Steve: Ok, we’re sitting down here at the Blue Moon restaurant, me n’ Ashly Salmon, w/ Ray Succre. It’s Thursday, December 23rd, 2010. And it’s about 3:45 pm in the afternoon. Um, we’re in Cooze Bay, Oregon. Ray, take the mic.
Ray: How you doin’ Cincinnati?
(laughter)
Steve: Ok, so you’ve been writing awhile, you’ve got some shit published…what’s yr ultimate goal as a writer?
Ray: I think my ultimate goal, as regards to writing and publishing, is to get as many people as I can to actually read what I spent all that time writing and trying to get published. Um, I managed to do the first step, which is to write a bunch of things. And the second step of the phase is now complete as well, because a lot of it got published. The third step is to get someone to read it and that’s the one that’s kind of out of my hands, so I’m having a hard time getting that one done. The fourth step would be to get paid and that’s gonna be even more difficult.
Steve: Why don’t you tell us about yr recent projects?
Ray: Well, first of all, I changed my name. It is now Blackjack…my most recent project is a book I wrote with my son called Beyond the Great Gate…
(waiter interrupts)
Ray: I could use some more coffee when you have the time. Thank you…motherfucker (after waiter leaves).
(Laughter)
Ray: No, I wrote a book called Beyond the Great Gate. I did it for NaNoWriMo. It’s not really my thing to do NaNoWriMo, but I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Uh, the idea was my son was gonna give me a bunch of details and a story line and then I was going to write it as an actual cohesive novel and then read it to him at night as a bedtime story for like a month and a half or two, which we did. He loved it very very much. He was cheering at the end, which made me feel really good. I’ll remember that forever. I have no plans on publishing it, but, uh, I did write it, so it’s my first and probably only venture into writing fantasy, which is real weird, uh, not my thing at all. Uh, before that I wrote a book called Miel. Before that I wrote a book called Thank You and Good Night, which I’m revising right now. And those are my most recent projects. That and sending out things to, ya know, various magazines and trying to, you know, kind of shoot a wad at Modus every now and then and destroying Frankie Metro. Back to you Steve.
Steve: Um, this question comes in from a fan of yours from Oregon and she wants to know…Ashly from Oregon wants to know why you use a pen name?
Ray: That’s a very astute question. You see, Steve, and Ashly if yr listening…um, a long time ago I decided that I wanted to, y’know, write, and eventually the internet was invented and so I did that vain thing that most of us did when the internet first got invented, which was to look up our names to see if there was anything about us. I don’t know what we thought would happen, like there’d be secret files or something, but in looking at my name I discovered that somebody, with my exact real name, Robin Morrison, uh, had a shit load of books out and I thought “that’s kind of strange and lame”, and I looked and he was a very famous photographer from New Zealand, um, was a great photographer, I’d love to take pictures like that. There was also some other guy who was writing short stories and it wasn’t me and since all I wrote at that point were short stories and occasionally trying to write a novel, I just didn’t want to share the card catalog with someone in the future, so I decided to use a pen name. Um, I’d always liked the name Ray and then, uh, one day while I was at the Blue Moon, I had a sugar packet from Canada, from Montreal, and on the back it said “sucre”, s.u.c.r.e., and, uh, I wrote that down after the word “Ray” and added another “C” just for the fuck of it, I don’t know. I guess I thought I was being artsy. And I’ve been using that name ever since. And I’ve now officially signed that name exponentially more than my real name and when I look in the mirror I actually think my name is Ray Succre. That’s how much I’ve used it.
Steve: How do yr ideas come to you?
Ray: I have an old, retired Good Year blimp in my backyard that I have tethered to one of those old, y’know, giant satellites that people had in the 80′s. It’s no longer functional, but the blimp is, so I attach it to this little steel cable that I have, it’s a 40 pound test, and I let the winds take it up into the sky. And when the blimp comes back down, eventually, y’know cuz it runs outta helium…helium’s expensive, I can’t really afford much of it…so it eventually drifts down towards the Post Office and I gotta real it back in. And when I do I’ll find a piece of paper on it and attached will be some sort of idea. I haven’t figured out who’d been putting these ideas on the blimp yet, um, y’know a part of me wants to go “it’s some sort of magical thing like God” or whatever, y’know, doing it, but I’m a realist, I know there’s somebody out there that’s been writing massively strange things on these papers. But I like turning them into novels. I actually have no ideas of my own.
