Bob Ford is the nicest mean guy working today… let me explain. We met for the first time last year in Virginia, drinks in hand and a good laugh shared. Bob treated me like an old friend, welcoming me with open arms and kind words. Rarely do I feel I’ve known someone for years within mere minutes, but Bob’s one of those guys… you know the type. One of the good ones. But there’s another side at work here… one I witnessed a day later as Bob clutched a novel before an unsuspecting crowd and began to read. And sweet fucking Jesus did he read. Imagine sitting with a real-life Rust Cohle from True Detective and you’ll get a sense of where I’m going. That, or being in a closed cage with a unhappy tiger. Bob paced and made eye contact, he grabbed shoulders and screamed — and folks prayed he didn’t come their way next. Bob hardly looked to his novel, either. He had it memorised.  

Your titles are very lyrical, No Lipstick in Avalon, The God Beneath My Garden, Samson and Denial… does a title ever prompt a story, or how does the process go?

This question made me laugh and here's why; with almost everything I've written, I'll get the title first before the story even presents itself. I don't know why my process is like that but you know writer types. We're a strange fucking bunch.

A lot of times I'll hear things incorrectly and somehow it makes sense. Sometimes... not so much. I wrote a short story titled Bloodlegum and Lolliknives after taking my kids trick or treating one year. My son was young and was trying to say "bubblegum" and I heard it wrong. 

I was on a very long drive from Florida when Free Ride Angie came to me. I knew the title and why this character was called that. The rest came a long time after. Same with Samson and Denial. It sort of hit me one day and I liked the play on Samson and Delilah and my muse kept chewing on the title until a story formed up around it.

But that's how it goes with me. The titles to the things I write have been mentioned to me before so I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

As I’ve mentioned: your readings are damn unique. Did the style develop itself over time, or is that a vibe you crafted?

Well thanks for the kind words and I'm really glad you enjoy my readings. It really is one of my favorite things to do.

I'd met the incomparable Tom Monteleone years ago, but had never seen him do a live reading. I'd seen lots of other writers do readings and the majority of them either sat at a table or stood at a podium. Some were better than others.

Then I saw Tom read. The man is animated. He puts emphasis where things need it. He understands the importance of a pause. He makes eye contact with the audience and secretly picks out individuals to hammer home certain sentences.

I was blown away. It was way beyond just a reading and I knew right then and there... that... THAT is what I want to do when I read live.

I practice ahead of a reading and what helps for me, is that I do a lot of homework on the main character ahead of time. I mean, I really know the character, so it makes it a lot easier. 

Calvin in The Compound, Samson in Samson and Denial, they share a ‘feel’ — down n’ outs with a swan song: not quite good guys, not quite bad. What attracts you to these types of characters?

I really wish I knew the origins as to why so I could better answer that for you, but the truth is, I've always been drawn to the underdogs. I don't like polished. I'm drawn to the rough, the gritty, the underbelly. Because even though there may be a hit man or a drug dealer or prostitute, I try to look past the dirt and see if I can find any redeeming qualities there. The characters I'm interested in ride the gray area between good and bad, morally. 

On the surface, most of us go about our day and don't look deeper. I'm interested in what the garbage men found along the side of the road on their morning route. I want to know about the absolute strangest night a bartender has ever had. What bet the bookie had to turn down.

I guess I'm drawn to these types of characters because, yeah, they're the underdog, but they're also more interesting to me. They're not living in a crackerbox house with a white picket fence, two kids and a dog. Though... I do have a screenplay called Lower Levels that takes this stereotypical character and turns it on its ass.

Samson’s cinematic qualities are hard to deny, I can easily imagine it translating to film. Was that intentional?

I had written several short stories and partnered with someone on a novel that is yet to be published and won't be because I shelved it. Then I wrote several screenplays. I had certainly read quite a few, but had never written one before from scratch and thought why the hell not?

So I did. What I discovered was writing in that format – planning on visuals and angles and such where there might not be a single line of dialogue, but you had to convey something – was so very different from prose. In fact, it was so different, that I had a few false starts I had to throw away when I went back to prose. But when it took hold again, the visual direction and certain other aspects of screenwriting came along for the ride.

