Kemble Scott — Author
SoMa, The Novel
The San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller
Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Debut Fiction
SoMa, The Novel
The San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller
Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Debut Fiction
SoMa
The Novel
SoMa is the nickname for San Francisco's gritty South of Market neighborhood. The novel tells the interwoven stories of twentysomethings on the prowl for thrills in the wake of the city's infamous dot-com bust.
It's a bit stranger than fiction. The places seen in the book are real, and the events are based on the true tales of the city. On one level, SoMa is like an insider's guide to what's really happening in San Francisco these days.
SoMa explores what it means to live in what is arguably America's only open city. How do people act when everything is permissible? Where does this lead them? Have they lost their way, or found a better compass?
From the publisher...
Welcome To The Neighborhood
To outsiders, San Francisco is all one big city. But to those in the know, there is SoMa, South of Market, where sleek eateries are squeezed between bail bonds storefronts and high-priced lofts look out over still rough edges. It's home to a generation of hipsters disillusioned by the dot-com bust, restless and searching for the next thrill, the next high, the next step too far. Sex, drugs, kink—you can find it anywhere in SoMa, if you know where to look. But first, you'll need your tour guides. There's Raphe, a writer torn between two worlds, belonging to neither. Lauren, the poor little rich girl living on the edge and pushing farther out. Mark, beautiful and cruel, who lives for games, the more extreme, the better. Baptiste, hot, smooth, and maybe as real as it gets. And Julie, both an object of desire and a pretty pawn to be played.
In a glittering, surreal subculture of private sex clubs and kept boys, identity theft and betrayal, nihilism, redemption, and sometimes love, they're spinning out of control and into each other's orbits, desperately looking for something real—something that will show them who they really are. In this provocative, intense novel, Kemble Scott puts a new neighborhood on the literary map for good, in a tale that is disturbing, gritty, wholly original, and utterly unforgettable.
The Novel
SoMa is the nickname for San Francisco's gritty South of Market neighborhood. The novel tells the interwoven stories of twentysomethings on the prowl for thrills in the wake of the city's infamous dot-com bust.
It's a bit stranger than fiction. The places seen in the book are real, and the events are based on the true tales of the city. On one level, SoMa is like an insider's guide to what's really happening in San Francisco these days.
SoMa explores what it means to live in what is arguably America's only open city. How do people act when everything is permissible? Where does this lead them? Have they lost their way, or found a better compass?
From the publisher...
Welcome To The Neighborhood
To outsiders, San Francisco is all one big city. But to those in the know, there is SoMa, South of Market, where sleek eateries are squeezed between bail bonds storefronts and high-priced lofts look out over still rough edges. It's home to a generation of hipsters disillusioned by the dot-com bust, restless and searching for the next thrill, the next high, the next step too far. Sex, drugs, kink—you can find it anywhere in SoMa, if you know where to look. But first, you'll need your tour guides. There's Raphe, a writer torn between two worlds, belonging to neither. Lauren, the poor little rich girl living on the edge and pushing farther out. Mark, beautiful and cruel, who lives for games, the more extreme, the better. Baptiste, hot, smooth, and maybe as real as it gets. And Julie, both an object of desire and a pretty pawn to be played.
In a glittering, surreal subculture of private sex clubs and kept boys, identity theft and betrayal, nihilism, redemption, and sometimes love, they're spinning out of control and into each other's orbits, desperately looking for something real—something that will show them who they really are. In this provocative, intense novel, Kemble Scott puts a new neighborhood on the literary map for good, in a tale that is disturbing, gritty, wholly original, and utterly unforgettable.
Kemble Scott is the pen name of a longtime print and broadcast journalist. Using this pseudonym, Kemble is a writer and editor at San Francisco's subculture e-zine, SoMa Literary Review, and editor of the San Francisco Bay Area Literary Arts Newsletter.
In the non-fiction world of television news, he has been honored with three Emmy awards and is an alumnus of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
In the non-fiction world of television news, he has been honored with three Emmy awards and is an alumnus of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Excerpt from
SoMa
By Kemble Scott
Kensington Books
320 pages
ISBN 0-7582-1549-5
"Whaddaya mean twelve bucks? The sign says seven!" Lauren screamed through the opening in the ticket window. The music from the club seemed as loud as the highest setting on her Bose, and they weren't even inside.
"Sliding scale," yelled back the sleepy-eyed attendant who scratched at the scab around her cheek piercing. "It's seven if you're dressed according to the theme. Ten if you're in club clothes. Twelve for street clothes."
"I don't remember reading that on the web site." It wasn't a ton of money, but Lauren hated feeling cheated. The posting said seven, so there was no reason it should be anything other than seven.
"Sorry," the attendant yawned. "You coming in or what? You're holding up the line."
"This is our first time," Jessica said as she stepped up beside Lauren at the window. "What do you mean according to the theme?"
The attendant rattled off the list like a bored waiter reading the day's specials. "Leather, boots, teddies, whips, chains, tit clamps, vinyl, hoods, nudity, Goth...."
"Nudity? People are naked in there?" Jessica gasped.
"Honey, this is Bondage-a-Go-Go. The less you wear, the less you pay. You want something else, go try Bimbos in North Beach."
Lauren squinted. Who was this skanky bitch to act like they were in the wrong place? She knew it was Bondage-a-Go-Go. They drove in all the way from Concord for it! Lauren leaned over and whispered into her friend's ear.
"No way, Lolly," Jessica frowned. "I'm just gonna pay the extra five bucks."
"Fuck that, Jes. I'm not letting this bitch push us around."
"Lolly, I, uh..."
"Do it!"
Jessica shut her eyes, as if not witnessing the scene made it somehow OK. In unison, the two women lifted up their shirts. The attendant's eyes finally opened wide as she confronted two sets of firm round breasts.
Lauren smiled, noting as always that hers were bigger — if Jes hadn't been such a nancy about surgery, she could have had the same.
Lauren shoved a twenty through the ticket window opening. "That'll be two for seven each, please."
As soon as they made their way past the thick dark drape that obscured the door they pulled their shirts back down. Jessica yelped. "Why do I let you talk me into this shit?"
"Relax, will ya?"
"Relax? Just what the hell are we doing here? We're not into this. And it's Wednesday night, for god's sake. We've got work in the morning!"
"Look, Jes. They only run this club one night a week. It's supposed to be the most bizarre in Frisco."
"So?"
"So? Let's put it this way. What are we supposed to do this Saturday night?"
"Uh, that party?"
"Right. And who will be the only two women there who have ever been to Bondage-a-Go-Go?"
"Us?"
"We'll have the undivided attention of every guy."
"I thought you said the boys back home were boring."
"Gotta keep 'em interested, Jes. Don't want any of my followers to stray."
Jessica grinned uneasily. She'd known Lauren to have boys wrapped around her finger ever since they were in junior high. When they were kids, Jessica wanted to be more like that, wishing a little of Lauren's brassy nature would rub off. She was hardly alone. Back then, Lauren was the envy of all the girls. Lately, Lauren snubbed the local guys. The more they wanted her, the less interested she seemed in them.
"Lolly, I just thought of something. What if someone wants to... you know... that whips and chains stuff."
"Fine by me. As long as we do the whipping," Lauren laughed.
The bartender smirked when the two pushed their way up through the three-deep crowd and asked for Cosmos. He filled their order, a heavy hand on the vodka. "Newbies," he whispered to the barback.
The barback sized up the two women. "Blonde. Pretty. Young. Think they're sisters?"
"Fuck if I know," the bartender rolled his eyes. "Chicks from the sticks. They all look alike."
Jessica glanced around the room as she took her first sip. It seemed like any other club, except most of the people looked like characters from an old Prince video. At the end of the room she noticed a ramp that led up to another doorway and what looked like a second large cavern in the back. She could see distant images of wild dancing, smoke and lasers.
"Look over there," Lauren whispered as she tugged on Jessica's shirt. To the left side of the ramp a large crowd gathered in the corner.
"What is it?"
"I dunno. Whatever it is, people can't stop staring. Come on!"
Lauren spilled her drink on the buttcrack of a man in backless chaps as she pushed her way to the front of the mob. She yanked Jessica along by her sleeve. Without ever making a polite remark for their intrusion, the two managed to get up to a thick black rope that sectioned off the corner like a boxing ring.
The space held a small group of women and men, all in various degrees of nudity or leather. A topless woman stood apart from the others, skillfully applying what appeared to be excruciatingly painful clamps on her nipples. Some in the crowd winced as the sharp metal teeth of the vice bit into the rose-colored flesh.
Beyond her a man stood with his back to the room, his forehead pressed against the wall. He was naked, except for black shorts dropped around his ankles. Beside him a woman wearing only panties and garter belt took a big swing with a paddle to connect with the man's exposed behind. Snap!
"That must hurt," Lauren said as she raised her eyebrow at Jessica.
"Look at how red his ass is." Jessica grimaced.
An obese woman got down on all fours in front of them, while another came over and playfully brushed a cat-o'-nine-tails up and down her spine. She turned it around and took the knob of the handle and rubbed it between the woman's legs. When she moaned with pleasure the dominatrix flipped the whip around and cracked it across the woman's back. The routine of teasing and punishing went on for several minutes.
Sitting on a stool just outside the rope stanchion was a man in his twenties, dressed in leather from head to toe. He wore a spiked dog collar around his neck, but his light brown hair was cut short, only slightly mussed. Lauren thought he looked like Mel Gibson in The Road Warrior. He was the best looking guy in the place, even if he was a bit seedy.
"Hey you!" Even through the music, she spoke loudly enough to get him to turn and look. "How come you get the front row seat?"
"Well, missy, don't you see? I'm part of the show," he said with an unmistakably thick Texas accent.
"All I see is you sitting on your ass, instead of getting it beaten!" Lauren took a playful sip from her drink, already feeling the buzz.
"I play a very important role, darlin'."
"What's that?"
"I'm the recruiter."
"Recruiter? I got a news flash for you, this ain't exactly the army."
"Ah, but we are looking for a few good men. And especially a few good women," he said with a wide smile.
Lauren would find out later his name was Putt, short for Putnam, originally from Texas. "Midland, Texas, to be exact."
Putt brought Lauren and Jessica up the ramp and down a corridor across from the bathrooms. He unlocked a door that opened to a staircase up to an office, his office – assistant manager. When they got upstairs Lauren took note of a large skylight that allowed anyone in the apartment building next door to see everything.
"You girls sure you want to do this?" Putt asked.
"Do what?" Jessica looked panicked. "Lolly, I never said..."
"Not her, babe. Just me."
"Where you from?"
"Concord."
"Oh, a bridge and tunnel girl."
"Hmmm, I don't know about the bridge," Lauren giggled, now realizing she was already plastered after just one drink. How much vodka was in this?
"Just so you know, there are a few ground rules before you can get into that ring."
