On queer lit, skateboards, gender-bending, strippers and Winona Ryder...

Lucia Pajon: First things first, you’ve started to show the world what you’ve got by writing short stories (one of them appeared in the fabulous anthology Baby Remember My Name, edited by Michelle Tea). Now, you’ve published your first novel, The Creamsickle. Was it a conscious decision, as in “ok, let’s challenge ourselves here”, or more of a natural process – the next logical step? (By the way, I’m not implying writing short stories is any easier than a novel).

Rhiannon Argo: I’d always wanted to write a novel but it’s such a massive time commitment and I never had the luxury to not work a bunch of part–time jobs, and go to school, so I stuck to shorter projects, like making chapbooks and zines, writing short stories, and writing stuff to read at open mikes. Then there was this series of opportune events in 2007 that allowed me to complete my first book. First I went on the Sister Spit tour. This kicked my ass into gear for several reasons. I saw how barren the queer art landscape was outside of the progressive San Francisco bubble, and how appreciative our audiences were of my work. When I got back from tour all I wanted to do was put all my energy into creating queer art. Luckily, I didn't have a job or a house holding me down and I'd made some money from tour so it was the perfect time to hole up for the summer and work on a novel. My mom lent me a room and for the first time in my life I was able to do what I loved the most, write all day long, for three months. It was glorious.

LP: Let’s talk about The Creamsickle. Apart from all the skating, drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll (maybe more indie music than rock), you tackle the issues of gender fluidity and the concept of queer family through the three main characters, Cruzer, Georgie and Soda. Again, was that a conscious decision?

RA: Yeah that was all was conscious decisions. My initial impetus for writing The Creamsickle was that I wanted to create a snapshot of a certain generation of San Franciscan queers. The characters are pretty stereotypical to that specific community, but I think many of the themes can resonate with GLBTQ folks universally. For instance, the idea that we tend to create our own queer families because we feel isolated and estranged from our bio-families due to various factors such as not relating to mainstream heteronormative culture, or in many cases, like in the character Soda’s case, we are even kicked out of our families/homes after coming out. It was important for me to show readers how Georgie’s skate Crew, the kids that hang out at The Creamsickle house, and the local lezzie bar were her family because that also ties in with how she constructs her identity. When young queers move from small towns into urban queer communities, where no one knows their pasts, they have the exciting possibility to reinvent themselves. This is so appealing because many times their coming from places were they were considered outsiders and freaks, and if they’re butch girls, or gender queer, you just know the world has been especially treating them like shit. Georgie and her Crew are experiencing this newfound freedom to experiment with who they want to be and how they want to express themselves, and even be considered hot and sexy for it, instead of being hated on. They can discard their birth names that they have never felt connected to and rename themselves. There are certain rules though in regards to gender fluidity, because at the same time they are learning how to be part of this new queer scene, which might mean that Georgie does certain things just to fit in with her Crew, her chosen family, and to make sure she asserts her butch identity and maybe doesn't always follow her heart.

LP: One of your characters, Soda wants to be a boy. On the other hand, Georgie is a bona fide boi who doesn’t have any qualms in becoming a very high-heeled stripper. She does it for money, but as soon as she is “educated” by her femme friends, I sense that deep down, she seems to embrace that part of herself. Do you feel there is still a need to educate/remind people of the fact that it shouldn’t be a big deal, I mean, choosing the gender you are comfortable with or not even choosing but just flowing. Basically, why do we have to explain?

RA: I would argue that Georgie does have qualms about becoming a stripper. She has to reach a point of desperation and she is worried about her ex and people besides her close friends finding out. I contrasted Georgie becoming femme for pay in the book with Soda beginning to transition into a boy because I am obsessed with queers reinventing themselves, and juggling multiple personas, in relation to sex work, normal jobs, family, gender transition, passing, and performance. Both Georgie and Soda, for completely different reasons, are constructing new identities. For Soda gender is a very big deal, because he feels suicidal until he realizes it stems from feeling he was born the wrong gender. For Georgie it’s more of a performance. She ends up embracing that part of herself but it is within the walls of the strip club. She would never go out in public her femme drag and she juggles her personas. Of course, it would be nice if she and Soda didn’t have to explain themselves, but that's not what kind of society we live in.

LP: How difficult is to be a queer author these days? And is it still harder for being female?

