June 2023: Stoked
"We must all die at the end for this to be a true horror conference." - Werner Herzog, probably.
I’ll jump into the June recap (and there’s lots to talk about), but before I do, I think we all should take a moment and LOOK AT THIS FACE!
This is our ginger cat, Obie (short for Oberon). Known aliases: Dopey Obie, Mopey Obie, Boober, Uber Boober, Ginger Butt, and Gingerbread Man. He’s the most laid back of our fur babies and probably the sweetest. And he’s also the one most of you haven’t seen before, because he’s somewhat timid.
That’s changed in the last couple of months, though. Erica bought one of those cardboard kitty houses (Obie’s is designed to look like a sushi shop) and placed it in our living room. Obie promptly moved in, and since we spend our free time in that room, he’s become so much more social—and vocal.
Seriously, this cat has so many opinions, folks. If we’re out too late, we’re going to hear about it from him. Too late for feedings? It goes on our permanent record. He’s a bit of a hard ass, but we love him anyway. And he growls at the postal workers.
Anyway. Hi, I’m Todd Keisling, and this is Messages from the Southland, my (mostly) monthly newsletter. Prior issues can be found here. Comments are turned on, so you’re welcome to drop me a line if you want. I like hearing from you.
That’s a wrap on June. And what a month! Lots to recap here, mostly about StokerCon, but before I jump into that, I want to give a shout-out to Marie Lestrange and her podcast, Moths to the Flame.
It’s a TODDCAST!
I was a guest earlier in June, and I had an absolutely wonderful time chatting with her. Frankly, I haven’t had this much fun on a podcast (pardon—a TODDCAST!) in a while. If you’ve got an hour to kill, I suggest you check it out. The full episode just became available a few days ago.
StokerCon 2023
What a weekend. Many have already spoken more at length about the conference, so I won’t recap the entire weekend (I’d need more time and about 10k words). However, I will say that Erica and I had a wonderful time in Pittsburgh. It was my first time in the city and I loved it. Great food, great people. Not so great parking and traffic, but that’s any city, really. It’s Romero Country and everyone fully embraces the area’s horror pedigree.
For example, the University of Pittsburgh Library has a dedicated archive to the genre across a variety of mediums. Scripts, various archival collections from a number of authors, movie props, you name it. Erica and I couldn’t make it early enough to take the tour, but based on the photos, it appears to be an extensive collection. Maybe some day my work will end up there. I hope so.
As with Horror On Main, this con was a stop on my Summer of Dread tour. I met a lot of friends in person for the first time, made new friends and acquaintances, and hung out with some old pals of mine. I signed a lot of books, spoke on some panels, and even wore a tie to the awards ceremony.
Some highlights, in no particular order:
Watching Rob Ottone win the Bram Stoker Award for his young adult novel The Triangle. I can’t properly express how fucking proud of I am of him. He’s come so far in such a short time, and I’m honored to call him a brother. Be sure to check out his recap of the conference.
Watching my sister Cynthia Pelayo become the first Puerto Rican author to win a Bram Stoker Award for her poetry collection Crime Scene. I’m pretty sure we all cried during her acceptance speech. So proud.
Hearing from everyone throughout the weekend about how much they loved my design of this year’s souvenir anthology. It’s always a ton of work, but hearing your reactions made it all worth it.
Finally meeting Joe Lansdale and expressing my love for his novel The Bottoms. That’s one from the bucket list.
Hanging out and chatting with John Langan, Michael Cisco, and Wile E. Young throughout the weekend. Listening to these guys banter back and forth caused me to laugh so much my abs hurt.
Chatting with Aaron Dries about what we want out of our careers in the hotel lobby at 3AM.
Cisco’s impression of Werner Herzog. Give this guy a fucking Academy Award.
Watching Philip Fracassi drink Ronald Malfi under the table.
Patrick Freivald’s Habanero Honey Whisky.
Delivering one of Brian Keene’s pens to Brian Matthews. May it serve you well, sir.
Chatting with Cherry Weiner about Harlan Ellison and James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon).
Keene, I guess.1
Hanging out with Jessica McHugh, Gemma Amor, C.W. Briar, and Patrick Freivald in the hotel lobby.
