In Laymon's Terms

Edward Lee

O ONE NEEDS to be told just how cool a guy Dick Laymon was. He was a great writer, a great person, and a great friend, and when I got invited to participate in this fantastic tribute anthology, I couldn’t have been more honored or thrilled. Dick’s work, going back all the way to the beginning, had a tremendous impact on me; it helped forge my own desires to become a writer, to the extent that I’ll always feel indebted to him. I feel bad that there’s no way I can ever pay him back. But the biggest trip of all was devouring his fiction for all those years and then later actually getting to be his friend—yes, that was a trip-and-a-half, to know the master behind all this wonderful dark art. Dick gave me encouragement, advice, and enlightenment at times when I couldn’t have needed it more desperately, just one hell of a stand-up guy.

I thought a slightly comic piece would be fitting for In Laymon’s Terms; it’s an “entree” from my “Grub Girl” mythos, spiced up with a few dashes of a political tangent. I have a feeling that the author to which this book is a tribute would appreciate that, since he had a few strong political convictions himself. I miss him. I’m just hoping that the publisher has a distributor in Heaven.