In Laymon's Terms

Steve Gerlach

T SEEMS SO long ago now, 1996.

Thirteen years ago I started my online journey, a journey that has taken countless hours of my time and effort, been full of frustration and joys, sadness and wonder. I’ve met some terrific people online, and I hold these people to be some of my closest and dearest friends.

Critics said the Internet would cause people to become more reclusive, more solitary. I disagree. The Internet has brought me in touch with some of the dearest people I know. And for that, I thank it.

Still, we’re talking about 1996 here, when this go-get-’em Aussie from Melbourne, Australia decided to buy an X-Files modem, run a phone extension cord from the lounge room, up the hall and to the study, and log in for the first time.

You know that initial “Internet fever” you get when you first log on? There’s so much to see and so many places to visit. You have no idea where to start, or where to stop, and the fever just takes hold.

But my first visit online was also tinged with some sadness. I did the usual searches for everything from JFK ASSASSINATION to KISS, JACK THE RIPPER to HORROR BOOKS, but one search that brought me no results was RICHARD LAYMON OFFICIAL SITE.

I’d been a Laymonite since at least 1988 when I bought my first Laymon, The Woods are Dark. I read it and loved it. I’d grown tired of King and Koontz, with their bloated exposition and flashbacks that took half a novel. What I wanted was lean and mean in-your-face horror, and I got it with Laymon. After The Woods are Dark, I started searching for more by this fabulous writer. Night Show was next, and then The Cellar.

The owner at my local bookstore rolled his eyes every time I came in. I’m sure he was thinking, Here’s that weird Laymon guy again. In fact, I must have been a total pain in the ass. I would visit the bookstore every few weeks, wanting to know if there was any news on the latest Laymon release—there never was—and whether any of his back-ordered titles had arrived.

I can still remember the buzz of joy I received whenever I got a phone call to tell me a new Laymon novel was in. I’d be at the bookstore in no time, picking it up and getting home as soon as possible to start another great Laymon read.

And that’s why I was disappointed when my web search returned no website for Richard Laymon. The supposed “repository of all knowledge” had no information about Richard Laymon, other than a few book reviews here and there (remember, this was before the Amazons of this world made book searching so easy!).

Well, 1996 was during my “black stage” and, so, I had a suitably black answer to this lack of information:

“Well, fuck that!”

And so, my plan was hatched. If there wasn’t a site out there that could tell me all about Richard Laymon, then I’d have to produce one.

And, as they say in the classics, the rest is history.

When I look back on it, I must have had a whole lot of time on my hands. I was just married, with a very understanding wife, but no kids to take up my time. I was working for Australia’s largest daily newspaper, the Herald Sun, as a researcher, and that allowed me time to do a bit of research on my own. It also gave me access to all the phone numbers, fax numbers and addresses I needed.

Let’s face it, if you work the graveyard shift on a week when there’s no big news stories breaking, there’s not a whole lot to do.

So, I started.

And RICHARD LAYMON KILLS! was born.

The site was a simple one to begin with. I took the html code from a friend’s website and adjusted it to what I wanted. At that stage I had very few html code skills, but that was soon to change. In only a week or so, I had scanned the covers of every Laymon work I owned, typed in the back cover blurbs, created a biography of the world’s best horror author, and produced a Latest News page which, quite frankly, had no news in it.

And then, in December 1996, RLK! went live to the world!

Step one was complete.

After the Christmas and New Year festivities, I started 1997 with a promotional campaign. I produced media releases announcing the creation of RLK! and faxed them to various media outlets in Australia. Also included in that contact list was Dick’s publisher, Hodder Headline in Australia and the UK. I also faxed Bob Tanner, Dick’s agent, but I have no idea where I found his address. Damn, I must have been a sharp researcher back then.

I sat back and waited for the response. Almost all sections of the media ignored the release, except, of course, the Herald Sun, which reviewed the website and gave it five stars out of the possible 6. (Proving once again that, in the media, it’s who you know that counts...)

But the faxing wasn’t in vain. Because Hodder Headline quickly contacted me, and Bob Tanner sent a nice note thanking me for taking the time to do the site.

