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Roy Gonzales Answers 3 Irrelevant Questions

Hellbenders by Roy Gonzales and S W Salzman

Roy Gonzales and I met through our mutual friend, actress Ally Labar. Roy is a writer who has been writing for over 40 years, counting high school. His first big break was working with the company Prodigy Six in New York. He wrote the script for their film THE CROOKED MIND that came in 9th place in the Manhattan Film Fest. Prodigy Six also published two graphic novels based on his script SHADOW OF DARKNESS. Roy is currently working with Polarbear Film on a package of scripts. He’s working on the sequel to the up coming horror film, HOUSE OF DOLLS, and he published the novel HELLBENDERS based on his original screenplay of the same name co-written by best selling author Shawn W. Salzman. He’s looking for a producer to turn HELLBENDERS into a film.

House of Dolls

But that’s not important right now.

Roy is the second person on the hot seat, answering the 3 irrelevant questions.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure movie, and what defense do you have for it? 

I have a few that I go back to and watch. Blade Runner (1981) Apocalypse Now (1979), and the one that always gets a moan that they can’t believe I like it is Heaven’s Gate. (1980) Heaven’s Gate is an epic western that reminds me of The Godfather with its story and violence. When it was released, the critics destroyed it, saying it cost to much and it was too long. But, I think it was cuz, the director didn’t allow any press on the set when he was filming and to get revenge on him. They gave the film horrible reviews. I mean, now Heaven’s Gate is seen as a classic.

Screenwriter Roy Gonzales.

If you had a full day of access to any animal, what would it be? 

My neighbors dog Kopi. Named after the wrestler. Kopi is the best dog I have ever known. She is so cute and chill. I love her like she was my own.

If you were hungry and could fly or drive anywhere right now for the perfect snack or meal, where would you go? 

I would take a fast car to Bell Gardens, and to the Pioneer Chicken there. It’s the best chicken in Los Angeles. That is where I would go.

Buy HELLBENDERS the novel now on Amazon. Give this man some money for that trek to Pioneer Chicken!

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Goldilocks: Little Girl Lost or Mad Stalker?

An evil Goldi Locks stalks the three bears in The Big Bad Goodnight by John Cosper.

I’ve always loved fairy tales. I love playing around with fairy tales even more. I once wrote a play that surmised that the Prince Charming in all fairy tales was the same guy. The various princesses put two and two together and sought out a hit squad of little girls – including that little burglar Goldilocks and the homicidal Red Riding Hood – to get some revenge.

As much as I love fairy tales, I also love film noir. For me, it doesn’t get much better than the sinister vibes of Double Indemnity, Key Largo, or Cape Fear. Not the remake, mind you. Nolte and DeNiro were fine. But Robert Mitchum’s portrayal in the original is a villain without peer. Insidious. Relentless. And always smiling.

The Big Bad Goodnight, my homage to both fairy tales and film noir, began with just one, simple story about a down on his luck wolf trying to make one last score and get out of town. It grew to be more when the notion came to me to combine Robert Mitchum’s Max Cady into one sinister character.

What if Goldilocks went to the Bears’ house on purpose? What if there was a history between Goldilocks and one of the bears? And what if Goldilocks was just a little unhinged?

As much fun as it was to write the story, seeing my dark, monstrous Goldi brought to life by the wonderful Meredith Lee Ann Keller was even better. Meredith is one of the sweetest ladies you’ll ever meet, and a terrific actress. And boy, did she bring out the crazy in the teaser film created to promote The Big Bad Goodnight.

If you like a good fairy tale, and a good film noir, check out the video above. Then order your signed copy of The Big Bad Goodnight. Because not every tale ends happily ever after, know what I’m sayin’?

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Jeff Waldridge Answers 3 Irrelevant Questions

Jeff Waldridge, co-author of The Haunting of a Bourbon Town and caretaker at The Anderson Hotel.

