A Writer's Tale

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

TO

EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO BE A WRITER PERSIST AND PREVAIL!

Richard Laymon

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.

Ernest Hemingway

Quoted in Hemingway: The Writer as Artist by Carlos

Baker, 1952.

WHO AM I TO BE WRITING A BOOK ABOUT MY LIFE AS A WRITER?

Let’s start by saying it wasn’t my idea. John Scoleri and Peter Enfantino, two of the fellows behind the publication of my first short story collection, A Good, Secret Place, approached me about it.

Early on, this was intended to be along the lines of a “Laymon companion”: including a complete bibliography, a biographical sketch, an interview, some articles about me, and various other bits and pieces that might be of interest to my die-hard fans.

I thought it sounded like a good idea, and agreed to cooperate.

Then one thing led to another…

As I worked on the book, it changed course.

It grew into something a little more than a “Laymon companion” for my fans.

I hope so, anyway.

This book tells the detailed, behind-the-scenes true story of a normal guy who always wanted to be a writer, worked hard at it, met with plenty of failure, but also managed to write thirty novels and sixty short stories by the time he was fifty years old. I’m still a failure in the United States if you don’t count my small corps of extremely loyal fans. In the United Kingdom, however, my books are sometimes main selections of book clubs.

They’re often bestsellers.

How did all this come about?

How did I get to be a published writer, a success and a failure simultaneously? What did I do right? What did I do wrong? Who helped me; who messed me up? And what have I learned along the way?

In this book, I tell you.

I decided it was time for someone to tell the true story of the ups and downs of an ordinary writer’s life.

It should be of some interest to people who know me, to my fans, to fellow writers, and to those who aspire to careers in writing.

I wrote it most especially for aspiring writers.

I tell them a few things they need to know about writing fiction and about the book industry.

Things that aren’t often told.

I see myself as a veteran of the book wars. I’m not a general; I’m a grunt. I’ve made it through a several tours of duty. Now, I’m ready to lead a platoon of aspiring writers through the jungle, telling them the hard facts, giving them pointers, showing how to avoid the booby traps and land mines, generally doing whatever I can to help them survive and win.

A book such as A Writer’s Tale would jeopardize the career of most authors. Which is why you’ve probably never seen another book like it. Since I have no career in the U.S. to jeopardize, I am in the peculiar position of feeling free to tell the whole truth.

I do have a career in the United Kingdom. Fortunately, however, I’m able to stick with the complete truth about my situation there still not jeopardizing my career, I hope because I have only the highest praise for my agent Bob Tanner, my editor Mike Bailey, and my publisher Headline House. I don’t “kiss up to them” in this book. I simply am completely delighted by them.

Now, I feel compelled to mention a couple of small matters about the language I use in this book.

First, I sometimes employ the term “story” in reference to full-length novels, not just to short stories. I don’t want anybody getting confused and thinking I mean “short story” every time I write the word “story.” If I’m commenting specifically about short stories, I say so. Otherwise, I might be talking about fiction of any length.

Second, darned if I could find a good way to handle the “he” stuff. Lord knows, I didn’t want to offend anyone’s feminist sensibilities.

The problem could be avoided, of course, by writing in the plural. “They” covers a wide range of genders. However, I didn’t wish to be stuck with a multitude of plural pronouns.

Sometimes, I sidestepped the issue by addressing “you.” But “you” is really informal, and I hated to overdo it.

I tried going for “he or she” a few times, but it seemed awfully cumbersome and dumb.

My respect for the language forbid me from using such mutant forms as he/she or shehe or heshe or (s)he or any other disturbing concoctions.

So… well… golly… I just pretty much fell back on using the old-fashioned “he.”

I apologize.

I did it for convenience, not to “dis” the females.