KillerCon V

KillerCon is a special place. Christopher Rice nailed it when he told the crowd he liked it because there weren’t any awards. Ellen Datlow remarked it was one of her favorites because it was small and intimate. For me? KillerCon is a catalyst on many levels. It’s inspiring being around so many folks who’ve become close friends. On the flip side, Vegas brings out a lot of bittersweet memories.

How can I forget those who have passed? A few years ago, my life in shambles from a brutal divorce, my dear friend Michael Louis Calvillo pulled me in to a hall, sat me down, and filled me with positivity and joy. Whenever I see those weird geometric carpets, I’m taken right back to that moment. Just inside, Adam Niswander and his wife were holding an insanely crowded party. I can still taste the moonshine he offered me, and those weird meatballs. Both men were so wonderful. I’ll always miss them.

Speaking of that pesky divorce, it’s still knocking me on my butt financially. Without the kindness of PS Gifford, Roy Robbins, Christopher Boyle and Steven Booth, there’d have been no me at the convention this year. Here’s to next year, and my helping them in return. Wrath James Wright always puts on one hell of a show each year. Nods to him and the great team: Bailey Hunter, Mason Bundschuh, Matt Czarnowski, Misty Dahl, Rena Mason, Stacy Scranton-Morgan, Mercedes M. Yardley, and RJ Cavender.

We made great time getting to the convention from Los Angeles. When we were in the Mojave, traffic slowed and there was an ominous black plume of smoke ahead. When we finally passed, we saw a boat had been set on fire. It was destroyed. The car towing it? Fine. My imagination went into full swing. Had to have been some kind of contraband they torched when the cops pulled them over. Who the hell brings a boat to the Mojave?

Boat on fire!

The first person I ran into was the very talented Q. She was busy writing on the casino floor, having found a spot near a big screen TV where she simultaneously watched the game and worked.

There were groups that crawled the strip and went to the Goreatorium, but I passed on those and met up with some old friends. Found Michael Bailey and we wandered the casino floor and the shops. There was an arcade with a four person Pac Man machine. We vowed to grab people and return, but we never made it. Soon, though, we ran into other people. It didn’t take long for the first party to start, where most folks made appearances. Somehow, I was up until about 2:30am. It’s real easy to get talking to people and find time gone. I camped out on Roy’s floor, my mind racing all night long. So exciting to be around so many great creative people.

Friday

After the welcome to the Guests Of Honor (Christopher Rice, Ellen Datlow, David J. Schow and John Shirley), the ever charming Ellen Datlow had a Q & A session. I found it very inspiring to see how passionate and excited she remains for publishing. For those aspiring to get into one of her books? She gave us the secret: write something fantastic. Easy, right?

Mike McCarty reading

There were a few readings. Mercedes Yardley rocked it, but teased us with a selection from a book she didn’t have any copies to sell. Ahh! Well, it was worth the preview. “

The Dialogue panel helped tremendously. Headed by John Skipp, Tom Monteleone, Monica O’Rourke and Michael Arnzen, there were many nuggets of wisdom. “Dialogue is like real talking, only with the boring parts taken out,” “Don’t have people using the other person’s name in facing dialogue” were two examples.

Pretty sure George Lucas’s head would’ve exploded like the Death Star if he’d been there.

John Skipp’s workshop, “The Choreography of Violence” rocked. When someone asked me why I’d go, being a published author and such, I told them there’s always stuff to learn, and even if it’s nothing new to me, it’s a chance to reaffirm and remember things. I did learn some great tips. My action scenes have always been kind of fuzzy to me, so I consider it time very well spent. I love these workshops.

The Erotic Horror Short Fiction Contest

Okay. So this was strangely lightly attended, with only Christopher Boyle having something prepped. I decided to write something on the spot in five minutes. Turns out it was likely one of the worst things I’ve written since second grade. But big kudos to Bailey Hunter for improvising live, and actually coming up with a real story off the top of her head. Christopher took top prize with Bailey and Edmund Collen rounding it out.

Later on, we all went to the Samhain Press party. Again, found myself out late. Had a great conversation with Mark Ciccarone and Joe Spagnola about heavy metal. Very fun and spirited. Was lucky that Christopher Boyle let me crash on his spare bed. We had some great talks about Bizarro fiction, its merits and intricacies. Chris has been at every KillerCon, volunteering and making things run smoothly. And he’s developed into an excellent writer.

