2011 Stoker Weekend Coming to New York

YO, NEW YORK! In mid-June I’ll be attending the Horror Writer Association’s “Stoker Weekend” on Long Island and I invite you to the public book signing and more…

Stoker Weekend 2011 will be held at the Long Island Marriott Hotel and Conference Center (101 James Doolittle Boulevard; [516] 794-3800) in Uniondale, New York, June 16-19. The multi-author book signing extravaganza is on Thursday evening, June 16, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom. In addition to myself, some of the authors planning to appear included Peter Straub, David Morrell, Douglas Clegg, Gillian Flynn, Sarah Langan, Heather Graham, Jonathan Maberry, Jeff Strand, Joe McKinney, Michael Laimo, Dacre Stoker, F. Paul Wilson, Stephen Graham Jones, Ellen Datlow, Lisa Morton, Vince Liaguno, Chad Helder, Michael Rowe, Greg Herren, Ronald Malfi, Lawrence Connolly, Michael Louis Calvillo, Lisa Mannetti, JG Faherty and Anthony Timpone. Writers will have books for sale there, but you can also bring your own, and you get book signed or take photos. Line begins forming at 6:00 p.m. outside the Ballroom entrance of the Marriott. For more information and directions to the hotel, visit the Stoker Weekend at http://www.stokerweekend2011.org

The book signing is free and open to all fans. But if you’re a horror writer yourself living anywhere near New York, you should register to attend for the whole weekend. The guest list is amazing, and they have so many items on the program that this is a full-fledged convention for horror professionals! Registered attendees can also catch up with me at several events:

You can pre-register for a fun class I’m teaching Friday morning 9am-11am, called “Horror Unbound: Pushing Your Reader Over the Ledge” — which is billed as “a short course in making your reader feel the emotion of helplessness — that swimmy sense of panic we get when the floor drops out and we feel that gut-lurching sensation that something very, very bad is about to happen.” Visit the workshop page on their website for more information if you’re thinking about signing up last minute.

I’ll also be hosting a talk (along with attending contributors) called “Many Genres” on Friday, 6/17, 4pm in the Hempstead Room. It’s an information and signing session related to my recently-released how-to book, Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, which will be available for sale. Come on by and learn more about our book, the folks from the MFA program that contributed to it, and more.

I’m also on a panel, “Pushing the Envelope: Boundaries in Horror Poetry” (with Linda Addison, Marge Simon, Kurt Newton, and Chad Helder) which takes place on Friday 6/10 at Noon; and another one, “Story Capsules: Pellets of Poison” (with Marge Simon, Kurt Newton, Chris Conlon, Bruce Boston, and Jill Bauman) that will run on Saturday 6/11 at 3pm. And I’ll be presenting an award at the big Stoker Award banquet on Saturday night (no, I’m not up for an award this year…just attending to enjoy the fun).

If you’re at the Stoker Weekend, come say hello. If not, I’ll try to post info about what you missed when I return. A video of the Bram Stoker Award Ceremony will be livestreaming online Saturday evening.