Month: November 2015

Reading “Delirium Sings…” at Powell’s, Nov. 2015

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I recently posted video of my reading from “Firedancing” in The Children of Old Leech at BizarroCon. Link HERE.

A few days after that reading, several Portland writers who all happened to appear in Word Horde’s anthology CTHULHU FHTAGN! had a group reading at Powell’s Books, the SE Hawthorne location.

My wife took video of my portion of the reading, in which I read the middle of my story “Delirium Sings at the Maelstrom Window.”

My thanks to Nathan Carson (who also read) for setting up the reading event, and also to Ross E. Lockhart for publishing Cthulhu Fhtagn! and selecting my story for inclusion. You can order a copy of the book at Word Horde.

Reading “Firedancing” at BizarroCon Nov. 2015

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I’ve had two opportunities to read my work this month. First was the Word Horde group reading at BizarroCon. I read the middle of my story “Firedancing” from the Laird Barron tribute anthology, The Children of Old Leech published by Word Horde last year.

My wife Lena was good enough to record video of my reading.

Video also exists of the second reading at Powell’s Books in support of Cthulhu Fhtagn!, and I’ll post that soon.

Varieties of Weirdness Panel at BizarroCon 2015

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Still in the middle of a busy couple of weeks here, between BizarroCon last weekend, the Cthulhu Fhtagn! reading at Powell’s last night, and Living Dead Horror Con this weekend.

I’ll have more to say on some of these matters too, but for now I’ll just link to Scott Nicolay’s The Outer Dark podcast, a recent episode of which featured a recording of the Varieties of Weirdness Panel at BizarroCon 2015. I was on that panel along with moderator Ross E. Lockhart, Rios de la Luz, G. Arthur Brown and Garrett Cook.

The link is HERE.

Varieties of Weirdness panel photo by Helen Hopley
Varieties of Weirdness panel photo by Helen Hopley

The panel discussion began just minutes after those of us in the room heard the news that Scott Nicolay had won the World Fantasy Award. Congrats to Scott for the huge honor, and thanks for featuring “Varieties of Weirdness” on The Outer Dark.

Reading at Powell’s Books Tonight

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Several Portland locals with stories in CTHULHU FHTAGN! will be reading at Powell’s Books (note: SE Hawthorne location) tonight.

Information:

The Ross E. Lockhart-edited, H. P. Lovecraft inspired Word Horde press anthology CTHULHU FHTAGN! features 19 macabre tales. Five of these are from authors who call Oregon home.

Wendy Wagner
Edward Morris
Mike Griffin
Christine Morgan
Nathan Carson

Thursday, Nov 12
Powell’s Books on Hawthorne
7:30pm
free

The event page on Facebook is HERE.

Check out this lovely book!

cthulhufhtagn

BizarroCon 2015

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It’s been a year of many conventions, and I’m not done yet. Today is the beginning of BizarroCon 2015 at the McMenamins Edgefield. The Edgefield is a cool historic place that was the county “poor farm” in the days of my grandparents.

The McMenamins company has turned it into a whimsical, sprawling entertainment complex with hotel rooms, restaurants and bars, a golf course and assorted other fun stuff.

As a genre, Bizarro is slightly different from what I normally write, though I believe there’s a lot of crossover between Bizarro and the weirder end of the Weird. Some of my favorite publishers like Word Horde and Lazy Fascist Press have one foot in each territory, as I see it.

Though the con will be underway Thursday afternoon, I won’t be showing up until later Thursday night. I’ll be delivering Michael Cisco from the airport.

Friday will be a long day of workshops and other entertainments. Early in the morning I’ll be participating in a “Perfecting Your Pitch” workshop led by Ross E. Lockhart, and after lunch I’ll be in the “Chunk-Style Plotting” workshop led by John Skipp.

Saturday I’m taking part in the Word Horde Reading Block (2:30-4PM) along with Ross Lockhart, Nathan Carson, Nikki Guerlain, Edward Morris and M.P. Johnson.

Sunday I’m on the “Varieties of Weirdness” panel (in which I hope to touch on the crossover I perceive between Bizarro and Weird fiction) along with Ross again, G. Arthur Brown, Garrett Cook, Cameron Pierce and Rios De La Luz. This panel will be recorded, with the approval of all participants, for inclusion in a future edition of Scott Nicolay’s excellent podcast series The Outer Dark.

Last year I only attended BizarroCon for a single day, but I had such fun I wanted to be part of all three days this year. If you’ll be there, I look forward to seeing you. Lots of fun to be had!

Late 2015 Writing

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Many of my posts lately have been about conventions and publishing, but most of my time is spent writing, so what about that?

I spent much of the last half of 2015 writing and revising a short novel, about 51,000 words. Non-writers will wonder, “How long is that in pages?” Well, it’s longer than The Great Gatsby or Slaughterhouse Five, but by the standards of today’s publishing environment, 51k words is an odd length. It’s too long to be a novella (17,500 words up to 40k), so while it’s technically a novel, most agents and publishers want to see something like 80-100k word novels.

This project is on submission to a publisher that seems not to mind the in-between length, so we’ll see what happens with that.

I’ve really enjoyed working longer, and intend to start a full-length novel early in 2016, after I finish writing four stories for anthology projects to which I’ve been invited to submit.

I haven’t had quite as many stories lined up for publication in 2015, due to spending much of 2014 wrapping up my first collection, which should appear in 2016. I hope to be able to say more about that before too much longer.