By Anthony Carnitas
Was becoming an author always on the radar or did something change in your life that put you on the path?
CZ: I must have had an inclination early on, because I attempted to write a novel in high school.
But I don’t think I took writing seriously until my mid twenties. I started a blog about my experiences in the adult industry. It developed a small readership, something that provided enough of a feedback loop for me to keep doing it for several years.
At the same time, I was working on a manuscript that leaned more into my aesthetic and genre sensibilities. That ended up being the first novel I’m proud of: The Wolves That Live in Skin and Space.
I’m a huge fan of horror because the genre is limitless—especially in books. Now that everyone’s hands are in it these days, was there any pressure to create something unique?
CZ: Of course, I’d love to believe my work is unique. And I do think there’s a certain flavor to my recent books that would be difficult to replicate – if only for some of the lived experience that goes into this stuff.
At the same time, I play with genre tropes that have been recycled a million times over. My novel, The Magician, is about revenge, redemption, black magic, the nature of good and evil, etc… None of that stuff is new.
I just believe in throwing anything that works into a novel. The combinations and iterations can produce compelling material, or something that feels like it hasn’t been done before, even if that’s not entirely true.
UNK Post is a post-production studio in Los Angeles that collaborates with independent and prominent companies. Where would you like this venture to go since you own the company?
CZ: So, yes, I do technically own a business called UNK Post. At the moment, it’s more or less a one man operation.
In short, the career I’ve built for myself over the past decade is in video editing and motion design. I work freelance for a number of brands, agencies, and production companies throughout the United States.
I’d love to get to a point where I have a small, reliable team that can service advertising needs for larger brands. Right now, I’m mostly brought on to those kinds of projects via a larger agency that needs help or wants to farm out some of their excess work.
To answer your question: this is my job. The only real goal is to make my clients happy and make money.
Give us some insight on what it was like editing, starring, producing and screenwriting your short film The Magician which was directed by Matthew Kaundart? Where can we see it?
CZ: The Magician is my most recent novel. It’s also something I sought out to do as a multimedia project.
Initially, I’d dreamed up a literary art book, wherein fine art photos would accompany the text. My friend and collaborator, Luka Fisher, agreed to help produce the photo shoots. She also suggested that we expand the project to include video. So we did.
Luka brought on director, Matthew Kaundart, and photographer, Gina Canavan, to bring the project to life.
Unfortunately, I’d barely started writing the book. So everyone had to wait on me to write a section and then come up with what we would do, visually, to accompany the text. It was an inefficient way to make a film. The production schedule ended up lasting several years. I think everyone’s excitement kind of dwindled by the end of it.
I’d started out by funding the project via sex work. Halfway through, I decided that I no longer wanted to do porn or be a hustler. So funding the project also became difficult.
There’s an essay I wrote about the whole process that’s included in my short story collection, Creation: On Art and Unbecoming.
I’m proud of the work we did. But I don’t think I’d attempt something like that ever again. Filmmaking is too complex and stressful to do in such a haphazard fashion. People can become a bit resentful if you drag them into a project with no end in sight.
Anyway, you can watch the short film on my website: ChristopherZeischegg.com
In Body to Job, the novel is both memoir and fiction on the adult film industry. The stories were written between 2010 and 2016. I really liked your experimental voice instead of the standard memoir recipe. What made you experiment with the project?
CZ: The early iterations of that material were written for a blog I’d started in order to document my experiences in the adult industry. So, when I approached Rare Bird (the publisher), I knew I had the skeleton of a memoir. I just needed to flesh it out.
But I approach a book in a different way than a short story or essay. Of course, I’m aiming for aesthetic cohesion. Beyond that, it feels like an opportunity to play with whatever forms make sense in order to communicate a feeling or idea.
My porn career ended, basically, overnight. The year or two that followed was chaotic, devastating, etc… In exploring that period of my life in a literary context, I felt less restricted by reality. It seemed that I was going through hell. How could I make sense of that? I just expanded the language to include elements of genre, magical realism, and whatever else I felt worked to convey that.
Come to My Brother is a coming-of-age story about David and all the people that shift in and out of his life. It’s also about vampires. Is there anything that influenced you to set the story in the early 2000’s?
CZ: This is the book I like talking about the least.
I wrote the first draft in my early twenties. And yes, it’s about vampires.
Part of me thinks it’s fun. Part of me is utterly embarrassed. But whatever. I feel that way about most areas of my life.
It’s a good snapshot of where I was at during that period of my life. Would I recommend anyone read it? Not really.
