Dustin LaValley Interview, pt 1 of 3: One Writer's Beginnings

You're "from the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York." How do you see that area? How has it shaped you as a writer? 

It's beautiful. Warm days you have trails to hike and cliffs to jump from and winter brings plenty of snow. No other place I'd rather live. I've written novels on benches on the boardwalk at the lake on summer nights when the strip, a tourist attraction, is alive with big city folk and I've written on the side of a cliff beside waterfalls miles from any city. I use the location for almost all of my work, the atmosphere and feel of the area, the tone of the people. 

When did you first start writing? 

College. I've always had that urge to create, though it wasn't until college that I began finding that the English writing assignments were taking up my time because I found pleasure in them. From those assignments I began experimenting and it took.  

What's the story of your first sale? first book? first screenplay? 

My first story sold was to an anthology titled Sick. I had been reading the online magazine The Dream People for some time and decided to submit a story. It was rejected for TDP but the editor mentioned it was a good fit for the anthology and of course I agreed.  

You're also "a national kumite champion and retired Sensei of Shito Ryu karate, Judo and jujutsu having had civilian contracts with several government agencies and military units in hand-to-hand and situational combat." As an expert in combat, does it drive the violence in your fiction, or is it a fascination with violence that drove you into your expertise? 

It sure does. For The Deceived I used some empty-hand techniques, locks and submissions that I was taught as a student and eventually helped teach to law enforcement. Coming from that background I have always had a problem with fight scenes in movies and books. Too unrealistic. I like it simple and quick, effective with muscle memory driving the body to the situation. In my fight scenes I like to keep that in mind and keep them short and effective to the story, used as drive instead of fluff. 

You said, "the most defining factor [that inspired you to write] was my experience with chronic illness, surgery and hospitalization." What can you tell us about that? 



In my late teens I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, at 23 I became very ill and was hospitalized and required surgery. They removed my large intestine in order to keep me alive. During that time period of about 10 months in the hospital I began writing for more than myself, began to take it seriously. 

Dustin LaValley Interview, pt 2 of 3: Movies and Music

What can you tell us about the experience of seeing your short story turned into a short film, Party Girl? What was its reception like? 

It was fantastic. Very exciting. Jay is a thorough guy and likes to have every detail down before shooting, and when shooting he likes to allow the moment to take the film somewhere he never thought of. After my visit they did a few pick up shots and post began, after I okayed the final edit it went to film festivals and did a nice run. I was able to see it at two festivals with the audience and when it's over and they're clapping it's the best reward. 

[This next question contains spoilers for the film. It's short. Look it up on Youtube, assuming you're 18. It's graphic probably R-rated or so.] What makes Party Girl fascinating is that while it centers on the girl, it may not be about the girl as the surprise ending reveals the narrator is the primary criminal. Did you mean for this to be a potential unreliable narrator, expressing his own guilt for his crime? or is it simply vengeance tale, the baddies of the world finally get theirs (although it might be difficult to target such criminals)? What came first: the plot or the perspective? 

I never had any deep meaning for Party Girl, nothing hidden. Just a fun, gory revenge story. When it became a film some things had to be changed and it became a lot more violent and personal with each victim for Party Girl herself. When Candace Porter starting preparing for the role that's when things got deep. Same for Tom Young who played the narrator. They studied and walked in the character's shoes as much as possible and when we were filming it truly felt like I was watching strangers. There is no rape scene in the original story, it's hinted at. For the film both Candace and Tom came to me with the idea of showing it to help the viewers get into the mind of the victim turn vigilante. When time came to shoot that scene, I had to leave the room they were so convincing. Perspective came first, through talks and exchanges with friends who had gone through such horrible things. I wanted to make that fantasy of deadly revenge reality the only way I could without life in prison. 

Will you be doing more in film? Any projections on the horizon? 

I have a few in pre-production, two short films and a feature. Two haven't been announced yet but Human Wreckage, a film being directed by Tom Young will be shot in the Dallas/Irving, Texas area in April, 2014 and stars Ezra Buzzington (Fight Club, The Artist, Crossbones) and Meredith Monroe (Dawson's Creek, Criminal Minds).  

You said, "Screenplays are stick figures, comic scripts are very similar and it’s easy to play hangman with those stick figures." Are these hampers on creativity? Will you still try to work in these areas, pushing the genres? 

I see screenplays and comic scripts as sort of fleshless novels. I've had to learn to keep things simple and bare while at the same time giving the best imagery as possible to get the producer or director's mind into the story. By far I prefer the beauty of a novel or novella, the freedom of writing in that format rather than scripts. I don't find writing scripts to be fun and that's what it's all about, enjoying what you do.  

