A Writer's Tale (3 page)

Sept. 13 A full, two-page ad for
The Cellar
appeared in
Publishers Weekly.

Sept. 22 Jay Garon informed me of “strong movie interest” in
The Cellar.
(Nothing came of this.)

Oct. 6-7 I attended a Bouchercon in Culver City, and recall playing a lot of poker with Bill Pronzini.

Oct. 22
The Cellar
was bought by New English Library for $24,000.

Oct. 23 I resigned my position as librarian at John Adams Junior High School in Santa Monica. The resignation would become effective January 31, 1980.

Dec. 4 I mailed the manuscript of my novel,
The Woods Are Dark,
to Jay Garon.

1980

January
The Cellar was
published by Warner Books!

Feb. 7 At the old, dark house of our close friends, Chris and Dick Boyanski in Clayton, New York, we fooled around with a Ouija board and it seemed to give us coherent messages. This incident eventually led to my Ouija board novel,
Darkness, Tell Us.

Feb. 13 In New York City, Ann and I had lunch with my Warner Books editor, John Kinney. Then we went to dinner at York, and Jay Garon’s party.

Feb. 14 We had lunch with Jay Garon at Sardi’s. That evening, we had dinner with our friends Bill and Marie Chambers.

April 1 I sent a revised version of
The Woods Are Dark
to Jay Garon.

June 1 We went to a poolside party thrown by Harold Moskovitz, my new film agent and Garon’s protege. (He never sold anything for me.)

July 7 My novel,
The Woods Are Dark,
was accepted by Warner Books.

July 29 I mailed my finished novel,
Out Are the Lights,
to Jay Garon.

Aug. 12 I mailed the manuscript of my second young adult novel,
Nightmare Lake,
to Jay Garon.

Aug. 16 Back in upstate New York, we drove up to Gananoque, Canada. There, we went into a memorable House of Horrors that inspired quite a lot of my material, but especially some of the ideas I used in the final sequence of
Funland.

Nov. 14 I went to my first and last P.E.N. meeting. The folks at P.E.N. seemed largely stuffy, self-important and pretentious.

Nov. 21 The Pink Tea meeting was held at Gary Brandner’s house. He invited Dean and Gerda Koontz. I had never read any of Dean’s books, but I’d recently read
Funhouse
by Owen West, so I was impressed to meet him. I blurted,
“You’re Owen West!!!”
He admitted to a fondness for
The Cellar,
and we started a friendship that has continued to this day.

Dec. 20 Though Ann had to stay home because we couldn’t find a babysitter for Kelly, this was our first invitation to Dean and Gerda Koontz’ house. I couldn’t bring myself to miss the opportunity, so I went alone.

1981

Jan. 13 I received an advance for
Out Are the Lights
from Warner Books.

Jan. 15 I finished writing
Allhallow’s Eve.

Jan. 16
The Woods Are Dark
was bought by New English Library.

Feb. 24 I mailed the manuscript of my novel,
Allhallow’s
Eve,
to Jay Garon. It was supposed to be book three of my three-book contract with Warner Books. But it was rejected.

March I worked on screenplays for
The Cellar
and
The Woods Are Dark.
(Nothing has come of them, so far.)

March 13 I began writing my invisible man novel,
Beware!

April 2 I mailed the finished two screenplays, plus the manuscript of my novel,
The Hag
to Jay Garon.
(The Hag
was a revision of
Dead Corset)

In my letter, I told Garon about a new idea. “This is a horror story that is not occult or supernatural. It also, I think, has great series potential. The protagonist is an agent of a small, secret government department that investigates and “deals with” SPECIAL OCCURRENCES reports of such matters as alien sightings, ghosts, satanist activities, or other strange circumstances that would not fall within the bailiwick of normal law enforcement activities.” (Golly, sounds a bit like
The X-Files.)
April 28 - May 5 Ann and I traveled to New York City for the production of the play,
Ah, Men.
Its producer, my agent Jay Garon, had talked me into investing in it. Nobody told us that the opening date had been changed, so Ann and I showed up a week early and missed it. We got to see a rehearsal, though.

