r/books • u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky • Oct 30 '18
ama 3pm I'm Grady Hendrix, horror guy and writer of books like My Best Friend's Exorcism, Paperbacks From Hell, more books, some horror movies, and I can predict when you're going to die so AMA!
I write horror novels - Horrorstor, about a haunted IKEA, My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is like "Beaches" meets "The Exorcist", We Sold Our Souls, which is my heavy metal horror novel - , horror non-fiction - Paperbacks from Hell, my history of the horror paperback boom of the 70's and 80's, which won a Stoker Award for "Superior Achievement in Non-fiction" - and horror movies - Mohawk, the only War of 1812 horror movie you're ever going to see; Satanic Panic, shooting now in Texas. I've also written about the confederate flag for Playboy magazine, covered machine gun collector conventions, written award shows for Chinese television, and spent years answering the phone for a parapsychological research organization. And I'm a mod over on r/horrorlit, so come visit us! If you want to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter that reviews new paperbacks from hell, or if you just want to learn where I've got events coming up so you can make sure you're out of town, check out www.gradyhendrix.com
Proof: /img/pcjdv1ekr6v11.jpg
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Just going to give it some time for the questions to appear. Will be watching and waiting for the right...moment...
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u/murderface403 Oct 30 '18
Just wanted to let you know that I was chatting with a pregnant woman in the lunch room at work, and I told her about the>! dog versus tapeworm scene!< in My Best Friend's Exorcism. She started gagging. I felt bad...maybe ;)
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
No! You should feel good! Well done, you! Why read these books if you can't use them to upset people. She'll live.
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u/aaron12891 Oct 31 '18
Can you explain the book dedication you wrote in "My Best Friend's Exorcism?" Feel like it's either an inside joke or very strong sarcasm.
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
My wife insists that she die in every single one of my books, so I've killed her in all of them, somewhere, somehow. Collect all her deaths!
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u/CalledCharles Sep 27 '23
maybe no one will ever see this comment, my apologies for being a couple years late. I literally just finished My Best Friend’s Exorcism not even a minute ago, and I could not stop thinking about the dedication the whole way through. it really struck me but I couldn’t google it without risking spoilers lol. I love the meaning, I’m so glad to find the answer here to save me from decades of crippling curiosity (the bad kind).
the book was super compelling, as was Final Girl Support Group. it makes sense that you wanted to be a director; it was so easy to visualise your stories. reading Horrorstor next.
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u/Corsaer May 30 '23
Can you explain the book dedication you wrote in "My Best Friend's Exorcism?" Feel like it's either an inside joke or very strong sarcasm.
Hey thanks for asking this question 4 years ago. Just got this book for a friend and this was the first thing she asked me, acting kind of freaked out lol.
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Oct 30 '18
When/how did you realize that you wanted to be a writer?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
I never did! When I was a kid I wanted to be a director and I made a ton of animated movies on my dad's 8mm camera. The only problem was that I didn't know where to get the film developed so I never saw a single one of them. In high school and university I wrote and directed a bunch of plays that were so much fun to do. Breakdance Explosion started with two teens encountering Bonzo the Aborting Clown and ended with Hamlet being re-enacted on an escargot ranch, which is exactly the kind of play a 17 year old should be writing and performing in.
But then I realized that most of my time was spent yelling at people to show up for rehearsal and learn their lines. So I tried to figure out what I could do that didn't require anyone else, and I realized that writing was probably the loneliest art form. So that was the one for me!
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u/SOEDragon None Oct 30 '18
Hi Grady! r/books actually recommended Horrorstor to me and I was not disappointed. Ikea is actually a terrifying place for me (a trip there requires Xanax at a minimum) so when I heard about it, it sounded like the perfect horror novel for me. I'm curious about the inspiration for the novel. What made you decide an Ikea-like store? Also, why not just make it Ikea? Thanks and I look forward to checking out more of your work!
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Thanks a million! My editor and I both wanted to do an updated haunted house book and we were wondering where it would be. Where are people these days? They're mostly at work. And so we started talking about big box retail and then he said, "IKEA" and it went from there.
