by David Byron
I love writing horror because I get to exorcise my dark side, my twisted ego-dystonic imagination. I know what may well creep me out may creep others out, too. So whatever I may cut out of my gut and serve on the platter just might be to someone a great taste treat!
Okay, my dear, now for some boring Q&A: What would you say is your favorite scary film? Book? Boring for whom? You aren‘t boring. I think you are a sweetheart. Sure I have a favorite scary film and book. The movie would have to be The Beast With Five Fingers, {b/w from the late 40s} and the book would have to be Psycho, by Robert Bloch. Wow….that really outdates me, doesn‘t it?! A recent favorite that isn‘t marked as horror {though it does have ghosts and creepy stuff in it} is The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. And, it‘s her first novel!
Got any good news about any current or upcoming projects? I bet you do!! I am working on a novella for PS Publishing and have a bunch of new stories going out to various magazines and anthology publishers, and there is also a trilogy in my future. I retire from teaching in less than a year and will be devoting my time to the novels I always said I‘d write. {And rewrite the three I did over the last twenty years} and never had time to finish. I also have my own art-design business and my husband and I own a web design service aside from teaching. So, I am far too busy to spend quality time writing as much as I wish to. But……..I will never stop writing horror!
Well, Roberta, as much as I hate to, I better let you go for now, busy, busy! But, please keep us informed about you and your projects, and I wish you the best in life.
Will do! Great magazine, too. May it inspire many!
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***
Chronology:
Cutting Edge “Goodbye, Dark Love” (Etchison, ed.)
Lord John Ten “Auntie” (Etchison/Yellin, ed.)
Alien Sex “Saving the World at the New Moon Motel” (Datlow, ed.) Off Limits: Alien Sex II “His Angel” (Datlow, ed.)
Still Dead:Book of the Dead II “I Walk Alone” (Skipp/Spector, ed.) Splatterpunks “Goodbye, Dark Love”; Reprint(Sammon, ed.) Splatterpunks II “I Walk Alone”; Reprint (Sammon, ed.)
The Bradbury Chronicles “The Late Arrivals” (Nolan/Greenberg, ed.) Dark Terrors “Feast at Grief"s Table” (Jones, ed.)
Deathport “When Prayers are Answered” (Campbell, ed.)
Dark Voices 5 “Precious” (Jones/Sutton, ed.)
Best New Horror 4 “Dancing on a Blade of Dreams”; Reprint (Jones/Sutton, ed.)
Year"s Best Fantasy and Horror 7 “Precious”; Reprint (Datlow/Windling, ed.)
Mammoth Book of Werewolves “Essence of the Beast” (Jones, ed.) Mammoth Book of Frankensteins “A Complete Woman” (Jones, ed.) Golden Tears, Ruby Slippers “Roach in Loafers” (Datlow/Windling, ed.) Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium “Stealing the Sisyphus Stone” (Pelan, ed.)
Razor Kiss (Love in Vein II) “When Memory Fails” (Brite, ed.) Lethal Kisses “Butcher"s Logic” (Datlow, ed.)
Mammoth Book of Draculas “Melancholia” (Jones, ed.)
Dark of the Moon “Good Girl” (Jones, ed.)
Mammoth Book of Best New Horror “Butcher"s Logic”; Reprint in UK (Jones, ed.)
Dark Terrors IV “Mr. Guidry"s Head”(Jones/Sutton, ed.)
White of the Moon “Feng Shui” (Jones, ed.)
Presence du Fantastique ?Les Loups Garou?; Reprint in French (Sadoul, ed.) Dark Terrors V “Pearl”(Jones/Sutton, ed.)
Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women “Turkish Delight” (Jones, ed.)
Taverns of the Dead “Dès Lors” (Burke, ed.)
Don"t Turn Out the Light! “The Other Family” (Jones, ed.)
Dark Delicacies “The Bandit of Sanity” (Gelb/Howison, ed.) Best New Horror 17 “Other Family” (Jones/Sutton, ed.)
Dark Passions: Hot Blood 13 “Tres Hermanas” (Gelb/McGarrett, ed.) Summer Chills “The Anguish of Departure” (Jones, ed.)