Several people have mentioned Samson and Denial would make a great film and I can't argue. The visual elements would be tremendous fun.

Plus... a street full of naked witches? What's not to love?

You’re a 90s rock guy, much like myself. Can you recall any particular song lyric sparking an idea?

Music is always on when I write and I'll change the playlist depending on what I'm working on. I would definitely say the music choices change the tone of what I'm writing. Samson had an awful lot of Nine Inch Nails, Frank Sinatra, and Tool.

The Last Firefly was written to a lot of blues and the Black Keys.

As for an actual song lyric sparking an idea... the screenplay I mentioned earlier – Lower Levels – that idea started from a song from The Cure titled Happy the Man. I love the title and kept imagining the type of character it might describe.

And one day I wrote this down:

"There was a black and bruised homeless man peeling a black and bruised banana.

A bum leaned against the telephone booth holding a banana half black with age. He began to peel it and saw me watching him. He smiled and I saw he he was toothless, save for two upper teeth off to the side like a deformed rabbit. 

He bit a little off the top of the banana — the inside flesh of it darkened like an old bruise — and I had to turn away from the smacking sounds he was making."

That was part of my development notes on the screenplay and I'm planning on eventually reverse-engineering the script to turn it into prose because, as it turns out, Happy the Man is a polite, but rather disgusting, individual and I think my fans stand a better chance of reading a novel than it getting developed into a movie.

What can your readers expect next?

There's a couple short stories I'm working on that are tons of fun right now but I'll keep quiet about the details.

After those are knocked out, I'll get back to working on the novel length sequel to Samson and Denial. That's titled The Crimson Sisters and so far I'm having a blast with it. The shit Sammie goes through... well... you'll all see.

Once The Crimson Sisters is finished, there's a novel that dropped into my lap all at once, signed, sealed and delivered. Doing some preliminary research on it was really messing with me, and I really think, once this is done, it's going to be a truly disturbing piece of work.

You can find Robert's work on Amazon here

I first met Glenn Rolfe around this time last year at a convention in Virginia. He’d said some very nice things about a story of mine, so I introduced myself at his table first chance. Glenn was kind and professional, the kind of guy you hope to meet at such events, and we hit it off from the start. So far, so good. That night, while discussing the recent Guns N’ Roses reunion with author Bryan Smith at the entrance to the hotel, Glenn rolled about like a madman on the ground as guests overstepped him, occasionally chiming into the conversation before continuing his trashing. Now we’re getting somewhere: Glenn goes from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye. As a person, and as a writer. And, trust me, that’s a good thing. He’s Laymon-esque, and he’s balls-to-the-wall. Shit, he’s Rock N’ Roll. He was also back at his table first thing the next morning, fresher than most, professional through and through. The dude is a star.

Has becoming a dad changed what you find scary, both as a writer and a reader?

Absolutely. Inherently, (most) people can empathize with the kind of pain and fear that come with something bad happening to a child. I remember when Eric Clapton’s son died. I think I was a teenager, but hearing that, and how it happened, was crushing. Now, every time I hear “Tears in Heaven”, that heaviness seeps back into me. I had my first kid in 2007, and I’ve been fearful ever since. Man, the crazy amount of love that overcomes you when you look into the eyes of your child is insanely amazing. It put an end, then and there, to that young, too tough to die mindset. And I’ve had two more babies since then, so obviously the radness outweighs the fear. That said, it has become my greatest fear, putting spiders, snakes, and The Exorcist in the rearview mirror.  
Obviously, it makes reading and writing things where kids get hurt or killed much heavier, adding depth to the experience in both cases.

Being a musician, has that influence the type of writer you gravitate towards, or your writing itself? You seem to enjoy a more streamlined approach, like a good Punk number — straight forward and fast paced. It’s refreshing.