Steve: So, on that note, how does yr wife put up with yr dedication to writing?
Ray: I am an excellent lover: renowned in 3 counties now. I’m looking to add a 4th. I also cook and there’s no one to watch our son, so I’m kind of crucial most of the time. Um, I occasionally forget to do the dishes, but I make up for it by writing characters who do dishes. So in a certain way, I kind of managed to round all the bases.
Steve: I see…do you plan to live in a small town forever?
Ray: Dear God no! I’ve actually tried to leave Cooze Bay many many many times, but like a sordid kind of sociopathic exgirlfriend, I just can’t get its fingers from around my neck. Uh, I’ve left a couple of times, and due to financial difficulties have had to come back. I plan on moving as soon as I have my Community College creditting all done, so that I can transfer out of here, which should be within the year. Um, I’ve been honor-rolling my way through cuz I’m cool like that. Uh, I’m hoping to get to Iowa or somewhere else, but I am gonna transfer to University and it is my hope never to, uh, live in Cooze Bay again, unless maybe I retire here. I like small towns, but it’s gotta be near something large where people read.
Steve: And then Ashly’s got one written here that I can’t really read, so…
Ray: No.
Steve: Oh, ok.
Ray: No, go ahead.
Steve: This one right here…
Ray: When did she get here?!
(laughter)
Ashly: So, your son said the word “platypus” at a young age. Were you a good talker then?
(chuckling)
Ray: Yes, yes, I orate and I speak well. And when my son asks me questions, I give him detailed and rather large explanations of things, to the point where he’s almost sick of it, but he does learn quite a bit, ah, y’know, we had a word of the day thing going for awhile where I’d be like “today’s word is ‘vivid’…” and I would teach him what “vivid” meant and then “today’s word is gonna be ‘plausible’…” and I taught him what “plausible” meant, which was an open doorway to teaching him what “implausible” meant and so, uh, my son’s got words, yeah.
Steve: So, uh, Frankie Metro has challenged you to a rap battle…how’s that going?
Ray: Any chump steps to me gets thrown. I worked him over. I blacked his eyes. I troubled him. I bothered him. That’s pretty much about it, ya know, that’s my dime. I hit him so hard it feels him where his undies climb.
Steve: Alright, we got a couple minutes left. Uh, well I got one more question for ya, Ray. Would you ever sell yr soul to Satan?
Ray: I did that in the 6th grade. I didn’t have any video games left. I was all mad cuz I beat all my games and there was this game that came out that I thought would be really cool, called 3-D World Runner, for the NES. And I was walking around on the playground one day and I quietly muttered to myself, “I would sell my soul for 3-D World Runner”, and when I got home that day, my dad had bought it and so, uh, I don’t know if that was just weird coincidence and he happened to pick the game that I wanted that I never told him about, or if in fact I am now hell-bound, but, uh, that game sucked and I regret it…it’s a true story.
Steve: Wow, that sucks…Satan punked you.
(laughter)
Ray: Yeah, Satan punked me for a shitty game!
Steve: So, um, you know, you’ve been a long time contributor to Modus Operandi…
Ray: Seven times actually…
Steve: Seven times apparently…again. So, um, y’know, is there anything you’d like to add to this interview for our fine Modus readers?
Ray: Steven Purkey is a brilliant man. The things he does with his magazine…there is no comparing all the bounty that is Modus Operandi and its head captain, Steven Purkey. There’s no way you can compare that to any other thing currently being processed in this bulk of a nation we call America. I would venture to say that Steven Purkey is America…all the way in, as far as you can get, into Steven Purkey…that’s America!
Steve: Ahh, well, Ray, thank you.
Ray: Your welcome, Steven.
Steve: Ashly, thank you.
(Ashly chuckles.)
Steve: (at Ray) We got 5 seconds, go!
Ray: Fuck, I don’t know man, uh….
(End of Interview)
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