THE SLUTS is a product of 8 years' work and your lengthiest novel by far. Can you give us a brief history of this "black sheep cousin" to the GEORGE MILES CYCLE?

I started writing THE SLUTS in 1993, right after I finished my novel TRY. At that point, I thought it might be the fourth novel in the cycle. The cycle has a kind of mirrored or circular or bowtie physical structure, and the novels fit together in a kind of sculptural or architectural way. To make that work, I originally thought the fourth novel needed to reflect the extreme, pornographic content in FRISK explicitly, but after working on the novel for a while, I changed my mind and wrote GUIDE instead. THE SLUTS, which of course had a one word title back then that I can't recall, was sidelined. Then after GUIDE, I went back to it thinking it might be the last novel in the cycle, but, after a while, I realized it wouldn't work, and I put it away again and wrote PERIOD. I worked on it in occasional spurts until I finally finished it a couple of years ago. It's been radically rewritten over time, so there isn't much of it left from the early drafts. The internet context came in when I thought it might be the final novel in the cycle. PERIOD, which replaced it, is partially set on the internet in a different kind of way. The earliest extant part is 'Email, Fax,' which is from the first draft, and 'Ad' is the second oldest part. The rest of the novel in its current form came mostly about between about 1998 and 2002. I call it a black sheep cousin of the cycle because its conception is from that period of my interests, and because its structure is identical to the structure of the novels in the cycle, all of which have the exact same physical shape. But it's not part of the cycle. It's a side project. It's much lighter and looser and doesn't have the gravity or stylistic complexity of the cycle novels.

Why were you advised not to publish THE SLUTS? And why did you decide to go ahead with it anyway?

There's always been pressure on me from certain quarters to write something more accessible and less troublesome. There's this whole idea that's always been floated at me that there are all these critics and publishing big wigs who think I'm a great writer and would jump at the chance to hail me if my work wasn't so difficult. I don't buy it for a second, but it's out there and it's been a particularly loud wall of sound since I finished the cycle. So THE SLUTS was the last thing these people wanted, and I happened to write this more accessible novel GOD JR., and that's what people were interested in. So I said, fine, and shelved THE SLUTS, as I was advised to do. But Void offered me a chance to publish it in a controlled, limited way, and that seemed perfect, and it was acceptable to my agent and publisher. Also, the way I wrote THE SLUTS in stops and starts is really strange to me, and I have a different feeling about it than I have about any of my other novels. It does feel like a side project to me, whether it is or not. I like it, obviously, but I don't have the deep confidence in it that I usually do with a novel. I feel like I'll know what to think about it after people have read it and the verdict is in.

Tell us about Hooboy's male4malescorts. Were there any other websites or blogs that influenced THE SLUTS?

It's a website where johns review escorts and talk on message boards about their experiences with escorts. I got kind of fascinated by it a few years ago - the whole structure of it and the language used there and the delusionary quality of the whole thing. It's like a segregated, very developed society set up by and for the horny, with a hierarchy and a class system and superstars

and fans and stalkers and the whole thing. It seemed like an interesting form that I could use and manipulate to write the novel. Even though nothing nearly as wild and elaborate has ever taken place on that site, it seemed like a place where a huge, mythological scam could take place. It was the main inspiration for THE SLUTS, but there are a lot of sites I studied in different ways to build the whole extreme and crazy story. I actually made a resource center for myself when I was working on the novel with links to different sites I was studying in relationship to particular chapters, and if people want to link to www.denniscooper.net, it's posted there somewhere.

Have you happened upon any particularly nasty threads on male4malescorts or elsewhere?

It depends on what you mean by nasty. There hasn't been any threads I've come across that are as elaborate and evolved as the one I created for THE SLUTS. Usually, the craziest stuff will start online and then disappear into the private realm, so it's more like I've seen an extreme situation begin or seem to begin, and then, poof, I don't know if it really transpired or whether it remained a fantasy hook up. The most intense stuff I found was taking place on these fringe SM, master and slave meeting sites. Maybe you remember that case last year in Germany where this guy who had a cannibalism fetish killed a guy whose fantasy was that he wanted to be eaten? Well, that's small potatoes compared to some of the solicitations I found on some of those sites. Like guys whose sexual fetish is being severely brain damaged, and guys whose fetish is causing severe brain damage. Or like guys who are into what's called worming, which is having someone amputate their limbs and genitals so they can live out their life as a human worm on their master's floor. Let's just say there are either a whole lot of unreported and unsolved disappearances and deaths out there in the world, or there are a whole lot of people making arrangements to do extreme things and then chickening out.

