Dennis Latham: Life, Fiction, and the Pursuit of Madness

Got a call from the ghost hunters (PINK) in Kentucky last night. They spent the night at my house in March and picked up the most EVPs they have ever recorded. Last week they did a presentation at the Independence, Kentucky Library and had a crowd of 100 people. They are using an EVP from my house, among others, where a voice says "Glad I'm dead and they get mad," after the question as to why they haunt my house. Among things we've experienced: I've been poked, slapped, had my hair yanked, had something crawl into bed with me almost every time I take a nap, and watched my Christmas tree get torn down one year by something I couldn't see. Lights go on and off, exercise equipment starts by itself and runs full tilt, crashes, bangs, and thumps all the time. I called PINK because something hit my big screen television so hard it moved the entire stand sideways and terrified my cats and dog. I've seen the woman pass through the dining room. We have three distin

Never before has a reviewer not only reviewed my book, but also pretty much described my real life at home. The Hellnotes reviewer sums up my latest book: "Overall, if you want an entertaining story, that doesn’t take itself too seriously, sprinkled with vulgarity, sacrilege, blasphemy, satire, and brine shrimp, then Lord of Homicides will satisfy your needs." Lord of Homicides Review

Created from a short story I wrote in 1973, Michael In Hell has a long history. I sent the story to Issac Asimov, and I was shocked when he actually wrote back to tell me he liked it and I should turn it into a novel. I did twenty years later. In 1995, I signed on with AEI a new agency in Los Angeles, along with author Steve Alten (MEG). Michael made it to a final marketing meeting at Bantam, where it was rejected (they had one opening slot) in favor of a famous writer because I was an unknown. Close but no cigar. Other majors rejected it because it was too bizarre and brutal during one of the periodic violence in media purges. The Vietnam combat in the novel is in part from my experience. Several incidents are based on events that happened during Operation Shelbyville and Operation Ballistic Charge during late 1967 in Quang Nam Province. Of the 14,000 Marines killed in Vietnam, 10,000 died in Quang Nam Province. It would have made Dante's Hell seem like Disneyland. The novel s