Vegas Valley Book Festival 2014

If you like book things and live in Las Vegas, then you ought to know about the annual Vegas Valley Book Festival. http://vegasvalleybookfestival.org/

Honestly, a book festival in Las Vegas. Didn't you know? We're cultured bro.

There is free food, so writers come out of the woodwork for it. And have I mentioned there are lots of books?

This year I’ll be on the “Las Vegas Writes” panel with a few other local authors such as fellow Illiterati-member Mercedes M. Yardley, Scott Dickensheets, David Armstrong, Heidi Kyser, Joseph Langdon, Launce Rake, Moniro Ravanipour, Geoff Schumacher, and T.R. Witcher.

The panel is 11 AM on Saturday Oct 18^th (in the Auditorium)

Come by and heckle!

Here’s the deets:

Vegas Valley Book Festival

Historic 5th Street School

401 S. 4th Street, Las Vegas NV 89101

Ukulele Madness

Others have done great Killercon 2013 debriefs (such as John Palisano), so I won't rehash any of that.

Instead I'll tell you that Mercedes and I brought our ukuleles to the convention.

Now, just so's you know, my ukulele super-powers are well documented. (example 1: World Horror Con with Mort Castle, example 2: audio/video proof ) But on with my blog...

Ukuleles bring joy wherever they go.
Joy. And astonishment.

Christopher Rice totally amazed by our AC/DC rendition

And sometimes violence.

Michael Bailey and Mercedes M. Yardley remembering The Clash

But the important thing is that ukuleles bring people together.

Passing the ukes around with John Skipp

One thousand million pounds of love go out to my pals who shared and shredded the humble four strings of fury (meaning, my ukulele)

Michael Bailey, Matt Czarnowski, John Skipp, John Palisano, Sarah Peed, Mike McCarty, Stacy Scranton-Morgan, Edmund Colell, and the half dozen I probably also forgot... (oops)

So everyone should go buy themselves an ukulele. I'll wait right here while you do.

And a few of you will be able to view this video of me playing "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails on the ukulele.
(That's John Palisano on wall drums and Mercedes M. Yardley on chocolate chip shaker)

Chiral Mad 2 and Heading to Killercon

Hello boys and girls.

Got some good news, my short story "Another Man's Bones" has been accepted in the awesome anthology CHIRAL MAD 2, the follow-up to the award winning CHIRAL MAD.

Check out some of the great names I'm sharing a ToC with!

Jack Ketchum, David Morrell, Mort Castle (MORT!), Ramsey Campbell, Gene O'Neill... that's just the first reveal. (also P. Gardner Goldsmith and John Skipp via Written Backward's FB page)

There are also some awesome rumors floating about, but we'll go there if they happen. M'kay?

So with this great news, I'm off to Killercon 2013 held right here in Las Vegas NV.
I love writer conventions. And I love the people who put on and attend Killercon.

It will be a fun fun fun weekend. I'll fill you in on the deets later.

New Orleans Jam

I meant to write an insightful post about my amazing adventures in New Orleans for World Horror Convention 2013.

But instead I wrote this song. It’s on the ukulele, so you know it’s probably heavy metal.

But you can read a little about my experience by surfing over to these blogs.

Brad C. Hodson

Mercedes Yardley

(any of you jokers reading this, link drop those I am too lazy to remember in the comments)

What you need to know boils down to this:

• I travelled with my great friends Mercedes M. Yardley and Matt Czar. Bailey Hunter and Harley May joined us. And we explored the city like champs.
• We rented a house instead of staying at the hotel. Best. Idea. EVAR. Way to go AirBnB
• Bats fly around the city. This is awesome to me.
• Horror writers are far more cuddly and friendly than they have any right to be.
• I met with my publisher. Yes. My publisher. I’ll spill the deets when we have the cover, promise.
• I ate alligator and it really did taste like chicken. I wonder if bats taste like chicken too.

World Horror Convention 2013 Preshow

As this post launches itself into the waiting arms of the interwebz, I'll be halfway to New Orleans for World Horror Convention and the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards.

I like writers' conventions. My personality type is energized by people. As stated by one online personality test (always so accurate!) "Strangers are just friends that Mason hasn't met yet."

