Ronald Kelly burst onto the horror scene in the late eighties and early nineties with a string of novels and short stories which he likes to call “Southern-Fried Horror”. When he got the phone call in 1996 from his agent informing him that Zebra Publishing was stopping their horror line and would not be publishing the novels he had already finished, his writing career came to a screeching halt. From that point he tried writing in other genres but could not get published; after all, he was a horror writer. He simply gave up writing, went back to the nine-to-five life, and started raising a family with his wife. A challenge he calls the biggest blessing of his life. Now Ron has come full circle, with renewed interest for his novels and what happened to Ronald Kelly being discussed on message boards, Ron has resumed what we hope will be a long and rewarding writing career.
Famous Monsters: First Ron I would like to thank you for taking time out for this interview. I am a little embarrassed to say that I never read any of your books before Croatoan Publishing published your chapbook “Flesh Welder”, which by the way was great. I have been trying to catch up on your back catalog and you were gracious enough to send me a few books, “The Possession”, “Father’s Little Helper” and “Pitfall”. After reading “Flesh Welder” and “The Possession” I can see why you are so well revered in the world of literary horror. “The Possession” is an outstanding book, genuinely creepy. The detail is simply amazing; the characterization is outstanding. It is one of the best books I have read in a while. I am greatly looking forward to more. (Bibliography at end of interview.)
Ronald Kelly: Well, I’m mighty glad to be here. You know, this is pretty darned cool for me personally, being on the Famous Monsters site like this. I grew up reading the magazine back in the sixties and early seventies, and it was a huge part of why I became so involved with the horror genre years later. Uncle Forry was like a second father to me, but I reckon that’s no big surprise. Most fans of FM feel that way.
Famous Monsters: First, in my on-line research I did before this interview, I found that when Zebra Publishing stopped their horror line you retired from writing. How hard of a decision was that?
Ronald Kelly: It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, although it turned out to be a necessary one. I’d written professionally for eight years and doing novels for Zebra was pretty much my full-time job. When their horror line closed, it was like getting a big, fat pink slip. Since I had all my eggs in one basket and the horror genre was on the skids, I tried my hand at other genres – western, young adult, and, heaven forbid, even romance! – but none of them worked out. So I had no choice. I went back to work in the
factories where I’d spent the previous twelve years.
Famous Monsters: What did you do with all your free time after that?
Ronald Kelly: Mostly I concentrated on living a normal life, away from the spooks and serial killers. My wife, Joyce, and I began raising a family. First, we had our daughter, Reilly, and then a few years later, Makenna. We just added a new addition last March, our son, Ryan. So that’s pretty much what I did. Worked, mowed the yard on the weekends, and rustled up a passel of young’uns.
Famous Monsters: Did you do any writing at all during this period?
Ronald Kelly: No, I didn’t. I reckon the whole catastrophe with Zebra and my inability to find another mass market publisher made me sort of gun-shy. Also, I seemed to lose the fire I’d felt when I started out. I simply didn’t feel inspired and the thought of starting all over again from scratch was right depressing… so I just stopped for a while, figuring I needed a little hiatus. I never imagined that hiatus would span ten long years.
Famous Monsters: Did you ever think during this period that you would return to writing horror fiction?
Ronald Kelly: Honestly, I didn’t. When I stopped writing horror, I pretty much stopped reading it, too. I really don’t know why… I reckon it was painful being involved in a genre that I’d invested so much in, but had lost so quickly. During that period I sort of lost my way, you could say. I totally distanced myself from the type of books and movies that I had grown up loving as a child.
Famous Monsters: Was returning to writing your own decision? What does your wife and children think about your return to writing, and how much does their support mean to you and your writing?
Ronald Kelly: Actually, my return to the horror genre was completely unexpected. Oh, I’d had friends urging me to get back to the keyboard for years, but I always put them off, thinking that it was all in the past. Eventually, though, my interest in horror and the act of writing in general came back to me, and I’m glad it did. There always seemed to be a part of me missing during those years when I didn’t write. Now I feel like I have it back, stronger than ever.
My family is a major source of support and inspiration. I doubt that I would have even considered a comeback without their approval. My wife has always been a big supporter of my writing career, although she’s more into romantic fiction that horror. I took her to see Silence of the Lambs right after we were married and I believe that cured her of wanting to indulge in horror from that point on. My oldest daughter, Reilly, is kind of proud of her old man. She loves watching old monster movies and the new superhero flicks, and she has been showing some creative tendencies toward writing and artwork that are very encouraging to me. My other kids are a little too young to even have a clue
About the gruesome pastime their daddy dabbles in.
Famous Monsters: What led up to you getting back into the writing and the horror field in general?
