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Dark Chicago
Category: Conventions
HWA Stoker Weekend 2005
NANCY ETCHEMENDY CAN correct me, but I’m pretty sure my first words to her upon returning from the podium were…”holy crap.” I didn’t expect to win the Stoker Award for First Novel from the Horror Writers Association (HWA) last weekend. Honest. It was an honor to be nominated, but while my novel, Covenant, received good initial reviews, it was also on the smallest press out of the four nominees, so I really didn’t have high…
World Horror Convention 2005 – Return to New York!
WHEN MY PLANE landed at LaGuardia Airport on April 7, 2005, my heart leapt — it felt like I was coming home. It was the first time I’d been back to Manhattan since I spent a summer there as a magazine intern in NYC 18 years ago, working on 52nd Street and living down near the East Village in an NYU dorm. It remains one of my favorite times in my life. And when I…
Horrorfind – Baltimore, August 2004
UNCERTAINTY. DESIRE. INDECISION. That’s the framework for my Horrorfind 2004 experience, and the reason I ultimately went to the con but didn’t register in time to participate in readings or panels. I’ve wanted to go to the con the past two years, but work commitments always intervened. This summer though, I finally had an opening to go…but various things kept me hedging ‘til the end. I know. Standard male schtick. Can’t commit. But damn. I…
World Horror Convention 2004 – Phoenix: A Quiet but Cool Con
IF YOU THOUGHT Kansas City’s World Horror Convention in 2003 seemed the quietest WHC, then you weren’t in Phoenix. Oh that’s right, of course you weren’t. Nobody was! OK, that’s not strictly true. Some of us were. But this was the poorest attended con of any I’ve been to, and it showed. Programming was sparse, and standard WHC events like Editor Pitch Meetings, Loren Rhoads‘ Morbid Curiousity Open Mic and even the Gross-Out Contest were…
Printers Row Book Fair, WisCon, and Vigilantes of Love Release Party!
YESTERDAY, I SPENT the afternoon at Chicago’s Printers Row Book Fair, where the streets teemed with eager book collectors surrounding dozens of tents and tables of local booksellers peddling both old collectible volumes and new small press releases. Twilight Tales sponsored a table, and I did a signing with Robert Weinberg from 2-4 p.m. It was a kick to sign and sell a handful of books to passersby who had no idea who I or…
World Horror Convention 2003 – Rain and Hail but no Snow
KANSAS CITY’S World Horror Convention seemed a much calmer con in many ways than past instances, perhaps because it was raining and hailing outside most of the weekend, or perhaps because a lot of key players were absent — old friends like P.D. Cacek, Gerard Houarner, Linda Addison, Shane Ryan Staley and GAK, among many others, couldn’t make the con. But it still was a good time. My wife Geri and I got to spend…
World Horror Convention 2002 – Sweet Home Chicago!
WELL, IT’S TAKEN me nearly two months to finally recap WHC Chicago…but I think I’ve finally recovered! This year I took lots of pictures, since it was on my own home turf…I’ve set this site up so you can click any of the thumbails to see a full-size picture. Hopefully that will help download times to stay reasonable. World Horror Con 2002 started in 2001 for me; I volunteered in the fall to handle publications…
World Horror Convention 2001 – Seattle
SEATTLE’S WORLD HORROR CONVENTION 2001 has come and gone. Can it really be over already? I’m gonna miss names and events, I know, but here’s my scattershot recollections of a loaded weekend, more for my own future memory benefit than anyone else’s. Thanks to Sephera Giron, Judi Rohrig, David Norhaus and Monica J. O’Rourke for catching me on camera during some key moments of the con, and allowing me to post those pix here! FRIDAY,…
World Horror Convention 2000 – Denver
IT’S BEEN ABOUT two weeks now since I hopped a plane to Denver to attend my first World Horror Convention. I’ve put off writing about it, because I had no idea how to summarize it into a couple of paragraphs. But the memories are already fading, so here’s a go at it: Probably the best thing about the con for me was meeting so many people in the horror community who I’ve corresponded with via…
HWA Stoker Weekend 2005
NANCY ETCHEMENDY CAN correct me, but I’m pretty sure my first words to her upon returning from the podium were…”holy crap.” I didn’t expect to win the Stoker Award for First Novel from the Horror Writers Association (HWA) last weekend. Honest. It was an honor to be nominated, but while my novel, Covenant, received good initial reviews, it was also on the smallest press out of the four nominees, so I really didn’t have high…
World Horror Convention 2005 – Return to New York!
