My First StokerCon

I attended my first StokerCon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania recently, and took a few photos, which I shared below. I am from Erie, Pennsylvania originally, which is only about 2 hours north of Pittsburgh, so I figured if I didn't make it to this StokerCon, I may never make it to one. You can tell I am from Erie because I just measured distance in time. Anyway, there was a Taylor Swift concert going on not far away, so I could not get a hotel room at the actual con, but found one about 10 minutes away (and I just measured distance with time again. It's an Erie thing, although I imagine a few other areas do that too.). I started out getting a late lunch next door to the con, at the Hard Rock Cafe. I love Hard Rocks, and eat at one every chance I get, especially ones I have not eaten at yet, like this one.

I met up with my friend and author of many books, both fiction and non-fiction, Pam Kinney. We chatted at length about Pittsburgh and current projects. She always has something going on.

I attended several public readings, including this one with another friend I knew online, but this was my first chance to meet him in person, Rami Ungar, seen here in the middle with the top-hat. He was reading from his upcoming short story anthology, Hannah and Other Stories. Next to Rami is Gabino Iglesias, who won this year's Superior Achievement in a Novel for The Devil Takes You Home. He read from his current work-in-progress. On the ends are Jeremiah Dylan Cook on the left and Barbara Cottrell on the right.

I also attended several presentations and panels, which I often enjoy. I won't go into details about them because it would take too much space to do them justice in a blog post such of this length, but I always find them very informative and interesting.

The panel below is from the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference portion of StokerCon, proving genre fiction, even in the horror genre, can be considered academic.

Between all the panels and presentations, I was able to stop at a Pittsburgh favorite, Primanti Brothers. I love going to local eateries wherever I go. This location of Primanti's was within walking distance of the con and coincidentally was the original location. It is local Pittsburgh legend that their sandwiches were created because the owners forgot to purchase silverware, so they put the coleslaw and French fries into the sandwich. The steel workers at the time enjoyed the sandwich so much, they kept it as their staple. That's an I.C. Light (Iron City Light), the local brew, to wash it down.

I finally got to mee my mentor, Tim Waggoner, face-to-face. I blogged about some of the things he taught me when he was my mentor in a previous post. He also walked away with a Stoker Award during the weekend event. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to talk for long because he's kind of a BMAC at the HWA, but we did talk briefly about current projects and he agreed to pose for the selfie. Perhaps another time . . .

I also went to the Mass Author Signing where I purchased a number of books from fellow HWA members and got many of them to autograph their books for me. In the center is Classic Monsters Unleashed, edited by James Aquilone. I've had my eyes on that anthology for some time because it contains new stories about all the classic monsters such as Dracula, werewolves, the invisible man, and others. Stories that will truly interest me. I am very much looking forward to reading these other books as well.

And that was my trip to StokerCon in Pittsburgh. It was a great time, and I hope to attend another one some time.

Editing . . . Again.

 

 In a recent blog post, I wrote about editing a novel. Since I recently finished editing that novel, I would like to post an update.

It was the first manuscript I ever finished and edited to the point where I felt it was ready for prime time. By that I mean I felt comfortable enough to send it to agents and publishers, but to get it to that point, I had to edited it over and over again, to the point where it felt like the movie Groundhog Day, I keep living the same novel over and over again. It actually got the point where I promised myself I would never edit it again, so I could concentrate on completing other projects. Or at least I would never edit it again unless a professional like an agent or publisher asked for edits. Of course that would warrant another edit.

Then I applied to the Horror Writers Association to have a mentor, and was assigned one some time later. Since this was my only completed work, I sent him this manuscript. He provided me with some important feedback to the manuscript and pointers about my writing in general, which you can read about in the link above.

Since then, I set out to edit that novel one more time. It had been looked at by a professional author, so that warranted it one last edit. But the process at this point really did feel like Groundhog Day, working on the same thing over and over, reliving the same novel over and over. Well, that process is mercifully over once again. Don't get me wrong, I love that story I created, and feel it has great potential, and even after this many edits, there was some joy in revisiting it one more time.