"Like?"
"I want to tell you, but those secrets are only for people who get on the other side of the black rope." Putt stared over at Jessica.
"Lolly, I thought we came here to..."
"Don't worry, Jes. Putt and I are just gonna have a little chat. Okay?"
"You sure?"
"I'm fine, honey."
"Well, then I'm going to get in line for the Ladies' Room. Meet you over at the ropes?"
"Sure thing, babe," Lauren said as she used the door to push Jessica out of the office. Doesn't that girl know when she's not wanted?
"My, my, my," Putt grinned. "Darlin', those are a beautiful pair of titties."
"Well, the ticket girl sure seemed impressed." Lauren pulled her shirt down, so it wrapped snug on her chest. Without a bra, the slight raise of her areolas emerged through the cotton. Lauren looked down at herself with approval. It was a nice rack.
Putt reached over and began to gently caress. "They're perfect," he said. "God doesn't make 'em this round in Texas."
"Well, gawd is not completely responsible," Lauren mimicked Putt's drawl.
"I do love you California girls. So adventurous with your bodies." Putt pinched the left nipple, making Lauren wince — a sensation of pain, yet somehow enjoyable. "You know, I've had a little reconstructive surgery of my own. Not at a plastic surgeon. Had it done over at The Gauntlet."
"What is it? A tattoo?"
"No, it's a little more personal than that."
"What is it? Lemme see!"
Putt leaned back against his desk and began the slow process of unbuttoning his black leather pants. He never looked down, but kept his eyes on Lauren as she watched his hands at work. When he got to the final metal stud, he tugged at the two sides until a tuft of black hair surfaced. He shoved his hand down the opening and carefully pulled himself out.
Lauren stared, her fingers instinctually moving to cover her mouth. She'd heard of such things, of course, but had never actually seen one in person. The men back in Concord were too dull and conservative to even think of it. Through the head of Putt's penis was a metal loop, like the hoop of an earring. Dangling precariously from the ring was a small, precious little gold charm in the shape of Texas.
"It's called a P.A. Short for Prince Albert."
"I know what it is... I've just never come face to face with one." Lauren couldn't stop staring, fascinated by the decadence of it. "Does it hurt?"
"No way, girl. Just a pinch when it happened. It hurts a lot more to have a nipple pierced. Tit pain lasts for months."
"But... why?" Lauren thought the impracticality astonishing. Could you fuck with it? What about wearing a condom? Would it get stuck in your tonsils?
"Sensitivity. I feel things now that I never could have imagined before." He explained how the P.A. made even the most mundane motions cause intense stimulation. Pulling up his trousers would almost always cause him to throb. He didn't dare put on tight-fitting underwear anymore. Once, while riding the crowded MUNI subway car, the constant stir of people brushing up against him caused him to climax and drench himself — it was over before he realized it had started.
"Can I...?" Lauren paused. "Can I touch it?"
"I was hoping you would," Putt smirked.
Lauren got down on her knees, at first just tentatively tapping with her forefinger. It was odd, yet strangely beautiful. She'd never dreamed that jewelry could be so sleazy. She remembered when she was eleven and had her ears pierced at the mall, without her parents' permission. Her father was so furious he slapped her across the face. No child of mine is going to look like a slut! The words still stung. They were just earrings, innocent little heart-shaped studs. Her father acted as if she'd been tainted, painted up like a prostitute, no longer a virginal child. Lauren stared at the loop and the little gold charm that seemed to hang by a thread. Dad didn't know anything. This was dangerous jewelry.
The touch was enough to stir a reaction, and Putt motioned for Lauren to bring her lips closer and take him inside. In moments, he screamed, violently pulling her head until her face was pressed to his abdomen. Now all the way down her throat, she choked for air. After two brutal jolts, and one deep groan, he released her. Lauren gasped for air, annoyed she'd been forced to swallow. In Concord, she'd berate a guy for being so quick on the trigger and not meeting her needs. A damned two-pump bandit! Yet here, in this strange place, being taken so hard was weirdly erotic. That he climaxed so soon had to mean he thought she was hot, right? Raunchy, yes, but exciting. After a few awkward moments of small talk, Putt ushered Lauren back into the club.
***
It took Lauren a few minutes to figure out which song she was dancing to. Then it hit her. The tune was "Love to Love You Baby," but instead of Donna Summer this version featured a group of screaming men and blaring guitars tearing through a house music thump. Lauren liked the disco version better.
She and Jessica danced with each other for nearly two hours, in between rounds of drinks they had to buy for themselves. No guys ever approached to cut in. Instead, they were surrounded by a perpetual empty space of at least two feet that seemed to follow wherever they went. They were alone in a crowded room, treated as outcasts in a world where leather and metal was the norm. J. Crew wasn't welcome here.
Fuck 'em, Lauren thought. None of them had been invited upstairs with Putt. Her mind drifted back to what happened. She knew if she ever told Jessica the details her friend would say she'd been "used." Lauren didn't feel used. Instead, it felt like a conquest to mess around with someone like Putt. So what if she barely knew him. Who knows? Maybe there could be more someday.
As the next song started to play, a rap metal version of "You Light Up My Life," Lauren felt suddenly nauseous. Must be cheap booze. She'd asked for top shelf, but in a dive like this she couldn't be sure what they actually poured. Maybe her stomach was upset from what happened with Putt. It was pretty abrupt.
"I feel like I'm going to yack," Lauren declared. "Let's split."
In the car headed up Harrison Street to the highway entrance, Jessica pointed out the open window. "Hey, isn't that Putt?"
Putt was on the opposite side of the street, walking back to toward the club. He held a flimsy white paper plate up to his mouth with both hands and munched on a gooey slice of pizza. Lauren screeched her car into a mid-block U-turn on the one-way street, pulling onto the sidewalk facing the wrong direction. She narrowly missed hitting a young man in red leather on a neon pink Vespa. He cursed her, but she ignored him and left the lights on with the engine running as she jumped out of the car and raced up to Putt. "Hey, give me a bite of that," she said playfully.
"What?" Putt mumbled through a mouthful of pesto with sausage.
"Give me a bite of that."
"What are you talking about?"
"Putt, it's me — Lauren. From the club? Remember?"
"Yeah, I know who you are." He took another bite and spoke with his mouth full. "What do you want?"
"I want a bite of that pizza." Lauren smiled wide, still a little light-headed from the drinks. What a coincidence to run into Putt again. She didn't want to read too much into it, but—
"Fuck off." Putt kept walking.
Lauren caught up to him, suddenly jolted back into sobriety by anger. "What do you mean, fuck off?"
"I mean, get lost. I don't want your dirty mouth on my pizza."
"Dirty?" Lauren yelled. "It wasn't so dirty two hours ago! Now I can't even have a bite of your pizza!"
"Darling, it's what we did that made your mouth so dirty." Putt swallowed. "Can't hardly believe you're still hungry."
"Asshole!"
"Yeah, yeah. Go home to Concord. I reckon there must be a TGI Fridays or something there that's more your speed."
Lauren tried to scream again. Nothing came out. Suddenly she had an uncontrollable urge to spit. Her stomach. The nausea again. At first, little drops washed up. Then she hocked up thick phlegm from the back of her throat. The sudden confrontation on the street, mixed with too much booze — the contents of her stomach violently surged. But it was blocked. She hacked to the point of hyperventilation, then dropped to her knees and vomited.
"Stupid bitch. Gimme that back!" Putt knelt down next to the spill. He used two fingers to carefully reach into the puddle and fish out a small shiny gold object.
It was the tiny Texas charm from his P.A.
The drive back to Concord went in silence until the two women got to Jessica's home. The whole trip Jessica tried to think of something to say to console her friend, but knew that anything would come out wrong. In Concord, nothing like this would ever happen. Men there loved Lauren. She was the one who dumped them when they'd served their purpose. Why couldn't she be content with a normal, nice guy? To Jessica, it seemed like these days all Lauren wanted were men who would never work out. It was like Lauren was on a mission to convert the hardcore cases, the ones who could never really be bent to her will. It made no sense. Jessica worried where these antics would lead her best friend. She silently vowed to keep an eye on Lauren, to intervene if she could. Much good it would do, she knew, since Lauren rarely — if ever — listened to others.
"Thanks honey," Jessica said as they pulled up to her apartment. She spoke softly as she opened the door, not wanting to wake her neighbors. "Try to cheer up, Lolly. Just think... we'll be the life of the party on Saturday when we tell people we've been to Bondage-a-Go-Go. For twelve bucks, it was an interesting place."
Lauren looked straight ahead, her face expressionless. "Seven, Jes. We paid seven."
Copyright © 2007 Kemble Scott
SoMa
By Kemble Scott
Kensington Books
320 pages
ISBN 0-7582-1549-5
"Whaddaya mean twelve bucks? The sign says seven!" Lauren screamed through the opening in the ticket window. The music from the club seemed as loud as the highest setting on her Bose, and they weren't even inside.
"Sliding scale," yelled back the sleepy-eyed attendant who scratched at the scab around her cheek piercing. "It's seven if you're dressed according to the theme. Ten if you're in club clothes. Twelve for street clothes."
"I don't remember reading that on the web site." It wasn't a ton of money, but Lauren hated feeling cheated. The posting said seven, so there was no reason it should be anything other than seven.
"Sorry," the attendant yawned. "You coming in or what? You're holding up the line."
"This is our first time," Jessica said as she stepped up beside Lauren at the window. "What do you mean according to the theme?"
The attendant rattled off the list like a bored waiter reading the day's specials. "Leather, boots, teddies, whips, chains, tit clamps, vinyl, hoods, nudity, Goth...."
"Nudity? People are naked in there?" Jessica gasped.
"Honey, this is Bondage-a-Go-Go. The less you wear, the less you pay. You want something else, go try Bimbos in North Beach."
Lauren squinted. Who was this skanky bitch to act like they were in the wrong place? She knew it was Bondage-a-Go-Go. They drove in all the way from Concord for it! Lauren leaned over and whispered into her friend's ear.
"No way, Lolly," Jessica frowned. "I'm just gonna pay the extra five bucks."
"Fuck that, Jes. I'm not letting this bitch push us around."
"Lolly, I, uh..."
"Do it!"
Jessica shut her eyes, as if not witnessing the scene made it somehow OK. In unison, the two women lifted up their shirts. The attendant's eyes finally opened wide as she confronted two sets of firm round breasts.
Lauren smiled, noting as always that hers were bigger — if Jes hadn't been such a nancy about surgery, she could have had the same.
Lauren shoved a twenty through the ticket window opening. "That'll be two for seven each, please."
As soon as they made their way past the thick dark drape that obscured the door they pulled their shirts back down. Jessica yelped. "Why do I let you talk me into this shit?"
"Relax, will ya?"
"Relax? Just what the hell are we doing here? We're not into this. And it's Wednesday night, for god's sake. We've got work in the morning!"
