Latest Curbside Splendor Release Wants You To 'Kiss As Many Women As You Can'

By Melissa Wiley in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 10, 2013 8:45PM

Everyone, they say, has a story. More than a hazard of being alive, it’s worth the spilled ink trying to tell it. So believes Franki Elliot, the young author of critically acclaimed Piano Rats who has spent much of the past two years toting her 1970s robin’s-egg blue Smith Corona typewriter to beaches, festivals, and flea markets while inviting strangers to suggest a topic and leave with an original story.

Eliot photographed some of these yarns along the way to become the new postcard book Kiss As Many Women As You Can, published by Curbside Splendor and hauntingly illustrated by Chicago artist Shawn Stucky, who is red/green color blind. The book takes its title from one of the volume’s vignettes in which a prostitute tells a 14-year-old boy, “Honey, kiss as many women as you can, but never fall in love,” advice we dare you to take while perusing these spare, wry pages.

You can preorder the book for $15—it will retail for $19.99—and read Piano Rats here for free.