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The Beer Run with Kelly Laymon, John Pelan, and
Donn Gash.
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Rebecca Clarke and John Urbancik
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Tim Lebbon and John Pelan
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Rain Graves, Brian Keene and *that* sock!
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Michael Oliveri, GAK, Gene O'Neill, Weston
Ochse |
Michael
Laimo, Rain Graves, Weston Ochse, Yvonne Navarro |
Regina Mitchell, Michael Oliveri, Donn Gash,
Ryan Harding, and
Jenny Orosel |
Mikey Huyck after too much to
drink |
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David Nordhaus (AKA Victor Heck), J. Newman,
Jack Harringa, William F. Nolan
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William D. Gagliani, Feo
Amante, Peter Straub, Caitlan Kiernan |
Mikey Huyck, Marcy Italiano, Louis Maistros
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Road Kill or Victim?
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The HWA LAers! #1 Jen Orosel, Shawn Turi, and
Kelly Laymon.
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The HWA LAers! #2. Shawn Turi and Ann Laymon.
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Donn Gash and Kelly Laymon at the Borderands
Party on Thursday night. Of the photo, Donn said, "I think that was taken during hour ten of the fifteen-hour drinking binge."
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Later that Thursday night, the HWA LA decided
to put the bowl of fruit from the Borderlands Party to use. Jen Orosel
snapped photos as Jonathan Torres and Kelly Laymon took turns juggling
oranges.
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On Saturday, Kelly and Ann Laymon, and Jeff Funk.
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At the Gross-Out Contest, Rain Graves, Brian
Keene, and I cooked something up.
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At the HWA Suite on Friday night, Mikey Huyck,
Jonathan Torres, Kelly Laymon, and Eunice Magill. Lurking in the background
is Bob Morrish.
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I lost a bet with Jen at the airport, so I had
to spend two hours of the HWA Party with "Snoochie Boochies"
written on my forehead. A la Jay, of Jay and Silent Bob.
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After my two hours were up, I probably ruined
a hotel washcloth. Look at that green smear!
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This was my pride and joy. When I was setting up
the HWA Suite early Friday night, we learned what happens when I get
to be in charge. heheh Donn Gash and I were the folks holding down
the HWA Suite for the night, and it is customary for one of the bathtubs
in the room to be filled with ice and bottles of booze. Since no one
was going to be able to use the toliet right next to the tub, I decided
to decorate it. After almost fighting with a woman at the hotel restaurant
who refused to sell me just a bowl of chocolate Here we have chapter heads in the head. East and west unite. Adam Pepper, of the HWA NYC, and Kelly Laymon, of the HWA LA. |
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One year later… Despite what you might believe, I’m a romantic guy. Valentine’s Day has always been my second-favorite holiday (the first being April Fool’s Day, of course). But this year, I find myself dreading February 14th. I find myself wanting to ignore it, to mark it off my calendar as if it never occurred. To sleep through it, if I can. Thinking about Valentine’s Day used to conjure good images. I had my first kiss at a Valentine’s Day “spin-the-bottle” party. I met a very important woman on a Valentine’s Day years later. You get the idea. Now, when I start to think about the impending holiday, the only image I see is coming home from work last year, hitting the answering machine button, hearing something that must be a really awful joke, and feeling the bottom fall out of the world. It’s like a video recorder in my mind, stuck on an endless fucking loop. And I’d rather not remember that, thank you very much. On Thursday, Richard Laymon will have been gone a year. At times, that