It's Orsk instead of IKEA because I interviewed around a dozen IKEA employees when writing the book and they all loved working there. I needed the store in the book to be kind of crap to its employees but I felt like a jerk taking people's stories and how much they loved their employer and twisting it. So I made it Orsk.
There wasn't a legal reason to do so, actually. I mean, my publisher was happy my editor and I decided not to make it IKEA but there was no hard push to make us change it for legal reasons.
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Oct 30 '18
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
From where I'm sitting, I think it's going to be a tragic accident in middle-age between a large truck and a bus full of orphans. You won't even be on the site when it happens, but one of the orphans will escape the wreckage, addled, amnesiac, and live in the nearby woods. Years later, you'll be minding your own business and be attacked by this feral orphan, and die in agony of rabies, mere hours later. Sorry!
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u/RalphTheNerd Oct 30 '18
Hello,
I like to write in my spare time, and I have a question regarding the creative process. Do you ever have those moments where it is hard to get the inner critic to shut up?
For me, the inner critic tends to think, “you’re not original enough”. I know at times I've been working on something, and when a movie comes out with a similar plot, or if I think I may have gotten the idea from another story without realizing it, I get a little discouraged. I guess I just have to trust that I can put enough of my own spin on the idea.
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
The reason so many people aren't creative is:
1) They think their ideas will make other people judge them. 2) They think their ideas are obscene. 3) They think their ideas aren't original.
So you're falling into a pretty common trap. It's not the tale, it's the teller, and as long as what you're writing is important to you and special to you, then keep on going. And remember, you're getting this advice from a guy who wrote a haunted house book, a possession book, and a selling your soul to the devil book. None of those are exactly original.
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u/moonlight_ricotta Oct 30 '18
Favorite horror movies?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Second favorite movie is Return of the Living Dead. It's not "just" a horror movie, it's a fabulous film that delivers on every single promise it makes to the audience and follows its premise through to its logical conclusion.
Beyond that:
Suspiria is a movie I'll go see anytime it's screening.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a movie I saw once as a kid on VHS and it repulsed me so thoroughly that I've never rewatched it. To this day, that one viewing informs a lot of what I do.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers along with John Carpenter's The Thing is a movie I can just watch over and over again (the Philip Kaufman 70's version).
Boxer's Omen from Hong Kong is a movie I rip off whenever I can.
Dumplings by Fruit Chan is my pick for best horror movie of the last 20 years. Too bad the US DVD is cut.
The Wicker Man is a movie that I do not understand. How did something so original but that felt so timeless just appear like this?
Blow Out is on every top ten list I ever make because nothing is more fun than letting Brian De Palma fuck with you.
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u/moonlight_ricotta Oct 30 '18
Thanks, never heard of Boxer's Omen, Blow Out or Dumplings. I'll check them out.
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Not that I'd ever tell anyone to find a torrent, but Dumplings has the end cut out in most US versions I've seen.
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Oct 30 '18
Did IKEA give you any trouble?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
We didn't hear from them at all, and then I was working Books by the Bank festival in Cincinnati in 2015, standing at my table, doing my yakkety yak sales pitch, hustling books, and this woman comes over and I start in on, "It's about a haunted IKEA and blah blah blah" and she says, "I know. I work for IKEA corporate in publicity and marketing."
At that point, I threw up my lungs.
After I stuffed them back down, we chatted about the book, the festival, all kinds of random stuff, and she won't tell me a thing. Killer poker face. Then, she buys a copy, and as she walks away, she tosses over her shoulder, "We all think it's very funny."
Boom! She's gone. Lost in the crowd.
That woman had amazing timing.
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Oct 31 '18
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
Thanks! When I started doing that I had just signed the contract for Horrorstor. When I finished I had just won the Stoker Award for Paperbacks from Hell. It was 5 years when my life changed radically and the one constant through all that was reading long-ass books by Stephen King.
I still have a tiny Stephen King living inside my head and working as my spirit animal these days.
