Richard Laymon

Richard Carl Laymon
Born	(1947-01-14)January 14, 1947 Chicago, Illinois
Died	February 14, 2001(2001-02-14) (aged 54)
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Horror
Notable works	The Cellar, The Beast House, The Midnight Tour, Island, The Traveling Vampire Show

Richard Carl Laymon (January 14, 1947 – February 14, 2001^[1]) was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre. Richard Laymon died in 2001 of a massive heart attack and is survived by his wife, Ann, and daughter, Kelly.

Life and career

Laymon was born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois, then lived in Tiburon, California as a teen. He graduated from Redwood High School, then pursued a BA in English Literature from Willamette University in Oregon and an MA in English Literature from Loyola University in Los Angeles.

His works include more than sixty short stories and more than thirty novels, a few of which were published under the pseudonym Richard Kelly. Twenty of his stories were published as part of the Fastback Mystery series—single short stories released in book form. Despite praise from prominent writers from within the genre, including Stephen King and Dean Koontz, Laymon was little known in his homeland—he enjoyed greater success in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom—until his affiliation with Leisure Books in 1999. Laymon believed that this was a result of a badly-edited first release of The Woods Are Dark, which had had over fifty pages removed. The poor editing and unattractive cover art stalled his career after the success of The Cellar. Laymon's original version of The Woods Are Dark^[2] was finally published in July 2008 by Leisure Books and Cemetery Dance Publications after being reconstructed from the original manuscript by his daughter, Kelly.

His novel Flesh was named Best Horror Novel of 1988 by Science Fiction Chronicle, and both Flesh and Funland were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, as was his non-fiction work A Writer's Tale. He won this award posthumously in 2001 for The Traveling Vampire Show.

The tribute anthology, In Laymon's Terms,^[3] was released by Cemetery Dance Publications during the summer of 2011. It featured short stories and non-fiction tribute essays by authors such as Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum, Gary Brandner, Edward Lee, and scores of others.

Bibliography

Novels

• The Cellar (1980) (First book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
• Your Secret Admirer (1980) (writing as Carl Laymon)
• The Woods Are Dark (1981)
• Nightmare Lake (1983) (writing as Carl Laymon)
• The Lawmen (1983) (writing as Lee Davis Willoughby)
• Out Are the Lights (1983)
• Night Show (1984)
• A Stranger's Arms (1984) (writing as Carla Laymon)
• All Hallow's Eve (1985)
• Beware (1985)
• The Beast House (1986) (Second book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
• Tread Softly (1987) – aka Dark Mountain (writing as Richard Kelly)
• Flesh (1987)
• Midnight's Lair (1988) (writing as Richard Kelly)
• Resurrection Dreams (1988)
• Funland (1989)
• The Stake (1990)
• One Rainy Night (1991)
• Island (1991)
• Darkness, Tell Us (1991)
• Blood Games (1992)
• Alarums (1992) aka Alarms
• Dark Mountain (1992)
• Endless Night (1993)
• Savage: From Whitechapel to the Wild West on the Track of Jack the Ripper (1993)
• In the Dark (1994)
• Quake (1995)
• Bite (1996)
• Body Rides (1996)
• After Midnight (1997)
• The Wilds (1998)
• The Midnight Tour (1998) (Third book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
• Cuts (1999)
• Among the Missing (1999)
• Come Out Tonight (1999)
• Once Upon A Halloween (2000)
• The Traveling Vampire Show (2000)
• Friday Night in the Beast House (2001) (Fourth book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
• Night in the Lonesome October (2001)
• The Halloween Mouse (with Alan M. Clark) (2001) – children's book
• No Sanctuary (2001)
• Amara (2002) aka To Wake the Dead
• The Lake (2004)
• The Glory Bus (2005) aka Into the Fire
• The Woods are Dark Restored and Uncut (2008)^[4]

Fastbacks

• The Intruder (1984)
• Shootout At Joe's (1984)
• Dawson's City (1984)
• The Caller (1985)
• Cardiac Arrest (1985)
• The Cobra (1985)
• Guts (1985) aka The Hearse
• The Last Hand (1985)
• Live Bait (1985)
• The Lonely One (1985)
• The Trap (1985)
• Marathon (1985)
• Night Games (1985)
• Night Ride (1985)
• Beginner's Luck (1986)
• Halloween Hunt (1986)
• The Night Creature (1986)
• The Beast (1986)
• The Return (1987)
• Thin Air (1987)

Collections

• Out Are the Lights: And Other Tales (1991)
• A Good, Secret Place (1992)
• Fiends (1997)
• Dreadful Tales (2000)
• Madman Stan and Other Stories (2004)

Short stories

• "Bad News"
• "Barney's Bigfoot Museum"
• "Bedtime Stories"
• "Blarney"
• "The Bleeder"
• "Boo" (first printed in October Dreams)
• "The Boy Who Loved the Twilight Zone"
• "Cabin in the Woods"
• "The Champion"
• "Choppie"
• "Cut"
• "Desert Pickup"
• "Dinker's Pond"
• "The Direct Approach"
• "The Diving Girl"
• "Double Date"
• "Dracusson's Driver"
• "Eats"
• "Finders Keepers"
• "First Date"
• "The Fur Coat"
• "A Good Cigar is a Smoke"
• "The Good Deed"
• "A Good, Secret Place"
• "Good Vibrations"
• "The Grab"
• "Hammerhead"
• "The Hangman"
• "Herman"
• "The Hunt"
• "I'm Not a Criminal"
• "Into the Pit"
• "Invitation to Murder"
• "The Job"
• "Joyce"
• "Kitty Litter"
• "The Living Dead"
• "Madman Stan"
• "The Maiden"
• "The Mask"
• "Mess Hall"
• "Mop Up"
• "Oscar's Audition"
• "Out of the Woods"
• "Paying Joe Back"
• "Phil the Vampire"
• "Pickup on Highway One"
• "Roadside Pickup"
• "Saving Grace"
• "Slit"
• "Special"
• "Spooked"
• "Stickman"
• "Stiff Intruders"
• "Ten Bucks Says You Won't"
• "The Tub"
• "What Jimmy Saw"
• "Wishbone"
• "The Worshipper"

Footnotes

See also

• List of horror fiction authors
• splatterpunk

External links

• Richard Laymon Kills! The Official Website's New Home at Steve Gerlach
• Bibliography at SciFan
• Richard Laymon bibliography and book ratings at Internet Book List
• Richard Laymon at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database