A Motivational Speech (Plus Music Video)

Allow me to introduce you to my other band: Aurea Verba

Eric, Mason, Eli, Matt

See, that's me over there with a pained rock star look on my face. In my opinion, a constipated or wounded pout is the only real face one can make for band photos.

But I digress.

My other band is quite fun to be in. For starters I have too much music in my body to get it all out with just one band. So I need at least two full time bands with several other pick-up gigs thrown in on the side.

It's kind of like writing. I can't just write in one genre, nor am I content with just writing a few stories or novels "and then I'll be done." I'll never be done, I'll always create.

Do thousands upon thousands of people come to our shows? No (unless they are invisible, in which case I am kinda creeped out). But does that mean that somehow it's not worth it?

We do what we love doing because we love doing it--no, we NEED to do it. I can't help being creative, I couldn't stop myself from being creative.

So why would I ever let myself mope and have those useless thoughts of "not being really successful"?

Hot diggety-dawg, I put my pen onto a blank page and a story comes out. I put my fingers onto a contraption made of steel and rosewood and music happens!

That's the fountainhead of it all. I don't need adulation or hordes of fans (though it'd be nice, sometimes), I just need to keep creating.

So I leave you with a music video as I go off and get some writing done. Or maybe I'll go play some guitar...

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:

The Universe of my WIP: or, a totally fabricated interview with James Lipton

Ok, so I found some questions from something called 30 days of writing. It might be an old meme, but I had fun answering the first question so I might just keep it up.


Besides my jilted blog needs content! Haha.

Let us pretend that I am being interviewed by James Lipton from the Actors Studio:



James Lipton will burn holes in you with his eyes.

 James Lipton: Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.

This is tricky because like most writers it’s usually “What I’m working on now” since that is the most vibrant and fresh and compelling.

But I really really really love the universe I created for my fantasy series.

James Lipton: Fantasy? Why not a sweeping epic about Depression era farmers?

No... I don't think--

James Lipton: Can there be some Depression era farmers in your fantasy novel?

Well, there are farms I suppose...
But The first book in the first series is titled THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS and I’m doing some edits before looking for a potential agent. And I’ve written about half of book two just because I can.

James Litpon: That's a lot of work into something that hasn't been published yet. Did you just go crazy like my hairline?

More like your tie. When I just tallied it up for this blog, I’ve written almost a million words in this world, mostly myths and histories and a bunch of interconnected short stories.

Whenever I’m overwhelmed by my WIP, or I just want to be unfettered in creativity, I can always slip into the world and make magic. Sometimes it’s sweeping epic history, sometimes high mythmaking, but many times a character catches my imagination and draws out a close story, intimate and personal.

It’s a great feeling, going from the macro to the micro within such a wide scope of history.

James Lipton: Do you feel like you need to have an epic rap battle with Tolkien?

I can't rap in Old Norse yet, so he'd prolly win that one.


Stay tuned for more madcap interviews!

A Letter to my Jilted Blog

Dear blog,

You probably think I'm a jerk for running off and ignoring you for a few months. I admit, I'd feel hurt too if you did the same to me.

But I can explain.

I'm nearing completion on my supermegacomplex WIP whilst working full-time and raising two kids under 3, AND working on songs for the new album (you knew I was in a band, right? http://www.atlastakesaim.com/), and working on a few intense secret and undisclosable projects.

So, yeah, blog, I'm sorry I haven't been here for you.

See I brought roses... and maybe this picture will cheer you up...

Every Dragon Needs a Keytar