"Look, Jes. They only run this club one night a week. It's supposed to be the most bizarre in Frisco."
"So?"
"So? Let's put it this way. What are we supposed to do this Saturday night?"
"Uh, that party?"
"Right. And who will be the only two women there who have ever been to Bondage-a-Go-Go?"
"Us?"
"We'll have the undivided attention of every guy."
"I thought you said the boys back home were boring."
"Gotta keep 'em interested, Jes. Don't want any of my followers to stray."
Jessica grinned uneasily. She'd known Lauren to have boys wrapped around her finger ever since they were in junior high. When they were kids, Jessica wanted to be more like that, wishing a little of Lauren's brassy nature would rub off. She was hardly alone. Back then, Lauren was the envy of all the girls. Lately, Lauren snubbed the local guys. The more they wanted her, the less interested she seemed in them.
"Lolly, I just thought of something. What if someone wants to... you know... that whips and chains stuff."
"Fine by me. As long as we do the whipping," Lauren laughed.
The bartender smirked when the two pushed their way up through the three-deep crowd and asked for Cosmos. He filled their order, a heavy hand on the vodka. "Newbies," he whispered to the barback.
The barback sized up the two women. "Blonde. Pretty. Young. Think they're sisters?"
"Fuck if I know," the bartender rolled his eyes. "Chicks from the sticks. They all look alike."
Jessica glanced around the room as she took her first sip. It seemed like any other club, except most of the people looked like characters from an old Prince video. At the end of the room she noticed a ramp that led up to another doorway and what looked like a second large cavern in the back. She could see distant images of wild dancing, smoke and lasers.
"Look over there," Lauren whispered as she tugged on Jessica's shirt. To the left side of the ramp a large crowd gathered in the corner.
"What is it?"
"I dunno. Whatever it is, people can't stop staring. Come on!"
Lauren spilled her drink on the buttcrack of a man in backless chaps as she pushed her way to the front of the mob. She yanked Jessica along by her sleeve. Without ever making a polite remark for their intrusion, the two managed to get up to a thick black rope that sectioned off the corner like a boxing ring.
The space held a small group of women and men, all in various degrees of nudity or leather. A topless woman stood apart from the others, skillfully applying what appeared to be excruciatingly painful clamps on her nipples. Some in the crowd winced as the sharp metal teeth of the vice bit into the rose-colored flesh.
Beyond her a man stood with his back to the room, his forehead pressed against the wall. He was naked, except for black shorts dropped around his ankles. Beside him a woman wearing only panties and garter belt took a big swing with a paddle to connect with the man's exposed behind. Snap!
"That must hurt," Lauren said as she raised her eyebrow at Jessica.
"Look at how red his ass is." Jessica grimaced.
An obese woman got down on all fours in front of them, while another came over and playfully brushed a cat-o'-nine-tails up and down her spine. She turned it around and took the knob of the handle and rubbed it between the woman's legs. When she moaned with pleasure the dominatrix flipped the whip around and cracked it across the woman's back. The routine of teasing and punishing went on for several minutes.
Sitting on a stool just outside the rope stanchion was a man in his twenties, dressed in leather from head to toe. He wore a spiked dog collar around his neck, but his light brown hair was cut short, only slightly mussed. Lauren thought he looked like Mel Gibson in The Road Warrior. He was the best looking guy in the place, even if he was a bit seedy.
"Hey you!" Even through the music, she spoke loudly enough to get him to turn and look. "How come you get the front row seat?"
"Well, missy, don't you see? I'm part of the show," he said with an unmistakably thick Texas accent.
"All I see is you sitting on your ass, instead of getting it beaten!" Lauren took a playful sip from her drink, already feeling the buzz.
"I play a very important role, darlin'."
"What's that?"
"I'm the recruiter."
"Recruiter? I got a news flash for you, this ain't exactly the army."
"Ah, but we are looking for a few good men. And especially a few good women," he said with a wide smile.
Lauren would find out later his name was Putt, short for Putnam, originally from Texas. "Midland, Texas, to be exact."
Putt brought Lauren and Jessica up the ramp and down a corridor across from the bathrooms. He unlocked a door that opened to a staircase up to an office, his office – assistant manager. When they got upstairs Lauren took note of a large skylight that allowed anyone in the apartment building next door to see everything.
"You girls sure you want to do this?" Putt asked.
"Do what?" Jessica looked panicked. "Lolly, I never said..."
"Not her, babe. Just me."
"Where you from?"
"Concord."
"Oh, a bridge and tunnel girl."
"Hmmm, I don't know about the bridge," Lauren giggled, now realizing she was already plastered after just one drink. How much vodka was in this?
"Just so you know, there are a few ground rules before you can get into that ring."
"Like?"
"I want to tell you, but those secrets are only for people who get on the other side of the black rope." Putt stared over at Jessica.
"Lolly, I thought we came here to..."
"Don't worry, Jes. Putt and I are just gonna have a little chat. Okay?"
"You sure?"
"I'm fine, honey."
"Well, then I'm going to get in line for the Ladies' Room. Meet you over at the ropes?"
"Sure thing, babe," Lauren said as she used the door to push Jessica out of the office. Doesn't that girl know when she's not wanted?
"My, my, my," Putt grinned. "Darlin', those are a beautiful pair of titties."
"Well, the ticket girl sure seemed impressed." Lauren pulled her shirt down, so it wrapped snug on her chest. Without a bra, the slight raise of her areolas emerged through the cotton. Lauren looked down at herself with approval. It was a nice rack.
Putt reached over and began to gently caress. "They're perfect," he said. "God doesn't make 'em this round in Texas."
"Well, gawd is not completely responsible," Lauren mimicked Putt's drawl.
"I do love you California girls. So adventurous with your bodies." Putt pinched the left nipple, making Lauren wince — a sensation of pain, yet somehow enjoyable. "You know, I've had a little reconstructive surgery of my own. Not at a plastic surgeon. Had it done over at The Gauntlet."
"What is it? A tattoo?"
"No, it's a little more personal than that."
"What is it? Lemme see!"
Putt leaned back against his desk and began the slow process of unbuttoning his black leather pants. He never looked down, but kept his eyes on Lauren as she watched his hands at work. When he got to the final metal stud, he tugged at the two sides until a tuft of black hair surfaced. He shoved his hand down the opening and carefully pulled himself out.
Lauren stared, her fingers instinctually moving to cover her mouth. She'd heard of such things, of course, but had never actually seen one in person. The men back in Concord were too dull and conservative to even think of it. Through the head of Putt's penis was a metal loop, like the hoop of an earring. Dangling precariously from the ring was a small, precious little gold charm in the shape of Texas.
"It's called a P.A. Short for Prince Albert."
"I know what it is... I've just never come face to face with one." Lauren couldn't stop staring, fascinated by the decadence of it. "Does it hurt?"
"No way, girl. Just a pinch when it happened. It hurts a lot more to have a nipple pierced. Tit pain lasts for months."
"But... why?" Lauren thought the impracticality astonishing. Could you fuck with it? What about wearing a condom? Would it get stuck in your tonsils?
"Sensitivity. I feel things now that I never could have imagined before." He explained how the P.A. made even the most mundane motions cause intense stimulation. Pulling up his trousers would almost always cause him to throb. He didn't dare put on tight-fitting underwear anymore. Once, while riding the crowded MUNI subway car, the constant stir of people brushing up against him caused him to climax and drench himself — it was over before he realized it had started.
"Can I...?" Lauren paused. "Can I touch it?"
"I was hoping you would," Putt smirked.
Lauren got down on her knees, at first just tentatively tapping with her forefinger. It was odd, yet strangely beautiful. She'd never dreamed that jewelry could be so sleazy. She remembered when she was eleven and had her ears pierced at the mall, without her parents' permission. Her father was so furious he slapped her across the face. No child of mine is going to look like a slut! The words still stung. They were just earrings, innocent little heart-shaped studs. Her father acted as if she'd been tainted, painted up like a prostitute, no longer a virginal child. Lauren stared at the loop and the little gold charm that seemed to hang by a thread. Dad didn't know anything. This was dangerous jewelry.
The touch was enough to stir a reaction, and Putt motioned for Lauren to bring her lips closer and take him inside. In moments, he screamed, violently pulling her head until her face was pressed to his abdomen. Now all the way down her throat, she choked for air. After two brutal jolts, and one deep groan, he released her. Lauren gasped for air, annoyed she'd been forced to swallow. In Concord, she'd berate a guy for being so quick on the trigger and not meeting her needs. A damned two-pump bandit! Yet here, in this strange place, being taken so hard was weirdly erotic. That he climaxed so soon had to mean he thought she was hot, right? Raunchy, yes, but exciting. After a few awkward moments of small talk, Putt ushered Lauren back into the club.
***
It took Lauren a few minutes to figure out which song she was dancing to. Then it hit her. The tune was "Love to Love You Baby," but instead of Donna Summer this version featured a group of screaming men and blaring guitars tearing through a house music thump. Lauren liked the disco version better.
She and Jessica danced with each other for nearly two hours, in between rounds of drinks they had to buy for themselves. No guys ever approached to cut in. Instead, they were surrounded by a perpetual empty space of at least two feet that seemed to follow wherever they went. They were alone in a crowded room, treated as outcasts in a world where leather and metal was the norm. J. Crew wasn't welcome here.
Fuck 'em, Lauren thought. None of them had been invited upstairs with Putt. Her mind drifted back to what happened. She knew if she ever told Jessica the details her friend would say she'd been "used." Lauren didn't feel used. Instead, it felt like a conquest to mess around with someone like Putt. So what if she barely knew him. Who knows? Maybe there could be more someday.
As the next song started to play, a rap metal version of "You Light Up My Life," Lauren felt suddenly nauseous. Must be cheap booze. She'd asked for top shelf, but in a dive like this she couldn't be sure what they actually poured. Maybe her stomach was upset from what happened with Putt. It was pretty abrupt.
"I feel like I'm going to yack," Lauren declared. "Let's split."
In the car headed up Harrison Street to the highway entrance, Jessica pointed out the open window. "Hey, isn't that Putt?"
Putt was on the opposite side of the street, walking back to toward the club. He held a flimsy white paper plate up to his mouth with both hands and munched on a gooey slice of pizza. Lauren screeched her car into a mid-block U-turn on the one-way street, pulling onto the sidewalk facing the wrong direction. She narrowly missed hitting a young man in red leather on a neon pink Vespa. He cursed her, but she ignored him and left the lights on with the engine running as she jumped out of the car and raced up to Putt. "Hey, give me a bite of that," she said playfully.
"What?" Putt mumbled through a mouthful of pesto with sausage.
"Give me a bite of that."
"What are you talking about?"
"Putt, it's me — Lauren. From the club? Remember?"
"Yeah, I know who you are." He took another bite and spoke with his mouth full. "What do you want?"
