Vince A. Liaguno was born in Easton, Pennsylvania and was raised in both Edison and the Princeton area of New Jersey. As an only child, he enjoyed an imaginative childhood, filled with reading, writing stories, and conjuring up games of make-believe. Vince lightheartedly says that he “survived thirteen years of Catholic education” but credits the parochial school system with giving him a solid education and “a love for all things related to English and the symmetry of words”.

Following his parents’ divorce when he was in his late teens, Vince eschewed college and began what would become a long career caring for the older members of our society through his work in long-term care facilities. He went back to college in his mid-twenties, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Health Administration and graduating with honors. This permitted him to earn licensure as a New York State Nursing Home Administrator, where he has been able to continue his devotion to the frail elderly. In 2006, he was the proud recipient of the New Administrator of the Year Award from the New York Chapter of the American College of Health Care Administrators.

But despite his success in the field of healthcare administration, Vince had an untapped talent for writing that he longed to explore. Although he flirted briefly with an MFA program in the Hamptons, Vince realized that he could not be taught to write; he simply had to do it and learn how to polish his words later. He began writing arts reviews for local publications before landing a steady gig as a contributing editor at Autograph Collector, a national specialty-niche magazine for enthusiasts of the titular hobby. There, Vince saw numerous celebrity profiles, interviews, and articles related to the hobby of autograph collecting published. His many celebrity subjects include Jamie Lee Curtis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Isabella Rossellini, the late Janet Leigh, singer Cyndi Lauper, David Strathairn, Kathy Bates, Olympia Dukakis, the late vocalist Laura Branigan, singer Martha Davis of The Motels, actress Jamie Rose and actor/supermodel Michael Bergin.

Vince has fond recollections of Saturday’s spent with his dad during their weekly “buddy days”, during which the elder Liaguno introduced him to the world of movies. Vince especially enjoyed the horror movies of the early eighties, developing what he jokingly refers to as “a lifelong obsession” with all things related to scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. It was his fondness for the slasher films of this era, like Friday the 13th and Halloween, which served as the inspiration for The Literary Six.

Vince currently lives on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, with his partner of 18 years, their two Cocker Spaniels, Sydney and Kirby, and their cat, Moyet- named after British chanteuse Alison Moyet.

An Interview with Vince...

Vince recently sat down to give Authors After Dark the scoop on his forthcoming debut novel, The Literary Six.

Authors After Dark: How would you describe The Literary Six?

Vince Liaguno: I’d describe it as a cross between Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Friday the 13th…with a twist! (laughing)

AAD: What was the inspiration behind The Literary Six?

VL: I grew up loving the slasher films of the 80’s. My dad and I used to have “buddy days” every week, and he used to take me to the movies on Saturday’s. When I was a little boy, we’d go see all those great Irwin Allen disaster flicks like Earthquake and The Towering Inferno. Then he took me to see my first scary movie, Jaws. It took four trips to the theater before I could sit through the entire thing…each time we’d go I’d get a little farther through the film before I’d be like “Daddy, can we go?” (laughing). Then, when I was ten years old, he took me to see Halloween. From that moment on, I was hooked on horror, and my poor father got dragged to every slice ‘em-dice ‘em movie that came out after that. The visceral images of those films really made an impression, and, as I got older, I gained a tremendous appreciation for the art behind horror. But as much as I enjoyed the slasher films, there were few books in that genre. So I guess you could say that I set out to bring the celluloid images of slasher films to the written page.

AAD: What are some of your favorite films of the slasher genre that influenced The Literary Six?

VL: Well, Halloween and Friday the 13th certainly set the standard, but there were many films of that era I’ve enjoyed tremendously like Happy Birthday to Me, Terror Train, Curtains, Hell Night, Just Before Dawn, My Bloody Valentine, The Funhouse, and Prom Night.

AAD: But let’s face it, the slasher films of the eighties weren’t exactly embraced by critics for their artistic merits.

VL: For me, what was missing in some of those old slasher films was characterization. I always felt that audiences would care more for the victims of some madman’s wrath if they were more fully realized. This is not always easy to accomplish in film, especially when the primary audience is teenagers. But with this book, I felt that character development was crucial for readers to empathize with the characters. I wanted readers to feel the death of one of these characters more deeply than they would the cardboard cutouts of the traditional slasher film. With books, a writer is not limited by a running time. He or she has a unique opportunity to explore the motivations, history, and flaws of the characters more fully.

AAD: What would you say the central theme of the novel is?

