FEB 2012
“YA WANNA DO IT HERE OR DOWN THE STATION, PUNK?”: JJ DECEGLIE
Rapid Fire Q&A on Irish author Declan Burke's blog Crime Always Pays
Read the interview here!
FEB 2012
SHORT, SHARP INTERVIEW: JJ DECEGLIE
JJ talks with Paul D Brazill about his novel 'Drawing Dead', his favourite films, TV series & reading habits (Amongst other things)
Read the interview here!
FEB 2012
NEW AMAZON EBOOK RELEASE: 'DRAWING DEAD'
To purchase your copy, click here!
PRAISE FOR 'DRAWING DEAD'
"Drawing Dead is a brilliant noir from one of Australia's most exciting new novelists."
Adrian McKinty, author of "Dead I Well May Be", "Fifty Grand", "Falling Glass" and "The Cold, Cold Ground"
"A terrifying portrait of a man destined to lose, Drawing Dead is at once
stark and lyrical, with the ghosts of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain
whispering all over the pages. Keep an eye out for JJ Deceglie, a stunning
new voice in crime fiction."
Jon Bassoff, publisher of New Pulp Press
"An impressive, memorable voice, with dark echoes of Bruen and Sallis and Ellroy. You won’t soon forget this book."
Charles Ardai, publisher of Hard Case Crime
"Drawing Dead is classic pulp with some generous fucking helpings of despair, graphic sex, and dark humor,
a tight neo-noir that’s not afraid to go full-dark when it counts. If that sounds like your piping hot
cuppa, dear reader, go and fucking get yourself some."
Nerd of Noir, Spinetingler
Read the full review here
JULY 2011
COMING SOON: 'PRINCES WITHOUT A KINGDOM'
JJ DeCeglie's highly anticipated new novel...Princes Without a Kingdom...
described as a booming metaphysical spectacle of dark Dostoyevskian proportions...
unrelentingly exploring life and meaning with characters larger than hurtling planets...
with confrontations the equal of unanticipated crashing meteors...
story that will wrap you in a mental bind, and refuse to release.
"Princes Without a Kingdom quickly drummed up a fire in me, which was sustained till the end.
The book is filled with characters of such determination, single-pointed sincerity,
and depth that it almost doesnt require a plot. With the seriousness of Tolstoy,
and the grit of Hemingway, DeCeglie shall go on to join the greats of literature."
Levin A. Diatschenko, author of The Rooftop Sutras.
JUNE 2011
NEW INTERVIEW WITH JJ DECEGLIE @ CRIMINAL-E
JJ DeCeglie talks with Allan Guthrie about his poker novel 'Damned Good', his writing methods and his crime fiction reading habits.
CRIMINAL-E
READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE
APRIL 2011
EXCERPT PUBLISHED FROM THE UNPUBLISHED WORK 'WORLD OF THE DEAD'
THE BLACK RIDER PRESS
'The face is solemn, driven. The features cut from a cool blue slate.
Blue rose pastel lips like precisely smeared wax. The beard tinged blue
just so slightly amidst its orange brown cuts the face sharper, it is brilliance.
Body all huddled in the huge dark coat outlined in black and set in the right hand corner.
The blue of the coat and the blue of the background a contrast set.
Behind him the blue of summers evening sky just before its turns to night,
his coat instead the black blue of night, a contrast like warm ocean and bitter
cold sea, his background Paris evening bohemia, but his hovelled here self wrapped
deeper in dark blue with eyes determined, sober, features still with devil shaped black
eyebrows and darkly hair mop, the coat collar right up to his chin, only revealing his
face, drawn and handsome, blue hue of white night skin, his face is the illumination
between the contrast of the blues on the canvas, the smudged haphazard warm strokes of
the outside behind him; and the strict frost capture of his coat that warms him,
disciplines him, makes the artist of him. Sep admires him. Is drawn to the moment on the page.
