NEAR DEATH RICHARD WALL CONFESSES ALL

Born in England in the 1960s, Richard grew up in a small market town in rural Herefordshire before joining the Royal Navy. After 22 years in the submarine service and having travelled extensively, he now lives and write in rural Worcestershire.

Richard's stories reflect his life-long fascination with the dark underbelly of American culture; be it tales of the Wild West, the simmering menace of the Deep South, the poetry of Charles Bukowski, or Langston Hughes, the writing of Andrew Vachss and John Steinbeck, or the music of Charley Patton, Son House, Johnny Cash, or Tom Waits.

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WEBSITE LINKS
Website: https://richardwall.org
Amazon page: mybook.to/NearDeath
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/RPOgGLX-MYM

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I’m a 50-something writer from Worcestershire, and author of the novels Fat Man Blues (self-published in 2015) and Near Death (Burning Chair Publishing 2020), and a bunch of short stories. My heart is in the Deep South of the USA and my writing reflects my borderline obsession with mid-20th Century American culture.

Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life?

Fat Man from my first novel, Fat Man Blues. He’s an agent of the devil and a mean motor-scooter.

Fat Man will search out your weakness and exploit it to mess you up, just because he can.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?

Pretty much everything I read has an indirect influence on how I write. At the moment I’m re-reading the ‘Burke’ series of crime thrillers of US author, Andrew Vachss, mainly because they’re such great novels. I particularly like his style of writing, and his stories, set in the NYC underworld of the 70s, 80s & 90s reflect his ongoing real-life campaign as a lawyer and activist fighting against child abuse. The horror depicted within these tales is often understated but no less powerful.

I found Barbara working in a massage parlor in Times Square. She had run away from her home in another state. Her nights were endless, ugly sex — dulled by cocaine and pills — with a stream of faceless strangers. Fifteen years old, she turned over her earnings to a brutal pimp.
As we were driving away, I asked her, "Don't kids run away to find a better life than what they left behind?"
"I did find a better life," she told me.

From: Today's Victim Could Be Tomorrow's Predator by Andrew Vachss
Originally published in Parade Magazine, June 3, 1990

The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations.  What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?

When I hear the term “horror” applied to fiction I think of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Graham Masterton et al, all of whom are renowned for dark stories of the supernatural or paranormal. I think these parameters could be widened to encompass all genres that report the horror found in everyday life.

A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

Where to begin…? The 21st Century has seen the rise of enough real-life monsters and communities of hate to spawn a dozen new sub-genres of horror.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?

I grew up in the 60s and 70s on a weekly diet of Doctor Who (Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker vintage). Every week a Dalek or a Cyberman or a Sea Devil would scare the bejeesus out of me and send me scurrying to peep through my hand from behind the sofa, but every week I went back for more. I guess as a species, we’re hard-wired to be drawn to forbidden fruit in all of its guises, and horror fiction puts the reader into situations that most would run away from in real life.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?

You can never have too many car chases.


What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?

Lex Jones, Emma Dehaney, Matty-Bob Cash.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

This one (shown here unedited):

To be fair, 'Near Death' scared the hell out of me, but it's a compelling read that pulls you along and into its strange and dark tale. It's hard to get out of it when you get into it.
I would compare it to the the works of Truman Capote, though there are passages that reminded me of Toni Morrisons novel, 'Jazz' and Ray Celestin's 'Axe Man's Jazz'.

Its cinematic in places taking in touches of the film noir genre and films like 'Casualties of War', 'The Green Mile' and maybe 'The Exorcist'.

Throw in the mix the book of Revelation and the book of Ezekiel the prophet and countless Delta blues songs that talk about hell hounds on your trail and you get the idea.

It's a great book and like Richards previous book, 'Fat Man Blues', it deserves to find a wider readership and become a movie that makes readers complain that the film isn't as good as the book.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

Plotting a novel; I’ve given up trying and now let the characters show me what’s going to happen.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?

Gratuitous sexual violence, and romantic comedies.

Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
I’ve learned to trust my instincts and to try not to worry that no one will read my stuff. I recently collaborated with Hull musician, Half Deaf Clatch on a trilogy of concept albums based around a supernatural spaghetti western outlaw.

It was a vanity project, pure self-indulgence. Clatch had the idea for the album and I offered to write a short story. Neither of us thought it would come to anything but the response was incredible, so much so that we ended working on a trilogy.

