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BIO~
Christiaan Pasquale has been a writer, musician, and film maker in the Los Angeles underground scene for the last 28 years. His roots are grounded in a lifelong romance with the city, and the light and dark sides of its streets.
Christiaan Angelo Pasquale was born in Fullerton California to Jan and Victor Pasquale on July 29th, 1972. He excelled in theater in high school as an actor, playwright, and director. He was also active in sports, fighting in the amateurs for his local boxing gym, the Fullerton Boxing Club, from the ages of eight, to eighteen.
After graduating he moved to Hollywood to study at The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute but quickly became disillusioned with acting, and fell in love with the Beat Poets, and subversive, outlaw writers like William S. Burroughs, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Jean Genet, Henry Miller, and Charles Bukowski. He got on a train bound for nowhere, in particular, to see Kerouac's America, and forever thereafter focused on writing music, poetry, and short stories.
He moved out of Hollywood and settled in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District in 1996, and lived and worked there for 12 years. Fronting the Psychobilly band The Slanderin as Christian Slander, he has toured extensively in the United States and in England.
In 2017 he wrote and directed a documentary film about his working-class upbringing and the musical culture of Los Angeles, called Angels & Oranges. Pasquale's column, The Christiaan Bible (a collection of short stories) has been published in Destroy All Monthly, Rabid Magazine, Hellcat Magazine, and even got a mention in Vogue. He's published three collections of poems and short stories, A Marked Man~ The Misspelled Ramblings and Pointless Poems of Christian Slander, You Can't Lose if You Don't Want to Win~ Memoirs of a Charming Loser, and Violets & Vitriol, as well as his first novel, Love, Loss, Long Beach
He lives in Los Angeles and continues to write, working on two new books, a collection of poems and short stories called, Bougainvillea Blues, and a novel called, Agents of Cool.
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REVIEWS~
“Ok. Here goes. I'm not very eloquent but wanted to weigh in on this book! I absolutely loved it. It was gritty and honest and felt very personal to me. The protagonist is a very sympathetic character as we follow him and his life all around LA and Long Beach. It was a great read with interesting characters and colorful and familiar LA settings. Highly recommend!! Just read it!! You will not be disappointed,” ~Shelly Fontaine, Downtown Los Angeles Arts District Pioneer on Love, Loss, Long Beach
“Some books are easy to classify. Christiaan Pasquale’s Love, Loss, Long Beach is not such a book. It doesn’t follow the typical Los Angeles trope. There is no, “I had a rough childhood, I almost died” and then “I made a miraculous comeback.” Love, Loss, Long Beach is very much like being given Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility and following Pasquale around for a few years without his knowledge. There is a stream of topics that at first glance feels as if they have nothing to do with each other, but as you read on, there is a string that connects them. Primarily Pasquale’s father. Again, not the typical trope, “My dad wasn’t there for me!” No, this reads more like a love letter to his father. He takes the same employment as his father, lives in the neighborhood where his folks met and cares for and buries his father’s brother. In between all of this Pasquale finds and loses the love of his life and attempts to save and detoxify several friends. But not before having his door kicked in by the Long Beach Police department (You’ll have to read it to understand) While at first glance it is a harsh and sometimes gritty story, underneath it all it shows a person who despite all the surrounding insanity, still gives a shit about his friends and his family. Oh, did I mention he loved his dog also? I recommend this. It’s a quick read which left me wishing for more. You know that these were not the only oddballs that Pasquale knew in Long Beach,” Author Michael Essington on Love, Loss, Long Beach
“My generation's Bukowski. An author that truly uses the brutality of life as fuel for his art." ~Author Steve B. Howard on You Can't Lose if You Don't Want to Win
“Some authors try to guide you, gently, into their story. Possibly, dropping bread crumbs in hopes that you’ll follow them into an enchanted land. If you read You Can't Lose If You Don't Want To Win~ Memoirs Of A Charming Loser Christiaan Pasquale will grab you by the scruff of your neck and force you to look at a part of life that you thought only existed in the movies. Pasquale takes his readers into some dark territories, murder, racial injustices and general life among the discontented. The stories slither around sadness and the darker aspects of life. Midway through you realize Pasquale might just be narrating your life, not his,” ~Michael Essington, author of Last One to Die on You Can't Lose if You Don't Want to Win
“This book isn't for the faint of heart. It cuts deep and you can feel the pain and sorrow the author endured in certain chapters. At the same time, he takes you to a time that you can identify with in your own childhood in his chapters of childhood reminiscence. I laughed, cried, and hurt several times in the reading. It's definitely not for the faint at heart. It's raw and certain parts might make you uncomfortable. But that's real life and that's his story. I'd definitely recommend this book and will probably read it again," ~Journalist Mellenie Cadwell on You can’t lose if you Don’t Want to Win
“I bought this book on a whim not knowing anything about the author other that he fronts a band I like called The Slanderin. So the book, there is no big complicated subtext or pretence here. You know what I mean, right? Some authors go out of their way to try and be "clever" and in doing so, alienate the reader. This is certainly no the case with Christiaan Angelo Pasquale. His storytelling is straight to the point and concise, while at the same time, he adroitly brings you into his world and holds you there for the duration. Maybe it's because the reader could quite easily put himself into the scenarios that unfold, or perhaps it's quite simply because the stories are interesting and told in away that holds your interest. The latter in itself, equates to quality storytelling in my book. If you have this on your wishlist, the don't hesitate and but it. You won't be disappointed," ~ Musician and artist Johnny O' Prez on You Can't Lose if You Don't Want to Win
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