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25TH ANNUAL WORLD HORROR CONVENTION
AND
HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION
BRAM STOKER AWARDS® BANQUET
May 7-10, 2015
Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel
OFFICIAL POCKET PROGRAM
Programming Director—Anya Martin
Assistant Programming Director—Derek Tatum
YA Programming Director—Catherine Scully
Readings—Peter Salomon
Editor/Designer—Rick Pickman
Art—John Prescott & Greg Chapman
Copy Editors—Melanie Crew, Patrick Freivald
Programming Rooms
Dunwich—Main Programming
Sarnath—Panel Room #2
R’lyeh—The Business of Horror
Redhook—World Horror Con Film Festival
Innsmouth—Readings
Room 227—Kaffeeklatsches
The Turtle (Imperial Ballroom)—Costume Party, Pitch Sessions, Bram Stoker Awards Banquet
The Barrens—Opening & Artists Reception/Mass Author Signing
The Dreamlands—Art Show
Needful Things—Dealers Room
The Dreamlands—Dealers Room Overflow
Fangtasia—Con Suite
Bates Motel—HWA Suite
We are proud to welcome EAGLE EYE BOOKS as the official bookseller of the 25th Annual World Horror Convention. This popular Atlanta book store hosts numerous author events throughout the year, as well as providing support for many more. Writer David Fulmer selected Eagle Eye as his choice in My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read and Shop (2012).
Stop by Eagle Eye’s booth in the Dealers Room and pick up books by your favorite attending author to sign this weekend!
In addition to official programming keep an eye out for unofficial book launches and parties that may be promoted throughout the Convention, often on noticeboards near the Dealers Room and Convention Registration Desk.
The Seven Themes of WHC 2015 Programming
WEIRD SOUTH: Let’s dig deep into horror’s heritage in Southern Gothic literature, Southern writers today and Southern settings. Why does the South provide such a rich playground for authors and filmmakers exploring the darker side of humanity?
WORLD HORROR: Befitting the city that was the center of the Civil Rights Movement, we’ll take on diversity and an emerging global view of spec-lit and horror as it moves into the 21st century with a new generation of writers from different cultural backgrounds. How are these writers redefining what we consider horror both on American soil and abroad? How can the lens of a global perspective inform and push us to reassess our interpretation of works that have come before, and should it?
TERRIFYING TROPES/DEADLY DEFINITIONS: Classic monsters and themes will still get their due, but we’ll be looking for new angles to challenge and inspire, as well as exploring sub-genre definitions and cross-pollination with other genres. We really want to scratch under the surface and unsettle your expectations.
YA ROCKS: Young Adult lit is rocking right now. Panel topics focus on the latest trends, classic books and authors that are influencing today’s writers, fiction for different age groups, and why horror is so popular in YA right now.
WHC@25. We go back in time to 1991, the year that WHC was founded and remembering an exciting time in horror fiction. How did WHC get started? What were the first WHCs like? Who were the top authors, books, editors, publishers? And what were the hot horror topics?
WHC FILM: With the support of Atlanta’s own Buried Alive Film Festival (Nov 21-22, 2015) and the Tabloid Witch Film Festival, this year’s film program will spotlight some of the most exciting short and feature films created by Georgia and Southern filmmakers, as well as showcasing recent works by other attending professionals and exciting shorts from around the world.
SCAREBIZ: Panels will target a wide range of levels from beginning writers to seasoned professionals wanting the lowdown on how to maximize the latest developments in marketing and publishing.
THURSDAY, MAY 7
Noon-8 PM Registration—CENTRAL AREA
4-5:30 PM HWA Board Meeting (Private)
6-7 PM Opening Ceremonies— DUNWICH
World Horror Convention Toastmaster: Jonathan Maberry
Hosts: Brad C. Hodson and John Prescott (Convention Chairs) and Lisa Morton (President, HWA)
6-10 PM Art Show Open—THE DREAMLANDS
6-10 PM Dealers Room Open—NEEDFUL THINGS
7-8 PM Opening & Artists Reception—THE BARRENS & THE DREAMLANDS
8 PM-MIDNIGHT Con Suite—FANGTASIA
8-9 PM Panel: WHC@25: The State of Horror, 1991 —DUNWICH
Go back in time with our panelists to 1991, the year of the first WHC in Nashville, and remember an exciting time in horror fiction. Who were the top authors, books, editors, publishers? And what were the hot horror trends?
Moderator: Anya Martin. Panelists: Christopher Golden, Beth Gwinn, Yvonne Navarro, John Skipp
8-9 PM Panel: YA ROCKS: Teen Voice: Reaching The Teen Audience—SARNATH
Young Adult Horror is more popular than ever—but how do you write it? How do you capture the teen voice for teen audiences? Join us to discover how to reach current teen readers.
Moderator: Jeff Strand. Panelists: Courtney Alameda, Jake Bible, John Dixon, Alethea Kontis, Jonathan Maberry,
8-9 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Degrees of Dread: Horror Goes to College—R’LYEH
Want to learn how to improve your craft as a writer? Or study the literary and cinematic history of the genre? Maybe even teach terror? Colleges offer many opportunities you might not be aware of. Come learn about the benefits of going to school -- as well as some of the threats and pitfalls to avoid -- when studying horror in the hallowed halls of academia with those who have done it.
Moderator: Michael Arnzen. Panelists: Thomas Drago, Vic Kerry, Lucy A. Snyder, Tim Waggoner
8-9:30 PM Reading: Horror Poetry Open Mike—INNSMOUTH
Moderator: Linda Addison. Various attending authors.
9-10 PM Panel: WEIRD SOUTH: Voices of the Mountains: Manly Wade Wellman and Karl Edward Wagner—DUNWICH
Panelists discuss the influential writings of Manly Wade Wellman and Karl Edward Wagner, two pioneers of Southern Horror. From Wellman's stories of John the Balladeer to Wagner's tales of deep south terror like “Where the Summer Ends” and “In the Pines.”
Moderator: Charles Rutledge. Panelists: Cliff Biggers, James A. Moore, Leigh Perry, Brett Talley, Derek Tatum, James R. Tuck, Tim Waggoner
9-10 PM Panel: WORLD HORROR: Letting the Monster Out of the Closet : LGBT Themes in Horror Fiction—SARNATH
The closet is forbidden and those within its walls fear discovery. This is one of horror fiction's fundamentals. It also epitomizes the LGBT experience. Historically, from Gothic grandeur to sexual splatter-punk, the genre has relegated LGBT themes to the closet of subtext. Is it time to unleash the beast, or are these monsters still something to be feared?
Moderator: Aaron Dries. Panelists: Sunni Brock, Lisa Morton, James Newman
9-10 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Second Eyes: How to Select and Optimize Beta Readers—R’LYEH
The importance of second eyes before you submit your book to a publisher. Do you need to pay for a private editor if you have good betas? Should your beta write with a similar or different style? Should you use both types of betas? How are the edits different between the two?
Moderator: J.G. Faherty. Panelists: Patrick Freivald, Erinn Kemper, Rena Mason, Peter Salomon
9-11:30 PM Media: WHCFF: Shorts: “Chomp” and “Gave Up the Ghost”; Feature: “Jizzly Bear”—REDHOOK
Chomp (Dir. Lynne Hansen, 12 min.)
In this horror comedy written and directed by Lynne Hansen, Millie is determined to prove to the world that she’s captured a zombie—even if he’s not one. “Best of the Fest” award winner at the GeekFest Film Festival. Introduced by Lynne Hansen.
Trailer:
Gave Up the Ghost (Dir. Gregory Lamberson, 20 min.)
When a writer loses his entire novel in a computer crash, he seeks supernatural assistance to retrieve the novel from beyond the grave. Gave Up the Ghost won 6 awards at ZEDFest including Best Screenplay by Jeff Strand. Introduced by Jeff Strand.
Trailer:
Jizzly Bear (Dir. Norman DePlume, 80 min.)
While masturbating in a tree stand, a hunter accidentally impregnates a grizzly bear. Five years later, he and two friends catch wind of a freaky man-bear running loose, and set out to catch him. Introduced by stars Allison Laakko, Jason Glasgow, Eric Kozlowski, and writer/director Norman DePlume.
9:30-10 PM Reading: Linda Addison and Mary Turzillo—INNSMOUTH
10-11 PM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Dark Carnivale: Freaks, Geeks, Magicians and Spiritualists—DUNWICH
Remember reading Something Wicked This Way Comes? What about Geek Love, Nightmare Alley, or Carter Beats the Devil? Have you seen Freaks, The Prestige, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? What’s enchanting about this genre? What’s problematic? Join our panelists for a discussion of (fiction and nonfiction) books and movies centered around magicians, the circus, spiritualists, and carnivals.
Moderator: Patty Templeton. Panelists: Jeff Burk, Andrew S. Fuller, Daniel Knauf, Leigh Perry, John Urbancik, Adrian Van Young
10-11 PM Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: Short and Scary: How to Write Frightening Flash Fiction—SARNATH
How can you create an entire story arc within the scope of 1000 words or less? If you're fascinated by the art of storytelling that packs punch in a spare amount of words, you have come to the right place.
Moderator: Patrick Freivald. Panelists: John Boden, Sydney Leigh, James Newman
10-10:30 PM Reading: Jake Bible—INNSMOUTH
10:30-11 PM Reading: John Dixon—INNSMOUTH
11 PM-Mid Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Little Deaths: Eroticism in Horror—DUNWICH
Erotic Horror tropes can be common figures of speech, easing the reader's way to understanding, or some hellishly dull cliche. Helpful? Harmful? Discover the difference.
Moderator: Nancy Kilpatrick. Panelists: L. Andrew Cooper, John Everson, David Fitzgerald, Dana Fredsti
FRIDAY, MAY 8
8 AM-8 PM Registration—Location
9 AM-8 PM Art Show Open—THE DREAMLANDS
9 AM-8 PM Dealers Room Open—NEEDFUL THINGS
9 AM-MIDNIGHT Con Suite—FANGTASIA
9-10 AM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Poe-etics: Setting Scene and Atmosphere in Supernatural Fiction—DUNWICH
Writing supernatural fiction involves attention to atmosphere: eerie, haunting, seductive, mysterious. Join us as we speak to authors about how they crafted scene and mood to build a sense of dread and bring their supernatural stories to life—or death, as it may be.
Moderator: Cynthia Lott. Panelists: Michael Arnzen, James Chambers, Leigh Perry, Brett Talley
9-10 AM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Horror in the Headlines: Bringing the Real World Into Your Fiction—SARNATH
We see authors (Stephen King, for example) berated in social media for basing a story on a well-known recent serial killer. We see authors who rip off a fast book—not necessarily good—just to take advantage of a global event such as a typhoon, pandemic, etc. A good example is the book reported to be coming out from Permuted Press: ISIS and Ebola. Is this a good thing? Does it guarantee more publicity and sales? Does the writing suffer from moving so fast?
Moderator: J.G. Faherty. Panelists: Nickolas Cook, L. Andrew Cooper, Meghan Harker, Michael Huyck, Erinn L. Kemper, Erik Williams
9-10 AM Panel: BUSINESS: Choose Your Own Adventure: The Pinnacles and Pitfalls of Self Publishing—R’LYEH
Self publishing is no longer the stigmatized concept that once evoked thoughts of vanity presses and unprofessional writing. Today it is a growing and exciting avenue for authors to take control of their works and careers. What are the pros and cons? How do you successfully take a book from concept to completion? What happens after your book is released? We’ll explore what it takes to publish, market, and build yourself as an indie author.
Moderator: Mike Ritter. Panelists: Thomas Drago, J.H. Glaze, Naima Haviland, John Prescott, Patty Templeton.
9-9:30 AM Reading: Brad Hodson—INNSMOUTH
9:30-10 AM Reading: Usman T. Malik—INNSMOUTH
10-11 AM Panel: Dancing With Darkness: A Tribute to HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Tanith Lee—DUNWICH
The Horror Writers of America is proud to present one of two 2014 Life Achievement Awards to author Tanith Lee. This prolific and original writer has written more than 90 novels across the entire spectrum of speculative literature. She has won several World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, England. Unfortunately Tanith is unable to attend, but we invite you to join our panelists in a celebration of her tremendous impact on horror and dark fantasy.
Moderator: Craig Laurence Gidney. Panelists: Ellen Datlow, Naima Haviland, Mandy Slater, Lisa Tuttle
10-11 AM Panel: WEIRD SOUTH: From Voodoo to Rattlesnake Revival: Southern Folklore in Horror Literature—SARNATH
From the African Diaspora to Christian fundamentalism, Southern literature has been haunted by exotic religions, practices, and superstitions. Explore how writers have and are using the mythologies and belief systems of this diverse region to add to the disturbing dimensions of horror and Southern Gothic fiction.
Moderator: Thomas Drago. Panelists: Bill Bridges, Lincoln Crisler, Brad Hodson, Vic Kerry, Jana Oliver, Catherine Scully
10-11 AM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Horrible Horror: Agents Face Off on What Writers Need to Know About Today’s Publishing Market— R’LYEH
Two prominent agents discuss some of the main elements preventing horror writers from reaching a wider audience. What are some of the more common, yet significant, mistakes that authors make when writing a novel that keeps their work out of the spotlight? What do agents look for when deciding whether or not to represent an author’s work?
Panelists: Alec Shane, Cherry Weiner
10-11 AM Media: WHC@25: Dark Dreamers: A Slideshow of Horror’s Greats by Beth Gwinn—REDHOOK
Photographer and World Horror Con Co-Founder Beth Gwinn has been photographing conventions since the early 1980s. As staff photographer for Locus, she has focused her lens on virtually all the top creators of science fiction, fantasy and horror. She spent a decade shooting portraits of some of the best horror writers, artists, editors and filmmakers for her book, Dark Dreamers. Go behind the lens with Beth as she recounts her memories of that experience and shares some of those and other photographs.
Panelists: Beth Gwinn
10-10:30 AM Reading: John F.D. Taff—INNSMOUTH
10:30-11 AM Reading: Paul Dale Anderson—INNSMOUTH
11 AM-NOON Three Guys With Beards Talk Show—DUNWICH
Christopher Golden, Jonathan Maberry and James A. Moore gather together to discuss popular culture, books, movies and whatever else crosses their minds in a weekly discussion of the world at large as seen by three writers of speculative fiction. Be part of the live taping of the world premiere of this exciting new online talk show.
Panelists: Christopher Golden, Jonathan Maberry, James A. Moore
11 AM-NOON Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: We Are Bizarro! Beating on the Bongos and Scraping the Viscera of Horror’s Zaniest Subgenre—SARNATH
Come and learn about the genre of all that is squishy, psychedelic, and weird with authors and editors from the controversial and outrageous bizarro genre.
Moderator: Jeff Burk. Panelists: David W. Barbee, John Boden, Nikki Guerlain, John Edward Lawson, John Skipp
11 AM-NOON Workshop: SCAREBIZ: Blood From a Stone: An Author’s Guide to Selling and Promoting at Conventions—R’LYEH
While endless resources are available for selling your books online, there is rarely information available for selling more of them at conventions. This workshop by successful horror author and entrepreneur J.H. Glaze will present a tested methodology for increasing sales and presence at any event. Free document handouts on USB drives for first 25 attendees to arrive.
Panelists: J.H. Glaze
11 AM-NOON Panel: WHCFILM: Selling Your Scares To Screen: Ins and Outs of Options in Today’s Film Market—REDHOOK
Selling an option for your novel to be made into a motion picture may invoke visions of big bucks, but what’s the reality? Our panelists have sold at least one horror property or have experience on the development/sales side of the film industry. Hear their war stories and find out what you need to know when to opt in or out of an option deal.
Moderator: Sabrina Kaleta. Panelists: John Dixon, T. Fox Dunham, Brad Hodson, Weston Ochse
11-11:30 AM Reading: Jeff Strand—INNSMOUTH
11:30-NOON Reading: Joe McKinney—INNSMOUTH
NOON-1 PM Panel: YA ROCKS: Teen Protagonists Vs. Books for Teens: What Makes Teen Horror for Teens—DUNWICH
If a book has a teen protagonist, does that mean it's written for teen readers? What is the difference between books about teens and books for teens? Our panelists discuss what makes young adult books for young adults.
Moderator: Jonathan Maberry. Panelists: John Dixon, Christopher Golden, Tonya Hurley, James A. Moore, Peter Salomon, Catherine Scully
NOON-1 PM. Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: The Novella: Writing & Selling Fiction's Middle Child—SARNATH
How do you write a novella? Which publishers are buying them? What are they looking for? Are they commercially successful? Our panelists will tackle as many of these questions as they can in an hour (and field several from the audience, too).
Moderator: Nicole Cushing. Panelists: Don D’Auria, Jack Ketchum, Scott Nicolay, John F.D. Taff
NOON-1 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Literary Estate Planning: Why Authors Should Plan Ahead—R’YLEH
We don't want to talk about it. It's uncomfortable. But we need to plan. It's unfortunate, but it's a reality. Learn about how to plan for your estate and talk to a professional in the industry and two people who have been through it.