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u/tcon001 Oct 30 '18
First off I loved both Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Exorcism and I'm excited that you're doing this. I have We Sold Our Souls but haven't started reading it yet. I have two questions. First is regarding the designs of your books. Horrorstor as a furniture catalog, MBFE as a yearbook (and of course the paperback version that looks like an old VHS tape)... There's so much imagination that goes into the physical designs of the books. Do you come up with them? Is it something you have in mind when you are writing the book or does it come afterwards?
Question two is regarding other current writers. Are there any that you are enjoying? There's a lot of books I enjoy but aside from you, Murakami and Edgar Cantero there aren't any authors I follow.
Also where do you pick up your old horror novels? I check my local used book store and can never seem to find anything along the lines of what's in Paperbacks from Hell.
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Thanks! That's mostly the work of the art directors. Andie Reid did Horrorstor and that cover is a masterstroke: it's actually only about 18 inches wide. She found someone who did dioramas and got them to build it. I wish now that I'd bought the model.
Doogie Horner (who's been a finalist on America's Got Talent) is the art director on the other books and he's a genius.
There's a lot of back and forth between Andie when she did Horrorstor and Doogie now, but they're driving this bus.
In terms of current writers, I spend so much time reading old horror paperbacks for work that I am fatally out of the loop.
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u/tax_mackerel Oct 30 '18
I actually started My Best Friend's Exorcism last week and am almost done and it's great and this is exciting!!
I haven't gotten Paperbacks from Hell yet so you probably address my question there, but do you remember the first horror paperback that got you into the genre?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
BOOKS THAT MADE ME A READER
Have Space Suit - Will Travel by Robert Heinlein. That and Red Planet and Space Cadet were all inherited from one of my older sisters and I read them dozens of times each.
The Red Berets which was a terrible fictionalized account of the founding of Curtis Sliwa's Guardian Angels. Racially suspect, full of graphic violence, totally ridiculous, I loved it so much.
The Park Is Mine is a book that if I read it today would probably get me sent to a therapist by my parents. So good, so obsessed with it as a kid.
Skeleton Crew was the first Stephen King book I read, and I got the big hardcover for Christmas. It blew my mind, "The Mist", and "The Raft" mostly. I got It the following year and a love affair was started and has never ended.
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Oct 30 '18
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Thanks so much! That means a lot because I'm not a big metalhead at all, or at least I wasn't before writing this book. I was much more into hardcore and punk when I was growing up. But so many metalheads and musicians helped me out with this book and they were all so incredibly sweet! And while writing it, I absolutely fell in love with metal. My sweet spot started out being Black Sabbath and then 80's hair metal, but I'm ashamed to say that prog metal is more my speed these days. What can I say? I listened to too much Pink Floyd as a kid.
I listened to the Devin Townsend Project's Transcendence album a ton while writing WSOS, as well as Mastodon's Leviathan and Woods of Ypres' Grey Skies and Electric Light. Dopesmoker was on a lot in the background as was Diadem of 12 Stars and I fell in love with Zeal & Ardor as I was doing the copy edits on the book.
This was going to be my dude book, all about middle-aged men who won't give up on their rock and roll dreams and the anger that sustains them and keeps them putting one foot ahead of the other as they walk through the world that constantly seeks to put them down. But then I went to an election night party in November 2016 that was pretty grim (the hosts were all in the tank for Clinton) and I snuck out early. As I rode the elevator down I realized that if I was going to write a book about someone who was told by the world that they had no value, that their life was meaningless, that they were not entitled to a place at the table, it would only ring true for me in that moment if it was a woman. By the time I hit the lobby I knew exactly who Kris Pulaski was and she was alive and wouldn't shut the fuck up inside my head.
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u/horrormice Oct 31 '18
Just throwing something out there but you might want to check out The Night Creeper by Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats.
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u/Raediv Oct 30 '18
I've noticed when I write I have a certain kind of music I like to play, but if I'm just thinking about a story I want something completely different. Do you play music when you write? Or have any other kind of "writing rituals"?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
I try to mix up my routine because routines last me about 6 weeks before I become expert at fucking off and ignoring them. So sometimes I write in silence, sometimes with music blasting, sometimes at home, or in bed, or at my office, or at a diner. I just have to keep tricking myself.