WHEN MY PLANE landed at LaGuardia Airport on April 7, 2005, my heart leapt — it felt like I was coming home. It was the first time I’d been back to Manhattan since I spent a summer there as a magazine intern in NYC 18 years ago, working on 52nd Street and living down near the East Village in an NYU dorm. It remains one of my favorite times in my life. And when I…
Horrorfind – Baltimore, August 2004
UNCERTAINTY. DESIRE. INDECISION. That’s the framework for my Horrorfind 2004 experience, and the reason I ultimately went to the con but didn’t register in time to participate in readings or panels. I’ve wanted to go to the con the past two years, but work commitments always intervened. This summer though, I finally had an opening to go…but various things kept me hedging ‘til the end. I know. Standard male schtick. Can’t commit. But damn. I…
World Horror Convention 2004 – Phoenix: A Quiet but Cool Con
IF YOU THOUGHT Kansas City’s World Horror Convention in 2003 seemed the quietest WHC, then you weren’t in Phoenix. Oh that’s right, of course you weren’t. Nobody was! OK, that’s not strictly true. Some of us were. But this was the poorest attended con of any I’ve been to, and it showed. Programming was sparse, and standard WHC events like Editor Pitch Meetings, Loren Rhoads‘ Morbid Curiousity Open Mic and even the Gross-Out Contest were…
Printers Row Book Fair, WisCon, and Vigilantes of Love Release Party!
YESTERDAY, I SPENT the afternoon at Chicago’s Printers Row Book Fair, where the streets teemed with eager book collectors surrounding dozens of tents and tables of local booksellers peddling both old collectible volumes and new small press releases. Twilight Tales sponsored a table, and I did a signing with Robert Weinberg from 2-4 p.m. It was a kick to sign and sell a handful of books to passersby who had no idea who I or…
World Horror Convention 2003 – Rain and Hail but no Snow
KANSAS CITY’S World Horror Convention seemed a much calmer con in many ways than past instances, perhaps because it was raining and hailing outside most of the weekend, or perhaps because a lot of key players were absent — old friends like P.D. Cacek, Gerard Houarner, Linda Addison, Shane Ryan Staley and GAK, among many others, couldn’t make the con. But it still was a good time. My wife Geri and I got to spend…
World Horror Convention 2002 – Sweet Home Chicago!
WELL, IT’S TAKEN me nearly two months to finally recap WHC Chicago…but I think I’ve finally recovered! This year I took lots of pictures, since it was on my own home turf…I’ve set this site up so you can click any of the thumbails to see a full-size picture. Hopefully that will help download times to stay reasonable. World Horror Con 2002 started in 2001 for me; I volunteered in the fall to handle publications…
World Horror Convention 2001 – Seattle
SEATTLE’S WORLD HORROR CONVENTION 2001 has come and gone. Can it really be over already? I’m gonna miss names and events, I know, but here’s my scattershot recollections of a loaded weekend, more for my own future memory benefit than anyone else’s. Thanks to Sephera Giron, Judi Rohrig, David Norhaus and Monica J. O’Rourke for catching me on camera during some key moments of the con, and allowing me to post those pix here! FRIDAY,…
World Horror Convention 2000 – Denver
IT’S BEEN ABOUT two weeks now since I hopped a plane to Denver to attend my first World Horror Convention. I’ve put off writing about it, because I had no idea how to summarize it into a couple of paragraphs. But the memories are already fading, so here’s a go at it: Probably the best thing about the con for me was meeting so many people in the horror community who I’ve corresponded with via…