Moderator: Kelly Laymon. Panelists: Leslie Klinger, Ann Laymon, Monica O’Rourke
NOON-1 PM Media: WHCFILM: Beyond the Edge: Screenwriting Without Frontiers—REDHOOK
In order to scare or disturb an audience, and to tell a horrifying story that will resonate, a screenwriter must be willing to scare and disturb themselves first. This panel will explore screenwriting that willingly goes over the edge, as well as navigating the desires and demands of producers and studios within the realities of Hollywood and independent film.
Moderator: Ryan Lieske. Panelists: John Farris, Andrew S. Fuller, Daniel Knauf, Frazer Lee, Rena Mason
Noon-12:30 PM Reading: Jason V. Brock—INNSMOUTH
12:30-1 PM Reading: William F. Nolan—INNSMOUTH
1-2 PM Guest of Honor Interview: Lisa Tuttle—DUNWICH
Interviewer: Lisa Morton
1-2 PM Panel: WORLD HORROR: Different Visions: African-American Spec-Lit From Afro-Futurism to Beloved—SARNATH
Some of the most exciting spec-lit today is coming from multicultural viewpoints, including dynamic works by African-American authors. Anyone following the latest debates in SF/F/H knows that diversity also has become a controversial topic. This panel will explore horror and spec-lit in general as envisioned through the lens of the African-American experience from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement to the first black president And shouldn’t Toni Morrison’s Beloved be on any list of the top horror novels of the 20th Century?
Moderator: Balogun Ojetade. Panelists: Jeff Carroll, Gerald Coleman, Crystal Connor, Craig Laurence Gidney, John Edward Lawson
1-2 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: No Defense Against the Black Arts: Creating and Selling Horror-Themed Work—R’LYEH
Listen in and ask questions as World Horror Con’s attending artists talk shop, offer advice to beginning artists, and share the joys and frustrations of the creative life. Art school or self-trained? Materials and inspiration? What are the best and new markets for cover art and Illustration? What about comics and animation? What about marketing and displaying individual works at cons, shows, auctions, online, and more?.
Moderator: TBD. Panelists: T. Martin Croker, Eddy Eder, Bob Eggleton, Larry Reid, James Sizemore, attending artists
1-2 PM Media: WHCFILM: World Premiere: THE STAY and Other Short Films From the Dark Imagination of Frazer Lee— REDHOOK
On Edge (Dir./Scr. Frazer Lee, 15 min)
Impatient patient Thurlow (Charley Boorman) gets more than he bargained for in Doctor Matthews' (Doug Bradley) dentist's chair. Winner of Best Horror Short, Dragon*Con.
IMDb:
Red Lines (Dir./Scr. Frazer Lee, 7 min)
Unruly schoolgirl Emily (Kirsty Levett) learns the disturbing secret of the red lines in detention under the watchful eye of her Teacher (Doug Bradley). Winner of Best Short, Fearless Tales Genre Festival.
IMDb:
The Stay (Dir./Scr. Frazer Lee, 9 min)
A young holidaymaker (Daniela Finley) checks into a secluded rental cottage and discovers that some vacations stay with you...forever. WORLD PREMIERE—WORLD HORROR CON ATLANTA 2015.
IMDb:
Introduced & Q&A: Frazer Lee.
1-1:30 PM Reading: Brian Pinkerton—INNSMOUTH
1:30-2 PM Reading: James Newman—INNSMOUTH
2-3 PM HWA Life Achievement Award Winner Interview: Jack Ketchum
Interviewer: Monica O’Rourke—DUNWICH
2-3 PM Panel: WHC@25: World Horror Con: How It All Began—SARNATH
World Horror Con co-founders Maureen Dorris, Beth Gwinn and Jo Ann Parsons share the story of what led them to the crazy idea of founding a World Horror Convention, as well as memories of the first two WHCs in Nashville, Tennessee.
Moderator: Derek Tatum. Panelists: Maureen Dorris, Beth Gwinn, Jo Ann Parsons
2-3 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Stabbing Through the Glass Ceiling: Advice for Women Writers Starting Out—R’LYEH
Women with years of experience in the field share their practical tips for new women writers. More women are writing horror to success, but are there still more barriers to getting published for women than men? What can beginning writers do to better navigate the often tough world of publishing.
Moderator: Linda Addison. Panelists: Kami Garcia, Meghan Harker, Lisa Morton, Melissa A. Singer, Lucy A. Snyder
2-3 PM Media: WHCFILM: The Night(s) Indie-Horror Came To Georgia: An Hour With Daniel Griffith—RED HOOK
Filmmaker Daniel Griffith (Ballyhoo Motion Pictures) discusses his newest documentary about a group of young filmmakers in the 1980s whose vision to make their own independent feature leads them back to their director's hometown in Georgia, where they raise enough money and support to produce the “homegrown” horror anthology that would go down in history as Vincent Price's final horror film role. Exclusive clips from the documentary will be screened, as well as Ballyhoo giveaways!
Panelists: Daniel Griffith
2-2:30 PM Reading: Patrick Freivald—INNSMOUTH
2:30-3 PM Reading: Susan McCauley—INNSMOUTH
3-4 PM SCAREBIZ: Timely Terrors: What Editors Are Looking For Now In Horror—DUNWICH
Editors representing large and small publishing houses and anthology markets discuss the latest trends in horror novels and shorter forms. Mainstream, Weird, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy Bizarro, and more. What’s hot? What’s niche? What’s neither?
Moderator: Ellen Datlow. Panelists: Michael Bailey, Jennifer Barnes, Jeff Burk, RJ Cavender, Don D’Auria, Melissa A. Singer
3-4 PM TERRIFYING TROPES: H.P. Lovecraft in the 21st Century: The Problematic Legacy of the Great Old One of Horror and the Weird—SARNATH
Howard Phillips Lovecraft's legacy in modern horror fiction has been cemented for more than half a century in his Cthulhu Mythos and exploration of cosmic, existential horror. More recently, the tentacles of Lovecraft's more troubling legacy—as a voice for some of the last century's most vile expressions of racism and xenophobia—have found their way into the center of the discussion of his work. Is it possible to untangle the two sides of Lovecraft's work? Should we?
Moderator: David Nickle. Panelists: Jesse Bullington, Leslie Klinger, Usman T. Malik, Charles Rutledge, Molly Tanzer
3-4 PM Panel/Reading: Dark Poets Face to Face—R’LYEH
Leading poets in the field of dark literature read and discuss their favorite poems by other members on the panel. Audience participation is encouraged.
Moderator: Marge Simon. Panelists: G.O. Clark, Sydney Leigh, Alessandro Manzetti, Peter Salomon, Stephanie Wytovich
3-5 PM Media: WHC2015: “Dear God! No!” (Feature Film)—RED HOOK
Dear God! No! (Dir. James Bickert, 2011, 85 min.)
A labor of love for the exploitation cinema in the ‘60s and ‘70s, this Retro outlaw biker film redefines no-holds-barred and features a who’s who of Atlanta’s monster-movie and Redneck underground music scenes and won a slew of awards on the neo-grindhouse festival circuit. Motorcycle gang The Impalers’ tri-state rape and murder spree ends in a bloody massacre with rival club Satan’s Own. The surviving members seek refuge in a secluded cabin deep in the North Georgia mountains. What first must seem like easy prey for a home invasion, became a living nightmare of depravity and violence. A captive innocent girl may hold the key to the twisted secrets locked in the basement and the killing machine feasting on human flesh in the forest outside. The sequel Frankenstein Created Bikers features Laurence Harvey of Human Centipede fame and is being shot right now in the Atlanta area, thanks to a kickass Kickstarter campaign which raised more than $57,000. Warning: Extremely graphic and adult content.
Trailer: watch?v=hv9V7jrsdKM
Introduced by Professor Morte, aka Shane Morton, executive producer, art director and actor who played Randal of the Impalers gang.
3-3:30 PM Reading: Charlaine Harris—INNSMOUTH
3:30-4 PM Reading: Kami Garcia—INNSMOUTH
4-5 PM Guest of Honor Interview: Christopher Golden—DUNWICH
Interviewer: Jonathan Maberry
4-5 PM Panel: Readings and Shenanigans for THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD and QUALIA NOUS—SARNATH
Official book launch for The Library Of The Dead, and a celebration of Qualia Nous (Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in an Anthology). Readings, signings, and 10 book giveaways of each title.
Moderator: Michael Bailey. Panelists: Jason V Brock, James Chambers, Patrick Freivald, Erinn L. Kemper, Sydney Leigh, Usman T. Malik, Chris Marrs, Rena Mason,Yvonne Navarro, William F. Nolan, Weston Ochse, Marge Simon, Lucy A. Snyder
4-5 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Shelf Life: Terrifying Top Trends in Specialty Press Publishing —R’LYEH
While many feared that eBooks would scare readers away from print, horror collectors are keeping the limited edition alive. Our panel of some of the most vibrant specialty press publishers talks about the latest trends and hard realities in this niche market. as well as what’s hot and what’s not in both new works and classic reprints/discoveries. What’s different that writers need to know when pitching to the small press as opposed to larger publishers?
Moderator: John Edward Lawson. Panelists: Sunni Brock, Jeff Burk, Sabrina Kaleta, Chris Morey, Scott Woodward
4-4:30 PM Reading: Nathan Ballingrud—INNSMOUTH
4:30-5 PM Reading: Scott Nicolay—INNSMOUTH
5-6 PM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: The Stephen King Hour—DUNWICH
What would the 25th Anniversary of the World Horror Convention be without a tribute to Stephen King? Join our experts as they discuss the most important horror writer of this generation in what promises to be one of the most fun panels of the weekend.
Moderator: Rio Youers. Panelists: Kristin Dearborn, Christopher Golden, Jack Ketchum, Lisa Tuttle, and one lucky contest winner: WHC’s Biggest Stephen King fan!
5-6 PM Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: The Real True Detective: When Horror Meets Noir, Mystery and Spy Thrillers—SARNATH
How dark does neo-noir horror have to be? Where do the lines fall where crime fiction becomes horror. Practitioners of the art of crime and thriller fiction shed light on the limits of human depravity.
Moderator: Paul Dale Anderson. Panelists: Chesya Burke, Lois Gresh, Nicole Kurtz, Joe McKinney, James Newman, David Nickle, Brian Pinkerton
5-6 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Just the Facts, Monster: How to Dig Deeper than the Internet for Accurate Storytelling —R’LYEH
An incorrect fact or detail in a story can pull a reader right out of your narrative and destroy the impact of an otherwise excellent piece of fiction. Writers who also are research professionals (librarians, archivists or journalists) share their insider tips to help you avoid the factcheck trap.
Topics covered will include Net and bricks-and-mortar resources you may not know about, how to approach experts, how to vet sources, maximizing a trip to an archives or library, and more? What was their greatest research challenge and how did they solve it?
Moderator: John T. Glover. Panelists: Courtney Alameda, James Dorr, Cynthia Lott, Loren Rhoads, Matthew Weber
5-6 PM Panel: WHCFILM: Filmmakers Lounge
Filmmakers and presenters from Thursday night’s and today’s World Horror Con Film Festival programming get together for a casual meet and greet with each other and attendees. Listen to them talk shop and ask questions about the scary and fun parts of making horror movies.
Moderator: Thomas Sipos. Panelists: Daniel Griffith, Lynne Hansen, Daniel Knauf, Frazer Lee, Ryan Lieske, John Skipp
5-5:30 PM Reading: James Chambers—INNSMOUTH
5:30-6 PM Reading: Lucy A. Snyder—INNSMOUTH
6:30-8 PM Mass Author Signing—THE BARRENS
Convention guests and attending authors will be available to sign their books.
The PUBLIC are also cordially invited to attend, free of charge so, if you have friends in the metro Atlanta area, invite them!
We are proud to welcome EAGLE EYE BOOKS as the official bookseller of the 25th Annual World Horror Convention. This popular Atlanta book store hosts numerous author events throughout the year, as well as providing support for many more. Writer David Fulmer selected Eagle Eye as his choice in My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read and Shop (2012).
Eagle Eye is located in the Dealers Room, so stop by and pick up books by your favorite attending author to sign this weekend!
8-8:30 PM Reading: Dale Bailey—INNSMOUTH
8:30-12:30 PM Professor Morte and the Silver Scream Spook Show Present The 25th Annual World Horror Convention Creepy Costume Ball —THE TURTLE
Shaky Knees? You’ll shake all over at the creepiest convention party of the year! See! Monstrous magic tricks and spooky spectacle as the dead rise again to dance with YOU! Hear! The horrible hits of the graveyard garage rockers of the past, present, and future! Feel! Voodoo powers take your limbs hostage as Prof. Morte, the Ghost Host with the Most, turns you into a party zombie!!! For over 15 years, Atlanta’s legendary horror host has performed his shows all over the country and is widely considered the Sultan of the Spookshow and the top entertainer working in this almost forgotten fearful form! DON'T miss this!
Plus Costume Contest with phantasmagorical prizes!
Professor Morte and the Silver Scream Spook Show, DJ Extreme Gene
8:30-9 PM Reading: Chris Marrs —INNSMOUTH
9 PM—1 AM Media: WHCFILM: Tabloid Witch Film Festival Presents Southern Scares: The Sacred and Spirit Stalkers —REDHOOK
The Sacred (Dir. Jose Zambrano Cassella, 93 min)
Five college kids conduct archeological research in the Florida swamps, where an extinct Native American tribe reputedly executed evildoers. Legend has it that to emerge safely, your heart must be pure. Winner of three 2010 Tabloid Witch Awards.
Trailer:
Spirit Stalkers (Dir. Steve Hudgins, 97 min)
Reuben always finds a rational explanation behind every alleged haunting. Now he must find a real ghost before low ratings kill his boringly scientific reality TV show. Winner of three 2012 Tabloid Witch Awards.
Trailer:
The Tabloid Witch Awards is a no entry fee horror film contest, founded in 2004 by Thomas M. Sipos and the . Sipos is the author of Horror Film Aesthetics (McFarland 2010) and Horror Film Festivals and Awards (McFarland 2011).
Introduced by Thomas Sipos.
9-9:30 PM Reading: Tim Waggoner —INNSMOUTH
9:30-10 PM Reading: Russell James —INNSMOUTH
10-10:30 PM Reading: John Urbancik —INNSMOUTH
10:30-11 PM Reading: Brick Marlin —INNSMOUTH
SATURDAY, MAY 9
8 AM-6 PM Registration—CENTRAL AREA
9 AM-6 PM Dealers Room Open—NEEDFUL THINGS
9 AM-6 PM Art Show Open—THE DREAMLANDS
9 AM-MIDNIGHT Con Suite—FANGTASIA
9-10 AM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Urban Fantasy: It’s Selling Like Hellcakes, But Is It Horror?—DUNWICH
When is a vampire not a vampire? When is a werewolf more of a beast or less of one? Should witches be sexy or scary or both? A lot of the same creatures and processes are used in writing the tales but are the lines just blurred or are they really separate genres?
Moderator: James A. Moore. Panelists: James Dorr, Yvonne Navarro, Jana Oliver, Lucy A. Snyder, James R. Tuck
9-10 AM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Midmorning Madness: Making Insane Characters Believable—SARNATH
From classics like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” to Stephen King’s Misery, to more contemporary works like Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, both film and literature alike have a soft spot for the insane. But what makes these characters believable and why do readers love a madman or a hysteric woman? Well, say hello to Tyler Durdan and get ready for a trip to the asylum because the first rule of madness is that we don’t talk about madness. And if it’s your first time going mad, well, then you have to scream.
Moderator: Stephanie M. Wytovich. Panelists: Dale Bailey, Nicole Cushing, T. Fox Dunham, Lois Gresh, Sydney Leigh, Brian W. Matthews
9-10 AM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Technical Terrors: Writing Horror in an eBook Age—R’LYEH
Annual revenues from eBook sales topped $5.6 billion in 2014 and are predicted to climb to more than $8.6 billion by 2018. With no physical book to print and ship, production costs are minimal. What do writers need to know to cash in on the growing popularity of eBooks? Should you consider self-publishing an eBook? Despite predictions that eBooks could make print obsolete, recent sales stats show print doing better than expected. Is there a ceiling on the eBook revolution?
Moderator: Scott Woodward. Panelists: Bruce Boston, Richard Lee Byers, Clint Collins, John Prescott, C.R. Richards
9-11 AM Media: WHCFILM: THE ACKERMONSTER CHRONICLE: A Bloody Fun Saturday Morning With Count Ack-Ula—REDHOOK
Spend Saturday morning with Uncle Forry as we screen the 2014 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award-winning documentary, The AckerMonster Chronicles!.
