got a ticket for my destination...home.

Actually, I'm sitting in the Indianapolis, Indiana airport waiting for a plane to take me to Chicago and then another one to take me home.

This whole weekend has been surreal, and tons of fun. I'm still in awe that I had dinner with some of the greatest writers of our time. And when I say I had dinner, I mean elbows touching, spittle flying, shoe bumping, and plastic fork breaking dinner!

I got to meet some of my hero's, some of my idols... those men who have shared my bed with me over the last 20 years (GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTERS! I MEAN READING THEIR BOOKS IN THE EVENING AS I AM GOING TO SLEEP. SHEESH!) And I got to meet thier wives who were not only very smart women and writers in their own right, they hugged me!!!!

I also got to meet the newest crop of horror writers and a bunch of people in the business. I also got to meet a lot of people just like me.

A few surreal moments: Standing outside my room talking with a woman about the upcoming meetings and the door to the next room opens up and Wrath pops his head out. He starts talking to us about his home in New York.

I'm in the hotel parking lot smoking a cigar and killing a bit of time before going to the meeting on the first night when this car pulls in. There are a bunch of people in the car and they all pile out. Not being blind I see this guy who's about 7 feet tall and looks as if he could bench press 400 pounds, and not being stupid, I realize it's Wrath, and with him is a man I think is Gerard Houarner. I get all excited and introduce myself to this group and there is tons of laughing, hand shaking, and even hugs (and I've never met any of these guys before and they act like they are glad to see ME)! It takes me all of 60 seconds, but I come to the realization that Gerard is the nicest guy in the whole damn world.

While talking to Mo, I'll tell you more about him later but he's the Mo in Mo*Con, I see this couple walking down the pathway and my eyes start to glaze over. Is that Pic I ask? I introduce my self to him and wait for God knows what, but then he actually recognizes my name and shakes my hand. Then Mo asks me if I would drive Pic and his wife to the church! The three of us piled into my rental and made the 20 minute trip there, and let me tell you, though it may have been a day in the life for Pic, I was in cloud nine as I listened to Tom talk about the industry and his writing. Thinking it could not get better than this I listened to his stories and asked a few questions while I treasured this time, I was a star struck old man, but I was wrong...it got sooooo much better.

More later, if you want. But now I got a plane to catch and I won't be home until later this afternoon. Oh...I got pictures, and books. Boy do I have books (I won TWO raffles!)

Ttzuma

...you can't jump a jet pla-a-ane, like you can freight train...

Congrats to you, Tony. I had a blast seeing these guys in New York back in 2004 and would love to get a chance to go to a big con again. Hope you had fun.

...so I'd best be on my wa-a-ay, in the early morning rain...

_________________
FLASH VIRUS: EPISODE ONE (always free)

FLASH VIRUS:EPISODE TWO ($1.99)

You went to Mo*Con and didn't, like, tell anyone until now???

This con was only a three hour drive from me and I didn't know about it? And I could've bought dinner for the high and mighty Tt? Lost your chance, my friend.

Seriously, can we please hear about more of these cons, please, please, please, before they happen. PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Three hours away. That's a tour on the S.S. Minnow, for pete's sake.

I guess this means I'm going to have to go to Context here in Columbus this year. So there.

Ugh, no, I guess I didn't. I didn't want any of the guests of honor to not come if they knew I was going to be there (that's a joke). As it turned out, Gary and Lucy didn't make it. But a whole bunch did.

It involved Christianity, and it really wasn't a con I guess in the real sense of the word. Everyone told me it was more like a family reunion in Mo's garage and as it turned out, that would be a good way to describe it. And you know what? For me anyway, it was great. Gerrrrraaaatttt!!!!

More later, I just walked in.

Tt

Be that way.

I heard about Mo*Con on Brians board. The whole issue of Christianity and horror really piqued my interest. When I saw that Brunbeck was going to be there I was almost convinced to go. Then I read that Pic was going to be there so I emailed Mo for more info.

He told me that he was going to cut off the attendance at 200 people. He said that it was a like a reunion for all these authors and it would be fun. I asked him if there was going to be a book signing and a chance to meet with the authors and he said yes.

Now I've never been to a con before. Never. In my mind they are these organized fuctions where the authors sits at tables and the audience asks them questions, on a panel or at a signing. I was very nervous about meeting these guys, especially Pic. I had it in my head that he was this very sucessful author who would be nice to fans and maybe answer a question or two, and that would be about it. I also thought there would be lines of people waiting to talk to these authors. With Pic, I was nervous as to whether he would even know me, and if he did, would he think that I was this obnoxious fan who writes reviews of his work and who occasionally had disagreements with on the old board. I was nervous to meet him to be honest with you. Even if it was just to sign one of his books for me. I was determined not to appear to him to be this pest.

With Gary, I was not nervous to meet him at all because of the discussions we've had in the board section here. But again, in my mind it would be just a hello, can you sign this for me.

I was curious about Wraith because of his books and back ground and was curious to hear his speech on God, but I wasn't a really big fan. I wasn't even going to mention that I couldn't finish Succulent Prey.

I was dying to meet Gerard Houarner. His Max books are some of my favorites and I loved The Oz Suite. I just planned on going to his table and asking him to sign my Max book and tell him how great he was.

This is really what I expected to do. I didn't think it was that big a deal. I knew we were all going to have a dinner together and I assumed they would all be at one table and the fans at another. When Mo said it was like a reunion, I had it in my head that all these guys would be hanging out together and that the fans would be by themselves. I had only planned to show up Friday night for the opening dinner and then see the panels on saturday, and leave very early Sunday morning with a few books signed.

