Love Bytes says welcome to David Pratt joining us today to talk about new release: “Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High”.
Welcome David 🙂
I am very excited to be back at Love Bytes. This is my third appearance here, and it is always a pleasure. Many, many thanks, as always, to Dani and Becca.
I have a new new-adult crime thriller out, Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High. As much fun as it sounds like (and believe me, it is!) some serious thought had to go into it. So, for Love Bytes, I have interviewed myself about the ins and outs and choices and nuances of Todd Sweeney. And the murder, sex and suspense, too, of course!
Q: So—“Todd Sweeney”—kind of a blatant rip-off, eh?
A: Oh, yes.
Q: You sound proud of it.
A: Why not? It’s my book. Plus, I founded my own press to publish it, so—
Q: You didn’t think anyone else would take it?
A: No, I didn’t. Because it’s more than a rip-off, although that’s part of it. It’s kind of unclassifiable. I also wanted it to look a certain way, inside and out, because the design would be part of the “concept.”
Q: Concept? Pray, elucidate.
A: The legend of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber, was first written down in Victorian England as a penny dreadful—a kind of tawdry, sensational, serial fiction, with the emphasis on “sensational.” Literature of that era, both popular and serious, strove to create sensations in readers—to horrify them, melt their hearts, put them on the edges of their seats. A part of me always wanted to write something popular and sensational like that. I had just done a young adult novel, Wallaçonia. It had sold well, especially as an e-book, even before there had been many reviews. And I am not known. It seemed the market was just being the market, So, how much more popular would a young adult or new adult book be if it were more, well, sensational? I thought the Sweeney Todd legend would be hilarious and sexy and still scary if transplanted to the modern-day U.S. with high school kids. And yes, I thought the popularity of the legend would help.
Q: What you describe is a “meta” level to the book. So right away, then, it’s not so tawdry or so pop.
A: No, but it is. There’s a lot of sex and blood and histrionics. But there is social critique, too, delivered with humor at times, but also in scenes that horrify. One of the characters is captive in a gay conversion facility, and the scenes there are pretty awful. I hate those people. I had to portray them in the worst possible light. And the penny-dreadful-type genre helped me do that.
Q: The Sweeney Todd most of us know—the musical—has social critique, too. Is Todd Sweeney like Sweeney Todd in other ways?
A: Just the basics: kill, bake, devour, repeat. (Should I have said “spoiler alert” somewhere in there?) But my book and the musical have only four characters in common, and, even among the four, the relationships are different. Todd and Nellie are classmates and friends. Toby is Todd’s best friend. Anthony is Toby’s boyfriend. I have added parents and teachers and classmates, but there is no Beggar Woman, Judge, Beadle, Johanna or Pirelli. And the whole thing concludes with a road trip, with many more characters and situations that aren’t in any other version of the tale, going all the way back to the nineteenth century. As for social commentary, I think the musical has a problem there, which I humbly submit that I corrected.
Q: How so?
A: In the musical, Todd kills randomly. He’s enraged at missing his chance to kill the Judge, so he murders a parade of regular downtrodden guys, just like himself. Both he and the show start out disdaining “the privileged few,” but then Todd forgets social justice and kills anyone and everyone. How could that be just or admirable—or consistent with the show’s supposed message? Neither the libretto nor the lyrics provide a satisfactory answer. Todd and Mrs. Lovett are sociopaths, and as sociopaths can’t change, they can’t be true heroes or be very sympathetic. My Todd and Nellie kill specific, awful people who pose immediate threats to their loved ones. They put the pie money toward scholarships for classmates, and along the way they do express doubt and regret. They also undergo a kind of redemption on that road trip. All of this makes them more sympathetic and, frankly, sexier.
Q: So, wait. You’re a gay author and this is in some ways a gay book, it seems. But you have a sexy straight couple at the center?
A: They are allies, which is sometimes the “A” in “LGBTQA.” (Other times it means “asexual.”) Straight Todd is an ally to his best friend, gay Toby. Much of the murder and mayhem involves getting Anthony out of the gay conversion facility and back into Toby’s arms. And Todd calls himself an “androphile.” He has had sex with men and enjoyed it, but he truly loves Nellie. And I just couldn’t write about a gay couple committing serial murder. I hate the stereotype of the evil gay couple, as in Hitchcock’s Rope. I also felt that Todd and Nellie had to be “default”—straight, white and cisgender—so I wouldn’t suggest that any type of minority individual would be so vengeful or murderous. At the same time, we see that Todd’s and Nellie’s straight, white, cis privilege allows them to wave off the cops and keep friends and family cowed no matter how suspicious things look. Their privilege is why the reader likes them, ironically. Around them, though, are gay, trans, immigrant, and low-income, hard-luck characters for whom they fight and take huge risks. Todd says near he end what all he ever wanted to do was protect Toby, because a man protects. Todd is a little romantic and a little foolish.
Q: Who are the victims, then?
A: For that you are going to have to read the book! The victims’ identities become clear quite fast. It’s meant to be ridiculously obvious.
Q: You mentioned that you wanted the book to look a certain way.
A: I have been very fortunate with the designs of my books, inside and out. But I had some specific ideas with this one, so I wanted full control. I needed a cover both sensational and artful, and I think we did it. We have the obligatory shirtless young man, but the overall design was the work of a fine artist. And the shirtless young man is in fact more than obligatory. In the book, Todd and Nellie actually do their butchering naked, so there won’t be any bloody clothes to deal with.
Q: Butchering naked?? That is so hot! I am buying this book right away!
A: You know, I had a feeling you’d say that.
Author: DAVID PRATT
Title: TODD SWEENEY: THE FIEND OF FLEET HIGH
212 pages
Audience: LGBT/Allies, Young Adult/New Adult, Crime, Thriller, Satire, Feminist, Family Drama
Official Pub Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Hosta Press
A GAY BOOK ABOUT AN ALLY. Who takes it a bit too far. In “LGBTQA,” the A can stand for “ALLY.” But few gay novels have allies as heroes. Now, meet Todd Sweeney. When Todd’s lifelong gay buddy, Toby Ragg, is threatened by Fleet High’s homophobic guidance counselor, Todd swings into action. But he swings a little too hard. Enter adorable A-student Nellie Lovett, who knows how to turn a mess into a sales opportunity. Squeers vanishes tidily, but then Fleet High bad boy Ryan Plouf threatens Toby and Nellie. Suddenly, Ryan is missing, and local cop Tarron Littey has some very inconvenient questions. Then Toby’s parents want to put him in gay conversion camp. Can Todd and Nellie prevent it? What of Toby’s boyfriend, Anthony, imprisoned in another camp? And is Todd’s and Nellie’s way of “processing” bad guys about to come to light? To find out, dig in and devour Todd Sweeney. And yes, it’s okay to use your hands.
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David Pratt is the author of the novel “Bob the Book” (2010, Lambda Literary Award winner,) and a collection of stories, “My Movie” (2012) one of which became the basis for his 2014 novel “Looking After Joey.” His young adult novel, “Wallaçonia,” followed in 2017. In 2018 David founded Hosta Press, which is bringing out his contemporary new adult satire, “Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High.” Going forward, Hosta intends to pursue prose, poetry and art, with a queer focus. David has performed his work for the theater at many venues in New York City, including Dixon Place, HERE, the Duplex, the Cornelia Street Cafe and the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2018 collaborated with Michigan artist Nicholas Williams on a performance piece, “TIME,” at the Forge in Detroit.
*”Todd” photography, calligraphy and cover design by Nicholas Williams; model: John Corser; author photo: Louis Flint Ceci*
