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The Interview:
Good day Mr. Ketchum. It’s a
pleasure to interview you. To be honest though, I am a tad
nervous and very much intimated. Why do you think that is sir?
Possibly because you are a widely respected author? Maybe
because I am a rookie interviewer? Or maybe because your books
scare the shit out of me. Any guesses?
It's probably because I'm the kind of guy who wouldn't think
twice about holding a carving knife to your throat.
Um... so you've probably been asked
this question a hundred thousand times but I still need to ask.
Why do you enjoy writing? What about the process makes you tick?
Writing is
high-level play. You get to to live in a world entirely of your
own imagining for a while just like when you were a little kid.
Who, except schizophrenics maybe, wouldn't you enjoy that?
I recently finished reading THE GIRL
NEXT DOOR, an insanely awesome book. Please talk a little about
your life during that writing process. How old were you? What
authors were you reading at the time? How many cats did you
have? You know, shit like that.
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR came out in 1989 but I was writing it in '87,
'88, which means I was about 41 or 42 at the time. Two cats in
my life and two women. My mom had just died in January of '87
after a long illness and I was spending a lot of time out in New
Jersey where I grew up settling her affairs, giving away a lot
of her stuff to friends and relatives and arranging sale of the
house. The rest of the time I was in New York -- which was where
I actually did the writing. But because I'd decided to set GIRL
in the same time and place I grew up I took a lot of notes out
there.
What was I reading? Actually that's
easy. Since 1974 I've kept an ongoing list of every book I read
-- one of many eccentricities I guess. Here are some of the
authors who appear more than a couple of times on the list --
Donald Westlake, Clive Barker, John D. MacDonald, Jim Harrison,
Robert Stone, Stephen King, Thomas Tessier, Hemingway, Elmore
Leonard, Tom Sharpe, Larry McMurtry, Jim Thompson, Ann Rule,
Robert Bloch (re-reading, actually), Maxim Gorky, Charles
Bukowski, Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe. By my quick count 113 books
over those two years. I was reading my damn fool head off.
Was there ever a point in time when
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR played out differently, maybe in earlier
drafts? Rumor has it that Ruth was originally intended to win
the lottery, get a sex change operation and leave the children
for the sandy beaches of the Caribbean. Is this true?
Absolute fact. Thank god for my editor, huh?
Like most great books, during my
time reading THE GIRL NEXT DOOR I became overly attached to the
characters. It’s been six weeks since I put the book down and I
still think about those characters from time to time, especially
Meg. Does this ever happen to you? How attached do you get to
your characters? Do you ever find yourself talking out loud to
them?
I don't know if I get attached to my characters exactly but
maybe they get attached to me -- because I do tend to think of
them from time to time almost the way you'd occasionally think
of somebody you know pretty well in real life but haven't seen
for quite some time. The best-realized of them do seem to have a
life in my subconscious that extends beyond the pages of the
books. Never thought about this before. Kinda weird. And now I'm
wondering if other authors have had the same experience.
But I've never caught myself saying
"Ruth! You just cut that shit out now!" No. I swear.
As you well know, Moderncine
Company is adapting The Girl Next Door to the big screen. How
involved are you with that process? I know that you act from
time to time, any chance of you showing up in the film?
I may do a walk-on in the Kiwanis Karnival scene as one of the
carnies but nothing's firm on that yet. I had fun as the
bartender in THE LOST and one of the cops in Ed Lee's HEADER --
the other cop being Lee --so I'd be happy to repeat the
experience. And I'm probably going out to the shooting next week
just to have a look. But my main input's over. By that I mean
insisting that the screenplay by Phil Nutman and Dan Farrands be
part of the deal. It's a terrific script -- I couldn't have
asked for better. So I know the bedrock's there.
I’m aware that Stephen King is a
huge supporter of yours. How well do you two know each other? Do
you guys ever hang out in the woods together and kill small
animals?
(awkward silence)
Jack, you still with me? Hello…
I'm still with you. And so is that carving knife, remember...
I first met Steve when I flew up to
Bangor so we could sign tipsheets for the Overlook edition of
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR together and he and Tabby and I went out to
dinner. I'd say we hit it off pretty immediately. We're only a
month or two apart age-wise so we relate to a lot of the same
things, and we both have that dark sense of humor. Steve's a
regular guy. He just happens to be the richest regular guy I
know. That, and the most imaginative. Hell, during the course of
the three hours or so we signed he must have had two dozen story
ideas. I had zilch. I've seen and spoken to him a few times
since then at various events -- most notably at the National
Book Awards -- but we don't socialize. Most often we communicate
through e-mail or the very occasional phone call. Regular guy or
not he's a hell of a busy fella and I want him to be able to get
back to me in his own damn good time.
OK, let’s talk horror movies.
Rumor has it that you enjoy Asian Cinema, as I do. What are some
of your favorite Asian horror flicks and why?
I've been writing the occasional article for Asian Cult Cinema
for some years now. Started with the Matsumuru ALL NIGHT LONG
series, which I still think are about the most unsettling,
disturbing films I've ever seen. At the time I told Tom Weisser
that all I knew about Asian films was Kurosawa and big rubber
monsters but he said, that's okay, these movies have Ketchum
written all over them -- and he was absolutely right. But I've
liked a lot since then. The Miike films forinstance,
particularly VISITOR Q. Then there's 9-IRON, RINGU, THE ISLE,
BATTLE ROYALE, OLD BOY, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS -- a whole bunch
of 'em. Oh, and for sheer intelligent sexiness, the new FLOWER
AND SNAKE. There's a sense of risk and experiment about a lot of
Asian films that even our home-grown independents don't have.
Also the fact that their values don't necessarily match up with
ours exactly is refreshing. Half the time you don't know what
the hell to expect.
A guy like you probably eats fear
for breakfast, but has a horror film ever scared you?
Sure. They have ever since I was a kid. The old Universal stuff.
The "awakening" scene in Boris Karloff's THE MUMMY scared the
living shit out of me for instance. The early Hammer stuff. And
later, certainly NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, TEXAS CHAINSAW
MASSACRE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, THE BROOD, ALIEN.... I could
name a few dozen I guess. And again, the three Matsumuru movies
knocked my socks off. Most recently, Chris Sivertson's direction
of the final scene in the film he made of THE LOST scared me
plenty -- and I wrote the damn book it's based on! If it's good
I'm still easy to scare.
Any horror films that you are
looking forward to seeing at the moment?
Yeah. I can't wait for the first cut of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.
So what’s on the agenda for upcoming
projects?
I'm working on a book. Whether it's a novel or a long novella
hasn't yet been announced to me. I presume it will shortly.
Upcoming are a various stories in various anthologies, a new
novella called WEED SPECIES and the first hardcover edition of
JOYRIDE aka ROAD KILL from CD, Gauntlet's CLOSING TIME AND OTHER
STORIES -- all uncollected pieces -- and Overlook's expanded
edition of BROKEN ON THE WHEEL OF SEX. The overall agenda is to
get more of my stuff back in print over the coming year or so
and keep it there. Books like STRANGLEHOLD aka ONLY CHILD, THE
CROSSINGS, HIDE AND SEEK, and COVER. All of them are pretty hard
to find and I'd like to change that permanently.
Any final comments or thoughts?
Yeah. God's an imaginary friend for adults. Get over it.
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