The Official Richard Laymon Fan Club

[Tasmaniac]

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A lot of reader's articles cover the majority of the issue. In Laymon News: Mr. Laymon's arm has now mended! Apparently, his better half had painted the front steps, couple with some morning dew, and voila! One tossed Laymon.

Word search for all the puzzlers out there!

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[Tasmaniac]

Okay, here's the last issue I have!

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The majority of the issue is filled with interviews.

Laymon News
Headline radically change Richard Laymon's paperback cover layout and design. The new covers begin with Fiends and will continue thereafter.
Richard's next book will be about his scariest character - Himself! He is writing an autobiography as yet untitled.
Latest edition of US magazine Cemetery Dance contains a big interview with Richard and an original story called Herman.
Another original story First Date has just been published in the anthology, Love in Vein II.

LAYMON ON LAYMON: Experimental Fiction

Here's a biographical aside in connection with Island, and other novels I've done.
When I was going for my B.A. degree in English at Willamette University, I needed to pass "oral exams" given to me by various members of the English department.
It was common knowledge that I hoped to be a writer: I'd submitted material to the Willamette literary magazine, and one year won a short story contest.
At the time of my orals, one of the professors asked me, "Do you ever plan to write 'experimental' fiction?"
"No" said I.
To me, "experimental" translated as "deep, ponderous, plotless, generally senseless, incomprehensible."
The sort of fiction with which I wanted nothing to do.
In the past few years, however, I've often wished I could go back in time and revise my answer.
Because, in a sense, all fiction is experimental. Every new book is an adventure into unknown territory. As Hemingway told us, you (the writer) have to go out beyond where you have gone before.
If a writer isn't simply re-hashing the same story again and again, he is constantly experimenting with new plots, new types of characters, settings and themes, etc.
Recently, I've found myself especially drawn to fooling around with techniques for telling my stories.
Savage, for example, is a first-person narrative written by its main character, Trevor Bentley, years after the events of the story. Trevor, raised to the age of fourteen in London, recounts his tale in a language that is an odd mixture of British and old western slang. He sounds a bit like a cross between Dr. Watson and Huck Finn. His language gives the book a very unusual flavor, I think. Savage is probably the only book ever written in such a style.
In Endless Night I had the main villain, Simon, tell his own story in a series of tape recordings. By using these recordings, I was able to show Simon's side of the story -- or whatever he wanted us to know about him. I was also able to use his voice. He took great delight in doing and saying the most awful things imaginable. I put some attitudes into his mouth that I, myself, would never dare to express in print.
In preparing the contents of Simon's recordings, I discovered great differences between written and spoken language. After noticing this, I read all the tape material aloud and did major revisions in the rhythm, phrasing and diction in order to make Simon's monologues sound as if they'd been spoken, not written.
The tape recordings in Endless Night led to the journal in Island. In the case of Island, however, the voice belongs to my protagonist, not my villain. Rupert not only tells what is happening on the island, from his own persective, but the journal format gives us a chance to study his character. He reveals more about himself, perhaps, than he wishes.
What attracted me most about the journal format for Island, however, was the was the notion that my castaway was describing events as they happened -- or shortly afterward. The story is on-going, even as it is being penned. Nobody, not even the narrator, knows what might happen next.
Because of the journal technique, readers have no way of knowing, until the very end, whether the writer of the tale survives.
My work-in-progress is the most experimental of all. But now is not the time to tell about it.
I just wish I could have another crack at answering that question put to me by my professor at Willamette all those years ago.
"Do you plan to write experimental fiction?" she would ask.
And I would answer, "All depends on what you mean by experimental."

[srboone]

Awesome, Steve. just awesome! Thanks for sharing all this stuff.

[bookworm 1]

I really love this thread.I wish you had more stuff to share.Lymon was such a talent.

[Tasmaniac]

Awesome, Steve. just awesome! Thanks for sharing all this stuff.

No problem, Squire! Glad you enjoyed it.

[Tasmaniac]

I really love this thread.I wish you had more stuff to share.Lymon was such a talent.

Me too, bookworm 1!

[peteOcha]

Thanks for sharing! This has made me want to hunt for some Laymon hardcovers!

[Tasmaniac]

Thanks for sharing! This has made me want to hunt for some Laymon hardcovers!

Yeah, a shelf of UK Headline H/C's would be wonderful!

[JDar.]

Don't recognize the seller, but this should be fun watching (Carla Laymon's A STRANGER'S ARMS)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370605536375...84.m1423.l2649

Jan

[frik51]

I've never read anything by Laymon.
Any recommendations?

sk

[bsaenz24]

I've read Traveling Vampire Show and really enjoyed it.

[Xiabei]

I loved "In The Dark". It was my first Laymon book. Picked up a lot after that, but some of his earlier stuff that was republished didn't do much for me. I'll always love the Beast House stuff though.

[Martin]

Traveling Vampire show is my favorite Laymon book.

I've never read anything by Laymon.
Any recommendations?

sk

[SpaceAvenger]

Yes Tasmaniac - I too was a member of the RLFC (based in Scotland). I had all the issues as well until my membership lapsed some time in 1997. Not sure what became of the club!