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Magazine Publications
AfterHours “Forever Midnight” (Issue 19, Interview/Story #25) Fantasy Tales “Invisible Boy” (UK#5 & American #2 Edition) Iniquities “Apostate in Denim” (Premier Issue)
Pulphouse “Dancing on a Blade of Dreams” (Issue #15)
Skull “Lithium Nights” (Premier Issue)
Phantasm “Last Song for the Dying” (Issue #4)
Tenebres--Story “Apostate in Denim”; Reprint in French (Jan. 1999) Tenebres--Article “Why Teens Love Stephen King” (Sept.2000) Stephen King Reader (French)-Review “The Green Mile” (Domis, ed.) Other Appearances and Publications
HWA 1996 Calendar-February (with Lisa Morton)
Artwork in Horror Show and Phantasm Magazines
The Daemon Lover/DAW books ?My Favorite Horror Story? Co-host to Steve Barnes on Hour 25 (LA radio KPFK FM 90.7) Clive Barker"s A to Zed-The Book (Jones, ed.)/BBC Channel 4 TV program
The Tiger Garden-Writer"s Dreams-For Amnesty International (Royle, ed.) Event Horizon-Round Robin Online Fiction at www.SCIFI.com w/Beth Massie, JRRussell, & Brian Hodge (Ellen Datlow, ed.)
Another 100 Best Horror Novels II-Essay “A Sight for Sore Eyes” by Ruth Rendell (Jones, ed.)
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The Outlaws Slashers & Splatterpunks
Joe R. Lansdale
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Where does Mojo storytelling come from? How does a fella learn to spin over-the-top yarns of any sort: horror, suspense, humor, science fiction, Western, what have you? First you got to see the world, like Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale, who has lived everywhere from Gladewater, Texas to Mount Enterprise, Texas to Nacogdoches, Texas!
"Texas is so wrapped up in myth and legend, it‘s hard to know what the state and its people are really about," says Lansdale. "Real Texans, raised on these myths and legends, sometimes become legends themselves. The bottom line is, Texas and its people are pretty much what most people mean when they use the broader term ‗America.‘ No state better represents the independent spirit, the can-do attitude of America, better than Texas."
The second ingredient to good Mojo storytelling is learning how to take a punch. Or a kick. Or a poke in the eye. And then learning how to avoid them. Lansdale is a student of the martial arts for more than thirty years. He‘s a two-time inductee into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame, one such honor bestowed upon him for his founding of Shen Chuan, Martial Science. He holds belts in Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu, Combat Hapkido, American Combat Kempo, and Aikido, amongst others; in fact, his standard day is six hours at the typewriter, three hours at Lansdale‘s Self Defense Systems, the martial-arts studio which he owns and at which he teaches.
With more than thirty books to his credit, Lansdale is the Champion Mojo Storyteller. He‘s been called "an immense talent" by Booklist; "a born storyteller" by Robert Bloch; and The New York Times Book Review declares he has "a folklorist‘s eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur‘s sense of pace." He‘s won umptyump awards, including sixteen Bram Stoker Awards, the Grand Master Award from the World Horror Convention, a British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, the Horror Critics Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, the "Shot in the Dark" International Crime Writer‘s Award, the Golden Lion Award, the Booklist Editor‘s Award, the Critic‘s Choice Award, and a New York Times Notable Book Award. He‘s got the most decorated mantle in all of Nacogdoches!
Lansdale lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his wife, Karen, writer
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and editor. ***
Introduction by Chet Williamson:
My buddy David Byron asked me if I"d be interested in doing an interview with my ole pard Joe Lansdale for NVF, but I declined, since I"d already conducted a lengthy palaver with Joe a year or so ago for Weird Tales. Still, I offered to write a very brief intro to the interview if David conducted it.
Joe does a lot of interviews, but in every one you"ll find his distinctive voice saying pretty wise things, and this one
"s no different. David"s tone is more conversational and jocular than mine had been (I always tend to interview “for the ages”), and Joe loosens up nicely here. Reading it gives the flavor of sitting in a quiet room with a friend, sharing stories and swapping yarns, and there isn"t a better guy to do that with than Joe. Read on, and feel the mojo!
