My book of short fiction, "Ryan Seacrest is Famous," was published in 2007 by Impetus Press. Here's a quick summary: In Ryan Seacrest is Famous, Dave Housley lovingly skewers pop culture -- and our obsession with it -- in all its benign yet bizarre, addictive and addled glory. With a keen wit and knowing eye for detail, he depicts a still-living Jack Kerouac as an infomercial fitness icon, a man literally driven crazy by the fact that Ryan Seacrest is famous, young obsessive compulsive whose roommates start a movement based around the movie Fight Club, and other casualties of the pop culture wars. Serious fiction with pop sensibility, Ryan Seacrest is Famous will delight fans of Road House and On the Road alike.
Here's what a few reviewers have had to say about Ryan Seacrest is Famous:
PopMatters.com
"Housely’s stories are almost all irresistibly funny. Frogs write back to princesses, wrestlers sellout, combat photographers long for disaster, D.J.s go psychotic, clowns break all the rules, and Jimmy Hendrix is alive with a twelve-step-program. America, Housely seems to say, has finally and decisively opted to be totally popcorn, as the narrator of “Are you Street of Popcorn?” cries out in his moment of ultimate crises, we are all popcorn now: “’Royale with cheese … Space, the final frontier’ I shout. ‘Stacy’s Mom has got it going on! . .. These Pretzles are making me thirsty! You Bastard you killed Kenny!’” FULL REVIEW HERE
Bookslut
How many authors could write a book titled RYAN SEACREST IS FAMOUS and have it not only be skin-aching funny, but also built on lean, smart sentences, with ideas just as witty as they are funny? Probably not more than a handful, really, and of them all Dave Housley has brought the pain: his collection, under the aforementioned title (which, if it hasn’t won some kind of Best Title for a Collection already, may I be the first to knight it brilliant), came out late '07 from the very powerful and recently deceased indie Impetus Press.
Housley’s book contains one of the ultimate pop culture smashups in recent literary history, combining figures such as the titular Ryan Seacrest, Jack Kerouac, Elvis, a frog princess, and a battalion of other pop freaks into a range of literary short stories that are as surprising in execution as they are in pure random energy...But let me sell you RYAN SEACREST IS FAMOUS in one line: the first sentence reads, “I shaved my balls a day after Claire left..” FULL INTERVIEW HERE
NewPages.com
"This debut collection is littered with pop culture references, and I can almost guarantee that you'll catch way more of them than you'd like. These stories, which originally appeared in magazines such as Nerve, Backward City Review, and Hobart, take on a variety of pop culture types, including reality television, professional wrestling, and wedding DJs. Fortunately for us, Housley goes past the most obvious hipster-ironic observations and into the more earnest territories reserved for true pop culture fanatics." FULL REVIEW HERE
JMWW
Housley's writing is sharp, clean, and clever. He has a particular knack for titles, including pearls like "Namaste, Bitches," "Fight Club Club," and "Are You Street or Popcorn?" Often, it seems the better the title, the better the story. And certain images will sear themselves into your brain, such as Ryan Seacrest perched on a golden toilet or pubic hair shaved in the shape of a heart.
Another impressive achievement of Ryan Seacrest Is Famous is that, while you might think that the pop culture and celebrity themes and references would grow tedious, they never do. Each story is original and surprising, even the two consecutive stories that reference Night Ranger's "Sister Christian." And because the storytelling is so sound, the book will remain fresh even once the pop culture references become dated. His characters are always believable and empathetic (if frustrating) in their mostly futile quests to find what they think is missing. FULL REVIEW HERE
The Short Review
"...a fun collection, easy to read, easy to enjoy, and thoughtful too.” FULL REVIEW HERE
Ben Kharakh, Gothamist.com
"In Ryan Seacrest is Famous, his debut collection of pop-culture enfused short stories, Dave Housley makes you think, makes you laugh, and, if you're a writer, inspires you to run to your computer and get started on that premise you've been putting off. Whether it comes in the form of an alcoholic clown, people obsessed with Fight Club, or a DJ hiring a prostitute in an attempt to win back his old flame, Housley's stories are consistently engrossing, entertaining, and exciting." FULL INTERVIEW HERE
Tod Goldberg, author of Living Dead Girl and Simplify:
"Ryan Seacrest is Famous is a circus of the absurd which, like the best short fi ction, reminds us that even when life has a tragic tinge to it there are avenues open for humorous humanity, redemptive hope and, best of all, new found clarity. In Dave Housley's fictional world, pop culture is more creature feature than talk soup, yet for all the disaffected cool, the writing here is subtle and emotionally potent, each story as sharp as barbed wire."
Jim Ruland, author of Big Lonesome:
"Housley's dispatches from the celebrity-obsessed TiVo-lution being waged in our living rooms read like transcripts from the teleprompter of our collective unconsciousness. Ryan Seacrest Is Famous is both a sign that the apocalypse is slouching toward Hollywood and a hilariously entertaining read."
KGB Live, summarizing 2006 Impetus Press reading event:
Dave Housley was up next to read a story from his forthcoming collection Ryan Seacrest is Famous, a phrase which arguably sums up the reasons why so many other countries hate the United States. Look for this book to be burned (or perhaps praised?) on Al-Jazeera sometime next year. The piece he read from the collection was an open letter from the Frog Prince published in US Weekly to a princess who seems to be an amalgamation of every sex-tape making, drug snorting starlet working in Hollywood today. What started out as an exercise in pop cultural name checking dissolved into a bittersweet surreal love story that ended on a strangely moving note.
