AUTHOR INTERVIEW: RICK R. REED

A Visit with Horror Master Rick R. Reed Part Two
Author Interview by A.J. Llewellyn

1. I just ran your name through Who Would Be Your Celebrity Cell Mate and Guess Who you got?



Yep, it’s Pee Wee Herman!!! In one paragraph, please tell me what you would do if Pee Wee begged you to let him suck your toes behind bars.

I love Pee Wee Herman. His show was some of the best TV in forever. I would happily let him suck anything he wanted and would even reciprocate. Anyone as creative and funny as he is would be fun to suck toes with.

2. Geez Rick, that one didn’t even phase you! Lemme just sit in the corner quietly like a good boy while I think up something naughty to ask you and in the meantime…please, do a little shameless self promotion. Give us an excerpt of Dead End Street. BTW, please tell me that house is not real. It is a total creep fest. Where did your cover artist find it?

You’d have to ask the cover artist (Trace Edward Zaber). But isn’t it a great house? It completely lived up to what I imagined. I’m sure it’s a real house somewhere.

Here’s an excerpt from Dead End Street, which is now available from Amazon and directly from the publisher:

Even if all the horrible things that had happened there had never occurred, the house would still look scary. There were solid things one could point to and say: "that's what makes this house look forbidding:" things like the dirty white paint, most of which had cracked and fallen away, revealing the gray and rotting wood beneath.

The windows were empty eye sockets, glimpsing the darkness within, the glass panes long ago succumbing to the wiles of vandals. Pine and Maple trees grew riotously around the house, closing in on it. The steps leading up to the front porch sagged and looked as if the slightest pressure would send them crumbling.

The house's placement, where the woods met the end of Acton Road, gave it a feeling of separateness. Almost as if the house were waiting, there at the entrance to the woods, to suck in the innocent, to make them disappear into its darkness.

Not many people went near the house on Acton Road. Most, in the Ohio River town of Summitville, Pennsylvania, had forgotten what had occurred in the house fifteen years ago. The murders had caused a sensation at the time, but the crimes faded into obscurity, much as the house, once neatly kept and inhabited, faded into rot and disrepair.
***
Not everyone in Summitville had forgotten the house. Over the years, groups of teenagers had tested their mettle by entering the house, searching for bloody handprints on the walls or the chalk outline of a body. There were always one or two who were brave enough—or foolhardy enough—to wander inside, to test the creaking floorboards. These brave souls would often run outside, screaming and laughing, and report back to those less brave, outside and waiting in the shadows, that they had heard a voice telling them to get out, or that they saw a shadow pass along a wall, or simply felt a presence there, watching.

Peter, Marlene, David, Roy and Erin had more of a mission than to merely cross the threshold of the house to see what was inside. The group of five, all eighth graders at East Junior High School, had known each other since they were just little kids, having grown up in the same neighborhood on the hillside not far from the infamous Tuttle house. They too had heard the stories of weird lights flickering on and off in a house that had long ago seen the exit of electricity, or the tales of people who had gone inside, only never to return.

3.That’s a scary little tale, honey! Which leads me to my next question…do you spook yourself writing the stuff you come up with?

Not really. I’m too much like the magician: I’m way too aware of what goes into the trick. But I can make myself laugh and especially cry with certain other parts of my writing.

4. Who is the best, creepy-good horror villain: Jame Gumb, Jigsaw or Chucky and why?

Jaime Gumb…from Silence of the Lambs. He’s scariest because he’s the most real.

5. How do you keep up that relentless pressure in your stories? I mean, it’s difficult to breathe reading them…is it the same when you’re writing it? How do you manage to crank up the heat that way? This leads me to ask, do you do a lot of revision or are you a one-shot guy?

As I said above, that kind of stuff is like a magician’s bag of tricks. If you think I’m gonna sit here and give away my secrets, think again, sweetheart. I do a lot of revising as I write, then again, when the work is finished. But I am not someone who writes the same book over and over again. I think a lot of the organization, plotting, and so on goes on inside my head…or comes from instinct, which I’ve learned very much to trust.