~***~
NVF Magazine interview With
Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale
Howdy Joe! How"s the weather in Texas? It"s so cold here, the brass monkeys are wearing thermal undies. It‘s cool and wet here, but pretty pleasant, though according to the weather guessers, that‘s about to change and it‘s about to turn cold and nasty.
Sounds fun!I just picked up a book the other day entitled Horror Writers On Horror Film, and lo and behold, you were in there! I knew there was good reason I bought that book. I got the impression from your article that you grew up really enjoying the old drive-in theaters. Me, too. Was your love for that era
– and it"s films – an inspiration for your book The Drive-In?
I don‘t even remember writing that article unless it‘s the one called A HARD ON FOR HORROR. That was about my love for low budget horror films. I don‘t like them straight across the board, it depends on the film. But, yes, that grew out of my love for drive- ins and drive- in movies and all the fun I had there, and the fact that there were certain types of movies that showed there that showed nowhere else, as well as some that did, and some
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second run movies from what Joe Bob Briggs used to call hardtop theaters. Truth is, I don‘t quite have the passion I used to have for low budget horror films because now there are a lot of better made, better budget films than there were before. Still, some are so good, or so goddamn bad, that they are still on my list of favorites.
Yeah, I hear ya. I"ve always enjoyed your Hap and Pine novels, too, one of my favorites being The Two Bear Mambo. Could Hap and Pine possibly be based on real-life characters?
They are a mixture of people, though Hap is primarily me if I hadn‘t met my wife and had had a mid life crisis--I didn‘t have time or need for one--and I had made slightly different choices. All this would have been without all the shooting and the like, I think, but I could have ended up a lot like him. Hell, in many ways, I am a lot like him. I get older though, and I‘ve stopped aging him and Leonard as I wait sometimes years between their adventures. I have a new one, VANILLA RIDE, about them coming out summer of 2009, and another will follow in 2010, plus I have a partial, BLUE TO THE BONE, and another that have yet to be finished and find a home. One of them may turn out to just be a long short story. I like the guys, though, and one reason there‘s been a delay is they were with Warner--now GRAND CENTRAL--and my new publisher didn‘t want to publish novels about them when the back list was owned by someone else. Now, all the back list of the Hap and Leonard series, plus audios of their adventures, and possibly a film--been close several times before--is forthcoming, with me writing the screenplay. The current book that may be a film is the first in the series-SAVAGE SEASON.
I understand you are a Burn Notice fan, too. Me too! That Bruce Campbell is real hoot, isn"t he? You had a funny story you told me once, about you and your family and Bruce going out to dinner, and a waitress recognized him. Tell me that one again.
Yeah, I really like Burn Notice. I watched it because I like Bruce, and then I got hooked for a lot of other reasons. I wish it would get on a slightly more regular schedule. The martial arts in it are very good. The story is Don Coscarelli, Bruce, my wife and daughter and myself went to dinner here in Nacogdoches, and a waiter came over and told Bruce he looked like that guy in ARMY OF DARKNESS, and Bruce told him,
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―Yeah, I get that a lot.‖
We would have left it at that, but my daughter and wife couldn‘t keep their mouth shut. They told him. Said it was him. Poor old Bruce…he is going to have to start wearing a mask to go out and eat. Speaking of Bruce, were you happy with the job Don Coscarelli did on the film Bruce was in, Bubba Ho Tep? I really enjoyed it, myself. I believe that was adapted from one of your stories?
I adored Bubba Hotep. I think it‘s Don and Bruce‘s best film, hands down. Ossie Davis is one of my favorites, so I was really happy he was in it.
I totally agree. You often mix horror and humor into the same story, as in the tale The Night They Missed The Horror Show. Do you think that some writers use this as an escape? Sort of a creative outlet for their own fears?
An escape. A way to make a statement. A way to work out demons. A way to deal with fears. That story actually has a number of true and ―told for true‖ events I heard about. I linked them together for that story and made a lot of stuff up too, but the tone and the feel is right for where I grew up, the attitudes then. ―Night They Missed The Horror Show‖ is my favorite of all my stories,and for lots of reasons. It changed my life as a writer, it became somewhat famous and has resold over the years, and it was a story where I felt I had learned how to write about the things I wanted to write about in the way I wanted to write about them.