Music, in particular metal, figure heavily into your work according to this quote "The hardcore and metal scene that I’ve embraced since a pre-teen has always been part of my creative life and it’s a major role. When I write I’m listening to something that fits the atmosphere of the story or, writing something that fits the mood of the music." So do you tend to write to the music or vice versa: pick music that fits what you're trying to do? Can you give an example? Do certain works have their own playlist? 

Depending on the scene I have a few playlists I focus on. Melodic doom metal for instance, that's usually playing when I'm writing. Most the time bands like Isis or Truckfighters. If I'm listening to something fast and heavy like hardcore or thrash, say, Trash Talk or Ceremony, I'm most likely writing a scene that requires an extra oomph of adrenaline like a fight or sex or a chase scene.

Dustin LaValley Interview, pt 3 of 3: The Field and Style

What kind of writer you see yourself? gritty realistic? horror? something else?  

I've seen a lot of different labels connected to my work but I don't have any that I use. If I had to call it something... dark.  


What draws to this sort of writing? 

Observations of the world. Being drawn and fascinated to the darker side of human nature. 



You wrote, " I prefer to challenge the norms of the genre(s). The formula is outdated and needs some new blood and breath. The format needs to be updated to meet today’s demanding reader as well, and that is what I try and accomplish." Later, "[W]e need to push on, push norms, create new formulas and the next era of authors will bring that." What are some boundaries, norms, formulas you are trying push at? Who else do see plowing and sowing these fields? 

The small press is doing a fine job at bringing new life to the genre(s). There are a few that are in the same stance that brought down imprints of major trade houses but for the most part things are starting to be more active. It became pretty rough a few years back when nothing was being challenged outside of a few sub-genres. The same authors were writing the same book over and over and readers gave up, they moved on and only now are they coming back because there are some authors who learned that you must challenge the reader for them to spend money, invest time. If you give them the same formula in every book readers are going to leave. Authors like Ronald Malfi and Max Booth III, Michael Bailey, they're doing things different with grace and beauty and I love it. Sometimes it's not the words but how the words are placed and the punctuation that tells the story.  

You listed the following books as favorites: "Junky by William Burroughs, East Bay Grease by Eric Miles Williamson, Funland by Richard Laymon, The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, and Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti." Could you tell us what you took away from them? 

Inspiration. Each book, each author has their unique, identifiable own voice and moving from one to the next is refreshing. Houdini I've always admired and wanted to learn as much about him as possible. The Secret Life of Houdini is the most informative and entertaining book on the man I've come upon. 

You have strong opinions about "becom[ing] your own writer." Do you recommend workshops or no? 

I see it like martial arts. Learn the basics from the masters and then make them your own, form them to your own style and don't be a carbon copy. I think workshops are fine, many authors I read have done so.  

How do your collaborations work? What's your process? What's it like collaborating with John Edward Lawson? 

Oh, how I do love collaborations. When you find a few authors who are likeminded and when you have that free time, nothing is more fun than getting together and doing something just for the fun of rolling off and building off one another. With John, we would send one another a piece by email and every time we did the other was pushed to up the return. We did a piece for a convention that was written in the hotel room the night before solely for our author reading the next day. It was purely for shits and giggles and resulted in a standing ovation.  

What is a recent work or writer you've read that particularly impressed you? Why? 

Patrick McGrath. His 1997 debut novel The Grotesque was a recent used book store find. His words flow effortlessly in a beautifully dark, fine art sort of style.  

Where do you see the future of horror (or your own style) going? 

I see horror jumping back into play in the next few years, working back up to where it was before we had our fall some time before the major trade houses gave up their horror lines. The small press is growing and becoming easier to find for those who are looking. 

Slow Down + Blog Assessment + Writer Interviews + Posts You May Have Missed

Slow Down

Too many posts consume time. I must slow down. I have stories to write and submit, so enjoy what's here.

Blog Assessment

The last assessment was in December of 2012. I've been at this since Dec 2009--a little over four years (although I also blogged at s1ngularity:criticism and Mundane SF blogs before this). With nearly a thousand posts, that's about two posts for every three days. When I get bogged down at school, I post less frequently.

For two and half years, page visits have grown ten percent or so per month, which amounts to a twenty-fold increase. The per post view-rate has grown since last year from 35 to 55 or so, not quite a sixty percent increase. This is more dramatic when you consider the early posts with few hits are factored in (the hits were probably my mama who accidentally hit the refresh button a few times.

A year ago, one post--"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid--outstripped all other posts and accounted for ten percent of the traffic (it's now five). I guess it's a good one. Fifty to a hundred folks stop by each month to take a look. Trent Zelazny's interview posts may have been the only posts that overtook her monthly lead.

Interesting to see which classic stories people are still fascinated by. Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic Gods" and "Thunder and Roses" have drawn hundreds of readers in less than a year, but the other Sturgeon stories only about two dozen each.  I'll  be interested to see which stories of the big three--Arthur C. Clarle's, Isaac Asimov's and Robert Heinlein's--people are still fascinated by.  William Gibson and Ursula K. LeGuin drew less attention than I would have supposed although I need to do more or theirs..

