The Funhouse

name “Owen West” because Jove hoped to create a brand-new name (or new brand name) in horror-suspense and use the extra punch of a film to really send off the author's “first” book in a big way. The second West book was The Mask , and although sales were good, the success of the first book redounded to Mr. West's benefit less than the failure of the movie detracted from his reputation. By the time I delivered the third of the West books, The Pit , novels under my own name had become more successful than those written as West, and it seemed wise to fold his identity into mine. The Pit was retitled Darkfall - a great relief to me, as I could easily imagine the intense pleasure nasty-minded critics would get from merely adding an s to the second word of the original title-and was published under my real name.
        I now tell people that West died tragically, trampled by musk oxen in Burma while researching a novel about a giant prehistoric duck which he'd tentatively titled Quackzilla .
        Eventually The Mask was republished under my name and sold far better than it had for poor, luckless, ox-flattened West.
        And now here is The Funhouse under my name at last, thanks to the efforts of people at MCA Publishing, Berkley Books, and the kind cooperation of Larry Block. It doesn't rank with Watchers or Hideaway or a number of my best novels, but it's as good as some and maybe better than others. I like it. I have books I'll never let see print again. Readers shouldn't have to pay for stories that a novelist wrote while he was still learning, just to be able to see how badly he was able to screw up before he found his way. The Funhouse , I think, is better than that. It's fun. It has something to say. The background is authentic. And not least of all, it's pretty damn scary, even if I say so myself. I hope you enjoyed it.
        And a moment of silence, please, for the late Mr. West, whose remains continue to disintegrate, in that field in Burma, where the herd of oxen-and the movie version of The Funhouse -drove his too-mortal flesh deep into the oily, black mud.
        
     

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    [Version 2.0 by BuddyDk - Feb 24 2003]
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