A Writer's Tale

by Richard Laymon

Nov. 29 Having found a skeleton in Rhyolite, I started writing a story about a skeleton found in a tree for Night Visions.

  Nov. 29 I was interviewed on Kim Greenblatt’s public access television show.

  Dec. 3 Earthquake! Magnitude 5.0, not very big, but enough to shake us up. Regardless of the quake, we drove to Santa’s Village near Big Bear.

  Dec. 11 I finished the final drafts of my stories for Night Visions.

  Dec. 23 I had a long telephone conversation with John Silbersack, my editor at New American Library (Onyx). He wanted my next novel to be the “break out,” saying I can do it “as well as King, Koontz & McCammon, or better.”

  Dec. 28 I started writing a western horror story, “Dinker’s Pond,” for Joe Lansdale’s anthology, Razored Saddles.

  Jan. 4 I had another telephone conversation with John Silber-sack about possible ideas for my “break out” novel.

  Jan. 6-9 I worked on the outline for a new novel, Voices. (Though this book was never written, its main idea about reading minds possibly mutated into Body Rides.) Jan. 12 I sent a partial of Voices to Ralph Vicinanza for submission to New American Library.

  Jan. 19 I finished writing The Stake.

  Jan. 21 I began working on a novel I called Rain. This would become One Rainy Night.

  Jan. 27 I mailed the manuscript of The Stake to Bob Tanner and Ralph Vicinanza.

  Feb. 17 Ralph told me of a U.S. film company’s plans to option The Cellar. (No film made.)

  March 1 A special friend sent us a surprise check a loan to help tide us over while we waited for our “ship” to come in.

  March 6-17 I had jury duty in Beverly Hills, got to read some good books, but didn’t make it onto a jury. Ironically, the prosecution made the mistake of rejecting me. (This is ironic because I am generally rabidly pro-prosecution unless they’re trying to nail good cops.)

  March 31 I wrote a piece about Resurrection Dreams for Ed Gorman’s Mystery Scene.

  And Bob Tanner called “from London to inform me of an offer from W.H. Allen for The Stake and one other unnamed novel for about $54,000. YES!!!

  April Flesh was named best horror novel by Don D’Ammassa in his article, “1988: The Best Novels of the Year” in Science Fiction Chronicle.

  April 19 I received the big W.H. Allen contract for The Stake and untitled.

  April 20 Bob Tanner called to inform me of a U.S. offer from Thomas Dunne, St. Martin’s Press, to publish The Stake hardbound for $15,000. Also, I learned that Flesh (published by Tor) had made the Horror Writers of America’s final ballot for a Bram Stoker award in the “novel” category.

  May 11 I finished writing One Rainy Night.

  May 14 I started a new novel, working title Beast Nights. It was intended to be the third of the “Beast House” books.

  June 4-5 I answered questions for a David Whitehead interview.

  June 14-21 We went to New York for the Horror “Writers of America weekend. The Stoker for novel was awarded to Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, not to my Flesh.

  June 22-27 I worked on the short story, “Slit,” for the Ed Gorman/Martin Greenberg anthology which at that time was supposed to be called Slashers. The anthology came out in 1993 with the title, Predators.

  June 28 I started a novel with the working title, Ouija. It would be published as Darkness, Tell Us.

  Aug. 17-20 I wrote the short story, “Invitation to Murder” for the Gorman/Greenberg anthology, Invitation to Murder.

  Aug. 28 I signed the St. Martin’s contract for The Stake.

  Sept. 8-13 Though still working on Ouija, I spent a few days on notes for a new novel, The Cage. This didn’t develop into a novel, but the idea was later used for my novella, “The Good Deed,” which was published in my Deadline Press collection, A Good, Secret Place.

  Oct. 7 My first book signing took place, given by Don Cannon at Aladdin Books in Fullerton. The signing was for Night Visions VII, but I was shocked and delighted to find a crowd of fans waiting in line with bags and boxes of my older books.

  Oct. 13 We had a flat tire before dawn on the freeway as we headed north for a book signing given by John Scoleri at a B. Dai-ton in Santa Clara. But we eventually arrived safely. That night, we went to a party at Dark Carnival in Berkeley, where we met Joan Parsons and Larry Mori, who would become close friends. Lany would later do the artwork for A Good, Secret Place.

  Oct. 14 We went to the signing at the B. Dalton, and met John Scoleri. John would later be a publisher of A Good, Secret Place as well as THIS book.