I was over the moon that Hodder Headline both in Australia and the UK welcomed me into the fold with open arms. I couldn’t believe my luck. Suddenly all the news on Richard Laymon was being sent directly to me by his publisher! Release dates, latest news, cover art and blurbs—you name it, I got it. It was a long, long time before I realized what they were getting out of it too: free publicity, and a one-stop email address they could hand out to all those pesky Laymonites just like myself.

RLK! continued to grow quickly. Review pages were added, as were SAME VEIN reviews of other books and authors in the horror field. The RLK! counter began to tick over quicker than ever.

June 1997.

I’ll never forget it.

That was the first time Richard Laymon contacted me. I remember seeing the email from “Larry Dunbar” in my inbox and, for a few seconds at least, it didn’t click as to who Larry Dunbar really was.

I just wish I had that email to reproduce here for you now. Unfortunately, due to a faulty hard drive, that email has long since been wiped. I kick myself each day for not printing it out when I first received it.

Still, I’ll recreate it here for you. It went along the lines of, “Hey Steve, this is Dick Laymon. Just dropping by to say I love the site and thanks for all your work on it. Oh, and by the way, in case you don’t think it’s the real Richard Laymon, I got a copy of your flier from Bob Tanner, my agent. Best, Dick.”

Well, I was stunned. I remember jumping around the room and yelling for my wife to comeherequicklgotanemailfromLaymon! Naturally, I fired back an email straightaway, confident that it was, in fact, the Richard Laymon as he had the inside scoop about the fliers I had faxed.

I learned later that Dick had been inundated with the fliers, as it seems everyone I sent them to—Hodder Headline UK and Australia, Bob Tanner and even Don Cannon Books—had forwarded them on to Dick. So, he ended up with about half a dozen of the things. He must have known then that I was serious!

And so, our friendship started thanks to the Internet. And, over the years, I was lucky to talk with Dick sometimes twice or three times a week, getting the inside scoop on the Laymon world and updating the site accordingly. Dick was even gracious enough to provide a blurb for the site:

“RLK! is really terrific...Everybody I’ve talked to is very impressed...

I’m really excited about RLK!

It’s where I go whenever I need to find out what I’m doing!

Richard Laymon Kills! IS the ultimate website!”

When he agreed to make the site the Official Laymon Site, I couldn’t have been happier.

And that was the most wonderful thing about Dick Laymon. Sure, you’ve probably all heard it before, but this is true. Dick Laymon was one of the kindest people on Earth. He took the time out to email me, sometimes pages-worth, information for the site. Never was a request denied. Never was a question left unanswered. That’s just the kind of guy he was. Always willing to help, always with a kind word and always with a joke or two.

RLK! continued to grow. Somewhere around 1998 we hit 100,000 visitors, a number I never dreamed of reaching. Dick and I were pretty damn proud of that. The address for RLK! was beginning to turn up in Hodder Headline versions of his novels, as well as Cemetery Dance editions in the US, and so more and more Laymonites were getting online and finding out all they ever needed to know about Richard Laymon. Truly, the website was like a small pebble, pushed off a mountainside, that just slowly got bigger and bigger as it continued to roll. And it still is rolling!

Our emails soon moved away from just the world of writing, and started to contain family news and views on world events. Soon, our relationship wasn’t just webmaster and writer, we became friends across the ocean. Even when there was a whisper of a Laymon UK Book Tour, I started scouting locations and ideas for a Laymon Down Under Tour. Sadly, it never happened. In fact, you could say that about a lot of plans and ideas we had. I just wish we’d acted on them sooner. But who was to know?

I built up enough courage in 1999 to ask Dick if he would like to read the novel I had just completed, The Nocturne. He said he’d be honored to, and I quickly shipped off a copy. A few weeks later, Dick emailed me a ten-page email with his comments and ideas. He knew the US better than I did and he suggested I move the location of the novel from Arizona to Washington State. So, I picked up all my characters and moved them north.

He also had a worry that the fire I had burning throughout the novel was just too large to be believed. Soon after, a fire swept through New Mexico that just couldn’t be stopped. It burnt for weeks. He wrote back to me, “Remember the concerns I had about the fire in The Nocturne? Well, forget them. Have you seen the news?”

I’m proud to say I agreed with every other suggestion Dick made and I rewrote a much stronger and sharper novel.

