Their Words Live On

 

(NOTE: This is an expanded version of an article that appeared in my April 2024 newsletter.)

James L. Moore and Weston Ochse

Ray Garton

Recently three great writers and beloved members of the horror community passed away: Weston Ochse, James A. Moore, and Ray Garton. Wes and Jim were both fifty-eight, two years younger than I am, and Ray was sixty-one, one year older. As I age, I feel increasingly like a glacier that periodically loses pieces of itself. I endure, but I feel smaller. The deaths of fellow writers – those I knew personally and those who I knew only through their writing – always hit me hard. I was fortunate enough to sit next to William F. Nolan and Dennis Etchison at a dinner in Las Vegas during the first StokerCon. Bill was in his nineties, and at one point, he said the problem with being his age was that all his family and friends were gone, as were the writers he started out with. I’ve got a while until I hit my nineties (if I make it that far), but I’m starting to feel what Bill was talking about.

Steve Rasnic Tem, Dennis Etchison, some dumbass in a hat, William F. Nolan

 

Several years ago, I wrote a blog entry after horror author Paul Dale Anderson died. In it, I discussed what writers can do to combat the depression that comes with seeing other writers – mentors as well as contemporaries – die. You can read it here: https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2018/12/suns-getting-low.html

Paul Dale Anderson

 I didn’t know Wes and Jim as well as I would’ve liked. I saw both at various conventions over the years and we talked, and we interacted online. Wes and I shared the same agent, and he let me know that I was always welcome to visit him and Von (his wife, Yvonne Navarro) in Tucson. I wish I’d made the time to do so. Only a few months ago, Jim offered out of the blue to blurb my forthcoming short story collection, Old Monsters Never Die. I knew he was struggling with his health, though, so I didn’t take him up on it. (I didn’t want him to expend energy reading my book when he needed all the energy he could muster to heal.)  Now I wish I had, if only so he would’ve known how much a blurb from him would’ve meant to me. I admired and respected Wes and Jim – as writers, as positive presences in the horror community, and as human beings of great strength and grace who continued fighting until the end. I hope I can find even a fraction of their courage when my time comes.

I never met Ray in person, but we interacted online a number of times over the years. I read and enjoyed so many of his books, including the YA horror novels he wrote as Joseph Locke. I dedicated my 2015 YA horror novel Dark Art to him.

 

 

 

When I told him of the dedication via Facebook Messenger (and offered to send him a copy of the book), he wrote back:

 

“Wow, Tim, that is such a huge honor.  Thank you so much.  I CAN'T WAIT to read it!”

 

I was like, Holy shit! Ray Garton thinks my dedication is an honor?

 

Ray was kind enough to contribute a mini-interview to Writing in the Dark: The Workbook. Here it is:

 

 

Ray Garton, author of Live Girls

 

When you write horror fiction—and I suppose the same is true of fantasy and, to a certain extent, some science fiction—you’re writing about things that exist outside of reality, that are not a part of everyday human experience. As I see it, my first job is to make them a part of reality, of everyday human experience. Some will advise you to create the suspension of disbelief in your readers. That’ll work in a pinch, but I prefer to pass suspension and go straight for outright belief, always with varying degrees of success, I suspect. I try to weave the supernatural element so tightly into everyday human experience that the two can’t be separated. That usually involves building up the human part first, and once my characters are established, I insert the supernatural element, whether it’s a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost—whatever it is. By that time, I hope I have engaged the readers and gained their faith, which helps a lot when I add the supernatural stuff. By now, my readers know the characters and are, if I’ve done my job, involved in their lives, and they care about what happens to them. Then I make those characters suffer with the supernatural.

Any story that has a supernatural element needs a set of rules for that element to follow, and those rules must be diligently observed. A supernatural story without those rules is a cheat to the reader, I think, because you’re free to do whatever you want whenever you want to do it, which doesn’t always make sense as a story. You have to slip the rules into the proceedings in a way that doesn’t feel like a list: “You may be a werewolf IF …” followed by several signs of lycanthropy. Insert those rules in a way that the reader doesn’t notice. Yeah, I know, easier said than done. Once they’re in, you must follow them. Setting up rules and then violating them is just as much of a cheat to the readers as having no rules at all. But there’s a narrow sweet spot between the two, and that’s your goal.

 

 

If you’re a writer who’s been contemplating your mortality lately, and you haven’t established an author will yet, I wrote a blog entry about that too: https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-things-we-leave-behind.html

 

Over the last couple years, I’ve noticed younger writers who either have never heard of some of the horror luminaries who are no longer with us, or who’ve never read their work. Writers tend to read their contemporaries as well as writers they’ve made connections with via social media and at various events. It’s only natural. But I urge you not to forget those writers who’ve passed away. Not only can you learn a lot from them, by reading their work, you help keep them alive. Here are links to the bibliographies of the authors I mentioned above:

 

Weston Ochse: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/o/weston-ochse/

 

James A. Moore: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/james-a-moore/

 

Ray Garton: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/ray-garton/

 

William F. Nolan: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/n/william-f-nolan/

 

Dennis Etchison: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/dennis-etchison/

 

Paul Dale Anderson: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/paul-dale-anderson/

 

Following is a list of other horror writers who’ve left us within the last few decades. You can learn about their work on the Fantastic Fiction website, too: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/

 

Every single one of these authors is well worth your time and attention.

 

Robert Aickman

Jonathan Aycliffe

William Peter Blatty

Robert Bloch

Charles Beumont

Ray Bradbury

Gary Brandner

Hugh B. Cave

Basil Copper

Les Daniels

Harlan Ellison

J.F. Gonzalez

Ed Gorman

Charles L. Grant

Rick Hautala

James Herbert

Charlee Jacob

Ruby Jean Jensen

Jack Ketchum

Joel Lane

Richard Laymon

Tanith Lee

Brian Lumley

Richard Matheson

Michael McDowell

Brian McNaughton

Joe McKinney

Rex Miller

A.R. Morlan

John Pelan

Thomas Piccirilli

W.H. Pugmire

Anne Rice

Alan Rodgers

Mark Samuels

Michael Shea

Guy N. Smith

Peter Straub

Melanie Tem

Karl Edward Wagner

Robert Weinberg

Jay Wilburn

J.N. Williamson

Gahan Wilson

Rocky Wood

T.M. Wright

 

If there are any horror authors I’ve omitted, feel free to add their names in the comments section.