"I want a bite of that pizza." Lauren smiled wide, still a little light-headed from the drinks. What a coincidence to run into Putt again. She didn't want to read too much into it, but—
"Fuck off." Putt kept walking.
Lauren caught up to him, suddenly jolted back into sobriety by anger. "What do you mean, fuck off?"
"I mean, get lost. I don't want your dirty mouth on my pizza."
"Dirty?" Lauren yelled. "It wasn't so dirty two hours ago! Now I can't even have a bite of your pizza!"
"Darling, it's what we did that made your mouth so dirty." Putt swallowed. "Can't hardly believe you're still hungry."
"Asshole!"
"Yeah, yeah. Go home to Concord. I reckon there must be a TGI Fridays or something there that's more your speed."
Lauren tried to scream again. Nothing came out. Suddenly she had an uncontrollable urge to spit. Her stomach. The nausea again. At first, little drops washed up. Then she hocked up thick phlegm from the back of her throat. The sudden confrontation on the street, mixed with too much booze — the contents of her stomach violently surged. But it was blocked. She hacked to the point of hyperventilation, then dropped to her knees and vomited.
"Stupid bitch. Gimme that back!" Putt knelt down next to the spill. He used two fingers to carefully reach into the puddle and fish out a small shiny gold object.
It was the tiny Texas charm from his P.A.
The drive back to Concord went in silence until the two women got to Jessica's home. The whole trip Jessica tried to think of something to say to console her friend, but knew that anything would come out wrong. In Concord, nothing like this would ever happen. Men there loved Lauren. She was the one who dumped them when they'd served their purpose. Why couldn't she be content with a normal, nice guy? To Jessica, it seemed like these days all Lauren wanted were men who would never work out. It was like Lauren was on a mission to convert the hardcore cases, the ones who could never really be bent to her will. It made no sense. Jessica worried where these antics would lead her best friend. She silently vowed to keep an eye on Lauren, to intervene if she could. Much good it would do, she knew, since Lauren rarely — if ever — listened to others.
"Thanks honey," Jessica said as they pulled up to her apartment. She spoke softly as she opened the door, not wanting to wake her neighbors. "Try to cheer up, Lolly. Just think... we'll be the life of the party on Saturday when we tell people we've been to Bondage-a-Go-Go. For twelve bucks, it was an interesting place."
Lauren looked straight ahead, her face expressionless. "Seven, Jes. We paid seven."
Copyright © 2007 Kemble Scott
"Covers ground that you'd be hard-pressed to find in a Zagat Guide."
— In Newsweekly of New England, July 11, 2007. Click here to read the full article.
"The founder and editor of SoMa Literary Review, Kemble Scott channeled his fascination with San Francisco's South of Market district — an industrial dead land populated by sexual fetish havens — into an extended, cohesive piece of fiction. Scott doesn't deliver a conventional novel so much as a study in kink, foregoing highly nuanced psychology to pack plot in the tradition of noir or comic book writers. Three 20-somethings become entangled in bondage clubs, dangerous sex games, anonymous drug-addled orgies and even the occasional stab at commitment, without much thought as to why. Those who like the depravity of Dennis Cooper's work or the disillusion of Bret Easton Ellis' will enjoy this dark celebration of a city notorious for sexual liberation. The whole problem with freedom, though, is that people rarely know what to do with it."
— Curve Magazine, June 2007
SoMa hits #1 at DoubleDay's InSightOut Book Club! InSightOut has exclusive rights to the hardcover version of SoMa.
"A neighborhood on the edge, even by San Francisco standards"
— Edge Newspapers in Boston, Miami, Providence, Provincetown — Read the full article here.
LitMinds.org, the new social networking site where readers talk about their favorite books, has done a lengthy Q & A feature on Kemble Scott and SoMa. Click here to read it.
Radio host Tony DuShane interviews Kemble Scott for his program "Drinks with Tony" broadcast in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Pirate Cat radio. Click here to listen to the one-hour long program.
"San Francisco's dirty little secrets."
— 7x7 Magazine puts SoMa on The Hot List: What People Are Talking About
"The bacchanalia of a certain San Francisco neighborhood is exposed in this novel of sexual and spiritual seeking."
— San Francisco Chronicle put SoMa on its Best Sellers list.
"[SoMa] explores a clandestine quarter of the city haunted by the dot-com bust and full of extremes: tony restaurants, private sex clubs, grit, drugs, kept boys, and — naturally — kink."
— OUT Magazine.
"Scott finds a kind of edgy resplendence in the city's gradually gentrifying South of Market district."
— Easy Bay Express - Read the full article here
Small Spiral Notebook interviews Kemble Scott
— Read the full interview here.
"A guilty-pleasure read not only for those who know the score... but also for those who desperately want to know (and, ooh, don't you want to know?)."
— SF Weekly.
"You'll find yourself saying, 'I can't believe I'm reading this,' but you won't want to put SoMa down."
— ON Magazine.
"A no-holds-barred sexposé of San Francisco."
— The Bay Area Reporter.
"A fun, frisky novel of shock horror." Kemble Scott "has his ear to the underground of the sexual revolution."
— Publishers Weekly.
"Wonderful"
— JT LeRoy, best-selling author of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things and Sarah.
"SoMa tells a story about what's really happening in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, in the aftermath of the dot-com bust. It's one man's story, of a twisted journey and compromised redemption. San Francisco can be a city of extremes, and we see one here."
— Craig Newmark, cyberspace guru and creator of craigslist.
"Scott's book is like a train. Once you get on you can't get off, till the ride is over: And a ride it is: like David Lynch's Blue Velvet, it tells you that the ordinary, sunlit world you walk through every day is actually throbbing with secrets, full of mystery, riven with dark threads of human possibility—all this in a voice and sensibility that wastes no words and yet is somehow... innocent. A voice that says, there is no darkness here, just play. "
— Tamim Ansary, best-selling author of The Other Side of the Sky and West of Kabul, East of New York.
"SoMa is just like SoMa: spewingly kewl, fall-of-Rome splendidly filthy, glittery guttery, twisted sick and slick. I highly recommend taking a vacation there."
— David Henry Sterry, author of the best-selling memoir Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent.
"Kemble Scott twists the plots in both a uniquely and curiously twisted fashion in his novel SoMa. Scott provides us with an insider's look at a little known and gritty underground world more common to big cities than most Americans would really believe exists today. Shockingly, his raw and gritty account of this dark world is all true, which makes for an even more fun ride."
— Andy Behrman, best-selling author of Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania.
"I read the first page of SoMa and never put it down until I read the last page. Then my housemate took it from me and read it in a day. It flows through your hands like water, yet it shocks, awes, repulses, exposes trade secrets, and illuminates the deep motives for extreme behavior. I know people who are less real than these characters. I laughed out loud. Kemble Scott is one sick bastard."
— Joe Quirk, best-selling author of The Ultimate Rush and Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women.
"A fascinating tour de force of the darkest parts of San Francisco's underworld in search of one man's sexual core. The images created by Kemble Scott will stay with you for a very long time. Riveting entertainment."
— Isadora Alman, renowned syndicated sex and relationship columnist of Ask Isadora.
— In Newsweekly of New England, July 11, 2007. Click here to read the full article.
"The founder and editor of SoMa Literary Review, Kemble Scott channeled his fascination with San Francisco's South of Market district — an industrial dead land populated by sexual fetish havens — into an extended, cohesive piece of fiction. Scott doesn't deliver a conventional novel so much as a study in kink, foregoing highly nuanced psychology to pack plot in the tradition of noir or comic book writers. Three 20-somethings become entangled in bondage clubs, dangerous sex games, anonymous drug-addled orgies and even the occasional stab at commitment, without much thought as to why. Those who like the depravity of Dennis Cooper's work or the disillusion of Bret Easton Ellis' will enjoy this dark celebration of a city notorious for sexual liberation. The whole problem with freedom, though, is that people rarely know what to do with it."
— Curve Magazine, June 2007
SoMa hits #1 at DoubleDay's InSightOut Book Club! InSightOut has exclusive rights to the hardcover version of SoMa.
"A neighborhood on the edge, even by San Francisco standards"
— Edge Newspapers in Boston, Miami, Providence, Provincetown — Read the full article here.
LitMinds.org, the new social networking site where readers talk about their favorite books, has done a lengthy Q & A feature on Kemble Scott and SoMa. Click here to read it.
Radio host Tony DuShane interviews Kemble Scott for his program "Drinks with Tony" broadcast in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Pirate Cat radio. Click here to listen to the one-hour long program.
"San Francisco's dirty little secrets."
— 7x7 Magazine puts SoMa on The Hot List: What People Are Talking About
"The bacchanalia of a certain San Francisco neighborhood is exposed in this novel of sexual and spiritual seeking."
— San Francisco Chronicle put SoMa on its Best Sellers list.
"[SoMa] explores a clandestine quarter of the city haunted by the dot-com bust and full of extremes: tony restaurants, private sex clubs, grit, drugs, kept boys, and — naturally — kink."
— OUT Magazine.
"Scott finds a kind of edgy resplendence in the city's gradually gentrifying South of Market district."
— Easy Bay Express - Read the full article here
Small Spiral Notebook interviews Kemble Scott
— Read the full interview here.
"A guilty-pleasure read not only for those who know the score... but also for those who desperately want to know (and, ooh, don't you want to know?)."
— SF Weekly.
"You'll find yourself saying, 'I can't believe I'm reading this,' but you won't want to put SoMa down."
— ON Magazine.
"A no-holds-barred sexposé of San Francisco."
— The Bay Area Reporter.
"A fun, frisky novel of shock horror." Kemble Scott "has his ear to the underground of the sexual revolution."
— Publishers Weekly.
"Wonderful"
— JT LeRoy, best-selling author of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things and Sarah.
"SoMa tells a story about what's really happening in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, in the aftermath of the dot-com bust. It's one man's story, of a twisted journey and compromised redemption. San Francisco can be a city of extremes, and we see one here."
— Craig Newmark, cyberspace guru and creator of craigslist.
"Scott's book is like a train. Once you get on you can't get off, till the ride is over: And a ride it is: like David Lynch's Blue Velvet, it tells you that the ordinary, sunlit world you walk through every day is actually throbbing with secrets, full of mystery, riven with dark threads of human possibility—all this in a voice and sensibility that wastes no words and yet is somehow... innocent. A voice that says, there is no darkness here, just play. "
— Tamim Ansary, best-selling author of The Other Side of the Sky and West of Kabul, East of New York.
"SoMa is just like SoMa: spewingly kewl, fall-of-Rome splendidly filthy, glittery guttery, twisted sick and slick. I highly recommend taking a vacation there."
— David Henry Sterry, author of the best-selling memoir Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent.
