A Mighty Fortress

I've got a short weird western tale in the newly released A Mighty Fortress anthology.

It is a Porter Rockwell short titled, The Tears of Nephi.

Its a little light on steampunk, but I put in a little - the collection as a whole has the unexpected grouping of being Mormon Steampunk tales, and was initially inspired by the incredibly awesome Dave Butler. He wrote City of the Saints which I highly recommend, and then later down the road put forth the idea for a collection of more tales set in a semi-similar vein and there were so many submissions that was to be one antho became two and then as of today 4!!!

I have the honor of having the closing tale of this collection.

Thanks as always to my editor and friend Holli Anderson.

Check it out if you have a mind too.

States of Deseret

I love alternate history. And of course I love my peculiar faith, so I have to be all about a bizarre mixing of the two whenever possible. So, just like he was a driving force behind Monsters and Mormons - William Morris put together this alternate history collection States of Deseret featuring tales of what if featuring the Mormon Church.

I wanted to do something different than the usual - so no Porter Rockwell tale this time. (though one is hinted at) I let my mind wander when the call for submissions asked for different ways of telling alternate history. I was struck with the idea of an obituary as a framing device and luckily - William and Theric liked it enough to include The Electric Apostle.

I've always been fascinated with Nikola Tesla, so this was a good place to mess around with a What IF. I even found out a bit more interesting history while I was in the middle of double checking my research.

I'm sharing the table of contents with some great writers including my good friend Dave Butler, here is the TOC.

Forwrd by Theric Jepson

The Guns of Perdition by D. J. Butler

Latter Day Confederacy of Nations by Lori Taylor

Richard Meets the Missionaries by Anneke Garcia

Not Even the Names Have Been Changed by Marion Jensen

Another Meadow by Eric A. Eliason

The Father by Inari Porkka

The Electric Apostle by yours truly

Subject to Kings by Lee Allred

Cover by Casey Jex Smith

If you get a hankering for some weird fiction by a peculiar people - Check it out!

Crazy Horses Riding Everywhere

Crazy Horses is LIVE!

And get this - I set it up on pre-order - in part to push myself to hurry up and finish = pulp speed don't you know, and it worked. Just really glad I found a great editor who works fast - thanks Jana.

But as I was saying, it was on pre-order and STILL hit #1 already in the Old West category - I'm stoked! That's a first for me a #1 before anyone can even read it!

As always much thanks to everyone who has helped me out - you are acknowledged in the back. ;)

here is the back cover description.

A kidnapped girl. A desperate father. A murderous slaver bound for old Mexico. And a certain untouchable gunslinger. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

Infamous gunslinger, Porter Rockwell made a blood oath with the Ute War Chief, Redbone, to help him no matter what. Now that the Chief's daughter has been kidnapped by the desperado Matamoros, and that favor is getting called in at a most inopportune time. Of course, Porter's closest friends--buffalo soldier Quincy Cuthbert Jackson and card sharp Roxy LeJuene--are coming along too. Too late, they learn that chasing down the kidnapper is only the beginning of a deadly path.

As they follow the Old Spanish Trail, secrets threaten to tear the rescuer's bond apart and an unexpected stowaway increases the danger. Clues to a more sinister plot quickly unfold, and dark native magics breath terrible spells over their mission. Can Porter and his friends resolve their differences and save the girl or will they sacrifice more than life somewhere along the dark trail?

Crazy Horses is a Western with colorful characters and wit straight out of an Eastwood flick. If you like strong, admirable heroes, surprising action and eerie weird Westerns, then you'll love the second book in David J. West's Porter Rockwell series.

Buy Crazy Horses to ride the trail today!

I am so happy with artist Anna Stansfield's cover for me and as a bonus here is a the new cover for Cold Slither she did too - and I am so excited to see what she comes up with for the next one in this series - YOU ONLY HANG ONCE! It is gonna be epic!

LTUE Late Night Follow Up

I was so busy chatting with friends - new and old, that I didn't take very many pics, nor record too much of what went on for those three days last month.

It was a blast, I love talking and hanging with other writers.

I was on a bunch of panels on Thursday and on some I felt a little out of my element. Like the one about the Hottest Women Writers of Sci-Fi. Luckily Jana Brown more than made up for my ineptitude. I had tried to catch up on more women writers before hand - I did a lot of cramming thanks to Audible, but still felt I was the weak link on that panel.

