CATWALK FAIL received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Jason Godfrey.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The name of the book is CATWALK FAIL and it was published in May 2018. It was originally titled STRUT but I renamed it after I was told that longer names were better.
What’s the book’s first line?
Do authors remember the first lines of their books? “Only a complete jerk stands around sipping coffee while someone does up the laces on their trainers.” I had to go look it up.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Colin Bryce Hamilton is living the dream. As a model, he jet-sets around the globe hooking up with cover-girls while he nurtures his eight-pack abs all in an effort to get to Milan, and the supermodel career he knows he deserves.
But when Colin suffers a catastrophic sex injury life as he knows it stops. Then his agency in Milan dumps him, and his confidence takes a devastating hit. Soon he’s binging on greasy everything, losing work to his self-proclaimed best friend, and being ignored by Taylor, the new girl in town. When his teenage sister, Jasmine, arrives determined to model–despite his urging to do anything but join the self-esteem wrecking gauntlet of fashion–Colin loses it entirely.
With his dreams of Milan slipping away, and a notorious photographer with equally notorious genitals moving in on his sister, Colin must pull it together to save her and redeem himself at the biggest fashion show of the season proving to Taylor he’s not just another shallow model.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Catharsis mostly. I modeled for a million years and originally wrote a memoir about being a shitty male model. After it made the rounds in NY the consensus was people liked my writing but my modeling life didn’t have enough drug use (very little) and I didn’t sleep with enough celebrities (zero) to be very juicy. So I created a fictional model I could write about that does no drugs and sleeps with no celebrities. So, probably catharsis is the driving force.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
I think modeling is one of those industries where people don’t really know how models actually live. They either think it’s all Moet and diamonds or it’s getting #metoo’d by dodgy photographers and the truth is somewhere in the middle. Everything that happens in my book is fiction, but it’s based on the real world of modeling and what living life as a professional clothes hanger is actually like.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The most distinctive thing about Colin is his ego and as the narrator of his story his ego is so big and so easily damaged that it makes everything he says a little unreliable. The world isn’t as mean as Colin thinks it is but that’s how he see’s it. And that’s what the fashion industry can do to someone. As for who does Colin remind me of? A lot of male models I met over the years. Basically, open an issue of GQ and check out the dude in the editorial trying to look hardcore, that’s Colin.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
Honestly, I have no idea. Though I always thought younger Chris Hemsworth would be awesome as Colin’s frenemy Damian.
When did you first decide to become an author?
When I was almost a decade into modeling and realized I had no out plan and thought, what can I do to make money post modeling? The answer: write! That hasn’t worked out so well so far.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
No, but it’s the first that was publishable. I wrote two others, one was a disaster thriller thing. The other was the memoir. Neither need to see the light of day anywhere.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I work as an actor and producer/writer. Hope I can bring my writing to TV, or a digital platform really soon.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
I write a column twice a month for The Star in Kuala Lumpur, where I drone on about whatever I want. And a monthly Ask Jay column in Her World. In addition I’m writing scripts and content for pitch decks to mostly digital platforms, and then I’m trying to find time to write a new novel about a selfish dog that has an existentialist crisis and is shit scared of coyotes.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is having absolute control over everything and the worst part is having absolute control and having no idea what you’re doing. Which is basically me. I’m a big believer in knowing your limitations and for me, I enjoy and think I’m passable at writing, but self promotion and all the marketing stuff isn’t my thing.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Plug on. Most people who start writing a book never finish, so just by finishing you accomplished something most don’t. But once you finish, get someone who know’s books to really rip into it. For me, I was lucky to land a literary agent who I worked closely with for ten months to make the narrative tighter in my book and it taught me a ton about how to plot–even if in the end we didn’t manage to sell the book to traditional publishers it progressed my writing in a huge way.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Yeah! Of course! Do you know someone?!?!? I would only because it’s really difficult to stand out as an indie author, I think it’s hard to stand out as traditionally published author, but it’s definitely harder for the indie folks. I do think going Indie is great if you can build up a platform or already have a platform but I’d go traditional just to get that platform started.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
Mostly the need for currency to exchange for things like food and shelter. But of course, also the want and need to tell a specific story.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
I really admire Chuck Palahniuk. Especially his works in the early 2000s. They were all so chock full of crazy, inventive, hilarious ideas, and every single line I read I’d think, ugh this is so awesome.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Room by Emma Donoghue. It’s totally not in me to write that. But just getting into a little kids head and telling a story of captivity from that point of view was brilliant and rang so true for how a kid would see it. I really enjoy stories that put you in another character’s head space, gives you a different set of eyes and that’s what Room did.