In Laymon's Terms

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He may no longer be with us, but he’s still alive within the covers of all his published novels (and also those unpublished novels still to come).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.

Don D’Auria

’VE MADE NO secret of the fact that I was a fan of Richard Laymon long before I published any of his titles at Leisure Books. Like so many of his American fans in the early 1990s, I was forced to feed my Laymon habit by importing British editions of his work over the Internet because he was virtually out of print in the States. In fact, I joked to Dick once that the reason Leisure was bringing his books out in the States was simply because it was cheaper for me to publish his books and get my copies that way than to keep paying shipping costs from the UK. Truth is, if there’s one thing I’m proud of from my time at Leisure, it’s that American fans can now walk into bookstores across the country and see up to two dozen Richard Laymon titles on the shelves, more than ever before. If only Dick were here to see it, I like to think he’d be pleased.

But going back to the way things were ten years ago...It was pretty much common knowledge in those days that one of the things that contributed to Dick being out of print in the US was the way he’d been treated by American publishers. He was very open about his feeling that publishers here in the States never really got behind his books, never gave him decent covers or any promotion. I remember in his Stoker Award acceptance speech for The Traveling Vampire Show (which, sadly, Kelly had to deliver posthumously in his place) he mentioned US publishers who published his books “more or less.” In his autobiography, A Writer’s Tale, Dick also recounted painful tales of horrible experiences at the hands of publishers. Simply put, the guy felt burned. He told me later that he just didn’t want to deal with most American publishers anymore, and because his books were doing very well in the UK, he didn’t have to.

Dick’s feelings on the matter were very well known. Definitely a sore spot.

So the first time I met Dick I was a little intimidated and a bit nervous. I was intimidated because this was Richard Laymon. I was nervous because I was exactly what I’d heard Dick Laymon hated: an American editor. I’m not sure, but I think our mutual friend Ed Gorman had put in a good word for me with Dick. In any event, Dick was extremely friendly and didn’t swat me away. In fact, we had a very nice conversation, over a beer, if I recall.