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Sunday, November 22, 2009
His name is William C. Carl, but if you meet him you'll almost certainly know him as simply, Bill. I remember the first time I met Bill. It was at a Horrorfind Convention. You know those rare occasions where you meet someone and immediately you know you have a close friend? That's the way it is with Bill Carl.
Another thing I can say about Bill Carl is, the man knows fiction. For one thing he reads more than just about anyone I know. His social life must be even worse than mine. For another, Bill is a bookseller by trade. He sees the trends in the business as they are happening, giving him an insider's view of the publishing industry.
And, as you are about to find out, Bill Carl is a writer. Bill has published numerous stories in various genre markets, and his debut novel, Bestial:Werewolf Apocalypse, was published last year by Permuted Press. You can probably find it on the shelf in the horror section at Borders.
In The Cutting Room, Bill evokes the fun spirit of E.C. Comics. I think you'll enjoy it as much as we did.
Oh, stick around after the feature and we'll pick Bill brain a bit.
Horror Drive-In: Bill, I mentioned E.C. Comics in the intro to The Cutting Room. Were they a direct influence on this piece?
Bill Carl: Oh, yes! I loved the E.C. and Warren comics when I was growing up, and I still do now that they are republishing them. The storys are simple, fast, fun, violent, and the bad guy always gets what's coming to him in the end - something we see too little of in the real world. I always loved the way retribution was dished out in those comics, and it's very similar to the way the old Twilight Zone worked. I also think the short short story lends itself to such a simple, proven blueprint. My writing tends to be simple and straight forward, and that can lend itself to camp or cheesiness. I say we can't have enough camp, especially in times like these when things are not so simple. I am influenced a lot by horrors of the past - E.C., Warren, Outer Limits, Hammer Films, Universal Horror, those great giant creature flicks from the 50s.
HD-I: Ah yes, you're a drive-in kind of guy.
BC: Without question. When I was in high school, I was part of the Freddy Club, based around a group of us that saw NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. We went to an awful lot of drive-ins throughout high school and saw a lot of fun, and a lot of terrible, movies there.
HD-I: Oh man, I love that. I wish I could have been in the Freddy Club.
How long have you been writing, Bill?
BC: About seven years. That is, writing and submitting. I used to write when I was terribly poor, just after college when I worked in the film business. It was something I could do for free, and telling stories has always been in my blood. I had piles of poorly typed, poorly told tales in a cardboard box. Every once in a while, I'd get a diamond in the rough. I never had the guts to submit them. Then, I became a fan of Richard Laymon's work and started following the Richard Laymon Kills website. I heard about this anthology Cemetery Dance was doing, IN LAYMON'S TERMS, and I had a story that fit the theme, so I sent it in. It was accepted right away. I was shocked, but very pleased. So, I started submitting all over the place. Sometimes successfully, often not. With working retail as my day job, it can be tough writing every day, but I still manage several days a week, and I am still submitting. Sometimes successfully, often not.
HD-I: Your story in IN LAYMON'S TERMS is called DIG, right?
BC: That's right.
HD-I: Can you tell us a little about it?
BC: I always noticed with Laymon's books, that he had strong women as lead characters. That doesn't mean awful, terrible things didn't happen to them during the story, but they were most often women who fought back. I don't think Richard Laymon liked women who sat back and just took what came at them. I think he liked the fighters. My story, DIG, is about a psychopath who forces people to dig their own graves, then he buries them alive in them. This time, however, he's chosen a woman who isn't going to give in so easily. She's going to fight to survive. It was a lot of fun to write, and I thing Richard Laymon would like it.
HD-I: It does sound like something Laymon would like and I agree about the women in his stories.
What came after DIG?
BC: I sold a short story to an anthology, THE MANY FACES OF VAN HELSING, edited by Jeanne Cavelos for Ace. I tried to come up with an origin for Van Helsing, a reason why he was compelled to hunt vampires, and I tied in Krakatoa's volcanic eruption to the story. It's gothic, like Hammer gothic, and I am very proud to be in that anthology with the likes of Tom Monteleone, Joe Hill, Tanith Lee, Christopher Golden, and Thomas Tessier. After that, I had a story in the charity anthology TALES FROM THE GOREZONE, which you write the introduction for! It was a tale of the big one hitting California and possibly the kindest, sweetest tale of cannibalism anyone ever thought of writing. I am also very proud of a story I sold to OUT OF THE GUTTER magazine, 'Rumble.' It's a fairy tale turned on its head that takes place in the Cincinnati hood. Sort of a pimped up version of Rumplestiltskin.
