Clint is a talented silver tongued/penned writer, full of charm and charisma, and sass. His writing reminds me of a cross between Poppy Z. Brite and Bret Easton Ellis. Besides his wide spread cult following of fans for his book "Cottonmouth Kisses" he has contributed to numerous magazines and publications over the years, writes poetry, does spoken word tours, has modeled, and has hosted at numerous night clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has an exceptionally engaging sense of humor and is quite witty, but not at all in an intimidating way. On the contrary, despite his obvious well-educated persona, he also exudes a comfortable amount of street smarts that can only come through personal experience. And speaking of personal experience, his book "Cottonmouth Kisses" will get you quite personal with his experiences, though it is categorized as "fiction". The book is a collection of provocative short stories and poetry all focused around the themes of drug and alcohol abuse, the trials of being a young gay boy in rural Arkansas as well as the more accommodating city of San Francisco, which Clint playfully refers to as "San Fransissy" and "San Fransicko". In honor of his word play, I'd like to add "Sin Francisco" to that list of nicknames as well, especially after reading about some of his experiences in the city famous for fog, trolley cars, and liberalism.

Clint has a beautiful way of painting pictures with his words, as all good writers should, and he really pulls you into the experiences with sometimes very graphic descriptions and emotions. He is currently working on a fiction novel called "Turnskin" which I will have him discuss a bit more in detail during the interview.

Now, onto the interview...(BTW, he has a great accent, so I advise you read his words with an adorable southern twang in mind.)

M: So, I think you're the first writer that I've interviewed for No-Fi.

C: That's great. I love that. I love too when people contact me and say that they usually don't read, but they read me.

M: Huh! Wow!

C: Ya know, when people will see me perform and they're like I usually don't read, but you've been recommended to me. Cuz with a book like "Cottonmouth Kisses" its easy for people who usually don't read cuz it's a lot of short things.

M: Yeah, I know a lot of people who prefer to read short stories and there are some really great books out there like that.

C: And you can pick it up when you're on the subway, you can pick it up when you're waiting at the dentist's office...

M: Uh-huh. And people get so easily distracted, it's hard for some people to sit down with a whole novel and commit.

C: Right. Would you like some water? (gotta love that Southern hospitality!)

M: Oh, nah brought some my own self, but thanks. (I slur my words into a slow Southern twang) Is it gonna bother ya if I'ma talk like this? I can't hep it.

C: (laughs) No, it'll just make my own come out thicker I'm sure.

M: Oh good. I like thaaat. (I continue with my annoying accent, but he is sweetly oblivious.)

C: I like your nails. (they are painted pure white, a Wet and Wild color I believe)

M: Oh? Well, thanks.

C: It's like the liquid paper I used to sniff. (I laugh. He has such a cute knack for sprinkling the funniest, most outrageous and odd comments here and there.)

M: Oh! Yeah, people always go "Ooh, did you paint your nails with that liquid paper?"

C: I know that you didn't, cuz they'd be clumpy. (I laugh)

(Now we chat a bit about movies we like and how he loves Pedro Almodovar. Clint tells me he really relates to Almodovar's movies because there is always a search for connection and that recurring theme is especially apparent in the recent "Talk To Her". He recommends I also see "All About My Mother", which leads me into the next question)

M: Okay, let's talk about your mother.

C: Aaawwww, my sweet mom.

M: Um, your parents... have they read your book?

C: Yeah.

M: What do they think?!? How did they react?!?

C: Well, my Dad really doesn't like it at all and won't talk about it. And my Mom has only talked about it in a sense of being concerned, ya know, and sometimes she'll call me and I know that she will have been thinking about the book or something and just say, "Are you taking care of your health?" and I'm like "Yes, Mom, I'm really boring now, so... ya know!"

M: Yeah, um, I read that you grew up an only child and I remember wondering about that when I was reading your book. I wondered about my friends that were only children and how they always wished that they had brothers or sisters- do you?

C: I do and I have. I just...as a little kid.. made up my own. That's how it was for me. I grew up out in the woods, and there weren't any other kids in the neighborhood until I was either five or six. A lot of kids have an imaginary friend...I just created this whole realm.