I'm kinda irritated I didn't get to be on the Pulp panel, and I didn't see it - just heard about it afterward, sounds like I should have been there to tell some people that they don't know what they're talking about but cest la vie.

The Art of the Hook with Larry Correia and Andrea Pearson was great - always got to love Larry dropping his wisdom. In a nutshell - Larry says who cares about defining genre or anything so cerebral = write what people want! Make them come back for more and you'll get paid.

I'm working on that.

In the meantime I have been very pleased at Scavengers and Six-Gun Serenades sales numbers on Amazon. I'm not breaking the bank but it is nice to actually be making hundreds of dollars a month. I need to do better but its a hell of a good start.


My friends the Space Balrogs had a great Choose Your Own Apocalypse panel, and the mass book signing was very cool too.

Oh and it was a great feeling to be recognized by other literati - for the sake of an anthology that isn't even out yet - made me feel good just to know there are at least a few people paying attention to that kind of thing.

I did get a load of new books abut I still love grabbing old favorites from an ancient dealer that shows up to this every year.

All in all it was great seeing everybody, and now I gotta wait til FanX to do it all over again. - Granted That will be a little more hectic and won't deliver as much quality time - but then that's what makes LTUE so great.

Life The Universe and Everything for the Weekend

Its that time of year again, Life The Universe and Everything the annual science fiction/ fantasy writers convention.

This is one of the best, mostly because there are so many writers and other creatives to rub shoulders with. You'd be hard pressed to come up with any con where you could hang with more. I have been to some other big writer conventions, but this one is full of my people - everything Spec-Fic!

And of course I'm a guest once again, so I'll be on panels, lounging in the green room and trying to even get a little more writing done to fulfill my "pulp speed" expectations.

Here is my schedule - its a little Thursday heavy.

Thursday, February 16
9am
Novel vs. Short Story
Arches (Provo Marriott), 9am - 9:50am
Tags: Writing
David Boop, Christopher Husberg (M), Terra Luft, Eric James Stone, Scott R. Parkin, David J. West
The novel vs. the short story. How can they benefit from each other? How are the skill-sets different? How do you know which to choose?

11am
I Can't Believe You Haven't Read This . . .
Juniper (Provo Marriott), 11am - 11:50am
Tags: Books
Kenna Blaylock, C.H Lindsay (M), David J. West, Jessica Day George,
Not-to-be-missed middle grade and young adult books from writers of the genre and those who know it best.

12pm
So You Want to Write Horror...
Arches (Provo Marriott), 12pm - 12:50pm
Tags: Writing
Courtney Alameda, Larry Correia, Steve Diamond, Terra Luft, David J. West (M)
Get tips for writing horror. How do you know if horror is for you? Tips for beginners.

4pm
Making a Living on the Macabre
Bryce (Provo Marriott), 4pm - 4:50pm
Tags: Books
Courtney Alameda, Cheree Alsop (M), David J. West
Fantasy horror writers and how they create their works. Let's look at the works that hit a homerun and the writers that created them.

5pm
The Art of the Hook
Arches (Provo Marriott), 5pm - 5:50pm
Tags: Writing
Larry Correia, James Ganiere, Scott R. Parkin, J. Scott Savage, Andrea Pearson (M), David J. West
First lines and first chapters matter. How do you get readers interested in your story? In your characters?

Friday, February 17
10am
Hottest Women in Science Fiction
Bryce (Provo Marriott), 10am - 10:50am
Tags: Books
Jana S. Brown, Adam McLain (M), David J. West
It's not your sexy cover babe. We're talking women writers and their works, but you knew that already, right?

6pm - 8pm
Book Signing
Zion, Bryce and Arches

I'll have print copies of Scavengers, Six-Gun Serenade and others - but this is the first time I'll have those to sign.

So for all my long-distance friends - this would be the one to someday make it too.

Getting Out the Word!

I just had my novelette Six-Gun Serenade released a week plus ago - I'm very pleased with the reviews so far (I even had an Amazon Top 500 reviewer give it some glowing praise!) and it was all part of my plan to help drum up buzz for the sake of the bigger novel Scavengers: A Porter Rockwell Adventure which is out Tuesday! And its only .99 cents from Tuesday the 24th thru Sunday the 29th then it goes up to 2.99. (which come on ~ for an ebook is still a deal)

So in that light I've done a few podcasts and such to spread my gospel of pulpy action adventure and just to save these for posterity here are the links!





















