Chris L. Terry is an author whose first novel, Zero Fade, is out now from Curbside Splendor Press. Terry is no longer an RVA resident, but when he lived here in the late 90s and early 2000s, he made his mark on the local scene of that era.
Chris L. Terry is an author whose first novel, Zero Fade, is out now from Curbside Splendor Press. Terry is no longer an RVA resident, but when he lived here in the late 90s and early 2000s, he made his mark on the local scene of that era. He published zines, booked shows, and played in local bands, including Light The Fuse And Run, who toured the US and Europe and released several albums between 2000 and 2003. Since then, he’s spent several years in New York, and now lives in Chicago, where he recently received his MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago. Zero Fade returns Terry to RVA, in a manner of speaking–the novel, which takes place in Richmond in the year 1994, is a story about a teenager named Kevin Phifer who is trying to navigate the fraught social territory of high school while dealing with bullies, his uncle Paul coming out as gay, and a wack haircut. Check out the live action trailer for Zero Fade below:
Terry’s background in the local scene and his use of Richmond as a setting inspired us to get in contact with him and ask some questions about his new novel, his feelings about our fair city, and teenage haircut angst.
Zero Fade is a period piece set in 1994. Why’d you decide to set it two decades ago instead of in the current era?
I was a teenager in 1994, and wanted to shout out some of my favorite pop culture in Zero Fade. Hopefully, it gives the book a retro appeal while showing that 13-year-olds go through some shit no matter what year it is. Also, setting the book in ‘94 allowed me to not have to factor in technology. I didn’t have a cell phone or the internet in middle school, so I figured that I could write the experience authentically if I set it then. Finally, 1994 was a transitional year for me. That’s when my family moved from Boston to Richmond. That personal significance drew me to the era.
Haircuts and hairstyles play an important role in Zero Fade, and 13 year old Kevin feels like his hairstyle reflects pretty strongly on himself as a person. What were haircuts like for you when you were 13? Did you have a lot of hairstyle angst at that age?
I have a black dad and an Irish-American mom, and I came out pale. My hair is the only way that a lot of people can tell that I’m black. In the early ‘90s, when I was first starting to think about my racial identity, having a cool haircut was a big deal to me, but there weren’t any black barbers near where I lived in Massachusetts. My mom cut my hair at home to save money. That led to some homemade haircut experiments but, luckily, things never got as angry as they did between Kevin and his mother in the book. I just rocked a two across my whole head most of the time.
In light of the fact that you haven’t lived in Richmond in a decade, what led you to use this city as Zero Fade‘s setting? Was it just because you lived here when you were Kevin’s age, or were there other factors that played into it?
I was actually still in Massachusetts when I was Kevin’s age. Richmond is cool to write about because it’s a smaller city, and I feel like I know it well, but not so well that I can’t take liberties as I write. Richmond’s got its own flavor, but it doesn’t have a reputation that precedes it, that might overshadow my writing. I can introduce people to Richmond through the book, and it’s unlikely that they’ll come in with preconceptions. I can make the city mine. I felt that way living there, too, that Richmond was this great, undiscovered thing, where I could carve out a space for myself.
You were in town recently for your book signing tour. How does Richmond now compare to your impression of it when you lived here in the 90s? What do you miss most about living here? What do you miss the least?
There are the obvious changes. VCU is bigger. Rent is higher. But, I maintain that there is nothing worse than a blowhard who talks about how cool things used to be. I have little patience for people who can’t handle change. And, Richmond is a city that, at least as of 2004, was still hung up on a 140 year old war.
That said, it seems like the alternative culture has exploded. Richmond is no longer undiscovered like it was in the ‘90s, and I’m proud–this great place finally gets to shine.
I miss my big apartments. I miss having friends across the street and being able to leave home ten minutes before an event starts. But that smallness also felt oppressive. Privacy is difficult if you’re guaranteed to run into people from high school at the supermarket.
What do you think you gained from your experience in the DIY underground scene, making zines and playing in bands, that has influenced your current work as a novelist? Do you still see zines as relevant in the modern internet age? Do you plan to make zines again in the future?
DIY punk taught me not to wait around for someone else to do something for me. It made me feel like I could achieve something if I kept my expectations realistic. Kinda like how when my bands would go on tour and people who weren’t involved in punk assumed that we were trashing hotel rooms and screwing nonstop groupies. We weren’t having THAT tour experience, we were creating a new one.