June 9 I received the contract from New English Library for
Out Are the Lights.

June 19 Finished the first draft of
Beware!

June 25 Mailed
Beware!
to Jay Garon. This was supposed to be the third book of my three book contract with Warner Books. But it was rejected.

June
27
I began making notes for a sequel to
The Cellar.

July 14 I received the contract for
The Lawmen,
to be written under the pseudonym Lee Davis Willoughby. I started working on
The Lawmen,
postponing work on my sequel to
The Cellar.

July 30 In a letter to Jay Garon, Warner Books editor-in-chief Bernard Shir-Cliff rejected
Allhallow’s Eve, Secret Nights,
and
Beware!
In regard to
Secret Nights,
a reader report stated, “The incestuous twist in Roger’s parentage as well as his secret attic con-finement is too blatantly a rip-off of
Flowers in the Attic.”
This really annoyed me. I hadn’t “ripped off” that book or even read it. The report on
Beware?
stated, “Laymon only succeeds in creating an uneven mish-mosh with occasional moments of sex and sadism to try to hold the reader’s interest.” She also wrote, “Why invisibility? Why not back from the dead or something along the Shadow’s line where the subject has the “ability to cloud other people’s minds.” Why not, indeed?

Aug. 3-5 I wrote my short story, “The Grab.”

Aug. 14 I started working on my secret project about people being marooned on a tropical island between California and Hawaii.
(There isn’t an island out there!)
The project was instigated by a couple of film guys. They had an elaborate plan to make the book into a huge bestseller and blockbuster film. I was to ghostwrite the book and keep mum about my participation in it. Unfortunately, their detailed plot outline was pretty much ludicrous and they refused to let me fix it very much. I ended up wasting a lot of time on the project, but I did get paid at various stages. For the purposes of this chronology, I will refer to said project as
Hollywood Goons.

Aug. 15 I dabbled with the outline of a wishes book.” I wish I could remember what that was about.

Aug. 17 I worked on the outline of a novel called
Servant.

Sept. 1 Having given up on trying to revise
Beware!
for Warner Books, I mailed the outline of a completely new novel to Jay Garon
Dark Sacrifice.

Sept. 2 My short story, “The Grab,” was bought by
Gallery magazine.

Sept. 29 My short story, “The Champion,” (which had appeared in the 1980 anthology,
Modern Masters of Horror)
was optioned by Universal for the television series,
Dark Room.
The show, with James Coburn as the M.C., would be cancelled before it could film my story.

Oct. 24 Dean and Gerda Koontz came over to the house for dinner for the first time.

Nov. 2 I had dinner at the restaurant, Joe Allen’s, with one of the primary guys behind
Hollywood Goons.
A fictional version of the restaurant would show up in
Night Show,
when Tony rushes at people dining at a patio table. So something good came out of a lousy situation.

Nov. 13 I spoke to a writers’ group at Orange Coast College.

Nov. 16 I wrote a desperate letter to Jay Garon about the possibility of abandoning the disastrous
Hollywood Goons
project. He advised me to stick with it.

Dec. 18 I started making notes for a novel called,
Chill Master,
later to be known as
Night Show.

1982

Jan. 3 I finished
Beware!
revisions that I’d started in November, 1981.

Jan. 11 My outline for
Hollywood Goons
was accepted.

Jan. & Feb. Most of both months were spent working alternately on
Hollywood Goons and Chill Master (Night Show).

March Ann and I left Kelly with my parents in Modesto, and we spent a week in Hawaii with our friends, Frank and Loretta Beard. After returning, we stayed a
few
days in Modesto. Then we got home and I devoted all my writing time to
Hollywood Goons.

March 26 My three book contract with Warner Books, which included
The Woods Are Dark
and
Out Are the Lights,
was terminated with extreme prejudice.

April 22 I mailed a revised version of
Beware!
to Jay Garon. April 30 The first draft of
Chill Master was
finished.