is STILL very hard to believe. So I’ve been trying all week not to think about it at all. Easier said than done. If I look to my left, I see the name LAYMON taking up three and a half bookshelves, right between LAIMO and LEBBON. If I look to my right, I see a picture of him taken in my kitchen. Over my shoulder, on another shelf, is the battered copy of THE CELLAR that I purchased on a whim in 1980—the same one that Dick signed a few years ago. I see these things and I remember… I go to the bookstore on a weekly basis, and spend an hour or so re-arranging the horror section when the staff isn’t looking. I see all the Laymon books that are back on American shelves, courtesy of Leisure... …and I remember. In times of trouble, some people turn to the Bible for strength and comfort. I turn to A WRITER’S TALE. A few weeks ago, crumbling under the weight of several impending deadlines and a mire of self-doubt, I pulled it off the shelf for a recharge. Although he is gone, I swear to God that Dick talks to us through that book. I know of other authors who have said the same thing. We read it… …and we remember. And in remembering, we smile. Maybe even laugh. We feel the magic rekindle. And suddenly, the memories aren’t so bad. We miss you Dick, and we remember. -- Brian Keene |
10 February, 2002 Seattle, Washington Heya, Dick. It seems like we haven’t spoke in forever, though it’s been exactly one year. Anyways… A lot has happened in this past year. Of course, DREADFUL TALES, NO SANCTUARY, FRIDAY NIGHT IN BEAST HOUSE, THE HALLOWEEN MOUSE, THE TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW, and TRIAGE all came out. So yeah, Mousey-mouse wasn’t until like friggin’ December or so, but you know how Rich is. I got a real kick out of the TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW dust jacket photo. You prick! That was hysterical! And I LOVED Broadway Joe in FNIBH. He kicked more ass than a donkey. A lot of the Brits and the Aussies didn’t get that, I don’t think, but I sure as Hell did! Kel had to fill me in on the bit about no goats being in the swimming pool, though. I don’t know enough Spanish to fill a thimble: you know… my brain’s too filled up with carburetor cleaner fumes for any room for shit like that. Ann looks GREAT, and has been a real trooper. I’m sure you’re proud of her. Hell, I know you are. We all are. There was that little bit about the tattoo, but I’ll let her tell you about that…. Oh, calm down: it was just GAK playing with a magic marker. She's been taking care of a lot of shit around there. She's adopted a "no bullshit" policy, which I think you'd dig. I think we all, at one point or another, wondered how the fuck we'd handle all that she has--and depressed ourselves because we knew we'd fall short. You’d be so proud of Kel this past year. Briguy finally gave up the ghost on JIH. Kelly bought it, will be taking over on issue #138. Ain’t that the shit? She’s also been running around taking care of all kinds of stuff. Your daughter is a busy woman. She started that HWA chapter for LA (Yeah, I told her she was nuts, but you know how she can listen when she has decided she wants to do something.) and has been helping out with WHC 2002 in Chicago. (You fuckin’ believe Kansas City got the bid for 2003? What the fuck? Explain that to me, willya? Kansas City? Who the Hell wants to go to Kansas friggin’ City, huh? I don’t get it.) We’ve all been talking quite a bit. You know. Not that we didn’t BEFORE, but maybe a little more now. Yeah, it’s true—I’m letting my membership in HWA lapse now that your term is up. It’s FUBAR, man. All the changes you tried to get going got run into the ground soon as your back was turned. Serious. I’ve had it with ‘em. When it comes to the HWA, I’m so far away from the Giveafuck Star, it’d take the light from it 5.3 million years to reach me. Fuck it. That fuckin’ fucker is fuckin’ fucked. My suggestion to fix it is still an option, though… We sold out of the 4x4 hardcovers—totally sold out. How cool is THAT? We had the signing at Dark Del’s (wish you coulda been there…. You’d have got a kick out of our “fan club” –of which pictures are somewhere…) and up at Alan’s store. That went pretty well…. Until Briguy