The AckerMonster Chronicles (Dir. Jason V Brock, 2013, 105 mins)
The outlandish, ghoultastic life and times of agent, editor, and mega-fan Forrest J Ackerman (Famous Monsters of Filmland). Featuring interviews with Ray Bradbury, Dan O'Bannon, John Landis, Joe Dante, Ray Harryhausen, and many others. (Contains mild male and female nudity.). Intro and Q&A with the filmmakers and William F. Nolan.
Trailer:
IMDB:
Introduced by Jason V. Brock, Sunni Brock, William F. Nolan
9-10 AM Reading: Demonic Visions Anthology Series—INNSMOUTH
Patrick Freivald, Alethea Kontis, Sydney Leigh, Joe McKinney, Peter Salomon, Jay Wilburn
10-11 AM Guest of Honor Interview: Charlaine Harris—DUNWICH
Interviewer: Christopher Golden
10-11 AM Panel: YA ROCKS: Writing Horror for YA and Middle Grades: How Far Is Too Far With Your Scares?—SARNATH
So you want to write horror for kids and teens, but how far is too far with your scares? Is there a limit to what you can write for middle grade and young adult readers? Is there a limit to the kinds of monsters you can create? Our panelists discuss how to approach crafting horror for middle grade and young adult readers.
Moderator: Susan McCauley. Panelists: Kami Garcia, Tonya Hurley, Alethea Kontis, Peter Salomon, Catherine Scully, Tim Waggoner
10-11 AM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Patronage: Kicking your Crowdfunding to Make it Go-go:—R’LYEH
Crowdfunding has become a viable option for writers, artists, filmmakers and publishers to raise the funds they need to make a project idea manifest. However, the waters are tricky to navigate. If you've never done one, there's a lot to learn if you want to be successful. How do you know which site is best for you? How much work is it going to take? What are the dangers? Join us for a frank discussion of crowdfunding with tips, tricks, and the chance to ask questions.
Moderator: Angel Leigh McCoy. Panelists: Jonathan Chaffin, Alicia Cole, Chris Morey, Blair Richardson
10-11 AM Panel: SCAREBIZ: The Pre-Pitch Prep Panel: A Panel for All Authors Taking Part in the Pitch Sessions!—THE TURTLE
Come and hear all the editors and agents taking pitches this year talk about what they’re looking for from a pitch, what they’d like to see more of in manuscript submissions, and give a general assessment of where they think the horror fiction small and indie press is today. This is our yearly editorial pitch panel of publishers, editors, and agents open to author pitch sessions.
Even if you’re not pitching a project, think about stopping in. What could it hurt to hear this many knowledgeable editors and agents talk about pitching and manuscript submissions?
Moderator: R.J. Cavender (Dark Regions Press/Cutting Block Books). Panelists: Jeff Burk & John Skipp (Deadite Press), Cherry Weiner (Cherry Weiner Literary Agency), Jennifer Barnes (Raw Dog Screaming), Don D’Auria (Samhain Publishing), Melissa Ann Singer (Tor Books), Alec Shane (Writers House)
Pitch Sessions to follow at 11:30am (there will be a small break between panel and pitches)
10-10:30 AM Reading: Aaron Dries—INNSMOUTH
10:30-11 AM Reading: Damien Angelica Walters—INNSMOUTH
11 AM-NOON Special Presentation: Dacre Stoker: Bram Stoker / Dracula Travel Guide New Discoveries 118 Years Later—DUNWICH
For the past three years, Dacre Stoker, great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker, has been working with Dutch photographer Hans Corneel de Roos to create a specialized travel guide surrounding his most famous novel, Dracula. Dacre and Hans have focused on Bram’s life in Dublin and London, as well as his holidays in Whitby and Cruden Bay, Scotland, and also on the actual locations of the novel in Romania and England and backgrounds of the characters. What is new and different from Dacre’s past presentations is that he offers up compelling new theories pieced together from Bram’s notes, Austrian war maps and Romanian history involving the actual site of Castle Dracula and the identity of another historical character that Bram modeled his Count after.
Dacre’s one-hour PowerPoint presentation includes stunning photos of sites associated with Bram’s life in Dublin, his holidays in Whitby, Cruden Bay Scotland, Count Dracula and Vlad Dracula sites in Romania.
Panelists: Dacre Stoker
11 AM-NOON Panel/Readings: A DARK PHANTASTIQUE: Where Horror Meets Magic Realism—SARNATH
What does Kafka, Bradbury, and Serling have in common with Borges, Garcia-Marquez, and Allende? Recently, an anthology was released which combined aspects of magic realism with horror to great effect: A Darke Phantastique. Join editor Jason V. Brock and contributors as they go behind of the Bram Stoker Award-nominated book and look for those dark spaces where magic realism intersects with the horror genre.
Moderator: Jason V. Brock. Panelists: Sunni K Brock, Nicole Cushing, Erinn Kemper, Nancy Kilpatrick, Chris Marrs, William F. Nolan, Weston Ochse, Marge Simon
11 AM-NOON Panel: YA ROCKS/SCAREBIZ: Horror As a Literacy Tool—R’LYEH
Kids love to read horror. Writers, librarians, and teachers discuss everything from Goosebumps to adult horror fiction, graphic novels, YA vs NA, how libraries can find more books *ie, small press!* to satisfy their readers, and how reading horror can help increase literacy levels in schools and communities.
Moderator: J.G. Faherty. Panelists: Courtney Alameda, Jake Bible, Lynne Hansen, Susan McCauley
11 AM-NOON Media: WHCFILM: FUN BOY TIME: An Hour With Actor Michael Massee—REDHOOK
Michael Massee, is perhaps best known in the horror community for his role as “Fun Boy” in The Crow, but he has appeared in numerous movie and TV roles. These include Gustav Fiers (alias The Gentleman) in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 &2, villain Ira Gaines in 24, the physical manifestation of Management (aka Lucius Belyakovin) on HBO’s Carnivale, Dyland Frost on FlashForward, serial killer Charles Hoyt on Rizzoli & Isles, and many more guest-starring roles on series such as The X-Files, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Supernatural. In this laidback hour, he shares his set memories and answers audience questions.
Moderator: Daniel Knauf. Panelists: Michael Massee
11-11:30 AM Reading: Lisa Tuttle—INNSMOUTH
11:30-NOON Reading: David Nickle—INNSMOUTH
11:30-2:30 PM Pitch Sessions—THE TURTLE
Advance Sign-Up Required.
NOON-1 PM Guest of Honor Interview: Kami Garcia—DUNWICH
Interviewer: Catherine Scully
NOON-1 PM Panel: WEIRD SOUTH: A Good Horror Isn’t Hard to Find: The Dark Side of Flannery O’Connor and Southern Gothic Lit—SARNATH
With dark humor, Southern Gothic authors—led by Flannery O'Connor—expose societal ills through expressions of the grotesque. O'Connor, McCullers, Harry Crews, William Gay...how have they shaped Southern Gothic lit? Who else is creeping in the kudzu? What does it mean when Flannery O'Connor said, "Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we still are able to recognize one." Does that quote still hold true today?
Moderator: Patty Templeton. Panelists: Thomas Drago, Jana Oliver, John F.D. Taff, Michael Wehunt
NOON-1 PM Panel: From The Crypt to Providence: The Changing Face of Horror Comics—R’LEYH
Horror comics aren't what they used to be! If you think horror comics are just zombies, gore, and mayhem, think again!
Moderator: Cliff Biggers. Panelists: Chesya Burke, Christopher Golden, Daniel Knauf, Jonathan Maberry, Charles Rutledge
NOON-1 PM Media: WHCFILM: Skipp’s Saturday Sinema Funtime—REDHOOK
Bombo and Flopsy in “An Honest Mis-stake”(Dir. John Skipp and Andrew Kasch, 15 min.)
Two down-on-their-luck circus clowns discover that children’s parties have gotten a lot more dangerous since the new Eurotrash clowns came to town. Could they be vampires…or something worse? Featuring Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs) and Tom Holland (Fright Night). The pilot episode from Skipp, Kasch, and screenwriter Cody Goodfellow’s new series. Introduced by Skipp.
Postpartum (Dir. Izzy Lee, 6 min.)
Good intentions lead to disastrous results when a friend visits a new mom. Starring Kasey Lansdale.
El Gigante (Dir. Gigi Saul Guerrero, 15 min.)
Armando crosses the punishing Mexican desert to meet his family on the other side of the border, but is captured by a cannibalistic family who tosses him in the ring to fight for his life against the invincible luchador El Gigante. Based on the first chapter of Shane McKenzie's novel Muerte Con Carne.
Panelists: John Skipp
NOON-12:30 PM Reading: Jack Ketchum—INNSMOUTH
12:30-1 PM Reading: Frazer Lee—INNSMOUTH
1-2 PM Guest of Honor Interview: John Farris—DUNWICH
Interviewer: Joe McKinney
1-2 PM Panel: WORLDHORROR: Pushing the Diaspora Darkly: Horror from Multicultural Perspectives —SARNATH
In this centerpiece panel in our WORLDHORROR theme, we take on diversity and an emerging global view of spec-lit and horror as it moves into the 21st century with a new generation of writers from different cultural backgrounds. How are these writers redefining what we consider horror both on American soil and abroad? How can the lens of a global perspective inform and push us to reassess our interpretation of works that have come before, and should it?
Moderator: Edward Austin Hall. Panelists: Jesse Bullington, Chesya Burke, Crystal Connor, Stephen Graham-Jones, Nicole Givens Kurtz, John Edward Lawson, Usman T. Malik
1-2 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: HWA: Why You Should Join—R’LYEH
A discussion of the progress that the Horror Writers Association has made in the last few years as well as what's on the horizon. This panel is a great opportunity for members and non-members alike to discuss any questions they might have.
Moderator: Lisa Morton. Panelists: James Chambers, Brad Hodson, Jonathan Maberry, John Palisano, Peter Salomon, Tony Sarrecchia
1-2 PM Media: WHCFILM: Buried Alive Film Festival Presents “ABED”—REDHOOK
Abed (Dir. Ryan Lieske, 2011, 54 min.)
Based on Elizabeth Massie’s acclaimed short story in Still Dead, Abed is the story of a family forced to the extremes of loyalty and love, in a world beyond hope. Produced by the late Philip Nutman (Wet Work, Fangoria), this relentless brutal film was awarded Best Feature at the 2012 Buried Alive Film Festival. Introduced by Ryan Lieske.
Buried Alive Film Festival is Atlanta’s premiere annual horror film festival, committed to screening the best in international and US independent shorts and features. This year’s dates are Nov. 21-22. .
Moderator: Blake Myers. Panelists: Ryan Lieske.
1-1:30 PM Reading: G.O. Clark—INNSMOUTH
1:30-2 PM Reading: James A. Moore—INNSMOUTH
2-3 PM Performance: Atlanta Radio Theatre Company Presents “The Passion of Frankenstein”—DUNWICH
The Passion of Frankenstein by Thomas E. Fuller.
"Some men make their own rivals." This classic radio theatre retelling of the classic story by Mary Shelley is sure to thrill and chill! Through countless movies and one immortal book, the hero has always arisen to protect the maiden from the monster's misdirected love. But darkness can hide heroes, and monsters can walk in the light, and sometimes not even the maiden can tell them apart. Written by the late playwright Thomas E. Fuller, best known for the Wishbone series for young readers and a prominent member of the Atlanta SF/F/H writing community for many years.
Founded in 1984, the nonprofit Atlanta Radio Theatre Company is a labor of love. They perform at various venues around Atlanta throughout the year, as well as many area and regional conventions, including Dragoncon and previous 1995 and 1999 World Horror Conventions in Atlanta.
2-3 PM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: The Walking Dead Club: Keeping Zombie Literature Fresh—SARNATH
Atlanta is the cradle of The Walking Dead, so there’s no way we couldn’t have a zombie panel. Join our panelists as they host a lively debate on the zombie genre, such as the evolution of the modern zombie, zombies in popular culture, and whose zombies are the meanest.
Moderator: Rachel Aukes. Panelists: Dana Fredsti, Mark Gunnells, Jonathan Maberry, Joe McKinney, John Palisano
2-3 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Reel Fear: Writing About Horror Movies—R’LYEH
From magazine articles to books, chronicling horror’s cinematic heritage has been an important part of keeping the genre alive. Our panelists will discuss various approaches to writing about film as well as the current market for non-fiction works.
Moderator: Thomas Sipos. Panelists: L. Andrew Cooper, James Newman, Jess Peacock, Gord Shriver
2-3 PM Media: WHCFILM: Buried Alive Film Festival Presents “SATANIC PANIC 2: BATTLE OF THE BANDS”—REDHOOK
Satanic Panic 2: Battle of the Bands (Dir. Eddie Ray, 2014, 54 min.)
In this audience favorite at the 2014 Buried Alive Film Festival, dance band Satanic Panic's adventures get even crazier as they prepare for the upcoming Battle of the Bands—all while maintaining their secret that they are not actual Satan worshippers at all. Follow them on their new exploits as they balance secret government spy missions, their managers evil plots, band rivalries, and growing egos! Introduced by Eddie Ray.
Buried Alive Film Festival is Atlanta’s premiere annual horror film festival, committed to screening the best in international and US independent shorts and features. This year’s dates are Nov. 21-22. .
Moderator: Blake Myers. Panelists: Eddie Ray and cast members of “Satanic Panic 2: Battle of the Bands”
2-2:30 PM Reading: Weston Ochse—INNSMOUTH
2:30-3 PM Reading: Yvonne Navarro—INNSMOUTH
3-4 PM Grand Master Award Winner Interview: William F. Nolan—DUNWICH
Interviewer: Jason V. Brock
3-4 PM Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: When the Weird Go Pro: Exploring the Parameters and Considering the Directions of a Literary Renaissance—SARNATH
Some would call it a Renaissance. Not your daddy’s Lovecraft mythos pastiche, the Weird in the hands of today’s writers owes as much or more to literary titans such as Melville, Borges, McCarthy and Carter. Others talk about the New Weird and consider it a global movement. What is Weird fiction? Does defining the Weird focus or limit its growth? Why now, why is this literary movement so exciting, and what does the future hold for the Weird?
Moderator: Anya Martin. Panelists: Nathan Ballingrud, Kristi DeMeester, Lois Gresh, Scott Nicolay, Molly Tanzer, Michael Wehunt
3-4 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Interactive Terrors: Developing IP for Horror Games—R’LYEH
Horror elements have become major parts of computer and video games. New horror IP appear everywhere, from the smallest phones to the largest user networks. However, horror in games is a very different beast from movies and books. How do you craft good horror when you cannot control the protagonist? Join our panel of game experts for an in-depth look at what goes into successful horror games.
Moderator: Andrew Greenberg. Panelists: Maria Alexander, Bill Bridges, David Hensley, Angel Leigh McCoy, Spencer Reeve
3-5 PM Media: WHCFILM: Buried Alive Film Festival Presents Its Bloody Best—Redhook
Crow Hand (Dir. Brian Lonano, 2014, 3 min)
A husband gets more than he bargained for when he picks up a mysterious crow totem off the ground, much to his wife's chagrin. Introduced by Brian Lonano.
All You Can Eat (Dir. Tommy Groth, 2014, 4 min)
Did you have nightmares about clowns when you were a child? This short film about a clown and his secret will confirm your fears. Introduced by Tommy Groth.
Goat Witch (Dir. James Sizemore, 2014, 13 min)
A young witch Emelin and her friend Gloria perform an ancient ritual to summon a demon. Introduced by James Sizemore.
Followed by a sampling of some of the best shorts screened at past Buried Alive Film Festivals.
Buried Alive Film Festival is Atlanta’s premiere annual horror film festival, committed to screening the best in international and US independent shorts and features. This year’s dates are Nov. 21-22. .
Moderator: Blake Myers. Panelists: Tommy Groth, Brian Lonano, James Sizemore,
3-3:30 PM Reading: Christopher Golden—INNSMOUTH
3:30-4 PM Reading: Jonathan Maberry—INNSMOUTH
4-5 PM Guest of Honor Interview: Bob Eggleton—DUNWICH
4-5 PM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: Macabre Metamorphoses: From Werewolves to Skinwalkers to Shapeshifters—SARNACH
From slavering werewolves hungry for flesh to nine-tailed foxes who suck the souls from those they seduce, the animalistic imaginary has a hallowed place in horror. Let’s discuss these beasts within and their latest transformations in novels, short stories, and movies.
Moderator: Bill Bridges. Panelists: Brick Marlin, Kami Garcia, Stephen Graham-Jones, Brad C. Hodson, Jeff Strand, Tim Waggoner
4-5 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: Aural Terrors: Writing Radio Horror for the Ear—R’LYEH
Join writers from Atlanta Radio Theatre Company and the Harry Strange Radio Drama as they talk about the resurrection of this audio art form and the nuances of supernatural stories for the theater of your mind.
