During June and July, 2001, Joe accepted questions from fans. Here are the questions and his answers. ____________________________________________________________________________

Since I get lots of questions by mail and phone, I thought I'd do a general thing up front here, and then answer specific questions. These may seem vague to some of you, but for those who have been wanting these questions answered, you'll get it. I hope.

Q. The ending to FREEZER BURN: You mean the body was just made of wood?

A. Not necessarily. Gidget implies that it is, trying to see if her Mexican helper actually speaks English. Would she tell a total stranger the truth? She also uses sexual language to see if he speaks English. Now, this gives the ending a different context, and leaves it open to interpretation. This book certainly contains an element of myth, and Gidget is smarter than she appears and is evil in an almost mythical way. If this offends some women, I say that�s silly, because, the main character isn't the best fella in the world, and neither are many of the other males in the story. So that's just bullshit. Just so you who have made this comment know where I stand. You can like or hate what you want.

Q Am I going to go mainstream? Is my work turning that way?

A You betcha.

Q Does this mean you're abandoning your fans?

A It means I'm doing what I've always done. Write the best stories I know how. But I've mined the other field, several fields for that matter, best I know how--not the same as best as they could be mined--and I'm ready to try something else.

Q Why do you let them sell your books at high prices?

A I have no say over mainstream publishers, and though I dislike the idea of collecting for collecting's sake, and have always said so, I don't think it's up to me to tell people not to do it. I think, with an exception or two, the limiteds I've been involved with have been reasonable, or otherwise they wouldn't have been limiteds. Most of my books are offered in various forms, so if it's the money you don't want to spend, don't blame you. Don't buy it. Or, better yet, buy it in an affordable form. The limiteds I've had some say in have offered things not in the mainstream additions, making them not just the same book with a signature, but different covers, or interior designs, or illustrations, introductions or afterwards. Other things. And there's another thing. I don't set the prices. I can have some say so in it, but the book dealers set the prices. The only book of mine that I've had say in that I think was overpriced was THE BOTTOMS, which I think Bill, the publisher at Subterranean might agree with. But the book was worth it from the standpoint of what was offered, slightly different text, different cover, magnificent binding, interior illios, boxed, etc.
Actually, after this year, there will be considerably less of the old stuff, as that's pretty well taken care of by now. I hope to do a collection of mine and David's movie reviews, TRASH THEATER, someday soon, but so far I have two short story collections, one the rest of the better old stuff in FOR A FEW STORIES MORE, and a "modern" collection forthcoming with a couple of original stories in it. It'll be quite a mix of crime, mainstream, non-fiction, science fiction, etc. It'll be my best collection since WRITER OF THE PURPLE RAGE. I have had three major collections: BY BIZARRE HANDS, WRITER, and this untitled next one. There have been two compilations that in some ways are even better. The best is HIGH COTTON, which takes the best from the first two mentioned collections, plus some, and ELECTRIC GUMBO, which does the same, plus offers the short novel, THE DRIVE-IN and an article and a novella not in HIGH COTTON. The new collection will offer uncollected stories, plus a couple of originals. Oh, I'm pretty fond of THELONG ONES as well, which is a collection of novellas, with one original novella. This one, since it didn't get a lot of exposure--the original novella I mean--will appear in the new collection.
Now for the questions sent me by Dale.

Q Can you ask Joe if he ever considered finishing the tale of the main character in Texas Night Riders? Thanks!! Steve Hicks

A Steve. I considered finishing the tale of TEXAS NIGHT RIDERS immediately after finishing it if it sold. It did, but they waited almost three years to print it, and by then I had moved on and the book company, always low ball, was even more so at that time, though it has improved a lot since then. Leisure books, I'm talking about.

From brian john mitchell
Q I don't really see too much of a difference between the Hap &Leonard books & your other work, but i think it's perceived that their mystery & a lot of your other stuff is horror. I know you're fond of just calling them Lansdale stories, but do you think the real source of the generalization is marketing & necessary to move books?

A Books are labeled primarily for marketing, though I think some guidelines can be drawn for aficionados of certain types of stories, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Western. Some books fit easily into these, some can be considered more broadly. Crime, for example, can cover a lot of things, and suspense even more. Most of us complain about labels, but to some extent rely on them. I just think we rely on them too much.
One reason I'm leaving MYSTERIOUS PRESS is the MYSTERIOUS label. I love mysteries, and I like the publishing house, but I want to do that...as well as other things that can be marketed as just...well, books. Probably, there will always be books of mine that fall outside of the mainstream as well. I expect so. I love the small press for that, and you can't find a better one than Subterranean Press.

