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From Dark Dreamers: Conversations with the Masters of Horror |
published by Avon Books in 1990 |
Unlike Stephen King (four book attempts before Carrie) or John Saul (ten novel attempts before Suffer the Children), Robert R. McCammon apparently did it right his first time out. For even though he intended to make his career in writing as a journalist, no one was more surprised than he when that first attempt at a no... |
Regardless of the usual cliches that go along with being labeled a creator of tales of fear, in person the soft-spoken Rick McCammon more accurately represents the finer qualities embodied by the phrase a Southern gentleman. (Admittedly yet another stereotype, but certainly an admirable one.) His consideration of other... |
He still lives in his native city of Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife Sally, and his work has often been critically recognized as possessing a depth and a maturity which belies the author's age. Booklist has described him as, "A true master of the gothic novel." Perhaps one of the ultimate signs of this writer's popu... |
Wiater: When you went to college, it was to major in journalism. You had no intention at that point of becoming a novelist? |
McCammon: When I finished school, it was when All the President's Men came out, and everybody wanted to be a reporter, so I couldn't find a job as one. I found a job in the advertising department of a local department store. It was a terrible job and wasn't what I really wanted to do. So I realized the only thing I cou... |
Wiater: Was it a conscious decision to write a horror novel, or was that simply a subject you thought had a chance of selling? |
McCammon: Yes, it was something that had always been my interest, and I think it's the most difficult question to answer: Why do you write horror? I don't know what went into me to make me write horror. But I had the same interests as you—I read Famous Monsters of Filmland when I was a kid, and loved collecting all tho... |
Wiater: Tell me some of your early influences. |
McCammon: With the exception of Ray Bradbury, I can't honestly say I was influenced by anybody as much as I just liked to read. People may say, "I was influenced by this writer and I was influenced by that writer," but I believe horror writers are really influenced most of all by their childhoods. I wonder if most horr... |
Wiater: Unlike some authors who have reached a noticeable degree of success in this field, you don't seem to be embarrassed to be primarily recognized as "Robert McCammon, horror writer." I ask this because I've had others tell me that what they really write are "novels of fear" or "dark fantasy." Anything so as not to... |
McCammon: Well, I'm not embarrassed. In fact, I'm very pleased to be associated with the field. I'm very pleased with what horror can be for its millions of fans. I think those labels like dark fantasy are glossing over what horror really is. I think it's a gut-level kind of writing, and on-the-edge kind of writing. Ho... |
Wiater: That may work for you, but others have declared that they don't wish to be so labeled—that it limits their careers to be thought of as horror writers, even though they don't deny it's an area of fiction in which they excel. |
McCammon: The problem is not in the writing, or in the writers. The problem is with the publishers. They see horror as primarily a book with some scary elements, and they market it from that narrow perspective. But there's so many different kinds of horror, and so many things going on in horror fiction, that it's very ... |
I'm not sure myself what horror is. But I know it's not just one thing; it's not just Friday the 13th or The Shining and it's not just Weaveworld. It's all those elements—and more. |
Wiater: Critics say that the genre will never be taken seriously because it doesn't deal with real events or real people. You should be writing on a "serious" topic. |
McCammon: [angrily] Yeah, that really ticks me off. Because to me, hell, horror is real. I don't think I or my colleagues could write it if we didn't think it was a serious subject. I take that as a great insult when somebody says, "When are you going to write something serious?" But this is real—it's about life and de... |
Because horror writing has always seemed to me a very liberal, forward-thinking kind of literature that is not afraid to shake things up. It's not afraid to be nasty. It's not afraid. It's just not afraid. And isn't that what art is all about? Horror fiction can be—is—art. Now art may not necessarily be pleasant or nic... |
Wiater: Are there any taboo areas that you won't touch in your work for risk of being too offensive? In other words, can there be a concept as "bad taste" in horror fiction? |
McCammon: I don't believe there can be such a thing as bad taste. There can only be bad writing. You can have the most outrageous scene with the most extreme violence and handle it in such a way that it'll be extremely excruciating—but there'll be no blood. So I don't think there can be any bad taste in creating a scen... |
Wiater: A major theme in your work is that, no matter how awful the situation may be, your characters always retain the hope that they will somehow reach the end of the darkness or the chaos. But don't you feel the most effective horror lies in dealing with situations which eventually fade to utter black? |
McCammon: But how do you mean "effective"? I tell stories which are effective to me in terms of hope. But then someone else might want to tell a story in terms of hopelessness. But my key word is hope; I think there's hope in any situation. And that's what motivates my characters to do what they do, because they think,... |
Wiater: You've been described as a writer whose strength lies in bringing life to his characters rather than just finding the ways of gruesomely destroying them. Do you feel others are attempting to create more than just "books with scary elements"? |
McCammon: You know, I think horror writers are now like that Bohemian society in Paris in 1920s, where everybody had their own style of art, and their own philosophy about art. This one was experimenting in cubism, and this one in naturalism.... But what they were really all talking about was the same thing—they were r... |