May 10 I changed the title of
Chill Master
to
Night Show
and mailed the manuscript to Jay Garon.

May 19 I delivered outlines of
Out Are the Lights
and
Night Show
to film producer/director Andrew Fenady for possible film development. (Nothing ever happened.)

June 3-12 I worked briefly on a possible novel about Edgar Allan Poe, but never got very far.

June 15 I started a novel with the working title,
Curse,
which I later called
Tread Softly.
The book was also eventually called
Dark Mountain
in the Headline edition. After working on it for a week, I went back to work on
Hollywood Goons.

June 6 A momentous date! I finished the first draft of
Hollywood Goons!
But alas, it was not to be accepted or ever published.

July 16 I returned to work on
Curse.

July 30 I mailed the manuscript for a short-short story, “Tiny,” to
Gallery
magazine. It was rejected.

Aug. 2 I mailed the short story, “Bedtime Stories” (the “Hairy Hand” story) to
Twilight Zone
magazine. It was rejected.

Aug. 4 I mailed the short story, “Opening Night,” to
Playboy
magazine. Also mailed the short story, “Pick Up” to
Woman’s World.
Both stories were rejected.

Aug. 5 I started work on a novel with the working title,
The Dump,
which I ‘was trying to write in collaboration ‘with the mystery writer, Robert Colby.

Aug. 10 My young adult horror manuscript,
Nightmare Lake,
was bought by Dell. It would be published as part of the
Twilight
series under the pseudonym, Carl Laymon.

Oct. 12 I wrote a letter to Jay Garon informing him that I’d happened upon a paperback version of
Modern Masters of Horror.
Though it contained my story, “The Champion,” I’d never received payment for any paperback version. Was this a foreshadowing of things to come?

Sept. & October Throughout these months, I divided most of my time between
The Dump
and
Curse.
Toward the end of October, however, I got dragged back into
Hollywood Goons
for some major revisions.

Nov. Mostly, I worked on
The Dump
and
Curse,

Dec. 4 After doing my final work on
The Dump,
I quit the project.

Dec. I worked the rest of the month on
Curse.

Jan. 27 I finished writing the first draft of
Curse.

Jan. 29 New English Library bought
Beware!
and
Night Show.

Jan. 31 I started work (again) on my sequel to
The Cellar,
which I was calling
Cellar E.

Feb. 1 I changed the title of
Curse
to
Tread Softly with Care.
Feb. 4 I mailed
Tread Softly with Care
to Jay Garon.

Feb. 9 I had a meeting with Lynn Rudman about William Morris interest in film version of
Out Are the Lights.
(Nothing ever came of it.)

March 10 I mailed a revision of
Tread Softly
to Garon.

March 18 Mailed a
Hollywood Goons
revision to Garon.

March 22 My short story, “A Place Called Joe’s,” was accepted by Mel Cebulash, publisher of the “Fastbacks” at Pitman Learning.

March 29 My short story, “Cardiac Arrest,” was accepted by Mel Cebulash.

April 14 My short story, “Dawson’s City,” was bought by Mel Cebulash.

May Mostly spent working on
Cellar II.

May 6 My major revision of
Hollywood Goons
‘was rejected by the Hollywood goons.

May 16 My short story, “Intruder,” was bought by Mel Cebulash. June Nearly all month was spent working on
Cellar II.

June 28 I mailed short story, “Chopper,” to Mel. It was later rejected.

July 8 My short story, “Night Ride,” was bought by Mel. July 27 My short story, “Live Bait,” was bought by Mel.

Aug. 9 Ann and I started collaborating on a non-fiction satirical book about auto driving
Driving Me Nuts.

Aug. 11 I sent letters to Aaron Priest; Paul R. Reynolds Inc.; Knox Berger Associates; Bill Berger Associates; and Michael Larsen/ Elizabeth Pomada. I explained that I was looking for a new literary agent to handle my work, and told them about my background.

For one reason or another, I would end up staying with Jay Garon for another two years.