I’m not sure the right order to tell this story, so I’ll just plunge in and trust you to keep up with me. A few days after our return from Saints and Sinners, I began reading a novel I picked up there. It’s not a new novel: Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim. In fact, it’s been around long enough that a movie has already been made from it. I hadn’t read the novel or seen the movie. After I began reading it, I couldn’t put it down until I had to because my eyes were crossing. I went to sleep, then picked it up from the bedside table as soon as my eyes opened the next morning. People, when your bladder has turned thirty-five a few times, trust me, THIS IS AMAZING. I didn’t get out of bed until I read the last page of the book. It was haunting, well-written, and–obviously!–compelling.
Before Saints and Sinners, the only thing I really knew about Scott Heim was that he and I had a mutual online friend on Facebook: amanda_mary, who I originally came to know through Mark G. Harris. You know how sometimes you start reading someone online and you just instantly like that person? And the more you read, the more reasons you have to like her (or him)? That’s the way Amanda is for me. She’s a lot younger than I am, way cooler, and has a pretty different life from mine. I like the way she thinks and the way she expresses herself. If she moved next door to me, I’d immediately think the hipness quotient of my street went up a notch (as long as she didn’t park her car in front of The Compound where I like to park mine when it’s outside the gates).
I decided as a little surprise for her, I’d make a point of meeting Scott Heim at Saints and Sinners and get my photo taken with him. David Puterbaugh made that easier at the opening party at the W Hotel when he pointed out Scott to me. David said he wanted to meet him, too, so we sashayed our butts over to where Scott was talking to someone.
Flashback: My very first year at Saints and Sinners (2006), I was in a conversation with another writer when two people came up and edged me away from him. It was annoying at the time, and I felt like a big geek standing there looking at the air around me. Then my gaze fell on the sweet, smiling visage of a stranger who turned out to be one Mark G. Harris; I asked him if he knew where a restroom was; he got that information and accompanied me to one; and out of that little incident came all kinds of wonderful things.
I did NOT MEAN to do the same thing, taking Scott away from his conversational partner, and I’m sure David didn’t either. But since it happened, I hope it freed this Unknown Man to meet someone as terrific as Mark G. Harris who will likewise enhance his life in myriad ways. Just in case, however, a big I’M SORRY to Unknown Man.
Scott Heim is a delight. When I mentioned Amanda, he said they’d been talking online for years. He recognized David from the S&S program, and before you know it, we had a merry little group surrounding him. I managed to get a few more photos, including these:
Authors Timothy J. Lambert, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Scott Heim
Authors Jeffrey Ricker, David Puterbaugh, Scott Heim
Tonight, Famous Author Rob Byrnes has been live-blogging on Facebook from the Lambda Literary Awards. So we could all learn AS IT HAPPENED that Scott Heim won for We Disappear in the Best Gay Fiction category. Congratulations, Scott! Fortunately, I picked up this book when I got Mysterious Skin. I know what just moved to the top of my To Be Read pile.
I just bought Mysterious Skin the other day! I haven’t started it yet, but apparently I need to get going.
Here’s a picture of you guys with him; you can almost see your head, Becky.
There you have it: my favorite kind of picture of me.
And that’s me right over Scott’s shoulder talking to Andrew Beierle and Jameson Currier. Was it me you shoved out of the way in your rush to get to Scott, you evil creature?
Someone has to tell Ricker that if it won’t stay perky on its own there’s no use in trying to prop it up with your hand. That does *not* have the same effect.
–Famous Author Rob Byrnes
You can go straight to Hell, FARB. (Save me a seat, bitch.) I have no idea what I was doing in that picture. I think I may have previously been sitting someplace wet.
I read “Mysterious Skin” back in 2003 when a boy I met recommended it. He gave me his copy (hardback, no less!) and let me keep it. I loved it. I was reading “We Disappear” in New Orleans, and I’m glad I got a chance to meet Scott and tell him how much I enjoyed it. Mazel tov to him!
Could have been worse. He COULD have said you were pulling your undies out from a wedgie, for one example.
Yay for Scott, and thanks for the heads-up abuot FARB”S tweets….I’d forgotten that was tonight.
I knew you’d like Mysterious Skin, and I really enjoyed meeting Scott Heim.
I was a little leery of the book at first–after all, I don’t easily forget that SOME writers are quick to deal out dead dogs and dead boyfriends.
Although the story has its disturbing features, Heim’s writing KICKS BUTT.
