Interview with bizarro #author Andy De Fonseca
So excited to be sharing an interview with NBAS author Andy De Fonseca. Bizarro just makes me happy and Andy is sending me an 8-bit Mario because I’m awesome. I can’t wait to read this one and get my geek on, it makes me yearn for my duck hunt. Ahhh those were the days.
In a world where humanoid bulls patrol the street, wormholes and portals make up children’s playgrounds, and flying turtles produce the most delicious bacon, Margy Plum and Victor Vance are quite content with playing old school video games and designing 8-bit chickens. When they find a cheat code to a strange game called Adamina, neither are prepared to see their video game exploits on the streets of their own town. To their horror, they have discovered a game that controls the universe.
Before they can even choose an alignment, their world erupts into madness-mutated memes terrorize the streets, clouds fall from the sky and giant balloon animals piss on park trees. Victor and Margy flee to the lands of the old internet, where the dunes are riddled with bandit viruses, the saloons are filled with Japanese porn, and Lolcats roam the dusty plains.
While there, they discover a secret. A secret that twists all they know and believe, one that threatens their entire existence. It’s up to Victor and Margy, controlling the fate of everything and everyone, to find the equation at the heart of the universe before they’re ripped from their lives.
I’m a geek, like many people who have a passion for something. I just don’t mind the title.
Also, I’m into science, heavy fantasy, D&D, cartoons/ anime, and drawing. So I’m that kind of geek.
A deep, dark dirty secret? Something about you that no one knows.
That’s tough. I grew up with three siblings who were always around. This will have to be a recent secret, so the shame will still be fresh.
I ignored my ALS ice bucket challenge. Completely ignored. No ice. No money. Is this deep, dark, and dirty enough? I can’t tell. Judging from facebook it seems like I’ll be going to hell. But for reals, I had just finished donating a lot of money to the New York Stem Cell Foundation. I have bills to pay! And I’m not pouring ice on my head. I don’t negotiate with charity terrorists*.
> Jess resides here confession. I was just nominated myself. I don’t want to throw a bucket of water over myself. I was thinking of filming myself in the shower but that seams too … intimate. I will donate but don’t want to share a video. There I said it.
What are you reading now?
Declension, by Michael Allen Rose. A really messed up book that’s… hard to describe. Highly recommend it, if you can find it. It was a limited edition.
A Feast for Crows, because mama needs her fix.
An Illustrated Brief History of Time/The Universe in a Nutshell, by Stephen Hawking. But I’m always reading this book, because I can never grasp everything. A lot of writing ideas come out of science.
Some favourite books and authors?
An Illustrated Brief History of Time/The Universe in a Nutshell, by Stephen Hawking
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan
Uzumaki, by Junji Ito. A fantastic horror graphic novel I recommend to everyone including children who have cool parents.
And don’t judge, but I’m in love this YA book I’ve been re-reading since I was in the 8th grade. Little Sister, by Kara Dalkey. It’s a feudal Japanese fairy tale.
What is your workspace and writing routine like?
Workspace: I’m surrounded by books, art projects, trinkets, pictures, and toys. My toys. I don’t have a kid, but one would assume. ((I’ll send you a picture!))
Writing routine: At the moment, any free chance I have, including downtime at work. My biggest problem is taking on new hobbies, which cut into my writing time. Currently it’s the Dutch language. Ik ben een banaan.
How did you discover the magic that is bizarro and why did it appeal to you?
Growing up loving fairy tales, fantasy, science, Gary Larson’s The Far Side, and some really weird hentai, bizarre/bizarro is the only thing I know. I don’t think I’d know how to write a straight story. I tried once, then I turned the main subject into a time travelling geisha.
For me, books are the escape from reality. I want to be taken far, far away, and I want to get there in the most effed up way possible.
How did you become one of the NBAS?
My buddy Michael Allen Rose, fellow bizarro author, is part of the community, and I had been living vicariously through him for years. I finally took a bizarro class with Garrett Cook (which I definitely recommend if you want a good writing class!), and Eraserhead Press editor Bradley Sands took an interest. After that, it became the incredible love story we all know and love today**.
What has this year been like for you?
Stressful. Wild. Amazing. I’m tired a lot.
Please tell us about your book The Cheat Code For God Mode
Margy and Victor are two regular video game nerds who end up finding a game that controls the universe. Before they can even have fun with it, they’re running from a mysterious group of assholes, and they find themselves in the Old Internet. While there, they learn a secret about their world, and end up needing to save it.
What do readers have to look forward to next?
That time travelling geisha? I hope to get that going. It’ll be an oral/mixed media history of this geisha Aya Onitori. Each chapter is from a different person who came across Aya during their moment in time, each written in their own way, depending on the person. The poet will write in haiku, the artist will have woodcarvings, the general will have a war report, the engineer will have a log of the space colony, and so on.
I’m really excited about this one, and for all the research I’ll get to do for it.
Your favourite recipe that involves bacon?
Other than hot pan bacon?
Every time I make this soup, I want to cry from happiness:
http://mysouthernaccent.tumblr.com/post/40879725960/low-carb-chicken-bacon-chowder
The only thing that makes bacon greater is cheese. And this has bacon swimming in it.
—
*quote from The League
** it’s not a love story and no one knows it
Andy de Fonseca is a geek. She has always been this way, despite numerous attempts throughout childhood to curb her love of anime, video games, dragons, and the unholy songs of science. She also likes Cheez-Its.
She currently resides in Chicago, IL with her husband Myles and tiny dog Sir Digby Chicken Caesar. She volunteers at the Adler Planetarium, where she not only shares her passion for science with others, but gathers plenty of information for her works. Andy enjoys talking about herself in third person just as much as the next person enjoys a nail in the forehead.
Andy can be found online Web Site / Goodreads
The Cheat Code for God Mode is available on Amazon
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