And a grand job you did of it, too. I understand you are acquainted with Chet Williamson. He seems like a real nice guy. What do you think a literary collaboration between you and him would be like? I think it could prove to be very interesting…
Chet and I are very good friends. I met him at a convention many years ago, and I really wanted to meet him because I was a fan of his work. I‘m especially fond of his short stories, and wrote the intro to his short story collection, and it is so good. As for how a collaboration would be...I don‘t know. We‘ve edge around that with film scripts and comics, but it never quite happened. Most of the time I think writers do their best work alone, at least in books and short stories. We are very different kinds of writers, so I don‘t know how we would blend. I‘m a poor planner. I never know what‘s going to happen from one day to the
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next, except in a few rare cases where a story came to me in a flash, or it built in my head over time. I‘m more of an idea and emotion writer than a big planner. I like a compass, not a map.
Ok, here is one for fun: If you could trade places just for one day, with one of your favorite characters from one of your favorite books, who would it be? . None of them. I like my life too much.
Haha yeah, not to offend you, but I don"t blame you there. OK, here"s another: What exactly is a „"mojo story teller?"" And….while I"m at it, what exactly is a „"splatter punk?""
Actually, my wonderful webmaster, Lou Bank, came up with Mojo storyteller based on my use of the word as part of my title MUCHO MOJO. It just means magical storyteller. But I didn‘t name myself that. I like it though. Splatterpunk was a horrible idea because it limited writers to fit a certain type of fiction. I may have written some stories that fit that definition, but I didn‘t want to define my career by it. It‘s clever, but frankly, I hate it. My friend David Schow came up with it. I think he and a few others wanted to make it a literary movement, and as soon as you can put a pin in it, put a name to it, it‘s over with anyway. I know a lot of writers who killed their careers with that label, and I was afraid it would get me even though I never embraced it; it puts too big a monkey on your back and again, for me, it‘s not accurate when it is used to define my career. It‘s a word that ended up in the dictionary, though, and David Schow is giving the credit, accurately.
No joke? I figured you"d have said Skipp and Spector. What triggered your interest in the martial arts? Hey…maybe you and Chuck Norris could do a film together…
. My father was forty or so when I was born and had been a wrestler and boxer from time to time at fairs during the depression. He had picked up some judo and jujitsu, so he was my first instructor of self-defense and sparked my interest for life.
If you could meet your favorite writer{s}, who would it be? And…what would you do to entertain them? Dinner and drinks? Pizza and a DVD? Or…a verb
al reading of The Night They Missed The Horror Show?
I‘ve met some of my favorites. Robert Bloch. Richard Matheson. Ray Bradbury. William F. Nolan. Andrew
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Vachss, who is a dear friend and brother. I‘d like to have met Flannery O‘Conner. We‘d have to have had fried chicken and gravy and taters.
Sounds tasty. By the way, how"s your book Leather Maiden doing? Unfortunately, I haven"t had a chance to read it yet.
I won‘t know how Leather Maiden is doing until royalty time, but I think it‘s doing pretty good.
Well, Joe, I know you are a busy man, so I will let you go for now. Any last words before you leave us?
Hmm...last words? Nope!
Cool. Take it easy, Joe. ***
Bibliography:
Novels
― Hap Collins and Leonard Pine” mysteries
Savage Season (1990)
Mucho Mojo (Cemetery Dance Publications, 1994)
Two-Bear Mambo (1995)
Bad Chili (1997)
Rumble Tumble (1998)
Veil"s Visit (includes the eponymous story, written with Andrew Vachss) (1999) (limited edition)
Captains Outrageous (2001)
Vanilla Ride (2009) [previously referred to as Blue to the Bone]
The “Drive-In” series
The Drive-In: A “B” Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas (1988) The Drive-In 2: Not Just One of Them Sequels (1989)
The Drive-In: A Double-Feature (1997, omnibus) compiles the first two The Drive-In: The Bus Tour (2005) (limited edition)
The “Ned the Seal” trilogy
These are all limited editions published by Subterranean Press