In Laymon's Terms

Adam Pepper

HEN I JOINED the HWA, the website said, “Chapters active in New York, Chicago, Atlanta...” and I was excited by the prospects. Here I was, living in New York all my life, the literary hotbed of the world, and I hadn’t accomplished a thing. Sure, I’d sold a poem or two, a short here and there. But no one knew Adam Pepper. And just as important, Adam Pepper didn’t know anyone else.

I’ll be honest, when I sent an email to the Internet czar at the time, David Dvorkin, and he told me there was no active New York Chapter, I was annoyed. It was one of the reasons that I joined. But I was ambitious and very motivated to get my name out there, so I started the Chapter on my own. The first meeting I met some good folks, some established, some not. But once Jack Ketchum and Don D’Auria got on board, we were on our way.

After we had Don D’Auria as our guest of honor, I began to feel a little stupid. I wanted to have some T-shirts, or HWA trinkets to give my guests—make things look official. So I wrote to the powers that be. I started with Nancy E., then emailed all the bigwigs.

Richard Laymon wrote me back!

Not only did he promise to send me a bunch of T-shirts, but he signed the email, “Dick.”

I think I shit in my pants. He was so damn sweet. I can remember telling my wife, jumping around the house like a retard. After that, we wrote back and forth a bunch of times. He started writing me! I couldn’t have been more flattered. He’d ask how the meeting went, and even said that I’d inspired him to start an L.A. Chapter. I inspired Dick Laymon?! Clearly something is backwards! But I guess I did. Dick and I planned to meet in Seattle. There was a big fuss over the Stokers not being in New York. But I promised Dick and Alan Beatts I’d do my part to rally the troops. And I brought a pretty good NY contingent with me to Seattle. But as we all know, Dick didn’t make it to Seattle. Sure, I got to meet Ann and Kelly, who I love dearly. But I felt so cheated, never getting to meet the man in person. It still makes me so sad. Although I never got to meet him, I’ll always consider him my friend.