David: First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. You are an amazing author and have given me countless hours of enjoyment plus more because who has the time to read everything they want to read. When you started your career did you have just one genre in mind that you wanted to write or did you even have genres in mind or just write the stories you want to write and let others categorise it as a genre?

David: As a child I wanted to write comics. They were my dream job, but as I grew older I began to read all manner of things. London, Twain, Kipling, Poe, etc.. I read horror, some mysteries, science fiction, you name it. But when I read Edgar Rice Burroughs I no longer wanted to write, I had to write, and I wanted to write Science Fiction. I outgrew Burroughs, but not the love and interest he inspired. No matter what I write now, I have a science fiction writers heart, but at some point I realized my interests were leading me in a lot of directions. In my late teens, in college, I discovered Hemingway and Fitzgerald and a lot of those types of writers in school. I went on a readathon of their works, and spent a lot of time in the college library in Tyler coming the stacks. In my twenties, through a science fiction author, Keith Laumer, I discovered crime fiction. I had read some crime and mystery before, but his novel DEAD FALL, also known as FAT CHANCE, was a Chandler pastiche, and it was dedicated to Chandler and Philip Marlowe. Fat Chance was a kind of parody/pastiche of Chandler. No sooner had I read it, then the Chandler novels were reprinted in paper, and I went nuts for them. That led me to reading every crime and mystery novel I could get my hands on. I'm a naturally fast reader, so I covered a lot of ground fast, realized I had read a number of those writers in short story form, and had seen films based on their works. Like Westerns, I had always loved crime and mystery films, but now I had discovered the books in those fields, and they hit me hard. For a while all I wanted to write were those kinds of novels, especially private eye stories. I broke into print writing what they called novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery magazine, and then I suddenly was interested in returning to an early love, horror, and I discovered Westerns, and then I was reading a lot of "straight fiction" and returning to classic things by Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Flannery O'Conner, Carson McCullers and so on. I understood them better by then. So, as you can see, I'm a mixed up mash-up of genres. All I wanted to write were stories, but there have been periods where a different kind of fiction interested me more than another. Now I don't think in terms of type. I just read and write what appeals to me. I can certainly get excited about someone offering me an opportunity to write a certain type of story for an anthology or magazine, but I have to find my way to approach it. Sometimes that's out of left field, sometimes its more traditional. I let my interests lead me.

Trisha: Given that Batman and its characters are so well known and established (through comics, tv, movies, etc) what was it like to work on that series as opposed to your own original work?

Trisha: I fell right in with BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES. I was born to write for that series, and wish I had more opportunity to do that. I also wrote a Batman animated film, SON OF BATMAN, and the mood for how they wanted the stories done had changed, so though I think it's a fun movie, it was a little less satisfying for me than the series. But I grew up reading Batman. My favorite comic character. I also wrote a novel and a young reader novel about Batman. I had been with Batman since I was four or five years old, so I loved that character. But it can be hard sometimes, especially with other characters, and the more I write the more I want to be me, not them. Right now my son and I are working on a comic series, and I won't say what, that has ground rules and established characters, and we're having fun, but I wouldn't want to do it monthly. I like the challenge now and then, or the change of pace, but mostly, especially as I grow older, I just want to do my work.

Justin: You were quoted in an interview as saying that horror imploded in the 1980s because it failed to mutate at a crucial time. Do you think it needs to mutate now, and if so, into what?

Justin: There's so much self-published stuff, it's hard to know what direction its going to. When anyone can be published, anything can be published, and most of it isn't very good, as it goes with being vetted. There's good stuff there, but it's a bigger morass than ever before, so it's hard to know what's what. My interest in reading horror isn't as strong these days. I read some, mostly short stories, but the bulk of it is 80s retreads. It still needs to change more, and it needs someone publishers that buy and vet the material. Horror has mostly splintered back into being a small press and self-publish affair.

Melissa: What inspired The Drive-In and what his own favourite scary movie?