Moderator: Tony Sarrecchia. Panelists: members of the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company including David Benedict, Ron Butler, William Alan Ritch
4-4:30 PM Reading: Molly Tanzer—INNSMOUTH
4:30-5 PM Reading: Jesse Bullington—INNSMOUTH
5-6 PM Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: Horror’s Human Side: There Are No Limits, Or Are There?—DUNWICH
In Nightmare Magazine #25, Women Destroy Horror!, Joyce Carol Oates stated "[In Auschwitz], and in similar places of actual, existential horror, there is no place for genre. And I am completing a novel about a man who has suffered extreme memory loss as a consequence of encephalitis— brain swelling. The loss of memory is a loss of personality— it is an experience that will be horrific for many of us, yet it is not ‘horror fiction,’ but simply realistic fiction. Perhaps this is the ultimate statement on horror fiction as genre— where the horrific images are entertaining, they are not ‘realistic’— thus, we imagine that we control them. In so-called realistic fiction, there is no scrim, no barrier, no framing device— just the rawness of what is.”
Are some subjects too horrific to be horror, and what's the line between realist literature and horror lit? Should there be a line? Our panelists weigh in.
Moderator: Kurt Fawver. Panelists: Ellen Datlow, Jack Ketchum, Usman T. Malik, John Farris, Damien Angelica Walters, Lisa Tuttle, Nathan Ballingrud
5-6 PM Panel: WEIRD SOUTH: I Will Never Go Hungry Again: Why Are So Many Contemporary Vampire Novels Set in the South? SARNACH
Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series dramatized in the TV series True Blood, L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries, Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls—the South seems as favorite a location for contemporary vampires as England and Transylvania were for previous generations. Hot humid summers would seem to be corpse-melting, so is it the Southern gothic legacy or maybe that Southerners keep secrets better in their midnight gardens of good and evil? Our panelists will try to unbury some answers, while also digging into the latest trends in vampire fiction and why novels of the Nosferatu seem to never lose their bite on readers
Note: Charlaine Harris, Dacre Stoker and the other panelists will stay and sign books for a half hour after the panel.
Moderator: Nancy Kilpatrick. Panelists: Carl Alves, Andrew Greenberg, Charlaine Harris, Naima Haviland, Jess Peacock, Dacre Stoker
5-6 PM Panel: SCAREBIZ: License to Scare: Writing Characters That You Don’t Own—R’LYEH
Writing tie-in fiction comes with its own particular—and sometimes peculiar—set of challenges. Learn the secrets of working with licensed properties to create stories that will enthrall both long-time fans and casual readers.
Moderator: Tim Waggoner. Panelists: Richard Lee Byers, Christopher Golden, James A. Moore, Yvonne Navarro
5-6 PM Panel: WHCFILM: Filmmakers Lounge—REDHOOK
Filmmakers and presenters from Thursday night’s and today’s World Horror Con Film Festival programming get together for a casual meet and greet with each other and attendees. Listen to them talk shop and ask questions about the scary and fun parts of making horror movies.
Moderator: Blake Myers. Panelists: Tommy Groth, Daniel Knauf, Ryan Lieske, Brian Lonano, Michael Massee, Eddie Ray, James Sizemore, John Skipp
5-5:30 PM Reading: Jeff Burk—INNSMOUTH
5:30-6 PM Reading: Maria Alexander—INNSMOUTH
6-6:30 PM Signing: Charlaine Harris, Dacre Stoker—SARNACH
7:30-10:30 PM Bram Stoker Awards Banquet sponsored by Samhain Publishing— THE TURTLE
Master of Ceremonies: Jeff Strand
You must have pre-purchased tickets to attend the BANQUET and be prepared to show them at the door.
Important Information: Doors open at 7:30 p.m. There are a small number of tables reserved for HWA guests and the banquet sponsor. Please do not attempt to sit at a RESERVED table unless you know you are supposed to sit there and you can find your name card on that table. All other seating is first come, first served.
The Awards and live Webcast will begin at 9 p.m. We expect the ceremony to conclude by 10:30 p.m.
9 PM—If you do not have tickets to the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet sponsored by Samhain Publishing, you can still attend from 9 p.m. on to observe the AWARDS CEREMONY only (no food and drinks will be available).
10:30 PM-? Bram Stoker Awards After-Party sponsored by Samhain Publishing—LOCATION?
Free entry for all convention members. Come join the fun!
10:30 PM-Midnight World Horror Con Annual Gross-Out Contest—DUNWICH
Authors compete with five-minute readings to see who is the grossest and most ridiculous of them all! Warning: there WILL be extremely graphic and adult content.
Judges: Jeff Burk, Daniel Knauf, John Skipp
SUNDAY, MAY 10
9 AM-1 PM Dealers Room Open—NEEDFUL THINGS
9 AM-1 PM Art Show Open—THE DREAMLANDS
9 AM-2 PM Con Suite—FANGTASIA
9-10 AM Panel: Breakfast with the Bram Stoker Award Winners and Jury Members—DUNWICH
Join some of the award winners and jury members for a laidback discussion of their works and what’s next, as well as go behind the scenes as jurors discuss what appealed to them about winning works in the nomination process.
Moderator: Jonathan Maberry. Panelists: Bram Stoker Award Winners TBA
9-10 AM Panel: YA ROCKS: What’s Coming Up? Are Trends Important?—SARNATH
A lot of editors are interested in horror for the young adult market—is it a trend or is horror here to stay? Are certain stories—zombies, vampires, the supernatural—on their way out or should you write what you love and hope it sells? Join our panelists as they give insight to horror writing trends in the publishing industry.
Moderator: Courtney Alameda. Panelists: Jay and Katie Barber, Jake Bible, Alethea Kontis, James A. Moore
9-10 AM Board Meeting (Closed): WORLD HORROR SOCIETY—R’LYEH
9-9:30 AM Reading: James Dorr—INNSMOUTH
9:30-10 AM Reading: Michael Arnzen—INNSMOUTH
10-11 AM Meeting (Public): HORROR WRITERS OF AMERICA (HWA)—DUNWICH
10-11 AM Reading: Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading—INNSMOUTH
Leadie Jo Flowers, April Grey, Loren Rhoads, SL Schmitz
11 AM-NOON Panel: DEADLY DEFINITIONS: Enter The Demon: When Horror Meets Action—DUNWICH
From sword and sorcery to the rising subgenre of military horror, supernatural thriller to sci-fi mash-up, action and horror have a long history of intersecting. All black belts of the literary martial arts, our panelists share their tips on how to write effective, accurate, suspenseful action sequences, as well as discuss where recent trends where action meet horror fiction. .
Moderator: Weston Ochse. Panelists: John Dixon, Christopher Golden, Russell James, Lisa Morton, James R. Tuck
11 AM-NOON Panel: WEIRD SOUTH: The Devil Came Down: Growing Up Loving Horror Beneath the Mason-Dixon Line —SARNATH
Panelists discuss how growing up in the South has impacted their writing and their perception of the world we live in now. What are the differences between different regions of the South and are some darker than others? Is there a distinct Southern horror novel? Do our panelists consider themselves Southern writers, whether or not they still live in the South?
Moderator: L. Andrew Cooper. Panelists: Sunni Brock, Nickolas Cook, John Hartness, Vic Kerry, Cynthia Lott
11 AM-NOON Meeting (Public): WORLD HORROR SOCIETY—R’LYEH
11 AM—1 PM Media: WHCFILM: Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man—REDHOOK
Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man (Dir. Jason V Brock, 90 mins)
The definitive, critically-acclaimed documentary about one of the great fantasy/horror writers of the 1950s and '60s, including the go-to scribe for Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, and Playboy magazine. He would not live to see his 39th birthday. Featuring interviews with William Shatner, Roger Corman, William F. Nolan, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, and many more.
Intro and Q&A with the filmmakers and William F. Nolan.
Trailer:
IMDB:
Jason V. Brock, Sunni Brock, William F. Nolan
11-11:30 AM Reading: John Palisano—INNSMOUTH
11:30 AM-NOON Reading: Rio Youers—INNSMOUTH
NOON-1 PM Panel: WORLDHORROR: International/Global Horror: Books and Films You May Have Missed This Year—SARNACH
Our panelists share their favorite novels, anthologies, collections, and stories published outside the USA in 2014, as well as the best in last year’s global horror cinema. They may even give you some hints as to what releases they are most looking forward to in 2015.
Moderator: Mandy Slater. Panelists: Aaron Dries, Frazer Lee, Usman T. Malik, Lisa Tuttle
NOON-1 PM Panel: TERRIFYING TROPES: The Death Panel: Funerals, Cemeteries, Burial, Autopsies, and Decomposition—SARNACH
From the Death Salon to the Death Museum, from permanent memorialization to cutting-edge composting of corpses, from Death Cafes to the Right to Die movement, death is in the news these days. Come get your questions answered and find inspiration in how to make death matter!
Moderator: Loren Rhoads. Panelists: Jason Brock, Tonya Hurley, Rena Mason, William F. Nolan
NOON-1 PM Meeting (Public): HWA, SE Chapter—R’LYEH
Panelists: Tony Sarrecchia and other members
Noon-12:30 PM Reading: Nickolas Cook—INNSMOUTH
12:30-1 PM Reading: Kristin Dearborn—INNSMOUTH
1-2 PM Closing Ceremonies—DUNWICH
2 PM-5 PM Dead Dog Party—FANGTASIA
All ghoul things must come to an end. We hope you had a great time at this year’s World Horror Convention. Next year’s WHC is April 28-May 1, 2016 in Provo, Utah. For more information, visit . See you there!
We’ve created special bookmarks to celebrate each of our Guests of Honor and our other Special Guests, but you must attend the Guest’s Interview to receive each bookmark, and quantities are strictly limited to first come/first serve. Collect them all!
BIOS
LINDA D. ADDISON, award-winning author of four collections of poetry and prose and the first African-American recipient of the HWA Bram Stoker Award®. She has published 300 poems, stories and articles and is a member of CITH, HWA, SFWA and SFPA. Catch her latest work in upcoming Carpe Noctem 20th Anniversary Edition (ZED Presents) and Scary Out There (Simon Schuster).
MARIA ALEXANDER is a produced screenwriter, games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, interactive theatre designer and snarkiologist. Her short dark fiction and poetry has appeared in acclaimed magazines and anthologies since 1999. Mr. Wicker, her debut novel, was released by Raw Dog Screaming Press in September 2014, and has been nominated for the 2014 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. When she's not wielding a katana at her Shinkendo dojo, she's being outrageously spooky or writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats and a purse called Trog.
COURTNEY ALAMEDA is a veteran bookseller and librarian. Her debut novel, Shutter, was hailed as a "standout in the genre . . . [and] sure to please thriller fans" by School Library Journal. Her forthcoming novel, Pitch Dark (Fall 2016), is genre-bending science fiction/horror in the vein of Ridley Scott's Alien. Courtney holds a B.A. in English Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Brigham Young University. She is represented by John M. Cusick of Greenhouse Literary. A Northern California native, she now resides in Utah with a legion of books and a tiny cat who possesses a giant personality.
CARL ALVES’s debut novel Two For Eternity was released by Weaving Dreams Publishing. His novel Blood Street was released by True Grit Publishing. And his most recent novel, Reconquest: Mother Earth was released in 2014 by Montag Press. His short fiction has appeared in various publications such as Blood Reign Lit, Bards and Sages Quarterly, and Dark Eclipse. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has attended the Penn Writers Conference.
PAUL DALE ANDERSON is the author of Abandoned, Icepick, Pickaxe, Claw Hammer, Daddy's Home, Deviants. He is the former VP of HWA.
MICHAEL ARNZEN holds four Bram Stoker Awards® and an International Horror Guild Award for his disturbing (and often funny) fiction, poetry and literary experiments. He teaches in the MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. Raw Dog Screaming Press recently published the 20th Anniversary edition of his first novel, Grave Markings, and will be releasing his new nonfiction study, The Popular Uncanny, this October and will be a special guest at WHC 2016 in Utah.
RACHEL AUKES is the bestselling author of 100 Days in Deadland, which was named one of the best books of 2013 by Suspense Magazine. Rachel lives in Iowa with her husband and an incredibly spoiled sixty-pound lap dog. When not writing, she can be found flying old airplanes and trying to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.
DALE BAILEY lives in North Carolina, and has published three novels, The Fallen, House of Bones, and Sleeping Policemen (with Jack Slay, Jr.). His short fiction has been a finalist for the International Horror Guild Award, the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. His International Horror Guild Award-winning novelette “Death and Suffrage” was adapted as part of Showtime Television’s Masters of Horror. His collection, The End of the End of Everything, has just been published and his novel, The Subterranean Season, will be out this fall.
MICHAEL BAILEY is the multi-award-winning author of Palindrome Hannah, Phoenix Rose, Scales and Petals, and Inkblots and Blood Spots. He is also the madness behind Written Backwards, and his most recent anthologies include Chrial Mad, the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Qualia Nous, and The Library of the Dead. He is also the Managing Editor of Science Fiction for Dark Regions Press, and does some other stuff.
NATHAN BALLINGRUD is an American writer of horror and dark fantasy. His first book, the short story collection North American Lake Monsters, was published in 2013 by Small Beer Press, to great acclaim, including winning the Shirley Jackson Award and being shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards®. His novella, "The Visible Filth" has just been released from This Is Horror. He lives in Asheville, NC, with his daughter.
DAVID W. BARBEE is the author of four Bizarro books, with several stories online and in print. He writes disturbing pulp tales that mix folksy grit with far-out futurism, full of rabidly imaginative landscapes populated by a gruesome sideshow of maniacs and monsters. He grew up on an abandoned college campus and currently lives next to one of the nation’s most polluting power plants.
J.K. BARBER (JAY and KATIE BARBER) are a co-author team. Their works include a YA high fantasy trilogy, Chronicles of Aronshae, and a dark fantasy novel, Mervidia. In addition to their collaborative work, they also have individual titles: Hidden Path, a prequel to their trilogy written by Jay, and Fallen, a post-apocalyptic angel novel written by Katie. The couple lives in Woodstock, GA, with their two children and three rescue cats.
JONATHAN DYLAN BARKER holds a B.A. in English from Beaumont University and currently lives in Shadow Cove, MA, where he is hard at work on his latest novel.
JENNIFER BARNES is editor and co-founder of Raw Dog Screaming Press, now in its 12th year publishing “fiction that foams at the mouth.” She has a BA in English from the University of Maryland and is also an experienced graphic designer. Her children’s book, Better Haunted Homes and Gardens, was illustrated by Kristen Margiotta. Her most recently cultivated obsessions are for tea and audiobooks.
JAKE BIBLE, Bram Stoker Award® nominated-novelist, short story writer, independent screenwriter, podcaster, and inventor of the Drabble Novel, has entertained thousands with his horror and sci/fi tales. He reaches audiences of all ages with his uncanny ability to write a wide range of characters and genres. Jake is the author of the bestselling Z-Burbia series; the Apex Trilogy and the Mega series for Severed Press; as well as the YA zombie novel, Little Dead Man and the Stoker nominated YA horror novel, Intentional Haunting, for Permuted Press. He lives in Asheville, NC with his wife and kids.
CLIFF BIGGERS began in horror/sf/fantasy fandom in the 1960s as a fanzine writer and publisher. He wrote SF coverage for Mediascene Magazine and has written comics for Dark Horse, Tekno, and other publishers. He is the editor and co-publisher of Comic Shop News, a newsweekly that began in 1987.
JOHN BODEN was born on a cold winter's day in 1970. The years since have been filled with Star Wars action figures, cartoons, books, family, life and love. He is a bakery worker by day, his evenings are spent with his beautiful wife and sons and working with Shock Totem Publications. His work has appeared in Blight Digest, Splatterpunk, and the John Skipp edited Psychos. His "not-really-for-children-even-though-it-looks-like-it" book, Dominoes is a thing that's out there and some folks dig.
BRUCE BOSTON is the author of more than fifty books and chapbooks, including the dystopian SF novel The Guardener’s Tale and the psychedelic coming-of-age-novel Stained Glass Rain. His poems and/or fiction have appeared in Asimov’s SF, Analog, Weird Tales, Amazing, Daily Science Fiction, the Nebula Awards Anthology and Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. His poetry has received the Bram Stoker Award®, the Asimov’s Readers Award, the Balticon Poetry Award, and the Rhysling and Grandmaster Awards of the SFPA. His fiction has received a Pushcart Prize, and he has twice been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award® (novel, short story).
BILL BRIDGES is an award-winning writer and narrative designer of numerous games. He was one of the original developers of White Wolf’s World of Darkness and is the co-creator and developer of the Fading Suns science-fiction universe. He is a Fellow at Atlanta’s Mythic Imagination Institute and a board member of the C.G. Jung Society of Atlanta.
