A Writer's Tale

CEMETERY DANCE, Fall, 1996, Volume Seven, Issue Three p. 44. “A Conversation with Richard Laymon.” Interview conducted via telephone by Stanley Wiater.

EPITAPH, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1997 pp. 22-26. “Out of The Cellar: An Interview with Richard Laymon” By Vince Fahey.

Articles

MYSTERY SCENE, Number 11, 1987 pp. 36-38 “Down ‘n’ Dirty” By Richard Laymon Wherein I define horror, defend myself against Charles Grant, and define his kind of dark fantasy as “exercises in scenery.”

Written partly in response to Grant’s “It Wasn’t a Half-Bad Year” in Amazing Stories, volume 62, number 3, September, 1987 p. 61. In ‘which he wrote, “It’s intimately associated, incorrectly, with horror, and it seems that Richard Laymon is one of those leading the pack. Night Show, for instance, isn’t anything else but a slasher film in print, but if you like that sort of thing, it’s better than his earlier books. Which is rather like saying a shattered leg is somewhat more tolerable than a sharp stick in the eye.”

MYSTERY SCENE, Number 13, 1987 pp. 42-42 “Down ‘n’ Dirty Part II” By Richard Laymon. Wherein I trash writers who trash writers.

MYSTERY SCENE, Number 16, 1987 pp. 45-46

“Down ‘n’ Dirty Part III The Good, The Bad & the Ugly” By Richard Laymon

Wherein I explore the horrifying world of copy editors and give details of the slaughter of The Woods Are Dark.

Brian Garfield wrote of this article in Mystery Scene, Sept.-Oct. 1988, p. 5 refers to “Dick Laymen’s painfully amusing piece on the horrors of copy editors… in a properly outraged column.”

SUDDEN FEAR: THE HORROR AND DARK SUSPENSE FICTION OF DEAN R. KOONTZ, ed. by Bill Munster, Starmont House, 1988 pp. 66-71 “In the Midst of Life” By Richard Laymon

An essay in which I delve into the “make the best of life while you’ve got it” themes in several of Dean’s novels.

FRIENDS OF CANFIELD/CRESCENT HEIGHTS, volume 1, number 2, June, 1989 p.5 “Bill Steel: The Book Man of Crescent Heights” By Richard Laymon and Ann Laymon Wherein my wife and I profile and praise a fine English teacher at my child’s elementary school.

MYSTERY SCENE, Number 21, May/June, 1989 pp. 83 “Why I Wrote This Book: RESSURECTIONDREAMS’ By Richard Laymon I tell some behind-the-scenes stuff about Resurrection Dreams in particular and necrophilia in general.

MYSTERY SCENE, Number 24, January, 1990 pp. 97 “Funland: Where Truth Meets Fiction and the Fan Gets Hit.” By Richard Laymon. I tell the story of the true origins of Funland, and how I found out about trolls. Reprinted in this book.

MYSTERY SCENE, Number 26, June, 1990 pp. 27-30 “Not Necessarily The Gospel” By Richard Laymon, In which I assail various “gospel” statements by editors and agents, and rail against the dangers of writing proposals instead of books.

MYSTERY SCENE, Issue 30, July/August, 1991 p. 9596 “The Stake” By Richard Laymon. In the Horror New Books section, I recount my adventures in ghost towns and tell all about The Stake. Reprinted in this book.

AFRAID, Number 11, April, 1993 p.11-12

“The Lizzie Borden Syndrome or, Vicious Hacks With a Lust For Chopping Other People’s Wood, Fiction, and Necks” By Richard Laymon. Wherein I attack critics in general, and a few in particular. Reprinted in this book.

THE WORK OF GARY BRANDNER: an Annotated Bibliography & Guide by Martine Wood, Borgo Press, 1995 pp. 11-12 .I wrote the forward, a two-page piece called, “Gary Brander: ‘Oh, Yeah?’”

MURMUROUSHAUNTS: THE SELECTED WORKS OF BENTLEYLITTLE Dark Regions Press, 1997 pp. 7-8. I wrote an introduction for this small press collection of Bentley’s short fiction. It is called, “Bentley Little: A Modest Introduction.”

Miscellaneous

FANGORIA, #15, October, 1981, p. 17. This issue contains a full-page ad for The Woods Are Dark that I created with the help of my friend, Carol Law. I personally paid all expenses for the creation and publication of the ad.

DARK THOUGHTS ON WRITING: ADVICE AND COMMENTARY FROM FIFTY MASTERS OF FEAR AND SUSPENSE, Underwood Books, 1997. This book by Stanley Wiater is a compilation of quotes he has gathered during numerous interviews, including several with me. My words of wisdom” appear fairly regularly throughout the volume.