📚 A Bookish Chat with 'I Am Not Brad Pitt and Other Stories' Ross Dreiblatt @iamnotbradpitt1 #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview
Ross Dreiblatt is an author who was born and grew up in New York. His father was a truck driver and his mom was a retail manager. He attended Hofstra University and moved to Los Angeles where he attended Cal State Northridge. While in Los Angeles, he studied under John Rechy’s master writing workshop at UCLA.
He has worked in the corporate offices of major retailers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Florida toiling on spreadsheets by day, and the imaginary lives of celebrity monsters by night.
He loves to travel and will get on a plane going anywhere, as long as it eventually lands safely. Despite the dour photo, he is kind of a happy guy.
He currently lives in South Florida.
His latest book is the literary fiction / humor / satire novel, I AM NOT BRAD PITT AND OTHER STORIES.
You can visit his website at www.RossDreiblatt.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
TWL: Welcome to The Writer's Life! How did you come up with the idea to write your book?
Ross Dreiblatt: I have always been a little stumped by the world’s obsession with celebrities. Famous people spend an inordinate amount of resources on projecting an image for the public to buy. And we do!
This book began to
germinate after Tom Cruise’s famous couch jumping moment on Oprah. There he was, trying his best to earnestly manipulate
tell us how he was falling in love with his now ex-wife and then he set off on
Oprah’s famous couch. However, instead
of inspiring us with his passion for his fiancée, he opened the curtains a
little too wide on exactly who he is. He
was trying his best to be one of us. But
we found out, he was not like us. Not at all.
I began to think how celebrities are really our modern Gods of Mount Olympus living lives of privilege that none of us could ever relate to. In the book I wanted to use a little dark humor to explain the mythology of modern celebrities who try so hard to shape their image so we can feel that we know them. But we really don’t know them. In the book, I explored that space between who we think they are and who they really are.
Why do they have such a hold on us? On one level, I understand that everyone wants to be them, even look like them! But aside from the aspirational aspect, I couldn’t find any earthly reason why we admire these privileged people. So, I took the liberty of using some un-earthly reasons.
TWL: Can you give us a short excerpt?
Ross: My Pleasure!
“As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
they kill us for their sport.”
William Shakespeare
Even though I was not actually guilty, I know many of you think that I got what I deserved. You probably think people like me get by on their looks and coast through life without breaking a sweat. Well, in my case, coast through someone else’s life. I know for a fact, from the “fan mail” I get here, that there are lots of you out there who think I’m just a crazy man spinning a conspiracy theory. I’m used to that kind of judgment; it doesn’t bother me. I don’t need to defend myself from that. I will tell you all right now, I am not, nor have I ever been, a religious man, but I will confess my sins today. I am guilty of many, many sins.
But none of those sins is murder. That one belongs to my lookalike buddy, Brad Pitt.
To set the record straight, it took me a while to see my resemblance to Brad. I mean, I never thought I was that good-looking. I was a geeky kid—glasses, acne, bad haircuts, debate club, math nerd. And the fatal blow? I was a big kid. About eighty pounds overweight, just five pounds shy of being officially obese. I was ground zero for awkward. Deathblows for any teenager trying to make friends and learn social skills, so I retreated inward. Friends? I had a few loyal friends who were fellow dorks, but mostly TV and movies were my friends. I was also fascinated by data, by numbers.
I’m not telling you all this to get sympathy. Yes, I was a sad case growing up, but this is who I am. I am not a monster; I evolved into Brad. There was no plastic surgery involved, either. This is all me.
TWL: What part of the book was the most fun to write?
Ross: When Tobey, the Brad doppelganger, meets the actual Brad Pitt. I had to push the limits a little bit of how Brad tries to “seduce” him into working for him.
TWL: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?
Ross: Other than it as actually published? I think the book is full of surprises in terms of plot twists and “guest stars” that show up in the stories. One fact about the Keeping Compliant With The Kardashian story is that the first draft of the story had alien life forms living in Kim’s breast implants and the government was trying to track them down. A big Thank You to my agents who very nicely told me, “No. Just, no.”
TWL: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?
Ross: I have 2 completed manuscripts: Family Of Desire, about 8 delusional people in Los Angeles who are desperately seeking something and how their lives intertwine and finally meet. In this book, I invent celebrities. Except for Oprah.
I also have completed, “The 9th Annual Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival” which has no celebrities but is an actual festival. In this one a professional bird watcher is on a year long sabbatical to document as many breeds of bird as possible, aka “The big year” She attends the festival in the final days of her big year to document a very rare breed of lesser prairie chicken. It’s her story of how she has to confront all of her shortcomings in those final days. (It’s not quite as normal as that sounds.)
And finally, I have started on a sequel of sorts to I am not Brad Pitt. So far, I have Robert DeNiro, Zach Efron, Charlie Sheen and Beyonce in the mix.
I’m not sure when they will be published, just sort of hoping that they will be published!
TWL: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?
Ross: Never assume anything at face value.
TWL: Do you have any final words?
Ross: Enjoy the ride!
Title: I AM NOT BRAD PITT AND OTHER STORIES
Author: Ross Dreiblatt
Publisher: Stone Tiger Books
Pages: 391
Genre: Literary Fiction/Humor/Satire
BOOK BLURB:
I AM NOT BRAD PITT is the first of three riotously absurd tales in Ross Dreiblatt’s debut short-story collection sending up America’s sometimes-fatal celebrity obsessions.
“I Am Not Brad Pitt” opens in a prison cell in which Mr. Pitt’s clone-like doppelganger, Tobey Crawford, remorsefully recounts the sequence of unlikely events that resulted in his wrongful conviction for murder.
The second story, “Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself,” considers the possibility that Keith Richards (along with, for good measure, Dolly Parton) is, indeed, a vampire. Nobel-Prize laureate Bob Dylan, the story’s vampire-killer, is equipped with more than just a harmonica and tambourine.
The final work in the collection, “Keeping Compliant With The Kardashians,” examines whether Kardashian family members are, in fact, aliens from another galaxy and what precisely is their interest on Earth.
Each of the stories are told with engaging humor, and each pokes fun more at American culture than they do, generally, of the celebrities themselves.
“Ross’s stories stay with you long after you’ve read them. The main characters have a relatable humanity that pull the reader in as they face an array of absurd situations. Every story is a guaranteed good time.” – Pat Griffith, author of THE DPA TRILOGY
Book Information
Release Date: November 14, 2021
Publisher: Stone Tiger Books
Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1735667683; 391 pages; $11.00; E-Book, $2.99; Kindle Unlimited, FREE
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59610948-i-am-not-brad-pitt-and-other-stories
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mBsxgF
You can also purchase book at the author’s website at www.RossDreiblatt.com.
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