JASON V BROCK is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, musician, and editor, and has been widely published in magazines, online, comics, and anthologies such as Butcher Knives & Body Counts, Weird Fiction Review (print), S. T. Joshi's Black Wings series, Like Water for Quarks, Fangoria, and many others. He is currently completing several novels, and is the editor-in-chief of a website and digest called [NameL3ss]. A health nut and gadget freak, he lives in the Vancouver, WA area, and loves his wife Sunni, their family of herptiles, running their technology consulting business, and practicing vegan/vegetarianism.
SUNNI K BROCK writes speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and edits digital video. She has been published in several anthologies and periodicals, and edited three films, including the Rondo Award-winning documentary, “The Ackermonster Chronicles!”. Her strong technical background includes working for Microsoft, Adobe, and Sonic Solutions with expertise in multimedia, intelligent learning algorithms, and exploration of virtual reality and lucid dreaming. She enjoys spending her days working alongside her husband, author/filmmaker Jason V Brock, tending to their pet herptiles, running their technology consulting business, cooking extravagant vegetarian meals, and aggravating friends on Facebook.
JESSE BULLINGTON is the author of the novels, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World. His short fiction, articles, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous magazines, anthologies, and websites, ranging from Cthulhu Fhtagn! and The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 13 to Vice and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He's also the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology Letters to Lovecraft and the co-editor (with Molly Tanzer) of the forthcoming Swords v. Cthulhu. He’s usually in Colorado.
JEFF BURK is the Head Editor of Eraserhead Press’ horror imprint, Deadite Press. Deadite has published work from Brian Keene, Edward Lee, Shane McKenzie, J.F. Gonzalez, Dave Brockie (aka Oderus Urungus of GWAR), and many others. He is also the author of Shatnerquake, Super Giant Monster Time, Cripple Wolf, and Shatnerquest. He writes violent, absurd, and funny stories about punks, monsters, gore, and trash culture. Everyone normally dies at the end. Born in the Pennsylvania backwoods, he was raised on a steady diet of Godzilla, Star Trek, and EC Comics. He now resides in Portland, Oregon.
CHESYA BURKE is an MA student in African American Studies at Georgia State University. Burke has published over 100 works of fiction and articles within the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Her thesis is on the comic book character, Storm from the X-MEN and she is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Charis Books and More, one of the oldest feminist book stores in the country. Burke's story collection, “Let's Play White”, is being taught in universities around the country and received high praise from Samuel R. Delany and Nikki Giovanni.
RICHARD LEE BYERS is the author of 40 horror and fantasy novels including Blind God’s Bluff, The Reaver, and Dissolution. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and he has collected some of his best short horror stories in the eBook collection Zombies in Paradise.
JEFF CARROLL is a writer and a filmmaker. He is pioneering what he calls Hip Hop horror, Sci/fi and fantasy. His stories always have a lot of action and a social edge. He has written and produced two horror films, Holla If I Kill You and Gold Digger Killer, which won BEST Picture at the International Hip Hop film festival. He has published three books: the novelization to Gold Digger Killer, Thug Angel Rebirth of a Gargoyle and It Happened on Negro Mountain. His short stories have appeared in both The Black Science Fiction Society’s anthology and their magazine. I am "The Wandering Guru." I travel the nation teaching martial arts and writing.
R.J. CAVENDER is an Associate Member of the Horror Writers Association and the thrice Bram Stoker Award® nominated editor of the +Horror Library+ anthology series and co-editor of Horror For Good: A Charitable Anthology, both from Cutting Block Press. He is the managing editor of horror at Dark Regions Press, the co-founder/editor-in-chief at Cutting Block Books, an acquisitions editor at Blood Bound Books, and the pitch sessions coordinator for World Horror Convention. He is the host of Stanley Hotel Writers Retreat, Tucson Festival of Books Writers Retreat, and Tucson Dia de los Muertos Writers Retreat. He’s also building a haunted author event around The Winchester Mystery House for August 2016. R.J. lives in Tucson, Arizona. His favorite book is The Shining.
JONATHAN CHAFFIN, a visual artist and lifelong horror fan, uses objects and ephemera to construct narratives while producing awesome utilitarian objects like his Cthulhu and Cask of Amontillado tiki mugs. He reviews and reflects on horror movies for the Monster Serial series of books and studies marketing and crowdfunding.
JAMES CHAMBERS’ collection of Lovecraftian novellas, The Engines of Sacrifice, received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, which called it “…chillingly evocative….” His other works include the collections Resurrection House and The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, the dark, urban fantasy novella, “Three Chords of Chaos”, and the novellas “The Dead Bear Witness” and “Tears of Blood”. His stories have appeared in many anthologies, including the award-winning Bad-Ass Faeries series, Chiral Mad 2, Deep Cuts, The Green Hornet Chronicles, Shadows Over Main Street, Sick: An Anthology of Illness, Qualia Nous, Truth or Dare, and Walrus Tales.
G. O. CLARK’s writing has been published in Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Talebones Magazine, Strange Horizons, Space & Time, A Sea Of Alone: Poems For Alfred Hitchcock, Tales Of The Talisman, Daily SF, Jupiter (GB) and many more. He's the author of 11 poetry collections, the most recent, "Gravediggers' Dance", 2014, Dark Renaissance Books. His fiction collection, The Saucer Under My Bed & Other Stories, was published by Sam's Dot Publishing in 2011. He won the Asimov's Readers Award for poetry in 2001, and has been a repeat Rhysling and Stoker Award nominee. He lives in Davis, CA.
ALICIA COLE, writer and editor, is the co-founder of Priestess & Hierophant Press, a publishing imprint for speculative, esoteric, and fine art works, as well as unique hybrid genres. Her chapbook Darkly Told, an audio chapbook of dark horror and fantasy works, with poetry recorded by C.S.E. Cooney and original score composed by Memory Splice, is the press’ first release. Alicia’s speculative poetry has been published widely, including a 2013 feature in Amal El-Mohtar’s “How to Read Poetry” on . She wishes she coined the term chibi horror, and is fascinated with the dark entrails of human and alien life.
GERALD L. COLEMAN is a philosopher, theologian, poet, and author residing in Atlanta. Born in Lexington, he did his undergraduate work in philosophy and English at the University of Kentucky before completing a Master's degree in Theology at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. His most recent work appears in, Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture Issue 9, Drawn To Marvel: Poems From The Comic Books, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Vol. 18 and he is the author of the scifi/fantasy novel When Night Falls: Book One of The Three Gifts. He is a co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets.
CLINT COLLINS’ horror fiction can be found in the very first HWA anthology, Under the Fang, and in anthologies such as Fifty Shades of Decay, Bill of Frights, Cthulurotica, and Lilith Unbound. Having been an editor for both the US government and private industry, Clint now lives on Florida’s Gulf coast and is Chief Editor of the new Black Mirror Press, co-founded with Scott Woodward.
CRYSTAL CONNOR, Washington State native, has been terrorizing readers since before junior high School and loves anything to do with monsters, bad guys, rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high heel shoes & unreasonably priced hang bags. She is also considering changing her professional title to “dramatization specialist” because it’s so much more theatrical than being just a mere drama queen. Along with inducing insomnia within her readership, Crystal also reviews indie horror and sci-fi movies for both and her personal blog.
NICKOLAS COOK is a writer and editor of dark fiction who lives in the American southwestern desert with his beautiful wife and a pack of small, mean dogs. He's also a student (and sometimes instructor) of various close quarters combatives systems and self defense martial arts disciplines. His short stories, reviews and interviews with other genre personalities have appeared in many print and online sources. His published works include Dead Dog (the first in his Max and Little Billy “redneck-noir” series), Baleful Eye, The Black Beast of Algernon Wood and Round Midnight and Other Tales of Lost Souls.
L. ANDREW COOPER is the author of hallucinatory, interrelated horror novels Burning the Middle Ground (2012) and the more extreme Descending Lines (2013), as well as the f-ed short story collection Leaping at Thorns (2014) and non-fiction studies Gothic Realities (2010) and Dario Argento (2012). He has taught courses about horror at Princeton University (where his Ph.D. focused on horror literature), Georgia Tech, and the University of Louisville. He’s got a new collection, two novels, and screenplay in process. At WHC, he is debuting a co-edited collection called Reel Dark, stories and poems about movies and the “real” world infecting each other. Horrors consume him.
LINCOLN CRISLER is the author of Skinjumper (2014, Ragnarok) and Queen & Other Stores (2014, Apokrupha) and is the editor of Corrupts Absolutely? (2015, Ragnarok) and That Hoodoo, Voodoo That You Do (2015, Angelic Knight). As a United States Army combat veteran and non-commissioned officer, Lincoln lives in Augusta, Georgia.
C. MARTIN CROKER (a.k.a. Clay Croker) has been in the animation field for nearly 30 years, providing graphics, design, animation, stories and voiceover work for Disney Imagineering, Cartoon Network, DC Comics (Space Ghost, Scooby Doo), NASA, Warner Bros, Fox, TBS, and more. He helped create [adult swim] and Space Ghost Coast to Coast (voices of Zorak and Moltar) and provided animation and voices on The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, Perfect Hair Forever, and Assy Magee. He created the animated-Amazon Horror Hostess "Donna the Dead" and is currently working on the latest incarnation of ATHF (aka Aqua Teens Forever), adult swim's Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell and Switchblade Sam.
NICOLE CUSHING, Shirley Jackson Award finalist, has garnered praise from such diverse sources as Ain't It Cool News, Jack Ketchum, Thomas Ligotti, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Poppy Z. Brite, and S.T. Joshi. Several of her stories have been selected as honorable mentions (long list) for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year series. Her first full-length short story collection, The Mirrors, and her first novel, Mr. Suicide, are both scheduled for publication in 2015. She lives with her husband in Indiana.
ELLEN DATLOW has been editing sf/f/h short fiction for over 30 years and currently acquires short fiction for . In addition, she has edited more than 60 anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year, Fearful Symmetries, Nightmare Carnival, and The Doll Collection. Forthcoming is The Monstrous. Datlow has won multiple awards for her editing. She was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award for "outstanding contribution to the genre," and honored with Life Achievement Awards by both the Horror Writers Association and the World Fantasy Convention.
DON D'AURIA is an executive editor at Samhain Publishing, editing and directing their horror line. He has worked in publishing for 30 years. Before joining Samhain, he was an executive editor at Leisure Books, where he directed their horror line for 15 years. He was the quintessential horror kid, growing up on a steady diet of TV’s Chiller Theater, Creature Features, and horror novels and Famous Monsters magazine. He’s been lucky enough to work in the genre he’s always loved. He is the recipient of an International Horror Guild Award for his contributions to the genre.
KRISTIN DEARBORN grew up in Maine, but now resides in Vermont, which is like Maine, but with fewer oceans and more maple syrup. The long, snowy winter nights--and the legacies of local masters Lovecraft and King--provide fertile ground for the imagination. Kristin's standalone titles include Trinity and Sacrifice Island. Her short work has appeared in +Horror Library 5+ and Midnight Echo magazine. When not reading horror or writing it, she can be found hiking with her dog, rock climbing, or riding her motorcycle.
KRISTI DEMEESTER’s short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Nightscript, LampLight, Black Static, Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume 1, Shimmer, Shock Totem, and others. Additionally, she is an Associate Fiction Editor at Ideomancer.
JOHN DIXON’s dark thriller Phoenix Island inspired the CBS TV series Intelligence. A former boxer, teacher, and ABC Studios consultant, John now writes full time and occasionally serves as a talking head on The Science Channel. He lives with his wife, Christina, and their freeloading pets in West Chester, PA, where he obsesses over books, chess, and hot peppers. Devil’s Pocket, the sequel to Phoenix Island, comes out this August from Simon & Schuster / Gallery Books.
JAMES DORR is an Indiana writer and poet. His The Tears of Isis was a 2014 Bram Stoker Award® finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. Other books include Strange Mistresses: Tales of Wonder and Romance, Darker Loves: Tales Of Mystery and Regret, and his all-poetry Vamps (A Retrospective). Working primarily in Dark Fantasy/Horror with some forays into Mystery and Science Fiction, Dorr has nearly 400 individual appearances in anthologies and magazines from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine to Yellow Bat Review.
THOMAS DRAGO is the author of Crow Creek and Queensboro. He teaches drama and English in North Carolina and attended NAU in Flagstaff, Arizona. He has published half-a-dozen stories, appearing most recently in The Explorer, a local literary magazine.
AARON DRIES, Australian-born author, filmmaker and artist , won the Rue Morgue/ ChiZine /Leisure Books international ‘Fresh Blood’ writing contest with House of Sighs, launching his career. Aaron’s sophomore effort, The Fallen Boys, was ranked by as one of the ten best horror novels of 2013 and was acclaimed by Masters Of Horror creator Mick Garris as “a terrific, heartbreaking and brutal book.” His most recent novel, A Place for Sinners, was described by Kealan Patrick Burke as “a compelling example of the best the genre has to offer, you can take me at my word.”
T. FOX DUNHAM lives in Philadelphia with fiancée, Allison. He’s a cancer survivor, modern bard and historian. His first book, The Street Martyr, was published by Gutter Books. A major motion picture based on the book is being produced by Throughline Films. Blood Bound Books is publishing his second book, Mercy, a horror novel based on the torture of his cancer treatment. Fox is an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and he’s had published hundreds of short stories and articles. His motto is "wrecking civilization one story at a time."
BOB EGGLETON (Artist Guest of Honor) is a multi-Hugo Award winning artist in the genres of SF, fantasy and horror. He grew to prominence in horror with the covers to Brian Lumley’s Necroscope Series, an association with an author he continues to this day. He also illustrates H. P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Stephen King, and many more. His work is also associated with Godzilla, having done art for several generations of Godzilla books, comics and most recently working with IDW comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland. He has also worked as an concept artist on several movies. Upcoming for him will be a heavily illustrated book, Tortured Souls, by Clive Barker, and an illustration in a Centipede Press artist edition of At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.
JOHN EVERSON is a staunch advocate for the culinary joys of the jalapeno and an unabashed fan of 1970s European horror cinema. He is also the Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of Covenant and seven other novels, including the erotic horror Stoker Award finalist NightWhere, and his latest, the seductive backwoods tale of The Family Tree. Other novels include Sacrifice, The Pumpkin Man, Siren, The 13th and the "creature feature" Violet Eyes. Over the past 20 years, his stories have appeared in more than 75 magazines and anthologies. His fourth fiction collection, Sacrificing Virgins, will appear from Samhain in 2015.
EXTREME GENE is a popular party deejay in Atlanta, GA and surrounding areas.
JG FAHERTY, a life-long resident of New York's haunted Hudson Valley, has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award® and ITW Thriller Award and is the author of five novels, including his latest, The Cure, a paranormal thriller. He's also had eight novellas and 50-plus short stories published. He writes adult/YA horror/sci-fi/fantasy, and his works range from quiet suspense to comic gruesomeness. Growing up, his favorite playground was a 17th century cemetery, which many people feel explains a lot. He is an Active member of the HWA, SFWA, MWA, RWA, and ITW, and oversees the HWA's Literacy and Library programs.
JOHN FARRIS (Guest of Honor) sold his first novel, Corpse Next Door, the summer after he graduated high school in 1955. In 1959, Harrison High became his first million-seller. By 1973, he had made a name for himself, with accomplishments stemming from his novels The Long Light of Dawn (1962), When Michael Calls (1967), King Windom (1967) and The Captors (1969). Each of these novels, with their unanticipated plots and puzzle structure, helped spawn his first horror directorial debut, Dear Dead Delilah, in 1973. While his talent matured, his suspense novel When Michael Calls was adapted for T.V., starring the young actor Michael Douglas. Continuing to hone his craft, Mr. Farris brought all his collective creativity into one novel: The Fury (1978). This story would shortly establish him as a world class horror novelist. The Fury caught the attention of Stephen King, who hailed John Farris as “America’s premier novelist of terror.” Peter Straub followed by saying John Farris was “One of the giants of contemporary psychological horror.” Mr. Farris also wrote the screenplay for The Fury, which was put into production as a major film directed by Brian DePalma. The Fury would become a quartet, The Fury and the Terror (1999), Fury and the Power (2000), and Avenging Fury (2008). At the time of this writing, there are plans to re-make The Fury movie. His last release, High Bloods, is a story about a worldwide plague of werewolves in the year 2029. It was released by Tor books in 2009. With over 40 suspense and horror novels to his credit, 3 movies, (with a fourth planned), and a short story collection, Scare Tactics, Mr. Farris has also found the time to raise a family, and inspire dozens of up-and-coming writers, including his own sons.
KURT FAWVER is a writer of horror, dark fantasy, and weird fiction. He's been published in venues such as Weird Tales and Necro Publications' Into the Darkness anthology and has fiction forthcoming in places such as the Lovecraft eZine and Tor's Midian Unmade anthology. He has also released a collection of short stories, Forever, in Pieces, through Villipede Publications. Kurt also holds a Ph.D. in literature and writes scholarly essays examining the horror genre.