HD-I: Yeah, I remember something about TALES FROM THE GOREZONE! That was a cool little project if I do say so myself and your story, IMPORTANT, is a damned good one.
Getting into THE MANY FACES OF VAN HELSING was a major coup for you at the time, wasn't it?
BC: A huge one! I had admired Jeanne Cavelos' Abyss line with Dell very much. There are some truly terrifying books in that line and many that broke all the rules for horror, such as Kathe Koja's books. I also had my first feeling that I could actually do this. I was in the company of some very impressive names, people whose writing I had admired for many years, and here I was in the middle of them! It was a real thrill. It was also the first time I went through an editing process. Jeanne is a great editor, and we worked very hard to make my story the best it could be. I had to make several big changes in the tale, but they all worked out very nicely.
HD-I: Oh yes, the Abyss line.. I miss them. Those were good days for the genre.
Bill, you've amassed quite a few short stories so far. Has there been any interest in a William C. Carl collection?
BC: Not yet, but from your mouth etc etc... I have several non published stories and stories that were published in small press books hardly anyone saw. There's a story I loved called '3 Days' in an anthology called SHADOW REGIONS edited by Cesar Puch, and the antho literally did not get past the contributor's copy stage. It's full of terrific stories, one after another, and nobody got to read it. If there's ever any interest in a short collection, I would love to get it out there and show some of my versatility.
HD-I: Maybe if I ever get my dream project of Horror Drive-In Books off the ground....
Let's go back to your influences. You mentioned E.C. Comics and movies, but what about authors? Who were your favorites in your formative years?
BC: First and foremost, Robert McCammon, who gets it all just right, the perfect balance between B-movie cheesiness, real terror and suspense, and great characters to root for. STINGER, SWAN SONG, GONE, and especially BOY'S LIFE are favorites of mine. As far as short fiction goes, it may be a cliche, but I believe Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch were huge influences. They could tell a story, and the scenes would be so evocative. Richard Matheson wrote some of the greatest books and short stories ever, and I AM LEGEND was a giant influence on BESTIAL:WEREWOLF APOCALYPSE. I really gravitate towards the masters of the genre - M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Lovecraft, and E.F.Benson. I love a great story, and these authors could spin a yarn. WHISTLE AND I'LL COME FOR YOU, MY LAD is possibly the creepiest thing I have ever read. As far as novels go, the eighties, when I was in junior high and high school, were the era of paperback horror. Remember those crazy Zebra paperbacks, all with either skeletons or cut fruit on the covers? Ate them up like candy. Also, at that time, Michael McDowell, James Herbert, and anything with a creature, giant or otherwise, on a rampage would make me happy. I still have a real fondness for creature feature type tales.
HD-I: Oh man, do I remember the 80's. It was the greatest time to be a horror fan. The books, the movies, it was wonderful.
What contemporary authors do you read, whether within or out of the genre?
BC:Good Lord, I read a LOT. I've already read 160 books this year! Within the genre, I never miss a Brian Keene, Ed Lee, F. Paul Wilson, and my two favorite horror writers Peter Straub and Joe Lansdale. They are so very different, though. Straub is a master of deep characterization and gorgeous writing. He is our current day William Faulkner. As far as Mr. Lansdale hissownself, I just get such a kick out of his books and stories. He is so brilliant at evoking real people and those that we wish were real. I personally thanked him for the entire gay community for Leonard, one of the best drawn characters ever. Outside genre writing, I never miss a John Irving, Michael Chabon, Wally Lamb, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Lee Child, Tanya Huff, Harlan Coban, Michael Connelly, Ken Bruen, or Jim Butcher. I read a book this year called CITY OF THIEVES by David Bernioff that simply blew my socks off. A brilliant book in every possible way.
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Saturday, November 21, 2009
Reading has always been important to me. Even before I knew how to read. My older brothers were readers and some of my earliest memories are of wistfully gazing at covers of old science fiction books and wishing that I could read them. I was a quick learner and I was reading well before my general age group.