It’s set in the early 2000’s because that’s when I wrote it.
There’s a human element in Come to My Brother which makes for an engaging and stellar read. Why that route when you could’ve made a slasher narrative with no empathy?
CZ: I’m not entirely sure how to answer this.
Happy to hear you enjoyed the book. But this is the only one of my novels that feels, to me, like it was written by someone else or in a different life. It’s basically my perspective as a kid. I find it hard to relate to anymore.
The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space is a critique on consumption and how people deal with it from various vantage points. A story about obsession. I’m curious if the content is just a reflection about our voyeuristic society and its desire to watch violence?
CZ: I don’t think I’m smart enough to start a book with a big picture idea like, “This is going to be a critique of [fill in the blank].”
TWTLISAS was my response to the loneliness, isolation, and burnout I was starting to feel working in the adult industry at that time. It wasn’t like I began with those themes in mind. I just started writing down some of the real-life problems I was having, and then thinking about what I could do with that in a more expansive narrative and genre context.
Any insight into society at large is there by accident.
The Magician is a dark metaphysical story about struggle and indecision on a narrator whose alter ego binges on all kinds of things in Los Angeles. Despite the disturbing imagery splattered in the novel—was it challenging to offer an act of redemption on a narrator like this?
CZ: Well, the narrator is me. Or a more stupid or less self-aware version of me.
The Magician is a blend of autofiction, horror, and noir. While much of it is not “true,” it’s loosely based on the year or two that followed my porn retirement. I’m not sure I thought of it as a redemption narrative when I was writing the book. The ending felt more like an act of giving up, like I’d fucked up too badly and there was a kind of resignation to a slower, more insidious kind of evil.
But friends and mine and readers have pointed out a more sincere spiritual redemption narrative under the surface. I think that’s currently a work in progress.
The Magician has recently been translated into German by Festa Verlang. An achievement for any aspiring author. Did you think that’d happen so fast considering you’re still a budding indie writer?
CZ: The translation was a wonderful and unexpected opportunity.
Wish I had more insight into how it happened. Festa Verlag reached out to me, I think, after seeing some organic response to the book online. So, I guess I’m just grateful to everyone who’s read The Magician and shared their recommendation on social media.
For anyone that hasn’t heard of you, I feel your latest book, Creation, should be read last since it’s a culmination of all your ideas put into one book. A deep dive in the art world and how it’s spawned. Looking back—was it a nihilistic lifestyle that paved way for the renaissance that’s sprung into your life?
CZ: That’s probably a reductive way of putting it, but I more or less agree.
I used to be a hooker. Now I’m invested in monogamy and family.
I used to align myself with a nihilistic or pessimistic worldview. Now I believe in God and at least strive toward a more optimistic vision of the future.
But I also love the aesthetics of violence. No matter how my worldview changes, I’ll likely keep incorporating that stuff into my work.
What’s your favorite horror novel?
CZ: Of all time? Not sure. I definitely jumped on the B.R. Yeager bandwagon the past few years. Negative Space seems to be the contemporary horror masterpiece by all standards I’m aware of.
What’s your favorite horror movie?
CZ: Again, it’s hard to pick my favorite of all time.
I watch fewer movies in general these days. But back in my mid-twenties, I remember being blown away by Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs. I’ve heard it doesn’t quite hold up, though, so I’m hesitant to revisit.
I also loved Event Horizon as a kid. That movie is still really fun.
If these past four years have taught us anything it’s taking things day by day. But what can your fans expect next?
CZ: I’m currently working on a horror novel and its sequel. It will likely be a couple of years before I publish either.
Many consider you a new voice in transgressive fiction. In my opinion that’s a huge accomplishment considering the turf is hard to crack since a certain skillset is required to master that style of writing. What other areas of writing do you want to explore?
CZ: I’m working on the horror project I mentioned in the previous answer.
Beyond that, I abstractly have an idea for the next book I want to write. Not sure if it will explicitly be horror. Likely something in the realm of dark magical realism.
That’s a long way off, though. I can always change my mind.
The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space
Christopher Zeischegg
Set in Los Angeles amidst a dying adult film industry, real-life porn star and cam model Danny Wylde recounts the end of his career. He bears his last months with the death of a friend, a client’s dangerous fantasy, a secret boyfriend, and a family bent on destroying him. Wylde’s second novel moves the literature of pornography’s narrative past its decadent history and into the world of disposable, tube-site celebrity, month-to-month living, and dissolving barriers between consumer and consumed.
Continue Reading…
Article originally Published in the Spring 2025 Issue: Genres in Bloom.