SUPER stoked to share this chat I had with Rick, a fellow goop head.
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Lor Gislason: First off – It’s so nice to finally meet you!
Rick Claypool: Likewise! And thank you so much for kind of throwing this together
LG: it’s weird that we’ve been mutuals for so long but never actually had a talk before … do you even remember how we crossed paths? Because I don’t.
RC: I’m not sure if I do – I mean I remember seeing Inside Out pop up on my feed – and that was awesome. I make it a point to go out of my way and keep an eye on small presses or novels that look like they’re up my alley – there’s some of the best and most exciting stuff being written right now.
LG: I do think it’s very funny how similar we are in our love of all things gross – and I’m wondering if you were always like that?
RC: Yeah! I remember when I was a kid there were the toys being advertised to kids as being fun because they’re gross: The He-Man Slime Pit…The Lab where you build a monster and dissolve its flesh.. The play-doh thing where you use the squisher and make like, worms coming out of a monsters face…
LG: Since you have a kid, are you getting any new slime toys?
RC: Nooo he thinks I’m into gross stuff (laughs)
LG: How did you get started writing? What is your background?
RC: I started writing in high school, but it was like…song lyrics, trying to be Skinny Puppy. In college, I started out as a biology major with the intention of going to mortuary school after, to become a funeral director, but that ambition did not last my first semester. I had a basic level English course, where I found Kafka, Poppy Z. Brite and some other weird horror stuff, things that had an offbeat/strange sort of vibe. My professor – who was a Benedictine Monk, actually – he turned me on to Samuel Beckett. Then I took a course on the Beat Generation, so there was a whole week or two where we were getting into Naked Lunch – so I was doomed. “I could go to school for this? Awesome!” The punchline was that I got rejected from every MFA program I applied to after college…pretty much gave up for almost a decade. But found my way back after discovering Daniil Kharms and his stuff is so over-the-top strange and abruptly minimalist in a way I find really exciting. There’s a particular one-page story about people encountering each other at a grocery store and one of them beats somebody to death with a cucumber. So I got excited about the idea of writing again, and that was about 10 years ago now.
LG: That’s really interesting because I would describe your style as very minimalist – in a very cool and fun way. Do you think it was because of that?
RC: I find that I am personally most excited by minimalist writing, and the effect that can have in terms of momentum, in terms of sequencing, the page-turner effect and plot potential of that. That’s to say, I also have great admiration to those who can write maximal, lyrical prose…but that’s not me! But that’s also part of what I had to learn about how to write and my voice. I’m not gunna write Swan’s Way, you know? It took me a while to find.
LG: There’s something about it that makes the absurdism more funny, almost like a straight man telling you – no nonsense – but the subject is nonsense! I also found it difficult to find my voice, especially as someone who didn’t go to college – so I’m always asking “Am I doing this right?” and folks go “There’s no right or wrong way” Nooo I mean, “Is this working?”
LG: Did you start writing long stories, or short stories? Cuz this is a pretty long book compared to most stuff out there. Does it start as a big long story?
RC: With my first book, Leech Girl Lives, that was when I tried to figure out how my brain can make a novel… and also just how it can make a book. I have spent most of my time working on long things. Skull Slime Tentacle Witch War is my second novel, and there was a novella before that. I’ve only really started working on short stories in a real way this year, and part of that was just because…I’m lazy. (Lor Laughs) It was easier for me to – instead of trying to come up with a whole new idea for a story – I would just pile every weird idea I could think of into what I’m working on now and figure out plot structure that I could hang all of this on. At the same time I’m thinking, How can I raise the stakes? How can I make this more fucked up? How can I make this more interesting to me? It’s easier for me to spend years thinking about one project rather than write 1k words and then feel dead inside. It’s really about my mental health practice…I find that my overall functioning as a human, diminishes if I don’t have something I’m working on to put my creative energies into.
