Book dossier

Hang Gliding on X

by Scott C. Holstad

This is Little Red Book 13, the 13th book in an increasingly legendary series comprised of 59 books. It was designed to emulate in size and to a degree, somewhat topically, the City Lights Pocket Poets series. This small book shows the beginning of a tortured person slowly losing his mind, conflicted with pressure for therapy, religious "help," unwanted medications, moving toward violence, psychosis and imprisonment. During this journey, he spirals downward developing an obsession with mindless violence and suicidal ideation before finally landing in L.A.'s infamous Twin Towers jail, notorious for gang and race relation problems. So how does it end? DOES it end? This is a book that was printed in a small limited edition press run and sold out asap. It appealed to a diverse audience ranging from SoCal readers and writers to the underground, small press scene to people undergoing similar afflictions to those intrigued by such topics enough to read, but remaining safe in only reading. It began what became a series of increasingly hard edged books of poetry (some were labeled and included in horror anthologies, indexes, catalogs) that were quite different in many ways from most all of Holstad's previous books.