About “Confessions of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated”:

For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history’s most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character—and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.

In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents: Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost. She recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of Little House: Michael Landon’s “unsaintly” habit of not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine MacGregor (who played Nellie’s mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch cover

Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her life’s challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse, depression, and paralyzing shyness; the “secret” her father kept from her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her “Little House husband” and best friend, Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her second career in social and political activism. Arngrim describes how Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined, and how she is eternally grateful to have had the biggest little bitch on the prairie to show her the way.

Blurb from YAMS:

I know it’s been available for awhile, but if you haven’t heard, Alison Arngrim has a new book entitled, “Confessions of A Prairie Bitch” and I am buying it. Oh yeah, I am buying it. I read the Village Voice interview early this morning on the train coming home from Burlesque Yes! and honey, Ms. Arngrim is a trip-and-a-half!

Here are some quotes from the interview:
Musto: Congrats on the book, Alison. It’s so real.”
Arngrim: “I laid shit out.”

Musto: In other scandalous developments, was your real-life father really gay?
Arngrim: It was a deal between he and my mother. They were madly in love, yet there was always some third party, some guy, hanging around a lot. Then, two years later, it would be some other guy.

Musto: I guess Mom was as malleable as Gumby. And you’re very brave to talk about how your brother incested you. Did you read Mackenzie Phillips’s book about consensual incest?

Arngrim: Yes. Being drugged into a stupor and waking out of a coma to find someone on top of you with his pants around his ankles is not my idea of consensual. I sent Mackenzie a message on Facebook saying, “This sounds as consensual as being hit on the head with a brick.” Then I read the book, and she makes it sort of clear that he was the one who called it consensual.

Please read the full article here. I feel Gusto asked all of the right questions to get me interested, although Little House on the Prairie is a bit before my time. Gusto, you are a flipping doll-baby <3

Blurb from YAMS:

In my obsessive MySpace days, I befriended Denis Sheehan’s Bone Print profile and fell in love with the synopsis of his book, “A Nobody’s Nothings.” I knew it was going to be a good read, so I ordered one and later ordered one for George (Gutty). We have been telling everyone we know about the language, character, and emotion of this book. Folks are intrigued, but they aren’t the folk that indulge in reading so they smile, agree, and never act… and that’s fine. In hopes, that you are different from the others, you will order his book and we can share insiders. We love you Sheehan!

A Nobody’s Nothings is a collection of short stories, poetry (not the type of poetry Father wrote to bed Mother), “Brain Scribbles” ramblings, and one comic. Words are fiction and nonfiction weaving stories of screwed up love, sex, self destruction, and everyday life of every day slobs. Most of content is new and previously unpublished, but some of the pieces are older and appeared in the author’s long running zine, Askew Reviews. Content is mature and not suitable for children or sensitive doodyheads.

About the Author: Denis Sheehan, single dad of a six-year-old daughter living on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Has been publishing/editing (print and online) the movie, music, and book reviews zine Askew Reviews since 1997. Author of the short run, self published Longsberry Letters, which will reprint in early 2008. Is a paid freelance reviewer for AVN Magazine. Denis is available for interviews. Contact: boneprint@gmail.com

MP3: “Audio Interview” with Author Denis Sheehan

Photo: Jazzlyn Kirkland

Blurb from Jazzlyn Kirkland:

Imagine being a 5-year-old child trapped inside of your own body with no way to verbally communicate. At such a young age, verbal communication is key to living because you are at the beginning stages of learning. What would you do? Would you teach yourself to read and write so you could at least communicate with adults? Being in pre-school, would you turn to poetry as an outlet for creativity while the other kids are on the mat playing toy trucks? What about reading books way beyond your grade level or skill to prove to your teachers that you have been wrongfully placed into a special education class because you cannot speak? Well, I know a man — a very wonderful, brilliant, intellectual, intelligent man who has done everything to beat the odds that face him and that man is Author Richard K. Lofton.

Lofton was born on June 29th, 1965, which began the slow climb toward success. Throughout his elementary years, Lofton was considerably strange, odd, slow, and to some retarded. He was anything but those titles. He was not able to speak due to having a deformed tongue palette. As he grew older, he faced a lot of adversary, so he turned to his writing to help himself through and maintain his sanity. He started to become very comfortable with the person that he was becoming — the person that was going to be “okay” but he would soon to face more obstacles before he saw the light.

Lofon’s writing caught the attention of his English teacher who felt that he could take his writing beyond what he was writing at the time. In 1998-99, Mr. Richard K. Lofton wrote the book entitled, “To Stand Naked Before God.” It took about three years to be published, edited, and paid for. Also, that included three years of living off the bare minimums; three years of eating rice and beans everyday and being told he was crazy.

In April of 2001, he released his book. Richard K. Lofton is often faced with the question of why did he write this book and he answers with “I have gone through so many trials and tribulations and in my mind I saw this as simply another challenge. It says in the Bible – “Endure hardness as a good soldier which translates to no pain no gain” and thus this is when he started to come up with the formula for “To Stand Naked Before God.”

Lofton writes in such a way, as to teach lessons and to make you open your mind to a different way of thought. His book is a tale of life, survival, and the vices we face as being humans. He writes about the struggle of alcoholism, prostitution, questionable sexuality, drugs, suffering, and strife in a thought provoking way. The book is classified as a fable so it is written in parables:

ie: The Bible and will keep you wanting more as he takes you on a journey that some must travel to understand life’s gift.