And this is the God's honest truth, I was shocked and so unbelievably delighted when I started to discover that this is nothing like I thought it would be.

Now I'm going to flash forward to the first night. I am outside with a bunch of people who were curious as to who I was. Everyone there knew each other, I seemed to be the only outsider. I told them what I thought was going to happen and they all laughed. They said that this con really was different, that every other con they go to is in fact that way. They said this one really was a re-union for all of them and it was part of the Indiana Horror Writers group (or something like that). I started talking to them and it turns out that almost every person there is a writer, and a published writer to boot! They have short stories published in every major mag or anthology, worked for the mags or the small press, and even have books coming out this year! I'd be talking to someone and I would find out that he was an editor for Shroud Mag. Someone else had two books published and a third one on the way from a major player in the small press. Another person had her first book coming out from a well known name in the small press. Heck, even Mo had a bunch of books published, one co written with Wraith, and he just signed a 3 book deal with a division of a huge big publisher! I was the only guy there it seemed that never had anything published. I felt like the only guy there that was a just a fan!

In fact, one woman, Kelli Dunlap who has a chapbook and a novel coming out from Burning Effigy, told me it was refreshing to see someone there who really was a fan and was excited to be with all these authors! I was getting more and more blown away by what I had stumbled into!

(more later)

Back to the first night:

When I got to the hotel I checked in, but I was about 3 hours early so I decided to drive to the church and scope it out, not to mention I didn't want to be lost when I was to go there later on. I drove on down, it was only about 15 minutes away, and saw that it was in a nice part of town and the church, though old, was also in a nice area. Since Mo calls himself the Sinister Minister, I really wasn't sure what to expect. I had visions of a really old church, or some vacant store in an old strip mall to be honest with you. So I was pleasently surprised.

When I came back to the hotel I did some work and about 1/2 before it was supposed to start, I decided to go outside and smoke a cigar to calm down abit. I was really excited about seeing these guys, it really was like a dream come true for me.

As I'm standing there smoking, this small cars pulls up loaded with people. As I mentioned, one guy stood out, it was like he was taking up all the space in the car, I thought I knew who that might be. When they all climbed out I recognized Moe from his picture and introduced myself. He smiled and shook my hand and then called to Wraith. When I heard Wrath's name mentioned my guess was confirmed and he smiled and shook my hand also.

Then I looked at Gerard, and he broke into this big smile and I kinda stammered and said "thank you". "No" he said, "thank you!" I couldn't believe he was thanking me and then this woman next to him said that Gerard had spoken of me to her and that he really did appreaciate my reviews and kind words. And then, man, we all hugged, I'm not kidding! I was just over the moon! I didn't realize that this woman was Gerard's wife at first, but it didn't take me long to figure that out. Then we started talking a little bit and in the middle of the conversation I see this couple come out and, I swear to God, my voice cracked a bit. Is that Tom Piccirilli, I asked him. Yes they replied, almost matter of fact (turns out they are very close friends of Tom and his wife).

I excused myself and walked up to Tom and said, hello. I told him my name was Tony and he just looked a bit bemused, then I said Ttzuma. He looked a bit surprised and turned to his wife and said that I always had a good word for him on the Horrorworld Board and he thanked me. Once again I was in heaven, but I didn't want to be a pest so I retreated and went back to my car.

Then Mo aksed me if I was going to the church and he asked if I would take either Gerard or Tom to the church. I was stunned and said of course. Then Mo asked Tom if he would go with me and then I really found myself in shock. I was going to be driving Tom Picirrilli and his wife to the con! I was nervous as hell, but it didn't seem to bother Tom, and after fumbling around a bit in the car I cleared out the back seat and Tom's wife sat there and Tom sat in the front.

Tom may have sensed my nervousness so he began the conversation in the car by talking about the posts we just had on The Nobody Cover. We got to talking more, and holy shit, it took us only 20 minutes to get there but the conversation that man had with me and the things he told me were a not only a Pic fan's dream, but a horror lovers dream, and it will remain with me forever. We talked author's, books, publishing houses, the con itself, and his work...man the guy made me feel like I was someone special, not just an ordinary fan. I got out of the car with a smile on my face that was so big that the corners of my mouth must have been touching my ears.

The con hadn't even started yet, and if I went home that very minute, I would have been satisfied beyond belief. Now these author's do this all the time. They get together with themselves, name drop, gossip, discuss buisness, and do what they always do at these things. To Tom, it might have been just another day, but man, to someone who is mearly a fan, what Tom did was extraordinary. He could have dismissed me, talked about some superficial stuff, or ignored me all together, but he took the time to make me feel like I was special.

And, there was a whole lot more to come.

After arriving we go into the church and we discover that the meeting is downstairs in the basement. I sign in and wander around a bit but there isn't a whole lot of people there. I notice that there are some art shows so I decide to look at the paintings. On one wall there are some painting by an artist whose name I forget, but the paintings look familiar. I look closely and see that some of them are the covers on some of the horror mags we've all read, and one I recoginze as being in Gene O'Neil's Confessions of St Zach! The guy is really good. I see Tom and his wife also looking and I asked them if they had pictures like these in their house and he says he has a few. He's said he has a print from the original cover of Choir Of Ill Children in his house he loved the painting so much!