Wiater: Do you believe that perhaps the academics have given the field a legitimacy it didn't have even a decade ago? For example, science fiction and mystery are genres that have at last been recognized as worthy of legitimate literary acclaim. |
McCammon: Well, I have to admit that my aged relatives don't read my books because they would find it very uneasy to be around me [laughs]! But I really do feel there's a change in the wind. I don't want to say that horror's become respectable—the great thing about horror is that most of it will never become respectabl... |
Wiater: You've told me before how horror is in fact the oldest form of literature, both written and oral. |
McCammon: Horror fiction has as its basis the human condition, and it can talk about that condition in a way that other types of fiction cannot. It's the idea that this literature that we do has worth—it's too fun, it's a hell of a lot of fun!—but it has worth. And I think it has enduring worth. People are beginning to... |
Wiater: A personal favorite of mine among your early novels is They Thirst. Can you recall how that story originated? |
McCammon: Well, I always wanted to do a vampire novel. So I thought, where would be a good place to set a vampire novel? First it was going to be set in Chicago, and be about teenage gangs who were vampires. I did two hundred pages of that book...and you get to a certain point where it either takes off or it doesn't ta... |
Wiater: It may at last seem like an appropriate stereotype, but is it true you write at night and sleep during the day? |
McCammon: I start work at about ten at night, and finish up at about four in the morning. When I'm finishing up a book, as I am now, I'll get up at about eleven o'clock in the morning and get right back to work. It takes me about nine months to write a book. I pace myself pretty well, in terms of doing only about five ... |
I enjoy working at night—I just do better at night. I've noticed that the quality of my work changes somewhat: When I work at night, there's more of the fantastic and a horrific feeling to it. And in the daylight, that's when I go back and shape up what I've written the night before. |
Wiater: Speaking of stereotypes—and since you founded the Horror Writers of America—why are people in this business often just the opposite of what the public expects them to be? |
McCammon: Usually when I talk about fellow horror writers, I find that others ask me, "Aren't those people all weird???" It's amazing that most of the people in this field are so nice. Really! And I think it's because we're able to get all this acid out on paper. To get these bad feelings and impulses out on paper, whi... |
Wiater: Of course, not everyone is a fan of your work—or the genre in general. What do you say to those who charge that horror—in any medium in the mass media—is inherently bad for children, and is basically of no value whatsoever? |
McCammon: Well, life is bad for children, too. Life makes them grow up, and that can be bad. Like it or not, there are many aspects of horror fiction which offer clear and very penetrating insights into the human condition. Yet I can see some very prim and proper person saying that "Horror fiction is no good, and it sh... |
One of the reasons I like it is because there is an element of hope in most horror fiction; it doesn't all have to be dark. It can be a glorious human transformation as well as an unfortunate fall from grace. And a climb to grace. And that's what I believe the best in horror fiction entails. I think that's fantastic—I ... |
Wiater: But what about the critics who charge that, with all the real-life horrors around us, why dwell upon the subject even more. |
McCammon: Horror writers are approaching "real" horror, but we're doing it in such a way that is, hopefully, artistic and civilized. And in an educated and thoughtful way. We're not glorifying madness or murder or child abuse or any other of our twentieth-century horrors. We're simply trying to make sense out of the ch... |
Wiater: So again, you have no misgivings about being recognized and ultimately packaged as a writer in this genre? |
McCammon: Absolutely none. Although some publishers may treat it as a second-rate literature, it is a first-rate literature, as far as I'm concerned. I don't believe there's any other kind of literature that has as much to say, or is as strong. Or as important. I think many more people should be exposed to the genre. B... |
Stanley Wiater is an award-winning author, consultant, screenwriter, and creator and host of the Dark Dreamers television series. For more information, please visit www.StanleyWiater.com or www.DarkDreamers.com. |
Excerpt copyright © 1990 by Stanley Wiater. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. |
© 2018 Robert McCammon Last updated 19-JUL-2018 20:10:06.59 Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha |
Scotland politics |
German MEP Elmar Brok says Scotland rejoining EU 'could be speedy' |
Elmar Brok |
Image caption Mr Brok is the former chairman of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee |
The process of an independent Scotland rejoining the European Union could be "relatively speedy", a senior German MEP has said. |
Elmar Brok said there would be few technical obstacles to overcome if the political will was there to allow it to happen. |
Mr Brok also suggested Europe's opposition to independence had softened as a result of the Brexit vote. |
But he said much would depend on the attitude of countries such as Spain. |
Mr Brok is the former chairman of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, and a member of Angela Merkel's CDU party. |
'Positive relationship' |
Speaking in the House of Commons last month, Prime Minister Theresa May insisted Scotland would be leaving the EU regardless of whether or not it was independent. |
She added: "What we need now is to unite, to come together as a country and to ensure that we can get the best deal for the whole of the United Kingdom." |
