Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter
Written by Jolene Siana
(Process Media)
Available in bookstores and online
or through processmediainc.com
jolenesiana.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/jolenesiana
 Lots of teenagers write to their favorite rock stars, but few have done it in the way that Jolene Siana has. A native of Toledo, Ohio, Siana had a difficult time fitting in with the jock-and-cheerleader crowd that populated her high school. While her more conventional peers wracked their brains about boyfriends, pep rallies and making the squad, she wrestled with much darker and provocative family problems.
As a result, Jolene poured her heart out in an array of letters to her favorite musician detailing her confusion, alienation, loss of family and self-mutilation. So while other teenage fans sent silly love notes of adulation to the standard cute-boy pop stars, the recipient of Siana's letters was Kevin Ogilvie, aka Nivek Ogre, the lead singer of the seminal, anguish-driven industrial band, Skinny Puppy.
Jolene Siana at the now defunct CBGB
Ogre was struck by the raw honesty of Jolene's letters and encouraged her to keep writing. Their correspondence lasted several years and eventually Jolene moved Los Angeles only to find out that Ogre and his fellow band mate, Cevin Key, had established their base there.
Since Ogre had kept all the letters, postcards and journals that Siana
had sent him all these years, he sent the entire collection back to her for her own use. One of Jolene's friends suggested that she should write a book based on the letters and out of that suggestion came "Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter" (Process Media, $18.95) published this year; it became a finalist fo the Best Young Adult Non-fiction Book for the 2006 Independent Publishers Book Award. "Pure, Lucid and Engaging," said the Los Angeles Times about the book.
Siana has since moved to New York City during the summer of 2006. With the publication of her book, she has lectured to audiences of young adults at several New York Public Library locations so far. She has conveyed her experiences to teenagers and adults so that they don't feel so alone when it comes to the emotions of despair and alienation. There is a light at the end of every dark tunnel in life.
|
