Interview: Ryan Thomas

Ryan Thomas is the author of the Disturbingly wicked novel:

'The Summer I Died'

AD JOHN takes 10 minutes to talk with the man himself...

‘The Summer I Died’ was set around quite a horrific premise, where did you get the idea from?

It was really two ideas coming together. The first was that the weekend before I started writing the book I’d gone shooting with some friends. It was the first time I’d ever shot a .44 magnum and I wanted to remember the feeling, so I was really just putting it down on paper as a memory. But the characters came to life and I kept going with it. Secondly, I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of fate vs. coincidence, and thought it would be fun to explore the notion. Actually, you can add a third idea…I had been looking for some horror books that tested the limits of one’s emotions but couldn’t find anything, and I figured I’d fill the hole. At least I would try.

Your characters seemed very real, did you base them on people in real life, perhaps even yourself?

Yes. A lot of what is mentioned in the book is based on things my friends and I did growing up in New England. We actually stole the lawn ornaments discussed in the book (no jail time, though) and I had a friend who’s dad ran him over. You’ll notice I dedicated the book to my friends, because so many of the flashback occurrences come from real life. I’m still good friends with those guys, even though I’m the one who moved to California. We never shot guns, but we hung out and poked fun at each other all the time. We loved horror movies, and star wars, and comic books, and we grew up near a city park so we spent a lot of time in the woods goofing around, playing war and stuff. A lot of Roger is me, and lot of Tooth is the side of me I wished I’d had back in the day.

There was a lot of reference to comic book characters, are you a fan of comic books? Or did you just do some extensive research on the subject? If you are into comic books, who is your favourite character and why?

I’m definitely a fan. Sadly, I’ve let my comic reading taper off a bit with all the work I’m doing now, but I try to read a couple a month. (I just started Y: The Last Man and am loving it.) Let’s see…my favourite would have to be Batman, because like I mention in the book, he’s just a regular guy. He has no super powers, just his strength, his anger, and his cunning. Plus he has flaws, which makes him real to me. Some other favourites are Dark Minds, Trailer Park of Terror, Daredevil, anything by Straczynski.

From the amount of gore and violence that was presented in your book, I got the idea you are a bit of a slasher fan, am I right? I think this is why I loved the book so much, I am a huge fan of ‘Chainsaw Massacre’ & ‘Friday The 13th’, did any of these two movies have an influence on your writing style?

I’m fascinated by gore effects. I’ll watch slasher movies and sit there and try to figure out how they made that guy’s head explode so seamlessly. (My favourite film for gore effects is still Saving Private Ryan.) Of course most DVDs show you how they do it now so the mystery is gone. But yes, I’m a huge slasher film fan for that reason. A few reviewers have compared it to TCM and Friday the 13th, but I didn’t set out to do a slasher film on paper so much as I was going for something that would push the limits of blood and terror. When Jason kills someone in a film, I couldn’t care less. I usually route for the bad guy, be it Leatherface or Jason or Freddy or whoever. In this book, I was trying to make it real enough you route for the good guys. Hopefully that worked out.

You also have some great dialogue in your book, I think dialogue is one of the most important things when writing a novel, its got to sound real or no one is going to believe it. What influences do you draw upon when writing dialogue? Because I swear there are some real Tarantino type lines in your novel.

I don’t know. This was my first book so there was no one to really tell me it worked or didn’t. I’m only finding out now in reviews that people like the dialogue. When I was writing it, I just wanted to make sure these guys were real, so that once I put them in that horrible situation the reader feels for them. I know what my friends and I sound like when we bullshit with each other, and I wanted that to come across. I’m an avid reader, and when I find someone who writes good dialogue, I tend to stay a fan. So probably Gregory MacDonald and Joseph Kanon and Lansdale…and even Wodehouse had something to do with it on a subliminal level. I love witty dialogue and those guys do it well.

A lot of parents and authority figures complain that violence begins violence; do you think this is true? As so many artists have been blamed for in sighting violence in the past, Eminem, Stephen King etc.

I don’t think watching violent movies or playing violent videos games begets violence. I’ve been watching violent movies since I was around six years old, and I rarely even kill bugs. I don’t have kids, but I have to assume that some of the fault is with poor parenting, and some of it is with a failing school system, and some of it is just stupidity. When I watch a Tarantino film and I see John Travolta blow some guy’s head off and then go eat breakfast, I’m not so stupid to think I could do that too. In the real world you go to jail. Kids today, I don’t know, they think they’re invincible, and I’m not sure where it comes from. Interestingly, this is kind of the topic of my next novel, which I will be shopping around very soon. It deals with society’s fascination with murder.

This book reminded me of an extreme Eli Roth film (if such a thing is possible) I think this book would make a cool film, would you ever consider turning it into a screenplay? Hey maybe you could sell it to Roth?

Haha. I’m not holding my breath for a sale, but I’d work on the screenplay. So long as whoever bought it didn’t change it too much. I went to college for communications and took a lot of film courses, I even interned with David Mamet (another good source of dialogue), so I love film. A handful of people have said it would make a good film, but I don’t know; it might be too slowly paced for today’s audiences.

I also hear you play in a band. I am a musician myself, what instrument do you play? What’s your band called?

I play guitar and sing in a “punkabilly” band called The Buzzbombs. We play oldies, like Elvis and Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent, but we speed it up a bit and get really drunk and jump around on the bar. It’s really fun. The crowd loves it, because every body knows songs like Hound Dog and Peggy Sue, but we’re all of a younger mindset so faster is better. We have our own stuff too, which is in the vein of the Reverend Horton Heat. We’re doing all right for ourselves here in San Diego. Check us out online at http://www.thebuzzbombs.com/.

So what’s next for Ryan Thomas? Have you got another book on the way? Can you give us a sneak preview of the plot line?

Like I mentioned, it revolves around society’s fascination with murder, especially as it relates to the media. The first draft is done and I’m in the editing phase. I don’t want to reveal too much just yet, but it takes place in Manhattan and is largely satirical. The gore has been toned way down, but there’re still some gruesome parts to it. I think it’s much funnier too, but I’ll have to wait to see what my focus group thinks.

So where can people purchase your book and other things you’ve written?

Summer I Died is available via any online book retailer. Shocklines.com has signed copies. Major chains may have it, but if not, chances are they can order it for you. My story Cookies Have No Souls just came out this week from Space Squid mag, and I think they offer it as a free downloadable PDF as well as a print version. It’s a very funny publication. (http://www.spacesquid.com/). Twisted Cat Tales is also out now with my story The Alley Cat. I’ve got a whole bunch slated for release in the next couple months—it takes a while for these things to make it to print, and you can generally check my site to see when they’ll be out: www.ryancthomas.com. Of course, look for Siren in Morbid Fantastic!