I was on Dungeon Crawlers Radio on January 11th


I was on The New Utah Podcast on Janurary 17th

Oh and one more thing, I'm especially proud of, my friend Dave Butler - who I am sure is going to go big soon with his March release of Witchy Eye, had this to say about Scavengers:

"From its hallucinatory opening to its savage climactic exorcism, SCAVENGERS brews up a heady mix of Peckinpah-like western surrealism, genuine folklore, and non-stop action. More fun than losing your pineal gland to an Apache medicine man!"

-- D.J. Butler, author of WITCHY EYE

Milestones

This has been a long time coming and I gotta tell you it feels pretty damn good!

I was first published in April of 2010. Since then I have had twenty five more Amazon related products released and numerous non-commercially available material and finally today I hit the #1 bestseller list in something! Western Horror to be precise. It is a niche market but as of the last check (because I am compulsively looking) I was at 6,298 overall on Amazon books and even made it into the top 100 Westerns category at slot 78, and slot 175 in Horror.
That little orange badge thrills me to no end.
I believe this is the highest I have ever had a book rank that is mine alone. I did do quite well with the first Space Eldritch collection but even that only ever got to #2 in Space Opera because we couldn't unseat OSC's Ender's Game.


So this is a big deal for me and I am riding high. Cold Slither was already doing relatively good by my standards so I'm keeping on with what I was already planning and having some Porter novel's coming down the pike soon.
Think spaghetti westerns, Peckinpah and a lot of Tarantino grit and wit, along with my own voice and stylings based on this real person I love to make stories up about.

Thanks to everyone who has grabbed a copy for getting me there!

Utah Halloween Expo

I'm a special guest at the Utah Halloween Expo this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Sandy Utah at the Southe Town Expo Center. I'll be at booth 139  - signing books and speaking on the awesome nature of fear in writing on Saturday at 3:00 on the DIY stage.

They'll have a lot of horror related guests and what I'm sure will be some of my kids favorites some of the folks from SyFy's Face Off. My kids do love making masks.
Plus I'll get to hang with some good friends and hopefully make some new ones.

It promises to be a scary good time!

Who is Porter Rockwell

Just who is Orrin Porter Rockwell?

I enjoy thinking of him as a decidedly unique alternative compared to what most people think Mormons are like.

A hard-drinking, gun-fighter, scout, frontiersman, and sometime lawman - Porter Rockwell is to me the quintessential weird western hero.

Sometimes its hard to separate fact from fiction and I may have only muddied the waters with these newly found yarns in my collection of weird western tales starring the infamous Porter Rockwell in  Cold Slither! But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Born in Belchertown, Massachusetts on June 28th 1813, Rockwell was a friend to Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church. He was the youngest person baptized into the church upon its founding.  (Thanks Paul for the pic!)

Following the Church as they moved west to Nauvoo, Illinois, he was always a tireless supporter and helped whenever possible during the tumultuous years.

It was after eight months in prison on charges that he was the attempted assassin of Illinois Governor Lilburn Boggs, that Porter was exonerated and found himself back in Nauvoo. Haggard and unkempt, he made his way into Smith's home during a Christmas party.

At first thought to be an unruly attacker, it was then realized he was the prodigal friend returned.
It was here that Joseph Smith prophesied and blessed Porter that if he never cut his hair, no bullet nor blade could harm him. So was born the legend of the Destroying Angel.

Many a dime novel or embittered tell-all novelization featured a bloodthirsty Porter wreaking bloodthirsty ruin upon folk traversing through the Utah territory whilst shouting his terrible curse of "Wheat!"

[Awesome pic by Ryan Wood]

Porter has more murders laid at his feet as a member of the Danites - the church's rumored bloodthirsty enforcers - than any other gunman I can think of. The Salt Lake Tribune tabulated his kills at well over 100! Nobody else is even close. The author of In Mormon Circles, James Coates, says the number has to be closer to 50 to 100.

Of course the Salt Lake Tribune's numbers cannot possibly be true, but even a smaller percentage is still higher than the other infamous gunslingers.

Wild Bill Hickock = 6 or 7?
Billy the Kid = 8

Wyatt Earp = 10?