I decided that I had to meet this remarkable man. I had to sit down and converse with him about his views on life and everything else. I finally had the chance to do so, we met in down town Las Vegas, Nevada on Fremont Street known as the Glitter Gulch (or to the average person as the old strip,) and we sat down at a coffee shop outside of a casino underneath the famous Fremont street experience. We went in grabbed a coffee, made ourselves comfortable, and began chatting.

GrungeCake: Hey Richard, I am glad I finally got a chance to track you down and have you take time out of your busy schedule to sit down with me.

Richard K. Lofton: No problem.

GrungeCake: How have you been doing lately? Any new projects since the book was written?

Richard K. Lofton: Yes. Actually, I have a movie script that I am pushing around to producers by the title of TTrans.

GrungeCake: That is awesome! What is the movie based on?

Richard K. Lofton: Okay, are you ready because this one is a doozy!

GrungeCake: (Laughing) I read your book Richard. I am ready for anything you throw at me.

Richard K. Lofton: Okay, TTrans is the story of a trans-gendered prostitute who is befriended by an eccentric scientist who turns him into a woman by rearranging the atoms in his body, the experiment works with one flaw. This leads to a relationship between the two, which is compounded when his body is becoming weaker because of the flaw, the movie is pretty much a sci-fi slash horror love story that will amaze any audience. The film is unique and explores the boundaries of love, gender, and sexuality.

GrungeCake: Whew… that was a lot to soak in at once, but if anyone can write a script with that subject content it’s you!

Richard K. Lofton: (Laughing uncontrollably) Well, I told you it was a doozy, but I am looking for a producer… So, “if you know anyone” (wink, wink) I’ll give their contact information to my agent and we can work something out from there.

GrungeCake: Since the concept of TTrans is pretty “out there.” What was the thought process when writing the script?

Richard K. Lofton: The spirit of today’s age. You see more and more female impersonations by men and with the controversy over gay marriage; it remains a hot topic.

GrungeCake: How did you come up with the main character “Chris”?

Richard K. Lofton: To sum it up, it is pretty much just the average struggle of a man that desires to become a woman with a sci-fi twist.

GrungeCake: What was it that made you start writing? Not the movie, but just in general?

Richard K. Lofton: My reason for writing was to get me out of Special Education.

GrungeCake: What made you think that your writing was going to help you do so?

Richard K. Lofton: Well, it made my intelligence shine, and it set me apart from the rest of the class, it showed my genius and it made them investigate why I was not talking and that was when they found out I had a deformed tongue palette. Which lead to everyone giving me a fair chance and it made me more creative as a person to have another wonderful outlet of expression.

GrungeCake: Aww, sorry! I teared up a little bit. You are such an intriguing person. Okay, back to the book. Why did you decide to write “To Stand Naked Before God”?

Richard K. Lofton: I had stomach tumors and I questioned God and asked why was I allowed to endure such suffering. I started to read the Bible in a greater depth and discovered that we have to meet our lowest point for us to prosper to a higher level.

GrungeCake: What was the creative drive to write on that subject?

Richard K. Lofton: I wanted to help people realize that pain is an intricate part of life and that it’s a necessity.

GrungeCake: Why do you think that pain in life is necessary?

Richard K. Lofton: Because pain in life will strengthen you, and will give you the personal power to meet your goals. One of my favorite sayings is “A metal craft to make an effective sword it has to be beaten into shape.”

GrungeCake: Very true. I agree. So what authors, books, or subjects personally inspire you to write in such a way as you do?

Richard K. Lofton: The King James Version of the Bible, but the stuff they (the bible) do not talk about. The stuff they don’t preach about, the sexual propriety, the murderers, the incest. One of King David’s children raped his half sister, Tamar.

GrungeCake: Oh, I never knew that and I went to a private school. They (the teachers) never taught us that part.

Richard K. Lofton: Exactly, my point.

GrungeCake: For people that have never heard of you and or your work what sets you apart from all the other authors? Why should they read something written by Richard K. Lofton over the next author?

Richard K. Lofton: Power. The way I project power… I write in a powerful manner. I consider myself a literary Bruce Lee. Due to the fact that I take the best components of writing in general and put them into one style.

GrungeCake: (Agrees) You will make someone believe something even if they go into the whole thing not wanting to hear a word of what you have to say.

Richard K. Lofton: I greatly appreciate that, but you know what I would appreciate more? A chance to get my movie into the right producer’s hands.

GrungeCake: Why willn’t you convince them that they need to have this movie on their side? Tell the readers of GrungeCake Magazine why they should see your movie “TTrans” and what knowledge or understanding will they take with them?

Richard K. Lofton: It’s fresh, innovative, it will enlighten them. Due to the facts that I take the average topics, love, gender, and sexuality in another prospective.

GrungeCake: I want to see it on the big screen. Hopefully, sometime in the future. Are there any last words you want to say to the GrungeCakers?

Richard K. Lofton: There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind has achieved the second and can I give a shout-out to Queen Tiger of Detroit?

And there we have it — an author with a whole new prospective on things. No more getting half way through the book without having the urge to finish it. Get ready for the excitement and fantasy mixed with real life situations and life lessons that Richard K. Lofton has waiting for you.