An Interview with Rick R Reed

[WO – intro]: Wilde Oats has been planning to interview Rick R Reed for a while now, and it gives us great pleasure to chat with him today. Rick is the author of 17 print novels, 20 e-books, and over 20 short stories published in various anthologies – a prolific writer by any definition. He lives with his partner Bruce and a spoiled Boston Terrier in Seattle.

[RRR]: Thanks for having me here, today. I love what you’ve done with the place...it’s just darling. All maple and chintz!

[WO]: Thank you! We aim to please! Unzipped magazine has called you the Stephen King of gay horror. An accolade indeed! How do you feel being compared to him?

[RRR]: The real question is how does he feel being compared to me. So I called him up last week and asked him. He said he felt very proud and excited and asked if there was any money in this whole thing for him. After I probed further, I discovered I was speaking not to the Stephen King, of horror novel fame, but Steve King, who does lube jobs down at the Chevron on 45^th Street...

[WO]: … He does a good lube job, doesn't he? Um. You know what I mean. I think.

[RRR]: ...But seriously, it’s an honor being mentioned in the same breath with a man whose work I grew up reading and who I’m certain influenced my own writing.

[WO]: Though the majority of your novels would fall into the horror category, in fact you've written much more widely than pure horror. Blue Moon Café, for example, which is about werewolves as well as being a romance, or Fugue which is both a romance and a deeply erotic exploration of BDSM. DarkScribe described you as “an established brand – perhaps the most reliable contemporary author for thrillers that cross over between the gay fiction market and speculative fiction.” Do you see yourself as a horror writer with the occasional romance (Tricks, Blue Moon Café ) or do you cast your net wider?

[RRR]: I see myself as a writer who is fascinated with people (i.e. characters) and what obsesses them. Obsession is a thematic thread that runs through all my work (funny that my first published book was called Obsessed, which, by the way, has just finally been released in e-book by Untreed Reads (here) or through Amazon’s Kindle store (here). While some people may classify me as a horror writer, romance writer, thriller writer, or just a whore, I classify myself as a storyteller who refuses to be boxed in, which is sometimes to my detriment.

[WO]: In some ways, your recent romantic thriller Tricks echoes your previous novels since the bad guy is as evil as any supernatural being. You talk about filth oozing from his pores, and an aura of evil surrounding him. The description is compelling and very creepy. Writing evil is hard, as all writers know. Have you ever met anyone like this? Did that help you get the feel for someone (and in your other writings, something) who/which was pure evil?

[RRR]: Did I ever meet anyone like that? Sweetheart, I am someone like that. I have been described on more than one occasion as evil, wicked, or just plain bad. My toes are always on the line that divides the light from the darkness.

[WO]: (Laughs) Yeah, well, you seem a regular sweetheart yourself! (Ed: Stop flirting with your interviewee!) You know, your books on Amazon are consistently well-rated, and other reviewers say good things too. Bookwenches, for example, says A Demon Inside, "... does not lead you gently into the wading pool; it shoves you into the deep end of horror...I plan to read it again, if only to remind myself what constitutes a satisfying scare..." Nice to get great reviews, but how do you feel when you get a stinker?

[RRR]: Oh, it would be fun to say I just brush it off and go merrily along my way, unperturbed. But the truth is that this insecure little man lurks deep within me (just behind the wicked one) and he gets his panties all in a twist over a bad review and starts wondering immediately if the reviewer was right and if he has no business calling himself an author.