started in on the tequila. You know how THAT goes… then, of course, he was hitting on every woman he saw. (I think he proposed marriage to the waitress). No, no… not me. Serious! I was good! I didn’t even hit on… anyway, let’s ignore that topic for now. I had my girlfriend with me. Yeah, you read that right. Go figure. Been together a little while now. She came down for the signings and stuff. I dunno… she reads (she’d read SAVAGE, THE CELLAR, and ALARUMS before we’d even met), digs dogs, and thinks that going to the range on a Friday night after dinner is a perfectly fine way to spend a night out. Yeah: cool chick. Funny though… a Canadian (did I mention she was from Vancouver?) with a handgun. Her friends don’t quite know what to make of her new-found hobby (they’re brainwashed up there into that bullshit “guns are bad” thing, you know). She prefers the Baretta 92 (eh... I'm not wild about 'em, but to each their own). Yeah, I taught her to shoot. She does real well, considering she's only been doing it a little while. I’ve got her targets scanned somewhere—you should check ‘em out. No, Don hasn’t responded to the BELIALIAN submission yet. Surprised? Yeah, me neither. I’ve about given up on novels. At least, that’s what I say. I’m still WRITING them, but I’ll be damned if I can bring myself to give a fuck about them anymore, considering that European empires can rise and fall in the time it takes to receive a reply on 'em. It’s hard to finish them anymore. Once they start giving me problems, I say fuckit and go on to something I know I can sell (read: Under 5,000 words). I know, I know… can’t make a living on short stories. I know. But you can’t make a living on novels you can’t get anyone to look at, either. At least people BUY my short fiction. There’s a rumor or two about a Brackard’s Point collection… I’ll keep you posted. Maybe? Maybe after that, SOMEONE in this Goddamned industry will give me an answer? No, I ain’t holding my breath. Don’t worry… I haven’t been overtaken with nauseating amounts of optimism. Brian and Cassandra are finally getting married. No shit! May 18th. Surely, this is a sign of the apocalypse. Jets are really gonna win the Superbowl next year. NO REST FOR THE WICKED came out—then came out again, because Imaginary Worlds should have been called Imaginary Books. Heh. He's been cranking shit out, as usual. Still a total ham. Still pissing people off--you oughta SEE this one freak on HorrorNet's message boards! HA! I’ll let him tell you the story. Mike and Melissa just had a baby boy! He’s got the pics up on his webpage. Cute kid! Mike also finished another novel. Who? Me? Jealous of my friends? Pshaw…. Oh, and James Futch’s wife is pregnant, too. He has a chapbook coming out. Hmm… I’m seeing a pattern. New kid, new book…. Huh? Why're you looking at me like that? No, no--trust me--I wouldn't wish half of my genes on my worst enemy. There are fates worse than death--and to have me as your father, I think, would be up there on the scale. Anyways.... Mikey’s neck has been forty-four shades of fucked up. That surgery he had didn’t do a damned thing to help him. They fused a couple more vertebrae. I’m thinking it’s time they just made the guy a new spine out of titanium or something. Speaking of surgery, Ray had some done on his hip. That poor guy… SHIT! But he had SEX AND VIOLENCE IN HOLLYWOOD come out from Subterranean. God…. What a book! You’d really dig that one. Lee damned near had a stroke around Easter. Scared him so bad, he quit drinking and smoking. No shit—but he said the doctor said he can have all the seafood he wants, so that’s good. I think he’d fuckin’ explode if he had to cut crab out of his diet. (Do they make tofu crab?) But he had CITY INFERNAL come out from Leisure (Zebra reprinted COVEN around the same time that deal went in. Let’s see… go into a second printing after what—10 years? Hmmmmm… sounds like THE STAKE, don’t it?), and PARTNERS IN CHYME come out from Necro. Ryan's Gross out story from Atlanta? Yeah--kick ass. I'm happy as shit for him. That's too damned cool, ain't it? Oh, and you won the Stoker. Just thought I'd fill you in. Kel accepted on your behalf. She read the thing you'd written for A WRITER'S TALE, in case