6. I am curious about your writing routine…do you plan things out or are you a panster?

I’m not sure what a panster is. Does it have something to do with Pan, of myth? Then yes, maybe. I plot things out in a very general way. My characters usually end up changing everything, which will make sense to other writers who are reading this. Those who don’t write will likely scratch their heads.

7. I have asked you before about your problem with happy endings. I know you swear you don’t have one but I need to disagree. I just finished reading Riding the El…so I know of whence I speak, my friend. My real question here is about Orientation. A book I loved and not to spoil things for those who haven’t read it, but might we be seeing a sequel some time soon in which Robert finds true love? I’m worried about him…I know he’s fictional…but you know…he’s nice.

Well, many of my stories do have happy endings; that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

AJ: [Laughs himself silly] No, no, go on. I’m listening.

I don’t know if I’ll ever write a sequel to Orientation. I never envisioned it as a series. But we never know where inspiration might lead us… I encourage you to think up your own happy ending for Robert (or to decide if he actually found it…with Jess, his young lesbian friend).

AJ: How can they? She found a potential love interest at the end…with someone else, although I must say I would have been thrilled if she and Robert got together at the end. I’m a hopeless romantic, Rick.
How can they have a happy ending? Well, I think love comes in all forms, shapes and sizes and maybe the most fulfilling love isn’t necessarily one rooted in sexuality.


8. It is for me…maybe I’m not very well adjusted, lol…You recently wrote a very controversial blog about women writing M/M fiction. I know a lot of people had comments but in my opinion you seemed to weight on the side of being against it. How do you feel about that blog now and did you hesitate before posting it?

I don’t think I came down against it at all. My thoughts were that if someone can write a good story, the human elements that link us all are all that’s needed to make it convincing, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. My blog about was just speaking to my curiosity about this trend of straight women writing about male-to-male relationships.

Questioning something doesn’t necessarily equate to being against it. I have written books from a woman’s point of view, a lesbian’s point of view, and beyond, and think I succeeded because I concentrated more on the human bonds that bring us all together, rather than what separates us.

No, I didn’t hesitate before posting it. If I can provoke some thought or emotion with my writing, then I’m doing my job.

9. You provocateur, you! I am not sure if you read my interview with Victor J. Banis, but he said some very interesting things on the subject. I was intrigued when he said that Brokeback Mountain moved him to tears and that a man could never have written it. How do you feel about that?

Victor is a man I consider a friend and I admire him very much. I don’t know that I agree that a man could NEVER have written Brokeback Mountain, although I can understand how someone might posit that a man would never have the sensitivity to write a story like that. But I think some men do have the awareness and sensitivity to write a comparable tale, just as I think some women would not.

10.Do you really think Proposition 8 will get the chop in California?

I hope not. It will be a sad day for a country that prides itself supposedly on freedom and equality if it does.

11.What was your favorite TV show growing up?

That’s easy and probably not too surprising: Dark Shadows. I was crazy about it. I lived between Pittsburgh, PA and Youngstown, OH and could get TV stations from both areas, which allowed me to watch it twice a day every day. I had a DS scrapbook and my bedroom was covered with posters of people like Barnabas, Quentin, and Angelique.

12. Since it's Halloween week, I have to ask, who is the sexiest to you: Elvira, Yvonne de Carlo or Jocelyn Wildenstein and why?

They’re all women. And I don’t even know who the last one is.

AJ: She’s the woman who’s had plastic surgery to make her look like a cat.

I suppose I would say Yvonne DeCarlo, if pressed (in the right place).

13.What is the funniest sex scene you ever wrote? Please give us a snippet.

Okay. Here goes:
Her fucking nails were bitten to the cuticle. She could barely swallow. Her eyes wouldn’t stay still. She was ready to scream. One more cold shower and her nipples would burst.

Christ, she needed it! And needed it bad!

All week long all Amelia could think of was sex. Commercials on TV reminded her of it. Her cat, Sprinkles, cleaning herself brought on thoughts of oral ecstasy. Her mother, Helen, grating cheese filled the kitchen with the aroma of sex. Amelia could not imagine why. A shaken bottle of Pepsi overflowing practically caused an orgasm with its suggestiveness of the male climax.

