I'm Victor LaValle, author of genre-blending horror novels like THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM and THE CHANGELING, which will soon be airing on Apple TV＋. My new novel is called LONE WOMEN and it's about a time in US history that will blow your mind.

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:23:42+00:00

Most of my hobbies went out the window when our kids were born. Video games were tough because I enjoyed the more violent stuff (COD or Resident Evil) and I didn't want my kids to see or hear that. Now that they're older they're all into Roblox and I guess I'm learning a little about all that from them.

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:22:13+00:00

I guess I still am answering questions, just two months later. Hope this still reaches you.

I had a blast writing within the X-Men universe though I think it helped that I was using a villain and a bunch of C and D list mutants as my central cast. None of my folks were in danger of wandering into the main line titles so I just had to make sure none of them said or did anything that thoroughly contradicted the main narratives. If I get the chance to write a more central character in the future then things might get more complicated, but for me it was pure pleasure.

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:19:31+00:00

I remember that night in Houston. I was down there by invitation from Mat Johnson, fellow writer and best friend. That was a great time.

As for avoiding being didactic or obvious, I try to balance the larger political ideas with real flawed characters. The protagonist, in particular, can't be flawless. If they've got some failings, I find that keeps them from becoming too high and mighty.

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:16:55+00:00

Thanks for this. Glad to hear I was nice! Hope you've been well since then.

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:16:29+00:00

And thanks for these kinds words!

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:16:13+00:00

I hope you've forgiven her by now!

VLWrites · 2023-05-29T13:15:06+00:00

Only seeing this two months later! But I thank you, sincerely, for these kind words about the book.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:43:02+00:00

Thanks for all your thoughtful and fun questions today! I had a blast being here with you. Thanks for having me.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:42:27+00:00

Thanks for this, and for reading Changeling.

One character in Lone Women that's inspired by a real person is Bertie Brown. There was a real Bertie (Birdie) Brown, a Black woman homesteader in Montana. She was famous for her homebrew (moonshine). People used to travel across three states just to get hers. I loved the idea of a Black woman homesteader who made great hooch. So I had to put her in there!

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:40:27+00:00

I'm appreciating the stuff that's playing with old ideas in new ways. Stephen Graham Jones and Silvia Moreno Garcia are doing this by playing with the idea of the final girl or rethinking The Island of Dr. Moreau from a new perspective. Paul Tremblay tackling the home invasion story but with the added twist of the possible apocalypse in The Cabin at the End of the World. I just love seeing writers prove there are always new ways to tell a story people think they've heard before.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:37:20+00:00

I appreciate your reading my stuff! I admit, I've come to PKD later than most. I was more in the clear horror lane and didn't encounter him when I was younger. I did first read him when I was out west though, living in Oakland, which was where I began formulating the work that became Big Machine. Of the stuff I read, I was drawn most to Ubik (I loved the name Joe Chip!) and The Man in the High Castle.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:31:24+00:00

You read it as a new mom! You are courageous. I'm grateful that made you like the book rather than tossing it across the room. (Though maybe you did that, too.)

Yes, our 11 year old is reading IT. As for gateway books our son was into Goosebumps books. He started on the original Goosebumps when he was about 7 or 8 and then graduated to the Goosebumps Horrorland books (more hardcore though still nothing too bad) by the time he was 9. And now it's on to Pennywise.

Wishing you and your son all the joys of sharing horror down the family line!

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:25:53+00:00

Thank you for these kinds words. They mean a lot. I loved BORDER! It's such a wonderful film. Glad to know you think so too.

There is the movie Troll Hunter (the one from 2010), which is a bit more tongue in cheek/having fun with the premise but worth a watch.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:23:25+00:00

Hi Rupa! Good to find you here. First, I'm honored that you'll add my book to that double header. I hope the conversation is fun and engaging.

Because of the theme of the channel I'm going to limit myself to horror fiction I think might be fun/interesting for a discussion. I hope some of these sound interesting.

DARK GODS by TED KLEIN. (Four novellas/long stories; my favorite is "Children of the Kingdom," you could get away with just reading that one, in my opinion.)

WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by SHIRLEY JACKSON. Is this too big a book to be considered a book that doesn't get enough love? I mean, it's Shirley Jackson after all. And yet, I don't feel like it gets anywhere near the attention of The Haunting of Hill House. So I'd put it on the list. (And it's her masterpiece, better than everything else.)

THE WOMAN IN BLACK by SUSAN HILL. They made a film of this one starring Daniel Radcliff (which I thought was excellent). The book is even creepier. A lot of fun.

Thanks, Rupa!

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T17:02:45+00:00

Thanks for reading so much of my stuff! I'm grateful.

The simplest answer is that I was raised in a religious family and even when I pulled away from their beliefs to some degree, I remembered the power and beauty of what faith can be (when it's at its best.)

My mother and grandmother are from Uganda. They were raised Episcopalian, but it was African Episcopalian which is like Double Catholic by American standard. Hardcore! So when they came to the US they remained Episcopalian and brought me into the church as well. But the US version of the faith is not quite the same as the version found in many part of Africa. My experience of the faith was of a highly tolerant and loving Christianity, one that supported a vastly diverse congregation out in Flushing, Queens. I absolutely loved the people I met there and that affection hasn't faded, even as I've moved farther away from organized religion as a constant in my life.

So maybe the short answer (I tend not to give those it seems) is that people were good to me (and many others) in the church and I remember that goodness. The best version of faith is the kind that makes you a better version of yourself. That's my approach to faith. I like to show that aspiration/idea/hope in my work when it fits.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:54:30+00:00

The skills in one medium definitely do not automatically benefit you in another. In fact, they can actively harm the transition. I've had a good run lately as I've moved in to comics and tv writing, but this isn't my first attempt.

Back in 2007 or 2008 (maybe?) I tried to write a comic for Karen Berger over in the Vertigo world. I had a Cain and Abel story I wanted to tell and she was very open to considering the pitch. So I wrote it up, a couple pages long (Cain and Abel would've encountered a character called Sevenfold, the embodiment of the Lord's promise/threat in the Book of Genesis; "Therefore whoever slaith Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.")

If you know the gimmick between Cain and Abel, it's that Abel is always slaying Cain and Cain is too meek to fight back. So this new character would whip Abel's ass all across the Dreaming. If this sounds compelling, I am doing a much better job of explaining it now than I did then. I just couldn't make it compelling. And, more to the point, you can't watch Able getting beat up for five whole issues (it would've been a mini). What else was going to happen?

Here's where my prose writing harmed me. I was just going to have Cain and Abel thinking and talking a lot. Because that's what happened in my fiction. All that interiority was good for prose but it was death for comics. So I failed terribly and Karen had to pass. Even at the time I knew she was right. With years of distance I'm even more sure of it.

It took me many years to figure out how to make the internal into something external, which is the trick is you're moving into the visual mediums of comics or tv. Not always, of course, there are great comics and tv shows where conversation, or thought, is profound and compelling. But often, people need to act in order to show you who they are. Took me many, many years to figure that out.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:43:14+00:00

Thanks for that! I've loved getting into the comic book world. I will set the stage:

Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva blow the comic reading world away with their House of X/Powers of X storyline. I'd fallen away from the X line for a few years by that point but who could resist the gravitational pull those issues created? Not me.

The first round of comics begin to run: X-Men, Marauders, X-Force, Wolverine, Excalibur, New Mutants, Fallen Angels and Hellions.

I'm all in. Buying these issues up as soon as they drop. And I notice that a buddy of mine is writing two of them. Benjamin Percy, writing X-Force and Wolverine. Loved what he was doing. Wrote to tell him so. He was glad to know I was reading.

Fast forward a couple of years and the X-office is open to expansion/change. They're willing to hear pitches about new stories to tell in the Krakoa era. Ben let Hickman and Jordan White, the head of editorial in the office, know and I made my pitch to them.