Melissa: I went to drive-ins growing up, and that inspired the book, that and all the movies I saw there. Drive-ins still existed when I wrote the book, though they were on their way out. I had written an article called HELL THROUGH A WINDSHIELD and an editor friend, Pat LoBrutto, saw it and liked it and asked me to write a novel from it. He then asked if I had more on the drive-in. I did. Part two happened, and years later I wrote part three. The first one, the article, came out of a series of dreams.

Jassette: Growing up which was more of an interest to you, horror or westerns? And what was it like seeing Hap and Leonard come to life?

Jassette: Horror, by far. Western films I loved, but I had read very little that could classify as Western. Brett Harte, Mark Twain, some Max Brand, a few other things, and it wasn't until the 70s that I began to read Westerns in mass. To this day I read Westerns, but only certain ones. I don't read the basic series Westerns, though some modern Western series, things that take place in the here and now and are Western like, I sometimes read. Craig Johnson's Longmire are good, though I'm way behind in that series. Actually, Hap and Leonard are kind of a modern Western series. And it was great to see them come to life. I'm visiting the set tomorrow, and I look forward to it. I was on the set much of the first season and greatly enjoyed that. I'll only be spending a week this time, but I look forward to it.

Kay: How did you get the writing gig for Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo? Has you written any interesting un-produced scripts for comics, film, games, TV etc. ?

Kay: I had written a comic for DC called BLOOD AND SHADOWS, but the artist hadn't finished writing it. Another artist, who has become like a brother to me, Tim Truman, liked my work and they put us together, thinking we had the right sensibility for it. I think we did. I have written one unproduced script for animation, and I guess I can mention it now. Swamp Thing, supposedly adult oriented, but they changed their orientation by the time I finished it. Too bad, good script. I've written a number of film scripts that haven't been made. No games. Wrote Batman the Animated series, and worked on one Superman Animated Series, wrote an animated Jonah Hex short for DC SHOWCASE (interestingly I wrote a Hex script for Batman the Animated Series that was produced as "Showdown"), couple of things here and there. Number of things are in the mill currently, so we'll see.

Conor: Bubba Ho-Tep. What inspired you to write it and how did the film come about?

Conor: My brother wanted to be in music. He's seventeen years older than me. He lived in Memphis, tried to record at Sun Records without success. His wife, my sister-in-law, went to school with Elvis. John Kennedy was assassinated when I was young, and I always loved mummy movies, add to that the fact that my mother had to spend some time in a rest home due to an automobile accident, and you can see the sources.

Diana: Some children's movies are incredibly creepy (e.g. Labyrinth, The Dark Palace). Was there anything you watched as a child that has influenced your work? In a similar vein, is any of your work based on dreams you've had?

Diana: Wizard of Oz was creepy and fun when I was a child. A Christmas Carrol, the old black and white one with Allister Simms, Peter Pan, which looks ridiculous now, but was so fascinating then. It was just a stage, but back then we were used to filling in the rest of it with our imagination. A creepy film INVADERS FROM MARS, which still sticks with me, though on reseeding it, it's only the first twenty minutes that holds up. Noir and nightmarish. And yes, a lot of my work comes from dreams, nearly all from subconscious. I don't plot or lay out what I plan to do. I get up, it's there. I write about three hours, and I'm done until the next day. My brain seems to fill up with story at night, and I put it on paper in the mornings, though I sometimes work other hours if a story is driving me, or I'm traveling. But mostly, three hours in the morning is it.

Aidan: in season 1, episode 26 of Batman the Animated Series, you got to the core of Bruce Wayne as Batman with a single line: “why can’t I be happy?” - how did you get to that place?

Aidan: I think that's Batman's story, that's who he is in a nutshell. He keeps trying to punish criminals to relieve himself of what happened to his parents, but its hole that can't completely be filled. It's a question I think a lot of people ask themselves. I, fortunately, am not one of them. I am happy.

Fright Club 'Getting to Know You Pumpkin' questions:

Would you rather be eaten alive by rats or fish?
I'd rather not be eaten alive.

If you were going to be stranded on an island what 3 items would you bring with you?
A book on survival. A Swiss Army knife. And it would be nice if the island was close enough to swim to the mainland.

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.