Doc Holiday = 16 (and the report said that was likely exaggerated)

John Wesley Hardin = 27

Fact and fiction take hard turns in the wild west and as I said its difficult to separate them, the actual accounts from men like Sir Richard Burton have Porter as a congenial fellow, warning the esteemed traveler to beware of white Indians (bandits disguised as Indians) in the mountains. They hit if off so well that Burton upon his return to England later sent a bottle of Brandy to Porter.

In the end, Porter died in bed without a scratch on him at the age of 64. The prophecy had come true despite all the scrapes, Indian wars and gunfights he had been in. The Salt Lake Tribune declared that "the gallows were cheated" but I see it as proof of something divine that defies materialist expectation.

Here's a final quote that I liked so much I had to put it in the book,
 “In his build he was a gladiator; in his humor a Yankee lumberman; in his memory a Bourbon; in his vengeance an Indian. A strange mixture, only to be found on the American continent.”
 — Fitz Hugh Ludlow on Orrin Porter Rockwell

Grab a copy of Cold Slither in print or kindle and I'll be signing copies at Salt Lake Comic Con next week too! 

Preparing to Pimp Thyself

Happenings!

My weird west collection COLD SLITHER print copy is up over on Amazon - though I'm not doing the real launch push just yet - I've got the kindle set for pre-order and I'm hoping to push that on August 30th for the sake of rankings etc. In fact I don't think as of this post the kindle slot is even up yet.


I'm excited that the book is finally done- considering I had wanted to release it on my birthday two months ago. But I think its an amazing book that a lot of people will get a kick out of. I was tickled pink that one of my friends said he thought the first Porter tale = Cold Slither itself reminded him of a Conan type yarn.

I made a banner for use at the upcoming Salt Lake Comic Con - it was fun trying to come up with something that I hope will grab attention at our booth and hopefully entice some book buyers. I used the Horror Flick font - same thing I used on my new business cards - gotta love that retro pulpy look.

I do know I'm on at least one panel each day at SLCC
The Rocketeer on Thursday
Mental Health in Popular Culture/Entertainment on Friday
and a Choose Your Own Apocalypse game with the Space Balrogs on Saturday.

I've got a lot more book reviews lined up shortly that I'll be trying to post up on before summer is over.

Oh and I finally put together a mailing list newsletter because I've been hearing how necessary that is for self-promotion etc - so there's that BURNT OFFERINGS - https://tinyletter.com/DavidJWest

Now back to work on just novels for the foreseeable future this year.

The Coming of LONE CROW

The Coming of Lone Crow, by Joel Jenkins

I am so glad that my friend Paul McNamee, gave me a heads up on this one. I was intrigued by the cover sporting a few well-known (and not so well known) western historical persons - among them my own weird western incarnation of Porter Rockwell.
I gave the kindle sample and look-see and was hooked. I bought it and have thoroughly enjoyed the 14 odd stories enough that I will have to buy a print copy for my collection - I'm going to reread it and I know I'll want it in paper.

So about the stories - Lone Crow himself is the last surviving member of his tribe who had been taken in and raised by Mormon foster parents giving him a Christianized white mans world view which is also mixed with his mystic Native American side. He is a taciturn type who is well aware of the racist backlash of the times he lives in and yet he has become infamous enough for his supernatural exploits that he gets hired on by the prestigious Miskatonic University for a number of projects.

One of the items that helps him survive these mind bending encounters is his blessed-by-a-prophet eagle butted peacemaker. Being imbued with a sacred blessing allows the gun to actually harm strange creatures that otherwise might be immune to earthly weapons - creatures like the Hounds of Tindalos or the recurring Ulutoth a Lovecraftian old one akin to Cthulhu.

I loved the action and esoteric historic cameo's and all I could think while reading this is WOW! Joel Jenkins is my kind of writer! Several of the stories loosely relate to each other and we are teased with quite a number of references to interesting sounding tales that we never do get a glimpse of - it make for a world we know is much bigger while still retaining a pulp infused rip roaring good time!

I've since chatted with Joel and was told another collection of Lone Crow's stories are coming and I anxiously await that!

I recommend getting a copy here!

World Horror Con 2016

World Horror Con 2016 in Provo Utah. It would be fair to call it an intimate con as writers present almost equaled the attendee's. Some of our panels - well pretty much all of them were sparsely attended but that's not always a bad thing. We definitely had more opportunity to have more personal conversations with fans - everyone's questions on panels could be addressed and we all got to spend a lot of time getting to know each other.