It does. Coming from the punk rock community, I wrote these one and a half to two minute songs almost exclusively. While I can appreciate larger, more complex songs—Holy Wars (Megadeth) ,Master of Puppets (Metallica), Jungleland (Bruce Springsteen) come to mind—I seem to gravitate toward the short, sweet, and all-out judo-chop offered in a fast and catchy punk song. That mindset followed me into the writing world. For me, you need good characters, good dialogue, and a fun story. That doesn’t take four hundred plus pages. Not in my book. And still, that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy longer works of fiction. I do. I think I have writers and readers ADD, for the most part. I love the rise of novellas. I always loved the Leisure Books horror line where a lot of the books were around two hundred and seventy pages. That became my template for my novel writing. Keep the words, the side treks away from the main story, at a minimum. A lot of writers, like musicians, fall in love with the sound of their own talent. You see a lot of stuff that will really impress their contemporaries, but I always feel like I ‘d rather perform or writer for the pure readers and the listeners. Good and simple is what hits the majority. It’s why pop music has always been huge. Most people don’t need all the frills, all the impressive language, or complex arrangements. They just want something that puts a hook in them, catches their ear or eye, and takes them away for a minute. And that probably applies more so nowadays. Everybody’s multi-tasking, wandering through each day constantly changing direction. They seem to need things fast and furious or they move on to the next thing on their to-do list.
I love writing and reading novels, but I have a blast with novellas. That’s why I’ve written and published four already with my fifth, FOLLOW ME DOWN, coming in time for Scares That Care. They offer as much punch, sometimes more, as their counterparts. Think of what The Clash could do in two minutes. Taking on politics, racial relations, and disillusionment. They did it well and became legends. I look at a novella like James Newman’s ODD MAN OUT and see a writer smashing the idea that novellas are in any way less-than. Not many stories can hit as hard as Ketchum’s classic THE GRL NEXT DOOR in the novellas condensed medium.
Sorry for the long answer. 

Can you pinpoint the moment you decided, ‘This is it for me. Writing is what I want to do’? And do you have a moment that almost made you think the opposite?

I tried my hand at a couple short stories in 2004. I was out of bands at the time. I bought a copy of King’s ON WRITING and was inspired to give it a shot. I think I scribbled about six or seven bad stories in some of my lyric notebooks before diving back into music. Fast forward to 2011. My (semi) touring band called it quits. My day job laid me off, and I was a stay at home dad in desperate need of a creative outlet. I pulled up one of the old short stories I’d started back in 2004 and re-wrote it on my computer. That became the first chapter to my novel, BLOOD AND RAIN. I shared it with a few friends on Facebook and they loved it and wanted to know what happened next. With them demanding more, I ended up writing a sixty-five-thousand-word story. My first novel. When I wrote THE END, I was officially a writer, whether I was ready to admit it or not. I of course wanted to write another story the very next day, so that’s what I’ve done. Haven’t considered turning back since.

Living in Maine, do you have a favourite local legend? And have you visited King’s home?

Unfortunately, I don’t know the local legends. I’ve never been to King’s place. I’m still waiting for the invite.

Feet to the fire, what do you think your ‘magnum opus’ will involve? What elements will make up Glenn Rolfe’s Nevermind, or The Stand? And when do you think you’ll get around to writing The One that will cement your style and you’ll always look back on with pride — or has it happened already?

Definitely hasn’t happened yet. I feel like I’m still in my diapers. I have a long way to go. When I do write The One, it will have to be heavy, emotional, contain a great romance, and be scary as hell. Hopefully, it will happen before I’m seventy.

Finally, what’s your favourite Irish mythological creature?

Sadly, I’m not up to date on my mythological creatures, let alone the Irish ones. That probably makes me lame, but I am what I am. I did recently see an Irish-based horror movie called, From The Dark. I think the creature in there was a vampire. Decent flick.

Glenn Rolf’s BECOMING is available for Kindle here. Paperback coming soon.
    

