About Me — Lee Pletzers
UPDATED 2023
After a two+ year break from Medium, I returned in early 2023. Here is an updated (mostly) About Me section.
The short and sweet:
Award-winning author, Lee Pletzers is a displaced New Zealand writer of the weird, wonderful and grotesque.
Since 2001, he has impacted the genre world, under the pen name Richard Lee, and now thrives within its limitless boundaries. Over seventy short stories have slammed his name on anthologies and magazines across the globe. Five novels affected humanity and two novellas were the icing on the cake.
He is now making the move into crime thrillers. He reads a lot of them and figures he might know a thing or two. His entrance into this genre starts with Death World and it’s sequel Death World 2.
He still sends his books out to independent and legacy publishers, looking for that elusive million-dollar cheque.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/threeand10
Website: http://www.thriller.nz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Threeand10/
The not short and sweet:
I have had five novels published, all with a small press. I started selling short stories in 2001 and entered self-publishing in 2004 under the pen name, Richard Lee. I won The Horror World Flash Fiction contest for a gruesome Santa story and The Bloody Dagger* Horror Award for Re-Entry of Evil (now republished as The Last Church)
At the same time, I ran one of the biggest writers’ groups on a Ning platform called Masters of Horror.
A small press publisher came across my second self-published novel and offered me a contract. I used a pen name that I spent years building and it became known. This publisher convinced me to use my real name. It was difficult to rebuild and readers hadn’t followed or didn’t know about the name change. Two years ago I returned to my pen name (Richard Lee) and things started moving again and a few Facebook friends said: I wondered what happened to you.
I used to write only horror, but in the past few years, I’ve tried to move away from that. I tried my hand at Science Fiction (without the science, hence Science Fantasy) and I won SFReaders award** for Saving Kira.
Following this, I wrote a lot more pure SF short stories that found publication in Nebula Rift and other sites.
In 2013, DemiGod Games (AU) commissioned me to pen a short story based on a new board game. It is one of my most favorite of tales involving Ninjas, Samurai and Princess Hemiko riding a dragon. I think I called them warriors, not Samurai as the story is set before they rose to power (also no date is given). I don’t think the game has been completed yet.
I recently discovered I like crime/thriller writing and completed a PI thriller based in Japan, New Zealand, and Russia. It’s entered the fifth edit stage and I’ll complete this edit, removing glue words and tweaking here and there. I am about to start book 2 once the editing is complete and it’s ready for agents. [Update — already started book 2]
I’m a discovery writer. This means that my first draft is usually a well-developed outline LOL.
My first non-fiction book was an intermittent fasting diet book based on me. Real-life examples.
* Not to be confused with: The Crime Writer’s Association Annual Dagger Awards. To be honest, I don’t remember which organization gave me the award. I did get it and it was added to the original book cover (which I no longer have). Suspicious, I know, but honest.
** I have the email notifying me of the win but it isn’t on their site anymore since the reboot or new format. The short story is still there listed as a ‘feature’.
I am a New Zealander living in Japan who has been fortunate to land five small press novel publications and sold over seventy short stories in anthologies and magazines, for example; The Literary Hatchet, Calamities Press, Under the Bed, and Nebula Rift (twice). In 2004 I won the Horror World December contest for the story, Santa. In 2013, DemiGod Games (AU) commissioned a short story based on a new board game. In 2016 I won a science fiction contest for my story, Saving Kira, at SFReader.com. Previously, I was a judge for the Australasian Shadow Awards for 6 consecutive years. I have a pen name.
Lee Pletzers http://thriller.nz
Even More About Lee Pletzers
Extra Stuff you don’t need to know:
1. I love rugby — All Blacks 4eva
2. I like #AWE wrestling — but only with a live audience. Fuck WWE.
3. Favorite books: Demogorgon by Brian Lumley, Amped by Daniel H. Wilson, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, The Travelling Vampire Show, and Funland by Richard Laymon (all his books are brilliant but these two are the best. Oh, I forgot ‘Cuts’, that was awesome too), Wolfcreek: Origin by Greg McLean and Aaron Sterns, Khai of Khen by Brian Lumley (I have the original. No, it’s never for sale), almost everything by Jeremy Bates.
4. For six years I was a Shadow Awards judge for the categories: Novel, long fiction, and graphic novels (run by the Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) Incorporated).
5. I’ve been a publisher
6. Article writer
7. Horror magazine editor
8. I have sold 75 short stories
NOTE: Read Funland and Cuts by Richard Laymon and Wolfcreek: Origin by Greg McLean and Aaron Sterns.
You can thank me later.
Please consider supporting my endeavors with a cup of coffee. You don’t have to.