But Helen…damn her! wouldn’t give her a moment’s peace. Mother was having her bedroom painted (pewter gray with maroon trim) and was “bunking” with her daughter. The paint job had lasted longer than anticipated and Amelia needed her privacy.

Needed it desperately.

Now, as Helen left to do some grocery shopping, Amelia was practically shaking with her need. She went to the kitchen, got a bottle of Pepsi and poured its contents down the drain. She held the bottle high. “My darling,” she said, “I love you. Take me…now.”

Amelia hurried into the bedroom, dropping clothes as she went. Flinging herself dramatically on the bed, she lay back, legs spread, bent at the knees. She was already so wet she feared leaving a puddle on the chenille bedspread.

Hugging the Pepsi bottle and then kissing it, she whispered, “Make love to me.” She stuck her tongue in the opening at the top of the bottle and thrust it in and out. She lay the bottle tenderly beside her and took time to run her hands over her naked body, stopping to knead her breasts, twist her tortured nipples until she was sure they would be ripped from her body.

She arched her back with the pleasure of it all, moaning and crying out, “The pause that refreshes.” She flipped over on her stomach and with one hand, squished her pendulous breasts together, wishing they were filled with milk so she could pop them like two red-nosed pimples. With her other hand, she reached back and caressed her buttocks. She slapped her ass, pinched it and inserted her finger deep inside, wiggling it around, deeper and deeper until she felt a soft bowel movement, high up and waiting to emerge. The smell almost made her gag.

At last, she lifted the Pepsi bottle and traced an outline down her body with it. When she reached her sex, she paused for a moment, sexual tension humming in the air like an electric current, then plunged the Pepsi bottle deep inside her. She encountered no resistance, having been wet for days. In fact, the bottle went in all the way and slid immediately from Amelia’s grasp.

She tensed, hearing the door open. “Amelia?” Helen called. “For Christ’s sake, what are your clothes doing all over the living room?”

Amelia reached deep inside her love canal…and felt nothing. The bottle was gone. “And I didn’t even come!” Amelia moaned, frustrated.

Helen poked her head in the door, grinning. “Whaaaat?”

14.If you could be Britney Spears for one hour, what would you do?

Fuck Kevin Federline.

15.ROFL! What books are you working on now and what is coming out soon?

I am working on a new novel that gets back to my gay horror roots: it combines leather, a ghost, a horrific murder, and the redemptive power of love. In the next couple of months, I will have a couple short ebooks coming out from Amber Allure, the GLBT division of Amber Quill Press: VGL Male Seeks Same and Through the Closet Door.

On behalf of the Dark Diva Reviews, I’d like to thank RICK R. REED for coming by again and talking about Halloween which for me will never be the same again! Please check out Rick’s Purchase links:

Dead End Street
e-book: http://amberquill.com/DeadEndStreet.html
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/Dead-End-Street-Rick-Reed/dp/1602729174/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224538461&sr=8-3

How I Became Sexually Irresistible
e-book: http://amberquill.com/AmberHeat/SexuallyIrresistible.html

Fugue:
e-book: http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Fugue.html

Orientation:
e-book: http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Orientation.html
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/Orientation-Rick-R-Reed/dp/1602729379/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224538643&sr=1-4

Author Interview: Rick R. Reed

Rick R. Reed: Horror's Dark Master
Author Interview by A.J. Llewellyn

Part One - Part Two tomorrow

1. Rick, welcome back to the Dark Divas! We’re very excited to have you back here. Since your last visit, you’ve had two new books released, Fugue and How to Become Sexually Irresistible (I personally think you’ve got that one nailed!) but I digress. Your newbie Dead End Street looks frightening and creepy. Can you tell me where the inspiration came for the Tuttle House and do you believe in haunted houses?