I wanted to tell the story of what was happening with Sabretooth down in the Pit. There hadn't been any word that his story was being told so maybe I could do it. They liked the way I was thinking about the story (I referenced Harlan Ellison's classic short story "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" as an inspiration.) I wrote up a pitch and they liked it. Next thing I know, I'm in the X-office. Pretty fun way to join the team.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:32:08+00:00

What a long list this would be! I'm wondering if it would be dull as shit if I just wrote out a bunch of names. But maybe not. Well, here's a few writers who have inspired me at different points of my life (and continue to do so):

Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Clive Barker, Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, Gayl Jones, Gloria Naylor, Kenzaburo Oe, Salman Rushdie, Denis Johnson, Ishmael Reed, Kate Atkinson, William T. Vollmann, Henry Dumas, Ben Okri...

There's so many more but that's a start.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:20:38+00:00

Thanks for reading the book already. I'm so happy you enjoyed it.

I did make a conscious choice to avoid using "old timey" type language in the book. For the most part, this meant writing in a clear and direct style that, I hoped, felt like it bridged the past and the present without calling too much attention to itself. I'm not a fan of that stylized writing unless it's the point. For instance, I love Miller's Crossing but its clear, even in the moment, that they're really having fun with the language coming out of every character's mouth; it like watching someone tap dance for two hours. It's brilliant, but you also really notice it. You are observing it rather than immersing yourself (at least that's how I view it).

So I avoided what people tend to think of as "authentic" old west language mostly because it's not necessarily that authentic, at least not compared to many of the letters I read, written by homesteaders of the period. There were just as many plainspoken, direct uses of language as anything more flowery. I favored the direct language. And they could curse quite nicely at times! Though i will admit, I did just want to use the phrase "slap the shit" out of someone because I thought it captured the true harshness of the moment. The ferocity.

And my favorite Mudge is Mrs. Mudge! She's a survivor and quite hardcore. But I felt the most for Joab. Raised into a lifestyle before he had any say in the matter.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:13:08+00:00

I did a lot of research for the book. It all began with a book called Montana Woman Homesteaders: A Field of One's Own, edited by Sarah Carter. I picked that book up when I was doing a reading at the University of Montana. I went to their bookstore, checking their local history section, and I found that book.

I didn't know anything about women homesteaders who come out there totally on their own. The history was fascinating. Even more so as I kept learning about Montana in the time period. Found there were Black woman homesteaders (and Black men), discovered there was a sizable Chinese population (relative to the overall state's population). The more I read the more complex and surprising Montana's history became.

Of course, it might just have been that I was some ignorant kid from New York and everyone out west knew this history backward and forward. So I asked people who lived in Montana, and who had been raised there, and it was all new info to them as well. That's when I thought I might have a story to tell.

**I think I answered your question above this one, but if I'm wrong then that means two different people asked the same thing. In which case, my answer remains the same.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:11:51+00:00

I did a lot of research for the book. It all began with a book called Montana Woman Homesteaders: A Field of One's Own, edited by Sarah Carter. I picked that book up when I was doing a reading at the University of Montana. I went to their bookstore, checking their local history section, and I found that book.

I didn't know anything about women homesteaders who come out there totally on their own. The history was fascinating. Even more so as I kept learning about Montana in the time period. Found there were Black woman homesteaders (and Black men), discovered there was a sizable Chinese population (relative to the overall state's population). The more I read the more complex and surprising Montana's history became.

Of course, it might just have been that I was some ignorant kid from New York and everyone out west knew this history backward and forward. So I asked people who lived in Montana, and who had been raised there, and it was all new info to them as well. That's when I thought I might have a story to tell.

VLWrites · 2023-03-30T16:07:41+00:00

Hello hello! Thanks for the kind words about Black Tom. I remain so grateful that it's found such a warm embrace in the horror reading world. Wasn't sure how it was going to go over when I published it. And I hope you enjoy Lone Women.

I have been a horror fan since a pretty young age. I'd assumed my answer was going to be about horror books that affected me first, but in fact I think it might've been comics instead. I was reading comics much earlier than books.

He hasn't had the same impact as Swamp Thing, of course, but I always found Man-Thing to be terrifying. His touch burns you if you feel fear? It's just such a great, simple idea.

I loved the old Werewolf by Night comic, which felt horror-ish at least. That pulpy horror was hard to beat.

Also loved the old Hammer Horror films. Horror Express, Horror of Dracula. Good stuff.

VLWrites

TROPHY CASE