DAVID FITZGERALD, by day, is an atheist activist, historical writer, international public speaker. He is the author of The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion series and Nailed, which critically examines the historical evidence for Christ. He was the co-founder and director of the world’s first Atheist Film Festival and today works for the Secular Student Alliance and The Godless Perverts Story Hour. Secretly, he also writes urban fantasy, horror and sci-fi erotica as Kilt Kilpatrick.
DANA FREDSTI is an ex B-movie actress with a background in theatrical combat. After 10-plus years volunteering at Exotic Feline Breeding Facility/Feline Conservation Center, Dana’s had a full-grown leopard sit on her feet, been kissed by tigers, and had her thumb sucked by an ocelot with nursing issues. She’s addicted to bad movies and any book or film, good or bad, which include zombies. She is the author of the Ashley Parker series, touted as Buffy meets The Walking Dead. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and fellow author David Fitzgerald, their dog, and a small horde of felines.
PATRICK FREIVALD is the three-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of the horror thrillers Jade Sky and Black Tide, the YA horror Twice Shy and Special Dead, and the thriller Blood List (with his twin brother Phil). His short fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Qualia Nous and the Demonic Visions series, and he collaborated with Joe McKinney on a graphic novella in Dark Discoveries Magazine, based on the setting of Jade Sky. He lives in rural western New York with three dogs, five cats, a parrot, chickens, and several million stinging insects.
ANDREW S. FULLER is a writer and editor whose fiction appears in Crossed Genres, On Spec, The Pedestal, Daily SF, Abyss & Apex, the anthologies Bibliotheca Fantastica, FISH, A Darke Phantastique, and The Circus Wagon novelette. His screenplay Effulgence won the Deep One Best Screenwriter Award at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Since 1999, he has edited Three-Lobed Burning Eye magazine.
W. PAUL GANLEY published a fanzine (Fan-Fare) in the early fifties, then participated in SSR Publications, and published items like Shanadu and The Lovecraft Collectors Library (George T. Wetzel, editor). He dropped out in the mid-‘50s to do a few years of graduate school, and then worked as Assistant Editor of the American Journal of Physics. Finally he came back to weird/fantasy publishing, with Weirdbook, Weirdbook Encores, and Fantasy Mongers, plus limited edition books by authors like Lumley, Schweitzer, Brennan, Salmonson, Betancourt, and Springer. He paused in 1997 because of illness, but later produced numerous limited-edition chapbooks and is still actively selling his backlist on the internet.
KAMI GARCIA (Guest of Honor) is the #1 New York Times & international bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures Novels and Dangerous Creatures, and the author of Unbreakable and Unmarked in the Legion Series. She is also a USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, and Los Angeles Times bestseller, a Bram Stoker Award nominee, and a recipient of the Bold Ink Award. Beautiful Creatures has been published in 50 countries and translated into 39 languages. The film adaptation of Beautiful Creatures released in theaters on February 14, 2013, from Warner Brothers. Kami is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association, PEN West, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and a founding member of the Young Adult Capitol Bookfest (YALL Fest) in Charleston, SC, and continues as a Director of Programming for the festival. Kami is fascinated by the paranormal, and she’s very superstitious. When she isn’t writing, Kami can usually be found watching disaster movies, listening to Soundgarden, or drinking Diet Coke. She lives in Maryland with her family, and their dogs Spike and Oz (named after characters from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Learn more about Kami and her books at and and follow her on Twitter @kamigarcia.
CRAIG LAURANCE GIDNEY writes both contemporary, young adult, and genre fiction. Craig’s first collection, Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories was a finalist for the 2008 Lambda Literary Award in the Science Fiction/Fantasy and Horror category. Bereft (Tiny Satchel Press), a YA novel, appeared in 2013 and was the recipient of the Bronze Moonbeam Medal in the Mature Themes category. Skin Deep Magic (Rebel Satori Press) his third book, is a finalist for the 2014 Lambda Literary Awards. Craig lives and writes in his native Washington, DC.
J.H. GLAZE spins tales that will grab you by the throat and not let you go until the last page. If you are a fan of Horror, Thrillers, Action, and like the occasional dash of humor in the mix, Glaze is an author who should be on your reading short list. His stories are packed with punch and wit, and when you meet him at a Horror/SciFi/Fantasy convention, he will invite you to read a few paragraphs and try to stop—if you can.
J. T. GLOVER has published short fiction in The Lovecraft eZine, The Children of Old Leech, Fungi, Underground Voices, The Big Bad II, and Handsome Devil: Stories of Sin and Seduction, among other venues. He is a member of the board of directors of James River Writers. By day he is the Humanities Research Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he studies creative writers’ research practices, literary networks, and the digital humanities. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, he lives in Richmond, Virginia.
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN (Guest of Honor) is the #1 New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Of Saints and Shadows, The Myth Hunters, The Boys Are Back in Town, Strangewood and Snowblind. He has also written books for teens and young adults, including the Body of Evidence series, Poison Ink, and Soulless. He has co-written three illustrated novels with Mike Mignola, the first of which, Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, was the launching pad for the Eisner Award-nominated comic book series, Baltimore, and the recently-published first volume of his graphic novel trilogy with Charlaine Harris, Cemetery Girl, reached #1 on the New York Times list. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies The New Dead, The Monster’s Corner, and Dark Duets, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, an online animated series, and a network television pilot. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at .
ANDREW GREENBERG, co-creator of the Fading Suns roleplaying and computer games and original developer of White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade, is lead developer on the upcoming Fading Suns: Noble Armada mobile game. He has credits on more than 50 White Wolf products and more than 20 HDI books. His computer game credits include Dracula Unleashed, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Warhammer 40K: Final Liberation, Merchant Prince II, Mall Tycoon, and more. A fellow with the Mythic Imagination Institute, Andrew is also president of the Georgia Game Developers Association and organizer of the Southeast Interactive Entertainment and Games Expo ().
LOIS H. GRESH is the New York Times Best-Selling Author (six times) and USA Today Best-Selling Author of 28 books and 60 stories. Look for her trilogy of supernatural crime thrillers coming soon from Titan Books. Titles: Cult of the Dead (Hippocampus, June 2015), Innsmouth Nightmares (editor, PS, June 2015), Dark Fusions (editor, PS, 2013). Stories: Dreams from the Witch House, Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, Black Wings III, New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Dead, Gothic Lovecraft, That Is Not Dead, Dark Phantastique, Mountain Walked, Madness Of Cthulhu, Searchers After Horror, Expiration Date, Black Wings IV, Mark Of The Beast, and more.
DANIEL GRIFFITH is a documentary filmmaker specializing in cult cinema and retro-television. He has been the go-to documentarian for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD sets, released by Shout! Factory. He also has produced and directed features about The Twilight Zone, classic Universal Pictures science-fiction films, and several Hammer horror classics. He is also the owner of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and currently in post-production on an in-depth feature film exploring 1980s schlockmeister Charles Band and his first production company, Empire Pictures. He has been awarded the Forrest J. Ackerman Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the 2011 Rondo Award for best DVD extra.
TOMMY GROTH is a local Atlanta actor who occasionally writes short films, solely for the purpose of casting himself as the lead. To date, none of his films have lead to his discovery.
NIKKI GUERLAIN is a Pacific Northwest writer of various forms. Her work can be found online and in print. Her debut novel Machine Gun Vacation is forthcoming from Thunderdome Press.
MARK ALLAN GUNNELLS loves to tell stories. He has since he was a kid, penning one-page tales that were Twilight Zone knockoffs. He likes to think he has gotten a little better since then. He has been lucky enough to work with some wonderful publishers such as Apex Publishing, Bad Moon Books, Journalstone, Evil Jester Press, Etopia, Sideshow Press, and Gallows Press. He loves reader feedback, and above all he loves telling stories. He lives in Greer, SC, with his fiance Craig A. Metcalf.
BETH GWINN, born and raised in Nashville, liked “different” things from an early age, starting with her brother’s superhero comics and quickly expanding to horror comics and books about the supernatural world. Her introduction to the world of Fandom came through the Nashville Science Fiction Club. She started her own photographic business specializing in the Nashville music scene and also photographing cons. She was Locus Magazine’s staff photographer from the early 1980s to 2005. A 10-year labor of love, her photography book, Dark Dreamers, published in 2001, provides a who’s who of the top names in horror. She is one of the three founders of the World Horror Convention with Maureen Dorris and Jo Ann Parsons.
EDWARD AUSTIN HALL, Alabama escapee, created the Super Visions blog for Fresh Loaf and serves as operations editor for its parent publication, Creative Loafing Atlanta. His other writings have appeared in Paste, BurnAway and the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Hall is a graduate of Tulane University and co-editor (with novelist Bill Campbell) of the anthology Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond. His recent short fiction appears in the online journal Eyedrum Periodically; his forthcoming first novel is titled Chimera Island.
LYNNE HANSEN is an award-winning filmmaker whose short horror comedy Chomp, which she both directed and wrote, won Best of the Fest at the GeekFest Film Festival. She’s also a professional book cover designer who specializes in horror and thriller art. Her clients include Cemetery Dance, Cutting Block Books, Christopher Golden, and Jeff Strand. In a previous life, she wrote seven young adult horror novels.
MEGHAN HARKER writes for CriminalElement and Girls in Capes, hosts the Counting Casualties podcast, and recently had her short story, "Sleight of Hand," published in the Amazon Bestselling Anthology, Dark Carnival. She lives in Atlanta, GA, and wishes she could have a pet bat. When not writing, Harker can be found haunting bookstores, local cemeteries, and antique shops.
CHARLAINE HARRIS (Guest of Honor) is the author of The Southern Vampire Mysteries series about telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, which is the basis for the highly successful True Blood on HBO. 2005 marked the debut of Harris’s new series The Harper Connelly Mysteries, with the release of Grave Sight. The series is told by a young woman named Harper Connelly, who, after being struck by lightning, is able to locate dead bodies and to see their last moments through the eyes of the deceased. 2014 marked the debut of the Cemetery Girl series, a graphic novel series co-written with fellow WHC 2015 Guest of Honor Christopher Golden. Charlaine is a true daughter of the South. She was born in Mississippi and has lived in Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Texas. After years of writing poetry and plays and essays, her career as a novelist began when her husband told her to stay home and write. Her first book, Sweet and Deadly, appeared in 1981. When Charlaine’s career as a mystery writer began to falter, she decided to write a cross-genre book that would appeal to fans of mystery, science fiction, romance, and suspense. She could not have anticipated the huge surge of reader interest in the adventures of a barmaid in Louisiana, or the fact that Alan Ball would come knocking at her door. Charlaine is a voracious reader. She has one husband, three children, two grandchildren, and four rescue dogs. She leads a busy life.
NAIMA HAVILAND likes dead people. Fictional dead people, that is, and the twisted people who make them dead (or undead). She is the author of a dark fantasy anthology, Night at the Demontorium, and two vampire novels set in South Carolina, Bloodroom and The Bad Death. She takes as inspiration the Southeast United States, including her home in the Florida Panhandle, an ocean paradise with a not-too-distant past full of eccentrics, explorers, pirates, ghosts, and UFOs.
DAVID HENSLEY is the co-owner and art director of Tripwire Interactive, creators of Killing Floor and Red Orchestra series. He has shipped five PC games with Tripwire and contributed content or game design to two console games and one mobile title.
BRAD C. HODSON exists in Los Angeles. His first love is short fiction, though she only calls after a few drinks these days. He recently adapted the screenplay for his novel Darling, which is currently in pre-production starring RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad). He also recently wrote the screenplay to Modern Girls Guide to Wishing for Director and Academy Award winning VFX artist James Parris, as well as the action film No Prayers for the Dead with Harry Lennix (Blacklist, Man of Steel). He’s currently working on the 185th pass of his historical horror novel and trying to cut his coffee consumption to under 12 cups per day.
TONYA HURLEY is the New York Times and international bestselling author of the Ghostgirl series and The Blessed Trilogy—Precious Blood, Passionaries, and Hallowed. She has written and directed five critically acclaimed independent films that have premiered in film festivals around the world and have been broadcast on PBS and IFC as well as co-created and co-produced television shows for ABC Family and Disney. Her Ghostgirl series has just been optioned for film by X-Men: First Class, Kingsman and Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughan. Hurley is a founding board member of the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, NY.
MICHAEL T. HUYCK, JR., aka “Mikey”, is an editor and writer who has published fiction and non-fiction in scores of publications, including his recent collection of short fiction titled Of Dark and Yesterday. He's maintained Phantom F-4s for the US Air Force, operated nuclear propulsion plants for the US Navy, driven a forklift, bounced for a nightclub, traveled internationally as a subcontractor, and managed over a dozen different nuclear facilities. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, loves beer and seafood, and is a generally happy dude.
RUSSELL JAMES grew up on Long Island, New York and spent too much time watching late night horror. He graduated from Cornell University and the University of Central Florida. After flying helicopters with the U.S. Army, he now spins twisted tales, including paranormal thrillers Dark Inspiration, Sacrifice, Black Magic, Dark Vengeance, Dreamwalker and Q Island. He has two horror short story collections, Tales from Beyond and Deeper into Darkness. His wife reads his work, rolls her eyes, and says "There is something seriously wrong with you."
STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES is the author of 15 and a half novels and six story collections. Most recent is After the People Lights Have Gone Off, currently nominated for a Bram Stoker Award®. He lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.
SABRINA KALETA is a poet and acquisitions editor for Rothco Press (). Rothco, the sister company to Co-Conspiracy Entertainment (), is a new eclectic press looking for books that are ripe for TV/film development. We believe your next bingeworthy show is a book
ERINN L. KEMPER lives in British Columbia, Canada and in Costa Rica where she writes, walks her dog on the beach and drinks ridiculous amounts of coffee and coconut water, at least until happy hour. The rest of the time she builds things and renovates. She pens a column in the HWA’s monthly newsletter. Erinn has sold stories to Cemetery Dance Magazine, Dark Discoveries and [Nameless] Digest and appears in various anthologies including A Darke Phantastique, Qualia Nous and Chiral Mad 2.
VIC KERRY lives in Alabama with his wife, five dogs, and cat, Daisy. He holds an MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University and is the author of The Children of Lot and Revels Ending.
JACK KETCHUM (HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner) is the author of 32 books to date—novels, novellas, story collections, nonfiction, plays and poetry. Five of his novels have been filmed—The Lost, The Girl Next Door, Red, Offspring, and The Woman—the last written with Lucky McKee, their script for which won the Best Screenplay Award at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. He is the four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association and was nominated three times more. He was named Grand Master at the 2011 World Horror Convention. He lives in New York.
NANCY KILPATRICK, award-winning author and editor, has published 18 novels, over 220 short stories and six short fiction collections, one non-fiction book, and has edited 14 anthologies. Her latest anthology is Expiration Date, and the upcoming one will be nEvermore! Tales of Murder, Mystery and the Macabre, co-edited with Caro Soles.
LESLIE S. KLINGER is the New York Times-bestselling editor of the Edgar®-winning New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and the critically-acclaimed New Annotated Dracula, as well as numerous other books and articles on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, vampires, and the Victorian age. His newest books are the four-volume Bram Stoker Award®-nominated The Annotated Sandman with Neil Gaiman (Vertigo), In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, co-edited with Laurie R. King, and The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. Pegasus Books will publish his anthology of classic horror, In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe, in October 2015.
DANIEL KNAUF created and served as Executive Producer/Writer of his Emmy Award-winning series, Carnivále (HBO) and was a Bram Stoker Award® nominee for Dracula (NBC), as Executive Producer/Showrunner. Daniel has written episodes of Supernatural (The CW) and Fear Itself (NBC), has served as Consulting Producer on Stand Off (FOX), My Own Worst Enemy (NBC) and Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz). He and his son, Charles Knauf, collaborated on The Invincible Iron Man, The Eternals and Captain America for Marvel Comics. He is developing a feature trilogy for Will Smith and Overbrook Productions and writing its first installment, The Redemption of Cain, as well as Honey Vicarro for Flame Productions, and is serving as a Co-Executive Producer/Writer on the hit series, The Blacklist (NBC).
ALETHEA KONTIS is a shinydark princess, fairy godmother and geek. She is the author of the bestselling and award-winning Books of Arilland fairytale series. She has also dabbled in picture books, poetry, essays, online video rants and making horror movies. Princess Alethea lives on the Space Coast of Florida with her teddy bear, Charlie.
NICOLE GIVENS KURTZ is a published author. Her short stories have earned an Honorable Mention in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest, and have appeared in such noted publications as Crossed Genres, Tales of the Talisman, and anthologies such as The Big Bad (Vol. II), Schoolbooks & Sorcery, Athena's Daughters (Vol. II), Six Guns Straight from Hell, Space Cops, and Black Science Fiction Society's Genesis Anthology II. Her novels have been named finalist in EPPIE, Dream Realm Awards and others. Nicole is often a guest at speculative conventions, where she frequently serves as a panelist on dystopian literature, anime, and electronic publishing.