Like most, I started out with childrens picture books. Dr. Seuss, Golden Books, various things from the elementary school library, Walt Disney comics, etc. I could start with those, but I'll begin with what my kids used to call chapter books.
 The first real writer I recognized as a favorite was Robert A. Heinlein. His books were real eye-openers for me and they remain among the most wonderful reading experiences of my life. My favorites were the ones written with teenage boys in mind for the audience. In fact I consider Have Space Suit, Will Travel to be the first real book I read. I treasure it to this day. I also adored Farmer in the Sky, Starman Jones, and Space Cadet, though I don't recommend carrying books with these titles in school. Not if you want any kind of social life outside of being considered the Class Geek.
Other Heinlein books I cherished are The Puppet Masters and The Door Into Summer. His short stories are generally pretty awesome too.
I loved Heinlein's later work when I was a kid: Stranger in a Strange Land, I Will Fear No Evil and Time Enough For Love. They were impressionable mainly because there was a lot of sex in them, but they had some pretty heady ideas in their pages too. As an adult I find these books to be a little too catty.
I'll never forget my father chastising me for reading Robert A. Heinlein. With all the strength of ignorance on his side, he assured me that I was reading trash. I guess I turned out to be right, huh?
 I read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five while I was in middle school. Again, it made an enormous impression upon me. I quickly read all of his books, including Breakfast of Champions. I'm not even sure I quite understood everything Vonnegut was trying to say in these books, but I knew that they were very funny, very entertaining, and that there were important ideas in them.
I can't say that I disliked anything that came before and up to Breakfast of Champions, but of course I had my favorites. I was a science fiction fan and the ones I loved the most were The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle. I still think the latter would make an excellent movie in the proper cinematic hands.
I liked the first couple of post-Breakfast of Champions books, even while I felt that they weren't as vital as the earlier ones. Slapstick was all right and Jailbird wasn't a bad books. Something seemed to be missing though. Not one to give up hope, I made a rare hardcover purchase when Palm Sunday came out. I was burned. Even at the tender of twenty I thought Palm Sunday was unashamedly self-indulgent. I hated it and I never felt the same way about old Kurt again.
 I had read Harlan Ellison years before I called him my favorite writer. I first encountered his work in a school anthology. The title of it now escapes me, but I never forgot the name Harlan Ellison. The story in question was called Silent in Gehenna. It was the best story in that anthology and one of the best short stories I had ever read. So when Pyramid Books began publishing its line of Harlan Ellison books in the 70's, I bought every one I could. And I was never, ever disappointed.
Ellison reminded me a bit of my previous favorite, Kurt Vonnegut, but Kurt started to seem like a cynical old fart and I found Ellison to be a more impassioned writer. Ellison gave a fuck and it showed in everything he did, from his fiction to his essays to his personal life.
I liked it all, but I was and probably still am partial to his nonfiction. I thought The Glass Teat was fantastic when I was in the tenth grade. I did a report on it that a teacher of mine didn't particularly care for.
But God, the stories. So many classics: Shattered Like a Glass Goblin, Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktock Man, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes, Jefty is Five, Daniel White for the Greater Good, A Boy and His Dog. The list is long and I could go on and on. But it was when I received the November, 1980 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction that I discovered my very favorite work by Harlan Ellison. It is called All the Lies That Are My Life and it blew me away.
I continued to read Ellison and I've liked most of what I read. Now it has become impossible to separate the man from the work and sadly Ellison's explosive personality has alienated him from the readers and the career that he should have had. I still love the guy and I check out what he has to say every chance I get.
 I never tired of Harlan Ellison, but I began to crave something different. Still a dyed-in-the-wool science fiction fan, I read as much of the field I could. Frederik Pohl was a prominent name in the genre. As the publicists love to say, Pohl has been everything in the science fiction world: Fan, writer, agent, editor.
Frederik Pohl is widely known for his acidly satirical science fiction. He seemed to be as cynical as Vonnegut, but Pohl also loved space, while Vonnegut thought the whole space program was a colossal waste.