A lot of my time is spend ruminating of stuff that could go into the project. I write longhand everything first, and I outline repeatedly…But I also don’t write linearly. I have an idea of what’s gunna happen further along, but then I’ll write inbetween – it’s all over the place. I can’t do that on a keyboard on a screen.
LG: Do you keep all that stuff?
RC: Boxes and scribbles everywhere… I figure it’ll be useful someday to prove it’s not AI Generated or something (laughs)
LG: I just think that would be a fun thing to share with people – like this is what it started as, and this is the final project – There are not a lot of people that write longhand like that. The only person I can think of is Clive Barker – so that’s a cool comparison.
RC: Sure, I’ll take it! I mean, Nightbreed is something I feel a little bit of association with, the world of weirdos.
LG: Are you more inspired by books or movies?
RC: Yeah, mostly books. Although, I will seek out movies that I know are kind of in the mood or feeling I want to be in. I found myself rewatching old Peter Jackson movies, Bad Taste and Dead Alive… things that have that squishy, messy –
LG: That weird, thick, yellow slime is very Rick.
LG: How long does it take for you to finish a project?
RC: So I started Skull Slime Tentacle Witch War in 2019, so it was pre-pandemic. Just the idea of the characters, Skull Face and Tentacle Head, and to have them be sort of the Jay and Silent Bob/Beavis and Butthead/Ren and Stimpy/Vladimir and Estragon – they embody this tension, like one gets so upset about everything that’s happening around them and pukes killer puke that kills people, a more outwardly directed anger. And then Tentacle Head ….Poor Tentacle Head. He’s suicidaly depressed, but every time he tries to kill himself, he clones himself!
LG: that whole concept is hilarious, it feels a cartoon – Y’know when Ren and Stimpy are animated with a little too much detail. And I love the weird little family they have at the end of it. I’ve never read anything quite like it, I think. And the best title! Did that come first, or much later in the project?
RC: That came much later. And I don’t remember exactly when or how or why…but I was more than halfway into it. I probably just had some of those words written down as part of an outline, and went—oh wait, that’s the title! The next thing I’m working on has a similar title, that kind of structure.
LG: Did your love of slime mold start in school, or is that a more recent thing?
RC: That was something I discovered while learning more about fungi, like 5 years. I’ve always been interested in flipping over the log, looking at things like that. But slime molds in particular captured my attention. Something about them captured my attention. Something about them…for one thing, they’re really small, so they can be really easy to not notice. But they come in so many bright, candy-colours…yellows and pinks! They’re something reassuring, and special about them. Finding them in the woods, and recognizing them. And if you see them in that state, they’re like that for a very short amount of time. It’s a very fleeting, transitory thing. There’s something that captured my imagination about that.
LG: You get this little moment in time with this little slime. I definitely associate you with slime molds in my head.
LG: You mentioned you’re working on a new project. So if SSTWW started in 2019, it took you a few years. When did you start this recent one, has it been in the works for a bit?
RC: Off and on just for the past year. More off. I think it started as something to distract myself while I was going through the soul-sucking process of querying, of trying to find a publisher.
LG: I was wondering if you had more difficulty with it just based on the subject matter, or style of your books? You’re not a very mainstream, tradition writer. Do you go for the weirdos and just hope they match your vibe?
RC: I feel like my perception of how strange or offbeat it is might be warped, because I’ve been steeped in this for years. Like—here it is! It’s hard to talk about, but that should make it interesting! I’m grateful that I was able to find a connection with Anxiety Press—very small, but very supportive–the publisher, Cody Sexton. He wrote a very kind review of my book Tentacle Head—the sort of “not for children children’s book” based on a less developed Tentacle Head that appears in (Skull Slime) so it felt like a good fit. And it was!
LG: There’s this whole thing in your book about the Soda Baby (Rick laughs) that is just incredible, first off. And I’m wondering if having a kid inspired the ridiculous dealing-with-baby situation at all?