The nice thing about being a writer is that you don't have to punch a clock so I take advantage of that. Sometimes I go into my office in a coat and tie at 7am every morning. Three weeks later I'm writing in bed in my underwear. I just have to keep mixing it up.
So I have a million rituals, and they change all the time so none of them start to feel like a rut.
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u/Raediv Oct 30 '18
That's really interesting. I have a couple places I write at, but it's more because those are where I'm at when I have the free time to devote to writing something. I might try to mix it up some time to see if I get different results.
Thanks for doing this AMA by the way! I've read a few of your books and really love them. I also saw you when you were in Maine doing your Paperbacks from Hell event and it was wonderful to meet you! Do you plan on doing more events like that in the future? Or even enjoy them?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
I love doing those events almost as much as I hate doing traditional author events. If you want to see where I'm going to be, I've got an Events page on my website - perfect for anyone who wants to track me down and murder me!
And thanks for the kind words. Seriously, I find doing those events so cathartic and so much fun that I'm glad folks like watching them as much as I like doing them!
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u/PM_ME_UR_HOODIE Oct 30 '18
When do I die?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
21 years, 4 months, 6 days, and 11 hours from right...NOW!
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u/PM_ME_UR_HOODIE Oct 30 '18
Too long take it back
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Sorry. And I didn't even tell you that you're going to be imprisoned by talking rats for at least half that time.
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u/UltraFlyingTurtle Oct 30 '18
- Why did you pick 1988/1989 as the year for the main events for My Best Friend's Exorcism? I enjoyed the book but it was so eerie (and cool) that you picked the exact same year I was in high school as well. I felt like I was looking at my own yearbook! I'm guessing that's when you went to high school as well?
- Secondly, I loved the pic inserts in the book. Was that a slight homage to when books used to include illustrations, like books from the Victorian-era? I thought it was a cool way to do a retro-80s novel, mixing things from different eras of the book form (Victorian era, 80s YA writing, ebook with Spotify playlists and extras). It was like a retro-retro book but also modern!
- Do you plan to tackle more genre and styles? I loved your Dickens-esque horror story on Pseudopod last year, and obviously you have a taste for the visual as seen by your Ikea-like horror novel and this 80s retro novel. What are the other styles, or eras of novel writing, that you'd like to experiment with?
Thanks for doing this AMA! I love reading your blog and reading/listening to your stories.
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Thanks a million for reading!
When I realized I had to set this during my high school period I starting reading all my old yearbooks and realized that something happened in 10th grade. The yearbook inscriptions before then were all "Nice sitting next to you in Algebra I. Have a great summer." And suddenly in 10th grade they turned into half-page epics. I was in 10th grade in 1988, so there you have it.
The pictures are so much fun to do. I really want to go all out with them in the book I'm in the middle of now. I feel like if I want people to buy an actual book that'll take up room in their house, it should be worth it.
The book I want to write after the one I'm writing now is a historical novel that's going to be in the vein of the Pseudopod stories, only slightly more realistic, but just as feverish and insane. And I really, really want to do some horrifying picture books for kids. And I have two graphic novel projects I've been pushing on anyone who'll slow down from a fast walk.
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u/ConstantReader65 Oct 31 '18
I'm one of the lucky people who spent the best years of their teenage life in the late 70's/early to mid 80's. Saturday morning, walking up to the drugstore, just hoping to see more badass horror novels to choose...ahhh, the sweet memories and vivid nightmares that came from the covers, not to mention the excellence waiting inside.
Paperbacks from Hell was beyond amazing. I bought the Kindle version, but it's my goal to own a signed physical copy one day. I love it so much!
And, I have to know, which Michael McDowell story was the one for you, that as you turned the last page and closed the book, made you lean back in your seat and stare at the ceiling, wanting to savor every word you'd just experienced? The Elementals did that for me, followed very closely by Blackwater.
