It’s a few days after CreepyCon as I write this, maybe longer as you read it depending on when I hit that publish button. This was their tenth year as a Knoxville institution and our longest running horror con. I’ve been vending books there for half of those ten years, only missing last year because I did Books and Brews 2.0 on the same weekend. I’ve seen CreepyCon grow. I’ve watched it grow out of the original venue and into the convention center. I’ve seen it go from a handful of cosplayers to more than I could count if I tried. I’ve seen special guests who were mostly supporting actors in horror sequels to a loaded program such as this year with names like Bill Moseley, Michael Berryman, Kane Hodder, and GWAR.
CreepyCon is Knoxville’s largest horror themed event each and every year and it just seems to get better and better. As a vendor, this was my best year. I don’t have any pictures because I always forget things like pictures, but it was a lot of fun. You’ll just have to take my word for it if you haven’t seen pictures on social media. Weekend shows are typically slow on Friday and Sunday, but this one was busy everyday, more so than any other year I’ve vended there. As a book slinger, you see a lot of people walk by the table, wary of making eye contact, as if books are poison. That’s just the way it goes, unfortunately. With the heavy draw of horror movie fandom, it’s a good thing a lot of those people enjoy reading too. I will continue to do this event every year so long as I have the weekend open. Here’s to another ten years of CreepyCon, Knoxville!
Grab a Devil’s Reign eBook from Godless, message me a screenshot showing you bought the book, and you’re entered to win these three anthologies--I have a story in each and I’ll sign them! This contest is worldwide!!! I’ll choose winners sometime next week.
Very few people typically enter these types of giveaways—and very few have entered this one—so don’t sleep on this!
Fresh off a successful tour, heavy metal band Devil’s Reign celebrates with a private party in an old movie theater with plenty of booze, drugs, and mischief. The album went gold, their fans love them, the future is bright . . . and yet there is division.
In this story that’s Demons meets Mark of the Devil, read about a band that faces their inner demons for a wild night those who survive will never forget!
I can’t always remember where the idea for a story germinates. Sometimes it’s very clear and stays with me; other times it becomes vague and lost in the flow of creativity required to weave said story. Back Alley Baby Fights, as I think about its origins, is one of those stories that just sort of came to be. That might be because it is a sequel. I’m not entirely sure. You see, I never intended there to be a sequel to Baby Fights, but I left a tiny little opening. You know, just in case. I do this with most of the books I write, though I never end up pursuing one of those little threads left hanging from the fabric of the story. I am not a fan of sequels merely because something was popular or did well financially. That’s why we have a glut of shitty horror movie sequels and series that have nothing to offer after the first movie.
I have a clear remembrance of how the idea for Baby Fights came along and I’ve mentioned it many times in interviews and social media. As for Back Alley Baby Fights . . . it started with a scene. The opening scene. With the idea of starting the baby fight ring over again from the ground up. From there I thought about the characters from the first book and where they might be a year later, how they would have been transformed from what they went through in the book. As the story took shape, a larger arc came into my mental view and I saw clearly that this was going to be a trilogy. And oh boy, what I have in store for the final book. The ending of Back Alley Baby Fights is a bit of a shocker. The arc might be something readers did not see coming. I certainly hope so.
With that said, I am offering Baby Fights for free. If you check it out, I would certainly appreciate a review, but more so I would encourage you to check out Back Alley Baby Fights to see where this crazy trilogy is going.
The weekend of August 14 & 15 I will be at ShiverCon, Indiana. This is the first year of this event and it’s gearing up to be a damn good time! There are a few panels on Friday as well as opportunities to mingle with the authors, and then Saturday is the big day of slinging books and signing them and all that jazz. Below is more information. I hope to see you there!
That’s all for this edition of the newsletter. I’m thinking of changing the name. Maybe just calling it Robert Essig’s Delusional Newsletter. Who knows. Just typing out loud as I end this thing.
Don’t forget to sit back and read some killer horror.
I really liked the distinction between state and story. It's a simple idea, but it explains why the same situation can feel completely different on different days. Have you found one practice that helps people shift their state most reliably before they get caught in the story?