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Going backstage – how a Heart album inspired the vampire novella Cruel Nights

Cruel Nights cover @ Brain Jar Press

Ever since I first heard the Brigade album by Heart, sometime around 1990, I reckoned there was a story in it. Not just the micro stories of each song, but a bigger narrative.

I wrote a short one, melding tracks All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love to You) and The Night*. Didn’t much like it, too simplistic, one note. It’s still in the drawer.

Then, in 2019, emerging from four years of PhD in climate change fiction, I felt ready to take a shot at a longer treatment of the Brigade project. But wait. Just around the corner, in March 2020, the Queensland Writers Centre was having a weekend novel-writing ‘boot camp’ with Kim Wilkins. Perfect. Stop writing, get some ideas together, work on something else to fill in the time**.

(Kim, by the way, ran the first QWC workshop I attended after I moved to Brisbane in 1998. It’s where I met my tribe. To a large extent, that workshop set me on this path.)

Brigade, Kim reckoned, probably wasn’t Heart’s best album, when I said during our introductions that my project for the weekend had been inspired by it. I was too slow to add that it might not be their most lauded, but it is the one with the vampire!

It was a fun weekend, bouncing around story ideas and character arcs with each other, emerging weary but also energised, with a note book full of trajectories and ideas that lit a fire under the project. Needless to say, I played a lot of Heart writing the book, especially Brigade, tapping the moods and themes. Cruel Nights (yep, from a song on the album) is still anchored around the meshing of those two key songs, but the entire album is in there.

I did check in with the rights holders about using a stanza for an epigraph*** but it was a bit pricey for this project. Still, I like the compromise of using Heart song titles as chapter headings. Picking appropriate ones from across the catalogue reminded me again of how diverse and accomplished this band is, what a set of pipes Ann Wilson has.

So yes, the long wait between books is finally over, and yes, it’s another vampire story. Also a kind of love song. With Heart.

  • Cruel Nights is available for pre-order at Brain Jar Press and will be out on 21 May.

* funnily enough, All I Wanna Do is not one of my favourite Heart tunes. The Night, it’s right up there, though.
** still working on it.
*** there are some lyrical Easter eggs in the text, but I had to wrap them carefully to avoid any copyright issues.

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rec160: The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke

NOVEL

Title: The Tin Roof Blowdown

Author: James Lee Burke

Publisher: Orion, 2007

I’ve been hunting the Dave Robicheux crime series in second-hand book shops ever since I received a copy of Creole Belle. It blew my socks off: starting directly after the preceding book, the details were seamlessly inserted to allow me to follow the yarn and enjoy the adept characterisation and descriptions of Louisiana. The history and social layers of the state infuse the series. This title, a recent find set in New Orleans during and immediately after Katrina and then Rita, is one of the best so far. The storms’ devastation, a shooting of looters who picked the wrong house, and Robicheaux’s family under threat: it’s a compelling mix deftly balanced. Robicheux, a Vietnam veteran clinging to sobriety, remarks after a nightmare that he thought he would ‘never again have to witness the wide-scale suffering of innocent civilians, nor the betrayal and abandonment of our countrymen when they need us most. But that was before Katrina’. Still gives me goosebumps.

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rec160: Melbourne International Comedy festival – a selection

Breaking the 160-word rule for this one, because too much greatness to fit!

We got to spend three nights taking in three acts a night at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and scored a ripper selection of story tellers who can make you think and feel at the same time.

Zoë Coombs Marr with Lou Wall supporting: been following Zoë since her Dave days and just keeps getting sharper; Wall also superb

Laura Davis: her Albatross show was unaffected, personal and affecting — why haven’t I heard of her before?