Ronald Kelly: In the summer of 2006, something weird happened. Folks started asking about me over the internet and my old books started selling rather well through eBay and other on-line outlets. I began to wonder “Do I really have a second shot at this writing gig?” Richard Chizmar with Cemetery Dance Publications contacted me a few days later and it just sort of took off from there.
Famous Monsters: Why horror, what brought you into this field of writing in the first place?
Ronald Kelly: I guess it’s all linked to my childhood love of horror and the macabre. I grew up during the big monster boom of the 60’s: reading Famous Monsters of Filmland, watching all those old Universal and Hammer monster movies, and putting together those great Aurora models. All that stuff was a major influence in continuing my interest, on a professional level, as an adult.
Famous Monsters: You became interested in writing after you took a stab at comic book drawing. Was reading always a part of your life, and who was most responsible in turning you on to reading? Outside of the authors you used to read who would you say was your biggest influence?
Ronald Kelly: Yes, I was always a ravenous reader. I reckon I was a certified nerd growing up. I always had a book in my hand or one close by. I started reading comic books – both DC and Marvel – when I was ten or eleven, and graduated to horror fiction when I started high school. I believe Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the first novel I actually read. Then I began reading Bradbury, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne. After that I turned to more traditional horror literature like Shelly’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
I’d have to say the one most influential person in turning me into a reader was my mother. She loved to read scary stories and gothic novels. And she absolutely loved horror movies! I remember her taking me to see all kinds of great horror flicks when I was ten or twelve… Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Stanley, Frogs, and House of Dark Shadows among others. I didn’t have to beg to go like some kids. She’d end up suggesting it to me instead. Now how many monster-loving kids are blessed enough to have a mom like that?
Famous Monsters: Having been through the publishing industry once and starting again what advice would you give to aspiring writers on handling the rigors of this profession?
Ronald Kelly: I reckon the best advice I could give them would be to stick with it. Just don’t give up. Sure, there are a lot of writers competing against you – more now than a few years ago – but you can get published… and published consistently with hard work and tenacity. Also a writer should find his or her own voice… something distinctly different that separates their prose from everyone else’s.
Famous Monsters: How do you take an idea and flesh it out to a full-blown story or novel?
Ronald Kelly: Well, different writers do it in different ways. When I get the germ of an idea, I usually work out the plot first – beginning, middle, and ending – then add the characters and setting. The character development and dialogue just seems to fill itself in naturally after that… at least in my case it does. When writing short fiction, the plot usually stays chiseled in stone, but that’s not always that case when writing novels. Circumstances and events in the storyline tend to change and reform themselves during the course of the writing process. I’ve had novels that turned out completely different than I originally intended.
Famous Monsters: How much time are you able to devote to writing at this time?
Ronald Kelly: Right now I’m getting up early before work and writing an hour or two, maybe get in an hour or so in the evening. I hope to get back to writing full time sometime before the end of this year. I wouldn’t mind sitting in front of a computer all day long, churning out tales of Southern-fried horror. No, I wouldn’t mind that a’tall.
Famous Monsters: A lot has changed in the publishing industry since you first started, what with the internet, electronic readers and on-line magazines etc. What do you feel are the advantages of these new mediums and how do you plan to use these to further your career or if you plan to use them?
Ronald Kelly: As a rule, I’m pretty “old school” about the publishing business. I just think it’s a lot better – and more enjoyable – to read a story or book off the printed page. When I read a novel, I like to hold it in my hands… feel the weight of it and smell the scent of the paper and ink. But I know things are bound to change, so I’m slowly adapting to having my work appear electronically. I’ve had a couple of stories published on-line since my return and it’s been pretty cool so far. I don’t see offering entire novellas or novels over the internet, but, hey, that could change.
One thing I do like about working with computers is submitting my work electronically. When I started out, I would send in stories with postage-paid return envelopes and it could be months or even a year before I heard anything. Now days you just send it out in an email and you can get a reply back in a matter of hours or even minutes. It sure beats using snail-mail.
Famous Monsters: With the state of today’s economy and general malaise that is gripping our nation how do you see the book publishing industry changing to compete for limited funds?
Ronald Kelly: It’s right discouraging, starting my publishing career over again with the economy the way it is, but I’m determined to stick it out. The truth is, folks only have so much money these days and their liable to spend it on food or gas, instead of buying a book or taking in a movie. I think it’s up to the authors, publishers, and movie studios to put out the most creative work possible for their individual audiences to chose from… not just crap or tired remakes. We need to give them something fresh and new… something to get excited about. Twilight has done that in a sense, both with the movie and the books. Now if we can take that renewed interest and forge it into a real passion for horror among readers and movie-goers… well, that’s how we’re going to strengthen the publishing and film industries during these hard times.