Saturday

Pitch Sessions. Found myself pitching to the wonderful Sarah Peed. We had a great conversation about the state of publishing, and she had some fantastic advice for me. Moving over to Jeff from Deadite, they have a novel system where they work backward from title, to pitch, to outline, to writing the book. I wasn’t expecting to pitch anything, but I did have an idea, which he seemed interested enough in to go to the next level. Although my title absolutely sucked, which we both laughed about, we figured that’s a relatively easy change.

Christopher Rice premiered his new book at KillerCon, which was an massive honor. He read a section about horse’s head caving in that was gruesome and poetic. He followed with a Q & A and told us it’d been his first true supernatural book, and that he planned on writing more. We were the first ones to be able to buy copies. Chris was approachable, funny, and always had time for every one. What a class act. He’s probably made a few dozen fans for life.

John Palisano and Christopher Rice

Christopher Rice

Later, Mike Arnzen treated us to some hilarious poems. My favorite were his Lovecraft inspired titles for X-rated movies.

Made it away from the casino on a road trip to Fremont Street. Mercedes drove us in her massive truck. Misty Dahl, Sarah Peed, Matt Czarnowski, Mason Bundschuh and Michael Bailey walked through what I think was called the Main Street Casino, which was gorgeous.

For me, seeing the Golden Gate Casino brought back a flood of memories. I hadn’t been since shooting the feature film, “The Devil’s Hand” – and it was so damn vivid. I heard voices. I even remembered a taste of wine my ex-wife had given me. The casino smelled the same inside. So trippy. I looked around to my new cast of friends and was so grateful for each of them. Life sure is strange, and things certainly have not turned out the way I thought. But somehow? Better.

Near the end of Fremont Street, we watched an amazing cello duo performing. Only, it wasn’t classical. They were plugged into guitar amps and were doing spot-on versions of “Enter Sandman” and “One” from Metallica. Every nuance of the guitar solos got nailed. We kept looking at each other in awe. We had to get back, and damn it, did they just start playing freaking, “Master Of Puppets”?

Mason, Merceds, Elmo

Dueling Metallica cellos

Fremont Street Noir Crew

The Gross Out Contest 

This terrified me. My first gross out was in Toronto. I remember being just frozen seeing these people perform their stories. How could I ever do such a thing? I can’t!

I had an idea for a story in May and wrote it out. It took me months to look at it again. When KillerCon got close, I printed it out and hid it in my luggage. Just in case. When I pitched to Jeff, I asked if there were any more openings. I hoped he was going to say no. I tried to back out, but he wouldn’t let me. Damn it.

What if Ellen Datlow hears this thing? She’ll never talk to me. Roy will burn all the copies of my books. Sarah Peed will block me from submitting. John Shirley would use his Shadow powers and lock me away. What had I done? What if the crowd hates it? What if my humor is too weird? What if they boo me? How could I take such devastation?

Although I can’t put the title here without risking losing my WordPress, I can tell you it involved Obama in a very compromised position.

Man, it was brutal. Q was up first, and knocked it out of the park. Damn it. She was hilarious. She worked the crowd. She walked around and acted things out. Suddenly there was something pressing in the lobby, and, sorry everyone, Jp’s missing. But I stuck around.

So many other people came up. Christine Morgan. Edmund. Christopher Boyle. No one was getting booted. Oh, man. Can’t I just go up there and get this over with. Nope. I was last in line.

I took a deep breath and gave it my all. For the first 30 seconds I was terrified. Then there were a few chuckles. Okay. I can get through this. When I heard more laughter, I kept going. But, shoot, aren’t they supposed to stop me after two minutes? What’s going on? I got into it, using every ounce I had from my acting school time at Emerson.

Jeff yelled, “time” and I still had a page and a half to go. Oh, no! But the crowd cheered to go on, and I made it through.

The judges returned after what felt like 45 minutes. The final tally had come in.

Q took first! Not surprised at all. Edmund Collen took second place.

Miraculously, the tens and twenties I’d secretly given to the judges helped. My Gross Out placed third. What the heck? How’d that happen. Not quit sure, but a big surprise.  Check out the prize package, expertly curated by Jeff.

Finally? Time to relax a bit. I’ll never forget looking up at some unGodly hour to see a bunch of horror authors being led by Mercedes (now dressed like she was going to a 50s prom. What the heck?) as they were all making peanut butter cups. Wild seeing Mike McCarty scooping peanut butter with tongs. But that’s KillerCon in a (pea)nut shell for you.

The final panel, “How To Kill” was awesome. Al Carlisle, who has interviewed Ted Bundy several times, filled us in on the mind of real serial killers. It was awesome watching veterans like Skipp, Schow and Shirley pick his brain.

