Next month, I’ll be returning to Portland, OR to attend the 2014 World Horror Convention. In addition to hitting the fun stuff like the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet, the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast, and the ever-present BarCon, I’m participating in a handful of panels and even doing a Friday afternoon reading (odds are pretty good I’ll be reading “Folie a Deux,” from the latest issue of Strange Aeons Magazine, but I also take requests). And as per usual at conventions, if you’re interested in pitching me your killer idea in an elevator or the bar, I’m there to listen. But make it good.
Here’s my schedule…
Thursday, May 8
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ross/Morrison
Panel: What Editors Want
(Paula Guran, Don D’Auria, Jeff Burk, Nick Mamatas, Ross Lockhart )
Professional editors offer their insights on their side of the publishing market: what sells, what grabs an audience, and what often crashes with the best of intentions.
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Ross/Morrison
Panel: Writing Characters That Come To Life On The Page
(Lisa Manetti, Kelli Owen, Jane Brooks, John Urbancik, Ross Lockhart)
How does a writer catch the most memorable aspects of themselves and others and weave them into a character readers can’t forget? Pro tips on breathing life into Pandora.
Friday, May 9
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Sellwood
Panel: That Is Not Dead – H. P. Lovecraft’s Contributions To Modern Horror
(S.T. Joshi, W.H. Pugmire, Cody Goodfellow, Nick Mamatas, Ross Lockhart, Ellen Datlow)
Six of the Lovecraft Circle’s brightest lights explain the renaissance going on in the Cosmic Horror subgenre today, from ‘True Detective’ back to the Providence Spook’s own literary and anthropological influences.
1:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Hawthorne
Reading: Ross Lockhart
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Willamette Foyer
Mass Autograph Signing (I’ll have a few copies of my books on hand to sell.)
Saturday, May 10
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Sellwood
Panel: Starving In Style: Surviving As A Small Press
(Cameron Pierce, Chris Morey, Steven Booth, Ross Lockhart, Loren Rhoads, Kate Jonez)
With the massive changes taking place in publishing today, the role of the small press has become larger and more of a game-changer. Warriors of the small press explain the best ways to survive in the trenches as an independent publisher.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Ross/Morrison
Panel: How To Put Together A Great Anthology
(Paula Guran, Ellen Datlow, Nick Mamatas, Ross Lockhart, Jennifer Brozek, R.J. Cavender )
Professional anthologists discuss the ways that the multi-headed anthology beast survives its infancy and becomes remembered.