JOHN EDWARD LAWSON has been referred to as “the forgotten black man of horror,” but he also regularly publishes literary and science fiction. His novels, short fiction, and poetry have garnered nominations for the Dwarf Stars Award, the Elgin Award, Pushcart Prize, Rhysling Award, The Bram Stoker Award®, and Wonderland Award.
ANN LAYMON worked for TWA as one of the early employees of the airline, as a reservations associate. After marrying her husband and having a child, she spent seven years as a volunteer for Canfield/Crescent Heights Elementary, organizing fundraising events with the PTA. After Richard Laymon's death, she has spent her time managing his estate on every front.
KELLY LAYMON has worked in publishing since high school and college, having helped her father with research and editing anthologies. She started a local chapter of the HWA, arranging meetings, signings, and readings. She works with her mother, but manages the editorial side of the estate. She is currently handling the extras for the limited editions with Dark Regions Press.
FRAZER LEE is a novelist, screenwriter and film director. His debut novel The Lamplighters was a Bram Stoker Award® Finalist for First Novel. His other works include The Jack in the Green, The Lucifer Glass, The Skintaker, and The Leper Window. Frazer's movie credits include the award-winning short films On Edge, Red Lines, Simone, and the critically acclaimed horror/thriller feature film and movie novelization Panic Button. Frazer lectures in Creative Writing and Screenwriting at Brunel and Birkbeck Universities in London, UK. He resides with his family in Buckinghamshire, England just across the cemetery from the actual Hammer House of Horror.
SYDNEY LEIGH is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated writer and editor native to Massachusetts. Her short fiction and poetry has appeared in publications such as Shock Totem, Shroud, and The Library of the Dead.
RYAN LIESKE is a filmmaker and writer from Grand Rapids, MI. His films Clean Break, Down to Sleep, Abed (based on the short story by Elizabeth Massie, and produced by Philip Nutman), and Remotion: Prologue have received numerous awards, and screened at festivals all over the world. His short stories "Consumption", and "Saṃsāra" have recently appeared in the Possessions anthologies, edited by Paul Loh. He is currently in production on a feature film, Remotion, and is writing a novel. He lives with two cats, reads a lot of books, watches a lot of movies, and doesn't sleep very well.
BRIAN LONANO has directed sci-fi and horror short films, music videos as well as commissioned work for Television and Film Festivals. His work has screened at SXSW, Fantastic Fest, Fantasia and the Stanley Film Festival and featured on popular film websites such as Ain't It Cool News and Fangoria.
CYNTHIA LOTT is a writer and professional researcher. Her debut novel, The Feathers, is a paranormal thriller and Book One in The Southern Spectral Series. The Irises, Book Two in the Series will be out in June, 2015. She loves vegetarian cooking, hiking, exploring places and hearing life stories of a glass of good wine.
JONATHAN MABERRY (Toastmaster) is a NY Times bestselling author, four-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer. He writes the Joe Ledger thrillers, the Rot & Ruin series, the Nightsiders series, the Dead of Night series, and the Watch Over Me series. He also writes the monthly comics V-WARS and ROT & RUIN, and has written extensively for Marvel Comics and Dark Horse. Two of his novels (Rot & Ruin and Dead of Night) are in development for film, and another (V-Wars) has been optioned for TV. He teaches Experimental Writing for Teens, is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, and the co-founder of The Liars Club. Prior to becoming a full-time novelist, Jonathan spent twenty-five years as a magazine feature writer, martial arts instructor and playwright. Jonathan lives in Del Mar, California with his wife, Sara Jo.
USMAN T. MALIK is a Pakistani writer camped in Florida. He reads Sufi poetry, likes long walks, and occasionally strums naats on the guitar. His fiction has been nominated for the Nebula and Bram Stoker® awards. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, , The Apex Book of World SF, Nightmare, Strange Horizons, and Black Static among other venues. He is a graduate of Clarion West.
BRICK MARLIN, residing in the sunny side district of Southern Indiana with his lovely wife, their two dogs, servo bed bugs programmed as snooze alarms of the six-foot clown alarm clock called Chainsaw Freckles doesn’t wake him up by the scream of its chainsaw, juggles working a full-time job at UPS and honing his craft of writing in the early mornings. His latest novel, Shadow Out Of The Sky, has already gathered great reviews, as well as his previous works, Blue Lights In A Jar, Sectors and Raising Riley.
CHRIS MARRS lives on the west coast of British Columbia. She tends bar during the day to keep her kids fed, watered, and sheltered and spends the nights writing, usually accompanied by copious amounts of coffee and sometimes a little wine. She has a story in A Darke Phantastique, Cycatrix Press, the forthcoming Library of the Dead, Written Backwards Press, and in Dark Discoveries Issue #25/Femme Fatale, October 2013. Bad Moon Books published her novella Everything Leads Back to Alice in the Fall of 2013.
ANYA MARTIN has been burrowing deep into the Weird, with the following stories either published or forthcoming in 2015: “The Prince of Lyghes” (Cthulhu Fhtagn!), “Sensoria” (Giallo Fantastique), “Resonator Superstar!” (Resonator: New Lovecraftian Tales From Beyond), “Old Tsah-Hov” (Cassilda’s Song), “A Girl and Her Dog” (Xnoybis #2) and the play Passage to the Dreamtime (Dunhams Manor Press). “Stuffed Bunny in Doll-Land,” her dark comics fable with Spanish artist Mado Peña in Womanthlogy: Heroic, received praise in multiple reviews. A long-time journalist, Anya also is founder/blogger-in-chief of , a guide to Atlanta’s thriving Retro revival.
RENA MASON is the Bram Stoker Award® winning author of The Evolutionist and East End Girls, as well as a 2014 Stage 32 / The Blood List Presents: The Search for New Blood Screenwriting Contest Finalist. A longtime fan of horror, sci-fi, science, history, historical fiction, mysteries, and thrillers, she began writing to mash up those genres in stories revolving around everyday life. She’s a member of the HWA, International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and International Screenwriters’ Association.
MICHAEL MASSEE is perhaps best known in the horror community for his role as “Fun Boy” in The Crow, but he has appeared in numerous movie and TV roles. These include Gustav Fiers (alias The Gentleman) in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 &2, villain Ira Gaines in 24, the physical manifestation of Management (aka Lucius Belyakovin) on HBO’s Carnivale, Dyland Frost on FlashForward, serial killer Charles Hoyt on Rizzoli & Isles, and many more guest-starring roles on series such as The X-Files, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Supernatural.
BRIAN MATTHEWS started writing later in life, when a good friend asked him to write a short story for a cyberpunk anthology, and then co-authored another story for the same anthology. Well, that was it. He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to write a book. Forever Man, released in February 2013, was that book. He has since then published his second novel, Revelation, and is working on his third. He lives in Michigan with his daughter, and will be adding to his family when he gets married in the summer of 2015.
SUSAN MCCAULEY has an MFA in writing and an MA in Text & Performance. Her stage adaptation of Gogol’s “The Nose” and her play on Elizabeth I were produced in London. She was a producer for the Emmy-nominated short film, Now & Forever Yours: Letters to an Old Soldier. Her short story “The Nest” was published in 2014. Her story “The Cask” will appear in Demon Rum and Other Evil Spirits in July 2015, and is currently in preproduction to be shot as a short film. She is a contributing writer for .
ANGEL LEIGH MCCOY writes horror, fantasy, and romance fiction, produces AnotherDimension magazine, edits anthologies, makes indie games, and is the Horror Writers Association’s bumbling webmaster. She’s a 22-year games industry veteran, employed as a narrative designer at ArenaNet where she spins the yarn of Guild Wars 2.
JOE MCKINNEY is a San Antonio-based author of horror, crime and science fiction novels, novellas and short stories. His works include the four part Dead World series; the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated science fiction disaster tale, "Quarantined"; crime novel, Dodging Bullets; Lost Girl of the Lake, The Red Empire, The Charge and St. Rage. Joe has also worked as an editor, along with Michelle McCrary, on the zombie-themed anthology Dead Set, and with Mark Onspaugh on the abandoned building-themed anthology The Forsaken. In his day job, Joe McKinney is a sergeant with the San Antonio Police Department, where he helps to run the city’s 911 Dispatch Center.
JAMES A. MOORE is the award winning author of over 25 novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, Cherry Hill and Smile No More. In addition to writing multiple short stories, he has also edited, with Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, the British Invasion anthology for Cemetery Dance Publications. His most recent novels include The Blasted Lands (A Seven Forges novel), Alien: Sea of Sorrows and the forthcoming City of Wonders.
SHANE MORTON saw “King Kong” (’33) at the age of 3, and has been a monster maker ever since. In over two decades in the horror business, he has worked with such greats as Stan Winston Studios and Rob Zombie. He has designed and built horror attractions and haunted houses all over the country, including the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse. His film work includes the indie, grindhouse hit, Dear God No! and Adult Swim’s Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell, where he was the Art Director of Hell and supplied special effects and make-ups. He is the producer, writer, director, and lead actor of The Silver Scream Spook Show, which has been running for over six years now with 50 episodes and over 100 performances.
LISA MORTON is a screenwriter, Bram Stoker Award®-winning author, and Halloween expert whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening." Her most recent novel is Zombie Apocalypse!: Washington Deceased; forthcoming is the non-fiction Ghosts: A Haunted History (September 2015). She currently serves as President of the Horror Writers Association, and lives in North Hollywood, California.
BLAKE MYERS is the Festival Director of the Buried Alive Film Festival. He searches the planet for everything that is new about horror films. He also works professionally in the film industry as a set dresser on The Walking Dead, and had provided special effects make up on films like V/H/S (Amateur Night) and Yellowbrickroad. Blake is looking forward to this year's 10th annual Buried Alive Film Festival (Nov. 21-22, 2015).
YVONNE NAVARRO lives in Arizona, where until recently she worked on Fort Huachuca. She is the author of 22 published novels and well over a hundred short stories, plus numerous non-fiction articles and two editions of a reference dictionary. Her writing has won the HWA's Bram Stoker Award® plus a number of other writing awards. She also draws and paints, and once sold a canvas print of a zombie painting. She is married to author Weston Ochse and dotes on their three Great Danes (Goblin, Ghoulie and Grendel) and a talking, people-loving parakeet named BirdZilla.
JAMES NEWMAN is the author of the novels Midnight Rain, Animosity, Ugly as Sin, and The Wicked, the collection People Are Strange, and the quizbook 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions. James lives in western North Carolina with his wife and their two sons.
DAVID NICKLE is the author of several novels including Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism and most recently The 'Geisters, and numerous stories, collected most recently in Knife Fight and Other Struggles. He's co-editor of The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir, and the forthcoming LICENCE EXPIRED: The Unauthorized James Bond.
SCOTT NICOLAY is a child of the toxic waste dumps and devil haunted swamps of New Jersey, now living in the high desert of northwest New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. Rue Morgue magazine named his debut collection of weird horror tales, Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed (Fedogan & Bremer), its Best Fiction Book of 2014 (TIE). He is currently wrestling a second collection of tales from the darkness that surrounds us.
WILLIAM F. NOLAN (Grand Master) has written dozens of novels, short stories, and non-fiction studies in a variety of genres, including the classic post-apocalyptic tale “Small World” (recently adapted into comics form in Evil Jester Presents #1). His screenwriting work includes 1976’s adaptation Burnt Offerings (based on the novel by Robert Marasco) and the milestone television movie Trilogy of Terror (co-written with Richard Matheson). Nolan also co-authored (with George Clayton Johnson) the landmark science fiction novel Logan’s Run, and wrote the sequels Logan’s World and Logan’s Search. He’s been voted Living Legend in Dark Fantasy by the International Horror Guild in 2002, Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and Lifetime Achievement Award winner from the Horror Writers Association. His most recent releases include the collection entitled Like a Dead Man Walking and Other Shadow Tales (Centipede Press) and the Bram Stoker Award-winning Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (Hippocampus Press). A vegetarian, Nolan resides in Vancouver, WA. Visit him on Facebook (William.F.Nolan) and Twitter (@WilliamFNolan), as well as his official website: .
WESTON OCHSE is the author of more than 20 books, including the SEAL Team 666 series and the Task Force Ombra series. His first novel, Scarecrow Gods, won the Bram Stoker Award® and his short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. MGM has optioned SEAL Team 666 to be a major motion picture with Dwayne Johnson signed on to produce and act as the lead character. Weston lives in the Arizona desert within rock throwing distance of Mexico. He is a military veteran with 30 years of military service and counting.
BALOGUN OJETADE is the author of eight speculative fiction novels and contributing co-editor of two speculative fiction anthologies. He is also the screenwriter, director and fight choreographer of several popular independent short and feature films. Balogun is one of the founders of the Steamfunk Movement, which focuses on African-inspired Steampunk, and he is a small press publisher and filmmaker through his company, Roaring Lions Productions.
JANA OLIVER’s vivid imagination is never at rest. She is the recipient of over a dozen major awards, including the Maggie Award of Excellence, the Daphne du Maurier, National Readers Choice and the Prism Award. Jana is an international bestseller, her latest novel, Briar Rose, is a dark and twisted retelling of Sleeping Beauty set in the South. When not wandering around the Internet or researching urban myths, Jana can be found in Atlanta with her very patient husband, and a growing collection of single malt Scotch.
MONICA J. O’ROURKE has published more than 100 short stories in magazines such as Postscripts, Nasty Piece of Work, Fangoria, Flesh & Blood, Nemonymous, and Brutarian and anthologies such as Horror for Good (for charity), The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra, and Eulogies II. She is the author of Poisoning Eros I and II, written with Wrath James White, Suffer the Flesh, and the collection, In the End, Only Darkness. Her latest novel, What Happens in the Darkness, is available from Sinister Grin Press. She works as a freelance editor, writer, and book coach.
JOHN PALISANO has written articles for Fangoria and Dark Discoveries and has had over 30 short stories published. His latest novel Dust of the Dead is out now from Samhain.
JESS PEACOCK is the author of Such a Dark Thing: Theology of the Vampire Narrative in Popular Culture, and is the editor of Street Speech, a social justice publication produced by the Columbus (OH) Coalition for the Homeless. He has written for Famous Monsters of Filmland, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, and is a regular contributor to Religion Dispatches. Peacock is the 2013 recipient of Methodist Theological School in Ohio’s Ronald L. Williams Book Prize in Theology and Ethics, as well as The Matey Janata Freedwomen Award for his research and work in women’s issues.
LEIGH PERRY / TONI L.P. KELNER is a two-headed monster. As Leigh, she writes the Family Skeleton mysteries. The Skeleton Takes a Bow, the second, came out in Sept. 2014. Her first stab at horror is a short story for Christopher Golden’s upcoming anthology Seize the Night. As Toni, she’s the co-editor of paranormal fiction anthologies with Charlaine Harris; the author of eleven mystery novels; and an Agatha Award winner and multiple award nominee for short fiction. Both Leigh and Toni live north of Boston with two daughters and two guinea pigs, but just one husband.
BRIAN PINKERTON takes everyday, ordinary people and puts them through a living hell. His cruelties include Killer’s Diary (Samhain Publishing), Anatomy of Evil (Samhain Publishing), Bender (Crossroad Press), Rough Cut (Bad Moon Books), How I Started the Apocalypse (Severed Press), Vengeance (Leisure Books) and Abducted (Leisure Books). His short stories have appeared in PULP!, Chicago Blues, Zombie Zoology and The Horror Zine. Brian lives in the Chicago area with his wife and two innocent children.
JOHN PRESCOTT lives in the deep South with his wife Edie, two sons Grafton Caine, Gavin Lane, and their two cats. He loves to spend time with his family, take long walks, and draw, and of course, an avid reader. John's first short story collection, Before Sunrise has met with great success. He also headed a short story collection from authors around the world entitled, M is for Monster. His first novel, Pray has also met with great success. Hell is the second book in The Revelation Chronicles trilogy. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and online publications.
SPENCER REEVE is the Marketing Executive for CoolMiniOrNot, a leading publisher of board and table top games.
LARRY REID, through his artwork, intends to explore what lies beneath the everyday "performance" of human life. The distorted portraits represent a myriad of ways which humans may perpetuate fear upon one another, either intentionally or subconsciously. Studying the works of artists such as Buddy Nestor, Nicola Samori and Stephen Gammell have informed Larry, and helped him to fuse elements of a "Distorted Unknown" into his own sense of
horror.
LOREN RHOADS is the author of the In the Wake of the Templars trilogy, coming from Night Shade Books in 2015. She’s the co-author of As Above, So Below with Brian Thomas. Before that, she authored a collection of travel essays from graveyards around the world called Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She edited The Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two and in the dim, misty past published Morbid Curiosity magazine.
C. R. RICHARDS is the award winning author of The Mutant Casebook Series. Her literary career began as a part-time columnist for a small entertainment newspaper. She wore several hats: food critic, entertainment reviewer and cranky editor. A lover of horror and dark fantasy stories, she enjoys telling tales of intrigue and adventure. Her most recent literary projects include the horror short story, "Lost Man's Parish" and the newly released novel length dark fantasy thriller, Pariah. She is an active member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, EPIC and Horror Writers Association.