[WO]: Wilde Oats has no doubts whatever about your writing ability! Tales from the Sexual Underground – which for the uninitiated is a highly-rated mix of short fiction and essays – is your most explicit look at the non-vanilla side of gay life, though in many of your novels you touch on themes such as BDSM, fisting, orgies, sex pigs, and as you say, “fun, but never, never good clean fun.” Rainbow Reviews said of Tales:

While this collection as a whole is categorized as erotica, and many of the stories just downright sizzle […]: , a few of the stories are inherently dark and by degrees unsettling. Having honed his craft as an author of the horror story and the suspense thriller to the level of standard-setting in both genres, Mr. Reed employs what I term as the "gotcha" technique for some of the darker stories. It is highly effective, whereby the reader is casually reading a seemingly hot erotic tale and all of a sudden the ground shifts and the bottom drops right out from under. And owing to the author's rich descriptions and brilliant mood-setting several of the tales are strongly visual. "Initiation" immediately comes to mind as one story that could easily be retold as a chilling erotic horror film.

This is an intriguing aspect of your writing, given that you can also write some very tender and fulfilling romance.

[RRR]: As I said earlier, obsession is the common thread running through all of my work and Tales is no exception. Most of the pieces were inspired by me wondering just what makes a sexual renegade — in any form — tick.

[WO]: Dignity Takes a Holiday is your first full-length comic writing. Humour is so individual – what makes one person snort with laughter leaves another indifferent or bored – and this is reflected in the reviews which are either raves or brickbats. How have you felt about the reaction to Dignity, and will you write humour again?

[RRR]: I think there’s an aspect, to varying degrees, in a lot of what I write. I think my e-short, Out on the Net,for example, is very funny. So is No Place Like Home and Manamorphosis. Dignity is a book I pretty much knew going in would be either loved or hated—with very little area in between. It’s balls-out, crude, and the best comparison I can make is that it resembles an early John Waters movie. It’s very different from anything I’ve ever written, or probably will write again. But, for me, I think it’s one of the funniest pieces of fiction I’ve ever written—and one of the most fluid in terms of prose. I love the main character, Pete Thickwhistle, and his mother, rather than being abusive as some readers have said, just has a very twisted way of showing her love—Pete knows this, which is why the book ends as it does. How do I feel about the mixed reaction? Shrugs. I think I heard someone say once that they didn’t know what the key to success was, but the key to failure was trying to please everyone.

[WO]: I'd not heard that aphorism before. Interesting — and true, I believe. I notice, by the way, that there are two types of alternative fiction you haven't tried. The one is Space Opera/SF, and the other is “sword and sorcery” fantasy. I think you'd write great novels in both these genres. Any plans? Don't you like these genres (one must write the sort of books one likes to read, no?) or have you just not had time?

[RRR]: Are you serious? You have just named the two genres I most cannot abide. No, I don’t like these genres. I can never get into those kinds of stories; they bore me. I need more realism, I guess. My partner loves this sort of stuff, so we part company when it comes to this kind of storytelling. So, you will more likely see me strutting around Seattle’s Green Lake in a pink tutu and ballet slippers than you will see me publish a space opera or a sword and sorcery fantasy. And by the way, I don’t do drag.

[WO]: Now that would be an interesting sight! Somerset Maugham used to write his novels longhand, and barely adjusted the galleys. He used to practise his dialogue in front of the mirror as he shaved in the morning, and wrote to a strict timetable from 9 to 12 before having cocktails and lunch (sounds like an idyllic lifestyle!) What's your schedule? Do you have bursts of activity? Or a fixed schedule? Are you a morning or an evening person? With or without music?

[RRR]: I am definitely a morning person and need silence to write by. I’m at my best early in the day and music would only distract me; I don’t understand how other writers can do it. But then who am I to question what works for someone else? I write roughly 1000 words per day when I’m working on a project and most of that work would be completed before noon. And by the way, I love Mr. Maugham. Cakes and Ale is one of my favorites.

[WO]: What drives you to write? When did you first find out you were a writer?

[RRR]: I have almost always written; I can remember writing short stories when I was six, plays when I was nine, a novella when I was ten. It’s constitutional with me; a blessing and a curse, and something I could never live without.

[WO]: There's another Rick Reed author, who writes thrillers. Have you met your alter ego? Do you get angry emails from readers who bought one of your books expecting one of his?

