The Official Richard Laymon Fan Club

[bookworm 1]

Ahh.Got to love those garage sale finds.When I was younger as in high school that was a great way to get great books.I think that is why I love the book store in our library.Last week I picked up a Lymon book.darkness Tells Us.I have found Grant,Bloch,and Lansdale.I really like these posts.I did not know there was a fan club either.My 2 favorite books by Lymon are Savage so different from his other stuff.And Traveling Vampire Show.That book has Bradbury influence all over it.

[Martin]

Traveling Vampire Show was my first, and is still my, favorite Laymon novel.

Ahh.Got to love those garage sale finds.When I was younger as in high school that was a great way to get great books.I think that is why I love the book store in our library.Last week I picked up a Lymon book.darkness Tells Us.I have found Grant,Bloch,and Lansdale.I really like these posts.I did not know there was a fan club either.My 2 favorite books by Lymon are Savage so different from his other stuff.And Traveling Vampire Show.That book has Bradbury influence all over it.

[Tasmaniac]

Very nice Tas - you certainly pulled that particular rabbit out of your hat !!! Well done !!!!

Ha! I don't have much of a collection these days but there are a few things I just couldn't part with, namely a Beast Wishes from R Laymon.

[Tasmaniac]

Traveling Vampire Show was my first, and is still my, favorite Laymon novel.

SAVAGE was my first Laymon novel, which hooked me into reading his others. If I were to choose a favourite, ENDLESS NIGHT.

[Tasmaniac]

Hmm, I can't seem to find issue #4 - so here's a question put to Richard from issue #2 that I skipped.

Q: Are any of your characters based on people you've met?
A: Some of my characters are based on people I know. The character most closely based on a real person is Pete in THE STAKE. Though the events of the book are mostly fiction, Pete looks and acts very much like my friend Frank De Laratta. Also, Larry Dunbar is based fairly close to me. This caused me some embarrassment because the wives of Pete and Larry in THE STAKE are not at all like our real-life wives. I had to keep blurting out to Frank's wife, "It's fiction! It's fiction!"
A character in BEAST HOUSE, Gorman Hardy, was a very sleazy operator, a real jerk. I modelled him after my first literary agent, who is now deceased. Oddly enough, I'd never heard of the name Gorman at the time I created Gorman Hardy. I later got to know Ed Gorman, a fine fellow and terrific writer, and we now have become very good friends.
I modelled Jody Fargo's father, in ENDLESS NIGHT, after Los Angeles police sgt. Stacey Koon, who was imprisoned for using force to subdue a felon who was resisting arrest.
For the most part, however, my characters aren't based closely on any real people. They're mixtures of this and that from various people.
I do sometimes use the name of a real person. In some of my books, I have given nasty characters the names of actual people I'd had problems with. It's a sneaky, secret way of getting revenge in my own mind. On other occasions, I've named characters as a tribute to people I admire. An example of that is Neal Darden, the protagonist of BODY RIDES. I gave him the Darden name as my "private" tribute to Christopher Darden, who was the prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case. I was greatly moved by Chris Darden's courage and honesty.

[Tasmaniac]

Laymon_1 005.jpg

I'm struggling to find anything worthy of posting in this issue as Richard had recently broken his arm, thus no question.

[Dave1442397]

These are great! I have almost every Laymon book, apart from a couple of rare collectibles that I may never bother with, as the stories they contain are already included in some of his other books.

I knew I had a lot of his books, so a few months ago I dug through the shelves and made a list of what I had, then started looking for the rest. I still have a pile of them I haven't read yet, but I try to read one every couple of weeks.

[Menace]

I am sad to say I only discovered Richard Laymon 2 years ago. But am making up for lost time. Picked up the book One Rainy Night in a used book store 2 years ago read that and went back to the used book store and bought every Layman book I could find. I now have about 25 of them and have read probably 20 of them. He came very close to taking Stephen Kings place as my favorite author. I was sad to have found out he had passed away and there would be no more new books from him.

[Tree705]

Very cool. I'm sure a Laymon completest would offer you a nice little chunk of change for those.

[JDar.]

I am sad to say I only discovered Richard Laymon 2 years ago. But am making up for lost time. Picked up the book One Rainy Night in a used book store 2 years ago read that and went back to the used book store and bought every Layman book I could find. I now have about 25 of them and have read probably 20 of them. He came very close to taking Stephen Kings place as my favorite author. I was sad to have found out he had passed away and there would be no more new books from him.

I did the same thing in the summer of 2001. I really did think he was Stephen King writing some of his best work. (yes, I was ignorant )

Good news for you is you can track down at least another 40 books, including 20 Fastback mini-chapbooks to continue his fine catalog.

http://www.zianet.com/rsace/laymon2.html

Jan

[Tasmaniac]

These are great! I have almost every Laymon book, apart from a couple of rare collectibles that I may never bother with, as the stories they contain are already included in some of his other books.

I knew I had a lot of his books, so a few months ago I dug through the shelves and made a list of what I had, then started looking for the rest. I still have a pile of them I haven't read yet, but I try to read one every couple of weeks.

After I read SAVAGE I just had to grab more of his work. Luckily, Laymon was pretty widely stocked in the (UK) bookstores I used so picking up his back catalog was never a problem.

[Tasmaniac]

I am sad to say I only discovered Richard Laymon 2 years ago. But am making up for lost time. Picked up the book One Rainy Night in a used book store 2 years ago read that and went back to the used book store and bought every Layman book I could find. I now have about 25 of them and have read probably 20 of them. He came very close to taking Stephen Kings place as my favorite author. I was sad to have found out he had passed away and there would be no more new books from him.

It's great to see readers discovering Laymon! I remember the buzz of having picked up a fresh couple of books, and tucking into one on the bus ride home (just because I couldn't wait!).

[Tasmaniac]

Very cool. I'm sure a Laymon completest would offer you a nice little chunk of change for those.

Hey Rich! It's been a while! Hope the eye operations were a success.

Contacted Steve Gerlach a couple of days ago (as his website, RLK was advertised in issue #5) and asked if he knew how many issues they actually put out. He has them buried in paperwork somewhere but remembers there were only a few done, so maybe it was just the seven. If only I could find #4!

[JDar.]

After I read SAVAGE I just had to grab more of his work. Luckily, Laymon was pretty widely stocked in the (UK) bookstores I used so picking up his back catalog was never a problem.

My first was TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW (thank you Leisure) Leisure hadn't announced that they were going to reissue his books, so I just had to grab a dozen of his books from a UK bookstore . . . book prices were great, but boy did they rip me off with the shipping costs. (still worth it to have these high-quality Headline PBs )

[Tasmaniac]

My first was TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW (thank you Leisure) Leisure hadn't announced that they were going to reissue his books, so I just had to grab a dozen of his books from a UK bookstore . . . book prices were great, but boy did they rip me off with the shipping costs. (still worth it to have these high-quality Headline PBs )

Loved the Headline (Steve Crisp) covers too!