Pohl published dozens of stories and novels, often in collaboration with other science fiction writers. His most noted collaborations were with C. M. Kornbluth, who undoubtedly would have been one of the all-time greatest writers in the field if it hadn't been for his untimely death in 1958.
Frederik Pohl always delivered smart, wickedly entertaining fiction, but it was with 1976's Man Plus that he really came into his own. This Nebula-winning novel was far and away superior to anything he had written before. Yet his following novel that brought him his biggest praise. Gateway is probably my favorite science fiction novel. The only real rival it has with me is Bester's The Stars My Destination. Gateway not only won The Nebula Award, it won the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the John W. Campbell Award. All for best novel of the year. Gateway is the first in what became known as The Heechee Saga, which saw numerous sequels and a video game.
I read Pohl with wonder and awe, hunting down his old work and delighting in his new publications. After Gateway my favorites include The Cool War, The Space Merchants (with C.M. Kornbluth), JEM, and Starburst.
Pohl's body is aged, but his mind is as sharp as ever, as you can see in his blog. At age 90, Frederik Pohl is almost certainly the Dean of Living Science Fiction Writers and he is one of the few surviving members of SF's First Fandom.
 Philip José Farmer is known for bringing sex into the previously chaste world of science fiction publishing. His 1952 novella, The Lovers, dealt with a human that has a sexual relationship with an extraterrestrial. It was later expanded into a full-length novel.
But Farmer wrote more than sex-based science fiction. He was kind of the mad literary prankster of the genre. He was doing what are now trendily called mash-ups long before most current practitioners were born. And unlike most, he had the literary props to pull it off.
Farmer loved to mix up his literary obsessions, and he always had explosive results. Like Doc Savage and Tarzan meeting in a wildly explicit novel. Or Tarzan of the Apes written by William Burroughs instead of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He wrote a book under the pseudonym of a Kurt Vonnegut character, which was the first one of his that really won my heart and made me a fan.
Philip José Farmer wrote experimental fiction, notably with Riders of the Purple Wage, which appeared in Harlan Ellison's groundbreaking Dangerous Visions anthology. He wrote an Oz book. Farmer wrote a book that chronicled Doc Savage meeting his five aides with Escape From Loki. He did a science fictional sequel to Moby Dick called The Wind Whales of Ishmael.
But mostly Philip José Farmer wrote knockout books that alternately embraced and defied genre. Adventure, science fiction, hardboiled mystery, fantasy, erotica. It was and is impossible to pigeonhole Farmer. My own favorite of his works is called The Image of the Beast, which predated over-the-top, sexually explicit, hyperviolent horror stories by decades.
Still, I was looking for something else...
 It is uncool and unfair to list two trailblazing talents like Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch together, but that's really the way it was. I was a science fiction reader, remember? And the works by these two writers were most often found in the SF sections of bookstores.
I was obviously looking for something darker in my reading. Most science fiction writers dabbled in the dark stuff in their careers, but these guys specialized in it. And they both worked extensively in the movies, which I thought was très cool.
I searched high and low for titles by these guys and it seemed that the used bookstores had scant copies of their books. I eventually found all or at least most of them and I had a blast with them all.
 Matheson and Bloch had highly different styles. Bloch's was more down-to-earth and Matheson's was more literary. And to be honest, it was Richard Matheson that I loved more. Both were amazingly talented and I cherish the works of them both to this day.
I think I prefer Bloch's short stories over his novels. Especially in the later periods of his life. Of course Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper is a certified classic, but I loved so many of them. Among my favorites are Beetles, The Movie People, I Do Not Love Thee, Dr. Fell, That Hellbound Train, Enoch, A Toy For Juliette, and The Man Who Collected Poe. Really, all of them are marvelous, even if some of Bloch's humorous stories seem wildly dated today.
As for his novels, for me Bloch was more successful with straight suspense rather than supernatural horror. My favorite is easily The Scarf and I can't imagine why some smart small press doesn't do a nice edition of this one. I also loved Night-World, American Gothic, and of course, Psycho.
Robert Bloch's work is typified by a delightfully ghoulish sense of humor. You'll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining author anywhere.
Richard Matheson, on the other hand, dealt in weightier issues. His fiction delves into the very fabric of reality. His themes have included primal consciousness, our souls, the afterlife, and spiritualism.