[RRR]: I know. He also has written some true crime (he’s a former cop) and I have had letters from some of the victims’ families he has written about. People have also told me they picked up one of my books when it’s one of his. I can only hope that works the other way around as well. I have not met the man personally, nor have I met professional baseball player Rick Reed. I think I’d be too big of a sissy for either of them.

[WO]: As a writer I know that what we writers want to do is write; what we have to do is market. Sometimes one can combine marketing with fun …. so will we be seeing you at the GayRomLit retreat in N'Orleans in October?

[RRR]: Yes! I can’t wait. I am hosting (along with a bevy of other male writer beauties) an evening of debauchery at Lafitte in Exile, which will be part of the festivities attendees will absolutely not want to miss. Actually, the event has so many great authors, I am mainly looking forward to an amazing time in the French Quarter which is, contrary to what some people claim, the happiest place on earth.

[WO]: Which of your own novels and short stories is your favourite, your most-loved?

[RRR]: Oh, that’s like asking which of my children is my favorite! Actually, that would be easier, because I just have the one son. I love them all, for different reasons.

[WO]: What is your favourite reading? Thrillers? Whodunnits? Romance?

[RRR]: I read a wide variety of things, but probably land most often in mystery/horror/thriller territory.

[WO]: Who are your favourite authors? Gay romance, gay thrillers, straight thrillers … ?

[RRR]: I have answered this question so many times the names trip off my tongue. British mystery writer Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine), Patricia Highsmith, James Purdy, Flannery O’Connor always rise to top, because all of them appeal to my twisted world view. I also do love Mr. King. And John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the best American novels ever written.

[WO]: What a sad history that has: Toole writes a masterpiece; no one wants to publish it; in despair he kills himself; and then it triumphs after his death. So tell us, what novels or short stories are you currently working on? What are they about?

[RRR]: I just had a novel accepted by Dreamspinner Press called Caregiver. It’s one of my most personal books and will be out in November or December of this year. Here’s a short synopsis: Dan Calzolaio has a new buddy and it’s not one he got through work, or school, or the usual places where one makes friends. No, Dan’s new buddy is Adam Schmidt and he comes to Dan courtesy of the Tampa AIDS Alliance, where Dan has volunteered to help people with AIDS.

It’s 1991 and Dan has just moved to Florida with his lover, Mark. The pair has fled Chicago and Mark’s addictions to begin a new life on the Gulf Coast. Volunteering for the Tampa AIDS Alliance is just one part of that new beginning.

Adam Schmidt is not at all what Dan expected when he signed up to be an AIDS buddy. The guy is an original—witty, wry, sarcastic, and with a fondness for a smart little black dress, Barbra Streisand, and a good Mai Tai. Adam’s doesn’t let his frailness and imminent death get him down. Dan’s relationship with him, through a downward spiral that includes time spent in the Florida State Prison, teaches Dan new lessons about strength and resiliency.

Adam also has a lover, Sullivan, for whom Dan feels an almost irresistible pull. Dan knows the attraction isn’t right, even when Dan dumps his cheating, drug-abusing lover, but when Adam passes away, leaving both Sullivan and Dan, can these two survivors turn their love for Adam into something whole and real—and unique to them?

Caregiver is a heart-wrenching love story that explores what it truly means to care for another human being and how adversity and tragic loss can bring two souls together.

[WO]: Let's talk about some more personal stuff, if we may. You say in your guest blog post at Jessewave that you were once married (to a woman) and you've been with your current partner for nine years. Will you be following your son's recent marriage with your own?

[RRR]: Just as soon as they make it legal here! My son lives in Canada, so he could marry his partner and legally call him husband. I have faith that one day, I will be able to do the same with my Brucifer.

[WO]: Thank you so much for accepting to be interviewed by Wilde Oats, Rick.

[RRR]: You are most welcome!

You can read an excerpt from Rick R Reed's novel Tricks here. Clicking on the images in the sidebars of this page will link directly to websites where you can buy Rick R Reed's books.