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

Inside the Wondermind of Horror Author RICK R. REED

Author Interview by AJ Llewellyn


1. Rick, you definitely do not write to the comfort level of your readers. There is rarely a happy ending. Sometimes one character gets it, another doesn't. You also bump off major characters. Is this a conscious decision in your work, to flaunt tradition?

Oh, I don't know; I think you'll find a lot of happy endings in my work. It all depends on how you look at things. When I write, I simply like to look at things realistically, so my books are rarely black and white in any sense, they move between the two extremes...and happy endings are one example of what I think of as realism and the shades of gray we find in real life. My stories are very personal and usually driven by my characters, who become very real in my head. So I don't think there's any deliberate attempt to flaunt tradition.

2. When did you start writing? I believe your first published book was in 1991 wasn't it? But what about the actual writing?

I started writing when I was about six years old, when I wrote my first short story. I haven't let up since. I wrote my first play in 4th grade, my first novella in fifth and, by the time I graduated high school, had written two novels and enough short stories to fill an anthology. Of course, I wouldn't share any of that stuff with anyone now! Writing is a constitutional thing with me. Like being gay, it's just who I am...and definitely not a choice!

3. What drew you to horror and whose work in that field do you admire?

I have always been fascinated with the dark side of things. Even as a small child, I preferred horror movies over Disney type stuff (my parents used to let me stay up late on Saturday nights to watch the Chiller Theater double feature out of Pittsburgh). Horror intrigues me because it explores that dark side that I think we all have inside us. I find flawed and even frightening people much more interesting to contemplate. True crime fascinates me and I can quote chapter and verse on most of the twentieth century's most notorious serial killers. I admire in fiction people like Flannery O'Connor (whose work is deliciously horrific), James Purdy, Patricia Highsmith, and Ruth Rendell. Of course, from when I was small, I have been a die-hard Stephen King fan and continue to be so. I used to feel that way about Anne Rice, but now, not so much.

4. Rick, I am very interested to hear you say this about Anne Rice because I loved her books too but could not get through much of Christ, the Lord Out of Egypt. I felt that a lot of what made her books so original was gone. Did you read that book?

No, I started giving up around the time Queen of the Damned came out. It was so long and overblown. I was afraid she was beyond the reach of an editor. When she started putting religion into her books, I just got bored. But the first couple Lestat novels were beautiful…some of the best vampire fiction I think, well, ever.

5. I know you have said your ideas come from different sources but with each successive book, you manage to pinpoint topical issues such as sexual addiction in High Risk, meth amphetamine addiction and gender bias in Orientation. Do you follow the media much? Or are these things you see in your life in general?

I think the inclusion of topical issues is more on a subconscious level because, as I said above, I am fascinated by flawed people and one of my biggest fascinations is of obsession. It really intrigues me to think about people doing things they can't help doing, but do it anyway because their compulsion is so fierce. I will pass on saying how this relates to my own personal life.


6.You are one of the pioneers of GLBT fiction. How has it changed in recent years?

A pioneer? Thanks for making me feel ancient!
(AJ says: I didn’t mean to, I meant it as a compliment!)
Oddly, thanks for making me feel honored. I don't know if I am a pioneer or not, but I do think we have seen a much broader acceptance of GLBT fiction and media lately and that's a good thing, but I think we still have a long way to go. GLBT fiction is still way too marginalized and hard to find. I think the key is finding stories that appeal not to the sexual beings in all of us, but to the human beings in all of us. We all share common bonds and when we find those stories, I think GLBT stories will be much more accessible to a wider audience. I try to write not from a GLBT perspective, but a human one. My character's sexuality is secondary to their humanity.

7. I have noticed on message boards you get a lot of female fans. Why do you think more and more women are becoming drawn to gay fiction?


I have noticed that too. I expected my gay serial killer novel about online hookups to have a very narrow appeal to gay men, but then I get letters from grandmothers telling me they loved it. I think the reason women are drawn to M/M stories is because that, when they are done right, they appeal to common issues people have: love, hope, desire. M/M is just a variation on a theme, and perhaps, a compelling variation.

8. What sort of books do you prefer to read in your own time?


I read mostly fiction, with occasional forays into non-fiction (mostly true crime or histories of disasters--am I cheery or what?). I mentioned some of my favorite authors above, but I do enjoy a good mystery and am even discovering some aspects of science fiction that I like, a genre I never thought I'd enjoy.