Claire Hooper MCing a late-night line-up of 10 for $10 – mileage varies but a good intro to up-and-comers

Celia Pacquola: seen her on screen, first time on stage, and thoroughly enjoyable

Rose Bishop: handling some tough material with aplomb – fabulous

Ali McGregor curating a late-night line-up: one comedian down, but the three guests (inc Hannah Gadsby) and McGregor’s singing backed by a tight jazzy three-piece brought it home

Hannah Gadsby supported by Bronwyn Kuss: fab duo, Gadsby not letting her rise change much at all but the quality of her hotel rooms

Chloe Petts: from the UK, another highlight combining laughs with commentary and rolling with the audience – top shelf

Finished off in the same room as Petts with another variety act, anchored on PowerPoint presentations: fun way to finish

MICF runs till 21 April 2024.

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rec160: Wicked Little Letters

MOVIE

Title: Wicked Little Letters

Director: Thea Sharrock

Starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley

Release: 1923/24

I thoroughly enjoyed this light comedy, a beautifully crafted nod to an actual event in 1920s England in which poison pen letters raise a scandal. Colman plays devout spinster Edith, around whom the storm develops as she receives foul insults via post. Suspicion falls on neighbour Rose (Buckley), an Irish mum of one who is delightfully non-conformist. The pair have a great deal of fun working off each other, and are ably supported by a cast that includes Timothy Spall at his loathsome best and Anjana Vasan, a ‘woman police officer’ displaying consummate eye rolls as she forges ahead against sexism as she seeks to solve the case. Writer Johnny Sweet balances comedy, character and serious stakes as the case splits the town. The best part of seeing it at the cinema was the cackling of the women behind us as some of the choice curses were displayed as the credits rolled. ‘Foxy arse’ may be due for a revival…

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rec160: All of Us Strangers

MOVIE

Title: All of Us Strangers

Director: Andrew Haigh

Starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy

Release: 2023 / 2024

Wouldn’t it be grand to be able to go back and have those conversations with the ones we’ve lost, while also filling them in on the meantime – that aching desire to know that we’ve done them proud. Not to give too much away, but this film, written* and directed by Haigh, is a thing of absolute beauty, enigmatic and engaging, with the major cast members bringing their characters alive with subtlety and honesty. Scott as the protagonist Adam shows amazing shades of vulnerability and earnestness. The soundtrack, big on the Pet Shop Boys (no complaint), is spot on as Adam meets his neighbour Harry while working on a screenplay about his own childhood, finding in him something of a kindred soul seemingly trapped on the outside looking in. The conceit will reward repeat viewing and spark conversation; the movie is beautifully shot, cleverly edited and craftily scripted to tease expectations as it draws the viewer in. Tissues may be handy.

* from the novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, who sadly died last year

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Friends, we have a new book

I’m very pleased to share the news that I have a new book coming out! The novella Cruel Nights is slated for release through Brisbane’s Brain Jar Press on 21 May 2024.

Says the publisher: Brain Jar Press is pleased to present Jason Nahrung’s Cruel Nights, a vampire novella which harks back to the vampire novels of Poppy Z. Brite and Anne Rice while also asking what might have happened to those characters once the nineties were over. It’s an extraordinary read for anyone with fond memories of the grunge era and the horror which sprang up around it.

And the blurb:

…a grunge-soaked tale of love and vampirism in ’90s Seattle.

Charlie died in Nevada, 1973, after seeing Led Zeppelin live on stage and making the wrong choice on the long drive home.

Corey meets him at a TAD gig seventeen years later and feels an immediate attraction. They both swear their night together will be a onetime thing, but neither can stay away.

Corey and Charlie spend two decades building a life together, a mortal and vampire in love, but there are some things Corey’s not willing to give up. She can move cities when Charlie’s eternal youth raises suspicion and she can rebuild her career as a music journalist after every disruption to their life, but as she gets older, it’s harder and harder to be satisfied with their nocturnal existence.

Then a moment of weakness delivers Charlie and Corey the one thing they never expected to have…and their relationship gets more complicated than either of them ever dreamed.

