Arthur K. Flam was born in New York City and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in writing,
and from New York University with an M.F.A. in film. He
served as Editor-in-Chief of Johns Hopkins's oldest literary magazine, ZENAIDA,
and worked as a journalist for the BALTIMORE
CHRONICLE. He started in the film industry as an assistant on Abel
Ferrara's vampire film, THE ADDICTION. He has co-written screenplays for
the films PENNY DREADFUL and
HIT AND RUN. 41 STRANGE is his
first book. He lives in Los Angeles.
For More Information
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About the Book:
41 STRANGE, a
first-of-its-kind e-book anthology devoted exclusively to “short-short stories
of the strange and horrifying,” awaits just a couple of clicks away for Kindle
readers who enjoy a good shiver up their spines.
41 STRANGE is the bizarre
debut collection of authors/screenwriters Diane Doniol-Valcroze and Arthur K.
Flam, who deliver a reading experience in the spirit of such masters of the
macabre as Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, and
Rod Serling. As Doniol-Valcroze and Flam put it, the tales were written “in the
lonely hour of the wolf … in the pre-dawn darkness when you get those ‘waking
nightmares.’”
Doniol-Valcroze and Flam are
screenwriters working in Los Angeles. They met at New York University's film school
and started collaborating, first on short films and then on screenplays. That
working relationship forged a natural path to writing stories.
“We're both very passionate
about short fiction,” says Flam. “It's our favorite form to read and write.
After working together for many years on film projects, we realized we had a
lot of ideas … that could only be done as short stories, so we decided to
finally pull the trigger.”
The short-short story format
makes a perfect fit for the authors' strange visions. They immediately set up
surreal and terrifying situations, which lead to even stranger conclusions. The
stories can be read in their entirety in the time it takes to pour a cup of
coffee and settle in with the book.
“Neal Edelstein (producer, MULHOLLAND DRIVE) has endorsed the book, and we’re
excited because his new horror app HAUNTING
MELISSA was the main inspiration for us to release the stories
direct-to-audience,” says Doniol-Valcroze.
One of the authors' favorite
stories in 41 STRANGE is “Frank’s Wash,” in which a man
finds himself stuck on the conveyor belt of a car wash. All attempts to get the
car wash operator's attention fail. Where Frank finally ends up becomes a
chilling dissection of the parent-child relationship.
“We think (the stories) all
embody that unnerving atmosphere,” Doniol-Valcroze and Flam say. “You're not
quite sure if the events unfolding around the character are happening for real,
or are they just a figment of the character's overactive imagination. We love
that ambiguity.”
Doniol-Valcroze and Flam believe that 41
STRANGE will appeal to a general audience of film lovers and short story
readers, as well as fans of science-fiction, horror and crime, and readers
looking “for a quick dose of strange stories for commuting, or just curling up
for a chilling night read before bed.”
For More Information
Thank you for
this interview! I’d like to know more
about you as a person first. What do you
do when you’re not writing?
I love watching
film noir.
When did you
start writing?
Nine years old. A
tiny story called Mr. Untouchable.
As a published
author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?
Reading Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus as a teen. Second,
and biggest pivotal point, was finding my writing collaborator.
If you could go
anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and
why?
I’d write a book
floating in a spacecraft orbiting the earth. For the perspective.
If you had 4
hours of extra time today, what would you do?
Invent a new secret
language.
Where would you
like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?
On Jupiter’s moon
Ganymede.
Back to your
present book, 41 Strange, how did you
publish it?
We decided to
self-publish. We truly wanted as much control over the content and artwork as
possible. We were also inspired by a friend, Neal Edelstein (producer, Mulholland
Drive),
who released the new horror app Haunting
Melissa direct-to-audience, and we thought it could be neat to control the
distribution with the short-short stories direct-to-readers.
In writing your
book, did you travel anywhere for research?
No.
Why was writing 41 Strange so important to you?
There was something
urgent that I can’t explain which seized my will and made me do it.
Where do you get
your best ideas and why do you think that is?
I don’t know what
my best ideas are, but I get most of my ideas from a cup of coffee.
Any final words?
If you’re curious
and would like to take a trip, you’re welcome to stay at The Hotel 41 Strange. It has 41 rooms… dark as they come…