The con came to a close, but not before a screening of Edward Lee’s “The Bighead” movie, directed by Michael Ling. Geoff Skinner, Ashley Totin, Lance, and Kate were also in attendance, who all stayed through the dead dog party.

BIGHEAD screening

Geoff Skinner and Mike Ling

Later that night, a small group of us stragglers made it to the top of the Stratoshpere. I hate heights, and was not super-psyched. The shaking from the wind made it feel like you were having a non-stop earthquake. I was brave enough to watch people making the sky jump: bungy-ing from the side. They have a plexiglass wall so you can safely watch people defy death and give themselves heart attacks. Thankfully, we retreated to some seats, shared a round, and then called it a night.

Skyjump

Skyjump

Panorama

Our group

Testing the panorama

Wicked panorma at the top

I ran into Edward Lee, Lance, and Michael Ling at the slots, where we talked about concerts and gambling and Vegas. Then, it was all over.

We were on our way back, and that weird science fiction like Sun Farm intrigued me. I picked up some flyers on the way. Places like, “Bullets and Burgers” and “The Atomic Testing Museum” are just so…unique.

And it was a race. My day was far from over. I had tickets to see a free show from Paul McCartney on Hollywood Boulevard. Me and Fawn barely made it, but made it we did (thanks, Paul!), enjoying much more than the promised 2-3 songs they’d told us. Sir Paul played for over an hour, hitting most the songs I’d wish for. “Ob-La-Di” indeed.

Until next year, adios amigos!

Here’s some more shots for y’all.

Tom Monteleone and Gene O’Neill

Edward Lee, Michael Ling and Lance T.

Eric Guignard

Mike Arnzen

Robert Essig

Rena Mason, RJ Cavender, Sarah Peed

Linda Larsen and John Mulhall

Samhain authors

Michael Rowe

RJ

Stacey Scranton shooting

Eric Guignard and Steven Booth

Getting the band back together, or, what went down at KillerCon IV in Las Vegas

Subject: Getting the band back together

To: mlcalvillo@yahoo.com

Hey, man.

How’s it going? Good, I hope.

Really missed you at KillerCon last week. I swear I kept seeing you out of the corner of my eye, talking to someone, or checking out books in the dealer’s room. Just my imagination.

Drove out with this really cool guy: Eric Miller. He’s a film guy, and we talked a lot about the industry, and selling scripts. He’s getting into fiction and just put out a cool anthology where his screenwriter and movie friends all wrote horror stories about Hollywood. Pretty fun stuff.

So glad I went out Thursday because the Samhain Publishing party was epic. There were so many people there. I think this was the biggest KillerCon yet. Word has got out, man.

One of the biggest surprises was seeing a group of young guys huddled in a corner against their new books.  Adam Cesare looks like ’78 era Springsteen: with an axe behind his back. You know how cool it is to see another young generation of writers like that? For a while it was feeling like we were it. Glad we are not.

Got to catch up with Bill Gagliani, Kelly Dunn, Stephen Woodworth, Laura Hickman, Mercedes Yardley, Shane McKenzie, William F. Nolan, Jack Ketchum, Bailey Hunter, Monica O’ Rourke, Rena Mason, Christie Parsley White, Roy Robbins from Bad Moon…like Bob Dylan once said, “There’s so many names dropping I’m gonna need a shovel.”

Friday was awesome. Got to see William F. Nolan and F. Paul Wilson read. Unforgettable writers. So good, and so inspiring. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon at Mignon Fogherty’s “Grammar Girl” workshop. It was so fun. Even seasoned writers were getting good tips from her. She’s great.

Later that night John Skipp played his and Cody Godfellow’s “Stay At Home Dad” short film. Absolutely perfect. We also got treated to a clip from his “Rose” feature film, and also a teaser for “The Long Last Call,” one of my favorite John Skipp books. They all look great.

After all that, it was such a bummer realizing my HD camera was missing. Pretty sure it got lifted a few days before the con. I was really looking forward to making another video. I shot some stuff on the iPhone, but nah, not good enough. Bummer. Lots of folks were shooting, though, so I’m sure something will appear.

We had a party from Shock Totem and I was stoked to finally see Mercedes M. Yardley’s book “Beautiful Sorrows” released. It looks and reads just beautiful.