Feels the mood of this piece feel him. Leads directly into this stream. The writer.
Character. Blur. Blurred. This release. This stream. Everything a cut or shot from
somewhere in his head and existence. An excuse to go on living.'
THE BLACK RIDER PRESS - "....delivers the kind of stories you should be reading,
penned by the kin of Black Rider Hepcats you should know about"
READ THE ENTIRE EXCERPT HERE
MAR 2011
KICKING IT WITH JJ DECEGLIE
THE BLACK RIDER PRESS
'It took me about a year to track down JJ Deceglie.
Id originally found him through following (and later publishing)
Nathan Hobbys work. For ages Id been wanting JJ to climb up onto
Cottonmouths stage. I couldnt get a hold of him. I couldnt find him
too elusive, too non-descript.
See, JJ is exactly the kind of hepcat I dig. This cats work is so heavy
forget whatever youre told anything is supposed to be. This cat is so heavy.
Hes concocted the novella the sea is not yet full, the short story
collection In the Same Streets Youll Wander Endlessly, Australias
first novel about poker Damned Good, and his most recent novella Ennui
and Despair. Plus lots of stories published all over the place.
Out of the blue a year later I heard from him, had crept out of
the depths of Freo, and over jars in the Sail & Anchor then the
flurry of maddening schemes, plots, codifications, defiant contrivances,
irreverent. And mad for the High Ones in the Berryman sense.
So with JJ soon taking over the oncoming edition of The Diamond & the Thief,
here then some of our conversation while kickin it...'
THE BLACK RIDER PRESS - "....delivers the kind of stories you should be reading,
penned by the kin of Black Rider Hepcats you should know about"
READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE
JAN 2011
JJ DECEGLIE'S POEM IN COTTONMOUTH ZINE
'GIN & JAZZ'
'The first moment he met her
she was immaculate and drunk.
And he asked her to elope with him
and she didnt say no
but laughed like only she could.
Which possibly meant yes...'
COTTONMOUTH - Cottonmouth is the Zine published in conjunction with a monthly performance night
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST
SEP 2010
'ENNUI AND DESPAIR' PUBLISHED BY OLYMPIA PRESS
Existential pornography... Mystical debaucheries... Ruminations tracking through to a delicate hell and back...
Bourbon, flesh and celestial flares of chronic laughing hope... Quiet Days in Fremantle, Author JJ DeCeglie with
musings on existence, art and sex in the sparkling wastelands of West Australia.
Published as part of the Traveller's Companion Series, which introduced the world to the likes of Henry Miller,
Jean Genet and Alexander Trocchi.
TO PURCHASE YOUR COPY, CLICK HERE!
JEFF LISANDRO INTERVIEW AT WORLD SERIES OF POKER
Jeff Lisandro talks about Damned Good at the World Series of Poker 2010
CLICK HERE TO WATCH
INTERVIEW WITH JJ DECEGLIE ON EXTRAPULP.COM.AU
Elena Gomez talks to JJ DeCeglie about Damned Good, his writing habits and who he loves to read.
Read Part 1
Read Part 2
ARTICLE ON LITERARY MINDED
"SPLINTERS AND ORE" BY JJ DECEGLIE
Read the full article here
'DAMNED GOOD' NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
TO PURCHASE YOUR COPY, CLICK HERE!
Visit the Damned Good website now
Visit the publishers website
AUSTRALIA'S FIRST POKER NOVEL!!!: POKER NEWS MAGAZINE
Interview/Article in latest edition of Poker News
Read the full article here
FIRST REVIEWS OF DAMNED GOOD
"You have real talent DeCeglie. You leave the rest for dead!
The unrelenting descriptions
and razor-sharp psychological insights got me from the first sentence.
This is more than poker fiction, its about being the very best you can no
matter who or where you are, and that is important."
Jeff Lisandro - Four Time WSOP Bracelet Winner & 2009 WSOP Player of the Year.