Jeff Waldridge has been a Paranormal Researcher for over twenty years. He is a well-respected historian in his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, where he gives ghost tours highlighting the Ripy Mansion, the Anderson County Courthouse, and one of the most haunted buildings in Kentucky, the Anderson Hotel.

He currently working on The Anderson Hotel Haunted House and promoting his first book The Haunting of a Bourbon Town. He’s also getting ready for Cryptidcon, a fantastic monster-themed convention coming up in November. He was also the co-creator for Scarefest in Lexington KY, and he’s documentary filmmaker whose credits include the gritty deathmatch wrestling film Hardway.

But that’s not important right now.

Jeff Waldridge is the first of my weekly guests I’ve invited to answer three irrelevant questions. Each week, I’ll be inviting another creative talent to answer these same questions, highlighting authors, filmmakers, actors, artists, and more.

So here we go.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure movie, and what defense do you have for it? 

Lost Boys! It’s the ultimate movie that screams “horror movie” of that era. So cheesy but huge stars.

If you had a full day of access to any animal at the zoo, what would it be? 

Gorillas, because they are very smart.

If you were hungry and could fly or drive anywhere right now for the perfect snack or meal, where would you go? 

Let’s see, a lot of options here. I could go to Texas for Whataburger, California for In N Out Burger, Philly for a cheesesteak, or Jersey for a hoagie.

Want to tour a haunted house with Jeff Waldridge? Visit Jeff’s website with all the details.

And don’t forget your signed copy of The Haunting of a Bourbon Town by Jeff Waldridge and John Cosper. Order direct by clicking on the book cover below.

The Haunting of a Bourbon Town by Jeff Waldridge and John Cosper

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Why You Should Visit This Kentucky Haunted Hotel

While we were writing The Haunting of a Bourbon Town, Jeff Waldridge told me that he tried to warn a previous tenant about turning the Anderson Hotel into a haunted attraction. When you bring people into an environment that already has paranormal activity and scare them, it tends to make that activity worse. The ghosts feed off that fear, and the potential for real ghostly encounters escalates.

So what’s Jeff doing this Halloween season? He’s turning the Anderson Hotel into a haunted attraction, of course.

Not every ghost inside the Anderson Hotel, Lawrenceburg’s top haunted attraction, is on the payroll. Some checked in decades ago. They simply never checked out.

Come see what frights are in store this Halloween season at the historic, and very haunted, Anderson Hotel. Featured on Paranormal Lockdown and Talk is Jericho, the hotel is located right on Main Street in Lawrenceburg, and just a short drive from Four Roses and Wild Turkey.

For information on tours, visit the Anderson Hotel website.

Click here to order your signed copy of The Haunting of a Bourbon Town.

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How to Get Your Signed Copy of The Haunting of a Bourbon Town

John Cosper and Jeff Waldridge at the Anderson Hotel in Lawrenceburg

I paid a quick visit to Lawrenceburg, Kentucky this weekend. In addition to paying my respects to the architect of the 46 Defense, who is buried right off Main Street, I met with Jeff Waldridge. The first copies of our book The Haunting of a Bourbon Town arrived Saturday, and we signed a bunch just for you.

You can order your signed copy here at Dead Park Books. Read all about the bourbon kings, the hobos, the voodoo woman, Ol’ Albert, the Burning Man, the Grunge Boy, and the other oddballs who made history in central Kentucky. You’ll also learn about how Prohibition impacted the community, the strange architecture of the haunted Anderson Hotel, the filming of The Flim-Flam Man, and the two dogs who were sentenced to die in a trial by jury.

Click here to buy now!

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How Baby Kills-A-Lot Arrived in Dead Park

Baby Kills-A-Lot from Dead Park Estates.

My father didn’t care for dolls. Blame it on Rod Serling, whose Twilight Zone episode “Talking Tina” left a lasting impression on him. Dad thought they were creepy, and if there was one thing worse than a doll, it was a doll with teeth.