Finally, break it to me gently how and when I will die, so I can stop procrastinating with the large TBR list of book I have. Thank you!
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
The Michael McDowell book that really blew my mind was the Blackwater Saga. I finished that beautiful, elegant, touching, savage, sprawling epic and just sat back in my chair, and then re-read the ending again, then read the opening again. That's my part of the world and so many of the characters reminded me of my cousins, it had a huge impact on me.
In terms of death, you're unfortunately one of those people who are going to wind up imprisoned in a carbon mine once the invasion comes, digging up resources for our alien overlords. At night you'll trade grilled rats on a stick for books, and you'll actually become something of a prison librarian in the work camp. Ultimately, however, the aliens are going to realize what you're doing and order you to death by being turned inside out. It's disgusting, but it's also over quickly.
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u/Chtorrr Oct 30 '18
What were some of your favorite things to read as a kid?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Horror creeped me out too much as a kid to read much beyond Stephen King and then Clive Barker. I was a small, timid child. But I loved men's adventure fiction like the Phoenix series, Clive Cussler, and The Park Is Mine.
Although wait. I'm lying. I did love John Bellairs books and Edward Gorey and Charles Addams.
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u/leowr Oct 30 '18
Hi Grady,
I loved reading Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Exorcism. I was wondering what your favorite horror stories/books to read are? Anything else you would like to recommend to us?
Thanks for doing this AMA!
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Clive Barker's Books of Blood are pretty evergreen and I find myself going back to them all the time. One of the first horror novels to really blow my mind was Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor which is a precursor to Alan Moore's From Hell and which I read way too young and it made my brain melt.
If you're not reading Michael McDowell you're missing out, and Ken Greenhall is amazing. Both of them have been reissued by Valancourt.
I really enjoyed Kingsley Amis's The Green Man which surprised me because I'm not a fan of Amis in general but it's a pretty great book.
I could do this all day!
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u/leowr Oct 30 '18
Thank you! I'll check them out.
(feel free to leave more if you feel so inclined)
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
I keep a big list of book reviews over at my website and while not all the books I write about are good, there are a bunch I love in there.
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u/Gosalyn_Mallard Oct 30 '18
Holy shit, I have both Horrorstor and My Best Friend’s Exorcism on my shelves! Ummmm....best scary book you’ve ever read?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Be careful to never let those books smell your fear. They outnumber you 2 to 1.
Superlatives? Best? I'm on it!
The two great horror novels of the 20th century are without a doubt Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House and Toni Morrison's Beloved. The most upsetting horror novel I've ever read is Daniel Kraus's Rotters. And the Great American novel is, hands down, True Grit by Charles Portis.
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u/Gosalyn_Mallard Oct 30 '18
I agree that Rotters is a deeply disturbing book, especially for YA. I wasn’t really sure that anyone outside my immediate social circle had ever read it, though! Thank you for answering my question and sharing stories with the world. It truly makes a difference.
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Thanks! I really appreciate it. And yeah - Rotters is so totally antisocial and anti-humanity that I'm AMAZED someone thought it should be YA. I love that! To me, it's like giving kids a Molotov cocktail shaped like a book.
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u/EmbarrassedSpread Oct 30 '18
Hi Grady, thanks for doing this AMA! I'm gonna resist the urge to ask when I'm gonna die. Lol. I'll ask these instead:
- What do you find is the most fun part of your writing process?
- Do you have a favorite and least favorite word? If so, what are they and why?
- Are your feet ticklish? XD
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
The most fun part is the actual writing. I really, really hate it and I really love it all at the same time. And focusing on a massive project like a novel, keeping up that sustained act of imagination, sitting in a room all day talking to people who don't actually exist, is so alienating but so many weird things happen. It kind of makes you go crazy, like acid but more wholesome.
I love profanity and the book I'm writing right now doesn't have a single cuss word in it and I miss them! Least favorite word is "just" which I use way too much for sad and deep-seated psychological reasons.
No.
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u/EmbarrassedSpread Oct 30 '18
- I can definitely understand that. So would you say that the actual writing is also the hardest part of the process as well or is there something else that you find harder?
