Here we are, on the verge of official summer, which begins with Sunday’s solstice. If you’re still scrambling to put together a summer reading list, I recommend you consider adding Florida writer Jillian Luft‘s debut novel Scumbag Summer to your list.
Published in 2024 by House of Vlad Press, the novel is set in 2003 Orlando. The protagonist, a recent liberal arts graduate from a public college in Florida, heads to “O-Town” to secure an entry-level clerical job. She soon falls for her flirtatious, painkiller-addicted boss and slides into a summertime affair that is complicated by all kinds of family issues on both sides. Rather than attempt to summarize this novel myself and inadvertently publish spoilers, I refer you to Jennifer Ostopovich’s excellent review from last August and offer this blurb from the Bookshop.org book description:
From bowling alleys to barrooms, malls to matinees, through the dull refuse of suburbia with new and unforgettable meaning, this book is a love letter to a fleeting season of illicit love, rampant addiction, buried grief and inevitable heartbreak-a whiskey-soaked, deep-fried, classic rock-scored mega-chain ode to Florida, youth, and the swan song of the human heart.
Jillian’s other writing includes short fiction and nonfiction in literary magazines like Hobart, Booth, X-R-A-Y, The Forge Literary Magazine, and many others. She writes in raw but beautiful language about illness and death, mothers and daughters, pop culture and Florida, bodies and desire–topics that “typically arise from deep-seated obsessions or something that’s piqued my curiosity.” (For a sample of her recent work, I recommend “Dottie After Dark,” an exquisite nonfiction piece that reads like a short story.) She is also the founder of Sweet Trash Press, a publishing imprint of House of Vlad, and is working on a memoir about caregiving for her terminally ill mother as a preteen. Read on to learn about her debut novel, her other writing, and her definition of scumbag.
- How did you come up with the theme for your debut novel, and especially the title?
Well, as with much of fiction, it was inspired by real-life events, particularly my summer after college graduation. I won’t reveal how much of it actually transpired, but I will say it’s a significant amount. I knew I wanted to write a love letter to Florida that embraced it in all its complexity and drawing on my own experiences seemed the best way to do that. The title Scumbag Summer was actually inspired by a social media post. It was a photo of a bleach blonde Jonah Hill captioned “Scumbag Summer.” I thought, yes, that’s it! It encapsulated what Florida feels like year-round.
- How do you define “scumbag”? And in your novel, who’s the bigger scumbag, the narrator or her love interest (or some other character)?
My definition of “scumbag” is fairly loose and rather personal. A “scumbag” is a badge to wear proudly. It’s an opting out of other’s expectations. It’s a live-in-the-moment ethos that can include both poor decision-making and romantic ideas of indulgence. A “scumbag” is anyone whose journey is mostly pit stops and detours. Using this definition, I think the narrator and her love interest are scumbag peers, which is why they’re so drawn to each other. Both are avoiding responsibilities and prioritizing ephemeral pleasures over everything else. There is a cost to that, of course. Yet, “scumbag” isn’t, necessarily, a pejorative term. Sometimes we need to surrender to our most primal wants and adopt an amoral mindset to figure out what we truly value.
- In addition to your novel, you’ve written several short stories. Where do your ideas for short stories come from?
My ideas for short stories typically arise from deep-seated obsessions or something that’s piqued my curiosity. If I don’t explore it on the page, I won’t truly honor that obsession or fully understand it. Like any writer, I have certain recurring themes or topics that I return to in different ways: women’s sexuality, the terror of desire, working-class Florida, death, marginalized subcultures, etc. I’m an avid movie watcher, so I can be inspired by a scene, a camera shot, or even the color palette used in a film. Ideas also come when driving and listening to a playlist at full volume. Songs are these brief imagined worlds that linger and even haunt us. One of my goals, when writing, is to bring music to the page. I pay attention to rhythm, to the way certain words sound. I treat the climax in a story like the chorus. I want what I write to enter the reader’s blood like the best pop song does.
- Last fall, you established Sweet Trash Press as an imprint of House of Vlad Press. What is the mission of Sweet Trash Press?
The mission is to publish good writing. To let the work speak for itself as much as possible. To promote and center voices often ignored in mainstream publishing. Art for art’s sake but make it fun, make it irreverent, make it real. I pride myself on building strong and fruitful relationships with the writers I publish. I want them to feel seen, understood, encouraged, inspired. I want the readers of Sweet Trash Press to feel like each book they read is revealing a well-kept secret only to them.
- Talk a bit about your memoir in progress and any other writing projects you are working on right now.
The memoir is about the period of my life spent caretaking for my terminally ill mother as an adolescent. I’m hoping it’s an honest examination of what happens when mother and daughter are forced to switch roles and confront the limits of their bodies. The pain and confusion of that, but also the deep love at the core of it. I’m telling it in the vein of a gothic novel or horror story. Hoping I pull it off. I also have an essay collection about my obsession with masculinity in pop culture and a few other novel ideas that I’m too superstitious to share.
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Find Jillian Luft on Twitter at @JillianLuft and on Instagram at @jilliandawnmichel.
Andrew Careaga 