Getting to dress up and goth out for the awards ceremony. Erica and I looked fucking fabulous.
There’s so much more, but my brain is (still) mush. Suffice it to say, the con was a great time. It’s happening next year in San Diego, and while I can’t fully commit at this time, I’m certainly going to try to be there.
Now, there is one other moment from the con I want to mention, and it deserves its own section, so…
Agent Becky
This was announced last week on social media, but the TL;DR news here is that I’m now represented by Becky LeJeune of Bond Literary Agency!
How’d this happen? Well, as some of you know, I parted ways with my former agent at the beginning of the year. It was scary and frustrating to think I’d be starting over. But at the same time, I knew it was the right move, and so I began the process of querying.2
Fast forward to the week of StokerCon. I went around to various authors’ websites and profiles to curate a list of their agents. My reasoning was, if these agents could sell their work, they could also sell mine. At some point, I followed Becky, and she followed me back.
A few days later at the conference, our mutual friend Dacia Arnold introduced us. (Thank you, Dacia!) I mentioned I was in the market for a new agent, and we ended up chatting for about an hour about my career, my next book, what I’m looking for, and so on. I gave her my last ARC of Cold, Black & Infinite, and she later bought a copy of Devil’s Creek. When I returned from the conference, I sent her the latest draft of The Sundowner’s Dance.
And then she sent me a formal offer.
Normally, this part can take weeks or months, but Becky was enthusiastic about my work. She’d been reading from the new collection each night of the con. Apparently, one of the stories gave her nightmares. That’s always a good sign.
Sundown
Which leads me to The Sundowner’s Dance. Becky gave me notes and suggestions on ways to improve some of the character development, so I expect I’ll be working on that for the next few weeks.
I still haven’t made up my mind on the title, but I think it’ll remain in place for now (or until I can think of something better).
This book is a weird one for me. It wasn’t supposed to be a novel, for starters. Me and Chad Lutzke tried co-writing something based on an earlier unfinished draft that would’ve gone in a different direction, but I lost steam before things really got started.
When I decided to give it another try, I went back to the original draft and started over. First, a novelette, and then a novella, and now it’s this weird meditation on dementia and growing old and worms. Pitched as Cocoon x The Color Out of Space. Cosmic horror with heart, I guess, with elderly protagonists.
Anyway, that’s what I’ll be working on for most (if not all) of July. Work on Revelation Road will resume when TSD is done.
We are the Monsters
Going back to the StokerCon anthology for a minute. Everyone at the con loved the artwork I created for the book, and many requested prints. If you’re one of those folks, you can purchase a print (or several) from my online shop. It’s a collage of horror creators past, present, and future, available in 12x16 and 18x24.
Printful wouldn’t allow me to have this printed on the back, so here’s a full roster of names to go with those faces.
As an aside, we just got hit with a pricy mechanic’s bill yesterday, so any and all sales are greatly appreciated!
Currently…
Reading:
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer
Even the Worm will Turn by Hailey Piper
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Watching:
The Dark Night of the Scarecrow - Shudder
Evil Dead Rise - HBO Max (I refuse to call it just “Max”)
Horror in the High Desert - Amazon Prime (Parts 1 & 2)
Elon Musk slowly destroy a valuable social platform - Twitter
Playing:
Amnesia: The Bunker (PC)
Diablo IV (Xbox)
Bramble (Xbox)
Listening:
Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden
The Sundowner’s Dance Playlist
Revelation Road Playlist
Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman…
In Closing
Substack tells me I’m near some kind of limit, so I guess I should shut up. There are two stops on the Summer of Dread in July: Steel City Screams on July 15th, and NECON on July 20-23. More details here.
Be good to each other. See you next time!
TK
Actually, to his credit, he did a great thing in the vendor room by auctioning off Jay Wilburn’s collection of Keene’s novels. And we had this tender moment with Brian’s pens.
For the non-writers here, the “find an agent” stage of a writer’s career can be grueling, sometimes spanning years. It’s probably the least “fun” part of the gig. Well, next to marketing your book.
Awesome!!
Congrats again!