  Oct. 17 A major earthquake hit the San Francisco area, and an overhead section of road collapsed onto the same stretch of highway that we’d driven four days earlier on our way to Dark Carnival Bookstore. By this time, however, we were safely home in Los Angeles.

  Oct. 31 I wrote a piece about Funland for Ed Gorman’s Mystery Scene. Later, we went trick or treating.

  Nov. 4-7 I wrote short story, “The Tub,” for Hot Blood.

  Nov. 18 I started a new novel, working title Breakdown (never finished), then returned to work on Ouija.

  1990

  Jan. 3-15 I worked on a new novel, The Stillness, but only wrote about 40 pages before abandoning it temporarily, at least and returning to Ouija.

  Jan. 22 Mike Baker came to the house and taped an interview of me for the magazine, Afraid.

  Jan. 30 I received the alarming news that my British publisher, W.H. Allen, was going out of business. I was terrified that this might be the beginning of the end for my career in the U.K.

  Feb. 6 I finished writing Ouija, which would be published as Darkness, Tell Us.

  Feb. 6 ANOTHER BIG DAY! In telephone conversations with Dean Koontz, Bob Tanner and Ralph Vicinanza, I learned that a major British publishing company, Headline House, intended to take over the contracts of a few W.H. Allen authors including Dean and me. Headline would become my regular publisher. I was vastly relieved and delighted.

  Feb. 7 Mark Ziesing and I made a deal for his special limited edition of my novel, Alarms. He would be paying me the advance in much-needed installments of $500 per week. Upon making this deal, I re-read the novel, written in 1985, and wrote a major revision.

  Feb. 20 Bob Tanner called to tell me that Headline bought Out Are the Lights (which had originally been published in U.K. by New English Library).

  Feb. 20-26 I wrote the short story, “Special” for Under the Fang, the HWA anthology edited by Robert McCammon.

  March 6 I began a new novel, Daring Young Maids. It would be published as Blood Games.

  March 28 Headline sent an “on-acceptance” payment for One Rainy Night.

  April 17 I started work on material for an ill-fated, Screamplay stage play. (Not to be confused with the Screamplay collection of screenplays in which The Hunt would be published.)

  April 22-25 I wrote the short story, “Saving Grace,” for Richard Chizmar’s anthology, Cold Blood.

  April 26 I sent an article on novel outlining to Mystery Scene.

  April 27-29 I worked on a “Mess Hall” stage play for Screamplay (the stage play that never materialized).

  May 1 YES! Bob Tanner called with the news that Headline had offered me a three-book contract for approximately $135,000. At last, we’d really made it!

  May 18-23 I spent time communicating with a U.S. editor (then at Bantam) trying to come up with an idea for a book that she might find acceptable. I came up with ideas and sent off outlines, then got back to Blood Games.

  May 31 I had lunch here in Los Angeles with Bob Tanner. He suggested that, since my main success was taking place in Great Britain, I should try to come up with a novel having a British background.

  June 17 Pondering Bob Tanner’s advice from the luncheon, I came up with the idea for my Jack the Ripper novel, Savage. I would work on making notes and doing research for this book while continuing to write Blood Games.

  June 29 The big “on-sign” check from Headline arrived. Finally, we were no longer poor!

  July 11 With a portio
n of our new wealth, we went driving out to buy a new Jeep, but our ancient Omni broke down along the way.

  July 12-13 We succeeded in buying a brand new red Jeep Cherokee. We immediately showed it to the De Larattas, then drove up and showed it to Bob and Cheryl (my brother and sister-in-law), spent the night in Bakersfield, then drove the rest of the way to Modesto for a surprise visit to my parents so they could see the new Jeep. We were pretty happy to have it.

  July 18 Back in Los Angeles, I was treated to lunch at the Polo lounge by my publisher, Tim Hely Hutchinson, the head of Headline.

  August 10 Returning to Berkeley for a signing at Dark Carnival, we spent the night in the apartment of Lany Mori and Joan Parsons along with their collection of disturbing oddities.

  Sept. 6-10 I wrote the short story, “I’m not a Criminal” for the Stanley Wiater anthology After the Darkness.

  Nov. 8 Blood Games, begun on March 6 of that year, was finally finished.

  Nov. 18 I started writing Ripper, which I would later retitle Narrow Calls, and which would be published as Savage.