Though he is primarily known for his fantasy, horror, and science fiction, Richard Matheson has also written comedy, westerns and a war novel.
Today, Matheson is probably best known as the author of I Am Legend, which was adapted into at least three films, none of which are truly worthy of his talent. His time-travel romance, Somewhere in Time, has earned him a considerable fanbase. Other films based on his work include The Legend of Hell House, What Dreams May Come, A Stir of Echoes, and most recently, The Box.
However, Richard Matheson is revered by horror fans for his adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe stories for producer/director Roger Corman, his work on episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, and that horrifying Zuni Fetish Warrior Doll that terrorized Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror.
Richard Matheson is certainly one of the most remarkable writers of the last one hundred years and I expect readers and scholars to be discussing his work for decades to come.
Yet still I searched for more, even while the answer was right before my eyes.
 I knew about Stephen King in the early 80's. Who didn't? He was everywhere. A publishing phenomenon. Movies were constantly coming out based on his work and everybody was reading him. Everybody but me, that is. I assumed that he was a trashy bestseller and I thought myself too enlightened to read him. Boy, was I an idiot.
I took the plunge while visiting some friends. I was spending the night and it was late, but I wasn't tired. A copy of The Shining was laying around and I picked it up. Instantly I was changed. From the first paragraph I read I considered myself a Stephen King fan. The style of The Shining was both literary and easily accessible. It almost seemed to me to be a radically new approach to writing.
From there I went on to read everything that King has published. This was at the time that Pet Semetery had just been published. I was blown away by them all. Of course I had my favorites; The Stand, Christine, Different Seasons, The Shining. And others that I felt were not his best, like Firestarter. But it's safe to say that I enjoyed every word I read by him. I particularly liked the comfortable way in which he wrote essays, introductions, and other pieces of nonfiction. King made his readers feel like close friends.
My love affair with King's writing culminated with It, a mammoth work that seemed to say everything he felt about childhood and fear. I flew through it at a frantic pace when it came out, but I reread it more carefully just this year and I still believe it to be among his finest novels.
Sadly, many of the post-It books were disappointments to me. I get no joy from saying that. Some, like The Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, and Needful Things were enjoyable enough, even if I felt that they were not up to the (high) standards of the earlier stuff. Others I didn't like at all and we'll leave it at that.
Oddly, the King books of the last twenty years that I loved the most seem to be the ones that most fans dislike: Gerald's Game, Dolores Claybourne, From a Buick 8, and The Colorado Kid.
I'm happy to report that I recently finished King's gargantuan Under the Dome, and I consider it to be one of his very best books ever.
 Through my love of Stephen King, I of course read Peter Straub and again, I was blown away. The quality of the writing was something I'd never quite experienced before.
I started with Ghost Story and I immediately considered it to be the best horror novel I had ever read. The literary references made it fun, but it was also scary as hell.
After Ghost Story I read Shadowland and Floating Dragon, loving each one more than the one before. I've heard a lot of people complain about Floating Dragon, but at the time it was my favorite book. I loved the way Straub took a no-holds-barred approach to it.
I went back and read If You Could See Me Now. I don't consider it to be his best novel, but something about it really appealed to me. I've read that one three times. I still say it would make a fantastic movie.
I read them all. Julia, which was his first horror novel, and I also read Marriages and Under Venus. Those last two were straight literary works and while they're good, I think Peter Straub found his proper literary path in horror and suspense.
There was a five-year wait between Floating Dragon and Straub's next novel, Koko. I bought Koko in hardcover and I read it, but I was slightly disappointed. I missed the fantastic elements of the previous books. Koko deals with the darkness inside men and it is one of the best serial killer novels ever written. I reread it this year and I appreciated it far more this time around.
Straub followed Koko with a series of novels and stories that dealt around a character named Tim Underhill, most notably in The Throat. After that he penned various novels and stories, some with supernatural elements, others without them. I liked them all, but...
 I had found another writer that took the top place on my list. His name is Joe R. Lansdale and before I had even read him, I had been hearing unanimous praise for his writing. I remember a three-book review in an old issue of Fangoria that was done by Stanley Wiater. I chalked Lansdale up as a writer that I needed to read. Then I saw an ad in The Twilight Zone Magazine for a book called The Drive-In. Obviously, this was a book I was born to read. I bought it that very week and I had a new favorite writer.