That made me think that if people liked something as off the wall as that, then maybe there was hope for me as a writer.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

Find your own voice. You may not write like Stephen King, but he doesn’t write like you.

Which of your characters is your favourite?

Vinnie De Matteo (from Near Death), a feral street lawyer from New York City.

The sergeant put his hand over the receiver and nodded to Vinnie.
“What’s your name?” he said.
Vinnie sighed. “Gimme that,” He reached across the desk, and snatched the phone from the sergeant’s hand. “This is Vincent De Matteo,” he yelled. “Attorney at Law. What’s your name, dickwad? No, forget that, I don’t care. You tell Detective Montgomerie, or whichever mouth-breather is questioning my client, that if I’m not sitting next to him in three minutes I’m calling the press with the full story of what happened at Detective Thompson’s apartment. You got that?”
A pause. Vinnie nodded into the phone. “Well, I’m very glad to hear that. You got two and a half minutes.”

Which of your books best represents you?

Fat Man Blues. The novel was born out of a pilgrimage to the Mississippi Delta and tells the story of a white, middle-aged blues enthusiast from England who is offered a chance to see the real blues of 1930s Mississippi.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?

From Near Death:

The pictures Eugene handed to me showed what Hickey had done to the two youngest girls. They were taken in the hallway of the property.

In the background, propped against the inside of the large oak front door, were the bodies of William Howell and his wife. Both were naked and covered in blood. Their heads were tipped forward, their bodies held upright because Hickey had lifted their arms to the surrender position and nailed their hands to the door.

“Coroner said that they were still alive when he done that,” said Eugene. “Two nails through each hand, so they couldn’t pull free. And then the sonofabitch cut away their eyelids so they had to watch what he did to their kids.”

I stumbled across Eugene’s apartment and burst into the bathroom just in time to vomit into the bathtub. Sirens blasted through my head, mingled with screams from a faraway land.
That night I turned my back on the existence of God. After which, Eugene and I drank every damn drop of liquor in his apartment.

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

My last book was Near Death, a paranormal crime thriller set in New York in 1962.

Sing Sing Prison, 1962. Troubled prison chaplain, John Henry Beauregard, gives the last rites to Joseph Hickey, a psychopath sentenced to death for killing a young family in New York State.
After witnessing Hickey’s execution, John Henry quits his job and moves to a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains in South Carolina.
Soon after, another family is murdered in identical circumstances, and John Henry is drawn into a mystery that has devastating consequences and leads to a showdown where his life and soul are at stake.

Right now I’m working on the sequel. No idea what’s going to happen yet, but that’s half the fun.

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Interesting question. Can’t think of a book cliché, but I swear at the TV when characters go down into a darkened basement without switching on the lights.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

Last great book I read was ‘Blue Belle’ by Andrew Vachss

Burke is given a purseful of dirty money to find the infamous Ghost Van that is cutting a lethal swath among the teenage prostitutes in the 'hood. He also gets help in the form of a stripper named Belle, whose moves on the runway are outclassed only by what she can do in a getaway car. But not even Burke is prepared for the evil that is behind the Ghost Van or for the sheer menace of its guardian, a cadaverous karate expert who enjoys killing so much that he has named himself after death.

Last great book that disappointed me was ‘A Clockwork Orange’. I re-read it a few weeks ago and it hasn’t aged well.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?

“Hey Rich, Quentin Tarantino here, please may I buy the rights to adapt your novel to a movie?”

And what would be the answer?
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Hell yes!

"See you on the other side, Preacher Man.”

These are the last words of Joseph Hickey, a psychopath executed at Sing Sing prison for the murder of the Howell family in New York State.

After giving the last rites and watching Hickey die, troubled prison chaplain John Henry Beauregard quits his job to start a new life in the Appalachian Mountains.

Hickey's death should have been the end of the nightmare, but then another family is murdered in identical circumstances, and John Henry is called back to New York to give the last rites to the killer.

As the killings continue, John Henry is drawn into a mystery with devastating consequences.

Is it possible to commit murder from beyond the grave?

Can John Henry stop the endless cycle of torment and solve the mystery before it is too late?

Near Death is the second chilling novel from Richard Wall, author of the acclaimed Amazon #1 bestseller, Fat Man Blues. With troubled heroes and a terrifyingly unstoppable villain clashing in authentic 1960s America, Near Death is a book you will not be able to put down.

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