But once a project like this over, there's nothing left to do but submit it. So I reviewed, once again, how to write a query letter, researched a number of small presses to submit it to, and geared my query toward one particular small press that seemed appropriate for my work. I also sent this query to my mentor, since he mentioned he often looks at former mentees' works from time to time, and I asked for his advice. I was very pleased he did not have any edits to the query. I have sent queries to professional writers before and have always had some edits in the past, so it was nice that for once, I seem to have mastered at least one part of the process. And I do think I wrote a pretty good query this time.

So the next step in the process is to continue editing one of my other novels and get it ready to send off to agents and publishers. This novel is starting from a different place than that previous one was. I think I have learned a lot since that first completed and polished manuscript, so I don't think this one will require nearly as much editing. I will likely also research more agents and small presses to send out that first manuscript, so several places can have a look at it at one time.

Such is the life of a writer: write, edit, submit, repeat.

What I Learned by Having a Mentor

This is author Tim Waggoner. He has been my mentor for the past few months. The mentoring program is over now, but I thought I'd share some of what I learned through the experience.

First let me go over how I got a mentor. I signed up for the Horror Writers Association mentoring program about six months before I was accepted. In fact, I had forgotten I signed up for the mentoring program by the time I was accepted. But it came at an important time. My writing had hit a plateau. I'm finally able to publish one or two short stories or poems a year at some small publications for nominal fees, but I just can't seem to break through to the next level. I'm really hoping the advice he provided will help me be able to publish with more regularity at larger publications. This made me very excited to have acquired a mentor in the first place.

When they told me who my mentor was, I felt like I had some homework to do (and some cyber-stalking). I had heard of him, but needed more information. Turns out, he's published over 40 books, some of which have received some critical acclaim, including the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction and he was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. He's also published several short story collections. He's even published some novels with movie, television, and video game tie-ins, such as "Supernatural," Nightmare on Elm Street, and Resident Evil. I had to confess I felt a little overwhelmed and out of my league (and I probably was).

Tim's website can be found here.

Anyway, the first thing I sent him was my completed novel manuscript, The Sorcerer, and then I sent him a sample short story I had recently written. He provided a lot of criticism and advice to improve. One thing of note, If you are planning to become a writer you have to be prepared for all sorts of criticism. Even if you plan on self-publishing you need to be prepared for bad reviews from readers, and arguing with negative reviews only makes you look even more foolish.

His criticism basically broke down to two main ideas. One was that my characters needed to have stronger reactions to supernatural events. I write mainly horror and other genre fiction, so there should be some pretty strong reactions from my characters. There was some, but not enough, not nearly enough. For whatever reason, I could not see how little there was until he mentioned it. I guess that's the power a mentor can have.

The other was that I needed to start using a technique called "scene and sequel." He provided a link to the technique, but I found another that seemed to suit my needs a little better. This is supposed to be the technique that draws readers in and keeps them reading to the very end of a story. I went ahead and made some notes in one of my notebooks about the technique as well, and try to keep it handy whenever I write fiction.

The last thing I sent him was a PowerPoint of several chapters of Frankspoitation, the the non-fiction book I've been working on about Frankenstein films. He was far less critical of this, and felt it helped him see some of these films in a new light. I'm pretty close to sending a few sample chapters to a former professor of mine who's agreed to help me out on it. I'll blog about this again soon.

But the lessons Tim provided me concerning my fiction writing will not be forgotten. He's even agreed to keep in touch so I can ask him further questions when needed. I've since rewritten the short story I sent him and have written a few new ones, hopefully using many of the techniques he suggested. Remember that your story is always yours, ultimately, but feedback is still excruciatingly important. In fact it's crucial. I'm still looking for a critique group either online or in person. I'll keep at it, and hopefully keep improving, and hopefully I've provided some information here that others can use as well.