I've followed Joe's career with enthusiasm ever since The Drive-In and I've rarely been disappointed. He wrote in nearly every conceivable genre, but I felt and still feel that Lansdale is strongest when he does straight suspense. Cold In July, The Bottoms, A Fine Dark Line, Waltz of Shadows, Leather Maiden, The Big Blow, and Sunset and Sawdust are all amazing pieces of literature. And of course his Hap and Leonard books rank among the most entertaining novels I've ever read.
Lansdale writes like an early 20th Century rural storyteller spinning yarns from the back porch. His stories are uproarious and filled with all manner of sex and violence, but there is a righteous moral center to them.
Then there are his short stories. Lansdale's most famous, or perhaps most notorious is a better way to put it, is undoubtedly Night They Missed the Horror Show. I have yet to see a reader come away from that one unaffected. Other outrageous short stories by Joe are Steppin' Out Summer '68, By Bizarre Hands, Drive-In Date, and The Job.
Lansdale's fiction has perhaps grown a tad more subtle as the years have gone by. He no longer seems to feel the need to slam the reader in the temple with a sledgehammer. This is not to say that Joe has grown soft or mellow. He still has the power to shock and unsettle his readers, but I think he uses more atmosphere and depth of character these days.
Yet, and again, this pains me to say, sometimes Joe goes so far out that I have a difficult time following. I'm talking about things like Zeppelins West and its sequel, Flaming London. The Drive-In sequels. Some of the short stories don't do it for me either, like Bob the Dinosaur Goes To Disneyland and On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks. This sadly keeps Joe from the number one spot on my favorites list. Dubious honor that it may be.
I look back and I'm a little bit astonished that some writers whose work I love never made the list. I never called writers like Isaac Asimov, Clifford D. Simak, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip Wylie, Fredric Brown, Robert McCammon, F. Paul Wilson, Thomas F. Monteleone, John Skipp/Craig Spector, Nancy A. Collins, Chet Williamson, Brian Keene, or even Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child my favorite writers. No matter how much I love these and dozens of other writers and their works.
Looking back at it all, there is one writer who has been the most consistent, who has constantly touched my heart and my mind. Book after book after book.
 I lucked into reading Bill Pronzini early on. I saw a thriller that was written by Bill, in collaboration with a science fiction writer who wrote some books I liked: Barry Malzberg. The book was called The Running of Beasts and I consider it to have been far ahead of its time. The Running of Beasts (as well as another Pronzini/Malzberg book, Night Screams) is a serial killer story written long before the whole glut of them that came out in the wake of Thomas Harris' success.
I read those and then I saw a solo book by Bill Pronzini. Lo and behold, it happened to be the first book in what would become the longest-running detective series in mystery fiction. I had no idea at the time how important that book, The Snatch, and the author, Bill Pronzini, would be to me. The Snatch is good, yes, but it was the seed that grew into the most satisfying series of books I would ever read in my life: The Nameless Detective books by Bill Pronzini.
The hook that Pronzini used was to never name the lead character of The Snatch. I don't believe that he had any inkling how long this character would stay alive. To date there have been over thirty-five novels and a couple of collections of short stories that feature the character.
The ironic thing about The Nameless Detective is, readers have come to know so much about him. And eventually we got to know his first name, which bears a striking similarity to the author of the stories. We learned of Nameless' loves, his fear. What makes him happy and causes him sorrow. Somehow Bill Pronzini has managed to keep this series, which has almost lasted four decades (!), fresh and credible. It seems impossible, but the last Nameless book, Schemers, is one of the most gripping of them all.
Pronzini has alternated the Nameless books with stand-alone novels, and though he is widely known as a mystery writer, Bill has written horror and western fiction too. As with the Nameless series, the other books continue to grow and his skills have grown as the decades have passed. I cannot say the same about a lot of other writers.
My favorite of all Bill Pronzini's books is probably The Crimes of Jordan Wise, which in many ways is atypical of his work. It isn't as hardboiled as the majority of his books, but it has a wonderful setting and some of Bill's best characters.