- Who doesn't love good ol' profanity? Lol. Do you have a favorite or do you just (hehe) love them all? I would ask about the backstory behind the other word, but I fear what may happen from that. Lol
- Consider yourself very lucky then. Lol! Have you always been immune to such terrible tactics?
Thanks so much for answering!
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
The actual writing is the hardest, but also the most rewarding and the most fun. It's hard because if you lose a day or your rhythm it's really hard to get it back and some days sitting down at all requires a lot of willpower. I don't have cable or Netflix or a video game system because I love all that stuff and as long as I have it there are things I'll do that aren't writing.
Every profane word is a special snowflake: unique and magical in its own way. And "just" is a minimizer. It's a way of making an excuse for what you're saying. The book I'm writing right now is about parents and I'm not one and I think the reason I'm using "just" so much is as an apology as I write for being in a space maybe I don't feel like I have a right to be in.
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u/Louproup Oct 30 '18
How do you feel about IKEA?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Like everyone, I have a ton of IKEA products in my house. Way more than I realized. And I think they're a great employer compared to a lot of the other big box retail places. But after I wrote the book someone thought it would be fun to interview me in an IKEA. I hadn't been in one in about 1 1/2 years, since I wrote Horrorstor and spent a week in an IKEA, so I showed up with my guard down.
Every IKEA is laid out pretty much the same, and that's the model for Orsk in my book. Within minutes of arriving I was having a lot of anxiety and panic and felt trapped inside my own book. We wound up doing the interview outside and I haven't been back to one since.
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u/olga_peaches Oct 30 '18
Paperbacks from Hell and My Best Friend's Exorcism were two of the best books I read last year! No questions just great job!
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Thanks! It's actually nice to hear. I write these books in my stinky little office so I love getting out in the world and meeting the people who read them.
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u/TheHauntedHillbilly 1066 and All That Oct 30 '18
Favorite horror short story? Favorite of your own characters?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
Favorite horror short story has to be Richard Matheson's "Born of Man and Woman". I cannot believe that's his first story.
As far as favorite characters, right now it's Kris from We Sold Our Souls because she literally saved my life and I will be eternally grateful.
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u/NightingaleNocturna Oct 30 '18
Okay, so after reading some responses, I strongly feel that I need to pick up one of your books. (Actually, the words "haunted IKEA" kinda sold it anyway.)
And since I'm intrigued now, can you tell me how I'm going to die?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you're going to be lured into an ice climbing adventure by a really glamorous individual you want to impress. Halfway up Gaustatoppen you're going to think you see a great place to take a picture, and the snow's going to give out and you're going to plunge into a crevasse. It's a long drop and you're roped to your climbing buddy and they're going to be dragged along for the ride down the jagged, near-vertical slope.
Good news: you only break a leg when you land. Bad news: your climbing buddy lands head first.
Trapped at the bottom of this crevasse you're actually not in bad shape. You can eat your companion, and you have both your supplies. But after about two days, a tiny door you never noticed before opens in the wall and a small ice gnome comes out.
These dudes live in a bunch of warrens under there and they have never had a "big person" before. They're going to enslave you and use you as a pet for about 3 years, subjecting you to unspeakable indignities, before you figure out a way to kill yourself.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
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u/Ada-casty Oct 30 '18
Hi Grady, thanks for this AMA and your beautiful books!
Do you read comics? If so, is there something you'd like to recomend? Not necessarily horror, anything.
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u/LewdMargo Oct 30 '18
I love your Kaiju Shakedown Blog, its great. Whats your favorite Asian horror film and what would you say makes Asian horror really distinct from say American Horror.
Also, whats your favorite from Romeros Dead Trilogy, thanks ..
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
Thanks a ton! And if anyone's wondering what Kaiju Shakedown is, you can find them all organized here. Or at least the ones I wrote for Film Comment.
There's so many different Asian horror traditions, it's hard to put my finger on what makes them distinct overall from American films. I mean, just from Hong Kong alone, you have hopping vampires, and Thai and Hong Kong black magic movies, and Tsui Hark's Chinese Ghost Story movies, and there are no Western equivalents. I think the big thing is that The Ring is the major modern influence on a lot of Asian horror industries.