RC: First—thank you, (laughs). Well, the initial thing is this weird—there was this thing in the early 90s where people were supposedly finding…things that shouldn’t be in soda. I don’t know the truth of what really happened, I was 11 or 12 when this all went down. Lots of people all over the country reported things happening. So that’s kind of the core of it—but then I thought, what if instead of an object in there, it was a soda dispensing baby! It is kind of inspired by being a parent because a lot of it is trying to keep this kid alive, don’t do it wrong…So this is the like failing on parenting on multiple levels in the story. And that’s a little of the horror aspect too, you can get into “maybe not everyone’s gunna be okay”, or “everyone’s gunna come out of this changed in dramatic ways” and I wanted a little bit of an anti-Baby Yoda in there. I watched a bit of The Mandolorian, and the thing about that is that Baby Yoda is ALWAYS gunna be okay, and always be protected by his super-dad.
LG: So you wanted to do “what if it was the WORST baby”?
RC: The worst baby and the worst parent. Well, maybe not the worst. I go back to the baby in Dead Alive, and the guy—
LG: I mean that guy… he’s trying. But that baby is a demon.
RC: Yeah, that one might be worse.
LG: We do kind of the same thing, where we start from a little nugget of truth and then go “wouldn’t that be funny” or “wouldn’t that be gross” if this happened—and then it just keeps going forever and ever.
RC: Yeah “how do I keep ratcheting it up?” I love to read a story where I feel like ANYTHING could happen in a way that’s almost unsafe…Like there are rules of what’s supposed to happen/not happen
LG: Oh yeah like this is a story structure…These are the beats you’re supposed to have—Yeah I never had that with your book. I had NO idea what was happening or where it was going, and that’s part of the fun of it. I Mean, how much of it was outlined?
RC: I outline a lot, but they’re not a rule that I have to follow, it’s just so I have a sense of things that NEED to happen, so I can get to the next step, and then after that is whatever the hell I want to happen. I’m more relaxed about what I’m writing if I have a rough idea of where it’s going.
LG: Since we both write what I would call fun-gross horror, do you ever feel judged by others in the community who write more, poetic and serious prose?
RC: I guess I felt that when I was querying. They would want things to be“weird”, but they only wanted a little bit weird. A dash of weird.
LG: Instead of, the WHOLE weird.
RC: This is the “Dave’s Insanity Sauce” of weird. I guess I’m not that self-aware to the point of being judged…but at the same time, I have the other side, I feel frustrated when everyone around me is taking the horror so seriously—like you have to take it so seriously to write about serious things. But—this book is about serious things, and it’s comical.
LG: It’s like dark humour. Like he’s in this ridiculous situation, and then on top of it having this normal human emotion of being depressed.
RC: In my house growing up, my mom worked in a hospital. So she would often tell stories about horrible things that happened…and they’d be funny stories. Things that were tragic were usually set up as funny. Because that sense of absurdity is how you cope with…the relentless tragic despair that comes in waves, as times.
LG: I think that people can take stuff too seriously, and how we deal with things with humour. Like, I wrote a poem about a suicide attempt that I had, and I put a joke in it—because that was my mindset at the time, and when I was writing it. But that’s just my life and how I dealt with it.
RC: The beautiful thing is that, it’s messed up — but I relate to that messed up-ness. Like what this book is about. With me internally as a person, I have often been…kind of a mess. And I’m making peace with that.
LG: I am definitely the same with my weird/gross meter, that it’s broken. Cuz I’ll be talking to this normie group of friends, and go check out this cool thing I saw! And they’ll go “lor that is the worst, what the hell.” Since most of the people you talk to online are other horror people like us, and then you talk to folks outside that space and go, “oh. I’m the weirdo.”
RC: (laughs) Yes, I definitely relate to that.
LG: It’s interesting to have that, and have to like, pull yourself back sometimes. I do love and appreciate that within the horror space I can be myself in that way, and be myself and not be judged…because here are just as weird and relatable. It’s one of the things I like about the horror community the most, honestly.