In retrospect, part of the blog's growth was not only the quantity of posts but also the quality of their presentation. I changed presentation when I reviewed and interviewed. Take note if you blog.

Popular posts can be viewed on the right.

Writer Interviews

On file are the following:

1. Loralee Leavitt
2. Christopher Barzak
3. Trent Zelazny
4. Kenneth W. Cain
5. I have upcoming interviews with G.O. Clark and Dustin Lavalley.

Posts You May Have Missed

These are posts I thought there might be more interest than they've received: 

1. A Scene-by-Scene Analysis of the Movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey*
2. Analysis of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott*
3. A number of James Patrick Kelly posts--one of the best writers of speculative fiction in the 90s and 00s. I didn't put much time into pretty-fying them, focusing on content. Maybe I'll revise them one day.

* These two might make a nice contrast, treating religion from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Book Review:Odds and Ends: An Assortment of Sorts by Dustin LaValley

Odds and Ends: An Assortment of Sorts 
by Dustin LaValley
free flash fiction collection

"Extraordinary. Hauntingly poignant."--Thomas Ligotti, author of My Work Is Not Yet Done

LaValley got some great blurbs on this collection. It reads as various an opuscule of compositions, of a writer tampering with form, honing craft. Most pontificate on existence, consciousness, reality, life and death.

One effective piece has a young man offer food to his mother staring off in the distance and swipes at him when he draws near. It turns out she's a zombie. Some readers might dismiss this with a musical da-da-da. But this mirrors well what happens in life, for many families. A loved one loses cognizance, reacts aggressively towards loved ones. What can you do?

My favorite is a young boy who crawls behind a washing machine to follow a spider but gets stuck for a day and a night until his father frees him, but he tastes death. Painfully transformative.

Another good one is "A Secret Love"--a lovely or "unlovely"? unreliable narrator that talks about his love that only he and she knew about. He'd follow her home, two blocks behind, and he knew she loved him back by the way she stared at him out the window. Well, apart from the hopefully harmless if creepy stalking, many humans have had such a "love." Condemning the poor befuddled lad condemns the condemner as most of us have loved those who didn't return the love and misinterpreted signals. Poor kid's headed for heartbreak, though. Your mileage may vary, but there's plenty to ponder in so short a tale.

There are some gems here. Why not mine the territory? The field is fertile, sitting there for the picking.

It's also interesting to watch this writer develop. He's written the superb mind-screw with "The Deceived" which is well worth reading.

Reviews of the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

You can find the list at Mike Glyer's File 770: 2013 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

So far I've reviewed the following:

• Fresh Cut Tales: A Collection of Dark Fiction by Kenneth W. Cain

• David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan./Feb. 2013)

• Dustin LaValley – The Deceived (Thunderstorm Books)

• Lisa Mannetti – “The Hunger Artist” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)

• Michael Reaves – “Code 666” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2013)

Free ebooks by Dustin LaValley

Hayseed's Service Station #1 
by Dustin Lavalley (Author), 
Don Kunkel (Illustrator)
comic

Go Ta Sleep 
by Dustin Lavalley (Author), 
Jason Miller (Author), 
Cory Galusha (Illustrator), 
Don Kunkel (Contributor)
short story

Odds and Ends: An Assortment of Sorts 
by Dustin LaValley
flash fiction collection

"Extraordinary. Hauntingly poignant."--Thomas Ligotti, author of My Work Is Not Yet Done

Some stories are read in the video below:

Dustin LaValley interviews and a video reading of a short

Paul Cude

3am Magazine

Decible Magazine

Yahoo Voices

Inveterate Media Junkies

The Deceived by Dustin LaValley

The Deceived by Dustin LaValley

Reading this, I thought this could make a pretty good low-budget Indie film by the new Quentin Tarantino.  And it turns out the author is a screenwriter, which accounts for the dialogue being well executed.

The story opens with a couple, after reading an article about valuable paintings being, thinking they're going waltz in steal them easily. Meanwhile, Miles plays a game of Russian roulette with himself when the couple shows up. They feign car troubles and trying to get help. Miles figures out something's up when he sees the phone cord cut.

Now things get worse. Much worse. For Miles has nothing to lose and he's already done something before the story's started that might make the couple think twice before trying to rob Miles. The author's invention and complication turbo-boosts the reader until he's read the last page.  A great tug of war, between the trio.  Do I recommend reading this? Oh, yes.

While the opening hints at troubles (and the foreshadowing's super cool the second time around--reread the card game), it's a bit low compared to later octane, which isn't to say that this should be high octane the whole ride. Rather, a few scenes could spice up foreshadowing or characters or whatnot.

It isn't clear why the thieves don't act immediately, but for whatever their motives the complex plot is extremely well done.