Famous Monsters: Personally, I prefer reading a good book to watching a movie, playing a video game or watching the mind numbing squalor the networks try to pass off as entertainment on TV. As long as there are books to buy and read, I will remain a fan of the written medium and continue to support it. What do you think the publishing industry can do to make reading a more viable option to the general public?
Ronald Kelly: For one thing, the publishing industry can start showing some genuine respect for authors and their work. For a while, a lot of the mass market paperback and hardcover houses have regarded writers and their books in terms of shelf space, marketing, and name popularity. I think that’s because a lot of people who work in the publishing – and book-selling – business just don’t give a hang about books at all. It’s just another job to them. If publishers would hire folks who possessed a true passion and love for books and the various genres they edit for, then maybe that would translate into an increased appeal and renewed interest among the book-buying public.
Famous Monsters: I feel that small publishers like Dorchester Publishing, Full Moon Press, Earthling Publications, and Cemetery Dance etc. fill a great void in the publishing industry by giving authors opportunities that the larger publishing houses choose not to with chapbooks, limited editions etc. Do you prefer these small publishers to the larger ones?
Ronald Kelly: Actually, I do prefer dealing with the small press compared to the mass market houses. They seem to possess a real fire for presenting horror and suspense fiction in the most respectful way possible. There is a real collector’s base out there that enjoys the limited editions and buys them almost religiously. Also – and this has almost become lost in the big limited edition rush among independent presses in the past few years – there are readers who crave affordable books and chapbooks. They would rather enjoy a good read with some good artwork for a decent price. Sadly, that way of thinking has been abandoned by some of the small presses, although lately I’ve seen a positive turn back toward publishing for the sake of supplying exceptional reading material, rather than high-dollar collector’s editions.
Famous Monsters: What are your three favorite horror books (stories)?
Ronald Kelly: Just three? That’s kind of hard, but here goes…
Number one – and this might get me some flack because it’s not a horror story in most people’s mind – is Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Anyone who has read this book will tell you that it’s got alot of dark aspects to it: the horrifying racial injustice, the mystery of Boo Radley, and Bob Ewell’s stalking of Scout and Jem through the woods; they all give this classic an edge as sharp and wicked as Norman Bates’ butcher knife.
Number two on my list would be Stephen King’s The Stand. I read it back when it first came out and still sticks with me after all these years. By far my favorite post-apocalyptic novel. The third would have to be Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life, another mainstream book that has alot of horror and suspense in it. In fact, it was very influential in the writing of my own novel, Fear, it left such a lasting impact.
Famous Monsters: What are your three favorite horror movies?
Ronald Kelly: That’s a little easier to answer. The first would be The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It was the first Universal monster movie that really scared me as a child. The Wolfman came close, but the Gillman was the first monster that actually clawed its way into my nightmares. The second would be Robert Wise’s The Haunting. That movie, with its breathing doors and subtle horrors still gives me goosebumps. The third is John Carpenter’s The Thing. When I saw it in the theatre in the 80’s, I’d never seen anything like it before. Bottin’s effects are more terrifying than any CGI that I’ve seen in today’s horror films.
Famous Monsters: Who are your favorite authors and biggest influences?
Ronald Kelly: Stephen King is the one who inspired me to write horror in the first place, but then that’s probably the same answer 99% of horror writers would give you today. When I started getting published in the small press magazines in the late 80’s, Joe R. Lansdale and Robert McCammon were my biggest influences, and I guess, in a way, they still are. They taught me that being a popular Southern writer of horror was a possibility.
Since I came back to horror, I’ve been discovering some new authors that I really enjoy. Folks like James Newman, Brian Keene, Fran Friel, and John R. Little. Writers with very distinctive voices and a true talent for tickling your funny bone, making you think, and scaring the living crap out of you.
Famous Monsters: You have quite a few projects coming up in the near future, could you give us some detail on what is on the horizon?
Ronald Kelly: Yeah, I have a whole lot of stuff coming up in 2009. Cemetery Dance has just released my first short story collection, Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors, and announced my first novel in thirteen years, Hell Hollow, which should be out sometime this summer. Thunderstorm Books will be releasing The Sick Stuff, a mini collection of some of my extreme horror stories from the splatter punk days of the early 90’s in April. And later on this year, Full Moon Press will be releasing Undertaker’s Moon, my novel of Irish werewolves in a small Tennessee town, as volume one of their Essential Ronald Kelly Collection. The Essential books will include all of the old Zebra novels, as well as a few new ones. And all will include brand-new novellas that are related to each storyline and lots of great illustrations by horror artist Alex McVey.
Famous Monsters: How does the future look for Ronald Kelly the writer?
