Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/29/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 08/21/10.
GARY FRANK
Books:
Forever Will You Suffer
Institutional Memory
Official Site: http://www.authorgaryfrank.com/
Live Journal: http://writingthroughhell.blogspot.com/
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: June 12, 2010.
Meeting Site: Rare Flix Collectibles. Secaucus, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 11.
Meeting Program: Talk by Horror Writer.
Notes:
Rare Flix closed in August 2010, a victim of the down economy.
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2010 Philip J De Parto:
The good folks at RareFlix in Secaucus, New Jersey cheerfully agreed to host our monthly General Meeting on Saturday, June 12, 2010 when our usual meeting space proved unavailable. The establishment is still recovering from the aftermath of a water pipe which had burst and flooded the store since we were there in February. The flooring has been replaced and it doesn't look like anything happened in the front of the store, but the movie sets behind the public areas suffered a lot of damage. Problems with the HVAC system necessitated holding the meeting at the front of the establishment, which worked out nicely as it allowed store owner Chet to get into the conversational flow.
Barry Weinberger led a well attended Ice Nine discussion which included mention of Paul Levitz' return to penning the LEGION OF SUPER HEROES comic, news about TRUE BLOOD, and talk about the reissue of Stephen King's DANCE MACABRE. A lot of time was spent answering questions about the new restoration of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, which John Upton had recently seen. From my seat, I had a good view of speaker Gary Frank's wonder at the store's array of videos, props, and other paraphernalia.
Gary Frank's earliest writing was of "awful" STAR TREK / STAR WARS crossover fiction. A childhood fan of television series like LAND OF THE GIANTS, SPEED RACER, THUNDERBIRDS and U.F.O., he wrote off and on for twenty years in both genre and non genre settings. During that time he became increasingly drawn to horror as a vehicle to write an interesting story. He was inspired by the characterization of horror writers Gary Bromback, Mort Castle, and Jack Ketchum. He studied how Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Robert Mc Cammon brought their stories to life. This interest led him to the Garden State Horror Writers where he eventually became president of the organization.
In 2002 Gary wrote a thriller about a woman being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. It had its merits, but it wasn't quite where it needed to be. He rewrote the book as a horror novel with the ex-boyfriend as a supernatural creature. This became FOREVER WILL YOU SUFFER, his first book sale.
Our guest made the sale at the 2005 World Horror Convention, which was held in New York City. He pitched it to both Tor Books and Medallion Press. Tor considered it, but ultimately passed. Medallion said yes.
Medallion was a minor player in the Romance field, but did have national distribution. The company was owned by one of the heirs to the Wrigley fortune and was seeking to diversify into horror, science fiction and other genres. They pay less than professional rates ($ 1000.00 for a first novel), but give a better deal on royalty rates if the author earns out his advance. Gary Frank quickly earned his advance.
Both sides were pleased with the first book, and a better deal was struck for Mr Frank's next novel, INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY. MEMORY is a more mainstream novel. The horror is less overt. It concerns a building which feeds off its occupants like a psychic vampire.
With two books under his belt, our speaker felt it was time to get a bit more ambitious. He has written FALLEN ANGELS, the first in a proposed five book series. Mr Frank received the rejection letter from Medallion the day of the meeting. He was unperturbed because he feels he can get a better deal from another publisher.
Our guest tries to write every day. He finds it very difficult to write short fiction, although he enjoys it. He is one of the associate editors at SPACE & TIME MAGAZINE and reads about 30 submissions each month for the publication.
He writes horror because he likes to scare himself. He enjoys the roller coaster adrenalin rush of placing ordinary people in desperate circumstances. He talked about publishing houses' bias against the horror label, citing Jonathan Maberry's GHOST ROAD BLUES and Jonathan Cronin's THE PASSAGE as horror books which are not marketed as horror.