Thanks for having me, AJ. I’m excited about Dead End Street, and even more excited that it’s coming out around Halloween. Like most inspiration, it’s hard to say where this one came from. The story is about five misfit teenagers who decide to form a Halloween Horror Club and have a contest to tell terrifying stories. The twist is that they tell the stories in the old abandoned Tuttle house, the scene of an infamous murder of almost an entire family fifteen years prior. The house may not be as empty as they think… I guess the inspiration came from growing up in a small Ohio River town much like the one in which the book is set. I grew up in a valley with tree-covered hills all around and lone houses as the tree line were full of possibilities for horror.

I do believe in haunted houses and ghosts. I think the energy of living people can sometimes stick around long after they’re gone physically. At least it’s more fun to think that way.

2. Have you ever seen a ghost or had an ‘other worldly’ encounter?

Yes. Do you want to know more? It happened when I was in college. My girlfriend (who later became my wife…a whole ‘nother story) and I had stayed on campus over a holiday weekend, so the place was fairly deserted. We had just settled down to go to sleep when I heard someone jiggling the doorknob on the bedroom door. Before I could do anything, I looked over and a short young man about my age at the time (20) was walking across the bedroom, toward the bed…naked. This was not sexy by any means. It was terrifying. I shut my eyes and turned toward my girlfriend. When I looked back, he was gone. I got up and checked around the apartment and the door was still locked from the inside. The scariest thing was: my girlfriend and I said nothing to each other until several minutes after this happened. And she saw the exact same thing.

I still wonder if it was a coincidence that the apartment complex I lived in that year was next door to a cemetery.

3. Well, since you bring up the issue of your wife, were you attracted to men at the time or was this something that developed or became more obvious to you over time?

That's a question that probably needs a lot more involved answer than I can give here. I will just say that I was aware of an attraction to men, but it took me a long time to accept it. Acceptance and awareness can often be miles and miles apart.

4. Do you watch scary movies? Since it’s Halloween I need to know and if so, what’s your all time favorite?

I LOVE scary movies! I always have, which is probably why I like to write scary stories. It’s a point of contention between my partner and me because he does not; I usually load up our Netflix queue with horror movies when he goes out of town on business. My all-time favorite horror movie? Do I have to pick just one? No, no, I can’t. Some favorites that immediately come to mind are Carnival of Souls, Psycho, an Asian horror film called Audition (the most disturbing, to me, horror movie I’ve ever seen), The Haunting (the original version), and Night of the Living Dead. I also am absolutely creeped out by Repulsion, an old Roman Polanski film with a very young Catherine Deneuve.

5. Wait…do you mean the Japanese movie Audition…original title Odishan? I remember seeing trailers for that saying “It makes Psycho seem quaint.” What is it about the movie that was so disturbing?

That’s the one! I think the filmmakers manipulate you very well, the movie almost seems like a light romantic comedy at the start, and then the downward plunge into insanity and terror is unrelenting. The idea of using acupuncture needles for torture was a fresh and chilling idea. The anti-heroine (stalker) looks so sweet and innocent, it just makes it all the more shocking that she is so evil and twisted.

6. Did you ever see the Italian horror movie Suspiria? It’s my guilty pleasure. I love Psycho and still find it chilling even after watching I a million times. I interviewed Anthony Perkins many years ago and he told me he couldn’t have a shower without leaving the door open. Do movies or stories affect you that way? Take hold and not let go – apart from Audition, that is?

I have never seen Suspiria. Guess I’ll have to add it to my Netflix queue. Of course, movies and stories affect me very deeply, although I have become a bit jaded when it comes to horror, which is why Audition had such a profound effect.

7. What was the first Halloween costume you had as a kid? What do you remember of your first time out trick or treating? Oh…and what’s your favorite Halloween candy?

Although I’m too chicken to do drag now, I can remember being in first or second grade and dressing up as a little girl (why my parents or no one else thought this was strange is still a puzzle).

AJ: LOL

I wore a blonde wig with pigtails, white dress, patent leather shoes, and even had a little girl’s coat, borrowed from a cousin. At that school, we all went home for lunch. We put on our costumes then and came back to school and sat at different desks from our usual. No one knew who I was!