It was great to see so many writers and have a chance to chat with them. Very pleased that my friend Michael Collings was given his award. He has such an amazing body of work and deserved some recognition. When he gave me a positive review of Whispers Out of the Dust I was tickled pink.


I got to make some great new friends (like Linda Addison here) and I still sold a few books. I autographed even more because of some of the shared anthologies, like Redneck Eldritch, I think about half of the contributors were present at the Con.

There was a massive book signing Friday night and it was great to interact with everyone and chat while sgning books, here you can see Michael Arnzen juggling Sarah Seeley's brains. I also got some books signed by the likes of Darren Shan, Sanford Allen, Joe McKinney and artist Keith Thompson.


Friday night while Craig Nybo and the Freestyle Gargoyle band was setting up, I noticed a few people who got locked out of the hotel and came to their aid - Jack Ketchum, Michael Arnzen and Linda Addison - so that was cool.


The Freestyle Gargoyles jam was awesome, 7 authors gave creepy new spoken word pieces - Steve Diamond, Scott Tarbet, Nathan Shumate, Jason King, Holli Anderson, Dave Butler and me.


I gotta say thank you to Craig Nybo and the bad they were magnificent.


I was the finale and everyone said I rocked the house - I'm sure it will be available soon (Youtube, iTunes)  and I'll gladly share that.


I did pitch a project to an agent (it went very well)  and I'll definitely keep you all informed on that progress as it escalates. Hell, Dan Well's NYTimes bestselling author, told me he wants to read it and I said, I'd hold him to that for the sake of a blurb.



Saturday, my fire was dimmed when it was a No Show event for my reading, but I resolved to remind myself that writers gotta have thick skins and just keepin' on.



Later we did a Space Balrogs game, the attendance was sparse but the laughs were huge - much thanks to Callie Stoker for filling in she was hilarious - and then out of 9 audience members we had a three way tie! 3 people for all three panelists = unprecedented.  I don't think I could have pulled that off if Darren Shan hadn't been rooting for me.




Sunday I did a Western Horror panel that was awesome and afterward I moderated Why We Love Lovecraft panel - there were six panelists and seven audience members at first - it grew a little as it went on but among all the esteemed panelists, I had to incorporate audience member Keith Thompson who has done pre-production design work for Guillermo Del Toro and the ill fated "At the Mountains of Madness" movie - we all had to soak in his expertise and experience and the heartbreak for that not happening - so glad he came to listen and we could take advantage of that - he's a helluva nice guy and it was wonderful to talk with him.


Keith also did the monster in an hour panel with my buddy Carter Reid, I shoulda got a pic of Keith's creepy surreal art but I did get one of Carter's magnificent specimens.

Oh, and since Redneck Eldritch released during the con I was doing some online promotion and signing books there and I did keep tabs on the amazon rankings, the highest I saw was #11 in Horror anthologies so that makes me feel good! Thanks to everyone who bought a copy.

So all in all it was a great weekend made new friends, new contacts and hopefully reached a good handful of new fans.

Sanford Allen and me and the great Darren Shan.

the Lovecraft panel.

The Crypt Opens and Whispers Out Of The Dust is live

My latest is out! Get it here! or Here! Its a weird collection of shorts detailing the supernatural haunting of a forgotten western town by the name of St. Thomas.
Founded in 1865, it had a number of bizarre happenings until it was finally covered over by Lake Mead. It was once a pious Mormon settlement, the a wild west outlaw Mecca, then a sleepy little town that was doomed by the name of progress and need for water for Las Vegas.
That much is all absolutely true.

I have even taken a trip through the ruins of the Moapa valley and seen some the sights...

Perhaps some of the rest gets a little foggy on reality, or does it?

I had a lot of fun playing around with this one, I really got into ghost stories over the summer and the idea of finding lost terrible documentation fascinates me - so I found some to tell you about. ;)

Couched as if it is non-fiction I even went so far as to have a smattering of footnotes detailing real history along with the fiction. It was great fun and I hope makes for some creepy October readings.

Thank and check it out!

WHISPERS OUT OF THE DUST
A Haunted Journey Through The Lost American West.

“Some things lost on the borders of dusk were never meant to be found.”

Documents spanning centuries relate the story of a forgotten valley brimming with magic, ghosts and evil. Published here for the first time these newly discovered papers grant a rare glimpse of the awful truth about this very real American Nightmare.

