Brian and I have known each other since high school. We wrote Star Wars fanfic together. We wrote Lost Angels and Angelus Rose — the novels about Lorelei and Azaziel — together. I’ve had the pleasure of publishing Brian’s essays in the original volume of Death’s Garden and in most issues of Morbid Curiosity magazine. Despite what he says about himself below, he’s a born raconteur.
His essay in Death’s Garden Revisited is about his adventure in Venezuela. He was in-country working on a low-budget movie, but he took a day off to visit a graveyard. It was a life-changing experience.
You can get a taste of him reading it on the most recent Horror Addicts podcast.
Brian Thomas writes when there is no way of avoiding the task. Over half a century, he’s explored more than his share of burying grounds, at all hours of day and night. He observes every Memorial Day by cleaning of family grave plots and endeavors to clean or uncover at least one neglected grave marker each occasion.
What’s your favorite thing to do in a cemetery?
To look a bit closer for something I’d most likely miss.
Tell me about your favorite cemetery.
Forest Lawn Glendale. I never go back to Los Angeles without stopping by for a drink at Errol Flynn’s graveside (I also do my best to visit & toast the Fairbanks (père et fils) and Ty Power at Hollywood memorial (née Hollywood Forever).
Is there a cemetery or gravesite you’ve always wanted to visit?
Charles de Batz de Castelmore D’artagnan.
What would your epitaph be?
“Thought I’d be dead by thirty, but things didn’t work out.”
Do you have a favorite song about cemeteries or graveyards?
‘Cemetery’ by the Headstones
I can’t imagine visiting Errol Flynn’s gravesite. I’d get all emotional. Great interview!
Brian knows where all the bodies are buried in LA.