Exclusive: Joe R. Lansdale Interview

On September 10th Joe R. Lansdale's new novel The Thicket will be released. I thought that would be a great opportunity to ask Mr. Lansdale some questions about his writing and his life. He has an official website that you can visit here, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account.

Should you be so unfortunate not to have encountered Mr. Lansdale's writing before, here's a short introduction. He's written novels, short stories, comics, and screenplays. Several of his short stories and novels have been adapted for the screen, amongst which Don Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep has achieved true cult status. His work has a distinct Southern feel and often feature gritty characters that must go through hell before emerging on the other side hardened and slightly broken, if at all. Even when his narrators are sinful, or morally corrupt, he always makes sure that the reader feels somewhat sympathetic to their plight.

Edge of Dark Water uses a young girl as narrator in a
 Huckleberry Finn inspired dark tale.

I want to thank Mr. Lansdale for taking the time, and now without further ado, here is the interview:

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld: I'd like to ask you about geography in your novels and stories. From the viewpoint of someone who's never visited the Southern part of the United States I must say that you're really successful in creating images and evoking the places that the novels talk about. Can you talk a bit about what Texas means to you, and why you keep coming back there in your stories?

Joe R. Lansdale: East Texas is distinct, in that it is more like the rest of the South, not the Southwest, and it has trees and water and isn’t anything like people usually think of when they think of Texas. It’s like people who hear New York and think the whole state is concrete. It’s not. In fact, Upstate New York and East Texas look very much alike, except for the mountains in Upstate. They filmed Cold in July there, and it looks like East Texas, town included. To me the environment has a lot to do with the tone of the stories. I love Texas, warts and all, primarily because it’s what I know best.

DJR: You've written several novels that take place in the past, in the south. Is there any degree of autobiographical detail in your work?

JRL: A lot. My parents were older when I was born, so they lived through the Great Depression as adults. They had lots of stories. My grandmother came to Texas in a covered wagon and saw Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at some point. So many of the stories they told I borrowed, but my own personal autobiography is important as well. Hap Collins had many of the same experiences I had. Working in the rose fields.  Going through the sixties, a turbulent time, and I still think it was one of the most progressive times ever, warts and all again. But no generation is perfect. Even the so-called Great Generation had people who went to war to get rid of Hitler and Nazi oppression, came back and denied blacks voting rights etc. There was good and bad in every generation. So the sixties had a deep impact on me. But so have other aspects of my life. My wife and family. It all goes into the mill, if you mean for it to or not.

Lost Echoes is a dark and heartbreaking novel.

DJR: Are there any parts of your daily life that you draw inspiration from? Or is it all just hard work, hunkering down at the computer and typing?

JRL: Again, I borrow a lot from it. COLD IN JULY, now being filmed, had all sorts of elements from my life as it was then. The parts about wanting to be a good father and so on, thinking you’re always failing. It’s always there. I write about three hours a day, and that’s it. In the morning, five to seven days a week. There are exceptions, but that’s the usual. I have been on the set of COLD IN JULY for a couple of weeks, so it’s the first time I haven’ written in the morning because the hours were so erratic. I’ll be back to work again tomorrow, now that we’re home.

DJR: When you get an idea for a novel how does it work? Do you use outlines or write from beginning to end? Can you share your work progress?

JRL: I don’t outline. I just write. I get a mood or a general idea, maybe an scene or two in my mind, and it shapes itself as I write daily. I like it that way. It’s personal discovery every morning.

DJR: When reading your work it seems that you have a real aversion to injustice. Can you explain where that comes from?

I think nearly everyone does. I can’t imagine many who like the idea of injustice. But it was certainly ingrained in me by my father that life isn’t fair, but you can be fair. Or try to be.

DJR: Following up on that, your characters often seem preoccupied with justice in a very primal form. Using their own moral compass and ethical barometer instead of what society or their surroundings tell them. Where does this come from? Is it a part of your upbringing, or something else?

JRL: Well, my characters take extremes I’d like to take. My father did practice a bit of personal justice with his fists a few times. I don’t begrudge him any of it. I hate to sound crass, but they had it coming. I’m guilty of that myself when I was younger. I’m older and wiser now. Or maybe afraid of being arrested. Times were different then, as well. It was not uncommon for simple grievances to be worked out by the grieved. Not necessarily a good thing, just saying how it was. In my books, my characters are about justice when it is not applied, and they lack my sophistication, so to speak.

DJR: You've used a child narrator several times. How does it compare to writing a grown-up narrator? What is special, to you, about writing from a child's perspective?

JRL: Simply we’ve all been young and we all know the trials and tribulations of growing up. It’s something we can all connect with. The sense of discovery, both good and bad of someone young starting out in the world has always fascinated me.

DJR: Do you have any favorite coming-of age stories, that might even have inspired your writing?

JRL: There are plenty, and I’d be here all night. Suffice to say, that in varied forms, they appear in my books and stories. Even “Night They Missed The Horror Show" has a lot of truth in it, and some of the events happened to people I knew.

DJR: You often mention music and specific artists in your writing. What does music mean to you? Do you use music in your creative process? Is there any music you like writing to?

JRL: I love music. Blues. Country – the older stuff especially. Sixties soul and Motown, Rock and Roll until the early seventies. Outlaw Country. Lots of different kinds of music. I don’t listen to music when I write. Too distracting. I have really enjoyed listening to my daughter’s new album, RESTLESS. She’s a real talent and can do country, blues, rock, you name it. I know that sounds like a proud father talking, but every time people have thought that, they came back to me later, said, “Damn, she is good.” And she is.

DJR: You have a new novel, “The Thicket”, coming out on September 10th, can you reveal what the story is about?

JRL: It’s a turn of the century story told by a sixteen year old boy who has lost his mother and father to smallpox and has had his grandfather murdered and his sister kidnapped, and he has to seek her out with the aid of a dwarf bounty hunter, and another bounty hunter who is the son of an ex-slave and a gravedigger. Tension and excitement and adventure and humor and violence ensue.

DJR: Finally I'd like to ask you the title of a book, film, and record that has blown you away lately? If any.

JRL: I loved MUD. Had some of the same sensibility of my work, actually. I have read a lot of entertaining and good books lately, but frankly there hasn’t been a knock down killer as of recent. But there will be. There always is. I have had fun rereading the series that influenced Hap and Leonard in a way. HARDMAN by Ralph Dennis. These were done as a cheap paperbacks in a series that is really good but was marketed like a detective sex series, which it is not. They were genre, very well written, if hasty at times, and I know that they influenced my ideas about Hap and Leonard, among other things. But as for new, nothing killer. Last thing I read was a reread of FAREWELL TO ARMS, which is always good, and A FEAST UNKNOWN, an odd ball book by Phil Farmer. I have read them both before, the Hemingway many times, the Farmer for a second time; it’s a little rough in spots and seems to be about twice as long as it needs to be, but its Phil Farmer, one of my favorite writers. I think my favorite novel of his is LORD TYGER, though I’m very fond of a lot of his short stories. Check out THE BEST OF PHIL FARMER. Now that’s wonderful.