CHRISTA FAUST: MONEY SHOT

By Alan Kelly

Christa Faust throws out five powerful adjectives to describe herself: “Cynical. Kinky. Outspoken. Audacious. Complex.”

Quentin Tarantino described her in another, but no less flattering way: “Christa Faust is a Veronica in a world of Betties.”

A self-proclaimed “Hard-boiled cynical bitch,” she is the first female writer published by Hard Case Crime with her new novel Money Shot...

In the opening chapters Angel Dare -- an uncompromising, strong, occasionally ruthless (although not without justification) woman -- is raped, beaten half to death and shot. Angel spends the rest of the book, dressed as a man, seeking out the bastards responsible and, as in all Faust’s novels, finds ultra-violence her only reliable ally. “My female characters tend to have a lot of attributes that are traditionally considered “masculine,” she says. “They remain essentially female at their cores, but they are also pro-active rather than strictly reactive, choosing (often violent) action over words.”

It is a pretty thin catalogue of literature if you’re seeking gung-ho, trigger-happy women. Baise-Moi by Virginia Despentes,  Dirty Weekend by Helen Zahavi and Queenpin are just three of the obscure titles that come to mind. It could be said that there is a dearth of hard-boiled women in fiction. Faust would agree.

“There aren’t nearly enough tough yet realistic female heroes in any genre. In crime writing you get a lot of too-curious-for-their-own-good perpetual victim types and plenty of ferocious hotties with guns who are just tough guys with tits. On the other hand there are other writers out there creating the kind of complicated, tough but flawed and yet still essentially female characters I find most appealing.”

For those who enjoy darker stories, Faust’s books run at an exhilarated pace, revel in violence, sink to the depths of depravity and debauchery and are delightfully satisfying to read. One suspects Faust has fun writing them, too. “Some days writing is fun and other days it’s like pulling teeth, but the trick is to keep at it. If I only worked when it was fun, I’d be homeless, pushing a shopping cart down Hollywood Boulevard. I’d love to claim that it’s all just effortless lark, but its tough going sometimes.”

Christa is strongly influenced by horror writers like Clive Barker,  Ray Bradbury and Karl Edward Wagner,  as much as the hard-boiled heavy-weights like Stark/Westlake, Day Keene, Richard S. Prather and of course Chandler,  Hammet and Thompson. Christa is also a professional dominatrix and swing-dancer. Of this, she says: “It came very natural. In fact, discovering the BDSM scene was like finally putting a name to something that had been there all along.” Faust was raised in New York City, ran away a lot, wrote a lot. “When I was young, I felt like I was the only one who had these kinds of weird thoughts,  and then when I found out there’s a whole world of other people who are just like me,  it was like coming home.”

Among Faust’s other works are a collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite, Triads; a novelization of Snakes on a Plane; and tie-ins for both Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, even imbuing Freddy with that particular menace (you’ll never quite look at a tire-iron and a pretty teenage girl in quite the same way again) last seen in Wes Craven’s original. Although Faust admits she had little control over the material: “I was led to write about Snakes on a Plane and Freddy and Jason by the pay check. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love writing tie-ins and had a real blast trying my hand at famous monsters, but I didn’t get to choose the subject matter. I did,” Faust adds slyly,  “get to sneak some of my own flavors into those books just for fun.”

She continues: “As for the ‘real’ books, I write about things that interest me.” Her first novel,  Control Freak, is set in New York City’s sadomasochistic underground. “Clearly Control Freak, while its not even remotely biographical, was about something very close to my heart. As for my other books,  I get these crushes on certain topics,  a kind of fascination or obsession that drives me to learn all about something like Lucha Libre or Peking Opera.”

Faust’s favorite monster movie is Creature from the Black Lagoon: “that scene where he swims upside down under Kay is brilliant,  gorgeous,  creepy and at the same time weirdly sexy.” Money Shot could easily, given the right director at the helm translate to screen. Faust agrees. “Sure, some of my other books, like my previous novel HOODTOWN would be pretty difficult to make into a movie, but I think Money Shot could easily make the transition to the big screen.”

So, like her contemporary Poppy Z Brite, who has more or less moved away from dark literature, does Faust ever see herself being lured from the underbelly? “I write what I like to read. That is always subject to change,  of course, but I don’t really see myself moving into, say, chick-lit. I think it’s a safe bet to say that I’ll always be attracted to fiction that explores the darker side of human nature.”

Money Shot is published by Hardcase Crime Fiction.