Baby Kills-A-Lot from Dead Park Estates. After hearing a rant about dolls with teeth, my sister Dawn drew one. She called her Baby Kills-A-Lot. She had sinister eyes, raggedy hair, and teeth. Nasty teeth. Scary teeth. She was everything my father hated about a doll.

Still, my father kept the art work, and in the coming years, he used it to haunt my sister. She received Baby Kills-A-Lot items every Christmas. Mugs. Christmas ornaments. My dad even made wrapping paper with the frightening doll on it. It was funny. It was one of a few gags the two of them had, the other being a dickie, inspired by Christmas Vacation and Designing Women.

Then, my sister had children.

It was her second child, Alex, who suffered the most. He was terrified of the doll, and rather than discourage him, my dad doubled down on springing Baby Kills-A-Lot on his daughter and her dear, sweet babies.

Readers of my books and this blog know my dad was posthumously the impetus behind the creation of the Dead Park series and Dead Park Books in general. So it’s only fitting that, with my sister’s permission, Baby Kills-A-Lot joins the franchise. You’ll find her in book four, Dead Park Estates, in a creepy yet funny take I believe my dad would have enjoyed.

You can purchase signed copies of all the Dead Park books right here, or click here to buy the whole series on Amazon Kindle for less than $12.

Dead Park: The Series available on Kindle

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Spirits of All Kinds Abound in This Bourbon Town

The Anderson Hotel in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky

My friend Jeff Waldridge is ex-wrestler, a documentary filmmaker, a Bigfoot hunter, and an all around expert on the paranormal. He comes by his interest in the paranormal honestly. He grew up Lawrenceburg, a quiet Kentucky town with an extraordinary number of haunted spaces.

If you’re a fan of Talk Is Jericho or Paranormal Lockdown, you’ve heard of Lawrenceburg. You’ve also heard of the Anderson Hotel, one of the most active haunted spaces in America. The hotel is certainly the main attraction, but it’s hardly the only place with secrets. The mansions of the bourbon kings up the street, the courthouse down the block, even the distilleries outside of town have ghostly residents.

The Haunting of a Bourbon Town by Jeff Waldridge and John Cosper

Jeff and I spent close to a year compiling his research into The Haunting of a Bourbon Town. Part history, part chronicle of the unknown, the book will introduce you to Lawrenceburg’s past as a bourbon town. You’ll read stories of crimes and misdemeanors, of vagrants and hoboes, of Confederate guerrillas and a phony voodoo women.

And then, there are the ghosts.

The grunge boy. The burning man. The drunk. The man and woman in the newspaper building. The tall and imposing T.B. Ripy. And don’t forget Ol’ Albert at the courthouse.

Jeff knows this supernatural community better than anyone. The Haunting of a Bourbon Town will make you put Lawrenceburg on your travel itinerary. Just think twice about visiting the Anderson Hotel after dark. Not every spirit in this decrepit old hotel is friendly.

We are now taking pre-orders for SIGNED copies of the book. Books should be in stock by September and ship by September 15.

Click here to preorder your SIGNED copy.

Can’t wait that long? No problem. Amazon can get you an unsigned copy in a few days.

Click here to buy now from Amazon.

And don’t forget to book your own ghost walk in Lawrenceburg! For information, visit Jeff’s website:

Kentucky Ghost Tours

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And Now There Are Four!

Great news for Dead Park fans: Dead Park Estates is now in print!

Greater news for Kindle fans: Amazon lets you buy all four books on Kindle for just under twelve bucks.

The link below will take you to a page where you can buy the bundle. For those who prefer paperback, there are links for those editions as well – and a few are even on sale!

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For My Dad

 

Several summers ago, I attended Fright Night Film Festival in Louisville. The inside of the hotel was almost as sweltering hot as the exterior, but that didn’t stop a few hundred of us from jamming into a ballroom to listen to horror master John Carpenter answer questions about his career.

