Lee, Edward 1957-
[A pseudonym]
(Richard Kinion, Lee Edward Seymour, Philip Straker)

PERSONAL:

Born May 25, 1957, in Bowie, MD. Education: Attended the University of Maryland. Hobbies and other interests: Cooking and eating seafood, collecting crab and lobster shells, being a fan of the New York Yankees and the Washington Redskins.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. Petersburg Beach, FL.

CAREER:

Municipal police officer in Cottage City, MD, 1979; worked as a night watchman in a retirement community, 1982-97. Military service: U.S. Army Security Agency, 1976-79, served with First Armored Division, Erlangen, West Germany.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS; UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

(Under pseudonym Philip Straker) Night Bait, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1982.

Nightlust, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1982.

Ghouls, Pinnacle/Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1988.

Coven, Berkley Publishing Group (New York, NY), 1991.

Incubi, Berkeley Publishing Group (New York, NY), 1991, reprinted, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2003.

Succubi, Berkeley Publishing Group (New York, NY), 1992, reprinted, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2001.

Sex, Truth & Reality, Tal Publications, 1992, reprinted, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2003.

The Chosen, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1993, reprinted, 2001.

Creekers, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1994.

(Under pseudonym Richard Kinion) Sacrifice, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Header, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 1995.

(With John Pelan) Goon, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 1996, reprinted, Overlook Connection Press, 2003.

The Bighead, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 1997, revised edition, Overlook Connection Press, 2000.

(With John Pelan) Shifters, Obsidian Books (Auburn, WA), 1998.

(With John Pelan) Splatterspunk: The Micah Hays Stories, Sideshow Books, 1998.

(With Elizabeth Steffen) Portrait of the Psychopath As a Young Woman, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 1998, reprinted, 2003.

Operator B, Cemetery Dance Publications, 1999.

(With Jack Ketchum) Masks, Sideshow Press, 1999.

The Ushers (collection), Obsidian Books (Auburn, WA), 1999.

(With Elizabeth Steffen) Dahmer's Not Dead, Cemetery Dance Publications, 1999.

The Stickmen, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2000.

The Deaths of the Cold War Kings: The Assassinations of Diem and JFK, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2001.

City Infernal, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2001, Leisure Horror (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Ryan Harding) Partners in Chyme, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2001.

(With Jack Ketchum) Eyes Left, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2001.

(With John Pelan) Family Traditions, Bereshith Books, 2002.

Mr. Torso, BloodLetting Press, 2002.

Sex, Drugs & Power Tools, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2002.

Monstrosity, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2002, reprinted, Leisure Horror (New York, NY), 2003.

Ever Nat, BloodLetting Press, 2003.

Infernal Angel, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2003, reprinted, Leisure Horror (New York, NY), 2004.

Messenger, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2004.

The Backwoods, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Flesh Gothic, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2005.

(With John Phelan) Shifters, Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2005.

The Pig (previously published) [and] The House (novellas), Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 2005.

Monster Lake (juvenile), illustrated by Erik Wilson, Little Devil Press, 2005.

Slither, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of stories to anthologies, including Dark Seductions, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1993; Hot Blood: Deadly after Dark, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1994; Voices in the Night, edited by John Maclay, Maclay Associates, 1994; Bizarre Sex & Other Crimes of Passion, Masquerade Books, 1994; Hot Blood: Seeds of Fear, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1995; Hot Blood: Stranger by Night, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1995; Hot Blood: Fear the Fever, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1996; White House Horrors, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin Greenberg, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1996; Darkside, Darkside Press, 1996; The Best of Cemetery Dance, edited by Richard Chizmar, 1997; The UFO Files, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1998; Imagination Fully Dilated: Volume 1, Cemetery Dance Publications, 1998; The Brutarian, Bloodsongs, 1998; Aliens, edited by Whitley Strieber, 1999; 999, edited by Al Sarrantonio, Avon Books (New York, NY), 1999; Forces Obscures, edited by Marc Bailly, Naturellement (France), 1999; Of Spiders and Pigs, Bereshith Books, 1999; The Best American Mystery Stories of 2000, edited by Donald E. Westlake and Otto Penzler, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2000; Bad News, edited by Richard Laymon, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2000; Skull Full of Spurs, Dark Highway, 2000; Graven Images, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and Thomas Roche, Berkley/Ace (New York, NY), 2000; Shivers I, Shivers II, Shivers III, Cemetery Dance, 2002, 2003, 2004. Author of comic scripts for Necro Publications, Verotik, and Cemetery Dance Publications. Contributor of essays, stories, and interviews to periodicals, including Cemetery Dance, Bizarre Bazaar, Afraid: The Newsletter for the Horror Professional, and Heliocentricnet. Contributor of articles to periodicals, including MYND, Annapolis Critique, Magazine of Literary and Social Interest, Other Voices in Poetry, All about Beer, Gun Digest, and local newspapers.