ARMAND ROSAMILLA is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he writes when he's not sleeping. He's written over 100 stories that are currently available, including the *Dying Days* extreme zombie series, *Keyport Cthulhu* horror series, *Flagler Beach Fiction Series* contemporary fiction, and the *Metal Queens* nonfiction music series. He also loves to talk in third person... because he's really that cool. He's a proud Active member of HWA as well.
CHARLES R. RUTLEDGE is the co-author of two novels in the Griffin and Price Urban Fantasy/Horror series, Blind Shadows and Congregations of the Dead, along with the forthcoming third book, A Hell Within, all written with James A. Moore. His work has appeared in various anthologies including Strange Worlds, Carnacki: The New Adventures, and Widowmakers.
PETER ADAM SALOMON is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the International Thriller Writers, and The Authors Guild and is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. His debut novel, Henry Franks, was named one of the 10 “Books All Young Georgians Should Read” by The Georgia Center For The Book. His second novel, All Those Broken Angels, has been nominated for the 2014 Bram Stoker Award® in the Young Adult category.
TONY SARRECCHIA is the creator and writer of the award-winning Harry Strange Radio Drama, a full cast, pulp-style supernatural thriller audio play airing on radio stations in the US and Canada. His short story, "On the Road to Chattanooga," a story about an unlikely survivor of a zombie apocalypse, is available in Permuted Press’s Fat Zombie anthology. He often appears at conventions and book signings where he talks about writing, producing, and B-movies. A novelization of season one of Harry Strange is in the works for later this year.
CATHERINE SCULLY is the Young Adult Editor for the Horror Writers Association and helps facilitate Jonathan Maberry's Scary Out There YA series on the HWA YA blog. She writes MG and YA horror and is represented by Carrie Howland of Donadio and Olson. She is also a published illustrator with Simon and Schuster as well as Spencer Hill Press.
ALEC SHANE is an agent at Writers House Literary Ageny in New York City. He is in the process of actively building his list and is always on the lookout for great horror. If you think he'd be a good fit for your work, feel free to query him at ashane@.
GORDON SHRIVER, a transplanted Northerner, is an actor, author, proofreader, and artists' model in the Atlanta area. He is the author of Boris Karloff: The Man Remembered and the one-man show Karloff in Twilight, which he performed at Atlanta's Academy Theatre. Also among his theater credits are On Golden Pond, Glengarry Glen Ross, and 12 Angry Men. He has written for Cult Movies and Famous Monsters of Filmland.
MELISSA ANN SINGER is a Senior Editor at Tor/Forge books, where she edits horror, urban fantasy, thriller/suspense/mystery, and several other kinds of fiction. She has edited New York Times bestsellers and Bram Stoker Award® winners. Singer lives in New York City and is the parent of a college student.
JAMES SIZEMORE was born and raised in the rural town of Moreland, Georgia. At 19, he was awarded a scholarship to Savannah College of Art and graduated with a BFA in painting. In school he co-founded an art collective, The Black Riders, which later inspired the formation of his film production company, Black Rider Productions. Back on his hometown farm, James built a special effects studio which enabled him to create his films The Demon's Rook and Goat Witch. They were bought by Tribeca Film in 2014. Demon's Rook won Best Special Effects at Fantaspoa Film Festival, and Goat Witch won Best Runner-Up at Buried Alive Film Fest.
JOHN SKIPP is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning editor, and renegade filmmaker. Original splatterpunk, proto-Bizarro, literary zombie godfather, compulsive collaborator, musical pornographer...In a career spanning 30 years of freaking people out, from The Light at the End to the upcoming feature film Tales of Halloween, Skipp is pretty much nothing but trouble. He is also acquiring an editor for Eraserhead, Deadite, and his own Fungasm Press. And there are probably bongos nearby.
MANDY SLATER’s anthology appearances include Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, Sex Macabre, 100 Twisted Tales of Torment, The Tiger Garden: A Book of Writers’ Dreams, Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror, The Mammoth Book of Dracula and Zombie Apocalypse! She has also worked as an assistant film publicist in Romania on horror film Last Gasp, and as a media journalist, researcher and photographer, she has contributed to X-Pose, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Locus, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Sci-Fi Wire, SFX, Science Fiction Chronicle, Sci-Fi Magazine, Sci-Fi Wire and several volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series.
LUCY A. SNYDER is the Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of the novels Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, Switchblade Goddess, and the collections Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her latest books are Shooting Yourself in the Head For Fun and Profit: A Writer's Survival Guide and Soft Apocalypses. Her writing has appeared in Apex Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad 2, Best Horror of the Year, and many other publications. She lives in Columbus, Ohio and is a mentor in Seton Hill University's MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction.
DACRE STOKER, author and lecturer, is the great-grand-nephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker. Together with Dr. Elizabeth Miller, he edited The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker—The Dublin Years, (The Robson Press 2012). Dacre co-authored a sequel to the novel Dracula, named Dracula The Un-Dead, ( Dutton 2010) which was translated into 22 languages. Dacre has become a respected figure in the world of vampires in both academia and popular culture. He is presently working on a Bram Stoker Dracula Travel Guide while also lecturing on the mysteries behind the writing of the novel Dracula.
JEFF STRAND is the four-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of 20+ books, including Pressure, Dweller, A Bad Day for Voodoo, Wolf Hunt, and Dead Clown Barbecue. He wrote the script for Gave Up the Ghost, a short film included in the anthology Creepers.
SUSAN ABEL SULLIVAN is the author of the Cleo Tidwell Paranormal Mystery series and two short story collections: Cursed: Wickedly Fun Stories and Fried Zombie Dee-light: Ghoulish, Ghostly Tales. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, ASIM Best of Horror: Vol II, Beyond Centauri, New Myths, and Writers’ Journal. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop for speculative fiction. When not writing she likes to walk dogs, wrangle cats and handle snakes, not necessarily at the same time.
JOHN F.D. TAFF has more than 80 stories in publication in various markets. Six of his shorts have been selected as honorable mentions in Ellen Datlow's Year’s Best anthologies. His collection Little Deaths was named the No. 1 horror collection of 2012 by Horrortalk. His latest The End in All Beginnings has been called "the best novella collection in years" by Jack Ketchum, and is nominated for a Bram Stoker Award® this year. His standalone novella The Sunken Cathedral will be out this spring and a shared novella collection I Can Taste the Blood will be out this fall.
BRETT J. TALLEY, a native of the South, received a degree from the University of Alabama before moving to witch-haunted Massachusetts to attend Harvard Law School. When people ask, Brett tells them he writes for fortune and glory. But the truth is the stories in his head simply refuse to stay put. Since his first novel, That Which Should Not Be, was a Bram Stoker Award® finalist, he has contributed to the first Limbus, Inc. installment, published the sci-fi thriller The Void, and recently released his post-apocalyptic novel The Reborn. His latest, He Who Walks In Shadow drops in May.
MOLLY TANZER is the British Fantasy and Wonderland Book Award-nominated author of A Pretty Mouth (Lazy Fascist, 2012), Vermilion (Word Horde, 2015), Rumbullion and Other Liminal Libations (Egaeus, 2013), and the forthcoming The Pleasure Merchant (Forthcoming from Lazy Fascist, November 2015). She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and a very bad cat. When not writing, she enjoys mixing cocktails, hiking in the Rocky Mountains, experimenting with Korean cooking, and (as of recently) training for triathlons.
PATTY TEMPLETON is roughly 25 apples tall and 11,000 cups of coffee into her life. She wears sequins and stomping boots while writing, then hits up back-alley dance bars and honkytonks. Her stories are full of ghosts, freaks, fools, blue collar heroes, and never giving up, even when life is giving you shit. She won the first ever Naked Girls Reading Literary Honors Award and was a runner-up for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award. Her first novel, There Is No Lovely End, debuted in 2014.
JAMES R. TUCK is the author of the Deacon Chalk series, the Robin Hood Demon's Bane series (with Debbie Viguie), the Mythos War Trilogy (as Levi Black), and several short story collections and novellas. His short fiction appears in The Big Bad 1 & 2, Trouble in the Heartland, V-Wars 4, MECH: Age Of Steel, and many other anthologies. He wrote the comic book feature Girl Power (illustrated by Neil Vokes). His writing advice is featured on Word Whores, Magical Words, Fiction University, and Fictionvale. He has appeared at the Georgia Romance Writers, Dragoncon, ConCarolinas, and many other conventions.
MARY TURZILLO's 1999 Nebula-winner, "Mars Is no Place for Children," and her Analog novel An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl are recommended reading on the International Space Station. Her poetry collection Lovers & Killers won the 2013 Elgin Award. She been a finalist on the British Science Fiction Association, Pushcart, Bram Stoker Awards®, Dwarf Stars and Rhysling ballots. Sweet Poison, her Dark Renaissance collaboration with Marge Simon, is on the Bram Stoker Award® ballot and contains a poem on the Rhysling ballot. She's working on a novel, Mars Cat and his Boy. She lives in Berea, Ohio, with her scientist-writer husband, Geoffrey A. Landis.
LISA TUTTLE (Guest of Honor) began writing while still at school, sold her first stories at university, and won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer of the year in 1974. Her first novel, Windhaven, was a collaboration with George R. R. Martin published in 1981. This was followed by a horror novel, Familiar Spirit, in 1983. Unable to stick to one well-defined genre, although most of her work features elements of horror and/or dark fantasy, she went on to write novels of psychological suspense (Gabriel and The Pillow Friend), science fiction (Lost Futures), and contemporary/mythic fantasy (The Mysteries and The Silver Bough) as well as books for children and young adults, and non-fiction (Encyclopedia of Feminism and Heroines). Short stories were her first love, and remain important. Her first short story collection, A Nest of Nightmares was published in the U.K. in 1986, and two years later featured in Horror: 100 Best Books edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. Her other collections include A Spaceship Built of Stone and other stories (1987), Memories of the Body: Tales of Desire and Transformation (1992), Ghosts and Other Lovers (2002) and Objects in Dreams (2012). A number of her short stories have appeared in “best of the year” anthologies and been nominated for awards; “Closet Dreams” won the 2007 International Horror Guild Award. She edited an influential anthology of horror stories by women writers, Skin of the Soul, first published in 1990. Born and raised in Texas, educated in New York, later a resident of London, she now makes her home in a remote, rural part of Scotland.
JOHN URBANCIK’s first novel, Sins of Blood and Stone, emerged in 2002. He’s been in hiding ever since, though reports have him in places as disparate as the wilds of northern Florida and the arctic rainforests of Tasmania. He was born on the island of Manhattan, speaks fewer languages than he believes are required, and doesn’t own a tuxedo. His business card proclaims: “Writer. Photographer. Adventurer. Man.” His latest collection is Tales of the Fantastic and the Phantasmagoric. His current project, Inkstains, a story a day every day for a year—written by hand—is in its second year.
ADRIAN VAN YOUNG is the author of The Man Who Noticed Everything (Black Lawrence Press), a collection of stories, and the novel Shadows in Summerland, forthcoming in 2016 from ChiZine Publications. His fiction and non-fiction have been published or are forthcoming in Lumina, Black Warrior Review, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, The New Orleans Review, VICE, Slate, and The Believer, among many others. He lives in New Orleans with his wife Darcy and son Sebastian.
TIM WAGGONER, Shirley Jackson Award finalist, has published over thirty novels and three short story collections of dark fiction. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and in Seton Hill University’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program.
FRANK WALLS is an artist that has worked in the book and board game publishing industries for over 10 years. During this time he has created numerous illustrations for and designs for games like Talisman, Dungeons & Dragons, and Game of Thrones, as well as covers for Jeffrey Thomas, Jeff Strand, Shane McKenzie, and many others. He has tried to do nice art that matches people’s couches, but this just upsets him and causes him to create even weirder art. After years of doing digital art he has recently re-discovered the paint brush and that colored stuff in tubes.
DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS’ short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in various anthologies and magazines, including The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2015, Year’s Best Weird Fiction: Volume One, The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu: New Lovecraftian Fiction, Cassilda’s Song, Nightmare, Black Static, and Apex. Sing Me Your Scars, a collection of her short fiction, is out now from Apex Publications, and Paper Tigers, a novel, is forthcoming from Dark House Press.
MATTHEW WEBER is author of A Dark & Winding Road, The Bull and numerous horror stories that have appeared in various anthologies and magazines. He's been editor-in-chief of Extreme How-To magazine since 2003 and he plays bass in Skeptic?, a punk band headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, where he lives with his wife and son.
MICHAEL WEHUNT grew up in north Georgia and to this day has refused to leave the state. He has loved horror since his mother let him watch The Exorcist when he was seven years old and read Carrie when he was eight. Nowadays he peeks into the weirder, more cosmic corners of dark fiction, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in such publications as Cemetery Dance, Shadows & Tall Trees, Shock Totem, and Paula Guran’s Mammoth Book of Cthulhu. His spirit animal is Robert Aickman.
ERIK WILLIAMS is a former naval officer and current defense contractor (but he's not allowed to talk about it). He is also the author of Demon and numerous small press works and short stories. He currently lives in San Diego with his wife and three daughters. When he's not at his day job, he can usually be found changing diapers or coveting carbohydrates.
SCOTT WOODWARD is the Co-founder, with Clint Collins, and Chief Operating Officer of Black Mirror Press. Scott is a published author, editor and former intelligence officer. His literary interests include horror, historical fiction, espionage and thrillers, mystery and suspense, science fiction, fantasy, and World War Two-era nonfiction. His most significant literary influences include Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, Algernon Blackwood, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
STEPHANIE M. WYTOVICH is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, a book reviewer for Nameless Magazine, and a well-known coffee addict. She is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award®-nominated poetry collections, Hysteria and Mourning Jewelry can be found at , and her debut novel, The Eighth, will be out in 2015 from Dark Regions Press.
KYLE YAKLIN, born and raised in Atlanta, was greatly influenced by classic horror and monster movies as a child--in particular The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Godzilla franchise. These films and others in the genre influenced Kyle’s work not only in special-FX, but in his drawing and sculpture as well. Kyle is currently a senior at Kennesaw State University earning a BFA in sculpture and works as a special-FX artist in the Atlanta area.
RIO YOUERS is the British Fantasy Award–nominated author of End Times and Old Man Scratch. His short fiction has been published by, among others, St. Martin’s Griffin, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. His previous novel, Westlake Soul, was nominated for Canada’s prestigious Sunburst Award, and has been optioned for movie by Hollywood producer Stephen Susco. His latest novel, Point Hollow (ChiZine Publications), is available now. Rio lives in southwestern Ontario with his wife and their two children.
ART SHOW
The following artists will have work on display and for sale in The Dreamlands:
Alan Beck
Dim Horizons Studio
Bob Eggleton
Bob Hepner
Larry Reid
Christopher Semtner
Frank Walls
(Our Souvenir Book cover, art by Artist Guest of Honor
Bob Eggleton)
DEALERS’ ROOM
Please don’t forget to visit Needful Things and patronize our fine dealers:
01 Publishing
Paul Dale Anderson
Apex Publications
Atlanta Radio Theatre Company
Basement Books/tsbooks
Bizarro Books
Black Wyrm Publishing
Brook Waters Curse
R. S. Burgener
The Contact Lens Company
Crystal Connor
Cutting Block Books/Farolight Publishing
Dark Regions Press
DSP Publications
Eagle Eye Books
Eraserhead Press/Deadite Press
Grey Matter Press
Hazardous Press
Barry James Books
JournalStone
Laughing Black Vampire Productions
Listen Up Audiobooks
Magpie Curios
Michael Massee
Mostcool Media Inc.
Priestess & Hierophant Press
Samhain Publishing
Indie Author A Shockey
Silver Scream Spookshow
Specters Anonymous
TS Books
Will Strange
Weirdbook
Dan Westfall Photography
The Wicked Library Podcast
We're also pleased to announce that JimmyZ will once again be the Official Souvenir vendor for the convention, offering custom t-shirts, hoodies, and more!
Anti-Harassment Policy
The World Horror Convention 2015 is dedicated to providing a harassment-free convention experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of convention attendees in any form. Attendees violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the convention without a refund at the discretion of the chairs.
During the Con
If you need help during the convention, including medical assistance, administrative problems, or other issues, we’re here to help! Please either visit Registration, send an e-mail to
admin@, or call administrator Brad Hodson at
1-818-220-3965.
After the Con
Don’t forget to check back periodically at for announcements of the Bram Stoker Award winners, videotaped interviews with our guests, galleries of photos, and more!
For more information on the World Horror Conventions and the World Horror Society, or to inquire about bidding to host a future World Horror Convention, please visit:
For more information on the Horror Writers Association and The Bram Stoker Awards, please visit:
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