M: I read something about (you talking about) that. And that made me mad, cuz I like to ask the imaginary friend question! But it's interesting, what you had to say about that- creating a whole, like, imaginary realm or friends (I too am quite guilty of creating huge fantasy worlds around me as a child because I was alone a lot and... uh... anyway...)

C: I mean...they were...I think I still have them. They just serve a different purpose now, ya know.

M: Do they have names?

C: Um, well...they turn into characters, so yeah, they do. Yeah, like the book that I'm working on now, because it's fiction, or it turns into fiction... like now, I'm delving into the fiction. Like now, they actually have names, that I am putting them on the page. Sometimes they're composites of people and then other times it's just these creatures that I made up all on my own. You know what actually prompted me...the first time that I can remember recording an imaginary friend was right after I'd seen "Bladerunner". I was a little kid and I was up late at night in the living room and I remember drawing characters which I just thought were really old...they were like 17, you know...like I'd draw this girl, this really (New) Wave damaged girl and write out all these statistics for her on the side, as if it came out on a computer keyboard- like her name, her age, and where she lives...and they always lived in, ya know, New York, cuz it was just this "other" that was really exciting.

M: That's weird! I had a few little (drawings) like that, but they were just little characters... they were never... they were just, ya know, little drawings and one of them was called... um...uh... well, they were like these Punk Rock (characters) that um...(Ah, yes the power of editing. Heh heh heh!)

(Then Clint and I chit chat about local dance clubs that he currently works at in LA and some of the clubs in San Francisco that he used to work at and/or frequent- turns out he knew my old Goth roommates that I had in the upper Haight District. Small world indeed.)

M: So, do you still listen to Goth music?

C: Sure! I mean that will always be a part of who I am. Just like the expression goes, Once you go black... (we laugh)

M: I know...yeah, it's funny...I always feel like- cuz I got into Goth stuff a long time ago...like in1984 or so...I'm not gonna tell ya how old I am, but it was along time ago.

C: I bet you're the same age I am.

M: Uh...actually, maybe. You were born in what? 1971?

C: Uh-huh.

M: Uh-huh...well...that's nice (we laugh)...but um, so yeah...it was like '84 or so and um, since then I've been in the Mod scene and what not, but I always felt, like, Goth at heart. And it's funny cuz I was working on a movie and there were some Goths, it was "A.I." and Ministry was (working on the set) for a few days and these girls were...they didn't really look Goth- but you could kind of tell that they had been in that scene- and then we had this discussion about how you can kind of tell, even if someone doesn't really dress Goth anymore, that they used to be Goth- or that they're Goth Damaged or whatever, ya know...so can you, uh...have you ever picked up on that?

C: Oh, of course. Yeah.

M: Isn't that weird? What do you think it is?

C: Well it makes sense to me on a lot of levels. Usually it's people who are hyper sensitive, in one way or another. Cuz it's such an emotional scene, ya know, it's fraught with these extremes...um, people who have a dark sense of humor or...that's why I have this puppeteer armoire with the creepy ventriloquist dummy (see photos of Clint with the armoire)...it's intended to be cute for kids, but it creeps out adults. And all of this I see as coming from the same place, and also...like the art of Liz McGrath, a visual artist I've been getting into recently who lives here in Downtown LA...

M: Who made this? (referring to the armoire)

C: Her name is Tuesday. She has a company called Headless Designs. I really love this ventriloquist dummy right here, from that movie "Magic", ya know?

M: I'm scared of it.

C: "Tickets please!" (imitating a creepy dummy)

M: I know...

C: "Magic" is genius, huh?

M: No, I hated it. (Clint laughs) It scared me really badly.

(We now chit-chat about old bands and that cool 1980's alt. music magazine called Star Hits- reminiscing about covering the walls of our bedrooms with the full pages of lyrics next to the bands photo. Getting cool music in Arkansas was a challenge for Clint, so he told me he'd swap mixed tapes with pen pals via Star Hits. And he ordered clothes from Bogey's- which surprised me to hear the name of that old catalog- I had that too! The local record shops didn't even carry the more mainstream alternative acts, so he remembered his Mom ordering him two Siouxsie records one year for Valentines Day through The Arkansas State University! He said they only cost $4.00 each! Wow. Nice Mom. I question him on how old he was when he started listening to that type of music. He said he got the Siouxsie records around 4th or 5th grade)