My publisher, Curbside Splendor, is an indie press. Working with them is a lot like working with an indie record label. I have a lot of creative control and, since they’re a newer, smaller press, they’re invested in my book–if it tanks, they might too!
In the ten years since I was active as a musician, the mainstream has diminished, and independent arts are taken a lot more seriously. Curbside Splendor and I have had good luck in approaching some of the institutions in publishing. Big, industry reviewers are writing up Zero Fade and other Curbside titles (Look at all of the love that the Eddie to my Arsenio, Samantha Irby, is getting for her book Meaty). It’s really exciting and satisfying.
Zines… Anything with writing on it, that you can hold in your hand, is relevant. Sure, blogs have rendered zines semi-obsolete, but reading a blog on the toilet is complicated. I don’t buy into the idea of making a zine as a statement, though. That puts the form over the content, and can lead to a lack of substance.
I’ve wanted to make a new zine for the last couple years. It’s a matter of finding the right material to include. I just went into a lot of debt to get a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing, and I want a writing career. I’m caught up in the idea that everything I write should cover new territory by being published in a new place. Then again, self-publishing an inexpensive e-book might help to get my name out there and bring in some scratch. I would have loved that accessibility when I was doing zines fifteen years ago.
Gullible #13, circa 2000
How did your recent work teaching juvenile inmates influence your portrayal of teenage boys in Zero Fade?
I spent about two years teaching a writing and theatre program in juvenile detention centers. At the same time, I was doing a lot of work with teenagers on the outside. All of my youth work helped my writing, because I got to constantly hear kids talking, and it also took away a lot of my nostalgia for my teen years. That is a difficult, dramatic time. So, my students – locked up and free – strengthened my bullshit detector in my own writing and reminded me to take their problems seriously.
In Zero Fade, Paul’s struggles with his identity as a gay man are discussed in some detail. How did you put yourself in the mindset of a character whose feelings and experiences were different from your own?
Having Paul be gay felt perfect for Zero Fade, where a big theme is a young man outgrowing his own misconceptions about masculinity. I’m straight and Paul is gay, but beyond that, we have plenty in common. A horny guy is still a horny guy, no matter whose ass he’s looking at. A lonely guy is lonely no matter who he wishes was there. And a guy who wants more for himself wants more no matter what it is that he wants more of.
Tell us about the other literary projects you’re working on. Do you expect to return to the characters from Zero Fade in the future?
I’ve got a good couple hundred pages of nonfiction stories about being biracial. In some way, those will be my next book. I’ve been drawn to writing about middle school and early high school–when I was beginning to consider my mixed race identity, alternative music made me feel better about not fitting in, and my family was having a lot of money problems. Right now, my impulse is to fictionalize my stories from that era and tidy them into a novel. We’ll see what happens when the Zero Fade dust settles. I definitely feel the pressure to be ready with another book soon.
Zero Fade 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold is not a priority, though I do sometimes wonder what the characters would be like three years down the line. Demetric in Nautica, Tyrell in the military, David as the first guy on the block with the internet… I cut a lot of material about the mother and Earnest from the book, so I might do something with that. Zero Fade: The Grown ‘N’ Sexy Edition. Who knows?
In the last decade or so, you’ve lived in Richmond, New York, and Chicago. How have these different cities, and the transitions between them, impacted your creative life?
I moved to New York wanting to soak in culture, to give me better perspective as a creative person. I also moved there wanting to use my English degree professionally, and figuring that jobs would be a priority while I was there. They were. The dream was to go to grad school after a few years, and I moved to Chicago to do that. I love Chicago. I live a couple blocks from the lake in a super diverse neighborhood where I don’t stand out as a six foot tall mixed guy with a red ‘fro. A lot of my dreams have come true in Chicago – publishing a novel, for instance. Still, I don’t think I’ll be here forever. The older I get, the more it becomes about what I’m doing as opposed to where I’m doing it. And, my wife and I often talk about how we wish we could find a small city like RIchmond… without people from high school at the supermarket.
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Order Zero Fade from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound.
Keep up with Chris L. Terry and Zero Fade on social media:
Facebook.com/zerofadenovel
Twitter.com/zerofade94
Zerofade94.tumblr.com
This post is part of the Zero Fade Blog Tour, where different sites cover the book on the days surrounding its publication. The entire itinerary is listed here: http://www.curbsidesplendor.com/curbside/blog/zero-fade-blog-tour
