04/09/2006: "THE HORROR COMMUNITY"

Hi All,

First off, my apologies for not updating more often lately. I'm in the home stretch of novel revisions, and quite frankly I just want to have done with it and so I'm dedicating all--ALL, by thunder!---writing resources, thinking resources (and of this I'm given a precious daily allotment) to getting it done. But after that I'm taking a fairly major break, and will expend most of my mental energies here in cyberspace. Topics will include: more beatings I have received; what's happening on the novel front (short film news); a killer blintz recipe, etc, etc. Okay, don't expect a blintz recipe. I'm only mildly certain of what a blintz even IS.

BOOK/COLLECTION NEWS: My novel is up for pre-order on Amazon.ca; only the Canadian site at the moment, listed as simply "Fighter". They'll tack a "The" to it later, but for now "Fighter". I lobbied for "Fighter!" but no, the exclamation point was disallowed. In addition, the Norton paperback version of Rust and Bone is up at Amazon.com, so you can order that if you'd like, though the hardcover is still available (oh, how it is available!) and at a reduced price. I think the softcover edition looks really cool; they got a dogfighting scene in there, which I'm all for (not dogfighting as a pursuit, but a cover that emphasizes that particular story). So hustle up and order those books; be the first on your block to own "Eeek---Fighter!" (I lobbied for this title as well, but alas...)

Before getting to the topic at hand, a link to a website of note. This one was brought to my attention owing to the fact that its owner/operator, "Maddox," has a book coming out and, simply by emailing his list of devotees, his book---The Alphabet of Manliness---shot to the #1 spot on Amazon.com. Well! I had to take a look at this dude who had such a rabid following; my search led me to "The Best Page in the Universe," a site he's had going since 1997. He updates it pretty frequently, like once a week, with a wide variety of topics sure to inflame those of a sensitive moral temperment. Me, I found a lot of his posts hilarious as hell---check the one out where he critiques kid's paintings. His style is the "rant," which I've come to see is a fairly popular style on blogs; people pick a topic and basically holler about how much it pisses them off. Maybe Maddox was the guy to kick that whole style off; maybe "ranters" everywhere owe him a debt of gratitude. Anyway, he can count me as a new fan. If you want to check it out:

http://maddox.xmission.com

Again, not for sensitive types---but then again, if you were a senstive type, would you be reading my blog in the first place? Vegetarians, animal lovers, jocks, nerds, feminists, old people, and cheap sports car drivers will all find something to offend them at this site.

Now, to the topic at hand...

As some of you may know, I used to write horror. I say "used to" only in that I haven't written any lately, and by lately I mean the last year and a half, because that's more or less the way my writing life has swung for the time being. And I think for awhile there I was...well, not that I wanted to call it quits with horror, but maybe that horror fiction seemed to want little to do with me.

To my way of seeing it, the horror genre is really sort of incenstuous. Maybe all genres are that way; I've had no experience with any others, so I can't say. There are few markets, and fewer still decent-paying markets. It's a tough life, I would think, to make a go of it as a horror writer (and here I'm not including the Kings and Koontzs and Barkers and Straubs), and those who seem to make it do so by working their asses off, treating their readers like gold, and bringing a workmanlike attitude to things that I find sorely lacking in a lot of "literary" writers, who often have the university system behind them to provide teaching jobs, etc, to defray their writing income. I shouldn't speak, I guess, seeing as I'm on that gravy train right now, but as soon as I'm done here at Iowa City the last place you'll find me is in a classroom (which is odd, as that was the main reason I came here; anyway, people change); if I have to make ends meet I'll tend bar, drive a big rig, man a forest-fire tower in the Yukon, whatever. And I know a lot of great horror writers work warehouse shifts or janitorial duty or whatever to make ends meet, and I've always respected the hell out of that.