What makes the fiction of Bill Pronzini so special to me is the sheer humanity in it. The themes in his stories are universal ones. Ones that pertain to not only my life, but everyone's. There is joy and hope, fear and courage, strength and weakness, humor and horror.
Will another writer ever take the place of Bill Pronzini as my favorite? Anything's possible, but it seems highly improbable. It's not likely that any writer can top the joy that Pronzini has given me for the past few decades. Still, we never know what the future will bring. That's the beauty of it.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Edward Lee is the undisputed King of Hardcore Horror and his fans eagerly await his small press publications. That's when he really lays on the vile excesses. Many have tried to emulate him, but few succeed in bringing the kind of writing chops he has to the anatomy table.
Lee came up the ranks the hard way, before there was a support system for the genre via the Internet and micropresses popping up everywhere the eye can see. He gradually built up his readership and his skill at writing. What he does is far more than just the gag reflex grossout story. Lee is an ace storyteller who is as adept at weaving a plot as he is at creating three dimensional characters.
Edward Lee has always been a mass market writer, but in the 90's he really began to forge his reputation as a writers of almost unbelievably disgusting fiction. He gleefully nauseated his readers with such abominations as The Seeker, Header, The Pig, Goon (with John Palen), Mr. Torso, The McCrath Model SS40-C, Series S,, The Dritiphilist, The Baby, and his towering novel-length opus, The Bighead. However, the one that really got under my skin was called Ever Nat, which dealt with a man that picks up a voluptuous woman who is hitchhiking and finds himself getting more sex than he ever had nightmares about.
Now comes The Cyeolagniac, a brand new chapbook from Black Ink. Like The Dritiphilist, this story deals with an individual that has a most unusual sexual fetish. A Cyeolagniac is someone that is sexually aroused by pregnant woman. Don't ask what a Dritiphilist is. Please.
The Cyeolagniac isn't quite as repulsive as Header or Ever Nat or The Stick Woman (which somehow managed to land in a mass market paperback), but it's not exactly a romcom either.
A normal, successful businessman has one little obsession: yes, he is the titular Cyeolagniac. He means no harm and has no desire to hurt anyone. But he can't resist seeking out prostitutes that happen to be in the late stages of pregnancy. While on a business trip he thinks his dreams have come true when he finds a beautiful, clean, and completely desirable pregnant hooker. He picks her up, pays her handsomely and what he hopes will be the most passionate night of his life turns out quite differently then he expects.
Edward Lee takes this sensational subject and imbues humanity in it. To desire a pregnant woman might inspire disgust or contempt in many people, but his character inspires empathy. I think more people are helpless in the face of their unusual obsessions than would care to readily admit it.
The Cyeolagniac isn't Lee's most extreme story and I don't think it's his best either. It's damned good though and I do not regret buying a copy. I like the size and structure of the chapbook, but as much as I hate to admit it, I didn't care for the art at all. I'd have rather seen someone like Alex McVey or Caniglia involved in the project.
Buy The Cyeolagniac from The Horror Mall.
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
 There's a small town in mid-Northern North Carolina called Henderson. It may not seem like much. Just a fly-speck of a town you wouldn't think twice about passing by on the interstate. There's a million more like it out there in Sticksville, USA. Nothing special, right?
Wrong. I had the privilege of meeting some of the townspeople of Henderson on Halloween Night, 2009. But it wasn't just any meeting place. It was at one of the sadly few drive-in theaters in operation today.
Hold it. Allow me to go back in time about eight years. I had heard that there was a drive-in in Henderson called The Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater and one morning I was passing through and I decided to get off of Interstate 1 and see if I could find it. I got lucky. The theater was only abut a mile off the highway and I happened to go the right way. The Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater was standing and in operation, but it looked to be in pretty sore condition. The screen and the fence surrounding it looked to be in disrepair and it looked like the kind of place you wouldn't want to test the food at. Or use the restrooms. I'm sure the people that ran it meant well and did their best, but things looked grim.
Drive-in enthusiast Jim Kopp purchased the theater sometime after that and he and his crew have made enormous restorations. The place is clean and it gives off a welcoming aura. There's a wholesome, nostalgic appearance to the theater. Like something out of our nation's past.