After that I went upstairs to where some other art is hung and I see some really good paintings up there. They are more subtle than the ones downstairs but very disturbing. There is this lovely young girl there who must have been the skinniest girl I've ever seen in my life and she asks me if I like the paintings. Yes I tell her, and then she says shes the artist! We talk for a long time about her paintings and it turns out she was just displaying them. They were not for sale and she had no prints to sell either. We talked some more about the art and then we went downstairs for the dinner at 7:00. It turns out that was another lesson to be learned at Mo*Con... times mean nothing. The dinner wasn't served until way after 8:00.

After mulling around a bit, the dinner gets served, I get my food and sit down at a table. A few other people joined me and we had a great discussion about Mo and everyone talked about their writing. I didn't say much but mostly listened. After dinner I mulled around a bit and then it was time for the poetry slam.

One by one people got up and read poetry. In my mind there were three stand outs. The first was Gerards wife, Linda Addison who first read one of the poems in one of her husbands books. She did a great job using inflections and different tonal qualities when reading. She got a lot of applause. She also read some poems from her own published collection, "Being Full Of Light, Insubstantial" which was excellent. The second highlight was when Tom read three poems from his Under The Knife collection. They were really powerfull and entertaining poems and the audience loved them. The third highlight was from an attendee who's name I forget who read a piece of fiction instead of a poem. He was very animated and really into his work and the place loved it! It really was a great time.

Afterwards everybody just started talking, and I was amazed to find myself at a table with Tom and Gerard and their wives. Gerard and I had a great conversation about his day job and his published work. I said it earlier, this guy is one of the most honest and out going men I have ever met! He is so genuine and his love for his Max work and his other fiction is so apparent when he discusses it. We also talked about Ramsey Campbell a bit and other authors who are having a tough time of it. The gist of that talk was that in years from now, when people talk about the great horror writers of contemporary times, Campbell's name will be at the top of the list, and its a shame that he has to struggle so much.

The conversation then turned to other authors and man, some of the stories they told had me almost peeing my pants. It was so much fun listening to these guys talk about their friends and all the adventures they had with them. This is a group that loves to have fun. And they had great humorous stories to tell, and I loved being the fly on the wall. By the way, none of the stories were mean, these guys have a great love for their friends.

During the day I had time to talk with Linda Addison, and oh my God, what a wonderful woman she is. She seems to be the perfect complement to Gerard. She is so talented and the stories she would tell me about her publishing past were insightfull and humorous. And on one of the days we met outside, she asked about what I had written, and honest to God, she was interested! She asked questions, and gave me advice. This woman is so smart, and man, she is so loyal to her husband and his work. We discussed Garards work and she told me that she thought he was extremely talented and it pained her that his work isn't more widly known. The support she expressed for him touched me very deeply. And after the conversation she hugged me again!

And Tom's wife is another woman who seems to be the perfect match for her husband. They were always together, she would lay her head on his shoulder sometimes, and she seemed to almost be of the same mind when ever they discucssed something. She could be funny as hell when telling stories and she too is as smart as a whip. Her love for her husband was so obvious it was touching. It turns out that she too is a writer and has a collection of stories published as well as being published in different mags.

These two couples really amazed me, I just don't often see this kind of affection between spouses out in public anyways that often. The funny thing is that their love for each other was in sharp contrast to a few other of the attendee's there who were going through divorces, had been divorced, or had had bad relationships. There were comically vocal in their displeasure of thier spouses or partners, and the relief they had in their splits was extremly obvious. Most of these discussions was spoken outside during the many many smoke breaks and if one wanted some comic relief, outside was the place to be. In additon to the personal drama's told, a lot of socializing also took place and I met a lot of neat people there and learned of their backgrounds. The best conversations took place out there between myself and Linda, Kelli, Bob Freemen, Kurt, Jason, and a few others. All are writers or are involved with writing, and they were more than happy to give advice or to share their expirences.

Around 11:00 it was time for the party to break up and head to Mo's house. I excused myself from this party, I felt that it was meant to be the re-union that everyone was talking about and I didn't feel right going. I had already heard enough to last a lifetime and felt that I would be an intrusion.

The next day, Saturday, would be the panels and the Mo*Con would really begin so I went back to my hotel room and tried to get some sleep.

Ha, and when Tony emailed me, he made me swear not to mention this to anyone! Guess the secret is out!

Well, the only reason I said that was because I was hoping to have some signed and personalized books from Pic and Gary to give to some members and I wanted it to be a surprise. I brought some from each author but when Gary didn't show up... well, I was kinda short on books to give out. Even with the extra books Pic donated, I was still short.

But...I am working on something, which I just found out came through (much to my relief and thanks), which will make up for it! But since its not a surprise anymore, some members will have to wait a few weeks longer, but it will be worth it. This will be a brand new surpirse!

Tt

I gotta go to bed, I'm tired and my wife is telling me that she's fogetting what I look like I've been gone so long.

Damn ... The Zuma Man riding around with The Pic Man himself. And not only The Pic Man, but The Pic Man and his wife!


The only way I could top that, would be if I were to take that Vernon guy to a karaoke bar, get him drunk and take a picture of him in a Pod of Horror thong while he's singing I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred.

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

On Saturday the Con was supposed to begin at 10:00, but in accordance with the Mo Doctrine, it didn’t start until after noon time. For some reason, I can’t remember if we ate lunch before the first panel or after, I’m pretty sure it was before, but I am going to report on the panel first and then go into the lunch.

The first panel was a discourse on relationships called LOVE. It was about how writers get along with their spouses/partners. On the panel was Linda and Gerard, Tom and Michelle, Kelli Dunlap, and a woman named Alethea Knotis. I believe it was moderated by Sally Broaddus.

