I want to stay away from bagging on that genre and its clones, though. At the end of the day, those books have gotten teens to read and that’s totally awesome. On that, this is not a book for anyone under 18. The only things that turns to crystals in Knuckle Supper are amphetamines.
Are you working on other projects that you’d like to tell us about?
Knuckle Supper is going to have 4 sequels including Knuckle Ball, which I am writing right now. Also, screenwriter Dionne Jones and I are penning the screenplay for Knuckle Supper and have already generated some interest. I don’t want to lighten the load of the book for the screen. If it does get distributed, I’m sure that it will be NC-17 before the MPAA gets its hands on it.
I am also starting my own imprint (with my publisher Alphar that is based in New Zealand and my editor Drew Lyons) called Savage Patch Kids Publishing (www.savagepatchkids.com). Essentially, we’ve all wanted to start a publishing company that won’t shy away from super edgy material and we don’t want to turn away submissions. In other words, we’ll have a relatively open door policy that doesn’t require having an agent.
I also want to start a dance crew, have my own reality show (see above) and become the high five champion of the universe.
What inspired you to start writing in general?
As a kid, I grew up around literature. The day school ended every year, my mother would take me to the bookstore and I’d have to pick out ten books that I’d have to read by the end of summer. My mother also worked for a bookstore for a really long time (recently retired) and that also played a large part in me always having something to read. Reading and writing is very important to me. Although, I went through a huge Barker period as a teen, I am an even bigger fan of classic literature. Of Mice and Men is my favorite book and Mark Twain is my favorite author.
What kind of feedback have you received from friends and family?
Interesting question. My friends love my writing (as far as they tell me when I’m picking up the bar tab) and wish I’d write more. Although, my parents fully support my work and love it, I can’t help but think that they have a difficult time reading my stories because they are always about this theme of abuse and addiction. My mother had a really hard time reading Godless because me being in the hospital for bulimia my senior year in college wasn’t exactly the high point of my life. It hit really close to home for her.
Even though she likes my writing, my girlfriend really wants me to write “nice” books like about love and all that. I don’t really want to respond to that in an interview but I can assure readers… that will most likely never happen. I kicked her out of my tree house gang for even suggesting it.
Tell us about your book’s involvement with Children of the Night.
In March, I contacted my publisher and told them that I wanted to establish a relationship with Children of the Night (www.childrenofthenight.org) because after I learned about the organization, I knew I needed to help. Although we both know every book is a hit or miss, I wanted to make sure that at least 10% of the hardcover sales, as well as $1 from each digital copy (it will be available agnostically in the Kindle Store, the Nook Store, Google Books and most importantly, iTunes) went to Children of the Night. However, I didn’t feel like that was enough so from April – August, I raised awareness and donations on Facebook. By giving away Xbox 360s, Kindles and iPads, I helped double their FB numbers and increase their regular donations. It didn’t end there though. To me, it was important to also get them some much needed equipment for schooling. So, I donated a bunch of Apple and HP computer equipment for the classrooms, as well as some Power Books for their graduates.
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©2010 Lori Titus