VL: When I sat down to write The Literary Six, I was obsessed with the idea that one’s past is never really in the past…that at one point or another in your life, you have to confront old demons. These demons take many forms, what we refer to in society now as “carrying baggage”. Sometimes we carry with us guilt for past actions for which we’ve never made reparations, struggles with addictions, longtime denials…and this was an idea that I wanted running throughout the novel. Not only are the members of the titular group haunted by past demons collectively, but each of the characters in the book struggles with some personal demon – whether that be unrequited feelings, repressed sexuality, or personal insecurities. How these characters, both collectively and individually, ultimately confront these demons is what propels the novel forward both in the main narrative and throughout the subplots. There’s also an underlying socio-political theme in which I’ve explored the idea of how both conservatism and liberalism taken to the extreme can be harmful. Our culture today seems pulled in opposite directions by religious-based conservatism on the right and radical liberalism on the left – neither of which is good, in my opinion, if left unrestricted without checks and balances. Some of the characters in The Literary Six represent both sides of this coin.

AAD: Speaking of subplots, tell us a little bit about the subplots in the novel and why they were important to the book’s central theme.

VL: In The Literary Six, I wanted to have more happening than just people running around haplessly and being killed off. So some of the tension comes from the human interactions of these characters. I thought it would be interesting to populate the book with some characters whose representations were less conventional in the horror realm. One character is gay; another is a closeted bisexual. Casting these characters into the action enabled me to explore some interesting subplots that haven’t been explored in the genre. As the novel evolved, an underlying theme of redemption came through, and it became clear to me that each of these characters at some point in the book would achieve redemption for their myriad of flaws. For these characters, in order to put the sins of their past behind them, they needed to journey through a process of redemption.

AAD: Was the choice to make the six primary characters over the age of 40 a conscious decision?

VL: Absolutely. My decision to inject forty-something’s into the traditionally youth-oriented slasher realm was, in part, a revolt against our culture’s obsession with youth and virtual disregard for anyone over a certain age, and, in part, to demonstrate the effect of age and wisdom on characters put into the extreme situations in the book. How would a character in his or her early 40’s react differently than the traditional college-age character? How would the wisdom and knowledge gained from his or her collective experiences differ from those of someone less evolved in their personhood? I was fascinated in exploring the ramifications that age had on the conventional telling of this kind of story. Part of my inspiration in doing this also came from writer Marc Cherry and his brilliance in bucking every single popular demographic and convention and creating a wildly popular television show like Desperate Housewives, built around a cast of 40-something-year-old men and women who are interesting and entertaining. I figured if he could turn the primetime soap genre on its head, then I could try to do the same thing in writing a horror story in this genre.

AAD: Why do you suppose people enjoy being scared?

VL: The popularity of horror as a genre seems to be cyclical. I think that people in general enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes from a build-up in suspense followed by an all-out scare. It’s a rush, then a release. Many horror buffs liken it to riding a roller coaster. In literature, horror is even more effective because there is an element of the reader’s own subconscious that adds depth and details to the images the writer creates with words. I also think that surges in the popularity of horror run parallel to unrest in the world. Being in a controlled state of fear, such as when you watch a horror movie or read a scary novel, serves as an outlet for people’s real fears when the turmoil of the world at large unsettles them. In this sense, horror is almost therapeutic.

AAD: What is the writing process like for you?

VL: It’s funny because so many people have this idea that writers have this really cool, leisurely lifestyle in which they spend their days at some remote cabin in Montana and write all day as ideas come to them. The reality of writing today is that most writers…present company included…hold down full-time jobs and write on the side. For me, I write whenever I can during the week but have disciplined myself to write religiously on the weekends. The Literary Six took about two years to complete, from the first word to the last edit. I generally juggle several writing projects at once, working on non-fiction magazine articles concurrently with two fiction novels. This allows me to switch it up a bit, and…knock on wood…has been a deterrent to writer’s block for me. Whenever I get caught up on an idea or a scene that isn’t quite working, I just walk away and pick up one of the other projects. That usually refreshes me, and I’m able to go right back to the former project.

AAD: Do you have any projects you’re working on now?

VL: I’m concentrating right now on a literary fiction piece that I’ve been writing on and off now for nearly fifteen years. It’s another piece that explores the concept of the past influencing the future and having to revisit the past in order to get on with the present. And, like I said, I generally like to have two novels going at once, so right now I’m brainstorming for the second horror/suspense novel. I do love killers and madman, so I think it’s a safe bet to say that there’ll be some slicing and dicing in the next horror book as well! (laughing)