Kevin Sampsell

I think I saw Blue Velvet when I was about twenty. There was something about the quaint small town detective story mixed with the brutality that happens behind closed doors and the surreal ambiance of the cinematography that totally sucked me in. It was (and probably still is) unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Years later, I would watch that movie over and over–whenever I hung out with a new (uninitiated to Lynch) friend. I even watched it with girlfriends. I also watched Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and of course, Twin Peaks (I was living in the very Twin Peaks-ish Spokane, Washington when that show came out and a group of my friends would watch every week). Like Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks was unlike anything that you could ever see on TV in the 90s.

David Lynch’s work, as much as any other early influence (Monty Python, Devo, Steven Jesse Bernstien, Beat Happening, Richard Brautigan) helped to shape the way I approach reading and writing (and watching movies too, of course).

Also, there’s his hair.

I hope my hair looks as good as his as I get older. Want to hear a funny inner thought of mine? I sometimes think: If I’m still going out to see bands play at bars or clubs or whatever when I’m sixty, I don’t think I’ll feel too uncool or old as long as my hair looks as good as David Lynch’s. Look…

See what I mean?

This whole preamble is just to announce that I have two stories in a new anthology celebrating the greatness of Mr. David Lynch. It’s called In Heaven, Everything Is Fine. One story is a rewritten (remixed) version of a story that I published in my first-ever collection, How to Lose Your Mind With the Lights On. It’s called Hot Dog (Bring Protection). The other little story in the book is Trembler, which is actually a short sex scene from my upcoming novel, This Is Between Us.

Thanks to Lazy Fascist editor/boy wonder Cameron Pierce for asking me to be in this beautiful brick of a read. Also appearing is Blake Butler, Amelia Gray, Ben Loory, Suzanne Burns, and Sam Pink, to name a few. I just read the first story by Matthew Revert and it was great. Gonna dip into it more this week. Excited to be a part of it. And I love that it’s dedicated to Jack Nance, an actor I always loved.