An Interview with R. Patrick Gates, Author of Grimm Memorials

I've been singing the praise of R. Patrick Gates since I first read him, just last year. He's quickly become an author I feel compelled to read all of the work of, and have since bought up every title I can get my hand on. I reached out to him to find a bit more about the background of his career and some of backstory on these wonderful books. If you haven't checked out Grimm Memorials or Fear or R. Patrick Gates in general...you're missing out. 

Check out what Gates' had to say about his career, his work and his future!

Undivine Interventions: Hello and thanks for doing this! I am a huge fan of your work, so this is an extra special interview for me. To any readers out there who may not know you, please share who you are and what type of work you publish/are most well known for?

R. Patrick Gates: I publish under the name R. Patrick Gates, and have been a published author since 1989 when my first novel, FEAR, was published by New American Library's Onyx imprint. I have also been a middle school and high school teacher, a professor of creative writing at the college level, a professional musician, and actor.

UI:  You published your first novel, Fear, in 1988, with ONYX. Talk about that experience, what led up to it and your interaction with the now-defunct publisher.

RPG: My first novel, FEAR, has an interesting back story. I had been trying for five years to get the book published. I was sending it unsolicited to every publisher listed in the Writers Market for 1988. I had a nice collection of rejection slips. It got so bad that I made a promise to myself that if I could not sell FEAR and get it published by the time I was 30, I would quit writing and devote myself solely to teaching. Well, 30 came and went. I came very close to quitting writing, but then thought how stupid to place such limitations on myself. Shortly after that I attended a writer's workshop at Berkeley in Boston. I was sick as a dog that day but because I had already paid out a hundred and twenty bucks to attend I made myself drive into Boston. It's good that I did, for it was at this seminar that I met my first agent, Lori Perkins, who worked for the Lowenstein Agency out of New York. After her talk I spoke to her about my novel and she gave me her card and said send it to her. I did, honestly not thinking I would hear back from her, but within a week and a half she called me and told me not only was she willing to represent me, she had already sold FEAR. I couldn't believe it! And the worst thing was, she’d sold it to someone that I had already sent the manuscript to unsolicited! The editor for my first novel was John Silbersack at New American Library. They were starting a new imprint for horror, strictly paperback, called Onyx, and I was told that I would be the number three leading author for the imprint. I received an advance triple of what most first-time authors were getting at the time. It was really a great time in my life. It was an odd time as well, for I had not told anyone except my wife that I was writing a novel. When my family found out they didn't believe me.

UI: Your second published novel, is the now-cult-classic Grimm Memorials. It has been published under 3 different houses; the aforementioned Onyx, re-published by Pinnacle in 2007 and finally you've self-published the E-Book; quite the lifespan for a novel. What were your experiences with each different format? Pros and Cons of each?

RPG: My second novel, GRIMM MEMORIALS, has been published three times, first with Onyx, the second time with its sequel GRIMM REAPING'S by Pinnacle, and most recently for its 25th anniversary edition I've put up a special e-book on Kindle. Like most of my work, GRIMM MEMORIALS has been either raved about, or vilified. There has been very little middle ground. I would guess the best experience I had with the publishing of GRIMM MEMORIALS was with Pinnacle. My editor was John Scognamilio and he was great to work with. It was also very exciting having the sequel published at the same time as the original was being republished. By then G M had garnered a bit of a cult following, but it still would've been nice if it and its sequel had done better.

UI: Speaking of Grimm Memorials, it seems to have been the novel that garnered you the most attention (correct me if I am wrong). I can assure you I see it discussed very frequently on message boards, facebook groups and the ilk...in fact, it's how I got into your work. What are your thoughts on this novel’s lifespan and where do you think this comes from? 

RPG: I would probably agree that GRIMM MEMORIALS is my best-known work. I think it probably has to do with the main character, Eleanor Grimm. I think I managed to create one of the really memorable horror villains of the genre. She was certainly a lot of fun to write. From the start she was the part of me that was willing to do anything, write anything, to scare the crap out of my readers.

UI: One of the qualities I enjoy about your work is the hyper-gore & violence, often paired with dream-like qualities and what I perceive to be social commentary on how we, as a society, treat children. It's been common thread through the work of yours I have read; children-in-peril and children being the heroes. What influences this? Am I reading into this appropriately?

RPG: Child abuse, and innocence versus evil have certainly been themes in my work. With GRIMM MEMORIALS I was attempting to write the ultimate child-in-peril novel. I, honestly, do not like the genre, as I find it to be way too predictable and timid. I think that before me, no child-in-peril novelist was willing to put a kid in real peril with real consequences and have those consequences come about. I really freaked people out when I killed off more than a dozen kids, in methodic detail and quite brutally. I've had people call me sick, disturbed, even possessed by the Devil because of that book. I love it! I was truly satisfied with GRIMM MEMORIALS when I had finished it; I felt that I had accomplished what I had set out to do, which was rewrite the rules for the genre. Would've been nice if anyone else had noticed!