  Dec. 6-15 I wrote the short story, “Good Vibrations,” for a Gorman/Greenberg anthology to be called Stalkers III. The anthology would be published in 1996 as Night Screams.

  1991

  Jan. 1-5 I made notes for a novel called Nightman which never went anywhere.

  March 1-3 We took a trip to Bishop, CA to visit the Laws Railroad Museum so I could do some train research for Ripper Savage).

  March 18 I wrote a piece about The Stake for Mystery Scene.

  March 20 Looking for an American agent to replace Ralph Vicinanza, I contacted Dominick Abel.

  May 17 I spoke on being a writer for “career day” at Canfield, Kelly’s school.

  May 24-27 We drove to Tecate, Mexico and spent several days there with my parents, my brother Bob and his wife Cheryl.

  June 8 Don Cannon had a signing for me at Aladdin Books. Approximately sixty copies of The Stake were sold, and I spent three and a half hours autographing books and talking to fans.

  June 21-23 We stayed at the house of our friends, Sally and Murray Harb, and attended the Horror Writers of America festivities in Redondo Beach. My novel, Funland was nominated for a Bram Stoker award, but lost to Robert McCammon’s Mine. Bogart threw up. John Scoleri introduced me to Peter Enfantino and they proposed publishing a collection of my short fiction in a special limited edition. I agreed.

  June 29 I had a signing at The Bookstore, Ltd. in Modesto, CA. Approximately two copies of The Stake were sold. Larry Mori and Joan Parsons drove out from Berkley and had dinner with us.

  July 17 - August 1 We took a driving trip out west. Went to Jackson Hole. At a dude ranch near Cody, Wyoming, we did a lot of horseback riding, some whitewater rafting, some rock climbing. We got to meet a few real cowboys. We went to the Cody rodeo and Yellowstone Park. After the ranch, we went to Custer, South Dakota, saw Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain, the badlands, the Custer battlefield at the Little Big Horn, etc.

  We drove through fabulous landscapes near Moab, Utah. All this provided vast amounts of first-hand experience that came in handy during the writing of Savage’?, western sections. (I had been writing Savage since November of the previous year.) Aug. 9 I spoke and autographed copies of The Stake at The Book Annex in Venice, CA.

  This being Venice, we had real vampires in attendance.

  Sept. 6 I finished writing Ripper, otherwise known as Narrow Calls and soon to be published as Savage.

  Sept. 9 Though I’m convinced he did everything possible to help my career, I broke off from my U.S. agent, Ralph Vicinanza.

  Sept. 10 I began a series of original stories for my first short story collection, to be published by Peter Enfantino, John Scoleri and Robert Morrish of Deadline Press.

  Sept. 12-18 I wrote the short story, “Finders Keepers.”

  Sept. 19-23 I wrote “Joyce.”

  Sept. 24 - Oct. 1 I wrote “Mask.”

  Oct. 1-5 I wrote “Stickman.”

  Oct. 7-20 I wrote a story called “Friend,” which would become the title story of the Deadline collection, “A Good, Secret Place.” (The title, of course, is a play on the title of Hemingway’s classic short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”) Oct. 14 I met agent Dominick Abel for lunch at Coco’s in West Los Angeles. He seemed willing to take me on as a client, but he thought I would be a tough sell because of my track record. (It’s all computerized, so if your books are not smashing hits, you can’t escape the record and your career inevitably goes down the toilet.) Mr. Abel thought it might be a good idea for me to escape from my record by writing under a pseudonym.

  Oct. 28 After smoking a pipe since about the age of sixteen, I gave it up. For a while, I thought I might not be able to write without smoking a pipe, but I managed.

  Oct. 29 I started work on a new novel, The Caller (never finished).

  Nov. 4 In my quest for a U.S. agent, I talked to a man from William Morris. I was informed, however, that the agency wouldn’t take me on as a client unless I allowed them to handle the whole world, including the U.K. Which would mean dumping Bob Tanner.

  So I didn’t go with William Morris.

  It may have been at this point that I decided to quit looking for an American agent, and have Bob Tanner handle the whole works. He’d done such a fine job everywhere else, that it made sense. And still does.

  Nov. 6-13 I wrote the short story, “The Fur Coat” for Richard Chizmar’s anthology, The Earth Strikes Back.

  Nov. 12 Bob Tanner called to inform me that Blood Games would be the main selection of Book Club Associates, Britain’s most important book club.