ADAPTATIONS:

Several novels have been optioned for film.

SIDELIGHTS:

Edward Lee's horror novels demonstrate an active, graphic-minded imagination at work in both the real and fantasy realms. Lee grew up in Maryland and had a relatively normal childhood, but he was introduced to horror at a young age. He told Severed Cinema online interviewer Elaine Lamkin: "When I was about six, a babysitter threw me in the back of his convertible, picked up a bunch of his greaser friends, and went straight to the drive-in. Psycho was playing. What I remember most about that night was that the greasers were screaming but I was giggling. Hmm."

After serving in the military, Lee returned to Maryland, where he briefly worked as a police officer, then attended the University of Maryland. When he quit he had a 3.89 GPA and was missing only about fifteen credits for his degree. His plan had been to teach English, but when he realized that he really wanted to be a writer, he got up in the middle of an English language history class and walked out. Within a year he sold his first novel. Lee was a night watchman for fifteen years as he developed his first horror novels. He remained in Maryland until 1997, then moved to Seattle, Washington, where he enjoyed cooking and eating the great variety of inexpensive shellfish available there. When he tired of gloomy Seattle, however, he sought out the sunnier clime of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Some of Lee's characters, including the zombie Grub Girl, have been adapted for adult comic books, and several of his novels have been optioned for film. His collaborators include Elizabeth Steffen, with whom he first wrote Portrait of the Psychopath As a Young Woman, in which magazine columnist Kathleen Shade is approached by a psychopathic female killer who wants to tell her story. The Ushers is a collection of nineteen Lee stories, six of which are original. Hardcore themes include child pornography, amputation, and sexual mutilation. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "At their best, these stories are a reminder that horror is a fiction that challenges taboos."

The Stickmen, much like Lee's earlier Operator B, is a tale of extraterrestrials (the stickmen of the title), conspiracies, and a bottom-feeding journalist who rises to become a hero. "Like the saucer ride some of the characters purport to have taken, you don't believe this tale for a minute afterward, but it's exhilarating while it lasts," concluded a Publishers Weekly critic. In The Backwoods, a female attorney returns to her rural roots to save the family business and experiences extreme nightmares and sexual fantasies as she encounters murder, a land developer, and a possible methamphetamine operation.

In reviewing Flesh Gothic for Horror Reader online, Daniel Robichaud noted that the mansion of the story is as much a character as the people, "a haunted house setting rich with trappings both gothic and sexual.… A renowned hardcore horror writer, Lee's best works delve into the grotesque with a nearly infectious glee. He metes out gruesomeness and erotica with abandon. His best novels elicit shivers, either of the fearsome kind or the desirous." Lee toned down his horror in Monster Lake, which he wrote for a young audience. Robichaud called it "a fun read, and the pulp horror trappings work quite well when they come."

In an interview with Buried.com, Lee said that horror novels will always be popular with the reading public. "We live in a pretty safe society but I think there's some inherent aspect of human nature that's curious about the opposite," he said. "There's a part of us that craves danger. There's a part of us that will always wonder about horrific situations. Horror fiction gives us a little walking-around time in such realms.… It lets us take a stroll in an impossible world. It's fun!"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, November 29, 1999, review of The Ushers, p. 57; February 14, 2000, review of The Stickmen, p. 178; October 6, 2003, review of Infernal Angel, p. 66; October 24, 2005, review of The Backwoods, p. 44.

ONLINE

Bloody-Disgusting.com,http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/ (December 16, 2006), Elaine Lamkin, author interview.

Book Review Zone,http://www.bookreviewzone.com/ (November 16, 2006), William I. Lengeman III, review of The Backwoods.

Buried.com,http://www.buried.com/ (December 16, 2006), Gravedigger, reviews of Flesh Gothic and Messenger, and author interview.

Edward Lee Home Page,http://www.edwardleeonline.com (December 16, 2006).

Horror.com,http://www.horror.com/ (October 2, 2003), Tony, review of City Infernal.

Horror Reader,http://www.horrorreader.com/ (September 6, 2005), Daniel Robichaud, review of Flesh Gothic; (October 14, 2005), Daniel Robichaud, review of Monster Lake.

iNetReviews,http://www.inetreviews.com/ (December 16, 2006), C. Dennis Moore, review of Portrait of the Psychopath As a Young Woman.

Severed Cinema,http://www.severedcinema.com/ (June 15, 2005), Elaine Lamkin, "An Interview with Ed Lee."

SFReader.com,http://www.sfreader.com/ (December 16, 2006), Lynn Nicole Louis, review of City Infernal. *