by Brian Keene
"We did the human thing. I don't know if it was right or wrong, but I don't care. Anybody else in our situation would have done the same thing."
"Maybe you're right."
"You're a good man, Jerry. You deserve a little happiness. We both do."
He leaned over the bed and kissed her. Becka's lips were soft and warm. She sighed, nuzzling his ear. Then she threw back the sheets, took his hand, and pulled him to her. They made love, and neither of them thought about the island.
Later, they sat on the patio and drank mimosas and watched the sun rise.
They felt like winners.
Author's Note
In late 2001,1 was asked to contribute a story to an anthology called In Laymon's Terms. The book, published by the venerable Cemetery Dance Publications and edited by Kelly Laymon, Richard Chiz-mar, and Steve Gerlach, was to be a tribute to Richard Laymon, who had passed away earlier that year. Dick Laymon was not only one of my all-time favorite writers, he was also a friend and mentor. So I was very honored to participate.
If, like me, you are a big fan of Laymon's work, then you are probably familiar with the Beast House series, which consists of three novels and one novella: The Cellar, Beast House, The Midnight Tour, and Friday Night in Beast House. The central plot of this series involves a roadside attraction in the fictional town of Malcasa Point, California. This attraction, the Beast House, is inhabited by a repugnant, savage race of beings known only as "beasts" (thus, the rather apt name for the place). In one of the books, Dick offers a brief origin for the beasts—they are a race of subhuman creatures, brought to our shores from an island off
the coast of Australia by an old sea captain. The beasts then slaughter pretty much everyone they come into contact with. They are some real mean bastards. They like to fuck and kill, and fuck what they kill.
When I was asked to contribute a story for In Laymon's Terms, I remembered the beasts' origin. The reality television show Survivor was very popular at the time, and I was a big fan of the program. (I still am, although I loathe most of the rest of the reality-television genre.) I wondered what would happen if a reality show was filmed on the island where Laymon's beasts had originated—and there were still beasts lurking there. I thought it would be a pretty cool story. Most of my ideas start that way. "Wouldn't it be cool if . . . ?"
So I wrote it.
In the original draft of the story, I used both the beasts and a minor character from Friday Night in Beast House named Broadway Joe. At the request of the Laymon estate, I changed the monsters to something of my own creation and dropped the character of Broadway Joe, replacing him with Troy. The result was a short story called "Castaways."
The story was accepted for In Laymon's Terms, and also appeared in my own short-story collection, Fear of Gravity. A few years after its appearance in Fear of Gravity, it was also adapted into a graphic novel, written by Nate Southard, called Brian Keene's Fear. Readers have often asked me to consider turning the short story into a full-length novel. Well, your wish is my command. You hold your request in your hands. Never let it be
said that I'm not open to feedback from my readers. (If this were the Internet, I'd post a smiley face icon right here, but since it's not the Internet, feel free to pencil one in yourself if you want.)
I decided that in order to novelize the story, I should remove it even further from the Beast House mythos, firmly setting it in my own ever-expanding multi-verse. So after talking about it with Kelly Laymon and Don D'Auria, my editor at Leisure, that's what I did. Eagle-eyed, longtime readers will probably notice some subtle links that firmly ground this novel in my own mythos (including ties to Dead Sea, The Conqueror Worms and Terminal).
One other note. The idea of a race of sub-beings using human females to propagate their species is one I've used before (in the novel Ghoul). I generally try not to repeat themes, but in the context of this tale, it seemed appropriate. I'm also not a big fan of using rape to convey a sense of horror in a novel. That's a tired trope, and many times, instead of experiencing horror, the reader is left with nothing but literary misogyny. I debated it for a while. But to have not used rape here would have been a cheat. It would have lessened the realism of the book. Let's be honest—the tribe is slowly dying off, and more and more young are being born with serious birth defects. Given those constraints, their actions were in line with the plot.
Anyway, as I said before, I consider the short story to be a tribute to Richard Laymon, and thus, the novel is too, by extension. As you probably noticed, the book is dedicated to him. (It's also
dedicated to Bruce "Boo" Smith and Dan "UK" Thomas, both of whom were big fans of my work, ardent supporters of the genre, and guys who always brightened everyone's day on the BrianKeene .com message boards. Both Bruce and Dan passed away before this book was published.)
The idea for both versions of Castaways was 100 percent inspired by Richard Laymon and his wonderful Beast House stories, and I'd like to think he would have dug this. Dick Laymon was a lot of things to a lot of people. Look at his incredibly prolific body of work and you'll understand how he influenced an entire generation of horror writers. He was always very gracious with his time and assistance. Anytime you read a novel by myself, Edward Lee, J. F. Gonzalez, Tom Piccirilli, Brett McBean, Steve Gerlach, Geoff Cooper, Mike Oliveri, Weston Ochse, or many other authors from our generation, keep in mind that it was Richard Laymon (among others) who had a hand in our development—be it a kind word or an introduction to an editor or just sharing a beer and a laugh. He is missed by many, but he is certainly not forgotten. And he will be remembered for a long time to come through his many works.
As always, thanks for buying this book and my other books, and for taking the time to drop by my website and tell me what you thought of them. I wish I could return the favor and buy each and every one of you a beer (or a coffee, if you prefer), but that would get pretty expensive, and I'm fairly sure my wife wouldn't let all of us hang out in my
backyard. Just know that I really appreciate your continued support. You keep reading them, and I'll keep writing them.
Brian Keene
Heart of Darkness, Pennsylvania March 2008
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