She Never Slept Interviews Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale!

Hello Ghouls and Boils,

This has been an exciting week at She Never Slept. Thanks to everyone who attended our 100th Post spooktacular event and thanks again to Andrew Leman and Sean Branney for a wonderful interview. SNS is excited to see the HPLHS version of The Whisperer in Darkness. If you missed the live show, don’t fret! We have an archived version available. Before the week is out we will have new terrorific reviews from our minions Joe Pettit Jr. and Lee Clark Zumpe! Stay tuned! Today I am thrilled to bring you a phantastic interview with the legendary Joe R. Lansdale. An American Author and martial arts expert, Joe has been writing and publishing stories in the western, horror, mystery, and suspense genres for 30 years know. We are truly honored to have him with us. Thanks again, Joe! Ok, enough babbling… time to get to the ghoulishly good gab! Enjoy, my fiends!

Abstrusely,
Sarah L. Covert

SNS: Hello Mr. Lansdale, thanks so much for coming by and chatting with us. I am sure we will have a terrorific time! On a personal note, I just want to tell you this means a good deal to me. I am a big fan of your work. When I first picked up a book of yours I was stunned by your style and voice… I believe my exact words were, “Wow, that man can turn a phrase!” I was hooked and immediately started buying everything I could find. Needless to say… I am thrilled to have the opportunity to interview yet another hero of mine. So, welcome to She Never Slept… make yourself at home… we don’t bite (unless you ask us to!).

Joe R. Lansdale: Thanks. I’m glad to be here, glad to answer questions, and thank you for your kind words.

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SNS: As regular readers of She Never Slept know – my love for Science Fiction, Strange Tales and Horror was born at the drive-in when I was very young. Where did your interest for the bizarre and horrific begin?

Joe R. Lansdale: I think it was my mother. She gave me Poe early on, and I was also attracted to comic books, which contained S.F., Fantasy, Crime, Horror, Western, and more, and sometimes all in the same comic. Later it was movies and books. I love drive-in movies, but their impact for me came a little later. I was originally – from a film stand point, attracted to horror by UNIVERSAL FILMS, and then the Roger Corman low budget films, films of that nature. Also, films like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, the black and white original, FORBIDDEN PLANET, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, INVADERS FROM MARS, and so on. I loved that stuff, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So for me, all of this sort of rolled together.

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SNS: A little raven tells me you are a bit a Philip José Farmer buff. (Ok, so it was Henry – my husband. He met you at FarmerCon a while back.) Do you feel Farmer has been an influence on your own work?

Joe R. Lansdale: Farmer hit me hard in the seventies, and it probably changed the course of a lot of my work. I once told Phil that because of him, dang it, I became a cult writer. I didn’t want to be, but his work hit me so hard, and was so outré, at its best, that it influenced a lot of things I’ve written. Like him, I read Jung, Freud, and other in the mind game business, and they influenced as well. Sex, scatalogical references, audacity, all things that I got from Phil. Phil also loved modern literature, Victorian literature, and pulp and so on. I felt a kinship with his best work. A FEAST UNKNOWN was particularly a big influence, as were, in an odd way, his two “non-fiction” biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage. His short stories were a tremendous influence. Especially things like “The Alley Man“, “The Jungle Rot Kid On The Nod,” my favorite Farmer piece, and so on. I was glad I met him a few times and exchanged a few letters. I admired him a lot. 

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SNS: Your novella, Bubba Ho-Tep, was made into a movie in 2002. It has become quite the cult hit. Are you happy with the way your book was translated to film?

Joe R. Lansdale: I am very happy with the translation to film. Don did a wonderful job putting it together. Loved Bruce and Ossie‘s performances. They were good. I actually believe Bruce showed a depth of acting chops other people didn’t know he had. He was outstanding.

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SNS: Speaking of movies… Internet buzz is you are looking at another feature film based on your work. Is there anything you can tell us about Mister Weed-Eater?

Joe R. Lansdale: MISTER WEEDEATER still dangles in the wind. We need financing.

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SNS: I loved your book, Dead in the West. (We gave them as prizes one year when I worked for Zompire: The Undead Film Festival.) It’s a wonderful melding of the horror and western genres. Reverend Jebediah Mercer, the main character, is a force to be reckoned with. Did you find it easy to mix zombies with the Old West?

