Hello, everyone! Hope this finds you well. Sorry I’ve been missing for a while. October has been wild. That said, I wouldn’t change it for anything. My worst day on the road—or stuck at an airport—while doing book stuff is a hundred times better than my best day as a teacher or grading essays for Pearsons or working the phones at the insurance place. When writers talk about the dream, we rarely talk about the lack of a 401k or health insurance or how much time and effort the road demands, but of all those realities, the roads is by far the best, and it’s one thing I’ll never complain about. Anyway, on to the stuff!
TELLURIDE
Okay, so Telluride is ridiculously gorgeous and picturesque. I flew out there on October 12. Well, I flew to Denver and then from Denver to Montrose and then hopped on a little van to drive an hour and a half to Telluride, but every minute of traveling was worth it. First, and I know I’m repeating myself here, Telluride if pure eye candy. Seriously. If you’ve been there, you know it’s true. There’s something about small towns nestled among huge, snow-capped mountains that appeals even to me, an island man who spent most of his life next to the ocean.
I went to Telluride for the Telluride Horror Show, which was superb. Also, I was there with the man who runs the literary shenanigans up there (and has been doing so for the past 7 years): the great Jeremy Robert Johnson. Jeremy is the author of some amazing novels like The Loop, Skullcrack City, and In the River as well as some awesome short story collections like Entropy in Bloom (which has all the stories that appeared in a previous collection that was a favorite of mine, We Live Inside You) and All the Wrong Ideas. I started reading Jeremy in 2008 and we connected online. I met him at BizarroCon when my first book came out in 2012 and we became friends. He was the first blurb for Zero Saints back in 2015. Besides loving his work, I love Jeremy’s overactive brain, energy, and sense of humor, so it was an absolute pleasure to hang out with my brother for an entire weekend and talk movies, books, and life while eating good food. The last of the three amigos that weekend was the very cool Adam Cesare, the author of the Clown in a Cornfield books, Video Night, Exponential, Tribesmen, and others. Adam is one of those writers I consider to be from “my class” or “my wave” or whatever you want to call it. Point is, we met more than a decade ago, became friends, have supported each other all these years, and struggled in the indies together for a long time, so we’re brothers. Spending time with these two, watching some awesome movies together, meeting the Telluride Horror Show folks, reading spooky stories to a bunch of people, doing our interview/horror summit/book signing together, and taking the gondola with Adam and Jeremy to see Telluride from 10,540 feet up in the mountains was an absolute blast. I also met a lot of cool folks, connected with a bunch of readers, and saw two of my favorite movies of 2023: When Evil Lurks, from and Where the Devils Roams, the latest gem from the ridiculously talented and incredibly nice Adams family. You need to watch these two amazing movies. Horror is not only alive and well; it’s kicking ass. As a bonus, I stayed at Telluride until Monday, and when I hopped on the van to drive down to the Montrose airport, I sat next to the amazing Zelda Adams and got to pick her brain for two hours. Talking about the way the Adams approach filmmaking and discussing writing and art with Zelda was an honor and a pleasure. Oh, and I got some nice messages from Toby Poser, who plays Maggie in the movie. She OWNED that role and I’m still thinking about Maggie…and about shoes and birds. Anyway, I’m sending them a book because I’m a huge fan. Check out everything they’ve done. As for When Evil Lurks…well, I’ll say this: there were several scenes where Rugna used his shots to tell the audience “some shit’s about to go down.” Then, when it went down, I watched the entire theater jump in their seats. Anyway, here are some photos and a cool poster:
STORYFEST
I think I was home for about 46 hours before I went back to the airport and jumped on a plane to JFK. Then I got into another car and drove another hour and half to Norwalk, CT. I loved StoryFest last year, and it was no different this year. StoryFest, put together by Alex Giannini the rest of the good folks at the Westport Library, brings together a bunch of authors for a couple days of panels, signings, conversations, and events. This year I got to connect with a bunch of friends like Ellen Datlow, Stephen Graham Jones, Rachel Harrison, Owen Egerton, May Cobb, Angie Kim, Clay McLeod Chapman, Bracken MacLeod, Paul Tremblay, Caroline Kepnes, Eric LaRocca, John Palisano, T.M. Dunn, Gregory Galloway, and many, many more. The keynote was Neil Gaiman. Anyway, we had a blast. I did a conversation with Ellen about anthologies, was on a horror panel with John, Rachel, Clay, and Owen, and moderated a panel on thriller with Caroline, Angie, May, and T.M., and Greg. I walked around Norwalk in the rain, took some photos at a cemetery, had some amazing conversations, and we closed down the bar on Saturday, which was fun. Here are some photos from Westport/Norwalk.
NEXT BOOK IS DONE
I sent in my “final” revisions about a week and a half before I left, but then got some great notes/questions from my editor. Long story short, I did most of the work at home on Thursday before leaving for StoryFest and took three or four pages with me. Two hours before heading to the opening event on Friday, I sent that thing back. He accepted it. It’s done. More on that soon. This is already long enough! Thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves and each other. More soon.