"Hard-core poker players
know well the highs and the lows,
the ecstasies and the agonies, the
challenges and the frustrations of the game.
DeCeglie takes the reader on a journey through this world
on the back of a man who surrenders his existence
to the whims of the poker gods, with a writing
style as raw, hard and beautiful as the game itself."
Blair Rodman - WSOP bracelet winner and co-author of "Kill Phil,
The Fast Track to Success in No-limit Holdem Poker Tournaments."
"DeCeglie has balls roughly the size of Bukowskis. Damned Good is goddamned good"
Jimmy Jack - Winner AFI Award for Best Screenplay
"DeCeglie knows all too well how often men seek meaning in life's dark corners,
then find they've cornered themselves. He wields his strong, original voice
dexterously through the shadowy corridors of his protagonist's world, with
prose so sharp it often cuts you on the way past. Damned Good is a must-read
for poker fans and those who can't help but flirt with the dark side."
Patrick O'Neil - Author of Sideways: Travels with Kafka, Hunter S. and Kerouac
"The novella as I love it - Steinbeck, Kafka, Capote, Hemingway, Conrad,
Kerouac - is a hard literary act to pull off. "Damned Good" is
unapologetic writing reminiscent of the tough son of a bitch poetry
of Frederick Seidel. DeCeglie is a man who knows his literary tools
and how to use them - just the ones he needs. This is a voice that's
heard clear above the loud-mouthed D-lister literary grant huggers,
presenting us with a magnificent concatenation of mens games."
James Phelan - critically acclaimed bestselling novelist.
"Its in high-stakes poker that the Rookie has found what it means to live authentically, dangerously...The Rookie is a
hero in the tradition of those streetwise heroes of Gibsons cyberpunk novels,
brilliant at what they do. The prose has similar crisp, unexpected metaphors.
Yet its also close to the prose and characters of McCarthys Border Trilogy, the brave cowboys who
dont say too much, but think deep thoughts and experience a kind of brutal beauty in their world.
Damned Good is
a worthy follow up to Deceglies debut novel, The Sea Is Not Yet Full...Its a compact
and interesting story with a character and a milieu which are refreshing for Australian literature."
Nathan Hobby, Australian novelist and winner of the 2003 TAG Hungerford Award
READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE
..the book delivers a full house of sex, money and fate as it plays out on the emerald felt
Elena Gomez - withextrapulp.com.au
...two cards in the pocket plus five on the table gives the author all the drama he needs. DeCeglie's maintains a sharp, intense pitch and skillfully depicts the dark, tense moods of the poker lifestyle. Nietzsche quotes included.
Levi Asher - Litkicks
13 June 2009
NEW PUBLICATION IN SEIN UND WERDEN
NEW Short story 'DEATH CANNOT BE DELEGATED' published in online magazine Sein und Werden (Being and Becoming)
Click here to read.
26 May 2009
NEW PUBLICATION IN RETORT MAGAZINE
NEW Short story 'Relief' published in online Australian literary magazine Retort .
Click here to read.
GOOGLE BOOKS PREVIEW
PREVIEW OF "IN THE SAME STREETS YOU'LL WANDER ENDLESSLY" .
Click here to read.
NEW REVIEWS
Review of Short Story "Summer Spent" from Columbia College
Click here to read.
Review of Short Story "Lights Behind the City" from 'Whispers of Wickedness' Magazine
Click here to read.
NEW PUBLICATION
'Still in The Fury' has been accepted to be published online on Smokebox.com.
Click here to read.
YOUNG WRITERS FESTIVAL
JJ Deceglie attended the National Young Writer's Festival in Newcastle
on October 3-5, and gave three well-received live readings.
Click here to see photos from the festival.
NEW REVIEW
Reviews from the recent launch of 'in the same streets you'll wander endlessly'
Click here to visit Book Launch page released from Vivid Publishing.