that won. (I still think you got gypped that year--that was total bullshit. But anyway... don't get me going on the HWA. They pissed me off.). So, yeah, I’ve been hanging in there, Dick. You know—there was all that rough shit going down there for a while. Got real bad about July… which lasted until right after the September 11th bullshit. (Be glad you missed that. You’d have gone bugshit. It was fuckin’ horrible. And all these flower-in their hair, pansy-ass, politically correct, pro-victim motherfuckers (you know--the ones that think we should ALL be victims, because they're too pussy to defend themselves and want to give our streets to the criminals by outlawing guns?) Yeah. Those fuckin' assholes were all saying “no more killing…” and the conspiracy theorists were out in droves. The World Trade Center? It's gone. Gone. As in, does not fucking exist anymore. It was that whack-fuck that organized the USS Cole bombing--that Bin Laden dude. I still say we level that whole fuckin' region. Take him, Saddam, the whole bunch and have some target practice.) Happier news: I got a new job—still wrenching, but I’m the Big Dog now. Yeah, I’m the Lead Mechanic at this little 3 bay shop. Capital letters and everything. Heheh. Pay ain’t GREAT… have had to threaten the owner’s life a couple of times to get him to open the purse strings, but we’ve got a semi-decent deal now. I’ll hit him up again in a couple of months when I break a couple more records for him. Heh. What I do is run the shop, as well as work on the cars. So it’s damned close to what I wanted to be doing anyway. I’m sick of wrenching. My body can’t take much more of this. My hands? Oh, forget it… they’re history. Ditto for my back, my knees, and my ankles. I’m getting too old for this shit. Started going to the dentist for that cracked molar I'd been putting off for 3 years. Nightmare. They gave me Tylenol #3's for the pain, but they started scaring me, to be honest. The pills, I mean. I mean, if I'm gonna be popping a T-3 soon as I get home from work, shit, I might as well grab a drink, ya know? I found I wasn't doing as much as a result of 'em--just getting zoned and playing Civilization III --crazy strategy game, highly addictive, big time sucker-upper--so I quit taking 'em. I sleep less now, but get more done. Hell, I haven't even told Bri about that. Didn't tell anyone, really. Considering my history, I didn't want anyone thinking.... I dunno. Hard to explain, but I'm kind of sensitive about that. Ya know. Anyways, Dick, I’ve got to get getting, but I wanted to write today, fill you in on what’s been going down. Basically this: Ann and Kelly both are doing okay, considering. You’d be real proud of ‘em. I know you would. I am. They’re both amazing women. The rest of us, well… some are doing better than others. But we all have one thing in common, Dick: We miss the fuck out of you. Later! --Geoff |
The big news, I guess, is that I "celebrated" the one year anniversary of my father's death by going out and getting a tattoo. A tattoo's been inevitable for a few years. It's something I've talked about with a lot of people. Getting advice and whatnot. One thing led to another and I ended up in the right mindset for doing it on Thursday, February 14, 2002. I went with a place recommended by one of the gals I hang out with from the HWA Los Angeles chapter. The place was right on my way home from school, so it was very convenient. From the moment I walked in to the moment I walked out, it was about three hours. By 4:00pm, I was fully tattooed. Many thanks to Carlos at Suicidal Tendencies Tattoo Salon for doing a real kick ass job. The detail blows me away. It looks fantastic. I chose a design a lot of you out there will probably recognize. It's the cover art from BAD NEWS, which was done by Vince Natale. -- Kelly Laymon |