"Kemble Scott twists the plots in both a uniquely and curiously twisted fashion in his novel SoMa. Scott provides us with an insider's look at a little known and gritty underground world more common to big cities than most Americans would really believe exists today. Shockingly, his raw and gritty account of this dark world is all true, which makes for an even more fun ride."
— Andy Behrman, best-selling author of Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania.
"I read the first page of SoMa and never put it down until I read the last page. Then my housemate took it from me and read it in a day. It flows through your hands like water, yet it shocks, awes, repulses, exposes trade secrets, and illuminates the deep motives for extreme behavior. I know people who are less real than these characters. I laughed out loud. Kemble Scott is one sick bastard."
— Joe Quirk, best-selling author of The Ultimate Rush and Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women.
"A fascinating tour de force of the darkest parts of San Francisco's underworld in search of one man's sexual core. The images created by Kemble Scott will stay with you for a very long time. Riveting entertainment."
— Isadora Alman, renowned syndicated sex and relationship columnist of Ask Isadora.
SoMa
by Kemble Scott
320 pages
Kensington Books
In the San Francisco area, you can find SoMa at these local booksellers:
To find a local bookseller near you, consult the Book Sense web site. You can also find SoMa at:
Exclusive hardcover version of SoMa sold by Doubleday's InsightOut Book Club
by Kemble Scott
320 pages
Kensington Books
In the San Francisco area, you can find SoMa at these local booksellers:
To find a local bookseller near you, consult the Book Sense web site. You can also find SoMa at:
Exclusive hardcover version of SoMa sold by Doubleday's InsightOut Book Club
Kemble is happy to appear at literary events or speak to book groups.
Please contact him via email at kemblescott@gmail.com
Upcoming Events
-
Monday, September 8th, 20087:00 p.m.
READING
Litquake — San Francisco Stories
San Francisco Public Library — Sunset Branch
1305 18th Avenue
San Francisco, CA
415.355.2808
-
Saturday, September 20th, 200810:00 a.m.
READING, PANEL DISCUSSION & BOOK SIGNING
Sonoma County Book Festival
Old Courthouse Square
Santa Rosa, CA
707.527.5412
-
Sunday, September 21st, 200812:00 noon
MEET THE AUTHOR
Cole Valley Fair
Presented by The Booksmith
Cole Street between Carl and Grattan
San Francisco, CA
-
Friday through Sunday, September 26th —28th, 2008READING, BOOK SIGNING & MEET THE AUTHOR
Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival
Sunset Theater
Carmel, CA
831.620.2048
Tickets -
Wednesday, October 1st, 20085:00 p.m.
READING
Banned Books Commemoration
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA
415.557.4400
-
Saturday, October 11th, 20086:00 p.m.
PERFORMANCE
Litquake
Showcase: SoMa Literary Review
Featuring contributors to the e-zine, now in its 10th year.
The Dark Room
2263 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
415.401.7987
-
Saturday & Sunday, October 25th & 26th, 2008LITERARY SALON DISCUSSION AND MEET THE AUTHOR
Book Expo Group
San Jose McEnery Convention Center
150 W. San Carlos Street
San Jose, CA
408.821.2967
Tickets -
Saturday, February 7th, 20096:00 p.m.
LITERARY FUNDRAISER
Berkeley Public Library Authors' Dinner
Main Reading Room
Berkeley Public Library
2090 Kittredge at Shattuck
Berkeley, CA
510.981.6115
Tickets
Past Events
-
Monday, June 9th, 20083:00 p.m.
Foothill College Author Series
Student Lounge/Campus Center
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills. 650.949.7777 -
Thursday, May 29th — Sunday, June 1st, 2008PUBLISHING CONFERENCE
Book Expo America
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA 203.840.5614
$125
-
Thursday, May 29th, 20086:00-10:00 p.m.
CEREMONY
Lambda Literary Awards
Silver Screen Theatre
Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 212.239.6575
$125
-
Thursday, May 15th, 20087:00-9:00 p.m.
WORKSHOP: the challenges of writing about "touchy subjects."
Sex, drugs and violence appear throughout literature,
but how do you write about them in a genuine way? And what
will your mother think? Practical advice for navigating these
issues. Plus tips for aspiring writers trying to get their first
books published. In the difficult world of publishing, there
are some steps you can take to help you beat the odds.
Petaluma Writers Forum
Petaluma Community Center
Luchessi Park, 320 No. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma.
$10 at the door
-
Monday, May 5th, 20087:00 p.m.
SALON
Left Coast Writers Literary Salon
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 415.927.0960
-
Tuesday, April 29th, 20086:00 p.m.
READING AND CELEBRATION
20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Finalists Reading
San Francisco Public Library
Lower Level, Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 415.557.4400
-
Sunday, April 27th, 20082:00 p.m.
WORKSHOP: how to break into the publishing world:
finding the time and discipline to write regularly,
identifying potential publishers, getting noticed by
literary professionals, dealing with rejection,
and publicizing your book.
California Writers Club
Redwood & Marin Branches Joint Meeting
Hill Community Room, 1560 Hill Rd, Novato, CA
$5
-
Saturday, April 19th, 200810:00 a.m.
WORKSHOP: Getting your first book published.
California Writers Club
Berkeley Branch
Barnes & Noble
Jack London Square, 98 Broadway, Oakland, CA 510.272.0120
-
February 23rd, 20082:00-4:00 p.m.
Hayward Public Library
Workshop: Tips from First-Time Authors on How to Become Published
Appearing with Bridget Kinsella, author of Visiting Life, Women Doing Time on the Outside
Hayward Public Library
835 C Street, Hayward, CA. 510.881.7700
-
February 15th—17th, 2008San Francisco Writers Conference
Mark Hopkins Hotel
San Francisco, CA
Registration
-
January 14th, 20081:00 p.m.
Authors@Google
Mountain View, CA
Private event, but taped for video streaming for Google
-
Saturday, October 13th, 20078:00 p.m.
READING
Litquake! San Francisco's Literary Festival
After Armistead: authors whose work was published following the breakthrough novels of Armistead Maupin, honored with a lifetime achievement award at this year's festival. Kemble will appear with Jim Provenzano, Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Kemble Scott, Nona Caspers, Ali Liebegott, and Elana Dykewomon. Thea Hillman is the MC.
Revolution Cafe, 3248 22nd Street, San Francisco. 415.642.0474
Part of the Litcrawl, the literary street party throughout the Mission on the closing night of Litquake.
-
Tuesday, October 9th, 20075:30 p.m.
LIVE TELEVISION SHOW
AccessSF Cable TV
Appearing with author Ali Lebegott
-
Monday, October 8th, 20075:30-7:30 p.m.
WORKSHOP
Litquake! San Francisco's Literary Festival
The Journey to Being Discovered: First-Time Authors Reveal All
Kemble appears with Anita Amirrezvani, Bridget Kinsella, and Erika Mailman
The Foundation Center
312 Sutter Street, Second Floor Conference Room, San Francisco. 415.397.0902
Free, but space is limited. Advance registration required.
-
Friday, September 28th — 30th, 2007READING, BOOKSIGNING, MEET THE AUTHOR
Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival
Sunset Theater — Carmel, CA 831.620.2048
-
Wednesday, September 19th, 20076:00 p.m.
Hosted by Michelle Tea
READING
Radar Reading — San Francisco Public Library, Latino Reading Room
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco. 415.557.4400.
-
Sunday, September 16th, 200712:30 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.
THE HOW TO WRITE A BESTSELLING BOOK FESTIVAL
Sponsored by the Writing Mamas Salon and Book Passage
Kemble appears with authors Jacquelyn Mitchard, Ann Hood, Janis Cooke Newman, Meredith Maran, top literary agents and editors for an afternoon full of insiders' advice for aspiring writers.
Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 415.927.0960.
Limited seating.
Tickets
-
Saturday, August 25th, 20072:00 p.m.
MEET THE AUTHOR AND BOOK SIGNING
Barnes and Noble — The Pruneyard
1875 S. Bascom Avenue Ste 240
Campbell, CA 408.559.8101
-
Saturday, August 25th, 20074:00 p.m.
MEET THE AUTHOR AND BOOK SIGNING
Barnes and Noble
3600 Stevens Creek Blvd
San Jose, CA 408.984.3495
-
Thursday, August 23rd, 20077:00 p.m.
READING
A Great Good Place for Books
6120 LaSalle Avenue
Oakland, CA 510.339.8210
-
Tuesday, July 10th, 20077:00 p.m.
READING
Borders — Providence Place Mall
142 Providence Place
Providence, Rhode Island. 401.270.4801
-
Saturday, June 9th and Sunday, June 10th, 200710:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
San Jose MeEnery Convention Center, Ballroom A
150 W. San Carlos Street, San Jose 408.821.2967
Tickets: $35 - $50
Click here for complete information.
-
Monday May 14th6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
FUNDRAISER
The Bee-In
A Spelling Bee to Benefit Small Press Distribution
Crown Point Gallery
20 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, 510.524.1668
Kemble appears in competition with Susie Bright, Beth Lisick, Tobias Wolff, Michelle Tea and others to raise money for the non-profit organization that distributes books for small independent publishers, making the work of thousands of authors available.
$50 per ticket includes drinks, nibbles and show.
Click here to read how it went.
-
Thursday, April 19st, 20077:00 p.m.
READING
InsideStoryTime Author Showcase
Theme: "San Francisco Values"
The Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell Street, San Francisco. 415.861.2011.
$3 - $10, sliding scale.
-
Wednesday, April 18th, 20077 p.m.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION
The Center/Books Inc. Club Book Club discusses SoMa.
Kemble will be there to answer questions.
Three Dollar Bill @ The SF LGBT Center
1800 Market Street @ Octavia, San Francisco.
Sponsored by Books Inc. in the Castro. 415.864.6777. -
Saturday, April 7th, 20076:00 p.m.
DRINKS WITH TONY — RADIO BROADCAST
Host Tony DuShane interviews Kemble about the true stories behind the novel SoMa
87.9 FM in San Francisco & Los Angeles.
Pirate Cat Radio
-
Thursday, April 5th, 20076:30 - 9:00 p.m.
READING
Peninsula Writers Bloc — an evening with local writers. Downtown Library, Community Room 1044 Middlefield Road, Redwood City. 650.780.7018 -
Wednesday, March 21st, 20077:00 p.m.
BOOK READING AND SIGNING
Cody's, 1730 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA. 510.559.9500.
-
Thursday, March 8th, 200712:30 p.m.
BOOK READING AND SIGNING
Stacey's Books, 581 Market Street, San Francisco. 415.421.4687.
-
Wednesday, March 7th, 20077:00 p.m.
BOOK READING AND SIGNING
Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA. 415.927.0960.
-
Tuesday, March 6th, 20077:30 - 9:30 p.m.
BOOK READING AND SIGNING
Barnes and Noble, 5604 Bay Street, Emeryville, CA. 510.547.0905.
