Shock Stock 2017 & ChiSeries Windsor

About a month ago, I (along with super pal, Ben Van Dongen) was invited to attend the 2017 Shock Stock event in London, ON. Basically a love letter to horror (with a big emphasise on film, hence the name), Shock Stock is my kind of event.

For three days, the freaks and ghouls descended on the Ramada Inn. There were horror movie icons, various artists, fresh coffee and even a few porn stars to keep everybody in line. Needless to say, fun was had by all (except for the comedian who pissed off the porn stars with one of his jokes and got thrown out. He probably did not have fun).

The highlight of the event for me was, like always, meeting people. Lots of cool folks! Also, extra big bonus, our table was right next to the Miss Shock Stock table (shout out to eventual winner, Aly Goo)!!

Normally, I would have only a few crumby cell phone pics to show, but thankfully, one of those cool new friends I made happens to be Allison Knight (she’s a filmmaker, check out her IMDB) and she was snapping pictures with a real camera all weekend. Even better, Allison said I could share them (thanks Allison!), so enjoy.

On to ChiSeries Windsor!

Back in Feb. of this year, Ben and I were invited to do a reading at an event called the ChiSeries. It was in Toronto and was a ton of fun. Anyways, long story short, the organizers asked Ben and I if we wanted to start hosting the Windsor edition of the series. We of course said yes and here we are.

For the kickoff show (a couple weeks ago), we had three great writers lined up. First was bestselling horror author and all around cool dude, Craig Davidson (AKA Nick Cutter). I first met Craig a couple years ago when he stopped in Windsor for a book tour. His books include The Troop, The Deep, Little Heaven and my personal fav, The Acolyte.

Next up, another best seller, we had Michael Rowe. This fine gentleman bought me a beer when I was in Toronto for the Feb. reading. As you all probably know by now, the best way to become my friend is through alcohol! His books include Enter, Night, and the creepy ghost story Wildfell.

Last but certainly not least, we had local writer and publisher, Justine Alley Dowsett. Justine owns Mirror World Publishing (of which Adventure Worlds Press in an imprint of) and has a slew of books she’s written. Her titles include Unintended, Uncharted, Mirror’s Heart series and Neo Central.

In between each reader, we had music from Brendan Scott Friel. Brendan made a bunch of new fans that night. He’s no joke, that guy is talented! Check out his Spotify page.

As an extra cool bonus, the ChiSeries head honchos, Sandra Kasturi and Brett Savory came down for the event. Sandra even delivered a great introduction for Ben and myself.

The next reading will be at the end of August. But for now, here are some pics of that awesome night.

-C

New Year, New Updates.

So…2015 happened. It was a pretty crazy year for me. The first full year as an author (The Space Between Houses came out in Oct. 2014). There was a rather surprising amount of ups and downs for a twelve month period. I did a lot of cool writer things, but also was not nearly as productive as I could have been.

But forget all that jazz, it’s 2016 baby! And I got some fun stuff planned.

It’s been awhile since I gave an update on my projects, so now seems like a great time.

First and foremost is No Light Tomorrow. This is a book that has been in the works for quite some time. It is a collaboration with Ben Van Dongen (check him out here: https://benwltp.wordpress.com/ ) of short sci-fi stories, half of which are written by me, half by Ben. They are more Twilight Zone and less Star Wars (although a couple skirt that line). No Light Cover

I love sci-fi! I love watching it, reading it and writing it. But not to fret, I’m a horror writer first and foremost…I just like to moonlight from time to time.

I’m really proud of this book. Some of the stories I’ve written for it, I consider amongst the best I’ve ever produced. It was a ton of work though. Writing, editing, designing and printing a book from scratch is a real challenge. We decided to self-publish this one under Adventure Worlds Press. Something I may use for other fringe projects in the future. 

No Light Tomorrow launches on Jan. 9th and will be available soon after on various platforms.

untitledNext is my novel. It does exist, I swear! It also has a name, I’m just not ready to share it yet (although I did let it slip during an interview I did for a TV show called the Write Stuff). The novel took a hit during the production of No Light, but with that book all wrapped up, I’m back at it. I figure the first draft should be done by mid to late Feb. After that I’ll start cleaning it up. I’m still estimating it to fall in the 70 – 80K range for word count (I’m at about 30K right now).

I’ve had the good fortune to make a couple amazing contacts over the last year that I am really hopeful will result in some interest for the book. Only time will tell I guess.

Beyond that things get foggy. If all goes according to plan, I have another collaboration (this one a novel) with a history expert. Let that bit of info sink in for a moment… 

Besides the above projects, I also have some fun events to attend, including a 3 day horror convention in London in May. Really excited about this one, more on that as the date nears.

Alright, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll be back next week with pictures from the No Light Tomorrow launch party!

-Christian