Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Rich Leder
Book Title: Cooking for Cannibals
Released: 01/14/21
Genre: Dark Humor
Interview by Heather L. Barksdale
What inspired you to write “Cooking for Cannibals”?
Leder: I’m a Hollywood kid, so I generally start with what’s commonly called a “high concept” story idea. It just so happens most of my high concept story ideas are outside the box. Way outside. What box? Did you see a box? My wife, the awesome Lulu, read Cooking for Cannibals, walked down the hall to my office, and said, “Who are you?” Maybe she’s not worried, but she’s definitely aware that strange shit is always running like a movie in my mind. Why? Where does it come from? I don’t know. Tiny little droplets of ideas germinating in my head for years suddenly appear before my eyes, and announce they are ready to become a fun and funny ride.
Which is to say that like most of my story ideas, I have no real sense of where the inspiration comes from. For instance, either I can’t remember or never knew what inspired me to make cannibalism the side effect of the Fountain of Youth drug in Cooking for Cannibals. It’s not like I wake up thinking about cannibalism. It’s not like I know anyone who wakes up thinking about cannibalism. I don’t personally know any cannibals. I don’t know anyone who knows any cannibals. I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows any cannibals. I imagine I thought it might make for an outrageous thrill ride. And I was right about that. But like so many other things in my life, I don’t know why. I have a thing for dark humor. Maybe that’s it. Not too many things darker than cannibalism. That’s about as out-there as dark humor gets. But in the right context and written with laughing in mind at all times, lots of dark stuff can be funny—even this.
Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process, or your book?
Leder: Here’s what my bio says:
“Rich Leder has been a working writer for more than three decades. His credits include 19 produced movies—television films for CBS, Lifetime, and Hallmark and feature films for Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, Longridge Productions, and Left Bank Films—and six novels for Laugh Riot Press.
He’s been the lead singer in a Detroit rock band, a restaurateur, a Little League coach, an indie film director, a literacy tutor, a magazine editor, a screenwriting coach, a wedding guru, a PTA board member, a commercial real estate agent, and a visiting artist for the UNCW Film Studies Department, among other things, all of which, it turns out, was grist for the mill.
He resides on the North Carolina coast with his awesome wife, Lulu, and is sustained by the visits home of their three fabulous children.”
I think that’s a pretty accurate picture of me. Anyone interested in hearing more about my somewhat unorthodox life choices can reach me at rich@richleder.com. I’ll email back. Always. Really.
I believe I’ve always been a writer. When I was boy playing in dirt with plastic soldiers and Tonka Toy tanks, my army men had backstories. Friends at home. Dogs. Hobbies. Favorite foods. They’d read each other letters from their wives and girlfriends. Who does that when they’re six years old? Writers, that’s who. I wrote skits and directed neighborhood kids in them for other neighborhood kids and their parents. We performed in the garage. The garage door was the curtain. I wrote a play in high school. But when I went to college, where it dawned on me that people were writing the movies I was watching...that was that. I was going to live my life as a writer.
So I spent a full decade in New York City, working in restaurants, studying screenwriting at The New School, and playing in rock bands. Then we moved to Los Angeles, where I got lucky and worked as a screenwriter for close to 15 years. That fabulous time was followed by 20 years in North Carolina writing movies and novels. A reasonable run overall.
If "Cooking for Cannibals" were adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?
Leder: Pick a Tarantino movie, lift that cast, and stick them in Cooking for Cannibals. Maybe some of the guys from Monty Python too.
When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?
Leder: I don’t especially believe in writer’s block. I think not knowing what to write is a function of two things. One, a paucity of research on some fundamental level. Two, no map. I’m a plotter. I must have a map to give me the courage and confidence to begin the journey. Though I’m delighted to surrender to the irrefutable fact that journeys are living things, predisposed to change without warning, on a whim. To which I say, no problem, let’s rework the map a bit.
Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?
Leder: Read everything and never stop reading. Write what you love with all that you’ve got. Those are two good ones. But the one I live by is: Write Anyway. No matter what you’re hearing in your head, write anyway. I’ve been telling myself that for 33 years. 50-plus screenplays and seven novels later I can say without hesitation it works for me. Write anyway.
What is your favorite book, genre, and/or author?
Leder: Turns out I write exactly the genres I want to write: Dark comic thrillers, funny murder mysteries, and romantic comedies. Being funny is the main thing. I’m an entertainer trying to make you laugh along the way by stringing words into sentences and sentences into stories. Yes, I read a lot. I love to read. So many amazing writers, it’s hard to give you just a few overall favorites. So I’ll give you three whose genre I more or less share: Carl Hiaasen, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore, and Tim Dorsey. That’s four. I know. I can count. And here’s three in a genre I flirt with: Donald E. Westlake, John D. MacDonald, and Elmore Leonard. And here’s three I’ll never write as well as but do so very much love to read: Richard Ford, John Irving, Stephen King, Michael Chabon, Tim O’Brien...this last list is really long, so I’ll stop right there.
What are you working on next?
Leder: I’m writing the fourth and final McCall book, Gottiguard. I’m having a ball. I know the characters so well, and they do not disappoint in this one. I think they know it’s their last dance, so they’re going all out. I don’t imagine they’ll be a Cannibals sequel. But there will most assuredly be more outrageous books coming from my direction. I love writing them.
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