Recent Cons & Photos

 I thought I would do another one of those blog posts where I present some recent photos. I have been making a few appearances at various cons to sell books and sign people up the Horror Writers Association. I thought I'd throw in a few photos from last Halloween for good measure, so here goes.

Here is the table I set up at Monster Fest at the Chesapeake Central Library in Chesapeake, Virginia in October of last year.

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my friend Paul Knight, who was sometimes known as Pauzilla. He always remembered me and my family on Halloween.

Here is another attendee from Monster Fest, who was working a puppet on that day.

I entered the costume contest at Monster Fest as a famous movie murderer from a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and a book penned by Robert Bloch. I also moderated a panel on how to write scary scenes in horror which featured Red Lagoe, Pam Kinney, and Justin Cristelli.

Here are last year's yard decorations for Halloween.

The wife and I went out dressed as Jason Voorhees and Ahsoka Tano.

Here was the band for that night, Everafter, at Big Woody's in Chesapeake. I loved their costumes.

There's Laurie Camp as Ahsoka again at Big Woody's.

My daughter, Delaney, also got into the spirit of Halloween and dressed as Pearl from the movie of the same name.

Delaney always challenges me to do a difficult jack-o-lantern. This year, she challenged me to make a Frankenstein Monster. Of course that's Laurie dressed as a ghost in our driveway where we handed out candy.

An now we're up to January where I ran a table at Mars Con in Virginia Beach. This was a rather elaborate costume that I felt was photo-worthy.

A few other authors at Mars Con included, from back to front, Pam Kinney, Sidney Williams, yours truly, and Bryn Grover. It was fun meeting up with the other HWA members and talking with them.

And finally, Laurie entered the costume contest at Mars Con, again as Ahsoka, but don't call her a jedi.

Synchronicity and Another Eulogy

Some time ago, I posted about the loss of my father. During the summer of 2018, after dad passed away, I read a book to help me get through the difficult time, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. In it, she discusses the year after she lost her husband, how it took about a year for her to fully realize she had truly lost a loved one. She describes scenes of continuing to expect to see him when waking up in the morning.

Didion is fantastic writer, known not only for her memoirs, but also (and perhaps even moreso) for her engaging essays. She was extremely talented at both fiction and non-fiction as well. I often use her essays in classes I teach.

Over this past Christmas, I unfortunately lost my mother. In a strange case of synchronicity, Didion passed away at the same time my mother went into her hospice care, which did not last long. I found this interesting timing, having read the above mentioned memoir after the loss of my father.

To further compound that synchronicity, I also had a horror poem about death titled "Old Forgotten Grave" published in an anthology titled Alternative Deathiness. The anthology contains numerous short stories and poems about death. I'm particularly proud of this piece and this publication, partially because it also contains a short story by a best selling author, Jim Wright. I wound up reading my short poem in it at mom's eulogy as requested by other family members, who seemed to find piece fitting for the occasion.

I'm not looking for any condolences for losing my mother (although if you did leave some, they would be greatly appreciated), but I thought this was an interesting time to point out how writers sometimes think or look at things. We look for and often find meaning in life's events. Surely, anyone else can do the same, but perhaps it is because writers make it a habit of doing such things that makes reading so important and enjoyable.

How to write a Eulogy

I wrote my first eulogy recently. My father passed away, and I felt obligated as the family writer to write one for him. That's him pictured with me in the late 1970s at my grandparents' house. I'm not sure I'm really over it yet, as I've found it very hard to do any writing since he passed almost two weeks ago. His eulogy was the last thing I wrote until this blog post.

I feel I did really well on the eulogy and received several positive comments, so I thought I would post today about how I went about writing it.

First off, I approached the eulogy as a college essay, with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. I even included a thesis statement. Basically, mine was that my father had a rough upbringing but fought to become a very good person in the end. There was a lot more to it than that, but for the purposes of a how to blog post, I think that suffices.

Then I went through the various stages of his life. His upbringing, how his father built their house (and my father and his brother continued working on it until it finally sold in the early 2000s). Something about his time in the army, and then of course how he met my mother. A little something about when my sister was born and then when I was born, and finally the end concluded that portion.

But to ensure things do not become too sappy or depressing, it is good to put in a few humorous stories. I had one that everyone commented on afterward. It was about how my father used to teach me things, such as when he would play board games with me when I was a child, he would never let me win. When I asked if he could let me win, he would tell me that's not how life works, you have to work for everything. Later, when I married and we had a child, my daughter would play board games with my father (her grandfather), and he would ALWAYS let her win.

I finished up with a positive note, which I think is also important in writing a eulogy. I talked about how my dad didn't like to look back but forward to the future. To keep growing, and advancing, and moving forward. So here's to you dad, I finally put down a few words since your eulogy. Here's hoping I get down a lot more.