Q Do you think people he read books they've checked out from a library or borrow from a friend or buy used should mail spare change to authors to make up for their lost royalties?

A No. The library is supposed to be free. That's why it exists. I love books and support libraries, but oddly enough, seldom use them, as I like to buy the books I want and I use a lot of reference books over and over. Some things I'm only mildly interested in I read from the library.

Q Do you think that novels should just tell a story or give some kind of moral lesson as well? I would think Hap & Leonard's adventures are kind of giving the idea that real friendship is unbreakable as well as certain other types of love. Also it obviously makes a statement against people being prejudice. I feel they're about something other than the plot; I got the same feeling from Freezer Burn & Blood Dance & The Drive-In. However in Night Runners I didn't get this feeling. Am I reading too much into it or not enough?

A I think they can do one or the other or both. Some of my books are morality tales, but I don't mean that in a religious manner. I mean it from the standpoint of ethical behavior. This is not to say the characters always do the right thing. I like to show that even the best of intentions are not always well thought out and often have negative results. For example, Hap and Leonard have actually hunted down and killed people who have done horrible things, but doesn't that make them somewhat like them. Better in the sense that they are killing vermin, but...The thing is, it's a story that represents a lot that is not to be taken literally. It's one reason I mix a kind of broadness with many of my tales, as well as reality.
You're ideas about the individual books are pretty close. NIGHTRUNNERS was more to thrill, but I think I was very upset about juvenile crime when I wrote it. The trend seemed shocking then. It's worse now; only so common we don't think of it much. Crime has actually dropped in the last eight years, and I think that's due in part to Clinton's administration, and no, I don't care about anyone's opinion of him. I'm just stating a fact. But still, we see younger and younger kids doing more and more horrible things. I used to say the media didn't make people do things, and strictly, I don't think it does, but I sometimes doubt my own beliefs, and that's just talking out loud. If kids can dress like, talk like, look like and act like people they see on TV, is it possible they can be influenced to do things they might not do? Frankly, I think the answer is complex, and I'm not suggesting censorship, just saying it's getting harder and harder to know if the media reflects the views of our times or propels it. What is the answer? You tell me? There's a big difference in dressing like Madonna, however, and killing someone like in the movie NATURAL BORN KILLERS, but the lines are becoming harder and harder to define.

Q I really love "Cadillac desert with dead folks." do you think there will ever be any kind of continuation to this &/or some sort of film adaptation?

A There have been film deals, but none of them took off and some interest in doing comics of it, but not yet. It still seems to upset people, and though just upsetting people is a stupid goal, I believe when it's full of satire, it should upset at least some people. Which is not to say upsetting people means it's satire. I satirized the whole splatterpunk thing in the story, and yet was somehow, with this story, not my career or definition of self, writing a story that fit that justification. But that doesn't mean I fit the label.

Q What�s your favorite type of monster & what kind do you most relate to?

A I enjoy the old fashioned monsters for fun, and I'm most intrigued by the monsters in all of us. I relate to them all, and I related to none of them. Which is a Zen way of saying they intrigue me, but not the point of wanting to be one. Except for the wolfman, I never really related to the classic monsters. I loved the fear they gave me, but I always related to the hero. Real monsters tend to make us all nervous, because every horrible thing that happens, no matter how much we may be against it, is inside of us. The difference, is we don't let it rule. We channel it differently, or work on the opposite side of it, make ourselves better.

Q What percentage of your work do you feel is good enough to be printed?

A I think nearly everything I write now is printable. That doesn't mean it's all classic. Everything I've written in the last twenty-years has been published. Some of the early stuff was marginal. Check out GOOD BAD AND INDIFFERENT, provided you can find a copy (there won't be any more copies) or the forthcoming FOR A FEW STORIES MORE. A lot of these shouldn't have seen the light of day, and that's what the books are about. They are interspersed with commentary that allows the dedicated readers of my work to see how I've developed. These are my gift to would-be writers, to show you we all start somewhere.

Q What have you not yet accomplished in your writing that you one day hope to?

A Every few years I reach certain goals, set others. I want to see if I can move over into the mainstream, write mainstream novels without writing novels I don't want to write. I won't write novels I don't want to write. I'm going to give it a spin, and I feel very confident going in. Felt I could do it years ago, but I wanted to write other things then. I have. I want to do some film scripts.

Q What do you "geek out" over? (e.g. computers, movies, cars, sports, music)

A I like martial arts, books, movies, history, anthropology/archeology, and a lot of different things. I love being a husband and a father, though sometimes that father stuff is hard and you feel like you're doing it all wrong. And maybe you are.