First a word about the two women on the panel. Alethea and Kelli have enough energy between them to power a small city. They were in constant motion the whole time I was there. Alethea is an editor and author at a publishing house, and she was so darned cute, she had on this really short dress and her outfit included a Tierra which she wore the whole time! And Kelli wore a very revealing dress which not only had every guy smiling, but it turns out that it was a rarity that she wasn’t in jeans. Both of these women turned the excitement factor way up whenever they were around and especially on the panels. And to set up the next portion of this post, during the smoke breaks I discovered that Kelli was in the middle of a bitter divorce, and Alethea let it be known that she was never going to date another man again. Amidst their humorous banter, there was some pretty deep resentment residing in these ladies, and when I saw them up on the panel I was prepared to witness some vitriol. And they didn’t disappoint.

Gerard and Linda started off detailing how they work. They have separate work stations and do not bother each other while they work. They understand that writing time in important and they leave each other alone. Both were married previously and they told a few tidbits on how difficult it was to write when a spouse kept interrupting. Gerard also pointed out that what ever he was writing on the screen was private, it was not to be looked at over his shoulder, and he would share when he wanted to or when it was done. He also said that he and Linda’s work stations were close to each other and all they had to do was swivel around in their chairs if they needed to talk to the other.

Tom and Michelle were next. Michelle said that writers love to talk about the business to just about anyone but especially their spouses/partners. She said one of the things that bothered her in her previous marriage was that he was a non writer, and non writers just don’t care, or want to talk about writing. She gave a few examples and then stated that she and Tom talk for hours on end about writers, their writer friends, books, and everything else about the business. Tom talked about how spouses or other people have day jobs and when they come home from work their life is just beginning at 5:15 p.m. But a writer’s life is 24 hours long, they have deadlines to meet, stuff they have to do on spec, or they have something they just have to get down on paper right then and there. He also said that when he’s watching a movie or reading something he’s actually working. It may not be obvious, but it helps him think or it gives him a break.

He gave the example of a mid list horror writer we all know who was trying to write and his wife kept interrupting him. Apparently, Everybody Loves Raymond was on t.v. and she wanted this writer to join her in watching the show. She would keep yelling out to him that, hey you should see what the kids just did, or you gotta see what Raymond is doing. The writer was trying to think of a nice way to say that this was not something that was so important or entertaining enough for him to stop what he was doing and go watch t.v.

Kelli was next and she emphasized that MY TIME IS MY TIME! She talked about how her husband would constantly interrupt her to talk about taxes or hunting, or some such stuff and that she would sit there and chew on a pencil. That in her relationship, “our time” was always “his time” and that she never got enough time for herself. She went into all of the bad things that happened to her in her relationship. Aleathea did the same, only she discussed her past boyfriend, and to me anyways, I could feel a little bit of pain in her talk about her relationship through her comments and humor.

Others talked and for some reason I didn’t take notes, I think I was just so engrossed in the conversations that I stopped writing. I know I had a question that popped up while Kelli was talking and that may have made me a bit anxious also. I finally got to ask it, and I asked that if having a spouse/partner who was not into their other half’s writing was an eventual “deal breaker”. I was guessing that in the case of a divorce or split, that the love was already gone in the relationship, and that this not showing respect for their spouses/partners writing, was just symptomatic of the problems they had.

All on the panel agreed. Many successful writers are married to “civilians” as Kelli called them, and they manage to have a happy marriage. They all then went on to talk about or give examples of other problems they were having.

Pic and Gerard talked about how they were adults when they met Michelle and Linda and that by this time they had “found themselves”, meaning they knew who they were and this made it much easier when meeting and marrying their wives.

The panel also spoke about their social lives and how they really didn’t have a large circle of friends that they socialized with. Linda spoke about how she would come home and cook dinner and then write poetry all evening. She and Gerard spoke about not even leaving the house for an entire weekend because they were writing.

Michelle talked about how she knew that when Tom was in the zone, she just left him alone for as long as it took. Tom joked about how when he was in the zone he would wear his p.j.’s for up to a week before Michelle had to tell him that it was time to change. They mentioned how their social life consisted of taking long walks with the dog and going to the occasional movie because in their life, where Tom’s day job is writing, he’s got to pay the bills, and writing is how he does so.

(Next up – Lunch time)

At lunch time I grabbed my food from the kitchen and headed on over to a table by my self. As I started to eat I heard a voice, looked up, and there was Pic and Michelle. I almost choked on my food when I heard Pic say that he was going to join me for lunch! And just when I thought I was calming down and getting over this being start struck stuff…

I was once again stunned that a famous author would choose to sit with me for lunch. Then Gerard and Linda joined us and words can’t tell you how excited I was to be sitting there eating with these two famous guys. By the way, I’m not sucking up, I really felt this way, I was just bowled over by the whole thing. I would never had guessed that the men who wrote two of my favorite novels, classic novels no less, the guys that wrote ‘November Mourns and ‘The Beast That Was Max’, would choose to sit down and have lunch with me.

And oh my God, what a lunch that turned out to be for me. We got to talking about Dark Father, Pic’s first book, and how he is trying to buy up every copy he sees that is on sale. He hates that book and told two stories about it. The first was how another sci-fi author also hated his first book and whenever a fan presented it to him the author would take it and tear it in half in front of the horrified fan. Then Pic told the story of how he wrote an inscription for Dark Father in a fans book, but it wasn’t very flattering. I can’t remember what he said he wrote, but it was something like ‘this is a piece of crap’, you know, something like that. Then later on the fan went on a message board and told everybody how Tom was such an ass, the fan took the inscription to mean that instead of the book, Tom was writing about the fan. Michelle was also contributing to this story and it had me laughing like hell.

