California Dreamin'

It’s a week since we got back from San Diego, and man, what a ride! Still recovering. Sleep pattern all over the shop. That jet lag…

We’d gone over to promote ‘Oblivion Black: Poisoned Kingdom’ at ‘StokerCon’, my first American Con for around 20 years. Back in the day I’d go to World Horror Con, which was huge fun and provided a huge market for Razorblade Press - the indie publisherI ran. Before we went over I tried to calibrate my expectations. When we got to the convention I must admit I felt more than a little intimidated. Old friends were meeting up again and it became clear very quickly that this was an entire community and fandom that i was entering pretty much for the first time.

One of the mistakes I made was to book a table in the dealers room. No one gave a shit about me or my books, and why should they? I’d sorta expected it, but the reality was a little demoralising. So I got into the business of talking to the attendees and fellow writers, which was a tonic. The convention really took off for me when I attended the panels and workshops. I loved seeing the dynamic of how the convention worked and how people engaged. In fact late in the day some of the best people I was when Sian and I were hanging out in the bar, to be honest that’s always been the way at conventions.

I’d agreed to take part in the mass author signing which was held on the lawn, it was nice to be out in the open. I took the opportunity to go and get a book signed by Paul Tremblay, who was larvely! He asked me where I was from: “Wales, the UK.”, he then surprised me by saying he was best friends with Andy ‘Falco’ Falkus from McClusky and Future of the Left! Small world. I also got talking to David Agranoff - a fellow author - who was funny, friendly and hats off to him for helping organise the panels - who was stood next to me at the signing.
Someone came up to me at the signing and said “I’ve been looking for you.”

Fuck.

He then brought out a first edition of ‘Oblivion Black’ for me to sign! I was so surprised that I forgot to sell him the sequel! It did lift my spirits

Things picked up in the Dealer’s room and I sold and signed more books, but I probably bought more books than I sold. I am happy with my life choices. One of the delights of being in in the Dealer’s room was having the opportunity to speak to other writers, especially Craig Hurd-McKenny the creator of these beautiful comics (the Boris Karloff comic especially was a thing of wonder) and Robert Adauto , comics and books were - of course - bought.

Friday early evening I did my first reading for I dunno how long, yep I was nervous, so needed a bit of dutch courage to face it. We got talking to the lovely Blake and Dianna Hausladen and perhaps I a bit too much dutch courage as I did stumble a bit, but it was great fun. Loved the readings from the other writers, and I had the bonus of getting heckled by Brian Keene who I knew from back in the day, yes i am still sick and twisted.

Loved StokerCon, learned a lot and we’re intending to head back next year.

We did have some R&R before and after the convention and one of the many notable things we did was visit the Hotel Corando, where ‘Some Like It Hot’ was filmed. We had a cocktail at the bar called ‘Tequila Mockingbird’ which was like drinking Napalm and went on a hokey nut fun ghost tour. Alas it was the least spooky thing about our whole trip. Did i mention the jet lag? Lordy lord.