Will Viharo is an

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

-based author who has published nine novels. Seven of his novels are neo- noir (or neo-

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

) works which blend elements of surrealism, gore, violent sex, and

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

. His body of writing includes the Vic Valentine series (''Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me'', ''Fate Is My Pimp/Romance Takes A Raincheck'', and ''I Lost My Heart In Hollywood/Diary of a Dick''), ''Lavender Blonde'', and ''Down A Dark Alley''. ''Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me'', originally published by Wild Card Press in 1993, was republished in August 2013 by Gutter Press, in anticipation of the movie adaption, which

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor. He made his film debut with a leading role in '' The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakout role as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopath ...

will direct and star in. Viharo, who was born in New York City on April 2, 1963, has also written two

supernatural horror Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...

works: ''A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge'' and ''Freaks That Carry Your Luggage Up To Your Room''. From 1997 to 2012, Viharo, under the name Will the Thrill, regularly hosted

Thrillville ''Thrillville'' is a simulation and strategy video game developed by Frontier Developments that depicts theme park management, similar to '' RollerCoaster Tycoon''. ''Thrillville'' is available for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and, in ...

, a series of

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

showings, with his wife Monica "the Tiki Goddess" Cortes Viharo. The locations of these stagings included the Parkway Speakeasy Theater in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, which closed in 2009; the Cerrito Theater in

El Cerrito, California El Cerrito (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

(now operating under different management); and the

Roxie Theater The Roxie Theater, also known as the Roxie Cinema or just The Roxie, is a historic movie theater, founded in 1912, at 3117 16th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. It is a non-profit community arthouse cinema. History The Roxie is ...

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. Viharo's parents named him after

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. His mother is a former beauty queen, and his father,

Robert Viharo Robert Viharo (born August 14, 1942) is an American actor. He made an early appearance in 1966 as Harry in ''Dark Shadows''. He is known for his role in '' Valley of the Dolls'' (1967) in the part of a Broadway director. He had the starring role ...

, a B-movie actor.Stefanie Kalem
"Faster, Parkway Guy! Write! Write!"
''

East Bay Express The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday. Th ...

'', November 23, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2017. In April 2014, Viharo and his wife, Monica Cortes Viharo - a college professor - moved from Alameda, California to Seattle, Washington.Evan Carp
"Delayed Movie Inspires Big Changes"
'' SF Gate'', December 23, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2017. On July 24, 2015, Viharo's ''The Space Needler's Intergalactic Bar Guide'', an

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

book co-authored with Scott Fulks, was published. In a March 2014 interview, Viharo stated that he was working on short stories - "an unusual form" for him - and would soon be finishing his sixth Vic Valentine novel, then (publicly) untitled.Evan Karp
"The Write Stuff: Will Viharo on Self Therapy and Throwing Out Notes in Bottles"
''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...

'', March 20, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2017. On November 29, 2015, that novel (titled ''Hard-Boiled Heart'') was published. Just prior this period, actor Christian Slater—who had begun in earnest to adapt ''Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me'' for the silver screen—was side-tracked by the success of his first-season television show ''Mr. Robot''.

Works

* ''Chumpy Walnut'' (a fable "about a foot-tall boy lost in a world of macabre make-believe" that Viharo wrote when he was sixteen years oldSean McCourt,
Write what you know
" ''

San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. Parts of the paper were relaunched online in February 2016. History The ''Bay Guar ...

'', September 13, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2017.) * ''Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me'' (first "Vic Valentine" novel, published in 1993 and republished in 2013) * ''Down A Dark Alley'' (a sex-and-violence crime spree novel, published on March 4, 2011) * ''Lavender Blonde'' (a dialogue-structured novel) * ''A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge'' (an

novel) * ''Fate Is My Pimp/Romance Takes A Raincheck'' (second and third "Vic Valentine" books - novellas, published in one volume, on April 15, 2011) * ''I Lost My Heart In Hollywood/Diary of a Dick'' (fourth and fifth "Vic Valentine" books - novellas, published in one volume, on April 23, 2011) * ''Freaks That Carry Your Luggage Up To Your Room'' (an

novella, published on October 11, 2011) * ''It Came From Hangar 18'' (an

work, co-authored with Scott Fulks, published on February 3, 2012) *"Behind the Bar" (story), from the 2014 anthology ''Long Distance Drunks: A Tribute to Charles Bukowski'', edited by Max Booth III *"People Bug Me" (story), published in the fifth issue of ''Nightmare Illustrated'' magazine in April 2014 *"Short and Choppy" (story), published in the Vol. 1 Issue 1/Fall 2014 issue of ''Dark Corners'' in October 2014 (Editors: CT McNeely, Emily J. McNeely and Steve Gallagher) *"The Lost Sock" (story), published in the Vol. 1 Issue 2/Winter 2014 issue of ''Dark Corners'' in December 2014 (Editors: CT McNeely, Emily J. McNeely and Steve Gallagher) *"Cool Reception" (story), published in the Vol. 1 Issue 4/Summer 2015 issue of ''Dark Corners'' in July 2015 (Editors: CT McNeely, Emily J. McNeely and Steve Gallagher) * ''The Space Needler's Intergalactic Bar Guide'' (an

novel, co-authored with Scott Fulks, published on July 24, 2015) * ''Hard-Boiled Heart'' (sixth "Vic Valentine" novel, published on November 29, 2015)

References

External links

Viharo's personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viharo, Will Living people 1963 births Writers from Seattle American male novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Washington (state)