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So where has Plunket been this whole time?
And now hes retired.
I strained to listen.
But the acoustics of the Hollywood Hills are notorious for their unpredictability.
A case in point: Sharon Tate, et al.
It was too hot to go surfing!
Literally, I go outdoors and have to come back in.
Im no spring chicken, and Ive got to be careful.
What are you doing instead?
Its holiday weekend kind of stuff.
How long have you lived in Florida?
And how long did you write your Mr. Chatterbox column forSarasotamagazine?
Forty years and 40 years.
I just retired about a year ago.
Is there a lot of drama in Sarasota?
Oh, there is!
Its a funny kind of drama.
But its even better because you know the people involved.
When theres a scandal, you always know somebody.
Whats the messiest drama you ever observed in Sarasota?
The messiest was the 2000 election, Gore versus Bush.
But Pee-wee Herman was … Thats what makes being a small-town gossip columnist so much fun.
Were there certain themes that cropped up time and again?
Sex is always there.
It happens over and over again.
Its the oldest story in Florida.
We had a mini Madoff scandal a guy who embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme.
Which, to me, feels different from a lot of popular gay fiction today.
I wonder if you feel that way too.
But I didnt write it as a gay novel.
I did and I didnt.
It works both ways.
If youre alert to the homosexuality, the extremelyrepressedhomosexuality, then you get it.
So, yeah, from that point of view, its much, much different from most gay novels.
This is so different from that.
I know, and I think I lucked into my point of view.
I was writing a character who happened to be gay, and that was the key to his character.
Can you think of any novels that fit into that category at all?
Im sure there must be some.
Do you read a lot of gay novels?
Theyre all sort of mixed in with everything else.
But I dont really like the weepy punch in I just mentioned.
Hanya YanagiharasA Little Lifeis maybe the most emblematic mainstream example of that.
Im not familiar with that one.
So youre currently working on a novel set during the Civil War.
What draws you to American political history as a subject?
This thing Im working on now is about the Confederacy.
It has a lot of gay characters.
And its so much fun!
Its just a ball, because its a blank canvas of incidents and characters and crazy things happening.
Which writers have most inspired your work?
Nabokov taught me how to write.
I studied creative writing, but those types of classes never helped me at all.
But if you read Nabokov carefully, every secret to writing is there.
I love British comedians like E.F. Benson track him down, youll love him.
I also like Evelyn Waugh very much, that kind of British writing from the 20s and 30s.
Comedy writing never got any better than that.
Well, while were on comedy writing, you improvised a monologue in ScorsesesAfter Hours, right?
Whats the story there?
[Laughs] You know, I was so naive.
And so she keeps going.
Hes astonished by how bizarre it is.
I went on and on, and he finally did stop me.
Its both stupid and kind of brilliant to be that audacious.
How long did the monologue go on?
I have a copy of it that I used to show at parties.
I would love to see a copy of that.
You worked as an actor for a bit, right?
After I got out of college, I worked at La MaMa OffOff Broadway back in the early 70s.
What are your memories of New York from that time?
I thought it was terrific, it was a wonderful place to be a young artist.
You were doing things yourself.
You werent trying to get intothe business.
Are you reading anything good right now?
I consider her one of the greatest; shes another of my teachers.
In one sentence she can put what it takes other writers three paragraphs to do.
What else do you do for fun?
I like to go to Goodwill and buy things.
Its almost like therapy, it calms me down.
And I love dishes from the 50s, Syracuse China, things like that.
I like handbags, so if I see a good one, Ill buy it.
The thrill is wandering around in a meditative state.
Is it true that you collect Juicy Couture?
Are you familiar with it?
Yeah, I grew up in the aughts when the celebrity It girls were wearing the tracksuits.
It was Paris Hilton and Madonna.
The handbags from the early part of the century they dont make that style anymore.
Theyresooverdesigned and overwrought, overembellished to such a degree that they fascinate me.
Theres so many different styles.
I must have 60 or 70 of them, all different styles.
And its not enough.
I remember the very elaborate old-fashioned script.
Oddly enough, theyre not well-made.
They get dirty very easily, they fall apart, the velour doesnt wear well.
If you collect Juicy Couture, you have to take very good care of it.
What else is new?
Ive suddenly been rediscovered, which I wasnt expecting.
Thats turning out to be fun but a little nerve-racking.
Its out of the blue, and Im not quite sure how to handle it.
Its more time-consuming than you would think.
And I dont remember that.
I lead a very quiet life in a trailer park, so Im an old retired guy.
Its a nice, quiet, retired life.