-
Monday, March 5th, 20077:00 p.m.
BOOK READING AND SIGNING
A Different Light Bookstore, 489 Castro Street, San Francisco. 415.431.0891 -
Thursday, March 1st, 20077:30 - 9:00 p.m.
BOOK READING AND SIGNING
Books Inc., 2275 Market Street, San Francisco. 415.864.6777.
-
Monday, February 26th, 20075:30 - 7:30 p.m.
LAUNCH PARTY, BOOKSIGNING and HAPPY HOUR!
All are welcome!
Le Colonial
20 Cosmo Place, San Francisco. 415.931.3600.
-
Saturday, February 24th, 20078:00 - 11:00 p.m.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT
The Ghetto Gourmet
SoMa, San Francisco
With gourmet dinner served.
$45. Click here to order tickets. -
Wednesday, February 7th, 20076:30 - 8:30 p.m.
RECEPTION WITH BAY AREA MEDIA
Hosted by mediabistro.com
PRIVATE EVENT - MEDIA ONLY - RSVP REQUIRED
Swig
561 Geary Street, San Francisco. 415.931.7292.
-
Friday, November 3rd, 20067:00 p.m.
READING
San Francisco Writer's Workshop
Fundraiser for the Meridian Gallery, host of the SFWW
The Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell Street, San Francisco.
* First public reading of the short story The aPod.
-
Sunday, October 8th, 200612:30 p.m.
READING
Litquake! San Francisco's Literary Festival
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco. 415.557.4400.
-
Saturday, October 7th, 200611:30 a.m.
BOOK SIGNING
Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Annual Convention
Oakland Convention Center
* First time SoMa is seen in published form.
-
Sunday, September 24th, 2006Noon
THE SOMA T-SHIRT PROJECT
Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street, San Francisco
-
Friday, February 16th, 20067:00 p.m.
READING
InsideStoryTime Local Author Showcase
The Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell Street, San Francisco
* First public reading by Kemble Scott
"I wrote a book I knew would be shocking and provocative. People who read SoMa tend to want to talk about it, and I love talking with them." — Kemble Scott.
If you have a book group that's reading SoMa, Kemble Scott is available to join your discussion in person or via speakerphone. To arrange this, contact Kemble directly at KembleScott@gmail.com.
To conduct your own book group discussion, here's a Reading Group Guide with suggested questions designed to enhance your group's reading of SoMa.
Warning! Questions in the guide reveal information about the book. If you are still reading SoMa and don't want to spoil the ending, please read the guide after you've completed the novel.
If you have a book group that's reading SoMa, Kemble Scott is available to join your discussion in person or via speakerphone. To arrange this, contact Kemble directly at KembleScott@gmail.com.
To conduct your own book group discussion, here's a Reading Group Guide with suggested questions designed to enhance your group's reading of SoMa.
Warning! Questions in the guide reveal information about the book. If you are still reading SoMa and don't want to spoil the ending, please read the guide after you've completed the novel.
Discussion Questions
- There are several examples of extreme behavior in SoMa. Which, if any, was the most disturbing, outrageous or shocking to you? Why?
- Raphe, Lauren and Mark are all in their mid-twenties. What drives people so young to engage in this type of behavior?
- Raphe lives in a type of sexual gray zone. He doesn't fit comfortably in either the straight or gay worlds. Discuss the complexities of sexual orientation. At what age did you first understand your own sexuality? What made Raphe the way he is? Choice? Environment? Genetics? Fate?
- Julie describes San Francisco as an "open society where everyone who comes here gets a clean slate to be whatever they want." Is that what allows the characters to behave the way they do? Is the type of behavior depicted in SoMa limited to big cities?
- The story is set in the time immediately following the dot-com crash that crippled the economy of San Francisco. Beyond the loss of his job and financial troubles, how does the economic collapse affect the psyche of Raphe?
- At nearly every moment of despair or questioning, Raphe turns to technology for help or guidance. His answers often come from the internet. What is the author saying about the role technology plays in lives today?
- Baptiste appears to be the poster child for hedonism, but later we learn he really wants a long-term monogamous relationship. These two ideas seem to be in conflict. Are they? Is it possible to want both these things? Is it possible to have both? Explain.
- Lauren is repeatedly drawn to men who are unattainable. She spurns other men who are attracted to her. Why does she behave this way? What is the root cause of her behavior? What will it take for Lauren to have a successful long-term relationship?
- Several times the issue of "fate" comes into play, especially for Raphe when he learns the secret of his name. Do you believe in fate? Are our lives predetermined for us?
- Raphe, Lauren and Mark each have life philosophies that guide their actions. They are loose metaphors for three ancient belief systems. Identify those philosophies and match them with the characters. Why did the author decide to model the characters this way? What comment is being made?
Why did Kemble write this book?
Is it really based on true tales?
Did he do all the things in this book?
Kensington Books conducted an interview with Kemble and asked all these questions and more. To read the interview, click here.
Warning! Questions in the interview reveal information about the book. If you are still reading SoMa and don't want to spoil the ending, please read the interview after you've completed the novel.
Is it really based on true tales?
Did he do all the things in this book?
Kensington Books conducted an interview with Kemble and asked all these questions and more. To read the interview, click here.
Warning! Questions in the interview reveal information about the book. If you are still reading SoMa and don't want to spoil the ending, please read the interview after you've completed the novel.
An Interview with Kemble Scott
Many events in SoMa are apparently based on actual occurrences. How did you come across such a multitude of bizarre stories?
Many events in SoMa are apparently based on actual occurrences. How did you come across such a multitude of bizarre stories?
These days, bizarre stories seem to find me.
I'm very curious — if I hear an interesting story, I ask questions. That's the journalist in me. People love to talk about themselves, and they'll share the most amazing details. I carry around a little notebook and the first chance I get I scribble down everything I can remember to use later.
Which doesn't mean I believe these tales. People also love to fib and exaggerate.
So I'll do my own research to confirm a story, sometimes going to see for myself. That's what happened with the BARTM4M scene in SoMa. I'd heard the story a dozen times from a guy who rode the commuter train every day. He couldn't stop talking about it! It sounded too outrageous to be true, but I wrote a version of the story based on what he described. The first draft was terrible. I'd never taken the commuter train before, so I struggled with the details. What did the station look like? How did it smell? I didn't even know the color of the seats on the train. The next afternoon I went for a ride. Sure enough, on my very first trip I witnessed the fetish first hand, so to speak.
Now that I've developed a reputation for these twisted tales on my web site, people routinely seek me out to tell me their strangest stories. Just the other day I heard about the most bizarre new behavior involving iPods...
Raphe is a character who has been let down by the either-or, strictly binary dot-com world. Rather than seeing everything in black and white, his new existence forces him to accept many of life's gray areas. Yet, many of our contemporary leaders claim to live by moral and religious absolutes (and seek to impose those absolutes on others). Why did you write a novel that lives so much "in the gray," and why do you think so many Americans are uncomfortable with ambiguity?
I'm very curious — if I hear an interesting story, I ask questions. That's the journalist in me. People love to talk about themselves, and they'll share the most amazing details. I carry around a little notebook and the first chance I get I scribble down everything I can remember to use later.
Which doesn't mean I believe these tales. People also love to fib and exaggerate.
So I'll do my own research to confirm a story, sometimes going to see for myself. That's what happened with the BARTM4M scene in SoMa. I'd heard the story a dozen times from a guy who rode the commuter train every day. He couldn't stop talking about it! It sounded too outrageous to be true, but I wrote a version of the story based on what he described. The first draft was terrible. I'd never taken the commuter train before, so I struggled with the details. What did the station look like? How did it smell? I didn't even know the color of the seats on the train. The next afternoon I went for a ride. Sure enough, on my very first trip I witnessed the fetish first hand, so to speak.
Now that I've developed a reputation for these twisted tales on my web site, people routinely seek me out to tell me their strangest stories. Just the other day I heard about the most bizarre new behavior involving iPods...
Alvin Toffler was mostly right with his predictions in 1970 in Future Shock. We now live in that anticipated age of "information overload." But instead of rejecting tech and retreating to agrarian compounds, many people are shutting down in a different way. They've turned off their brains.
It's easy to see why it's happening. People are bombarded with media and messages to the point where it's too much to process, so they accept easy answers. They embrace ridiculous notions like Red States and Blue States. The truth is, the United States isn't really divided into Red and Blue. If you apply those color codes, everyone turns out to be a shade a purple.
When the world is dumbed down to simple black/white, yes/no choices, it makes life easier to conceive. The problem, of course, is that such simplistic, dogmatic thinking is usually wrong and inherently dangerous. The character of Lauren in SoMa represents this fundamentalist type of thinking. If a guy isn't with her, he must be against her. You're on her side, or you're her enemy. Or to quote someone else, "You're with us or with the terrorists." As Lauren learns the hard way, dismissing the world's shades of gray can lead to a heap of trouble.
People are complex, and so are the issues they face. Raphe struggles with the discovery that he's an individual, not fitting into the ready-made definitions of society. SoMa tackles this gray zone through its exploration of sexuality, but it's analogous to much of life in the new millennium.
You have an impressive ability to write both gay and straight sex scenes. I'm hard pressed to think of many other writers who can do this. Can you name a few, and discuss whether or not they had any influence on you?
It's easy to see why it's happening. People are bombarded with media and messages to the point where it's too much to process, so they accept easy answers. They embrace ridiculous notions like Red States and Blue States. The truth is, the United States isn't really divided into Red and Blue. If you apply those color codes, everyone turns out to be a shade a purple.
When the world is dumbed down to simple black/white, yes/no choices, it makes life easier to conceive. The problem, of course, is that such simplistic, dogmatic thinking is usually wrong and inherently dangerous. The character of Lauren in SoMa represents this fundamentalist type of thinking. If a guy isn't with her, he must be against her. You're on her side, or you're her enemy. Or to quote someone else, "You're with us or with the terrorists." As Lauren learns the hard way, dismissing the world's shades of gray can lead to a heap of trouble.
People are complex, and so are the issues they face. Raphe struggles with the discovery that he's an individual, not fitting into the ready-made definitions of society. SoMa tackles this gray zone through its exploration of sexuality, but it's analogous to much of life in the new millennium.
The problem with writing sexy sex scenes is describing the male organ. Let's face it, all the words we have in English sound silly. I was once asked to review an anthology of short stories that were supposed to be sexy. I ended up making a list of the stupid phrases the writers used: honker, pisser, poker, monster, putter, scepter, piston, schlong and meat tube. The editor refused to print my list. It was too dirty for the newspaper.
The master of writing about sexy sex without using dirty or silly words was Anais Nin back in the 1940s. Her work is beautiful and provocative, no matter if the scene is straight, gay or godknowswhat. She wrote about it all, but you won't find a single meat tube in her prose.
