Talking Books, Blood & Bodies

After sitting on an interview I'd done with Richard Laymon just a couple of months before he died, it's finally been released to the world. I'd originally done the interview with him via email for a feature in Flesh & Blood magazine. Only, he died unexpectedly, and the editor of the magazine didn't want to run the interview -- guess he figured it would look like an attempt to sell magazines profiting off of a writer's death. So the interview was dropped.

It was sad to see Richard go. He was a talented writer -- many of his books were ones I simply couldn't put down -- you just had to keep peeling through the pages to get to the end. In many ways he was like a mentor to me. I became a fan of his immediately after my good friend John Strickland loaned me a copy of Laymon's One Rainy Night. I think it was my first experience of not being able to put a book down -- I actually spent the entire night reading the book, which takes place over the course of several hours on, you guessed it, one rainy night, when a thick dark rain starts to fall and turns every person that it touches into a homicidal maniac. It was the first of many of Laymon's books that I enjoyed and this was one that I used to offer to personally buy back from people I hand-sold it to if they didn't find it unputdownable after I determined they were a) a true horror fan and b) could handle a little over-the-top gore and nastiness (a Laymon trademark). I never had any takers. I received a "thanks" from Laymon through a friend of a friend when he heard how I was hand-selling one of his books, and shortly after established an email correspondence with him. I was as impressed with his down-to-earth nature as much as I was with his ability to suck a reader into a story and keep the tale going at a breakneck pace.

When the interview with him didn't run, I was sad that his fans wouldn't be able to read what might be his last interview, especially because it offered many insights about him.

I didn't want to sell the interview -- again, I was more interested in sharing the insights with Laymon fans rather than try to profit off of it. I'd originally offered it to the Richard Laymon Kills website, but never heard back from them. When I'd asked Brett Savory if he'd be interested in the interview for the ChiZine website, the next thing I knew, he was offering to pass it along to Leisure Books (who've been reprinting many of Laymon's titles). Don at Leisure quickly grabbed it up and placed it on their website within hours of the offer.

Needless to say I'm delighted that the interview is now out there for Richard Laymon fans to enjoy. Thanks, Brett.

You can read the intervew by clicking here.