Author Keith Lansdale
Keith Lansdale may be best known as the son of the iconic Joe R. Lansdale, but he has more than proven he is stellar author himself. He worked at a journalist for the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches, TX for four years before running his own online paper aptly names Everything Nac. Keith has also sold comic adaptation, a short story he wrote alongside his sister Kasey, and co-edited Son of Retro Pulp with Joe. As reader’s of the site are well aware, he is also the screenwriter for the upcoming zombie flick Christmas with the Dead.
Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
A: I have fun everywhere I go. I’m the idiot laughing in the corner of every room, and I tell jokes that are really only for myself but I enjoy when people come along.
Q: What was it like growing up…Lansdale? Do you think you would be a writer today if not for the influence of your father? Do you think it fair to say that writing is in your blood? What is the best advice he ever gave you?
A: Growing up Lansdale. People always want to know about what it might have been like living at home with Joe, but I always have to disappoint everyone. It was pretty normal. We spent time together, told stories, and had a pretty typical childhood. Is dad responsible for my writing and is it in my blood? I would imagine so. I don’t know where the urge to write comes from.
The best writer advice he ever gave me would be simply showing up. Sit down and put words on a page and stop talking about how you’re going to do it.
The best fatherly advice he ever gave me would be good advice for everyone. Do what you say you’re going to do, and do it the best you can.
Q: What is your fondest memory from your early days?
A: Spending time with my family and friends. No specific memory or anything, but I always enjoyed quality time.
Q: Why do you think people who come from or live in Nacodoches seem to take to the place so much?
There’s certainly something about the town. I think it’s some combination of it being a small town with added culture thanks to the college.
Q: How did Everything Nac come about?
A: After working at the newspaper for four years I had all the media connections already. Being that my final year of school and my work at the paper were conflicting it just made sense to do what I already knew and had access to while
finishing out my degree.
Q: Were you a fan of all the classic horror films as a child? Did you have a favorite movie monster?
A: Am I a fan? Well, I like just about every genre for what it has to offer, but horror isn’t my favorite or anything. I don’t think I have a favorite monster but vampires and werewolves are scarier creatures for me, but I usually enjoy movies where they do something different than the classic, usual approach. For example, I’d rather watch Young Frankenstein over any other Frankenstein story.
Q: Who do you consider to be some of the best up and coming authors in the genre?
A Funny enough I don’t read much horror. I typically read more mysteries and crime and things of that sort.
Q: Can you tell us a little about the comic adaptions you have done? Do you enjoy having the chance to do that?
A: Well, all the adaptations I’ve done have all been of my father’s work. I love the stuff he does and having a good solid story to start with pretty much guarantees success.
Q: Who do you think are some of the best comic writers and artists of the moment?
A: I grew up reading comics but certainly haven’t read enough these days to try and guess at who’s the most successful at the moment.
Q: What does it take to make a truly great story?
A: Good characters. There’s no question in my mind. The rest of the elements can’t be forgotten but if you can make the audience care about the character, you can get away with anything else. And this doesn’t mean making him always the funniest guy in the room or even the smartest. It just means making them a character people want to
know about.
Q: What advice would you offer the authors of tomorrow?
A: That not everyone is going to like what they write, so rejection is going to happen. That fear of rejection stops more talented people than anything else.
Q: Are there any little known thing about you that most people would be surprised to learn?
A:I’m not a keep things to myself guy, so most people know just about everything about me already.
Q: What do you think you would have been if you hadn’t of taken up writing?
A: In some form of the media, which I guess technically is still in the writing end of the world.
Q: What was it like writing the script for Christmas with the Dead? How does writing scripts differ most from all forms of writing?
A: Well the original short story for CWTD was just that, a short story. It had one character and a couple more in a flash back. When I signed on to do the project they told me that the main character now had a co star, we weren’t going to include the dog from the story, oh and my sister was going to be playing the main character’s wife. That was the framework that CWTD came from.
Q: What can fans expect of the film?
A: Well, I haven’t seen anything like it, so I’d like to say they get to see a classic idea but with some new takes than the usual.
Q: What are you feelings on zombies and such? Do you happen to know where zombie lore originated? Why do you think have been so appealing in modern time?
A: Zombies have ran (staggered?) their course. There’s a group of the people waiting for the next evolution of zombies out there. It’s so simple, but changing zombies from slow to track stars was a great evolution in the zombie world. People are looking for that next big thing. I don’t think the evolution of zombies needs to change, just the angle of the story. The dead coming back to life is nothing new, we just call them zombies now, or snappers as we call them in CWTD. There’s a mixture of a lot of things. Death scares us, so the dead knocking on our doors is an offshoot of that. The end of the world is something we think about, but zombies are just the vehicle. It could have just as easily been a different natural disaster that trapped us in the house. As for its recent popularity, I couldn’t really tell you, but my guess is that movies like Shaun Of The Dead and Zombieland have come along and pushed the stories out of the horror genre and into some fresh light; they’re fun all over again.
Q: What other projects are you looking forward to bringing the world next?
A: There are a few prospects that might end up turning into something. I’ve written about a fourth of a novel I’ve been sitting on for years that I hope to finish. We’ll see what happens.
Q: How do you hope to be remembered when your time is out?
A: When my time is out, I won’t have to worry about it, but honestly, how I’m remembered isn’t up to me.
Q: Anything you’d like to say before you go?
A: There’s nothing that needs to be said except, come support Christmas With The Dead.