So strong and sharp, that Dick provided a quote for the cover:

“A really fast-paced, grim, exciting, sexy novel.

It’s very gripping, violent, and weird. I really enjoyed it.

The Nocturne is a book that any Laymon fan ought to enjoy.”

Another proud moment of my life thanks to Dick.

And so another year passed and we all survived Y2K, and the Laymon novels just kept coming. We couldn’t have asked for more. Suddenly, the US was starting to notice Richard Laymon, and Cemetery Dance and Leisure Books upped their publishing schedules for Laymon novels. All of a sudden, Dick was receiving the recognition he richly deserved. Of course, the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand had known about Laymon for years, and now the US was starting to catch up.

This turn of events brought with it Richard’s finest hours. Popularity in his own country was soaring, a film of In the Dark was in production and suddenly he was running for—and winning—the Presidency of the Horror Writers Association.

We were all set. It couldn’t get any better than this.

People were saying “Golden Age of Horror” for the first time in years.

RLK!’s news updates got longer and more detailed as Laymon news was flying in from everywhere. It was a busy time for both of us, but Dick still always found the time to sit down and let me know what was up and what was happening. Of course, by this time we had a Laymon Message Board, where fans could leave their thoughts and questions. Dick was always on the board too—always answering and giving writing (and sometimes personal) advice.

I began writing Love Lies Dying around this time. LLD was a book I was dedicating to Dick, and a book he said he was eager to read. I wanted to repay the favor of Dick’s dedication to my wife and I in Come Out Tonight. Who knew when I started my novel that Dick would never read it? That he would never see one word of it? Even as I placed a Laymon in-joke into the novel, and made it a vital part of the story, who knew that Dick would never get to chuckle as he read it? I was so looking forward to his email once he’d read it. But it was not to be.

Love Lies Dying now stands as a tribute to Richard Laymon, not just because of the dedication, but because he is—literally—in it. It’s my finest work, and I owe that to him.

February 15, 2001, is not a day I will forget. Yes, February 15, not 14. Remember, Australia is 15-18 hours AHEAD of the US. So, when I got to work on February 15, 2001, I found my inbox overflowing with emails, all with the same subject heading: Laymon dead?

I thought it was a joke. I guess we all did. It just wasn’t possible. I mean, I’d just talked to him two days earlier.

At that time, the news was unconfirmed and, as far as I was concerned, I had to know...and know NOW. I had to prove this wrong. I mean, it was some joke, right?

I emailed Don Cannon, the only guy I knew who’d have the news. He’d just come home from doing some grocery shopping. He called around. He confirmed it.

The news was true.

And I broke down and cried right there and then. As I would countless times over the next week or so. That’s the effect Dick Laymon had on you. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stop it. But, damn it, I was proud to cry over such a loss. We hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye.

In his last email to me, he was excited about the novel he was working on, Queen of the Sunset Palace, and he was looking forward to continuing his monumental changes to HWA. Everything seemed so normal. Just another day...

But then he was gone.

Way too early. Way too soon.

The hurt and sorrow diminishes, but his shoes will never be filled in the horror community. Dick Laymon was a one-of-a-kind writer and human being. There’s no doubt about that. The outpouring of grief from those who knew him and worked with him was extraordinary and very touching.

And through RLK! his legacy lives on. A legacy I’m sure he’s proud of—as he should be. Laymon readers are also one-of-a-kind. That’s one of the things Dick was most proud of: his fans.

The Laymonite community is large and strong—almost like an army—and that’s one of Dick’s legacies too. The way his fans stick by him and continue to support him and keep his memory and works alive.

That’s the goal of RLK! these days, to help keep Laymon’s works alive for readers old and new. Even now, every week I receive an email from a new Laymon reader. They usually start with, “I’ve just discovered Richard Laymon and I think he’s great. I can’t believe he’s no longer with us.” If I had a dollar...

He may no longer be with us, but he’s still alive within the covers of all his published novels (and also those unpublished novels still to come). And whenever we need to be thrilled and scared, or even to just remember the great writer who was Richard Laymon, we need only turn to our bookshelves and open a Laymon book.

Damn it, we miss you pal. But we’ll never forget.

RLK! will make sure of that.