We talked about writing and Tom said that he writes a clean 1000 words a day. What that means is that he may write more, but when finished with the edits and changes, it results in 1000 words a day. He mentioned that he didn’t understand how other authors could write 5 – 10,000 words a day, every day, that they must mean its just a first draft.

He explained that when he wrote a new book, he has nothing in mind except making sure the first paragraph is a stunner. Something that would make a reader say…Wow…and want them to continue. He talked about how he had this scene in his head about a grandfather shooting someone in the head with his grandson next to him and that was how The Cold Spot and Chase was born. I asked him if he had the ending of All You Despise in mind when he wrote that, and he said no. I was stunned, and I think my mouth actually dropped. All You Despise has a twist in it that is so freaking fantastic I found it hard to believe that it wasn’t planned out. No he assured me, he didn’t even know about the twist until he came to it in the end. He told me he hates to outline, and never does so.

He talked about his new two book deal with Tasmmaniac and how he really enjoys working with Steve. He talked about the covers on his books and how he really loved the cover for The Nobody, and went into the history of the cover on Choir Of Ill Children. He talked about how Bantam really loves it when he writes a completely new book that deals with crime and how they didn’t really like his Cold Spot books. He spoke about how they love the Shadow Season novel (upcoming), and how everyone loved the cover and how there is going to be a big push from the publisher on it. He said that he doesn’t know if there will be a conclusion to the Cold Spot series which would be a shame as it hangs on a cliff hanger.

At this point, I think I embarrassed myself the worst I had ever done. I was confused to a plot point in The Coldest Mile and said something that wasn’t true in the book. You cannot believe how embarrassed I was when Tom corrected me. The minute he corrected me I remembered the plot point…and I thought I was going to die from the embarrassment. It was an important part of the book and for some ungodly reason, I just remembered it wrongly. To Tom’s credit he didn’t call me an idiot and didn’t mention it again. But man, I sat there feeling so stupid, and in fact, I am turning red even thinking about this incident.

Then something happened that really made me understand that these guys are just a human as I was. We got to talking about the Love panel (ok, now I remember we ate lunch after the panel) and my question about the Deal Breaker, and I explained why I asked the question. These four people sat and listened to my story and as God is my witness, they were interested in it. The really wanted to know what happened to me and even asked me questions. All four of them, two of them my hero’s, and the other two, my hero’s wives, took the time to listen to a fan explain something to them that had nothing to do with horror, writing, or the con. Man, they got things out of me that I hadn’t discussed with anyone else before, and it was because I really felt they cared.

Like I said earlier, I have enough memories of this trip to last me a lifetime.

The conversation at some point turned to Michelle’s fear of flying and their first experience with Southwest Airlines. It turns out that Michelle has a really big fear of flying and needs to be somewhat sedated and near Tom when she does fly. I could understand that completely because I am the same way (no I don’t need to be near Tom when I’m flying, but I am scared almost shitless sometimes when I do fly). Well, on this trip, they didn’t know that you are supposed to get your boarding passes on line 24 hours before you fly in order to get a good seat. When Tom and Michelle went to the airline counter, they got boarding passes with some numbers on them that they thought were seats.

What they discovered is that the numbers are only there to tell you when to board the aircraft, it is not a seat number. Once you are on board, you can choose which seat you want. Since they got their passes so late, when they boarded, the only seats left were middle seats. That meant that Michelle couldn’t sit next to Tom! Tom explained to them the problem that Michelle had with flying and instead of accommodating them, they merely asked passengers if someone would be willing to give up a seat so the two of them could sit together. Fortunately for Tom and Michelle, there was a gentleman who overheard the discussion and gave up his seat for them. Even as I’m writing this I am wondering how their return trip turned out as they hadn’t gotten their boarding passes for the return trip either.

After lunch, there was a two hour break to view the art. That was when I got to spend some time with Wrath one on one. And wow, that was one heck of a discussion. I will go into that later on as well as a conversation that Tom, Gerard, and I had on Greg Gifune, Leisure, and how God just might have shown himself to Gerard in the form of a little red toy car. And just so you know, Gerard kicked the car out of the way…..

This is a very exciting story.

*sits down to wait for the rest

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After lunch, the Mo Doctrine was once again invoked. Instead of the panel on the business of writing, we were going to take the time and look at art while having some wine and cheese. So as a group we all started looking at the art again. I went upstairs because I liked that girls art quite a bit, and besides, she was cute to look at.

When I was upstairs there were a few other people meandering around and talking to her so I excused myself in order to grab me some wine. As I made my way back to the gallery, she said hi to me and we started talking again. Well... we kept talking and talking, and then she went to refill my wine cup for me…twice! By the third cup I was feeling REALLY good. We talked about her art, her family, the earlier panel, and just about anything with anybody who walked up to us. I have to admit that I don’t normally drink in the middle of the day and I was feeling the effects of the wine.

While she and I were talking I saw Wrath making the rounds upstairs and talking to a few people. He wound up standing right next to us. There was another couple near by who were talking to him and I just casually looked at him for a bit. He was dressed in a black suit, and I have to admit, he was quite the handsome guy. He was smiling and saying hello to just about anyone that walked his way.

He started to talk about the panel on God that he was on. The topic somehow turned to how to feed the poor and he talked about all the starvation in the world. He told us about going to Thailand and seeing such abject poverty that it really bothered him. I told him that I hadn’t been overseas, but I have been to South America, Middle America, and the Caribbean and saw people who lived in huts made from discarded scraps of metal and who’s only source of water was from the rain. He went on to describe other poor countries he’d been to and then talked about his book Population Zero (I think that’s it) and how seeing all of this poverty got him to write it.