Find out more at Brain Jar Press

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rec160: Lotus Blue, by Cat Sparks

NOVEL

Title: Lotus Blue

Author: Cat Sparks

Publisher: Talos, 2017

In this debut novel from Canberra-based Sparks, Australia is a wasteland dotted by the fortress cities of the elite and the struggling outposts of the poor exposed to brigands, storms and the encroaching toxic sands of the Dead Red Heart. Star rides in one of the Vans that ferry goods and travellers across this blighted landscape. She is, not, however, like her compatriots, and when fate intervenes, the secret of her origin places her in the most dangerous of positions: a potential weapon both for and against a new menace. For buried in a sand-covered bunker, the titular AI has awakened, bringing with it cyborg soldiers and intelligent machines to further its designs. Former Templar soldiers caught between human and machine, the charming shyster Grieve, and wealthy fortune hunters are all swept into the search for the fearsome weapon. The result is a striking adventure story set in an intriguing world of wheeled boats, killer hi-tech storms and cybernetic wizardry.

>> Read an interview with Sparks about Lotus Blue @ the Australian Women Writers Challenge

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rec160: Saltburn

MOVIE

Title: Saltburn

Director: Emerald Fennell

Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike

Studio: LuckyChap, 2023

There is a scene in Saltburn that had one cinema patron laughing out loud, but the rest of us were quiet, possibly trying to work out whether this faintly absurdist act was one of deep unrequited love and grief, a literal ‘fuck you’, or maybe both. The film plays with contradictions and misdirections, as a privileged university student takes one less so under his wing, the consequences playing out during a holiday break at the family mansion where the dysfunctional outfit is on full display. It’s a film that speaks to those who believe that wealth is wasted on the rich, wonderfully portrayed by Richard E Grant and Pike as the parents whose echo chamber is devoid of self awareness and moral conscience. The characters generally aren’t likeable, not even our narrator and protagonist, Oliver (Keoghan), so keen to enter this rarefied milieu, and we are left to enjoy the revelations without minding who comes out on top. Wicked fun.

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rec160: Dream Scenario

MOVIE

Title: Dream Scenario

Director: Kristoffer Borgli

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson

Studio: A24, 2023

This is being pegged as a comedy, but a laugh fest it ain’t. It serves its chuckles with a strong side of pathos, physical violence and creepiness; a seduction scene is one of the most uncomfortable in recent memory. Zebras, Jung, social media, and marketing are all in the mix as a dull, moribund college professor, played convincingly by Nicolas Cage amidst a superb cast, finds his sense of ineffectiveness manifesting in the dreams of many around the world. Empathy for Paul will vary, as he has been coasting along with his ambition of writing an academic book based on a decades-old theory still trailing behind him. When the dreams burst into viral celebrity, he eagerly snatches the sudden popularity, but the two-edged sword bites hard when his dream self goes Freddy Krueger. Moments of genuine discomfort take a science fictional turn as the ramifications of the bizarre outbreak play out, a truly horrifying concept worthy of early Black Mirror.

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rec160: Godzilla Minus One

MOVIE

Title: Godzilla Minus One

Studio: Toho Studios, Robot Communication, 2023

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Starring: Kamiki Ryunosuke, Minami Hamabe

Japanese with English subtitles

If you want to know how to invest a creature feature with heart, you could do worse than turn your attention to this Japanese kaiju film. While it taps the lore of the long-running Godzilla movies and rewards the big screen with sound and visual effects, it invests its story with a surprising degree of emotion for the genre. Pilot Shikishima is struggling with the aftermath of World War II, during which he encountered the yet-to-be mighty monster in a prelude to the core story. For Shikishima and his fellow veterans, especially being on the losing side, the war is hard to shake. Add the bold Noriko and an orphan baby to Shikishima’s world, and the three make an unconventional unit of survivors. Then, of course, there’s the monster and its offer of redemption amid the destruction. The anti-war theme is pointed but not overblown, the final salute to a vanquished foe speaking volumes. A fabulous addition to the canon.