C: Yeah, I was into it (Goth) then, but it wasn't until- I just viewed it all as this tremendous "other"...the same way with Punk, the same way with New Wave...it was all- it wasn't what I was living where I was living, which was redneck, acid wash denim, cowboy boots, Conway Twitty, so- for me things were not polarized the way that they are in a metropolitan area- there weren't these different scenes, there was just me and my one other freak friend and we were excited about all of it. So it all...to me...being excited about Dead Kennedys was the very same thing as being excited about Siouxsie, was the very same thing as being excited about... I'm trying to think of a really...like, Haircut 100... I viewed them all as this exciting thing that wasn't where I was living. So, it wasn't until I got a scholarship the end of my senior year of High School and lived a year in Europe that I became, like slavish about that one scene. Which had a lot to do with what I was going through, dealing with my own issues then and going to clubs that were specifically Goth clubs. I can remember the first time I went in and I was like, "Whoa", ya know- it was just, unbelievable hair sculptures and hours of make-up and a lot of the young people there don't work and don't have to, so they just...

M: This was in Germany, wasn't it?

C: Uh-huh, yep. And it was this club called Zwichenfall in a city called Bochum, and I just looked forward to every Friday and Saturday night- to going there, I mean this- this was in1989...I was there when the wall came down, in '89/'90. And so that was when things became much more polarized for me, being slavish about that scene. And starting a 'zine of my own and all that.

(We chat a bit more about San Francisco now)

C: Yeah, when I moved to San Francisco and there were people who were in full solid black regalia everyday, that was when I started to dress in really bright colors because I don't wanna blend.

M: I dressed very Mod at the time, so I would go to some of the Goth clubs that my roommates worked at and look very, uh, 1960's and it's funny, but I knew how to dance Goth, ya know...I could do the black swan dance too.

C: Uh-huh! (knowing exactly what I was talking about)

M: So it was funny to see a girl dressed all in her little 60s outfits and then you know...

C: It's more interesting when people mix things up, ya know, it's more to like...create some ripples in it- cuz that's how new stuff comes about, it's how anything evolves.

(Now I ask Clint a bit about his new novel, "Turnskin", that he is currently working on)

C: It's getting really fun now because the made-up characters are coming in. Everything up to this point (he is about a hundred pages into the book so far) has been people not even veiled- not even hidden, I've just changed their names. But now there's the characters that I've made up that are coming in to play, like this Hollywood hopeful named Cindy who keeps changing the spelling of her name (because) she wants to be really mystical and deep and meaningful...like most people come to LA to find themselves and there's all this like California/Astrology/Mysticism and so she changes the spelling of her name to Psyndi (I laugh).

M: What color hair does she have?

C: She's blonde!

M: Of course!

C: But she's the kind of blonde I am, very bleached.

(Now the questions turn to my favorite new thing to do, word association):

M: Okay, so just say the first thing that comes to your mind, and they're gonna be quick, so just, whatever... don't think about it...um...Red?

C: House

M: Wish? C: Bone M: Beer? C: Mug M: Spider?
C: Web M: London? C: Calling

M: Strawberry? C: Switchblade M: Credit Card?
C: Trouble M: Love? C: Trouble (I laugh)

M: Mirror? C: Trouble (we both laugh)
M: Chocolate?...Trouble? C: Tasty

M: Oh! I would say trouble! (we laugh) Okay, Piano?

C: Holly Hunter (I really laugh at that, I thought it was funny for some weird reason! He started laughing too)

M: Leprechaun? C: Frosted Lucky Charms M: Football? C: Boring M: Fire? C: Aries

M: Red Carpet? C: Blue walls M: Broom? C: Hilda M: Mom? C: Love

M: Smurfette? C: Slut M: Pickles? C: Anna Nicole

That's it. There was some really disgusting talk after I said the word "fingers", which I prudently decided to definitely edit. Clint is a great guy, and really fun to chat with- I wish I could have included the whole conversation, but I think it would have to be a whole book on its own.

Clint's book "Cottonmouth Kisses", which is out on Manic D Press, can be found at most bookstores nation wide, such as Barnes And Noble, as well as online at amazon.com. It has some impressive quotes on the back of the book, including one from Anthony Kiedis (of The Red Hot Chili Peppers). He also has a great website at www.clintcatalyst.com.