StokerCon was fantastic!  Highly recommended.  I’ve long thought that horror writers are, if you’ll forgive a generalization, some of the nicest people you could hope to meet.  Throughout the convention, there was a real sense of friendliness, supportiveness, camaraderie, whether it was a brief interaction in the hotel elevator or the rapport among panelists.  I think it may have something to do with the fact that we get a lot of our darkness out on the page (I’ve heard that mystery writers are, typically, also lovely people). 

Thursday evening included a poetry open mic hosted by Linda D. Addison, and it knocked my socks off.  Then I ventured to the inaugural StokerConcert, offsite at The Casbah, where I discovered that I really enjoy dungeon synth (makes sense, given the genre has some serious video game vibes).  Thanks to Nate Carson of Nanotear Booking for making that event happen. 

Friday kicked off early for me with a reading alongside John Langan, Erika T. Wurth, and P.M. Raymond.  The fabulous Laura Blackwell organized a fun lunch meetup.  I sat next to Rachel Unger, and we discovered we both have stories coming out in On Spec Magazine (not the same issue, sadly, but that just means you’ll have to check out both when the time comes).  I also enjoyed running into my friend Richard Leis at various panels, as we had interest in a lot of the same topics. 

Saturday afternoon was my panel “Ancestry as Source: Writing with Deep Authenticity.”  Somehow I’d forgotten it was going to be livestreamed, but I guess that means I had less time to freak out about it.  L. E. Daniels was our wonderful moderator, and the panel included Douglas Gwilym (one of the editors who gave me my second ever story sale, 7 years ago!), Kristy Park Kulski / K.P. Kulski, Rhonda Jackson Garcia / RJ Joseph, Shane Hawk, and Geneve Flynn.  I’m not going to lie, it’s tough for me to be that open and vulnerable about family history to a public audience.  I’m a very private person.  (Have you noticed I don’t do social media?  And that I like to add layers of fictionalization and speculative genre onto anything personal that makes its way into my writing?)  Anyway, this felt like a really important topic, so ultimately I was happy to get out of my comfort zone and be part of the conversation.