L. D. Janakos, Plato's Screw, Wild Ocean Press; 2nd ed., 2013.
http://platos-screw.blogspot.com/
excerpt
An anti-novel built on frames, chapters and an almanac(k) of things. Take a surreal picaresque journey into the absurd reality of work, love and surveillance. An eccentric physicist and an ambivalent writer hired to follow him to collect impressions of his life find their reality sandwiched between the absurd and the surreal as they search for the pathology of windows, listen to the last sounds before the first utterance, and try out ways to outsmart their inherited inadequacies or social ambiguities.
L. D. Janakos, The Oldest Show (after the abandonment), highmoonoon, 2003.
sample (pdf)
Dreamer and contortionist by
trade, 19-year-old Reselda takes an unwanted picaresque journey
through our contemporary interior landscape. Haunted by old myths and
mostly foolish people in charge of her life, she not only tries to
live out her first love for a mysterious man, who remains partly
hidden, but to get to her own story, which seems buried under
everyone else’s.
A M.A.G. SERIALIZATION BY
L.D. JANAKOS
Reselda
by
LD Janakos
In
this absurd coming of age story, a traveling dreamer from the oldest
show circus wakes up in a vacant horse pasture without any knowledge
of how she got there. When she is threatened with trespassing, she
escapes into a surreal forest but can't find her way out to get her
trailer, the only place she can dream new dreams for her acts.
Cast:
Reselda:
no older than twenty Croquette: a surreal "monk" from
Monastery C who speaks mostly in riddles Crocket: Croquette's partner
from Monastery C who also speaks mostly in riddles Morrison: A poet
lost in the forest who has lost his tower. Friend to Reselda
Ob/Swifty: Same character in different contexts; truthtellers
Sheriff/Masked Figure/Dictator 1: Same character different context
Cleric/Second Masked Figure/Dictator 2: Same character different
context Voice of circus owner Pugacello on answering service Voices
of Cut out look alikes: both genders
Janakos is a fiction writer and filmmaker. She is the recipient of a Bumbershoot Literary Award and a University of Oregon Fiction Award along with several finalist awards. Her first novel, the oldest show (after the abandonment) (Highmoonoon Press, 2003), was one of three finalists for a Nivola award by Plover Press. A second edition and adaptation for the stage is forthcoming. She lives and works in California.