 

When I started writing a couple of years back, one name appeared next to mine time and time again: Patrick Lacey. Since those days, his bushy side-burned sneer has evolved into a full-bearded grin, and his writing grew with it. I've gotten to watch Pat move from short stories like BIG BERTHA in The Horror Zine right up to his juggernaut of a novel WE CAME BACK. Pat’s writing has teeth. It's got claws. And if you only pay attention to those values, it’ll take you out with an emotional gut-punch. He’s one of my favourite people in the genre, and I’m happy to sit down and chat.

One of Horror’s purposes (in my mind) is to open doors no other genre will, taboo subjects that folks don’t like to talk about. Have you ever opened one of those doors and thought, “… maybe I shouldn’t?” … or have you followed through?

Certainly. In my newest novel, WE CAME BACK, there are a few scenes where animals are harmed by way of a possible ritualistic killing. I didn't like writing them and did it as tastefully as I could. Still, though, these scenes needed to be in the book. The novel itself is about a teenage cult and is based off of rumors of such a thing in my  hometown. Growing up, I heard from friends that a group of kids was going around and doing some strange things. Bad things. One of which involved said animal abuse. I had to push myself through these scenes but I feel they make sense in the overall story and have no regrets.

Was there ever a day you doubted being a writer? Any advice for people starting out who might have some doubt?

Only every day. Seriously. I don't know about you but for me, being a writer is mostly trying to convince myself I don't suck. It doesn't get easier. Every time I start a new book, it's like I've forgotten how to write a book. But I push past it, do the best I can, and usually I'm somewhat happy with the end result. There's not a book I've finished that I don't think could be better but at a certain point you have to finish the thing and move on to the next project. That's my advice. Keep writing until it doesn't suck that bad.

What was the best piece of advice you ever got, and how do you implement it?

Most of the writers I admire and respect all have the same golden rule when it comes to writing: sit your ass in the chair and do it. Starting out, I read plenty of how-to books but most of it, in my humble opinion, was bullshit. If you want to be a writer, then write. If not, go do something else. You'll be far happier. I promise. This gig takes undying patience and skin thicker than every dinosaur ever. You have to do the work. I wrote six books before I sold one. That's a lot of hours sitting and typing but that's the only way you can get better. Unless you know a warlock. In that case, forget everything I just said. Also, can you give him my business card?

You recently came here to Ireland and got to take in some of the ancient countryside. Think you’ll work some of what you saw into a story?

Absolutely. I've written two destination novels thus far. The first is my debut novel DREAM WOODS and the second is a novel that has hopefully found itself a home. Fingers crossed. I love the concept of a character traveling somewhere to face evil. It's the perfect horror set up. It may be a trope but tropes stick around for a reason. I have something in mind, something where a writer travels to Ireland to get away from his everyday life, only when he gets there, he's met with something sinister. And I'm not talking about blood pudding here. (Actually, I am.)

Do you have a favourite comment on one of your works that sticks out? Something you can fall back on if you ever need a confidence boost?

Author Tim Meyer said that DREAM WOODS was "like a Goosebumps novel on acid." It may seem silly on the surface but that quote really stuck with me. Goosebumps were my introduction to horror. I wrote a fan fiction entry into the series when I was in third grade entitle THE CURSED SCORPION. It's about a cursed scorpion. Had I not been weaned on the book series, I probably wouldn't be here right now. So whenever I'm having a shit day, I think of that quote.

You play guitar, and you're an avid movie fan. Is there a song, band, or movie that has influenced your writing? An idea from a lyric or a particular scene?

Funny you should ask. I'm currently finishing up a novel about a demonic pop star. I definitely used music as an inspiration for this one but not in the way you would think. I read a story about Justin Bieber fans who were hurting (and in some cases killing) themselves when they found out he'd been arrested. I got to thinking how much power some of these pop stars hold over their fans. What if they could use that for not-so-good purposes. The novel kind of took off from there.

Finally, what’s your favourite Irish mythological creature?

Who's that spud-like man on the Tayto bags? Is he mythological? If so, him. Definitely him.

That’s Mr. Tayto, Pat. Mr. Tayto.

Patrick Lacey’s WE CAME BACK is available in both paperback and eBook here. All proceeds go to The American Cancer Society.