RA: I’m lucky because where I live there are more opportunities for queer writers than other places, and there is good community support. Of course I do wish there was more monetary support. It would be my dream to write for a living and that isn’t feasible, but I think all writers deal with that reality. As a queer writer though, we don't get that dream of hitting it big, getting big advances, or getting written up by the New York Times, or being a bestseller. My audience is small and specific, but I love that The Creamsickle doesn't explain all of the queer specific terms and stuff. I want to alienate straight people in the same way that they constantly alienate me. As far as being female I think that it’s harder as an emerging female writer to think that people will want to hear your voice. It took me a really long time from when I started writing as a kid to when I finally put myself out there, and I think that stems a lot from being female. We see dudes doing whatever the fuck they want and girls don't have the same role models, like in high school I read the Beats and wanted to be like them, but they were all men. I didn't see girls writing and living in that way until I discovered Sister Spit in my early twenties. And that is when I started performing and sharing my work.

LP: Let’s talk about skating. Do you skate? How good are you? And why don’t we see more skater girls out there?

RA: Well at this point in my life Georgie might be a little better than me but when I was younger I was a serious skater. I started skating when I was 15 and it kind of saved me from my self-destructive teenage mentality. Now I skate almost every day but it’s mostly to and from work. There is a part in the book in which Georgie realizes she needs her body for work and can’t skate as hardcore as before. I relate to that. As far as why more girls don't skate I could go on for days. It’s definitely easier for girls to start skating now than it was in 1995 when I started. Back then my girl skater friends and I got harassed all the time. People never saw girls on skateboards so we couldn't even skate down the street without people yelling stuff. At the skate park boys harassed us and were even physically jerks. They made it obvious that it was a boys only club. It’s cool that now there is more of a girl’s skater’s movement, even if it’s small. At least girl skaters can go online and see girl skateboarding websites, and there are some professional girls skaters. I’m involved with this group in San Francisco called Skate Like A Girl (SLAG SF). They make a zine and do a lot of things to create visibility for girl skaters. They have skate dates at local skate parks where all the girls come out and they even teach young girls to skate. Stuff like this gives more and more girls the courage to start skating and breaks down the rep that it’s only a boy’s only club.

LP: You are also involved in the Sister Spit project. In fact, you are touring all over Europe in September. Tell us all about it.

RA: Yes Sister Spit is going to Europe for the first time! It’s going to be crazy. We are going so many places in a month with a bunch of UK dates. It will be me, Michelle Tea, Kirk Read, Chelsea Starr, Cristy Road, Kat Marie Yoas and the girl who set up our tour Em. The show will be multimedia, like Cristy will show her drawings along with reading, and I'll be showing photographs I took with photographer Amos Mac of tons of queers eating Creamsickles that we call The Popsicle Project. The UK dates are all on my website , or we have facebook pages and groups that people can befriend for more tour info.

LP: If The Creamsickle were a film, who would you cast? This is daydreaming time, which means the budget would not be a problem, so aim high if you want to.

RA: I have the inclination to want to cast bio boy actors since that is what the bois aim to look like, and do look like, you know like Eddie Furlong for Georgie, River Phoenix if he were alive, for Soda, and any of the boys from the skater boy movie Wassap Rockers to play Cruzer. But of course If I had all the $ in the world I would cast real girl skaters and train them to act like Amy Caron, Evelien Bouilliart and Vanessa Torres. If I had to choose Hollywood femmes it would be fantastically fun to make them into butch girls with faux hawks and even make them grow dirtstaches! Like say Kristin Stewart as Georgie, since maybe she is picking up some butch moves playing Joan Jett right now, and I don't know for Soda and Cruzer… young Hollywood is so boring now, where are the Winona Ryders and Cristina Riccis? I would want to rewind time and get Winona Ryder circa Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael to play Georgie. She would have to really butch it up though, but that would be so hot! And they’re both from Petaluma, California so it’s perfect.

LP: What ‘s next, girl?

RA: I’m getting ready to go on a writer’s retreat in Mexico with Michelle Tea’s non-profit Radar Productions. See what I mean about opportunities for queer writers? Michelle and Radar make a lot of cool stuff happen. I’m going to work on my next novel there. It's a traveling book because I don't want to write about San Francisco anymore. The main character in this one is chasing her first girlfriend, who as been missing for a long time, all over the place and she explores all kinds of bizarre sub-cultures. After the retreat I’m going on tour for two months straight with Sister Spit, to the UK, Europe and then all over US. I will be a true vagabond.