I had been intending to make a trip to the Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater for some time. I was regularly checking the website and reading about the movies and events that the drive-in had to offer. Not content to simply run movies, The Raleigh Road constantly has fun, family-friendly activities and promotions to keep the excitement at a high level. I read that there was going to be a Halloween Costume Contest and a triple feature at the Raleigh Road and I decided it would be the perfect time to take my family. An excellent opportunity to combine my love of both the drive-in and the holiday that celebrates my favorite genre, horror.
We arrived early, but were not the first in line. Enthusiastic families were already ahead of us, with children in costume anxious to enter the theater.
We drove in as the theater opened and after I met the very friendly owner, Jim Kopp. He promised to spend some time with me after the initial chaos died down.
 We parked and got a good spot and opened our trunk, for in addition to the costume contest, the theater was having Trunk or Treat before the film. Kids would go from car-to-car and collect treats from the attendees. It was a lot of fun and we saw some cool costumes.
Our own kids, Europa and India dressed up and enjoyed Trunk or Treating, even though both are too really old to indulge in such activities. The drive-in tends to bring out the kid in all of us.
 Of course we were all anxious for a deliciously non-nutritious meal, which has always been one of the major draws of the drive-in theater. Our appetites had  already been whetted by the smell of the large grill that was cooking burgers and hot dogs outside the concessions stand. And get this: We wisely took advantage of the Family of Four Deal. You get admission for four for three movies, four meals with drinks, and a large tub of popcorn! Now you tell me where you are going to find a deal like that? Only at the drive-in.
The costume contest was fun and our India was a winner with her inspired Evil Circus Ringleader getup. She won a book about the making of Twilight: New Moon. She worked hard on it and we were all proud. 
Oh yeah, the movies. You know, although the movies are the principle reason for the existence of the drive-in theater and all drive-in enthusiasts are movie fans, sometimes it seems as if they are secondary to the experience.
People go to drive-ins for various reasons. In my youth we went to party or to get it on with our dates. Now the scene is different. Some don't like the way most drive-ins now play mainstream, family productions, but they might not be aware that drive-in theaters started out as family entertainment. They were an inexpensive way for families to get away and have some fun. There were almost always playgrounds for the kids and The Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater is no exception.
The main reason people come to drive-ins, I think, is to be a par t of the community. The good people of the area come out and be together. They socialize, laugh, and have a good time. And many of the people of Henderson are fighting to maintain the close-knit community they share. They fight for it by helping out at the drive-in theater.
Anyway, the movies were Astro Boy, The Addams Family and Couples Retreat. None are exactly my favorite type of fare, with the possible exception of The Addams Family. But I always preferred the actual comics that Chas. Addams had in The New Yorker and other publications.
But the movies aren't the important thing. I can sit through anything at a drive-in. More than sit through it. I'll enjoy just about anything while I'm out there under the stars. And what a perfect night it was on October 31st, 2009. It was neither cold nor warm, but a lovely combination of the two. Being the hot-natured person that I am, I never even put on a longsleeve shirt. And the moon was nearly full. 
I liked Astro Boy for what it was. Animation isn't my thing, but I found it to be engaging enough. The kids wanted to see The Addams Family and probably the third feature too, but my wife Tanya was coughing a lot and though she agreed to stay, I felt that it was best to get her home to bed. Truth be told, I wasn't exactly looking forward to the forty-five minute drive back home. My night vision isn't what is used to be.
 I never did get to talk much to the owner, Jim Kopp, but I enjoyed our brief time together. Just as I enjoyed talking to the rest of the people that took the time to chat with a stranger. It's the truth, you'll find the best members of the community at the drive-in theater. As far as I'm concerned, the cream of the crop was there. I was disappointed though. While the theater was about a third full, it should have had a full house. I literally think that a lot of locals do not know what they are missing as they sit in their hermetically sealed, self-imposed isolation. I don't care how big their plasma screens are, or how clear their Blu-Ray Player picture is. There is no substitute to watching a movie on that ginormous screen, under the stars, in the company of their neighbors. It was particularly good to see the young people out there enjoying themselves.
So we left after the first feature. Our maiden trip to The Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater was a wonderful Halloween and we know that it won't be our last time there.
All photographs taken at The Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater by India Collier.
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