On my wall I have a framed original letter from Anais written in 1970 to writer Maurice Rosenbaum. In it she complains about how she is "misquoted, disliked and misunderstood" in the media.
So while I treasure the artifact, and I am inspired by her work to be careful with my language, the letter is also a frequent reminder to me of what can happen to authors who write about sex.
Craigslist.org features prominently in SoMa's plot. It's a community site that allows strangers to easily share goods, ideas and services. Yet, many of the "dot-com bust" characters in SoMa use it simply to find anonymous sex. As a writer, do you feel technology serves to isolate people more than it connects them?
The master of writing about sexy sex without using dirty or silly words was Anais Nin back in the 1940s. Her work is beautiful and provocative, no matter if the scene is straight, gay or godknowswhat. She wrote about it all, but you won't find a single meat tube in her prose.
On my wall I have a framed original letter from Anais written in 1970 to writer Maurice Rosenbaum. In it she complains about how she is "misquoted, disliked and misunderstood" in the media.
So while I treasure the artifact, and I am inspired by her work to be careful with my language, the letter is also a frequent reminder to me of what can happen to authors who write about sex.
There's a funny expression I quote in SoMa about online dating: "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."
I use Craigslist.org as the ultimate temple of technology in SoMa, and eventually all the characters end up praying in that church. Sometimes they receive divine intervention. Sometimes they get burned. The internet is a devilish trickster.
The blessing of technology is how it allows people to find each other and bond in ways that were unfathomable not so long ago. A person struggling with cancer in Istanbul can get advice from a survivor in Anaheim. Adoptees are reunited with brothers and sisters they never knew they had. You can sell that Ikea couch you hate to someone who's always wanted one just like it.
And yes, you can possibly find your perfect love match. If you seek a "Diesel Dyke Harley-riding Save-the-Whales Log Cabin Republican red head (no weirdoes please)" — then the internet gives you the chance to find her. In fact, you can find hundreds who fit that description.
That's the conundrum. You can hook up in an instant with your ideal, and have an unfathomable number of liaisons, all facilitated by websites like Craigslist. Does quantity create substance in human relationships? Or does it simply make it easier to know more people at a superficial level?
I use Craigslist.org as the ultimate temple of technology in SoMa, and eventually all the characters end up praying in that church. Sometimes they receive divine intervention. Sometimes they get burned. The internet is a devilish trickster.
The blessing of technology is how it allows people to find each other and bond in ways that were unfathomable not so long ago. A person struggling with cancer in Istanbul can get advice from a survivor in Anaheim. Adoptees are reunited with brothers and sisters they never knew they had. You can sell that Ikea couch you hate to someone who's always wanted one just like it.
And yes, you can possibly find your perfect love match. If you seek a "Diesel Dyke Harley-riding Save-the-Whales Log Cabin Republican red head (no weirdoes please)" — then the internet gives you the chance to find her. In fact, you can find hundreds who fit that description.
It depends on your definition of what constitutes a meaningful human connection.
It's logical to believe there's a better chance of understanding someone if you're with them for a long time. But then how do you explain couples who have been together twenty years, then wake up one morning, look at each other and say, "I have no idea who you are."
You have to wonder how many people are capable of making meaningful connections with others, internet or not. At least with websites like Craigslist, you can try to screen.
In recent advertising campaigns, books, and films, American pop culture seems to increasingly embrace the "man's man" — the strong, beer-drinking, strictly-heterosexual male who refuses to show the slightest shred of femininity. On the other hand, SoMa's hero experiments with bisexuality and leads somewhat of a "metrosexual" lifestyle (though he hates this term). Is Raphe a relic of the 1990's or the man of the future?
It's logical to believe there's a better chance of understanding someone if you're with them for a long time. But then how do you explain couples who have been together twenty years, then wake up one morning, look at each other and say, "I have no idea who you are."
You have to wonder how many people are capable of making meaningful connections with others, internet or not. At least with websites like Craigslist, you can try to screen.
For better or worse, the term "metrosexual" has become shorthand to describe a type of guy. He dates women, plays sports, and uses hair product. He's heard of both Prada and ESPN SportsCenter, and uses deodorant. The previous incarnation of man, known as Cro-Magnonsexual, was not able to multi-task in this way.
Okay, so metrosexuality has become a punch line. That's why Raphe holds his nose at the expression. But make no mistake, metrosexuality is a real step in the evolution of guys, kind of like an awkward adolescent phase that will lead to New Millennium Man.
Take a look at the upcoming generation of guys. They grew up watching Will & Grace on primetime TV, so they aren't ignorant and shocked that gay people exist. Today's teen boys were weaned on episodes of MTV's Cribs, so they don't associate being knowledgeable about fashion or design as feminine behavior. The hyper-masculine role models, like sports stars, have turned out to be hugely disappointing and not worth emulating.
It's going to be harder to implant bigotry and old stereotypes of male behavior on this next generation. It will be fascinating to watch how they turn out.
Raphe is representative of New Millennium Man in many ways. He doesn't possess any fey mannerisms, and to those who want to possess him — Lauren, Baptiste and Julie — he's the ideal guy's guy. Raphe himself is surprised to discover that he's more complicated than he ever believed. I suspect that will be the fate of many New Millennium Men.
Raphe attempts to work on his own writing during his job at the scam post office. Have you ever stolen time from a "B-job" to write?
Okay, so metrosexuality has become a punch line. That's why Raphe holds his nose at the expression. But make no mistake, metrosexuality is a real step in the evolution of guys, kind of like an awkward adolescent phase that will lead to New Millennium Man.
Take a look at the upcoming generation of guys. They grew up watching Will & Grace on primetime TV, so they aren't ignorant and shocked that gay people exist. Today's teen boys were weaned on episodes of MTV's Cribs, so they don't associate being knowledgeable about fashion or design as feminine behavior. The hyper-masculine role models, like sports stars, have turned out to be hugely disappointing and not worth emulating.
It's going to be harder to implant bigotry and old stereotypes of male behavior on this next generation. It will be fascinating to watch how they turn out.
Raphe is representative of New Millennium Man in many ways. He doesn't possess any fey mannerisms, and to those who want to possess him — Lauren, Baptiste and Julie — he's the ideal guy's guy. Raphe himself is surprised to discover that he's more complicated than he ever believed. I suspect that will be the fate of many New Millennium Men.
When I started writing fiction, my work in journalism had me constantly flying around the country. One year I spent more than 200 days away from home. That's a lot of time spent on airplanes and in airports. I began to look forward to those dreary aisle seats and the undisturbed writing time they afforded me. The first drafts of SoMa happened at 30,000 feet.
What else can you tell us about your actual writing process?
I'm constantly writing — especially when I'm away from a keyboard or pen.
I'll see something and daydream a fantastic story around it. I rewrite in my head the conversation I just had with someone, making my fictional dialog far more wittier and meaningful than it actually was. I guess we've all done things like that.
However, my mind is also writing in the background, when it's not in my conscious thoughts.
I'll typically sit and write the first draft of an entire chapter in one sitting, without a break. That can take anywhere from three to six hours. When I'm in that zone, I lose all track of time. Then I hit a wall, so I stop. I'll banish the whole thing from my mind, not thinking about it at all. The next day, or even a week later, I'll sit down and start again, with whatever obstacle I faced now miraculously resolved. I hadn't been dwelling on it, but somehow my brain fixed the problem, computing silently in the background. That's the best way for me to explain it.
I treat writing as a career, which is why I have an office in the San Francisco's writers co-op called the Sanchez Grotto Annex. It's home to several authors. We split the rent and share ideas. But even though writing has the work ethic and trappings of a job, it's never been a chore. I know people who struggle with every word. For me, those first drafts are a joy. They seem to flow from my fingers almost effortlessly.
Which doesn't mean they're perfect. I then rewrite continuously. I workshop my drafts and make changes if I'm not getting the response I intended.
When you work in journalism, you quickly become very comfortable with feedback and editing. I stopped being offended by the need to rewrite after my first day in a newsroom. I'm lucky I learned that lesson early in my career.
After all, I'm writing to be read by others. Making sure I'm connecting with readers is a crucial part of my process.
You're very active in the San Francisco literary scene. Can you tell us more about your web site and email list, and talk about how working on these projects has affected your writing?
I'll see something and daydream a fantastic story around it. I rewrite in my head the conversation I just had with someone, making my fictional dialog far more wittier and meaningful than it actually was. I guess we've all done things like that.
However, my mind is also writing in the background, when it's not in my conscious thoughts.
I'll typically sit and write the first draft of an entire chapter in one sitting, without a break. That can take anywhere from three to six hours. When I'm in that zone, I lose all track of time. Then I hit a wall, so I stop. I'll banish the whole thing from my mind, not thinking about it at all. The next day, or even a week later, I'll sit down and start again, with whatever obstacle I faced now miraculously resolved. I hadn't been dwelling on it, but somehow my brain fixed the problem, computing silently in the background. That's the best way for me to explain it.
I treat writing as a career, which is why I have an office in the San Francisco's writers co-op called the Sanchez Grotto Annex. It's home to several authors. We split the rent and share ideas. But even though writing has the work ethic and trappings of a job, it's never been a chore. I know people who struggle with every word. For me, those first drafts are a joy. They seem to flow from my fingers almost effortlessly.
Which doesn't mean they're perfect. I then rewrite continuously. I workshop my drafts and make changes if I'm not getting the response I intended.
When you work in journalism, you quickly become very comfortable with feedback and editing. I stopped being offended by the need to rewrite after my first day in a newsroom. I'm lucky I learned that lesson early in my career.
After all, I'm writing to be read by others. Making sure I'm connecting with readers is a crucial part of my process.
San Francisco has such a rich literary history, from Jack London to Amy Tan. Today there's a community of writers here that's comparable to what it must have been like for artists a hundred years ago in Paris. You can find Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon offering advice to would-be novelists, or Dave Eggers mentoring inner-city kids. Heck, you can bump into Lemony Snicket out walking his dog! There are endless ways to connect with other writers, whether they are famous or still unpublished. It can be remarkably inspiring.
I dove into the scene when I launched the online e-zine SoMa Literary Review back in 1999 as an outlet for my fiction. That first issue featured stories all written by me, under a variety of pen names. Almost immediately I began receiving submissions from other writers, and a real literary journal was born. Today we receive about two million hits per year and we've been thrilled to discover and publish many wonderful new San Francisco voices.
We recently launched a free weekly e-mail newsletter that lists all the author and book events happening in the area. It's astonishing how many great authors are available to meet and chat up.
I've met some amazing writers this way, and I've been able to ask them questions about their process, challenges and successes. Sure, some people are intimidating. But most are open and down-to-earth and offer insight that can be quite validating.
You absolutely need validation as a writer. Being part of a writing community can provide that. You can't succeed if you have a constant chorus in your head, or in your life, that beats you down. Cheerleaders are just as vital as an editor's red pen.