Q Any chance of doing any more comics? Specifically the characters from the RED RANGE series?

A I'm not against working in comics, just haven't been any companies that want to get beyond the basics. The 80's, up to mid-nineties were good times for comics, but comics are not doing so well now, so everyone is being careful. Saying this, I don't mean the comics even have to be radical, just something different, like the stuff in the eighties. Frankly, I'm not driven to do comics right now. I may have had my say, though it wouldn't surprise me to come back to them at a later date. RED RANGE was never really meant to be continued, that was just a device to make it sound like a complete episode of an old time adventure serial. On the other hand, if someone asked me to continue RED RANGE, paid me right, I just might do it.

Q Any chance of working with Andrew Vachss again?

A Andrew and I talk about it, but we haven't been able to find time or the project yet.

Q What books have you been reading lately? Dana Ragle

A I'm reading PAGAN BABIES by Elmore Leonard, which I'm enjoying. I read the QUIET GAME by Greg Iles, and it's great. He has the modern South nailed. I reread Fanny Flag's FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AND THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE, and read her DAISY FAY AND THE MIRACLE MAN. I have GATES OF THE ALAMO on my nightstand, along with many others. Thanks Dana.

Q Did you have Philip Jose Farmer's style in mind at all while writing Zeppelins West? I love the book! Thanks! -Richard Lemon

A I did have Philip Jose Farmer in mind when I wrote Zeppelins, and in the limited version I mention this in the afterward. I also had him in mind when I wrote THE STEAM MAN OF THE PRAIRIE AND THE DARK RIDER GET DOWN, and dedicated the book it was contained in (THE LONG ONES) to him.

Q Is the man coming to DC in November? If he does, tell him I'd like to buy him a drink and put him on some. He'll need rubber boots; the white ones like the shrimp guys wear are cool. And tell him I like his shit. I don't admit to reading anybody who's still vertical, but I like his shit. Yours, Bob Truluck- Street Level

A I am coming to DC in NOVEMBER for the BOUCHERCON.

Q Since the history in the book, Zeppelins West, is quite different than what we learned in school, did Joe spend a lot of time researching the lives of the characters? For example, I never knew that Annie Oakley was nicknamed Little Sure Shot... Pam Will

A Annie Oakley was well known as LITTLE MISS SURE SHOT, and I did most of the research over the years, as I'm a great fan of Western history and literature. So, for me, it was just a little research here and there, and often, for story sake, and the fact that it was an alternate universe, I changed the facts. It's easier to do it, and to make it more clever, if you know the real facts to begin with, however. You need to have some idea of their character and the events of their lives. You can't just write a guy and call him Wild Bill Hickok.

Q A couple of years ago, Joe Lansdale was supposed to have done another Lone Ranger & Tonto mini series for Topps Comics involving a Chinese demon or some such. Yet the material never saw print for reasons unknown (low pre-orders? Topps getting cold feet?). So what happened, and will the story ever see print?

A I did the LONE RANGER and the art was done by another artist than Tim, and it was great. But the company began to move out of the comic business, and I think they lost the LONE RANGER franchise. Another company talked to me about picking it up, but they never did. I assume it's dead. Too bad, it was really fun. China town. Gung-fu. Lots of fun stuff.

Q Speaking of comics and Westerns, has Joe pretty much written Jonah Hex out of his system, or is another story on the way? If the former, could Joe twist the arm of somebody such as Neal Barrett, Jr. to take a crack at further chronicling Hex's exploits?

A I don't own Jonah Hex. John Albano created it for DC many years ago. I read them as a kid, as did Tim Truman the artist, and we created our character in the shadow of the original, but we sort of reinvented him. I�m proud of our three Jonah Hex stories, especially the first. So, no one�s asking me to do more. And, you know, I'm not sure I would. Been there done that. But, I never say never.

Q In the years since "Best of the West," "The New Frontier," and "Razored Saddles" were published, which Western writers (besides Ardath Mayhar) have continued to produce edgy work in this genre? Peter Wong

A Larry McMurtry. I haven't liked it all, but the best of his Western work is terrific. I hear BORDERLANDS by Bud Shrake is good, and it's own my list. I love some of the old classics like SHANE, OXBOW INCIDENT, many others. WHITE BUFFALO...I could go on. But of the new ones, I like McMurtry the most. Loren Estleman's recent westerns are good and original. More traditional, but fun, are Bill Crider's few Westerns.

Q In the collection BESTSELLERS GUARANTEED, you stated in the preface to "The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance" (the punted poodle sequence in the circus scene, by the way, has got to be one of the funniest damned things I've ever read in my life -- what that says about me I don't want to know) that you were working on or had in mind a sequel or even a novel (if I remember right) using the same three characters as that novella. My question is: Do you still intend to write that work?