We then talked a bit about Succulent Prey and I told him that I couldn’t finish it. He seemed to take some delight from that and told me which other of his books I should stay away from. He then went on to talk about his book Hero that he wrote with J.F. Gonzalez.

He said that when he works with other authors they all say….well, this is going to be a Wrath book so I have to fill it with lots of violence and gore. When he reads what they wrote, he tells them to wait a minute, back up a bit, that characterization is more important and that’s what they need to start with, that they will get to get to the violence later. In Hero’s he wrote about a character, a woman in a wheel chair that is being abused, that has layers of racism in it. He wanted to write it with someone else so they could explore this issue in a fair manner, and he started to tell me how he and J.F. came up with the characters ethnic background. He then went on to say that he liked this woman’s character so much, that he couldn’t write the scenes where she got abused, that he would give it to J.F. to write. But then Jesus had the same problem so he would give it back to Wrath and say you do it! Now Wrath was laughing so much while telling this story, I just had to laugh along with him. I think even if I didn’t have 3 glasses of wine in me I still would’ve laughed like crazy.

He then went on to talk about his next book, Resurrection. He told me he wanted to write a story from the protagonists view, rather than the antagonists view as he usually does. So he wrote this story about a woman who gets killed every day by a serial killer, who somehow has the ability to resurrect her the next day, and then kill her all over again.

The serial killer kills her and her husband every day, day in and day out, but….they both don’t remember anything about being killed. Instead she has a vague notion that something happened and when she tries to piece the clues or her notions together, everyone thinks she’s crazy. Wrath was so into telling us about this book that his smile got wider as he was discussing it and his laughter got a little louder. He really enjoyed the premise and he loved talking about so much I decided I had to read it when it comes out.

He then went on to talk about Brian Keene. He and Keene are friends and they have been looking for a book to do together for awhile it seems. Wrath came up with this idea and dared Keene to write it with him, and Keene agreed! He spoke more about it but I don’t think I should go into it right now, but I will say it sounds like it would be one hell of a good read.

We talked about his day job as a risk assessment manager for a real estate company as well as his kick boxing tournaments also. Wrath was very forthcoming on all aspects of his life and it was neat watching this guy just talk. never mind listening to him. His facial expressions come alive when he’s discussing something he obviously loves talking about, and his smile is so huge it’s contagious. His hands are always moving, and since he is so soft spoken, you have to force yourself to pay attention to his voice and not his hands, because you could easily not hear what he has to say sometimes. The guy is so charming, he could talk the birds out of the trees. I don’t think Brian Keene stood a chance.

While we were discussing his books we were all summoned back to the cellar as the next panel was going to begin. This one was on the business of writing and it turned out to be a good one.

The panel on the Business of Writing consisted of Gerard, Tom, Jason (I believe was his name) a publisher with Apex Books, Kevin who was a contributing editor with Stroud, Wrath, and Alethea. Mo was the moderator.

I would love to write that all of these great and wonderful guests made some sort of profound statement that would have changed my life for the good, but instead they offered advice that was mostly practical and often heard.

Alethea talked about her editing process and how books are distributed and promoted. Jason did pretty much the same thing but his prospective was from that of an owner of a very small press, and he spoke in terms of the sales numbers being very small.

Pic rhetorically asked why writers make so very little money. Then he proceeded to tell everyone that if they have any aspirations of writing for big money to forget it. That they should find something else to do.

He talked about how he tried to sell a book to a publishing house and they offered him very little money. He wanted more, tried to get it, but they kept giving him excuses on why they couldn’t pay him more. He went out and got an agent, and bam, he wound up getting 3 to 4 times the amount they offered him in the first place. But he didn’t recommend getting an agent, in this case it worked well for him, but for the most part, he could do better on his own. He then went on to discuss how everyone gets a cut of his book money so when it finally gets down to the author, there might not be a lot left.

He said that most mid list authors sell 5 – 15, 000 copies of a novel.

Tom said that most authors never see any more money than their up front advances, so they should always try to get as much money in an advance as they can get. If they ever do see royalties, it could be as long as many years later before the first ones arrive. And if you do have a really good selling book, take advantage of that as much as you can, because that is what your advance will be based on for your next book, it won’t matter how much you sold in the past. He also mentioned that foreign rights to books will often only amount to around $ 1,000 per country.

Wrath cracked the place up because he saw that Tom had a book called Welcome To Hell on the book table, and he saw that it gave advice to novice writers. Wrath said that when he looked through it he saw that he had made every mistake mentioned in Tom’s book, and why the hell didn’t Tom show him this book four years ago!

Wrath said that whenever he sells a short story, and say the publisher offers him $ .03 a word, he tells them that, nope, sorry, he gets $ .07 a word. No matter what they tell him, he always asks for an increase. If they offer him $ .07, he tells them, nope, he usually gets $ .08 word. And he always gets it. Someone else said (I think it was Gerard) that he doesn’t ask for more money, but he always insists that he get a free ad if it’s in a mag, and he always gets the free ad.

There was also a discussion on the length of books, and all of the authors said that for them, the length is when ever the book ends. Some publishers understand this and that’s why they sometimes include the bonus stories at the end of books in order to sell them. They talked about when a story should be considered a novella, or if it should be added onto to make it a novel.

