Richard Laymon

Richard Carl Laymon
Occupation	novelist
Genre	Horror
Website
http://www.ains.net.au/~gerlach/rlaymon2.htm

Richard Carl Laymon (January 14, 1947 - February 14, 2001) was an American horror writer. 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. Richard was married to Ann Laymon, and had one daughter, Kelly.

His works include more than sixty short stories and more than thirty novels, many of which were published posthumously in the United States. Most of his writings were firmly in the horror genre. Laymon is somewhat lesser known in North America than elsewhere, as he achieved much of his success in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. 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.

Laymon also published several works under the pseudonym Richard Kelly. Many prominent horror novelists, such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz, are known to have praised Laymon's works. Cemetery Dance Publications is set to release a forthcoming tribute anthology called In Laymon's Terms (edited by Richard's daughter Kelly Laymon, Steve Gerlach, and Richard Chizmar). It features over three dozen contributors and will be released in three different editions. Despite writing over thirty popular horror novels, none of Laymon's stories have ever been filmed by a professional film studio.

He died from a massive heart attack.

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)
• Night Show (1984)
• 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)
• Caller (1985)
• Guts (1985) aka The Hearse
• Cardiac Arrest (1985)
• The Cobra (1985)
• Last Hand (1985)
• Live Bait (1985)
• 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)
• 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

• "A Cigar is a Smoke"
• "A Good, Secret Place"
• "Bad News"
• "Barney's Bigfoot Museum"
• "Blarney"
• "Boo" (first printed in October Dreams)
• "Cabin in the Woods"
• "Choppie"
• "Cut"
• "Desert Pickup"
• "Dinker's Pond"
• "Double Date"
• "Dracusson's Driver"
• "Eats"
• "Finders Keepers"
• "First Date"
• "First Love"
• "Good Vibrations"
• "Hammerhead"
• "Herman"
• "I'm Not A Criminal"
• "Invitation to Murder"
• "Joyce"
• "Kitty Litter"
• "Madman Stan"
• "Mess Hall"
• "Mop Up"
• "Oscar's Audition"
• "Out of the Woods"
• "Phil the Vampire"
• "Pickup on Highway One"
• "Roadside Pickup"
• "Saving Grace"
• "Slit"
• "Special"
• "Spooked"
• "Stickman"
• "Stiff Intruders"
• "The Boy Who Loved the Twilight Zone"
• "The Champion"
• "The Direct Approach"
• "The Diving Girl"
• "The Fur Coat"
• "The Good Deed"
• "The Grab"
• "The Hangman"
• "The Hunt"
• "The Job"
• "The Maiden"
• "The Mask"
• "The Tub"
• "Wishbone"

See also

• List of horror fiction authors
• splatterpunk

External links

• Richard Laymon Kills! Official website
• Bibliography at SciFan
• Richard Laymon bibliography and book ratings at Internet Book List