RC: Yeah. I mean, There’s so much that sucks and is toxic about being in a online community—but there is this corner of the horror and writing community that we inhabit that is just like… the lunch table that I always wish I had.
LG: I love that we’re all sitting at the same table talking about people puking knives and stuff. If you were in this world what do you think your power would be?
RC: I’d probably puke noodles, I like noodles a lot.
LG: I think about that early Spongebob episode where he has a burger cook-off with Neptune, and he eats the burger and goes “wow that was so tasty I want to eat it again” and just barfs it up perfectly. I wish I could do that sometimes. Like, “that was so good, and now it’s gone I cant eat it again” : (
LG: Do you have any favourite Rick-core movies?
RC: The movie that I’ve rewatched the most frequently is Koyaanisqatsi…But for stuff like SSTWW… Freaked is an all time favorite of mine. Grotesque and creature packed and of course all wrapped in a tale of corporate greed!
LG: What about books that are very -you-?
RC: Some of the ones I’ve been really excited about are some of the China Miéville novels, strange and all over the place, but really imaginative. In terms of inspirations I really like, Joy Williams, Russell Edson, his stuff is really short and abrupt, and I don’t know what the hell’s gonna happen. It really stands out to me. One is about a piano that takes a shit on the floor. (laughs) There’s so much interesting stuff coming out from small presses, but it gives me a really warped sense of what’s happening in books right now. Like there was a thing that came out yesterday, “what are the top books so far of the 21st century!” But I’ve sought out several of them…and went you think THESE are the best? But there’s so much else out there. More like “the best novels that were on display at the front of Barnes and Noble”.
Last Days by Brian Everson…That one in particular has this horror-noir vibe, but it’s completely ridiculous because it’s about this cult that demonstrate their faith by amputating their body parts.
LG: Do you read a lot while you’re writing, or do you try not to be influenced by what you’re reading?
RC: I’m always reading. I am excited to read things that feel like they have the same energy as what I’m trying to write. I’m not too worried someone’s gonna think I’m copying.
LG: Nah I don’t think you’re gonna have any imitators, it’s very unique. Do you read as part of your writing routine?
RC: I write first thing in the morning. And when I’m not writing, I’m still doing the writing -work- like promo. It’s new novel hype time so that’s most of my energy right now. But that first hour of the day, yeah.
LG: Do you write everyday? And you write long form always?
RC: Yeah. And sometimes it’s very sketchy. And then I type it out, and go back and forth. But if someone just looked at my handwritten notes it wouldn’t make sense because they’re happening in conjunction for the most part. But sometimes I’ll write something really short that comes out fully formed, longform. There’s just something about handwriting it that forced me to not fiddle with the word choice—I write in ink—it’s just gonna be whatever it is, and be bad or not work, and I’ll just fix it later. I write every weekday, weekends I take off.
LG: How has the launch been going so far?
RC: It’s been fabulous! I’ve seen lots of positive energy. I’ve been doing pre-orders myself, and people have been snapping that up. Next thing is a sort of launch party in a couple of weeks in Providence there’s a Lovecraft Arts and Sciences bookshop, it’s their last event before Necronomicon next month. It’ll be me and B.R Yeager (Lor fanboys out about this). The folks at the bookshop taglined it “the evening of goopy weirdness”. (For more info on this event– go here.)
LG: Oh my god, I gotta get a plane ticket right now.
RC: I know! I wish you weren’t thousands of miles away.
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Rick Claypool (he/him) is the author of SKULL SLIME TENTACLE WITCH WAR (Anxiety Press, 2024), TENTACLE HEAD (Bear Creek Press, 2022), THE MOLD FARMER (Six Gallery Press, 2020), LEECH GIRL LIVES (Spaceboy Books, 2017), and short stories that appear here and there online, including HAD, Maudlin House, and Back Patio Press. He grew up in the industrial outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pa., and lives in Rhode Island.
Thank you so much Rick for chatting with me!! Check out his books ❤
LORMAGGOT 