However, I am doubly looking forward to this convention.

Not only will I be hanging out with some really incredible people whom I've met at recent conventions (whom I've blogged about here and here and here) but we're renting a party house.

Ok, maybe not like, raging parties. But my dear pal Mercedes Yardley of Illiterati fame, and Matt C (a writer friend and coincidentally my neighbor!(and who is in our rival critique group that has yet to come up with a name)) and the ever graceful and sly Bailey Hunter (@Slave_To_Coffee) are renting a house in the French Quarter from which to launch our midnight attacks.

Well, we might be reading and writing lots. That's kind of like a midnight attack, right?

Kind of like how these are really cute stuffed beavers... right? Right? RIGHT?

These devil beavers were for sale on Craigslist...
They haunt my dreams with their beady eyes.
No really, they have beads for eyes.

Plus, when I get back I'll have some exciting news to share with you peoples.

Super Duper Flash Writing Contest Winning Tips

I’m pretty stoked. Last month I entered 2 flash fiction contests and won both of them. In fact, I've won 3 out of the 5 flash fiction contests I've ever entered (the KillerCon Creative Fiction Contest in 2012, and the Vegas Valley Book Fest Flash Fiction Contest in 2010 and 2012).

(self aggrandizement alert!)

If you don’t know, flash fiction is a short short story, usually under 1000 words in length, sometimes under 500. They are stories that get in, do their story magic, and get out. They even have micro fiction which is roughly around tweet size.

 

(my own example):

 

She watched the dinner guests leave. They never asked where Greg was and she of course didn’t show them the blood and mess in the kitchen.

So naturally Flash Fiction Contests are when a group of caffeine-hazed writers are given a prompt and a short amount of time (20 minutes at KillerCon, 90 minutes at Vegas Valley Book Fest). When the buzzer goes off, you stop writing, just like a test, and then you are at the mercy of the judges.

But let’s get back to me winning. (I need to start that #arrogant twitter hashtag Mercedes[[[]]] and I joke about…)

I thought to myself, “Self,” I says, “You seem to be awesome at these things. Do you have any super-duper tips for winning?”

Well, nothing super-duper. In truth, I’d say 60% of winning at flash fiction is how far you can take your imagination and writing chops. And 20% is being able to perform under deadline. Perform coherently, I might add.

Almost all of that falls under the same writing advice you can find anywhere. (No really, most other people give way more useful writing advice than me, because I don’t really know how I do it…)

But that last little 10% leaves room for a few handy tips and tricks. Nothing fancy, mind you, but this is how I do it and maybe it will work for you. (Or at least free you up to just charge blindly ahead!)

Tip #1: Write the most compelling first line you can think of, right off the top of your head. Then come up with the story behind it.

Don’t construct an elaborate plot. Don’t try to focus on the theme, because by simply hearing it and stewing on it while waiting for someone to shout “Go” the theme is already part of your consciousness.

Make that first line sing. Don't worry about where the story will go. Just write something that can't be ignored.

Mine was "The hardest part was not killing the kids, but cutting them up to fit in the furnace."

Where it came from, I don't know, but it had to be answered. I had to find out what happened next, thus I had to write it.

Tip #2: Don’t cheat and show up at the contest with a full plot or story you already wrote in your head, or worse, already wrote which you will try to recreate.

Don't do this.

It not only smells like cheating but it can backfire on you. Particularly with themes and/or key words or phrases you must use in the story. The elaborate western romance you cooked up will get hosed when the key phrase they give you is "The spaceship docked on the dark side of the moon." Hosed!

(Unless you’re Joss Whedon, in which case, carry on.)

Speaking of key words and phrases, "How do you deal with any key words, or phrases they make you put into the story?" (you ask) “How do you place a word like ‘zither’ and ‘mongoose’ in a space-cowboy drama?” (you ask so many questions)

Tip #3: Love words.

 

Love words,  love how words sound, love language so deeply that you don’t just cram in obtrusive words like ‘chartreuse’ with a wink at the audience. Actually use them.

I read the dictionary for fun. I have this giant unabridged one that I like to turn to random pages (it also makes a great kid booster seat!) Words are your fundamental tools, even the awkward words.

