A Writer's Tale

July 30 In a letter to Jay Garon, Warner Books editor-in-chief Bernard Shir-Cliff rejected Allhallow’s Eve, Secret Nights, and Beware! In regard to Secret Nights, a reader report stated, “The incestuous twist in Roger’s parentage as well as his secret attic con-finement is too blatantly a rip-off of Flowers in the Attic.” This really annoyed me. I hadn’t “ripped off” that book or even read it. The report on Beware? stated, “Laymon only succeeds in creating an uneven mish-mosh with occasional moments of sex and sadism to try to hold the reader’s interest.” She also wrote, “Why invisibility? Why not back from the dead or something along the Shadow’s line where the subject has the “ability to cloud other people’s minds.” Why not, indeed?

Aug. 3-5 I wrote my short story, “The Grab.”

Aug. 14 I started working on my secret project about people being marooned on a tropical island between California and Hawaii. (There isn’t an island out there!) The project was instigated by a couple of film guys. They had an elaborate plan to make the book into a huge bestseller and blockbuster film. I was to ghostwrite the book and keep mum about my participation in it. Unfortunately, their detailed plot outline was pretty much ludicrous and they refused to let me fix it very much. I ended up wasting a lot of time on the project, but I did get paid at various stages. For the purposes of this chronology, I will refer to said project as Hollywood Goons.

Aug. 15 I dabbled with the outline of a wishes book.” I wish I could remember what that was about.

Aug. 17 I worked on the outline of a novel called Servant.

Sept. 1 Having given up on trying to revise Beware! for Warner Books, I mailed the outline of a completely new novel to Jay Garon Dark Sacrifice.

Sept. 2 My short story, “The Grab,” was bought by Gallery magazine.

Sept. 29 My short story, “The Champion,” (which had appeared in the 1980 anthology, Modern Masters of Horror) was optioned by Universal for the television series, Dark Room. The show, with James Coburn as the M.C., would be cancelled before it could film my story.

Oct. 24 Dean and Gerda Koontz came over to the house for dinner for the first time.

Nov. 2 I had dinner at the restaurant, Joe Allen’s, with one of the primary guys behind Hollywood Goons. A fictional version of the restaurant would show up in Night Show, when Tony rushes at people dining at a patio table. So something good came out of a lousy situation.

Nov. 13 I spoke to a writers’ group at Orange Coast College.

Nov. 16 I wrote a desperate letter to Jay Garon about the possibility of abandoning the disastrous Hollywood Goons project. He advised me to stick with it.

Dec. 18 I started making notes for a novel called, Chill Master, later to be known as Night Show.

1982

Jan. 3 I finished Beware! revisions that I’d started in November, 1981.

Jan. 11 My outline for Hollywood Goons was accepted.

Jan. & Feb. Most of both months were spent working alternately on Hollywood Goons and Chill Master (Night Show).

March Ann and I left Kelly with my parents in Modesto, and we spent a week in Hawaii with our friends, Frank and Loretta Beard. After returning, we stayed a few days in Modesto. Then we got home and I devoted all my writing time to Hollywood Goons.

March 26 My three book contract with Warner Books, which included The Woods Are Dark and Out Are the Lights, was terminated with extreme prejudice.

April 22 I mailed a revised version of Beware! to Jay Garon. April 30 The first draft of Chill Master was finished.

May 10 I changed the title of Chill Master to Night Show and mailed the manuscript to Jay Garon.

May 19 I delivered outlines of Out Are the Lights and Night Show to film producer/director Andrew Fenady for possible film development. (Nothing ever happened.)

June 3-12 I worked briefly on a possible novel about Edgar Allan Poe, but never got very far.

June 15 I started a novel with the working title, Curse, which I later called Tread Softly. The book was also eventually called Dark Mountain in the Headline edition. After working on it for a week, I went back to work on Hollywood Goons.

June 6 A momentous date! I finished the first draft of Hollywood Goons! But alas, it was not to be accepted or ever published.

July 16 I returned to work on Curse.

July 30 I mailed the manuscript for a short-short story, “Tiny,” to Gallery magazine. It was rejected.

Aug. 2 I mailed the short story, “Bedtime Stories” (the “Hairy Hand” story) to Twilight Zone magazine. It was rejected.