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.

'Tis the Season for Literary and Academic Festivals

Lately, I have been making the rounds to a number of literary and academic festivals and conferences. On March 16, I attended the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival in downtown Suffolk, Virginia, which is the city where I currently live. It was nice to talk writing and books with several fellow writers. I was also scoping this event out for a possible table for either the Horror Writers Association Virginia Chapter to get a table at the event next year, or for me to get a table by myself. I think the Edgar Allen Poe anthology I appear in would be a good fit for this event, and I know some of my fellow Virginia chapter authors also write and have published some mysteries.

While there, I attended a presentation on short story writing, because that was something that I do and wanted to hear more about what these authors had to say about it.

After the festival, I was notified by mail that I won a raffle for a bundle of books by one of the authors, Karen McCullough. I have not dug into these just yet, but some of them do look tempting, and I can wait to cut into them soon.

I also work in higher education, and spring is a popular time for many academic festivals and conferences, which we sometimes call "academic development." It helps for teachers to get together once in a while and confer with each other about what we are doing and share ideas. One such festival I attended was the Old Dominion University Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing. Being an ODU alumnus, I always enjoy getting back on campus. Interestingly, while I was there, I ran into Kole Matheson, who did a presentation with me at the 2018 conference. Not only did he recognize me, he even remembered my Frankenstein project that I presented that year (hoping to work on that again this summer).

After that, I attended the Norfolk State University William Carroll Writers' Festival. I enjoy teaching English composition at NSU, which is a traditionally Black university. During this festival I was asked to do a public reading, so I read my latest short story, "Beheaded" which appears in Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri of Terror, and is available here (plug, plug). The reaction was a mixed bag of those who seemed to love it, and those were more than a little shocked (in a good way [I think]).

Later in the festival, I participated in a creative writing activity where we were given cards from the kids' board game Apples to Apples and asked to come up with something within a few minutes. I ended up with the card "Knock, Knock" and thought to myself, "What the hell am I going to do with this?" But then I just used a little stream-of-consciousness to see what followed, and I think I actually came with something pretty damn good. I might even try to sell it as a poem after a little editing to clean it up. That could be a good activity for others to try at home. This may have also led to me finding a new summer writing group🤞.

Lastly, just this week, I attended a professional development presentation at the other higher education institution where I teach, Paul D. Camp Community College. It was about latest practices on diversity and distance learning. Again, it's a good way to compare what I do in the classroom with some of my colleagues and provide ideas on how to improve.

And speaking of PDCCC, I was asked to add another literature class in the second eight weeks of the semester, which I was allowed to gear toward Romantic elements in literature, both during the Romantic movements in the United States and England and unto today. I do feel that teaching writing and literature improves my own writing, and would encourage anyone who is qualified to teach to do so. I may have to post a little bit more about this at another time as it lends itself to another topic.

That's about it, and looking at it now, boy have I been busy. Even if I have not had that much time to write lately, I have been immersing myself in the writing, education, and publishing field. This immersion, in my opinion is the best way to find success (I hope).

My First Horror Writers Association Virginia Chapter Event

There are perks to membership. I have lately been blogging about some of those perks here. And recently, I have another story about just great this type of membership is.

Recently, I was able to participate in my first event with the Horror Writers Association Virginia Chapter, which was Unhappy Hour at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond. It was a lot of fun. I was able to finally meet some fellow HWA members face-to-face who live in the area (or at least in the same state).

I also participated in my first public reading. It was a fellow member's piece, but it was lesson worth learning; from now on I will bring at least one piece to read just in case the opportunity arises. But at least I was able to provide a little publicity for a fellow member.

I was able to slip away for a quick tour of the museum, which I hadn't seen in about 15 years or more.

Oh yes, did I mention there were free drinks for HWA members?

We had a booth to sign up new potential members. Members with books to sell were able to do so.

I handed out a few business cards to maintain publicity for my current non-fiction project, Frankspoitation.

Oh yes, and drinks, I did mention the free drinks didn't I?

Anyway, here are some photos from the event.