Congratulations! If you are reading this, it means that you survived the first month of 2026. Only 5,492 to go!

As I mentioned in last week’s post, February is a busy month for us here. Last weekend I spent three days at ConFusion (see below). That means that one convention is done, and I’ve got three more to go before I have a weekend off.

As some of you may have seen online, there was some difficulty at a local (to us) horror convention this weekend. I’m not going to name names, mostly to avoid any inadvertent promotion for the people involved. Basically, the show runner overbooked to the tune of 30 - 100 vendors. Anyone who hadn’t set up on Friday was turned away when they came in to set up on Saturday. The Fire Marshal and local police ended up being called.

I’ve done that show in the past. The first year I paid extra for an end-cap/corner space. I set up Friday night and came in Saturday (the day of the show) to find that three additional tables had been added and I was now in the middle of the row. After similar difficulties last year I decided that the potential profits were not worth the headaches involved with it, as did many of my vendor friends.

Listening To: The Police. I’ve had them on shuffle for most of the week.

Currently Reading: Zombie Bake Off by Stephen Graham Jones. It’s one of the few books by him that I haven’t already read AND I already owned it. I finished the amazing The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own by the equally amazing Gwendolyn Kiste a few days ago. Look for a review soon.

Current Obsession: We started watching Beauty on Hulu. Woah, trippy stuff.

From the No Rest for the Wicked Files: With ConFusion in the rear view, we are focusing on our trip to Akron for Akronomicon this Saturday. In addition to the Dragon’s Roost Press booth, be sure to check out Peggy Christie, Sarah Hans, and featured guest David C. Hayes.

Join us at the Historic Howell Theatre on the 21st for Gator Bait, part of the Midnight Creature Feature Picture Show series.

Then it is off to Pittsburgh for Horror Realm!

Attending conventions can be very weird for me, both physically and mentally. I should note that in this case I am using the term “convention” to refer to those where I attend and speak at panels, not just those where I spend the whole time in the Vendors’ Room, but what I will be discussing can apply there as well.

Over the past few years, my life has definitely leaned more towards the monastic—in the sense that I try to limit my time outside of my house as much as possible. Part of this is a simple Post-Pandemic desire to avoid large groups of people. However, I can’t say that I was any more social in the Before Times. It has simply become a little more acceptable among the general populous (or at least portions of the general populous). Let’s face it, I am by no means an extrovert.

Which is how I end up with this odd, opposite after-effect. On the one hand, it is great to be around like minded (or in the case of last weekend, geek-minded) people. Associating with those who dedicate at least a portion of their lives to creativity and those who appreciate that creativity definitely recharges my muse. On the other hand, spending the weekend surrounded by people is physically exhausting. I spent the bulk of Monday in a semi-vegetative state unable to do much more than wash the dishes and listen to podcasters read AITA posts from Reddit.

I was sitting at a table during one of my breaks at Con trying to puzzle this out in a journal I had brought with me. I came up with the example of a solar powered electric car which recharged its batteries as it drove. Then I realized that might just be what the alternator does in a gasoline powered car. I don’t know. I’m kind of a failure as an American male in terms of automobiles.

On the gripping hand, I had a great time at ConFusion.

You all know that I had a ton of programming scheduled. I also had a bunch of panels that I wanted to attend. Some of the real stand outs, in terms of panels that I was on included Don’t Call It A Comeback (the vampire panel) and the discussion of the movie Sinners. I lump these two together as there was a little bit of natural overlap. The Sinners panel had some of the best audience participation of any panel I have ever been on. It was so cool to see the panelists react to what someone else had said, the lightbulb popping on over their heads. “I hadn’t thought about it like that, but now that you say that, I can see that this…”

Another great panel was the one on Fannish Hobbies. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people who write/draw/create music are also the same people who do needlecraft, brew, bake, woodwork, etc.

My two best contributions, at least in my own opinion were the cautions against Welcome mats at the Vampire and Sinners panels and my first comment on the Building Community in the Writing World. I complimented everyone in the audience for coming to a convention, for attending a panel on Sunday morning, then told them to introduce themselves to their neighbors like passing the peace at church.

I took a lot of notes at the panels at the Voynich Manuscript and UAP (Unidentified Arial Phenomena) panels which will probably end up being used in manuscripts.

If you are local to southern Michigan, I highly recommend attending ConFusion. I also recommend Penguicon which is similar and coming up in a few months.