When I discussed the book with my husband (of course I made him read it!), he asked if you might be a Larry McMurtry fan. Jeb reminded him a lot of a character named Jim Snow from Sin-Killer. Of course, I had no way of knowing the answer to that then… but now that I have you here… Do you find the works of McMurtry (and other authors of his ilk) to be influential in your writing?

Joe R. Lansdale: I find it a natural blend for me. I loved Weird Western films, and Weird turns in comics. They were the influence.

I read and like a lot of McMurtry, but DEAD IN THE WEST was written in 1980 and appeared in serialized form in 1985, and then novel form in 1986, so it wasn’t an influence. And oddly, I don’t like the Sin Killer books. Read one, and haven’t read any of the others. He wrote one of my top ten favorite novels, however, and a book I believe, like HUCKLEBERRY FINN, is a Great American Novel, LONESOME DOVE. I also love THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, and HUD (HORSEMAN PASS BY). I like McMurtry, but don’t know how influential he is. Some, most likely. I seem to be starting to move in those kinds of directions. I’m ready to move on to different things. I’ve been winding up some pulp books for fun, and then I may leave that behind for good, but then again, I never say never.

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SNS: Here, at She Never Slept, we are champions of the short story. You have published many short stories in magazines, anthologies and other collections. What is it about the short story you find appealing?

Joe R. Lansdale: I prefer the short story to all other forms of writing. I feel a freedom with the short story that I don’t get in any other form. I love novels, however, and really enjoy writing them and wouldn’t want to not write them. I also enjoy the other forms, plays, screenplays, poetry, essays, all kinds of non-fiction, but to a lesser degree. (SNS Terrorific Tip: Read free short stories by Joe R. Lansdale >>here<<)

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SNS: A friend of mine asked me to describe your writing style and I said: “If H.P. Lovecraft and Mark Twain came up with some bizarre way to create an offspring, that child would write like Joe R. Lansdale.” How would you explain your work to someone who hasn’t read it yet?

Joe R. Lansdale: My work varies a lot, but there is to some extent, a consistent tone. I don’t know. Twain is a big influence; Flannery O’Connor is as well, and Bradbury, Hemingway, Robert Bloch, William Goldman, James Cain, Raymond Chandler, so many writers. I guess it certainly has gothic roots. Some reviewer once said that I had a science fiction heart, even though I don’t write much science fiction. I knew exactly what the reviewer meant, and I agree.

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SNS: There are so many oh-so bad – yet still very good – Horror and Science Fiction films from the heyday of the drive-in. What is your favorite B-Movie?

Joe R. Lansdale: It depends on what day you ask me. And it depends on what a B movie is. Casablanca was considered a B movie, and I’d probably pick it as my favorite B movie. I like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS a lot as well. It was a B movie.

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SNS: Many of your stories take place in Texas. Is this a case of write what you know – or do you find Texas to be just a naturally creepy place?

Joe R. Lansdale: The answer is a little of both.

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SNS: Mr. Multi-Talented – you also write comic books! (Jonah Hex, The Lone Ranger, Conan and more) Comic writing is a very different type of storytelling. Did you find it difficult to adjust to writing comic scripts?

 

Joe R. Lansdale: No. I usually take a day to shift gears, and them I’m into it. I grew up loving so many different things I’ve always been able to write in other forms pretty well. Recently I’ve published some poetry even, which is certainly my weakest link, but I’ve enjoyed writing it.

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SNS: If you could give one important piece of wisdom to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Joe R. Lansdale: Put your ass in a chair and write, and read. And don’t give me this stuff about how you only read non-fiction now. Quit reading whatever it is you read in fiction, and branch out to other fiction writers, of all ilks that are good at what they do. I love non-fiction too, but if you’re going to write fiction, read fiction. Read the classic writers and novels. Orwell, Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Poe, Kipling, read classic novels like LORD OF THE FLIES, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST, and the list goes on.

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SNS: Do you have any upcoming projects, news or sarcastic comments to share with our readers?

Joe R. Lansdale: Next year, forthcoming from KNOPF is DEVIL RED, the latest Hap and Leonard novel. This year I have THE COMPLETE DRIVE IN coming out, with all three Drive In books. BY BIZARRE HANDS RIDES AGAIN, which is a limited of the original with two new stories, and one rarer story that has only be printed once, I think. And so on and so on.

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Find Joe on the web:

Joe R. Lansdale’s Official Website

Joe R. Lansdale’s Blog

Joe R. Lansdale Group (Facebook)

Joe R. Lansdale Fanpage (Facebook)