We’re so pleased to have authors Claire Davis and Al Stewart with us today to chat a bit about their latest collaboration, Oskar Blows a Gasket, out today from Beaten Track Publishing.
Welcome, Claire and Al!
Oskar is our longest and perhaps most ambitious story; incorporating the structure of an 80s DJ session along with some rather intense plots. Crazy, right? It attempts to re-create the seismic eruptions that can happen when a young person leaves home and falls in love for the first time. For many people, young love and music are forever entwined. When you play a song, you remember a first kiss. You remember heart break, and tears. With Oskar, music is a very important element in his life, being his past and his present. The story is structured in such a way as to bring the reader back every chapter to the phraseology of the 80s, giving them an opportunity to experience a little of what it’s like inside Oskar’s head.
Definitely crazy!
Running concurrent to this almost too bright structure is the stories of two young men. They have known pain, and loss. Their stories are revealed gradually to the reader via letters and DJ broadcasts. The story may make the reader experience a type of strove like perception of what is building; gaining flashes and chunks of understanding instead of a chronological narrative.
More and more crazy…
Part one ends with a shock and a bang and then the story shifts to a more conventional structure, where the reader gets to see inside the heads of both main characters. At the beginning, Oskar is pretty hard to like, but by the end of part two, he is split right open. He blows a gasket.
It’s an experimental novel which plays with several forms of art – writing, music, and the art of love. More than anything, it’s an experience…
And to finish, something about the title…I bloody love the title. Blowing a gasket is a term linked to cars and engines, and technical stuff. But it also means to lose one’s temper, to come apart. In this case, the title is linked to one chapter near the end where the reader gets to see Oskar resolving some very serious aspects of his life.
Oskar Blows a Gasket is available as an ebook from March 30th.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to The Novel Approach for having us here.
~Claire and Al
About the Book
Oskar Braithwaite is bold, brash and gorgeous. Just ask him.
Armed with designer backpack full of make-up and retro music galore, Oskar sets off for college. And, with attitude even spikier than his heels, nothing is going to hold him back. Except maybe one thing…his past is shouting louder than the 80s songs he adores and it won’t be ignored. Behind the effervescence are secrets, lies and sadness. Try as he might, not even Oskar can hide forever, and one day it isn’t only pop icon Simon Le Bon who’s going to catch up.
Who is writing letters? And why is a spy secretly following?
Enter Bear, with dancing eyes and secrets of his own. Bear’s kindness sparkles brighter than Lycra leggings, and everyone knows Oskar loves shiny things. Like every prophecy, their fates seem inevitably linked. As the walls of Oskar’s defence crumble, Bear shows his hidden strength, but will it be enough to save them?
Find out in this far-out, zany tale of fame, first love and retro DJs.
Beaten Track PublishingAmazonBarnes & NobleiBooksKobo
About the Authors
Claire Davis lives in the beautiful UK. She works full time and reads whenever she gets a spare five minutes.
Al Stewart lives and works in the UK. He is an avid fan of cats, Vikings, cute slippers, chocolate and jam. One night he decided to take up a pen and, instead of poking it in his ear, he began to write.
Claire & Al write about people who are not perfect. Claire embraces the dark side, and Al the good side of the force. Their work is there for a fusion of both, mixed often with kink and humour.
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