All posts by Chet

I sold my first story in 1981. Since then I've published twenty-five books and over a hundred short stories. My work has been adapted for film and TV, and has been published worldwide. I've won the International Horror Guild Award, and been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award (twice), the MWA's Edgar, and the HWA's Bram Stoker Award (six times). Not that any of this has made me a better person...

MURDER OLD AND NEW by Laurie and me…

Murder Old and NewMy wife Laurie and I wrote this one together, and it came out in 2020 in both print, e-book, and audio, recorded by the great Mary Ann Jacobs.

An aged photograph of a dead man hanging from a tree…

Deaths in a nursing home that may not be as natural as they appear…

Clues showing a 70-year-old suicide could be murder…

Sinister small town secrets, decades old, finally revealed…

Feisty Livy Crowe, single-and-loving-it owner of the nostalgia shop, Better Days, has to deal with all of these and more, including her mother’s slow deterioration in a senior residence that might be a crime scene, a very awkward romantic triangle, and murders old and new that threaten even Livy herself…

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Some nice words from Joe R. Lansdale:
“I was so engaged in this slick, clever mystery, I nearly burned the house down, having forgotten I had something cooking on the stove. Murder Old and New by Laurie and Chet Williamson is so riveting and swiftly paced you almost hate to arrive at the solution because you hate to lose the narrator’s voice.
Sharp writing, excellent characterization and a satisfying conclusion should put this at the top of your reading list.”

PSYCHO: SANITARIUM

I was approached by the Robert Bloch estate and asked if I’d like to write an authorized sequel to Bloch’s PSYCHO, in the “psycho”tic universe that Bloch, and not the films, had created. Since Bloch has always been one of my primary influences, and PSYCHO a touchstone, I was delighted with the opportunity.

The result was ROBERT BLOCH’S PSYCHO: SANITARIUM, to use the full title. I had a great time writing it. Both the estate and the editor were very pleased with it, and the promotional machine was in full force, with bright hopes for getting Universal to do a film version, until Universal basically said that if they wanted to do another film,  they’d do it themselves. Ah well.

Here’s the basic gist of the book:

______________________________ Continue reading PSYCHO: SANITARIUM

Websites are forever…

So has anyone else ever let a website flounder for five years?

Amazing how much can change in that time. As anyone with the patience to keep up with my “career” knows, I’ve not been writing much lately. A few short stories here and there, and the two novels that I co-wrote with my wife Laurie, which haven’t even been added here.

For the most part, I’ve been narrating audiobooks, something I can do out of my home. I enjoy it, and it’s profitable, and I should probably start creating posts for the audio work I do, just in case anyone stumbles across this website.

Therefore, a resolution: I shall update this bloody website, beginning with this skeletal post. I shall do a post a day, until…

Well, until I don’t.chetskeleton

HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE by Joe Lansdale

If you know me, you know that I love pretty much anything Joe Lansdale writes, and I’ve been reading him since he started. He’s truly got a unique voice, tells a helluva story, and is one of the finest exponents of what I consider moral fiction. That’s not to say you won’t find nasty words and especially nasty deeds in Joe’s books, or that he’s beating the Bible or the Talmud or the Koran, or proselytizing in any way for organized religion. On the contrary, he has no time and no sympathies for that kind of thing. But there’s always a code of morality and a sense of honor working overtime in his stories, and particularly in these Hap and Leonard tales. Continue reading HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE by Joe Lansdale

Psycho: The Musical & Me on BBC Radio…

vicI had the pleasure of talking with Vic Minett on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio (preceded by the agony of getting up at 6 AM to do so). I sounded a bit sleepy at first, but eventually woke up enough to discuss a film of their “Mystery Year” (1960) — Psycho, and, of course, Psycho: Sanitarium. We decided that a musical version would be a grand idea. Listen to it here. It’s three hours, but I’m 2:20:00 in, and it’s only posted for 30 days, so hurry…