As I mentioned before, book promotion was another topic. It would be safe to say that publishers do not promote books well, if they even do so at all. For the small press, there is no budget for it, and in the large press, they simply don’t do that much of it. They discussed authors taking their advances to promote their books, but they all said that the authors should keep the money, that it would be a waste to do that. One person said that to make any kind of impact, someone would have to place an ad in a magazine or newspaper for 6 straight weeks in a row and that would be very costly.

Mo talked about his new 3 book deal and how it was bundled. I might get this confused, hell, even Mo wasn’t sure, but as I understood it, the contract was for all three books at once as opposed to negotiating for each book at the time of its release. Mo believed that his contract was for a bundled collection, so he was getting paid one amount for all three books.

There were other discussions but most of it was common sense stuff or advice that I had heard over and over again. I thought the panel was good and I was surprised it didn’t go on longer. Maybe Mo thought it was played out.

Wrath, Gerard, TT and Tom

I am so happy for you! I am so glad you had the time of your life. We should all have moments like that at least once.

*waits for mine lol

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The last panel may have had a name, I forget, but I’m going to call it God. It consisted of two people, Mo and Wrath.

Wrath was going to offer the audience his position on why God doesn’t exist and why he is an atheist.

Mo was going to rebut Wrath’s arguments.

These two guys appear to be good friends, so I didn’t expect any real fireworks between them and the fact was, none occurred.

Wrath was dressed to the nines. He looked so darned good in that black suit and tie he could have been in an ad for Armani suits. With his solid and square jaw, little gold ear ring, completely bald and shinny head, his tall stature, the muscle man physique, and his all around movie star good looks, he made a very distinctively good impression before he even uttered a word!

His presentation, though soft spoken, was text book perfect. It was full of facts, it backed up every pronouncement he made, and was given with conviction. To sum it up, he simply made his point time and time again that there was no evidence to prove anything in the bible (old testament) was true, or for that matter that God does indeed exist. He used examples of his own life growing up and as an adult to drive home his points. And he went through what he considered moralistic stories in the bible asking how anyone of them could be proven to be true. For instance he used Noah’s Ark as one example. How could all of the creatures in the world, including the thousands of species of insects, all come from this one ark? He talked about faith, and the power of faith, but he preferred to put his faith in things that are tangible and quantifiable.

Wrath did not disparage anyone who did believe in God, or those whose faith in any God assists them in the struggles of their lives, he just believed that he was more practical than those people. He used many of the standard arguments that people have used for ages to justify his disbelief, but he did it with elegance and a neutral voice, and it was not hard to see that he truly meant what he was saying. He held me spell bound at times during his talk, and when he discussed the stars and the scientific beauty of creation, I had to say I was moved by his speech. Wrath pointed out that he does not drink and does not do drugs, and because of where he grew up, he saw the reality of a world consumed by them. But he stressed it was the physical evidence that he saw in the destruction of people drinking and taking drugs that turned him off from those vices, not someone moralizing on those sins and the religious consequences of those sins. He talked about overpopulation and the role religion played on birth control. Again, he presented a lot of arguments we have all heard for so long.

Mo on the other hand was simply attired in a collared shirt and dress pants. He is much smaller than Wrath and though he’s also handsome, he is no match for the Issac Hayes like Wrath. But it’s not looks that wins this type of argument, it’s the words, and it was Mo’s turn.

Mo is a minister, in fact as I mentioned before he calls himself the Sinister Minister because he is a man of God who writes horror novels. I’ve not read any of his books so I cannot tell you what kind of horror he writes, but he did do a collaboration with Wrath called Orgy Of Souls, so I am assuming he could be pretty hard core.

Where Wrath was professional in his talk and his speech polished, Mo sometimes fumbled for words and his speech was rambling. Where Wrath presented scientific facts in his presentation, Mo espoused the power of faith. But the biggest difference between the two talks was simple and quite obvious, where Wrath was even when speaking, Mo was emotional. Mo believed to his core what the bible stood for and what his faith meant to him. Mo’s demeanor at times changed from one of concentration while reading from his speech, to one of pure joy when contemplating the meaning of the words he was speaking. Mo even got misty eyed when recounting his love of God and his faith in the bible.

If you were scoring the debate on style and content, Wrath was the clear winner. If you were scoring it on the depth of emotion, Mo would have won it hands down. But there is no winning or losing in this type of debate, merely an affirmation of your own beliefs and I think, to borrow a phrase here, they were both preaching to their own choirs.

At this point Kurt and I had a discussion. I told him I was a bit disappointed as I thought it was going to be a discussion on Christianity in the horror field. He agreed with me and we began to talk a bit about Gary Braunbeck’s writing and how what sort of religious influence was in it. And then we stopped and listened again to Wrath and Mo.

There was much discussion up on the panel and with the audience, some of it interesting, but I lost interest after a while, as did others, and I grabbed a beer and went to the back of the room, where I was soon joined by Tom, Gerard, Michelle, and Linda. We all stood in the back drinking beers and another really great memory was made.

I have one more recollection to make this evening and that should be the end. Please forgive the typo's and mistakes, I am trying to get all this down before my memory fails.

Thank you Nanci for posting the picture above.

Just as the panel was getting over, I was talking with Kurt and I asked him if he would like a beer. I was told when I got there on Friday that there would be some drinking so I left the con to go buy a case of beer to add to the stockpile. When I got back, I discovered that there was no stockpile and I had the only booze there (there was some wine for the art show that nobody told me about though). Since it was Saturday, I thought the beer would go to waste so I asked him if he wanted one.