But Mr Brok said that "Scotland has our sympathy" after the country voted by 62% to 38% for the UK to remain part of the EU in last year's referendum, despite the UK as a whole voting to leave. |
He told BBC Scotland: "If there is a possibility that the United Kingdom breaks - which we do not hope - then I think we should have a positive relationship with Scotland to find solutions. |
"We would like to have Britain as a whole in the European Union. If parts would come, I would be the last one who would be against it." |
Image copyright Getty Images |
Image caption Theresa May has already rejected Nicola Sturgeon's call for another legally-binding referendum on independence to be held |
Mr Brok stressed that any independence referendum would need to be approved by London - something that Mrs May has already ruled out, repeatedly arguing that "now is not the time" for another vote on the issue. |
Instead, she has pledged to get the best possible deal for the UK as a whole, and has called on the Scottish government to focus on that rather than another independence referendum. |
Her Scottish secretary, David Mundell, has said that Mrs May's "now" could include "the Brexit process, the journey of leaving and people being able to understand what the UK's new relationship with the EU is, so they can make an informed choice if there was ever to be another referendum". |
That has led to speculation that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon may consider holding a "consultative" referendum - similar to one held in Catalonia after the Spanish government refused to grant permission for one. |
But Mr Brok said: "If this is not approved by London then we have problems with other countries, because it would be an example for Catalonia, for example." |
Analysis by Nick Eardley, BBC Scotland political correspondent |
Last week the Spanish foreign minister said his country had no intention of blocking Scotland joining. This week a senior German MEP says that process could be swift. |
His thinking is that because Scotland already complies with EU rules, it wouldn't have to change much. He says it's possible there could be political stumbling blocks - but the technical problems would be minimal. |
Music to SNP ears? Probably. But there's a snag, the Conservatives believe. Ian Duncan, who is the party's Scottish MEP, says the EU would want a lot from Scotland - they wouldn't offer the same terms as the UK enjoys just now, Scotland would have to submit to terms that might not please Scotland's voters. |
All things that might have to be weighed up in the future. |
Read more from Nick |
When asked whether an independent Scotland would face obstacles in a bid for EU membership, Mr Brok replied: "I do not know what Spain does". |
But he pointed out that all of the EU's laws have been fully implemented and already applied in Scotland, adding: "So a lot of things which we have to negotiate with the candidate countries we have not to negotiate with Scotland because Scotland has already done it. |
"If the political agreement would be there, then the process would be relatively speedy." |
He also said there was no "queue" to join the EU, with each candidate country being judged on its own merits. |
Mr Brok said: "Scotland is a member of the European union and fulfils all of the conditions. There will be not many technical problems." |
He agreed that Brexit meant there was now more sympathy for the idea of Scottish independence among the other 27 EU member states than there had been ahead of the 2014 referendum. |
The MEP continued: "In 2014 it was a situation before Brexit and we do not want to harm the United Kingdom - that might have been a consideration in Spain." |
Image copyright AFP |
Image caption Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis confirmed at the weekend that his country would not veto Scotland's entry to the EU - but said he was still opposed to independence |
Speaking at the weekend, Spain's foreign minister Alfonso Dastis confirmed his government would not veto any attempt from Scotland to join the EU after Brexit. |
But he stressed that he remained opposed to independence. |
Mr Dastis added: "Having said that, if, in application of its laws, the outcome of that process is a division of the United Kingdom, any part of the United Kingdom that becomes a state and wants to join the EU will have to apply. And follow the steps that are stipulated." |
Scottish Conservative MEP Ian Duncan warned that the EU's other members states would seek to divide the UK, which he said "must be united", during the Brexit process. |
He added: "The Spanish are trying to play politics in a different way. They are trying to use the division, as they would see it, within the UK to try and leverage something out of Gibraltar. |
"The issue was never really that Spain would veto - it is what Spain would ask of Scotland in order to avoid the veto." |
Mr Duncan said he agreed it could be "very, very easy" for Scotland to join the EU after independence - but only if the country was prepared to "give up everything you would want to keep". |
And he suggested there was little chance of of Scotland being allowed to opt-out of the Common Fisheries Policy, or of keeping the UK's rebate or opt-outs over currency and the Schengen Area. |
A password will be e-mailed to you. |
Drive-thru borscht is a brilliant idea second only to drive-thru booze |
There is something magical about perogies. |
And not just because they are the perfect cure for a hangover. I mean, they actually are the perfect cure for a hangover. With a slightly greasy exterior, a pillowy potato interior along with a side of pickled cabbage, you’ll be dredged back up from the shame gutter and drinking afternoon tequila in no time. |
But it’s also the weird nostalgia factor. |
Perogies, cabbage rolls and borscht was probably the best part of my childhood. And getting to eat them every day as an adult makes me feel like the rich popular kid who always got everything they wanted. |
Apparently happiness is just a fat dollop of sour cream atop a mound of fried onions. |
And being able to get them all in a drive-thru seems like a dream come true. |
photo 2 |
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