Notes on Lot Lizards

There was a time when I said I would never write a sequel. To anything. Let me give you a piece of advice: Never say never. But back then, when I was being pompous about sequels, I was frequently asked when I would write a sequel to Live Girls. Having told myself I would never do that, I wrote a kind of sexy vampire follow-up — Lot Lizards.

I used to spend a lot of time sitting in all-night coffee shops writing at the coffee counter. One of those coffee shops was in the 76 Truck Stop in Redding, California. I met my wife there. She was the night manager of the gift shop. While most coffee shops were pretty empty in the wee hours of the morning, the 76 Truck Stop was always busy, mostly with truckers. I often eavesdropped on their conversations. I once heard a couple of truckers talking disapprovingly about "lot lizards." What on earth could a lot lizard be? My imagination conjured up all kinds of reptilian horrors. It turned out that a lot lizard was a hooker who worked the parking lot at truck stops, going from one truck to the next to exchange sexual favors for money or drugs. Lot lizards, I learned from the truckers in the coffee shop, were not exactly the classiest of prostitutes.

The term "lot lizards" stayed with me and my imagination began to gnaw on it. The result was Lot Lizards, a novel about traveling truck stop vampire hookers. It was published in 1991 by Mark V. Ziesing in a nice hardcover edition, but that has been the only edition of this novel for 20 years — until now. In his Agony Column, Rick Kleffel wrote:

"Occasionally, I like read a book that's like a bullet to the brain — short, sharp and devastating. A book that will grab hold of me and not let go until until I've turned the last page. I guess the word I'm looking for is compulsive. If you're like me, then the book you should be looking for is Ray Garton's Lot Lizards. Most horror readers are probably familiar with this talented writer from his Bram Stoker nominee novel Live Girls. In Lot Lizards, Garton gleefully takes on his forte, vampire sluts, with such gusto that it's impossible to resist. Great characters and enjoyable action make this book required reading for vampire lovers and haters alike. ...

"Garton's characters are what carry this pulp tale with such propulsive force. They are tired, starved, disappointed and rendered with an even hand that easily exposes the strengths, flaws and quirks of real people. The vampire logic is flawless, even though they do go down into the basement. And even though this novel has a number of similarities to Live Girls, it's certainly not a repeat. It's just more fun.

"Cheap vampire novels seem to multiply faster than credit card debts. If you're going to blow your hard-earned cash on thriller-diller hardcover books, you might as well get the best. Lot Lizards will do just fine."

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