What if you don’t know the meaning of the word? Ask. You might feel like a goober asking what a zither is, but you'll feel like a Hefty-bag of shame when you write it into your steamy romance mistakenly thinking it means a clothes fastening device.

Tip #4 Economy of words.

The opposite of this blog post.

 

I am very grateful to the estimable judges of the Vegas Valley Book Festival, and the KillerCon Creative Fiction Contest: Jack Ketchum and Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, Don D'Auria from Samhain Publishing, and Roy Robbins from Bad Moon Books.

I won... booze?

KillerCon 2012 Debriefed

So this year I got to be the official Volunteer Wrangler at KillerCon 4 (2012) writer's convention held here in Las Vegas, NV.

First, the good stuff: I won the 2012 KillerCon Creative Fiction Contest. Yowzah. I was up against some stiff competition, and the judges were all world class authors and editors (including Mr. Jack Ketchum and Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty).

And it was very great to hang out with so many talented and incredibly delightful writers, many of whom I’ve met several times over the past few years of convention going as a professional writer. Seriously, everyone thinks that horror writers must be maladroit and grim all the time, but I find them to be the most wonderfully-odd-in-the-right-way sorts. We’re all a little weird around here. But delightfully so.

Speaking of weird, it was really awesome to meet the whole crew of Shock Totem. Those cats get A++ in raditude.

My writers' group, the Illiterati, and our baby

And certainly not the least of the awesome of KillerCon weekend was the release of my dear friend Mercedes M. Yardley’s first book, BEAUTIFUL SORROWS. You need to buy it now, because the first run already sold out. Yes it’s that good. Possibly one of my favorite stories ever is in it (“Luna e Volk”).

Now for some of the bad: That darn Stratosphere really made life difficult. The hospitality suite was as far from the convention across the hotel as humanly possible. And you’d think they’d populate the rooms surrounding the “party room” with KillerCon attendees, right? No, they booked them with normal guests who actually wanted to sleep at 2am in Las Vegas. The audacity.

And then there was the outright odd. I had no room. That would not normally be a problem because my house is about 15 minutes away. But I kept forgetting I didn’t have the car. So I couch surfed the whole time. No, I am only telling half the truth. I had to share a bed with my new friend (very close friends now, thank you very much) Matt C. He was a gentleman and didn’t inadvertently snuggle me. I don’t think.

But, what I am thinking would make next year’s KillerCon level up is 1) a better venue. 2) Having more interesting panels and running them two at a time with one Keynote panel in a large room towards end of day. Oh, and 3) having a designated "dinner break" hour. People are sheep, we like being told "go eat now, you have an hour".

Those are my suggestions. Oh, and 4) showgirls.

Yes, I'm big beardin it. Take a closer look, go on... touch it, I dare you.

 

World Fantasy Con 2011 Debriefed

World Fantasy Con 2011 was held in San Diego this past weekend, and my infamous writing group, The Illiterati, were in attendance and in rare form the whole time.

Illiterati with guest appearance by Jaym Gates (far left)

First let me say that we turned it into a road trip of epic proportions, legends of which shall be whispered in the dark for years. Mercedes M. Yardley and Billie Bundschuh are super road warriors.

True to my slightly obsessive insanity, I’d made a WFC binder with bios on every guest of honor and each of our co-panelists so we’d be studied up.

Yes, co-panelists. That’s right, both Mercedes and I managed to get onto some of the panels at World Fantasy Con. I can either ascribe that to our awesomeness or their desperateness. :)

Talkin' bout H.P. Lovecraft

I’ll be writing another post about the oddity of being on a panel soon (including Do’s and Don’ts learned the hard way!) but for now, on with this post:

The main thing everyone needs to know about writers’ conventions is that pretty much everyone there is either a writer or an editor, publisher or agent. Which means that networking is the name of the game.

Mercedes and other Fey Folk

Ok, so that sounds cynical. Let me define networking as I see it (and as we in the Illiterati see it): networking is making new friends who also happen to have industry experience and may lead us to new opportunities. 

See? That sounds much better and less self-serving.

