BAD BOOKENDS So, on my way to the airport on Wednesday morning, there’s such a ridiculous traffic jam, that I almost miss the plane (even though I left early) and at 6 a.m. on Thursday, the first morning of the con, I’m woken up by my wife who tells me…
WELL IT WAS STARTING to get a bit ulcer-inducing there, but today at 3 p.m., I finally picked up the first project of my new publishing imprint, Dark Arts Books. You can read more about the formation of the imprint at www.darkartsbooks.com. But the key point is, Candy in the…
I WROTE THE original story “There Were No Bullets in the Gun,” eventually retitled Failure, three summers ago now. In the fall of 2004, after Delirium Books agreed to publish it as the debut volume in a new “hardcover chapbook” series, I also created cover art for the book, using…
IT’S ACTUALLY New Year’s Eve as I write this on my laptop on the couch, watching the “return of Dick Clark” New Year’s Eve countdown show (there’s a zombie movie inherent in Clark’s return, isn’t there?) As I watched all the “top moments of the past year and the past…
IT’S BEEN NINE YEARS since my last World Fantasy Con — which was held in Schaumburg, right down the street from where I work, and was also my first World Con. At that convention, I was still very much a newbie writer, knew no one and had no idea what…
TONIGHT I PULLED UP outside the Acorn Public Library in Oak Forest, IL and the white-lit sign outside proclaimed: Horror Author, October 27, 7 p.m. Wow…there it was, my name up in lights…oh wait a minute – my name wasn’t there. Oh well, I knew it meant me! I walked…
WITH THE BIRTH of my son, Shaun Austin on July 15, I’ve been a little too…busy…to update this journal…but there’s been lots going on. I’ve had a bunch of press hit on my winning the HWA Bram Stoker award (see Chicago Tribune article at right!), and have a lined up…
THIS WEEKEND, Aurora, IL hosted the Midwest Literacy Festival, and Twilight Tales hosted a table there, as well as scheduled live readings. I had a blast hanging out with everyone, signing at the table, and doing my reading. Here are a few pictures from the event! Â
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…
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…