| --------------------------------------------------- IN LAYMON'S TERMS Submission Guidelines --------------------------------------------------- IN LAYMON'S TERMS - edited by Kelly Laymon, Steve Gerlach & Richard Chizmar - will be published in the second half of 2002 by Cemetery Dance Publications. It will be available in three editions: - Trade Edition bound in full-cloth with full-color dust jacket artwork - Slipcased Limited Edition of 400 signed and numbered copies -- signed by all contributors! - Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies (bound in leather, with satin ribbon page marker and additional interior artwork) ABOUT ILT: -------------- IN LAYMON'S TERMS will be an oversized, huge tribute anthology for Richard Laymon, featuring original and reprint short fiction, essays, interviews, personal remembrances, photos, etc. from dozens of the biggest names in horror! Personal, moving, and wildly entertaining, this oversized hardcover is a collection that Richard Laymon would be very proud of! SUBMITTING TO ILT: ------------------------- IN LAYMON'S TERMS will be divided into three sections. BLUE BLOOD: ----------------- The main short story section, BLUE BLOOD, is for popular horror writers known in the genre and is by INVITATION ONLY. Please DO NOT submit stories for this section unless you have been asked. NEW BLOOD: ---------------- The NEW BLOOD section will feature new and unknown writers from around the world who have been influenced by Richard Laymon. This section is freely open to unsolicited submissions. All we ask is that your story be a horror story that Laymon would have enjoyed: fast, bloody, violent and maybe even a little funny. Word length should be between 1000-5000 words and all original fiction, please. NO REPRINTS. All submissions should come with a 250 word "Laymon Remembrance" in which the author talks about Laymon's influence on their life or writing. Submissions for the NEW BLOOD section should be emailed to gerlach@ains.net.au as a Word .doc attachment with ILT SUBMISSION in the Subject line, or sent in hardcopy via snail mail to: Steve Gerlach RLK! 1 Elizabeth Street Croydon Victoria 3136 AUSTRALIA Deadline for the NEW BLOOD section is May 1, 2002. NON FICTION - TRUE BLOOD: ------------------------------------- The Non Fiction section of IN LAYMON'S TERMS is also open for submissions. Whether they be articles on Richard's work or life, fond memories, interviews or interesting true life stories of meeting Laymon. Submissions should be sent IN HARDCOPY ONLY to: Kelly Laymon 7900 Loyola Boulevard Campus Box 3285 Los Angeles, CA 90045 U.S.A. Deadline for non fiction is May 1, 2002. ------------------------- |
Here's an update from Probable Cause Productions, the publishers of The
Nocturne and Love Lies Dying:
"Probable Cause Update - Steve Gerlach Releases:
Copies of LOVE LIES DYING are now in stock.
All orders are being filled as we speak and we hope to have the last of
the orders shipped and on their way by March 8.
Thanks to everyone for ordering and hanging in there and being patient.
We think you'll enjoy both LOVE LIES DYING
and THE NOCTURNE.
For those of you who are yet to order, get in now before they're all sold
out! Remember, first edition copies of THE NOCTURNE
were sold out in two months in 1999! Don't miss out on this 2nd edition
of THE NOCTURNE or 1st edition of LOVE
LIES DYING!"
| Praise for The Nocturne: | Praise for Love Lies Dying: |
|
"A really fast paced, grim, exciting, sexy novel. It's very gripping, violent, and weird. I really enjoyed it. The Nocturne is a book that any Laymon fan ought to enjoy. " -- Richard Laymon, author of The Cellar, USA |
"Love Lies Dying is a disturbing, twisted, sexually-charged dark ride of suspense." -- Douglas Clegg, author of Naomi, USA |
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| Friday, October 26, 2001 The HWA LA chapter meeting for the month of October was held in conjunction with a book signing at Dark Delicacies by Doug Clegg and Joe Nassise. In the foreground, Jen Orosel and GAK. In the background, Eunice Magill and Maria Alexander. Photo by Kelly Laymon |
Friday, October 26, 2001 Doug Clegg, at his book signing and our HWA LA chapter meeting, recognizes the photographer in her Halloween costume. Photo by Kelly Laymon |
Friday, October 26, 2001 Uma, Doug. Doug, Uma. (Kelly Laymon, dressed as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction for Halloween, with Doug Clegg.) Photo by Raul Silva |
Friday, October 26, 2001 Still at Doug Clegg's book signing. The folks are Weston Ochse, Kelly Laymon, and Staci Wilson. Photo by Enzo Giobbe. |