When we arrived fresh from the road on Thursday, we almost immediately stumbled into Misty Dahl and Jeff Mariotte, friends we’d made at KillerCon. Soon after that we finally met IRL some online friends from the InkPunks writing group.

Then in splitting up and hitting the panels we found ourselves getting into great discussions with authors who we may never have stumbled onto on our own (but now that we randomly bonded over Boba Fett and why zombie unicorns will rule the earth one day, we’re BFFs!)

And then there were the after parties. Now, let’s get one thing straight, yes there is free booze—but if that’s what gets you excited about writing convention after parties, then you’re a dumbnut. Just saying.

See, the after parties are where people let their hair down and actually are interested in getting into REAL discussions.

I loved hearing about the various writing projects that everyone was up to. I loved seeing the fire and passion in people eyes when they talked about what they were writing. I loved the way us writers start off kind of shy when asked “so what do you write?” but before long we’re head-to-head getting all giddy about our favorite authors.

Speaking of giddy, whilst wandering the halls I got somewhat lost (the hotel was designed by evil minions). As I stood there looking like a tool I was accosted by William F. Nolan who made me laugh so hard with his story regarding the now-defiled hotel potted plants.

Another great person I met was the Australian author KirstynMcDermott (author of Madigan Mine, Aurealis Award winner). She’s awesome, and let’s just say that I was “adopted” by the Australian contingent as we crashed the various parties happening around the hotel. My only regret is that we got separated somewhere in room 1111 and I didn’t get to say goodbye and thank you to Kristyn. So, let this blog post serve.

I also got to finally meet the inimitable Simon Larter. Let me tell you folks, I like this man’s style. Can you say, trickster?

Speaking of trickster, parking at the hotel was $16 a day. A DAY. Are you kidding me? Well, we at The Illiterati won’t take that sort of tripe. We had a giant Yukon SUV so when it came time to leave the party and head to our host home we just drove over a bunch of innocent shrubbery to freedom.

Take that parking robbers! Nyah nyah!

~Mason

(the following is a very incomplete list of some of the wonderful people who made WFC2011 such a success for us)

Jessica Corra http://jessicacorra.wordpress.com/
Galen Dara http://www.galendara.com/

Misty Dahl http://mistydahl.com/

Jaym Gates http://jaymgates.com/

Cody Goodfellow http://www.amazon.com/Cody-Goodfellow/e/B002KYCE76/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2

Simon Larter http://constantrevisions.blogspot.com/

Kirstyn McDermott http://kirstynmcdermott.com/

William F. Nolan http://www.williamfnolan.com/

Andrew Penn Romine http://www.andrewpennromine.com/

Victoria Schwab http://www.victoriaschwab.com/

Wendy Wagner http://winniewoohoo.com/

Sandra Wickham http://www.sandrawickham.com/

William & Peggy Wu http://williamwubooks.com/

Dominating World Fantasy Con 2011

So, this year my whole crazy writing group, The Illiterati, decided to gang up on World Fantasy Convention in San Diego.

Aside from the fact that Battle Bunny FAILED to get tickets in time (an oversight which he will not be allowed to forget) the rest of us are carpooling down to unleash our particular brand of insanity on unsuspecting convention goers.

And in the tradition of things being crazy, two of us have been asked to sit on panels whilst at World Fantasy Convention. Rock.

I'll be talking about H.P. Lovecraft and the Horrors of the Sea on Friday at 1pm, with fellow panelists Christopher Farnsworth, Cody Goodfellow(M), Rain Graves, S. T. Joshi.

And on Saturday Mercedes M. Yardley will be joining Holly Black, Jenny Blackford, Patrick Rothfuss, and Delia Sherman to examine faeries as they have historically been known--that is, as creatures of fear and danger, not cutsie little kissers-of-flowers.

So, if you are hitting up WFC, you can either join us or walk the plank. (But if you join us we're nice pirates... with cookies and many inside jokes that you can laugh at after a brief initiation period too...)

KillerCon 3: The New Convention on the Block

Now it’s time for my much belated recap of KillerCon 3, an exciting new convention catering to horror and dark fiction held right here in Las Vegas, NV.
As to being belated, my poor computer was raped by a computer virus the day after the convention.

Those pictures of your mom were so not worth it.