Ronald Kelly: The future looks pretty darned bright from where I’m sitting. I’ve got dozens of projects in mind and already have publishers interested in doing them. Everything I wanted to do – but didn’t have the opportunity to do – during the first leg of my horror career, I’m doing now. It has been a very exciting time and I thank the good Lord for blessing me with the chance to do it all over again… hopefully even better this time.
Famous Monsters: Ron, thank you so much for this wonderful interview and wish you the best in all future endeavors. If you want to say something in closing, the floor is yours.
Ronald Kelly: I’d just like to thank the fans for sticking with me during that long dry period between 1996 and 2006 and forgiving me for going AWOL for awhile. It feels mighty good to be out of the safe sunlight and back in those deep, dark shadows where I belong.
Bibliography
Short Stories
Breakfast Serial / Terror Time Again / 1988
Peacemaker / Fright Depot / 1988
Uncle Cyrus / Noctulpa / 1988
The Web Of La Sanguinaire / Deathrealm / 1988
Miss Abigail’s Delicate Condition / Noctulpa / 1988
Papa’s Exile / Deathrealm / 1988
Forever Angels / Cemetery Dance / 1988
Buella’s Pride / Witness To The Bizarre/ 1988
Better Than Breadcrumbs / Cemetery Dance / 1989
The Skating Pond / Terror Time Again / 1989
Black Harvest / After Hours / 1989
The Dark Tribe / Tri-State Fantasist / 1989
The Hatchling / Tri-State Fantasist / 1989
Consumption / Thin Ice / 1989
Dust Devils / 2AM Magazine / 1989
The Boxcar / After Hours / 1989
Old Hacker / New Blood / 1990
Diary / Cemetery Dance / 1990
The Cistern / Cemetery Dance / 1990
Flesh-Welder / Noctulpa / 1990
Negative Attitude / The Dark Side / 1990
King Cong / House Carfax / 1990
Oh, Sordid Shame! / Deathrealm / 1990
The Winds Within / Cemetery Dance/ 1990
Little Bastard / Eldritch Tales / 1990
Dead Skin / Grue Magazine / 1990
Yea, Though I Drive / Cold Blood / 1991
Housewarming / Eldritch Tales / 1991
The Cerebral Passion / Eldritch Tales / 1991
Depravity Road / Deathrealm / 1991
Bookmarks / Gauntlet / 1991
Blood Suede Shoes / Shock Rock / 1992
Thinning The Herd / 2AM Magazine / 1992
Beneath Black Bayou / Dark At Heart / 1992
Midnight Grinding / Borderlands 3 / 1992
Tyrophex-Fourteen / The Earth Strikes Back / 1994
Scream Queen / Hot Blood: Seeds Of Fear / 1995
Romicide / Cemetery Dance / 1996
Exit 85 / Cemetery Dance / 1996
Novels
Hindsight / Zebra Books / 1990
Pitfall / Zebra Books / 1990
Something Out There / Zebra Books / 1991
Moon Of The Werewolf / Zebra Books / 1991
Father’s Little Helper / Zebra Books / 1992
The Possession / Zebra Books / 1993
Fear / Zebra Books / 1994
Fear / Pinnacle Books (Reprint) / 2000
Blood Kin / Zebra Books / 1996
Blood Kin / Pinnacle Books (Reprint) / 2000
Slocum & The Nightriders / Berkley / 1994
Slocum & The Gold Slaves / Berkley / 1994
Audio Books
Dark Dixie: Tales Of Southern Horror / Spine-Tingling Press / 1991
Nonfiction/Articles
Insight On Hindsight / Mystery Scene / 1990
Writing Something Out There / After Hours / 1991
A Tribute To Ray Rexer / Overlook Connection #15 / 1991
Confessions Of A Religious Horror Writer / Gauntlet / 1991
Writing Moon Of The Werewolf / Mystery Scene / 1992
Introduction To Firefly… Burning Bright / 1996
Additional Short stories:
Mister Mack & The Monster Mobile / Horror World website / 2008
Cumberland Furnace / Shivers 5 / Cemetery Dance Publications / 2008
The Final Feature / Horror Drive-In website / 2009
Collections
Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors / Cemetery Dance Publications / 2008
Chapbooks
Flesh Welder / Croatoan Publishing / 2008
Tanglewood / Cemetery Dance Publications / 2008
Upcoming Publications (2009-2010)
The Sick Stuff / Thunderstorm Books / 2009
Hell Hollow / Cemetery Dance Publications / 2009
Undertakers Moon / Full Moon Press / 2009
Pitfall / Full Moon Press / 2010
Burnt Magnolia / Full Moon Press / 2010
Twelve Gauge / Full Moon Press / 2010
Somewhere South of Hell: An Anthology of Southern Horror/ Full Moon Press/ 2010
[...] My interview with Mr. Kelly. [...]