The 25th Delusion

STC AuthorCon II, Secret Basements, and DEADLINES!

It’s a week after AuthorCon II and I’m still processing everything. There’s always that hard slap to reality after a convention, especially a good one, that stings in the days following. I blew up my tractor mower just before going to AuthorCon II, I had to file and extension to do my taxes, one wall in my basement is starting to buckle in and needs an expensive repair, and while I was gone everything sort of went to hell at the ol’ day job. I’m good, my position remains the same, but a major shift always causes a lot of drama and shit talking and what not.

Reality, you sone of a bitch you!

Anyway, welcome to Confusions, Delusions, and Formidable Impressions.

News

Secret Basements is out on Godless and only $1.99, which is a dollar off of the regular price when it is released on Amazon in a week.

Jennifer, in recovery after her latest stint in rehab, is called out to care for Uncle Charlie, a man she has never met. It's a good opportunity to get away from the bad influences in Chicago, and even better it's a chance to prove to her family she's not the thieving addict they despise. Problem is, Uncle Charlie lives in Tennessee, and he's an odd duck. Caring after him is a chore, and the podunk town he lives in has many secrets in the many basements of too many abandoned houses.

The creepy church up the road, the woman in tatters who sneaks around dark basement enclosures, the toothless grins of deviant men who crave more than mere friendship. A family with secrets deeper than a hollow pit and bonded by blood. Can Jennifer manage her way through this test of her life? 

The cane raps on the porch handrail. Charlie sneers as he makes his demands. Is this life better than what Jennifer left behind? 

Broth House is on sale for just .99 cents, but only for a few more days. This was supposed to be an AuthorCon II sale for those who could not attend, but I completely forgot about it while at the convention. I didn’t do a whole lot on social media over the weekend.

Signed copies of all of my stock from AuthorCon II is available in my Big Cartel store at convention prices for one more week. This was initially a week-after sale, but I am extending it one more week for the newsletter. Several titles sold out such as Baby Fights and Death Obsessed, but there are plenty to choose from, and I do have Baby Fights on order (because I know you want to read about sicko yuppies paying to watch babies fight to the death).

Scares That Care AuthorCon II

Hands down, the best convention I have ever done. Sales were great, the atmosphere was amazing, the people were wonderful. It was overall just a great experience.

Being that most of the events I do are horror shows, the attendees aren’t all there for books, so I tend to get looked over or hear a lot of people tell me that they don’t read books. I do okay at those shows, but this was something else entirely. This event is solely for readers and writers, and that is a wonderful thing.

I was excited to meet so many writers I’ve known online for so long, and that was a real treat. I didn’t get to meet everyone, and didn’t get to chat as much as I would have liked, but that’s to be expected with such a big crowd. Especially since I had a table. You always have that feeling like you can’t leave your table, and the traffic flow was pretty good at the event.

On top of meeting writers, there were so many readers there that knew who I was. What the actual fuck? People came by with my name on a list, and titles of my books. People came by with copies of my books they wanted signed. People wanted my picture! What? Are you serious? Cooler yet was that I recognized so many of the readers from social media, namely the Books of Horror group. It was so cool to talk to the people who champion my books and review them and post about them.

There’s so much to say about the event, but I can’t put it all into words. At least not so condensed that you don’t skip ahead or move on to the next newsletter.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. I didn’t take a whole lot of photos, and a few of these were taken from elsewhere when they popped up on my social media feeds. Can you find Brian Keene?

Recent reads from Hell

I’m reading Reg E. Rat by Frank Edler. That one is a wild and wacky horror romp that brings me back to my childhood and the creepy animatronic band at Chuck E, Cheese’s. Last night I finished House of Pain by Sephera Giron. Very good. Gives off Rosemary’s Baby Vibes mixed with The Voice in the Basement by T. Chris Martindale and a dose of witchy Satanism. I just started listening to the audiobook of You’re Mine by Summer Cannon. It’s got me hooked from the beginning. I’m looking froward to seeing how the story progresses.

And I listened to the audiobook of . . .

Spotlight on Deadline by John Wayne Comunale

Another banger from John Wayne Comunale with Deadline. The story follows an audiobook narrator for hire who gets a new agent that puts rather extraneous deadlines on him. Man, I really wanted to talk to John Wayne about this book at AuthroCon II, but it just never happened. We said hi and chatted for a bit, but I never got around to asking him a few questions. Maybe at the next show (FrankenCon June 9 & 10 in Knoxville, TN—be there!). That being said, I loved the book. There’s this sense of paranoia, stress, and anxiety that is palpable as the narrator goes through trial after trial, his world falling down around him. I mean, we’ve probably all had deadlines at one time or another, and not just in writing. Deadlines at work. Deadlines for anything. That’s what makes the story so relatable. It’s easy to see yourself getting caught up in the madness!

Bravo, John Wayne! Great book. I’ll drop a link if you want to grab one. Or just find out where John Wayne is going to be next. He’s touring right now, so he might be at a convention near you.

In Closing

I write this a week after AuthorCon II. It was a great fun. It was a great experience. And I will most certainly be there next year for AuthorCon III. The past couple of months have been good to me, publishing wise. I hope things continue to move in an upward trajectory. I’m trying. I’m really fucking trying. No one ever said it was easy. And that’s a good thing, because I’d want to punch that someone in the mouth for spreading lies.

Read books you enjoy, don’t waste time on the ones you don’t enjoy, and then tell someone about them.

Until next time…