Were you inspired by any other particular novels or writers while working on SoMa?
I dove into the scene when I launched the online e-zine SoMa Literary Review back in 1999 as an outlet for my fiction. That first issue featured stories all written by me, under a variety of pen names. Almost immediately I began receiving submissions from other writers, and a real literary journal was born. Today we receive about two million hits per year and we've been thrilled to discover and publish many wonderful new San Francisco voices.
We recently launched a free weekly e-mail newsletter that lists all the author and book events happening in the area. It's astonishing how many great authors are available to meet and chat up.
I've met some amazing writers this way, and I've been able to ask them questions about their process, challenges and successes. Sure, some people are intimidating. But most are open and down-to-earth and offer insight that can be quite validating.
You absolutely need validation as a writer. Being part of a writing community can provide that. You can't succeed if you have a constant chorus in your head, or in your life, that beats you down. Cheerleaders are just as vital as an editor's red pen.
You can't write about San Francisco and not be influenced by Armistead Maupin. His wonderful Tales of the City books captured The City at a crucial moment in history. It's amazing to read those books today and see how much of the San Francisco he described decades ago still exists today.
In their time, the Tales books and the newspaper column they were based on were also quite a sensation, even scandalous. Gay people! Transgenders! Cheating bi-sexual spouses! Based on real events! It was outrageous. Even the underlying theme that society's outcasts could come to San Francisco and create their own notion of "family" was a radical thought. Many people were offended by the ideas portrayed in Tales, a controversy that received national attention when PBS was threatened with federal funding cuts for bringing the book to television.
San Francisco is different now, and so is the world. You need to really go over to the top to be considered outrageous these days. Yet somehow, San Francisco continues to do that. One of the central themes in SoMa is the need people have to push to extremes, just in an attempt to feel anything.
I can only hope I've adequately captured some of those stories in SoMa.
What do you have up your sleeve for your next book project? Is there any chance Raphe will make another appearance?
In their time, the Tales books and the newspaper column they were based on were also quite a sensation, even scandalous. Gay people! Transgenders! Cheating bi-sexual spouses! Based on real events! It was outrageous. Even the underlying theme that society's outcasts could come to San Francisco and create their own notion of "family" was a radical thought. Many people were offended by the ideas portrayed in Tales, a controversy that received national attention when PBS was threatened with federal funding cuts for bringing the book to television.
San Francisco is different now, and so is the world. You need to really go over to the top to be considered outrageous these days. Yet somehow, San Francisco continues to do that. One of the central themes in SoMa is the need people have to push to extremes, just in an attempt to feel anything.
I can only hope I've adequately captured some of those stories in SoMa.
I see the characters created in SoMa populating a series of books. San Francisco provides an endless stream of material to work with, allowing for Raphe, Lauren and Mark Hazodo to get into all sorts of new trouble.
One of the issues raised in SoMa involves the notion of morality. That seems to be the inevitable debate in any book about sex. I think the concept of morality has been hijacked and applied to sex, when it actually means something entirely different.
The book I'm working on now takes an act most would consider indisputably immoral, and makes it the perhaps the finest, bravest and most selfless deed imaginable. At the same time, behavior universally accepted as morally superior turns out to be the exact opposite. Notions of good and evil are flipped on their heads.
To tell this story I'm taking a character who commits the most heinous, disturbing act depicted in SoMa. He only appears briefly in this novel, but the lasting impression he makes led me to believe his conflict is worth an entire book.
Like SoMa, the story contains plenty of social satire, outrageous moments and insight in the twisted world of sex.
One of the issues raised in SoMa involves the notion of morality. That seems to be the inevitable debate in any book about sex. I think the concept of morality has been hijacked and applied to sex, when it actually means something entirely different.
The book I'm working on now takes an act most would consider indisputably immoral, and makes it the perhaps the finest, bravest and most selfless deed imaginable. At the same time, behavior universally accepted as morally superior turns out to be the exact opposite. Notions of good and evil are flipped on their heads.
To tell this story I'm taking a character who commits the most heinous, disturbing act depicted in SoMa. He only appears briefly in this novel, but the lasting impression he makes led me to believe his conflict is worth an entire book.
Like SoMa, the story contains plenty of social satire, outrageous moments and insight in the twisted world of sex.
Recent Writings by Kemble Scott
A Real Ass Ringer: So you want to be published?
Bestselling author Kemble Scott explains
how he had to stop writing to get published.
— Slouch Magazine
Armistead Maupin's Family Ties
Kemble Scott interviews San Francisco literary icon
Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin
— Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2007
Bringing SoMa to the World of Print
— SoMa Literary Review, February 2007
Ill Fame, Worse Luck
— Kemble Scott reviews
Woman of Ill Fame, a new novel by Erika Mailman.
San Francisco Bay Guardian
January 31st, 2007
Real
— Never ask a woman if they're fakes.
The Manhunt Cafe
— Good to the last drop.
Hey Mr. DJ
— It was music to his ears... and then some.
A Tale of Two Blogs
— Men and women just see things, uh, differently.
Analog
— Hooking up in the Castro the old fashioned way.
Anywhere in the House
Based on a real craigslist ad.
— Brad tried to ignore the cold, and the fact someone was watching.
The Metrosexual Game
— Boys will be boys.
The Escort Service
— Inside the world of one of the most unusual professions — the literary escort.
Dance Fever
—Terror at the 1015 Folsom nightclub.
A Real Ass Ringer: So you want to be published?
Bestselling author Kemble Scott explains
how he had to stop writing to get published.
— Slouch Magazine
Armistead Maupin's Family Ties
Kemble Scott interviews San Francisco literary icon
Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin
— Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2007
Bringing SoMa to the World of Print
— SoMa Literary Review, February 2007
Ill Fame, Worse Luck
— Kemble Scott reviews
Woman of Ill Fame, a new novel by Erika Mailman.
San Francisco Bay Guardian
January 31st, 2007
Real
— Never ask a woman if they're fakes.
The Manhunt Cafe
— Good to the last drop.
Hey Mr. DJ
— It was music to his ears... and then some.
A Tale of Two Blogs
— Men and women just see things, uh, differently.
Analog
— Hooking up in the Castro the old fashioned way.
Anywhere in the House
Based on a real craigslist ad.
— Brad tried to ignore the cold, and the fact someone was watching.
The Metrosexual Game
— Boys will be boys.
The Escort Service
— Inside the world of one of the most unusual professions — the literary escort.
Dance Fever
—Terror at the 1015 Folsom nightclub.
In 1999, Kemble helped launch SoMa Literary Review, an online magazine devoted to celebrating authors and work from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since then, countless local writers have had their work featured on the site. For many, it's the first time they've ever been published. Will you be the next SoMaLit.com discovery? Submissions are accepted year round. A new edition of SoMa Literary Review appears online each month.
Since then, countless local writers have had their work featured on the site. For many, it's the first time they've ever been published. Will you be the next SoMaLit.com discovery? Submissions are accepted year round. A new edition of SoMa Literary Review appears online each month.
As a way to foster community in the local literary world, Kemble Scott edits the weekly San Francisco Bay Area Literary Arts Newsletter. Delivered each Friday morning via email to thousands of readers, the newsletter lists all the book and author events for the week ahead.
It's the most comprehensive guide to local literary events. It's also designed to be the most convenient, with everything listed in just one place.
Subscription is free.
Listing a literary event is free.
You can see the current edition of the newsletter here.
It's the most comprehensive guide to local literary events. It's also designed to be the most convenient, with everything listed in just one place.
Subscription is free.
Listing a literary event is free.
How To Contact Kemble Scott
Author's personal email: KembleScott@gmail.com
You can also interact with Kemble at:
SoMa Publisher:
Kensington Books
850 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
877.422.3665
SoMa Media Inquiries:
Craig Bentley at Kensington Books: cbentley@kensingtonbooks.com
For Kemble press inquiries in San Francisco: somapress@gmail.com
Author's personal email: KembleScott@gmail.com
You can also interact with Kemble at:
SoMa Publisher:
Kensington Books
850 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
877.422.3665
SoMa Media Inquiries:
Craig Bentley at Kensington Books: cbentley@kensingtonbooks.com
For Kemble press inquiries in San Francisco: somapress@gmail.com
Literary Links
SoMa Literary Review
Sanchez Grotto Annex — the writers' co-op where Kemble works
Litquake — San Francisco's Literary Festival
InsideStory Time — the monthly San Francisco reading series
San Francisco Writers Workshop — where Kemble goes for critique
Outstanding Bay Area Authors
Sanchez Grotto Annex — the writers' co-op where Kemble works
Litquake — San Francisco's Literary Festival
InsideStory Time — the monthly San Francisco reading series
San Francisco Writers Workshop — where Kemble goes for critique
Isadora Alman — the legendary sex and relationships writer
Tamim Ansary — facilitator of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, author of West of Kabul, East of New York
Melodie Bowsher — author of My Lost and Found Life
Michael Chorost — author of Rebuilt, winner of the 2006 PEN/USA Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
JT LeRoy — author of Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Erika Mailman — author of Woman of Ill Fame and The Witch's Trinity
Joe Quirk — author of Sperm Are From Men, Eggs Are From Women and The Ultimate Rush
David Henry Sterry — author of Chicken: Portrait of a Young Man for Rent
Rob Rosen — author of Sparkle
Some of the Real Places Featured in SoMa
Tamim Ansary — facilitator of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, author of West of Kabul, East of New York
Melodie Bowsher — author of My Lost and Found Life
Michael Chorost — author of Rebuilt, winner of the 2006 PEN/USA Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
JT LeRoy — author of Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Erika Mailman — author of Woman of Ill Fame and The Witch's Trinity
Joe Quirk — author of Sperm Are From Men, Eggs Are From Women and The Ultimate Rush
David Henry Sterry — author of Chicken: Portrait of a Young Man for Rent
Rob Rosen — author of Sparkle
The Argent Hotel
Bacar
The Bambuddha Lounge
BART
BARTM4M
Bondage-a-Go-Go
Bay to Breakers
The Cafe
Cafe Flore
The Cat Club
Le Colonial
Club Papi
craigslist
Foreign Cinema
Gary Danko
Giants Stadium
Gold's Gym
Midnight Sun
The Phoenix Hotel
The Power Exchange
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco International Airport
1015 Folsom
24 Hour Fitness
Wired
Yerba Buena Gardens
Bacar
The Bambuddha Lounge
BART
BARTM4M
Bondage-a-Go-Go
Bay to Breakers
The Cafe
Cafe Flore
The Cat Club
Le Colonial
Club Papi
craigslist
Foreign Cinema
Gary Danko
Giants Stadium
Gold's Gym
Midnight Sun
The Phoenix Hotel
The Power Exchange
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco International Airport
1015 Folsom
24 Hour Fitness
Wired
Yerba Buena Gardens