UI: What is your favorite work of your own? Least favorite? And why, for both?

RPG: My favorite work? That's hard to say, as usually it's the one that I'm working on. SAVAGE, my most recent novel and which is only available on Kindle, is my favorite because it is my most personal and autobiographical. Writing it was the hardest thing I've ever done, but finishing it was the most rewarding and cathartic. I think it may be my best novel. But, for the ones that have been published mainstream, I think my top three are TUNNELVISION, GRIMM MEMORIALS/GRIMM REAPING'S, and THE PRISON. My least favorite is probably 'VADER'S, but only because I wish I'd taken a little more time to get the science behind it right, as a lot of readers called me on the problems with physics in the book. I could have fixed it with a couple of sentences. Also, the ending has been criticized greatly and not without merit. I had always planned a sequel, but now I'm not so sure. I'd like to see it republished with a new ending added. I think TUNNELVISION is my favorite because it's the one that pushes the envelope the most. It's a surrealist novel and I was attempting to create a villain that the reader could feel badly for, and I think I was pretty successful with Wilbur Clayton. I do also hold a special place in my heart for, JUMPERS, and plan to write a spinoff of that based on the character of Deedee, who can travel outside her body whenever she experiences an orgasm.

UI: Favorite Horror Novels/Authors?

RPG: My favorite horror novels and authors? First and foremost I would have to say Edgar Allen Poe is my favorite author. He's the first author I ever read. I was lucky enough to have a sister who was 12 years older than I, and was like a second mother to me. She taught me to read when I was three years old, and for my fifth birthday she gave me the collected short stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe. I've read and reread that book countless times since (I still have it). I certainly think he has been the biggest influence on my work. Secondly, I really like H.P. Lovecraft. One thing about him, however, that I don't like is the way he never reveals the monster or the horror; it's always alluded to. It was from reading his stories that I developed my own style of doing exactly the opposite – of always revealing the monster or the horror in all its gory and terrifying details. Theodore Sturgeon has been a great influence on me as well. His short story, "The Shottle Bop," is one my favorites. Another short story fave of mine is "The Monkeys Paw." (I forget the author’s name). My favorite horror novels are Stoker’s DRACULA, and Sturgeon’s, SOME OF YOUR BLOOD. As far as living writers go, Kurt Vonnegut Junior and Thomas Harris I think have taken the genre to new places.

UI: You seem to work in large prolific bursts, where several books will be released back-to-back. This is often followed-up with periods of inactivity. What tends to lend itself to this? I ask because it can be very difficult for an author to "bounce back" into being published. You don't seem to experience much difficulty with it, from the outside perspective. How do you accomplish this?

RPG: I'm still trying to bounce back and get into publishing again full-time. Up until 2005 I was publishing pretty regularly, but then I got ill and was diagnosed with a rare nerve disease that pretty much paralyzed me. Didn't think I was ever going to write again, or play the guitar, or much else. But, after much therapy and a lot of drugs, I am now at a point where I have resumed my writing. The only problem is, it's like starting all over again. Whereas before I could sell a novel based just on a two or three paragraph synopsis, before it was even written, now I have to have a finished manuscript, completely polished and ready to go if I expect a publisher to buy my work again. Having a professional agent helps a great deal so I don't really have to worry about the marketing part of it – I just have to write the damn book, make sure it’s great, and he will do the rest.

UI: There has been a pretty significant resurgence in interest in the horror paperback "boom" of the 80s and 90s, and thus some renewed fanfare for your work. Reflect on both that boom, and your thoughts on it's newfound relevance...What is it that draws us back to books like Tunnelvision or Fear? 

RPG: I have no idea why there is an interest in 1980’s horror. Seems like nostalgia always goes back a couple of decades – in the 70s everyone was nostalgic for the 50s; in the 80s it was the 60s. I would hope that what draws people back to books like TUNNELVISION and GRIMM MEMORIALS is that they're good.

UI: What is next for R. Patrick Gates? When can we look out for it?

RPG: I am presently working on several different things. I recently completed the second draft of a mainstream fantasy novel, which is now in hibernation, mellowing until I'm ready to edit it. I'm nearly finished a new dark fantasy (not what I would call true horror) novel which deals with the horrors of product testing on animals. I am also working on the third and final novel of my TUNNELVISION trilogy, and the third, and possibly final, novel in my Grimm Family Saga. It will be called, GRIMM BEGINNINGS, and tells Eleanor Grimm's origin story. As to when any of these will see publication, that is a good question. I expect to have the mainstream fantasy novel and the horrors of animal testing novel ready for my agent by the end of 2019. Hopefully, the books will see publication in either 2020 or 2021. Meanwhile, the second novel, DEATHWALKER, in my TUNNELVISION trilogy, will be published by Bloodshot Books either this year or next, to be followed by a new one, the third, titled: AND LITTLE LAMBS EAT IVY.