Tom Ghostly
... is writing about Beachlandia.

For a synopsis and content-related aspects, it is best to take a look at the sub-section of the website called »Beachlandia«.

The style of the novel, which depicts the 78 hours that Lou Zipsky and his friends experience after his return to Beachlandia, could best be described as “complex”, “maximalist” and “transgressive”. There are countless storylines, the novel oscillates between a wide variety of literary genres and draws on registers of both high and popular literature and media.

Phrases from T. S. Eliot's 434-line poem »The Waste Land« are also placed quite prominently in the text. The novel—as absurd as this may seem at first glance—sees itself in its entirety as a translation of the same poem, although it negates the reader's expectation of a traditional translation. Whatever echoes of »The Waste Land« can be found amidst the fragments of »Beachlandia«, the reader may or may not be benevolent enough to take these echoes as an auto-commentary on an experimental translation.

However, »Beachlandia« is also a very long novel that is by no means finished with the publication of the first volume. Although the first part consists of over 850 pages, further volumes will continue narrating the events surrounding Lou Zipsky and his re-entry into the red walls until »Beachlandia« and his story are finished.
The reading sample should be your first port of call and will also be good indicator of whether or not you will enjoy the rest of the novel if you are still unsure based on the description. Overall, however, it can be said that although the novel incorporates elements of popular literature, it will not meet expectations for streamlined, fast-paced entertainment novels and requires more active participation from the reader, as it is multi-course (non-linear) in design and encourages many different ways of reading it.
 
So if readers are not open to the diversity of literature and assume that the novel is structured schematically, for example according to the three-act structure, or that it is paced like thrillers or YA-novels, the experience will be disappointing. However, if readers approach the novel with the mindset that diversity in literature is a good thing, they will find themselves in exactly the right place.
 
You will find reading samples from »Beachlandia« in the section of the same name on the website as soon as they have been compiled.

Only to a limited extent. I do not want to go so far as to claim that »Beachlandia« is something incomparable and unique, but to be honest, making comparisons to »Beachlandia« is hard ...

 

At the same time, however, i do believe that »Beachlandia« should also appeal to all those who are interested in high literature, such as the novels of

 
  • Robert Musil (»The Man without Qualities«)
  • Donna Tartt (»The secret History«)
  • Thomas Pynchon (»Gravity's Rainbow«)
  • William Gaddis (»The Recognitions«)
  • Franz Kafka (»Amerika«, »The Trial«, »The Castle«)
  • David Foster Wallace (»Infinite Jest«, »The Pale King«)
  • William Gass (»The Tunnel«)
  • Arno Schmidt (»Bottom's Dream«)
  • Marianne Fritz (»Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst«, untranslated)
  • Michael Lentz (»Schattenfroh«)
  • Mircea Cărtărescu (»Solenoid«)
 
Incidentally, »Beachlandia« is not entirely unfamiliar in its narrative structure to fantasy novels, even though it is not a classic fantasy novel or epic fantasy per se. Rather, the novel takes a playful approach to literary precursors of this kind in order to defy the reader's expectations, so the similarities are mostly limited to structural overlapping.
In terms of direct literary influences and inspirations, I refer for the time being to authors such as Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Donna Tartt, David Foster Wallace, Arno Schmidt, Marianne Fritz, Marcel Proust, Thomas Pynchon, Mircea Cartarescu, Stephen King, Alfred Kubin, John Irving, ...
 
However, literary works are by no means the only source of inspiration. Just like literary works, I am fascinated by the paintings of Francis Bacon and Franz Sedlacek. Movies keep inspiring me through the works of David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Charlie Kaufmann, Marco Ferreri, David Cronenberg, the Coen Brothers, Jean Cocteau, etc.
  
But popular culture also exerts an influence on me through Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Batman and Donald Duck comics, Japanese mangas such as One Piece and video games from the 1980s and 1990s (mainly Nintendo), which should not be underestimated in this regard.
 
A graphic of this complex network of inspirations may be put online in the future.

Certainly not.

»Beachlandia I« was a very head-scratching endeavor for long periods of time, at least for the first 10+ years, mainly due to the fact that I was desperately trying to break new ground poetically. A blueprint that I could have applied simply didn't exist and still doesn't more than ten years later, so the writing process involved a lot of trial and error.