Yup. We were up all night and some serious ‘stay in Vegas’ stuff was going down. Although, in this day and age, that’s not staying anywhere. Someone took a picture of me and announced proudly that it was going right up on Facebook via his phone. Kind of takes the fun out of things if you know someone’s prowling around like that, so those of us with certain predispositions found dark places to do even darker things, out of view of the Facebookers.  Heh. Heh.

Out at 3:00 and up at 8:00. Not a bad night’s sleep. Just in time for R.J. Cavender’s “Self Editing For Fiction Writers” lecture. That was pretty fun, and I learned a lot. Between his and Grammar Girl, there was a lot of great learning happening. Love that.

Our buddy Mike McCarty gave a neat workshop where he displayed his make-up skills, turning Liz from Bad Moon into something or other with lips on her forehead and things growing out of her cheeks. Jeff Burke was turned into a zombie. Awesome work. Carey Jones, who accompanied him, was groovy. I hadn’t seen him in ten years, back when he almost did the make-up on one of my movies. I got to sit next to Kelly Armstrong, who was really cool.

There were pitch sessions, which were cool. Caught up with Robert Fleck, which is always a pleasure, and met some really awesome new folks. Hopefully the work will keep getting out there.

Then there was you.

I debated all day if I should practice or not. Or eat. Or speak. Usually when I do a show I hibernate and meditate and keep it cool, so at showtime, I’ve got all my energy and focus. Couldn’t really do that at KillerCon. So I just enjoyed the day and tried not to think about it.

Gene O’ Neill read his touching piece from the I WILL RISE special edition. Man, that was melancholy hearing it out loud in front of a packed house. Thankfully there was enough of that good old Gene humor to balance it out.

Ben read his neat story, and said a few words. It’s funny because his and Brad’s stories are definitely their own, but absolutely would fit into your cannon of work.

You’re going to laugh, but I rapped! Thanks to Lisa Morton, who sent along something for me to rap, I had to rise up and figure it out. Jay-Z, look out! Here comes Jay-P! Pretty sure he’s fine with that.

Grabbed the acoustic and started strumming and the first thought looking out at the room was, “I can’t do this.” Michelle and Deja were there. Your sister. Brother in Law. Roy. Wrath. PS Gifford. Just everybody. This crowd actually meant something to me on a personal level, so getting through was tough. I shut my eyes, took a beath that felt like forever, reached down deep inside, channeled what I found, and gave it everything I had. It was a mix of a song I wrote for you, pieces from the story in the book, and some improve.

Once that was done, Ben asked if anyone wanted to say anything. Erik Williams got up and said a few things. Then Roy had some emotional words about the Bad Moon family and how crucial you were and how much he missed you. Before things got too bleak, Mike McCarty shared an absolutely hilarious story about collaborating with you. We were all grateful and we felt you in that room with us.

And then, somehow, I got signed up for the Creative Fiction contest. Barely remember it, as I was still so damn emotional from before. I was on auto-pilot.

Thank God the Gross Out contest happened. Those things crack me up like few things in this world. My stomach hurt. Jeremy Robert Johnson was hilarious. He roasted Brian Keene. “They say if you give 1,000 monkeys typewriters, and they type for a 100 years, one of them will write ‘The Tempest’. The rest of them will write Brian Keene novels.” Brian cracked up. Love him. Such a good sport. Speaking of which, always good talking to him, however briefly. Guy’s got a huge heart. And glad said heart is doing better.

Gard Goldsmith came in third, I think, and Christopher Boyle did a great job. So nice seeing those two rising . J.S. Reinhardt killed us all with his story, and a performance for the ages. So much talent walking that convention.

Got to meet and spend time with my mentoree Aaron J. French. Great fellow. Met with Don D’auria. Danielle Day and Stacey Turner from Angelic Press. Marc Ciccarone and Theresa Dillon from Blood Bound. Fran Friel! Such a delight getting to talk to her and meet her. Marc Scioneaux and his gorgeous wife from Nightscape. Joseph Spencer. Marie Green and her writing partner Ty. Michael Bailey! Finally got to spend some time with him after Borderlands. Chiral Mad has the best cover ever. Eric Guinard. Tyler Bates. Chuck Rios and Ben Ethridge. Gord Rollo, James Roy Daley and Mandy held down the Canadian side of things famously. Maurice Broaddus and I talked spirituality, which was a highlight. Jason and Sunni Brock. Kelly Laymon was a wonderful surprise. So nice getting to talk to her after all these years. She’s great. But like all cons, it was tough to have the long, sprawling conversations I’d like to have with everyone, so hopefully I’ll meet with some of these fine folks Off World.

See you soon, man. Keep on rockin’,

John