Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sex-Charged



I got a mention in Nick Cato's review of the long-awaited, long-delayed anthology In Laymon's Terms. Here's what Nick said:

Mark Justice’s ‘The Red Kingdom’ is a sex-charged thriller dealing with blood-soaked “amazons” attempting to bring their Dark Lord back to earth (did I mention this one was sex-charged?).

You can read the full review here.

The book is a tribute to the influential and much-admired horror writer Richard Laymon, who died too young in 2001. As his readers know, Laymon often used sex to advance the plot in his novels and stories, and I was happy to do the same in my tale.

How long has the book been delayed? I sold the story in February 2003. It was my first professional sale.

By the way, Laymon was one of the nicest guys I've had the privilege to interview. He also seemed to greatly enjoy the genre he worked in and expressed delight when I told him his books gave me the same thrill I got from seeing a cool B horror movie at the drive in.

As a writer, Richard Laymon has long been an idol of mine. His A Writer's Tale is one of the best books on writing ever published, and long overdue for a reprinting in an affordable edition. If you've never tried him, I'd like to suggest that you start with two of his finest novels, here and here.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That book looks so enticing. I seem to recall an episode of PoH in which you interviewed Kelly Laymon regarding this book.

Nice to hear your first sale is gonna see the light of day finally, too. :)

Mark Justice said...

I'm trying to get Kelly back for a follow-up interview. Hopefully I can do that for the next episode.