Can you explain how the structure of the ‘Ad' chapter relates to that of its sister chapter, ‘Email, Fax,' as well as the rest of the book?

The chapter is presented in a thin column to create an association with poetry so the reader is forced to pay attention to the words and sentences and pauses with the kind of care normally required when reading poetry. So there's a tension between the writing itself, which is spare but not poetic, and the form, which treats the writing with more respect than it's necessarily due. Also the form creates a particular rhythm, which, again, is kind of at odds with the natural rhythm of the writing. It created an effect I wanted - something that seemed raw and transcribed but very composed and suspect at the same time. The 'Email, Fax' chapter is its fraternal twin or echo. Again, it's in a column, but a more naturalistic one, so it has the same 'real or Memorex' quality, but is weighted more towards the realistic. If you pay attention to the novel's form - and I'm not saying you need to, because I want the effects to be more subliminal - those two chapters effect and color each other, and they effect the whole realistic/unrealistic play in the novel at large.

You and NYC graffiti artist Todd James were unfamiliar with each others' work before he was asked to provide illustrations for THE SLUTS. Having worked closely with various artists in the past, how do you feel about this "shotgun" collaboration in retrospect?

I like it. I think there should be more of his illustrations in the book, if anything.

You've noted that your forthcoming novel, GOD JR., is PG-13 rated. As it stands, is this a mere hiatus or perhaps the beginning of a permanent departure from the violent and sexually unbridled writing you're known for?

I have no idea, really. After the cycle, which was a ten year long project with a lot of self-imposed rules about form and style and content, I just want to take it book by book now and see what happens. I just want to keep challenging myself, whatever it takes. My plan is to keep trying to do something completely new for me, and if I write about sexual fantasy again, it'll be because I feel like I have something fresh and important to say about it. I'm thinking about maybe continuing my exploration of sexual fantasy in another medium and going elsewhere with my fiction. I've always wanted to make a porn film, for instance. I think it's a medium with incredible potential that's just being squandered away. I might very well do that if I can find someone to finance it.

What does 2005 have in store for Dennis Cooper?

Well, my next 'real' novel GOD JR. comes out in August from Grove Press. Also, there's this CD/book project being put together by Substandard Records and Versus Press. It's called DENNIS, and it features a new novella by me and a CD compilation of songs inspired by my novels by a bunch of bands and musicians. It comes out in the winter or spring, I think. There's a book of essays on my work called something like ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK: THE DANGEROUS ART OF DENNIS COOPER that comes out in the fall. Leora Lev edited it, and it has essays by William Burroughs, John Waters, Michael Cunningham, Dodie Bellamy, Avital Ronell, Matthew Stadler, and a whole bunch of others. And I'm working on a bunch of collaborations here and in Europe. So it'll be a pretty busy year, I guess.

Name ten restaurants that have gone out of business that you loved and really miss.

Golden Temple of Consciousness (Los Angeles, CA)

El Coyote (Manhattan)

Al Penny's (Culver City, CA)

Cafe Figaro (West Hollywood, CA)

this Chinese place that had amazing cold sesame noodles on Second Avenue near 5th Street (Manhattan)

Nick's Restaurant (Palms, CA)

this Chinese place that had amazing cold sesame noodles on W. Broadway just north of Houston (Manhattan)

H.E.L.P. (Hollywood, CA)

Micelli's (Westwood Village, CA)

Govinda's (Venice, CA)

When PERIOD was released, the word was that the person on the cover was JT Leroy. Yet your website states that the photo is of George Miles. Can you clear this up?

I'd love to clear up that whole myth in detail, but I can't because I made a promise. And even though a promise was made to me in return that has been broken countless times, I keep my word. But I'll say this. Those are not pictures of JT Leroy. Those are pictures of my great friend and muse George Miles that I took in my backyard in 1967 when I was fourteen and he was twelve.

-Questions by Alex Kasavin