One exchange really stuck with me. A very goth-looking young woman asked Mr. Carpenter what advice he would give to someone who wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a horror director in Hollywood.

“Well, I went to Hollywood to make Westerns,” said Carpenter. “So I wouldn’t know what to tell you.”

I can relate to that statement more today than ever. I never set out to write books about pro wrestling, but I’ve written more than twenty. And if you told 8 year old me I would one day write HORROR? I never would have believed you. I loved science fiction. Specifically, I loved STAR WARS. So how did I, an aspiring screenwriter and author of science fiction flights of fancy, turn to horror?

It’s my Dad’s fault.

Dead Park Plaza and its growing list of sequels would not have happened without my dad. My dad loved horror. Not all horror, mind you, but a good chunk. He liked a good scare, but he also liked horror-comedy. He’s the one who introduced me to William Castle, Ed Wood, Army of Darkness, and many of my favorites.

My dad had a direct influence on one of the stories in Dead Park Plaza. One morning in mid-February of 2021, I heard my phone buzz. I was still in bed, but my Dad was already up and texting me. He had dreamed something he thought would make a great horror story, a story that took place in an office setting, and he wanted to share it with me. It was a clever idea, and I think (I hope) I replied back and said so. I wasn’t working on any fiction at that time, so I kind of put it out of my mind.

It was one of the last texts my Dad ever sent me. It might have been the very last. A few days later my mother rushed him to the hospital. Nine days later, after transferring to rehab and then back to the hospital, he was diagnosed with cancer on his birthday February 28.

A week after that diagnosis, he was gone.

Four months later, Dad’s story idea drifted back into my mind. I didn’t see potential for a full novel, but it felt like a great short story. That’s when I started connecting the dots, from Dad’s story to a few others I’d been mulling over – stories that took place in an office.

Today, I have a job for a virtual company that allows me to work from home, the coffee shop, the library, or wherever I feel like. I work with incredible people and two amazing bosses who actually believe in me. For the first time in my life, I look forward to starting work each day.

But in 2021?

In 2021 I was still getting up every morning and driving to an office that, at the time, was refusing to acknowledge that I’d been given a promotion, dragging their feet backfilling my old role.

I spent most of my adult life, more than 20 years, driving to an office, working in cubicle,  being forced to make new “friends” on a recurring basis as people left or were let go (including me, a few times), working with good and not-so-good people, working for great and TERRIBLE bosses left a mark.

All that “work experience” fostered story ideas. Little fragments taking up real estate in my imagination, just waiting for their moment. “What if,” I thought, “These stories all took place in the same office building? You know, like Sideways Stories from Wayside School?”

One story became a group of three, then five, then seven.

The first book literally came together in a month. A scattered group of half-cooked stories all came together in the most remarkable way. I recently published book four in the series, and books five, six, and seven are in the works.

And all because my my Dad’s crazy idea about a man starting a new job and discovering a message warning him he’s in grave danger.

Without that text, there would be no Dead Park Plaza and no Dead Park Books. The whole identity of my fiction publishing would not exist without that germ of an idea he sent me.

I was still in denial about my Dad’s passing when the first book was published, and as I write this (revised) blog post, I’m still pretty much in the denial stage about my Dad’s passing, by the way. Wondering if I’ll ever move on from that, but grateful that he gave me the gift of a story, a book, and much more.

Click here to order your signed copy of Dead Park Plaza.

Kindle Reader? Click here to get the full Dead Park series at a special price!

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Visit the Shops (or is it Shoppes??) at Dead Park

If you think it’s bad to work here, wait til you go shopping. The first video trailer for the book The Shops at Dead Park is now online. Read the sequel to Dead Park Plaza in all its cryptid, vampire, talking mannequin, killer clown, killer prom queen, killer video game, killer puppet, and killer Amish (yes, I said killer Amish!) glory.

Buy your signed copy now!