It’s CAPRICON 40 Weekend! This year, the venerable SF/F convention returns to the Wheeling, IL Westin with a “Tropics of Capricon” theme. Consequently, the first panel I’ll be on will be about IPAs – Beers From the Tropics (well, the IPA was really a beer brewed to GO to the…
2019 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR. From an amazing Muse concert to Horror and Pinball conventions and High School Marching Band competitions, it was action-packed. And, for the first time in my writing career, something I wrote appeared on TV (how cool is that?) At the start of December, V…
I LOVE ALL THE LIGHTS and carols and ceremony of Christmas. I’m not a religious person, but I do believe in traditions, and the celebration of love and the year’s events gone by. While I’ve made my reputation as a horror author, I’ve written a short book of Christmas stories…
EIGHT YEARS AGO, Jonathan Maberry approached me and a handful of others with an invitation to contribute to a new shared world book he was creating that dealt with vampires. I still have the original e-mail – from May of 2011 – and of course I accepted the invite, but…
I HAVE TO ADMIT that before I played it, I was a little skeptical about the latest Elvira-themed pinball machine that debuted this weekend at Pinball Expo 2019. I’m a big fan of the previous Elvira tables, Elvira and the Party Monsters (1989) and Scared Stiff (1996), both designed by…
LAST NIGHT, as I was taking a short break from playing the silver balls at Pinball Expo to squeeze in a little writing on my next novel Voodoo Heart, my son Shaun texted me to tell me there was a new CD just released by punk-pop band The Muffs called…
YOU COULDN’T ASK for a better way to kick off “Halloween Season” than a concert by the guy who created the haunting scores for some of the best Italian horror films of the ’70s – 90s. When I heard that keyboardist Claudio Simonetti was coming to Chicago on Sunday, Oct….
I’VE BEEN GOING TO HORRORHOUND in Indianapolis for many years now, and have seen it in three different locations. In 2019, the convention took the leap from a “hotel” con to the Indianapolis Convention Center. It was a good change which turned it into the biggest Indy HorrorHound ever, though…
“Everything you love must die…” I MET HER ONE YEAR AGO this month. We were just visiting the Bird Is The Word store to get some seed for our “flock.” And Shaun and Geri and I all held this little green Canary Winged Parakeet that they’d just gotten in from…
I LOOK FORWARD to Flashback Weekend: Chicago Horror Convention every year. Not so much because of the guests of honor (who are always great — this year included Robert Englund, Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi) but because of the chance to hang out for a couple days with friends and…