HEY! I have never killed off a dog in fiction! Boyfriends, on the other hand…
JInkies
It’s nice sometimes how the Internet interconnects and intersects. I felt the same about Mark’s journal right about last year’s Saints and Sinners, I started adding more of the group. I was hoping to check out Saints and Sinners this year, but no, not this time. I’m not a writer, but I’ve been told I should write my dreams. If writing was like computer engineering…
Oh, and Mysterious Skin, the movie, was quite good. I Can’t compare the book with the movie.
Re: JInkies
I think I’d like to see the movie now.
I can’t fault the Internet as a meeting place–it’s how I met the three wonderful men who became my friends and writing partners.
Re: JInkies
i haven’t read the book either, but the movie was cool. being that araki directed, it’s gotta be a little bit messed up…in the best possible way! 🙂
interesting info from imdb.com:
“Original novelist Scott Heim wrote a draft screenplay which he then entered into the Sundance screenwriting lab. Gregg Araki was on the judging panel and the two became friends. Eventually it was mooted that Araki himself tackle the material.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0370986/trivia
Re: JInkies
Thanks for the link to all the other fun facts about the movie. It should come as a surprise to no one that I haven’t seen any Gregg Araki films. Why are y’all even friends with me?!?
Re: JInkies
hahah
oh becky, that’s probably exactly why we love you!
mr. araki’s films are…well, they’ll never be blockbusters. however, ‘mysterious skin’ is more crowd friendly than ‘doom generation.’
Oooh, I’m glad he won!
I know!
I love “how we met” stories. I could listen to them for freaking hours. We’ve got a good one. Haven’t thought of it in a while. : )
I like ours because it’s so random. I thought you were timid and gallant. By the next year, I still thought you were gallant but knew beneath that Clark Kent exterior was a surly man of steel.
Awww! Thanks for this!
If I parked my car in front of the Compound, it would definitely decrease the hipness quotient of your neighborhood, seeing as I drive a 2001 Chevy Lumina with one missing hubcap, and a small landfill of wayward Cheerios decorating the back seat.
Mysterious Skin is such a brilliant book. You’re aware of my penchant for Midwest regionalism, which is what first attracted me to Scott’s work. (It’s not folksy and idealistic, nor is it dismissive of and condescending toward residents of the “fly-over” territory). I think you’ll like We Disappear, too … although I should warn you that it may be a difficult read for those who have dealt with a loved one’s protracted illness. It’s like literary fiction disguised as a maternal melodrama disguised as a detective story.
Thank you for warning me! Emotionally difficult books are worth reading when the writing’s excellent.
You could leave your car window down and the
ratssquirrels would take care of those wayward Cheerios for you.OMG, Amanda, We Disappear was SO freaking good.
Wasn’t it?! Such a mature, reflective work that, somehow, is totally readable and engrossing at the same time! ♥!
Scott Heim stole my Lammy!!
–Famous Author Rob Byrnes
Karma, my friend.
I read all of Heim’s work and Mysterious Skin is my fave – deliciously disturbing. I also devoured that book in record time.
I love that we have so many similar tastes in novels.
Scott Heim looks like a KID!
I envy you to be surrounded by so many of my fave raves.
You, my dear, are the Gloria Stavers of gay fiction!
(I can give no higher praise.)
Gloria Stavers! I haven’t thought of her in YEARS. Talk about a blast from the past.
Yes, Scott Heim has tapped into the fountain of youth. And wait’ll you see my future post on Martin Hyatt…
I’m telling you, he bathes in the blood of virgins. When he told me his actual age, I wanted to punch him.
He is a youthful 73 …
It must be a fantastic feeling to meet an author one admires . . . and I was just going to let you know that “We Disappear” had won a Lambda award for Scott Heim, when I saw you already knew!!
Thank you for the recommendation. *adds new author to list*
🙂
It really is great to meet and sometimes work with authors whose work I enjoy and admire. I like being around creative people in general–it always helps stir my own desire to create.
You’re most welcome for the recommendation. I just finished We Disappear, too, and liked it as much or maybe even more than Mysterious Skin.
Mysterious Skin was so good, and so haunting. I read We Disappear when it came out and was amazed by that one too. I’m so thrilled he won an Lamda award for it.
Me, too!
I borrowed this from the library after reading your journal entry. I was like you … I couldn’t put it down, and stayed up very late to finish it. It’s a gripping and intense book. I’m going to watch the movie now, and will be looking for “We Disappear” too.
Thanks for recommending it.