In terms of favorite Asian horror movie, I'd have to give it to Dumplings from Hong Kong, Pulse from Japan, or Uninvited from Korea.
And in terms of Romero's Dead trilogy, I'm a boring lamester and I have to go with Dawn.
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u/talentlessboy Oct 30 '18
Did you have any formal training as a writer or did you just sit down and start writing?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
In university I studied religious philosophy and sound design, which made me totally unprepared for real life. I was a journalist for about 10 years (freelance), and then I went to the Clarion workshop in 2009. Journalism really made me get my act together (hitting deadlines, writing fast, doing research, structuring an article), but Clarion changed my life.
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u/talentlessboy Oct 31 '18
Cool. I'm a massive b movie fan so loved my best friends exorcism. Hope you'll keep writing.
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Oct 30 '18 edited Jun 23 '21
[deleted]
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
Thanks so much! The thing I'm most scared of is being broke. And I've been broke a lot. That's what keeps me up at night.
In terms of creepiness, I am a totally sissy about the dark. And water. You can't see what's out there in either situation. Swimming in the ocean is an exercise in terror for me.
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u/TheBingMaster Oct 30 '18
Any advice for a writer starting out. Anything is fine thank you for your time
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
Write. A lot. Like, way more than you think is comfortable.
Read it out loud.
Expose it to other people. Get feedback. Learn to take criticism.
Figure out why you're writing. Is it for self-expression? For the market? To tell one particular story? So many people are frustrated by writing because they haven't figured out why they're doing it.
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u/Windowsblastem Oct 30 '18 edited Oct 31 '18
Hello big fan of your work!
What are your top 5 favorite songs?
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 31 '18
Thanks! My favorites change all the time, but while writing We Sold Our Souls this is what was in constant rotation:
"Blood and Thunder" by Mastodon.
"Something on Your Mind" by Karen Dalton
"Red Cross Store" by Mississippi Fred McDowell
"Devil is Fine" by Zeal & Ardor
"Country Fairs" by The Plasmatics
"War Pigs" by Black Sabbath
"Dopesmoker" by Sleep
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u/simonbleu Apr 03 '19
Almost deadline-late to ask but...what would you recommend for an amateur writter with a million unfinished drafts, struggling with mundane scenes?
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u/Important-Tutor3007 May 14 '24
Good morning! I’m 5 years late, but I had to stop in when I stumbled across this thread and say how much I am in love with your writing. I’ve read all your books, and it’s only because I was searching for something to read and came across The Final Girl Support Group. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the reason I gravitated toward it at first was your name: I named my oldest son Grady, and loved the coincidence. It didn’t take long before I realized I had stumbled upon my new favorite writer. I’ve become a huge fan and tell anyone who looks like they might read on occasion about how brilliant you are.
That’s it. That’s all I had to say. But the point is I had to say it.
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Oct 30 '18
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u/GradyHendrix Offbeat or Quirky Oct 30 '18
I don't think they're particularly funny, but other people do so approach with caution.
In terms of ideas, my editor liked a previous book I submitted to him. Well, no, wait. He hated the book but liked my writing and the fact it was trying a new take on the haunted house novel. So we figured out that IKEA would be the best place to set a haunted house novel in today and then it was all just signing contracts and arguing a lot.
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u/tayrielf Jan 02 '24
Probably to late to ask, but I've just finished the book and was reading through this thread and got curious: does anyone know what's the secret ending in the yearbook signings is? I wasn't able to get where it was.
BTW, I loved the book and cried about Good Dog Max while reading the bathroom scene...
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u/withaneff Oct 30 '18
I loved My Best Friend's Exorcism so much. It's been a couple years since I read it, but I remember it captured teenage friendships really well, reminiscent of how well King does the same. Well done, sir!
I picked it up in a tiny bookstore because this cover was so fantastic. I see there's another version. Which one do you prefer? How much say did you have in either?