Luckily I backup regularly (if you don’t, start NOW) but it still meant a few days downtime while I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled the OS. Fun!

But what was fun was KillerCon.

KillerCon exists because a small group of hyper dedicated people like Wrath James White, R.J. Cavender, Boyd Harris, Bailey Hunter and crew at Cutting Block Press decided that Las Vegas needs a convention, dangit! (ok, so maybe that wasn’t the reason they began KillerCon, but I’m sticking to it). These dudes and dudettes know how to make things happen.


Mercedes and I furiously trying to outwrite each other in the Creative Writing Contest
(She won... "I'll get you next time Gadget!")

Only in its third year, KillerCon in some ways shows its age—or youth—by being somewhat small and loosely organized. But far from being a distraction or detraction, those very qualities lent itself a real sense of bonhomie among the crowd of writers.

In between panels and readings and mass book signings, these veteran writers were casually rubbing elbows with us n00bs, offering us good advice and just being plain ole wonderful people.

I don’t know what the attendance numbers were for the entire weekend, but I can say that I generally saw a good 25-40 people mixing freely in the hospitality room where well-established writers—such as Jack Ketchum, Mort Castle, John Skipp, Ray Garton, Weston Ochse, Jonathan Maberry, Robert Devereaux, Jeff Mariotte and Edward Lee—connected and invested in writers just starting their careers.

In fact, it was Señor Mort Castle who really made an impact on me with his bottomless passion for writers. I mean, this guy loves writers—they energize him! After Mort did an intimate and intense two-day writers’ workshop I cornered him and pestered him with all sorts of questions about the craft—and he never flagged.



Mort Castle, Honorary Member of The Illiterati

 For that, Mort Castle has earned my respect, and the respect of the other Illiterati members who were in attendance, granting him the envious title of: “Honorary Member of the Illiterati.”

Speaking of the Illiterati, our very own Mercedes M. Yardley won 1st place in the absolutely crazy Creative Writing contest. We had 15 minutes to write a short story which had to include a list of inane words chosen by the cruel-hearted judges (OK, so it wasn’t as bad as last year where one of the words was calzone, but “chartreuse?” come on…)

KillerCon is a young convention, and suffers from the usual growing pains such as occasional chaos and “Where’d all those name badges go?” syndrome. But let me tell you, I’d take a little disarray if the pay-off is solid connections with quality writers and editors/publishers.

So, overall, KillerCon might not be the largest or most well-known horror/dark fiction writers’ convention, but you just watch next year, and the year to come. Good things are in store.

A special (alphabetical) thanks to my new friends:
Leah Anderson and Vincent Daemon of “Grave Demand” http://gravedemand.com/
Steven Booth http://www.geniuspublish.com/
Christopher Boyle
Mort Castle
R.J. Cavender
Eddie Coulter (look, dolphins!)
Misty Dahl http://mistydahl.com/
Robert Devereaux
Brad C. Hodson http://bradhodson.wordpress.com/
Bailey Hunter
Laura J. Hickman
Chris Marrs
Jason S. Reinhardt
Wrath James White
Rhonda Wilson of Monster Librarian http://www.monsterlibrarian.com/
(Forgive me if I missed someone, I’m still recovering!)

(Also, if I missed your link, let me know in the comments!)

KillerCon 3: a Convention in Las Vegas = crazy

This weekend, KillerCon will descend upon an unsuspecting Las Vegas.


A writer’s convention for writers of the horror genre (and not for serial killers), KillerCon is bringing together some really great (and Bram Stoker Award winning) guests of honor, including Jack Ketchum (dubbed the scariest guy in America by Stephen King), Ray Garton, Jonathan Maberry.

Since it’s in my backyard, and because my fellow Illiterati super-friend Mercedes M. Yardley coerced me, I’ll be there as a volunteer.

This will be my first writer’s convention, so I’m excited. And that it’s about 15 minutes from home makes it even better!

They say that networking is the real reason for these conventions, and since (as my wife will tell you) I am driven to a fever pitch of energy by other people: either I’ll make really good connections or I’ll burst into flame through sheer excitement.

I’ll be reporting back with my experiences and insights (because you care, I know you do)

Until then, I leave you with the most awesome thing ever: