Richard Laymon

Richard Carl Laymon
Born	January 14, 1947(1947-01-14) Chicago, Illinois
Died	February 14, 2001(2001-02-14) (aged 54)
Occupation	novelist
Genres	Horror
www.ains.net.au/~gerlach/rlaymon2.htm

Richard Carl Laymon (January 14, 1947 - February 14, 2001) was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived as a child in California. He received 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. However, despite praise from prominent writers from within the genre, including Stephen King and Dean Koontz, Laymon is little known in his homeland, though he enjoyed greater success in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom. The author largely viewed this as a product of the poorly re-edited and reconstructed first release of The Woods Are Dark, which had over 50 pages removed. The book was released uncut in the UK, and he credited the release with his popularity there. 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. He won this award posthumously in 2001 for The Traveling Vampire Show. Richard Laymon died in 2001, of a massive heart attack and is survived by his wife, Ann, and daughter, Kelly.

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)
• Night Show (1984)
• A Strangers 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)
• 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)

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 (1982)
• A Good, Secret Place (1992)
• Ten Tales (1994) (with Neal Barrett Jr, Wendy Hornsby)
• 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"
• "On the Set of Vampire Night"
• "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"
• "Wishbone"
• "The Worshipper"

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