A I thought about it, and even tried to start a story or two. Andrew Vachss actually talked to me about doing a novel about them, and I thought that was a good idea, and tried it, but couldn't get it going. So, don�t know what the future will hold. Most likely, if I do anything with them, it will be a novella.

Q My second question: What is about the relationship between "Mad Dog Summer" and THE BOTTOMS? Did you write the first and realized you had more to say, or did you excerpt/condense the former out of the completed latter?

A Wrote the first, realized I had more to say. The feel of the story I had been thinking about for a long time, and I wasn't ready to let it go.

Q Question numero tres: In the preface for "Bubba Ho-Tep" in WRITER OF THE PURPLE RAGE, you mention that you were killing yourself trying to write a mainstream/breakthrough novel, finally abandoning it. Was that by chance WALTZ OF SHADOWS?

A It was WALTZ OF SHADOWS, but the revised edition turned out pretty damn good. I was too hard on it in the introduction. I was still writing about the original version. I allowed it to be printed in a limited venue, but may at some point give it more exposure with some minor revisions.

Q Finally, is there another collection in the works for your short fiction after the territory covered in WRITER OF THE PURPLE RAGE, or do you feel you don't have enough material yet? (FOR A FEW STORIES MORE notwithstanding, of course.) Andrew J. Breitenbach

A A new collection should be ready sometime next year. It is untitled at the moment.

Q Be sure to ask when we will see a reprint of Molly's Sexual Follies. Be sure to tell him that Rick Klaw was asking about it. Rick Whitten Klaw

A I hope I never see another copy of MOLLY'S SEXUAL FOLLIES.

Q Have you sold any of your books or short stories to the movies?

A I have optioned many books and stories, and some screenplays to the movies. One, BUBBA HO-TEP, has been filmed, due out sometime next year, I think. MUCHO MOJO looks possible, as does THE BIG BLOW. We'll see. Some short stories have been optioned numerous times.

Q Have you written any screenplays?

A I have written screenplays, four of them. One was a rewrite for a French director, but he didn't care for it much. I've done one for DEAD IN THE WEST, which has been optioned several times, COLD IN JULY, which, between book, and then screenplay, was optioned over a period of about seven years, and TWO BEAR MAMBO, which was bought by Propaganda films. All of these looked to be on the fast track at one point, but none were produced. DEAD IN THE WEST is still available, as the option just ran out on it. COLD IN JULY is owned by John Irvin, director of GHOST STORY, NEXT OF KIN, WIDOW'S PEAK, etc.

Q What is your favorite book? (Yours or someone else's) Thank you. Patmadge

A TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Of my own, THE BOTTOMS.

Q Have you ever written a character with a specific actor in mind as a working "model"? General appearance, mannerisms, expressions, voice cadence, etc. Some writers have found this to be a successful tool how 'bout you? James Gulisano

A I have never written a book with an actor in mind. I don't like to do that. I want my characters to be mine, not an actor. When things were done, or optioned, I've tried to see different actors in the role as a kind of parlor game, but they'll always be in my head, not on the screen. One exception, now that I think about it. The old man in COLD IN JULY, the father whose son is a scum bag. I kinda, but very loosely, had Robert Mitchum in mind because I was trying to play a riff on THE EXECUTIONERS which was filmed as CAPE FEAR, twice. Mitchum was wonderful in the original, and since I was playing off of that idea, turning it on its head, I hoped, I had Mitchum in my head. But, he was always the older Mitchum, and something of my own creation as well. I could actually visualize a lot of actors in the role. Besides, Mitchum is dead. I think trying to use actors ideas, looks, etc. is a bad idea. I don't even like mentioning someone looks like so and so, though I may have done it. If I do mention it, I mention a dead actor, like JAMES DEAN in FREEZER BURN, but the question was, did he really look like James Dean or did the character in the book just want to believe Gidget. It's really kind of a cheap way out to borrow someone else�s looks, mannerisms. That ain't real writin'.

Q When can we expect JRL to visit Scotland? I met Monty Python's Terry Jones at a book reading and bought him a copy of Bad Chili; he was delighted I'm pleased to say. Chris Belford

A Been to Scotland, loved. Went by THE FLYING PIG, I believe it was. Dropped in, dropped out. Don't know when I'll be back. We spent a summer in England, Scotland and Ireland a few years ago. I think a week of that, maybe two, was in Scotland. I'm glad Terry Jones liked the book. Thanks for turning him on to it.