  Nov. 17-23 I wrote the short story, “Phil the Vampire,” for the Gorman/Greenberg anthology, Vampire Detectives.

  Nov. 27 - Dec. 2 We went to Bullhead City, Sedona and Cottonwood with the De Larattas.

  Dec. 2-9 I wrote the short story, “Dracuson’s Driver,” for the Gorman/Greenberg anthology, Dracula, Prince of Darkness.

  Dec. 10-13 I wrote the short story, “Kitty Litter” for the Gorman/ Greenberg anthology, Cat Crimes II. Dec. 14 I started writing my novel, Quake.

  1992

  Jan. 15 The Stake went into development for Tri-Star TV.

  Jan 26 - Feb.2 In Florida, we went to Disney World, Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral, and Gatorland where I ate alligator.

  March 19 The trial of the police officers who subdued and arrested felon Rodney King began. Though still working on Quake, I took time to watch the complete trial on television.

  March 25 Headline gave me a new and wonderful three-book contract.

  March 30 My Headline editor, Mike Bailey, asked for a plot synopsis of Quake, so I wrote one up and sent it to Bob Tanner. (I send just about everything to Bob Tanner, and he delivers it all to Mike Bailey.)

  April 3 I stopped working on Quake, leaving it unfinished. April 4-28 I wrote my novella, “Wilds.”

  April 29 The jury found the police officers not guilty of charges brought against them in connection with the Rodney King arrest. The verdict wasn’t appreciated by some segments of the population, and the Los Angeles riot started. Reginald Denny was pulled from his car and nearly beaten to death by a mob of black hoodlums while we watched it happen live on television.

  April 30 The riot was continuing. Armed with a pistol and video camera, we piled into our Jeep and drove to the Target store on a mission to save our Disney World photos from the rioters. Though we passed through areas that had already been hit, we succeeded and returned home safely.

  May 1-3 The National Guard finally came in. With such a massive show of force, the riot tapered off and ended.

  May 6 I started working on a new novel, Sleep Over, which would be published as Endless Night.

  May 8 We went to a local gun shop and began to improve our home defense capabilities.

  May 16 We went to Venice Beach, where we saw a fellow threaten another guy and chase him around with a big knife. We reported the incident to a couple of nearby LAPD
officers.

  May 23-25 The ABA was in Anaheim. We had breakfast with Bob Tanner, dinner with Anne Williams of Headline and Bob.

  June 28 Two big EARTHQUAKES. A 6.5 demolished much of the city of Big Bear, and a 7.4 hit in Yucca Valley. We felt them both, but they were too far away to do any damage in Los Angeles.

  June 29 We had dinner with Sian Thomas of Headline.

  July 10 We had dinner in Sacramento with Steve, Kathy and Sarah Adamovich of Cobblestone book store. We stayed at a motel that night, and I signed books at Cobblestone the next day.

  July 21- Aug. 10 We flew to Ann’s hometown, Clayton, New York and took a side trip through the Finger Lakes area to Niagara Falls. We also had an adventure in Clayton, in which we stumbled onto a possibly illegal dump site, were caught there on a back road, and feared for our lives.

  Aug. 14-17 I worked on an interview for Samhain magazine.

  Sept. 10 The St. Martin’s version of Midnight’s Lair was chosen to be a Doubleday Book Club selection here in the U.S.

  Nov. 13 I had a book signing for A Good, Secret Place at Dark Carnival in Berkeley.

  Late that night, at the Berkeley Marriott, we had rodent adventures and needed to change rooms. We didn’t find out until later, but in the new room Kelly spent the night between her bedsheets with a pile of nut shells near her feet.

  Nov. 14 We visited the Santa Cruz boardwalk, which I had already fictionalized in Funland. While there, we observed a woman who was concerned because her child had vanished inside one of the amusement park’s rides.

  Nov. 17-18 I wrote a piece about Midnight’s Lair for Mystery Scene.

  Nov. 19-24 At the request of film agent Frank Cooper, I wrote a treatment of Midnight’s Lair. Oddly enough, based on a review of the book that appeared in Publishers Weekly, the folks at Disney were interested in movie rights. But only for a while. Then they found out what Midnight’s Lair was really about. (Film never made.) Dec. 2 I finished writing Endless Night and sent it to Bob Tanner.

  Dec. 12-13 We helped our friends, Loretta and Mel Roberts, set up and arrange their audio book store in Long Beach.