Since mid to late 2022, however, things have been running much more smoothly because I have been able to try out various concepts in detail. Although I still don't write as quickly as authors of the popular spectrum, I now work quite effectively and in a structured way, even though I still am fueled by somewhat of a chaotic spirit at times.

For progress on the latest »Beachlandia«-volumes and up-to-date assessments of release dates, it's best to keep an eye on the Now-Seite or the sub-section entitled section entitled »Beachlandia«. der Website im Auge.

I like to keep this under wraps, as I don't know the answer myself. Only on a few days am I forthcoming enough to suggest that nothing less than three volumes will do. It could be three, five, seven, twenty, a hundred... because my mind keeps wandering, and it's harder to run out of ideas than to come up with new ones every day. But whatever comes to mind, I ultimately have to write it down, and that is sometimes less enjoyable than the ethereal loops of thought in hypnopompic states of wakefulness, such as after waking up.
 
Ultimately, the question of how many volumes »Beachlandia« will comprise is linked to distribution issues. It is much easier to say that »Beachlandia« will consist of thirteen parts, but how many volumes these will span is not for me to answer.

Yes, although I am most active on Goodreads most of the time. Overall, however, I interact relatively little there as well; I primarily use the platform to discover new literature and manage digital bookshelves.

 

Unfortunately, social media is a real time-sink. I am also on Instagram, but my activity level varies. You can also contact me via Twitter or X, but I am quite comfortable remaining passive for extended periods of time.

 

If I spent too much time on social media, I would neglect my work on »Beachlandia«—and the latter is my top priority and my opus extremum, perhaps even what remains of a spirit when it moves on.

I have written a longer article on this subject, in which I go into some points in detail. You can find this article here. Shedding light on my own writing process is not meant to be an act of self-glorification; I am simply fascinated by the diversity of approaches when it comes to writing complex and poetologically divergent novels.
 
My own interest in this area is motivated both by literary studies and by my personal writing. With this article, I am attempting to participate in the discourse on how complex maximalist novels and the like are written. I do not think much of the idea of a work of art that is created ex nihilo, out of nowhere, and which bears no traces of its coming into being.
 
What is important to me, however, is the processual aspect of art, illustrating what writers take on when they commit themselves to such a complex idea. Auratic works of art may have their appeal, but I prioritize, to a certain extent, the demystification of them, maybe to take away the fear or hesistance in us to create something important ourselves.
 
That said, I consider auto-exegetical works (works interpreted by the author), such as Michael Lentz's »Innehaben«, the companion volume to »Schattenfroh,« to be a mistake, albeit a legitimate one. One can always take it a step too far.
Yes and no.
 
No, because I have a job, currently at a university library. So I mainly write on weekends, after work, and on the endless train journeys between my home and workplace.
 
Yes, because the concept of authorship that I unconsciously internalized at some point is that of a writer who does not only write when he is writing. Even in moments when I am not writing, many unconscious processes are set in motion that steer the direction in which my texts develop. Even sleep is an important factor, dreams no less than everything that happens on the threshold between wakefulness and sleep. And even when reading all kinds of literature, it is impossible for me to simply read for pleasure. My own work always lies like a veil, a ghostly patina over the works of others, demanding active exchange.
 
There are weeks when I write almost nothing, or spend 90% of my time spare time thinking about »Beachlandia«, while writing makes up no more than 10%. Some people would say that this formula is wrong, that it should be the other way around if you ever want to make serious progress. Nevertheless, i firmly believe that full-time authors are not defined by how many books they publish or how much time they spend behind the keyboard or with a pencil or pen in their hand, but by how much they live their work in all their moments away from the actual writing.

Due to its multi-part structure, »Beachlandia« will keep me busy for years to come and consume all my capacities. Although other literary digressions are constantly circulating in my head, my focus lies solely on »Beachlandia«—and that will remain the case for the foreseeable future. I will only devote myself to other projects once »Beachlandia« is as complete as it can ever be.

I do believe in Tom Ghostly being the bigger of the two of us. I prefer to define myself solely through my writing and the documentation of my writing processes.
 
Every text speaks for itself. And about the author. Probably more than the author would like to.

At the moment, publication is still quite a few months away. As soon as there is something concrete, I will announce it on the website. The safest way will then be to request a copy via the contact form, but it will be a while before then.

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