I basically stopped writing horror because I couldn't make a financial go of it. That wouldn't have surprised me, except that I have made a (brief) go of it on the other side of the fence and I can't resolve in my head why that is. My sense is, if my stuff is good enough for Penguin, Norton, Picador, etc, why isn't it good enough for Bantam, Leisure, TOR, etc? I'm the same writer; I bring the same level of intensity and hard work and skill to both sides of my writing. And it wasn't just the major horror presses; I never managed to find my way into any of the decent magazines, either, except ChiZine.

Maybe it's sour grapes; I admit I can be brittle sometimes, and fail to see the truth of a situation if that truth doesn't fit my mindset. But I really do feel there is a little too much of the whole, "We met at a con" or "You publish me I'll publish you" or some secret Stone Mason's handshake that some horror writers are privvy to while others, like me, sort of sit around all gormless sucking up rejection letters going, "Well, shucks, I guess that's how the cookie crumbles." And maybe I would still be doing that if not for this odd turn my writing life has taken.

Again, these are suspicions, and the worst sort of suspicions---unfounded, pride-wounded, crop-circle and conspiracy-theory suspicions that I can back up no further than to point at my success in the genre then point to my success outside of the genre and pose the question, "Why no love from horror?" Which I suppose is a shitty thing to say, as I have gotten love from horror: Dave Barnett at Necro gave me my first real boost by pubishing my novel, and Shane Staley at Delirium is awesome, as is Brett Savory at ChiZine and most every editor I've worked with in the genre. It's also a dangerous thing to say, karmically-speaking, because I really haven't accomplished a whole hell of a lot outside the genre, except for getting one book deal, which could be the result of a few river-boating editors going, "Come on, David-soooown! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!" and rolling me like a pair of dice down the lush green felt of the literati table (How that for a tortured analogy? It actually doesn't make all that much sense, but I'm leaving it anyway---'cause that's the way I ROLL). Maybe if I get a second book deal I can flap my gums a little; for now, all I have is suspicions.

It's a love-hate thing. I love horror and always thought I would be a horror writer, but to me there seems to be something going on in the genre that exists beyond my fathoming, like in certain sense there's a game to be played and I'm not playing it (and I wouldn't play it, anyway)...or maybe I'm just paranoid. Certainly that's what the giant dustbunny that lives under my bed keeps telling me. Actually there's no "hate" at all. So, a love-paranoia thing. The love heightens the paranoia, and vice-versa. No, not really vice-versa.

My final point, and the point that made me write this in the first place, is that the most crucial part of the horror genre---the readers---are the coolest, most supportive, most rabid and incredible fans of any genre. I just got through signing 500 signature sheets for a limited edition novella being brought out next month. Sig sheets are a pain in the ass---especially since I'm signing as Patrick Lestewka (hey, maybe that's why I got no love: I chose a really assinine pen name), and that last name is a bee-yatch to write---but I love that the genre is one that puts a premium on things like that, signed limited edition books, and I love that small horror presses like Delirium, Necro, Bloodletting, NEP, and dozens more do good work for the love of the genre. I get more emails from people who've read THE PRESERVE, all 500 copies of it, and either loved it or hated it and just had to tell me about it, than from RUST AND BONE, which is out with big presses in different countries.

That's the passion that exists in the genre amongst its readers, and that's why I love horror and hope to god someone picks up my second novel because in the end I feel more comfortable there than anywhere else. Even the novel I'm editing, THE FIGHTER(!), takes on more and more of a horror-y feel as I edit it; I fought those urges in the first drafts, thinking people wanted a "literary" book, but after awhile it was like, "To hell with it---this is the sort of writer I am, I'm not ashamed of it, and if you don't like it kiss my ass." Not that I'd ever tell any reader to kiss my ass; I only mean to say that to approach your work in a style that feels disingenuous to you is the surest way to put out a book you'll probably end up unhappy with.

Anyway, this is a ramble. I'll quit. No disrespect to horror or the horror community. I have mad love for the horror community. That was the basic point of this entry.

All best, Craig.