So we were both standing there with a beer when Linda walked over. I asked her if she wanted one and she said sure, and could she have one for Gerard. No problem I said and I got her two beers. Gerard came over and Kurt left, so the three of us were standing around talking drinking beers. Then Tom came over and I asked if he and Michelle wanted one and they agreed. So the five of us went into a corner by the sign in desk and drank beer and talked.

Tom started letting loose with some witty quips and Gerard joined in, soon we were all laughing like crazy. The humor was a bit sacrilege so we kept our voices down. In the midst of this, out of nowhere, this little red toy car appeared at Gerard’s feet. Gerard make a crack about how it got there and Tom said it was God coming to visit us in the form of this little red car. We were all cracking up and Gerard kind of pushed it out of the way so nobody would step on it, and then Tom started making more jokes about kicking God under the table. We were all laughing like crazy when this fan came up and asked Tom to sign The Coldest Mile.

Tom talked to the guy for a minute or so and signed his book. Michelle knew there was something up, so she went to look at what Tom was signing. She started giggling and when the fan left, she asked Tom what he signed. Nothing much he said. Then she said that’s not true, you signed “watch out for the red car”. We were all just about on the floor from laughter when Gerard said that the poor fan was going to be reading the book looking for a red car the whole way though. This had us laughing even more. I told Tom that that the fan just got a real collectors item because if it ever wound up on Ebay everyone would want it because of the “red car” comment. Nobody would be able to figure it out. Man, I can still see Linda laughing like crazy and Michelle doing the same.

After that it was dinner time and we all sat down to eat together. The conversation seemed to pick up where we left off at lunch. We talked about Stephen King and how his books wind up in book stores up in Maine with his signatures on them, some first editions. I told them that I go to Bangor a lot for work and that King was very generous to the towns and cities up there donating a lot of money to build ball parks for kids, and help with the library’s. I told them about the wrought iron fence around his house with bats on them. They then started to tell some stories about some of the kooks that hounded him at his house. I also told them that when he writes he likes to listen to hard rock and he couldn’t find a radio station up in Maine that played it, so he bought a radio station and that’s all they play.

Gerard started talking about the price of books and limited editions. Which got us to discussing Delirium and what a good job they are doing with their trade editions and how they are keeping the costs down so fans can afford them. This got us talking about Greg Gifune who I told them that I thought he was going to be huge one day. Tom agreed with me and said he did an intro to one of his books. He really liked Greg’s work but thought he should write more crime fiction without the supernatural aspects. We discussed how good of a writer Greg was for a few minutes then got onto Leisure books.

You might know already how Tom feels about Leisure books. He spoke about how they use authors for only a couple of books sometimes and then drop them. Tom also mentioned how Leisure likes to do reprints now instead of having original work. He went on to name a few authors and books to make the point. We discussed that Leisure has a small stable of authors that keep them going like Laymon, Lee, and Masterton, but aside from them, they usually rotate authors out. He gave an example of how hard Leisure is to work for with an author who had experienced a hard time with them. We talked about an author who we both had some contact with which led to a few stories from each of us. I forget sometimes, how tough authors have it, especially those who rely on the sales of their books for a living and may have financial or medical problems. It made me flash back to the panel discussion when Tom said if you think you want to be a writer….think about doing something else.

One thing I want to mention at this point. While I was there, people had spoken to Tom over the last past two days and they asked him the same questions I had asked him. A lot of these same questions were also asked of Tom on the message boards. He answered every one, and you know what? Every time he answered them, he looked like he was genuinely happy to speak to the people and repeat what he must have said a hundred times already. He made everyone feel like their question was important and that he should answer them the best he could. You might think that’s because he’s a professional, and that’s part of his job, but you know, he really seemed to love the attention and was pleased that people were reading his books. And I watched Michelle’s face when he was answering them, she seemed to be just as interested in his answers as the fans are. Again, maybe she’s just used to doing that, but there really seemed to be a love of her husband and his work, I never saw boredom once in her eyes. These are two people who really love the business as much as they love each other. I can honestly say I saw the same thing in Gerard and Linda’s relationship.

After dinner there was an announcement that it was time to go to Mo’s house. That was my cue to leave once again. I shook both Gerard’s and Tom’s hand and hugged Linda and Michelle. I told them I had the time of my life and they really couldn’t know how happy they made me. I walked out and said goodbye to Mo and Wrath and thanked them also. I then said goodbye to all the new friends I’ve met.

And to show you how nice these people are, a few of them already e mailed me to tell me they enjoyed meeting me and hoped to see me next year. One even sent me a story that has never been published by a huge author (sorry I've been sworn to secrecy).

It was a wonderful time. God, I love this genre and all the people in it. You'll be seeing alot of their names in the future, but the newest one to look out for will be Kelli Dunlap. She's got what it takes to make it big time.

Thank you for reading all of this if you got this far. I really do want to thank you for letting me share my experience with you all.

Tony
Ttzuma

Many thanks for sharing Tony, sounds like you and everyone present had a blast.

I'll be first in line when this con hits Tasmania...a long wait I know!

Steve.

Hey! What the hell happened to Ttzuma's beard?!

Tt, did Uma tie you down and shave your beard off?

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Yep, her and Eva got me a bit tipsy one night and we all got a little kinky. That Eva... man... does she know how to shave a man, and not just his beard! She did nick me one time, then cried out "snake bite!", and well, you can only imagine what she did then.

And Uma wasn't even jealous. Those two played together well.

Tt

What a great story and Great memory!!!! Congratulations on going.

<---tiny bit jealous lol

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Thank you!

It was a lot of fun revisiting it these last two days.

Tt