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Day 16 of the Tour

World Horror Convention

Kansas City, MO!

It’s my first World Horror, ever. Other than the fact that the vast majority of people are wearing black, and there seems to be more leather, it’s a lot like World Con, or World Fantasy. Once upon a time I went to the big conventions to make deals. I had breakfast meetings, brunch meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, all in the hopes of selling some new project. Other members of my writers group sold projects this way, but I never did. My stories, once finished for others, were either too violent, too disturbing, or strangely not dark enough. Or just didn’t fit what they were looking for. Oh, well. I still think that any writer that is interested in fantasy, science fiction, and horror should go to at least one of the big cons a year, plus the Nebulas. Just to keep your face and name in front of people. Also, dress up. Over dress if you need to, but look professional. Dress like you’re already successful, and you’re more likely to get that new deal. It’s that old idea that if you look needy, people run, but act like you don’t need anything from them and they’ll ask what they can do for you. I did not dress up every day for World Horror, for two reasons. One, Jonathon and I are too tired for formal wear more than once this weekend. We dressed up for opening ceremonies. In fact other writers said we made them look bad in comparison in his suit and my velvet and fishnet. I got to wear my bat boots with the silver bat buckles. We looked great. It was fun. The rest of the weekend we dressed down, or at least not that up. Because I have no deals to make. I’m doing two series. I can’t write a third. I have two publishers already, again, i don’t need a third. I don’t have time to do short stories much, if at all. An anthology has to be something that really captures my interest, and even then, it’s a matter of time, or lack there-of. I could almost smell the deals being made, the hunger for that next big break, in the very air of the hotel, and I was apart from it. I believe this was my first World anything where I wasn’t looking to make connections, or do some business. I did panels, and my editor Ginjer Buchanan was there, so we talked, but the big decisions were made months ago.