8. You’d be too chicken to do drag now…is this really true, Rick? Because I’ve seen your MySpace page and you have a lot of photos there…aren’t there a few of the adult Rick in a frock and some nice high heels??? You can trust me with this info…nobody will know oh…I’m forgetting where I am…

No, it’s true. I admire drag queens. I think they’re some of the toughest, bravest men around. And I just do not have their courage.

9. Who or what would you dress up as now if you could be anybody or anything this Halloween?

I’d strip naked, wrap myself in aluminum foil, and go as leftovers.


10. This is where I could make some remarks about the um…other white meat, but I won’t. I grew up in Australia. Halloween did not exist and trick or treating was something I read about in Archie comics…but it’s something I know has changed over the years, right? Weirdoes putting razor blades in candy etc…and now, pedophiles in Maryland are forced to put up pumpkin signs outside their houses saying “No Candy Here” and they have to turn out their porch lights. Is Halloween still Halloween, Rick?

It’s a different world from when I grew up, but I’d like to think that, yes, Halloween is still Halloween. Everything changes over time…Trick or treating was very different, I suspect, from what kids experience nowadays. I grew up in a small town, and we went out after dark and were out for hours. I would come home with a pillowcase full of teeth-rotting treats. My favorite candy? Good and Plenty, honey. I loves me some black licorice.

11. Here’s some licorice…all yours. What was your favorite toy growing up?

Charlie, a stuffed monkey I slept with every night. One night, his ear fell off and I was hysterical. My mother had to get up and stitch it back on immediately.

12. Was he a spooky monkey or a nice monkey? And what happened to him?

He was a very nice monkey and I don’t know what happened to him. The real version is I outgrew him and he went into our basement. He probably was thrown out when my mother sold our house after my father died. Or maybe…he’s still with me. And he’s my muse and inspiration for everything.

13. It’s Halloween and I have to ask…which of the Village People singers do you consider the sexiest/most intriguing?

Well, since I have some history with the leather gear, I suppose the leatherman and I would have some things to talk about (in addition to all things chaps, harnesses, caps; we could also discuss big moustaches, something I also used to have).


14. Tell me about your life in Seattle. All settled in Seattle? (Hey, swell movie title!) And have you found your personal coffee shop yet? How does Lily like living there?

Seattle has been great so far. I love the natural beauty, the political left leaning, and the kind of laid-back energy of the place. I’m still working on making it home, but I’m confident it will become that. I’m much more suited to Seattle than I was to Miami. I have found my favorite personal café and it’s a dangerous place: it’s an organic, vegan friendly doughnut shop (only in Seattle!) near my house called Mighty O. I can walk there and try to limit myself to no more than once a week because I am simply unable to just buy coffee or even one doughnut. Lily is adjusting well. As a Boston Terrier, heat and her snout do not mix well, so I think she’s more comfortable here.

15. A vegan friendly donut? Surely this must taste…gruesome? The Mighty O? That sounds a little bit…naughty, Rick...

Far from gruesome. They’re the best doughnuts ever…moist and cakey. Just biting into one makes me have a mighty O! Talk about your glazed doughnuts!

16. LOL! Do you anticipate many trick or treaters coming by this weekend? What kind of candy will you give them or will you make the little buggers sing for their snacks…you know do tricks?

We live in a very residential area, so I would imagine we’ll have some trick or treaters. I’d love to give them some good Washington apples, but that’s a no-no these days, so I will probably stick with sterile-wrapped mini candy bars. I am not making children do tricks. I save that for adult men.

17. You walked right into that one, mate. What’s the best trick Bruce can ever do for you?

Put up with me.

Please stay tuned tomorrow for more Halloween, Horror and Celebrity Cell Mates with RICK R. REED.

In the meantime, please check out his er...horrifically cool links:

Dead End Streete-book: http://amberquill.com/DeadEndStreet.htmlAmazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/Dead-End-Street-Rick-Reed/dp/1602729174/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224538461&sr=8-3How I Became Sexually Irresistiblee-book: http://amberquill.com/AmberHeat/SexuallyIrresistible.htmlFugue:e-book: http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Fugue.htmlOrientation:e-book: http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Orientation.htmlAmazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/Orientation-Rick-R-Reed/dp/1602729379/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224538643&sr=1-4