9. When you branched out from your usual fare with High Risk, were your publishers and fans receptive?


HIGH RISK is, if I may say so, a thrill ride of a story (I've had more than one person tell me they stayed up all night to finish it or had to read it in one sitting). So I would say that, in general, my publisher and my readers have been receptive. No one has complained about the characters' straight orientation. As I said, I think a good story appeals to anyone, regardless of gender or orientation.

10. Can you please tell me a little about your writing life? Do you write at specific times? Do you commit to a certain number of pages per day?


When I'm writing a novel, I do try to be disciplined about it, because I am my own boss (unlike I am my own wife, which is a whole 'nother story). I usually write first thing in the morning because I am very much a morning person. I usually give myself a goal of 1,000 words per day. It's an easily attainable goal for me and I often write more than that. But on the other hand, if I only write 1,000 words or a little less, I don't beat myself up too badly...and when I do beat myself up badly, I always steer clear of the face.


11. (Laughing) Dead End Street, your new book coming in October looks very, very dark. Do you spook yourself when you are writing? As a reader, your books are harrowing...what do you put yourself through to write them?

Dead End Street is a young adult novel, so while it is horror, in many ways is less dark than my other books. It's the story of five misfit kids who discover an abandoned house in their small town where a family was murdered years ago (and the son went missing) and decide to tell ghost stories in the house over the course of several weeks. Only the house is NOT as abandoned as they might think...and that's where the terror comes in. I can't really say I spook myself. I do get caught up in my characters and what's happening with them, yet I don't have to keep telling myself "it's only a book." I'm the little man behind the curtain...and I know all secrets of what will scare my readers, so I protect myself in that way.

12. You have a prolific output. Do you work on more than one book at a time?

There's no way I could write more than one book at a time! I have a hard enough time keeping everything straight in one book at a time. I just look prolific because 2007 and 2008 have been good years for me getting published. It doesn't necessarily mean everything was written from scratch in that time frame.

13. What are you working on next?

I am contracted to write two ebooks (novellas) for my publisher and need to get those done. One will be a homoerotic take on a very popular fairy tale and the other will be a coming out story about a married, closeted man. After that, I want to write a new full-length novel and will either do a sequel to IM or a new story that's been dancing around in my head about a gay couple, a murder, and a haunted condominium.

14. A haunted condo? I love it! You have been described as the Stephen King of gay horror. As such, I have to ask you, what does your muse look like? He says his muse is an ugly, chubby guy with a beard. What about yours?

I'm afraid I'm more prosaic. I just look in the mirror. He's a tough muse and he's getting old.

15. What are the two things you love most about Lily? And how does she feel about your books?

Lily is, of course, my Boston Terrier. I love the way she snorts like a pig and how she loves to cuddle with my partner and I at night when we all go to bed. She thinks my books are potboilers and not worth the paper they're printed on. But what does she know? She's a dog.

16. You say on your website that you suffered numerous head traumas. Is this true? And if so, what happened and has this influenced the 'twisted' elements in your work?

Yes, it is true. If I shaved my head, I'm afraid it wouldn't be a pretty; it would be a mass of scars from stitches and concussions. What happened: bike riding accidents (as both an adult and a child), a sledding accident where I knocked a STOP sign out of the ground with my head, being hit by a car, falling over the banister in my parents' house and landing on my head, hitting my head on the edge of a coffee table. What else? That's all I can remember. Those injuries probably explain a lot...more than just my twisted stories!

17. You and your partner are allowed to invite anybody to dinner – but they must be dead and/or fictional. Who would you invite and what’s on the menu?

If they’re dead, that would be kind of gross, wouldn’t it? At least I wouldn’t have to worry about what to serve them. I guess the first fictional character that popped into my head was Ignatius O’Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces. He would have bad manners and would complain loudly about whatever I served, but he would make me laugh, and that goes a long way in my book. I suppose, befitting his home town, I would cook him up a mess of red beans and rice with a nice big ham hock and some corn muffins. And we’d have to have lots of beer…and maybe some crayfish…and shrimps.

18. One final question. I just made you God for a day. Quick, you get to change one thing about the world. What will it be?

I’d give the Republicans the same things the Tin Man and the Scarecrow were missing.


On behalf of Dark Divas Reviews, I want to thank Rick for his time and his awesome answers.


Find out more about Rick R. Reed at his website: http://www.rickrreed.com/

and visit his myspace page at www.myspace.com/rickrreed