Following the release of Sebastian Vice’s novella – Driver, we wanted to get to know a little more about how this transgressive talent’s mind works. From Seb’s early years to the realities of the American Dream. Read on to find out more.
Hi Sebastian, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for us! We’ve done the whole getting to know you stuff before for the Hunger Anthology interviews, so this is a good opportunity to dig a little deeper.
How has your life and upbringing coloured your writing?
For most of my youth I grew up in what I call the white ghetto. We always had a vicious wife beater living on one side of us. A guy in our neighborhood murdered his girlfriend and shoved her in a closet. A meth lab blew up. The world I grew up in was defined by violence.
I learned a valuable lesson that while violence is usually not the answer, and it darkens the soul, sometimes it’s necessary. One day some guys threw a beat down on one of the wife beaters. They beat this prick within an inch of his life. Afterwards, it was real quiet next door.
I had a bully in my neighborhood, and I broke his nose. He never bothered me again.
Violence should be a last resort. It makes you feel dirty. And it’s not glamorous. That said, some people can’t be reasoned with. Some people are only kept in check through the fear of violence.
I wonder how long Weinstein or P. Ditty would have gotten away with their crimes if a few guys threw a beat down on them? I doubt it would have gone on as long as it did.
Driver feels incredibly relevant right now with the recent abolition of the Roe v Wade decision. How much influence did this have on your decision to tackle this subject?
None. I wrote the short story, which was eventually picked up by Steve Golds over at Red Dog Press, between 2020-2022. I wish I could say I was intentionally tackling a relevant social issue, but it’s a mere coincidence.
Other than religion, what you think is the main motivation behind the decision to ban abortion in the states?
Hatred of, and contempt for, women. In a country that denies people healthcare, has a school to prison pipeline, has no guaranteed maternity leave, that engages in capital punishment, and is always bombing a country full of brown people, I won’t entertain the nonsense from these so-called “pro-life” people.
Rick Malone is your main protagonist. A brooding, broken and dark creation. How much of yourself do you see in him?
As I see Rick, he’s a broken man just trying to survive. I imagine Rick is who I’d have become if I didn’t have certain people, like my mother, to act as a guardrail.
One of the themes of Driver is redemption. Do you think true redemption is possible?
I never conceptualized Driver as a redemption story. I suppose I view it as a tragedy. That said, I can see how one can view the story as redemptive. I don’t know what “true redemption” means. However, I don’t want to be a pedantic asshole, so I’ll say: yes, sometimes. I doubt someone like P. Ditty can redeem himself. But an alcoholic who makes amends? Sure. Someone who has an affair? Sure.
Instead of me banging on about a subject I’m not qualified to comment on, I suggest readers look into Restorative Justice programs (an alternative to our punitive criminal justice system)
If you were in the world of Driver, where do you think you would end up?
Dead, or in a very bad way. I’m shocked I made it out alive as it is.
Do you think the American dream is dead for good, or is there hope for the future?
The American dream is predicated on a myth that you can pursue happiness, when the more you chase it, the further it gets away. Being a consumerist asshole, or a capitalist pig won’t bring you happiness. That shit comes from within. That said, for the last 40 years there’s been a systematic attack on labor. I believe history is cyclical. One day, there will be improved material conditions. Then there won’t. And we go around and around.
What are the writers or artists who influenced your style?
If we are just talking my style, and not content, I’d say: James Sallis, Craig Clevenger, Amy Hempel, Chuck P, and Raymond Carver. Basically, the minimalists.
Tell us what else you have planned?
I have three projects in the works. The next one will most likely be my existential post-apocalyptic novella: Only The Numb Remain. In the distant future is a grimdark fantasy series, and a collection of cosmic horror short stories.
Thanks for some great answers and for letting us get to know you a little bit more. We’re looking forward to discussing these and more with you when we catch up over video very soon. More from that once when we schedule everything in. This will be available to view for all of our readers and subscribers when the time comes.
If you can’t wait until then to discover more about one of the indie communities most engaging readers then please click on the link below to find out what Seb had to say following the publication of The Hunger Anthology: Families in Need, also available from Urban Pigs Press.
Driver
Rick Malone is dying, but not before one last ride. Travel with him through the seedy underworld of pimps, crooked cops, and broken dreams in this transgressive noir novella. Driver should appeal to fans of James Sallis (Drive), as well as Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Deeply introspective, Vice drags the rotting carcass of the American Dream into the sunlight. Dark. Brutal. And unapologetically honest.
“Driver is a poetic, fast, and painful embrace, like a beating heart wrapped in the cool skin of the dead. A tremendous read.”
Coy Hall, author of Colossus with a Poison Tongue
“Fans of Vice’s fiction already know to fasten their seatbelts. In this one, he’s firing on all cylinders. A warning, however: the twists and turns in DRIVER may cause whiplash. This is one you do not want to miss!”
Brian Bowyer, Splatterpunk Award-nominated and Godless Award-winning author of OLD TOO SOON and METRO KINETIC.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all.” Keats wrote that. Vice doesn’t do beauty. He vivisects it with a rusty scalpel and holds it up under the nose of the reader in all of its bloody ugliness. No. No, Beauty in what 2024 would call beauty. However Vice does do truth and there’s an absolute abundance of it here in DRIVER, if you can stomach it. It’s a mad, bad, relentless and completely unapologetic joyride into darkness. Get in, Vice is driving like his life depends on it.”
Stephen J. Golds, The Gone series
Urban Pigs Press 
Leave a comment