From the era of wayward conquistadors and pioneers of indomitable spirit on to the weird wild west of gunfighters, gamblers, and medicine men these authentic accounts stalk through the forbidden desert leading you to an oasis of eerie horror and occult terror.

Join us on a supernatural treasure hunt—but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

You Don't Know Shiz About Book of Mormon Warfare review

I just wrote a book review for Morgan Deane's historical treatise, Bleached Bones and Wicked Serpents and it is posted over at Modern Mormon Men here.

I'm very aware of the way social media has changed - most of my regular readers that visit here are not Mormon - rather we're all bound by the brotherhood of sword & sorcery but I also know that we all have a love of history too and that is where Morgan's book is special. His look at historical warfare and comparison is a powerful and one that strangely enough lots of Mormon's aren't too keen to examine. That's why I think its a great book because anything that pushes the boundaries within my own religious subculture is good. We need to get shaken up a bit and out of our collective comfort zone.

So its a short piece if any of you have a mind to take a gander. I'd appreciate it.


p.s. The "SHIZ" in my title is not a purposeful Mormon swear on my part - (though it can be with lots of Mormon's) its the name of an evil revolutionary leader within the Book of Mormon from one of my favorite parts where almost everyone dies - so its an inside Mormon joke.

Fangs for the Kind Words

I'm loathe to keep battering anyone promotion-wise but Hear Ye Hear Ye, I've some things to tout...

The third installment of my fantasy serial, Walking Through Walls is available for a read via pdf
its a continuation of a fantasy action-adventure piece that is a precursor to my bigger novel(s) yet to come in the Gods & Robbers series.

And I got some very kind words from online friend Paul McNamee at his blog about my weird western Fangs of the Dragon ~ Thanks Paul!

Sometimes I get down a bit about how writing is going and these surprise comments/reviews/posts can really turn things around.

Much obliged once again Paul.

Book Review: Monster Hunter International

I'm still strapped for time and have turned to audio books as of late to keep up with reading (which my TBR pile is still horribly overdue) and the latest book I've listened to is Larry Correia's first Monster Hunter International.

It's a great pulp ridden read, full of witty dialogue and blood soaked ichor. Larry really knows how to tease out mysteries to keep you going and wondering about what happens next as well as compelling action scenes and enough monsters and creature references from beyond - to appeal to all of my faithful readers (YOU).

Like Hellboy it mixes all kinds of pulpy things I love and sets it in the modern era, and like Hellboy I'm kicking myself that I took so long to get around to reading it. I've personally known Larry for several years and he is a pretty cool dude. I'm really looking forward to catching up on the multiple books I've got to catch up on. 

We begin Owen Pitt discovering his boss is a werewolf and about to eat him - following the American Dream, he sends his boss out a fourteen story window killing him and getting a job offer with the worlds premier monster killing outfit = MHI.

I don't want to throw in any spoilers as Pitt along with the reader discovers this secret world kept from the public at large, but needless to say its a lot of action-packed fun. Loads of little monster references (and others) that I really got a kick out of = inside type jokes etc that you don't need to be friends with Larry to get by any means. Great stuff is set up for the sequels but its also a very well done self contained novel. Larry is a writer that I greatly admire from both his writing work ethic and the mantra he told me over dinner at Fantasycon = "First and foremost - please the reader." I may be paraphrasing that but it hit home and MHI does it in spades.

Highly recommended.

I had no end of Larry's fans commenting "Mini Me" jokes when I shared this on facebook.

Fantasycon & Westercon Recap

I've shared a lot of these already but just going to put them here too for fun and a little more comment.

The Westercon 67 logo a Barsoomian landscape complete with a Thark and steampunk Porter Rockwell was done by the fantastic William Stout! More on him in a little bit...

Here I am signing books and having some good laughs with friends, Carter Reid (Artist extraordinaire of my Whispers of the Goddess cover, Space Eldritch 1 and 2, and the forthcoming The Mad Song and other Tales of Sword & Sorcery! I was on a couple of panels with him at Westercon and he is hilarious! Next is Dave Butler a phenominal writer and friend!, Nathan Shumate standing - he is behind Space Eldritch and designing my Bless the Child and Weird Tales of Horror cover, Seated is new fantasy writer and myth master B. Daniel Blatt, he does a wonderful reading of Beowulf in the original Old English!

 I met Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, very nice guy, I got to spend a bit of time with him in the morning before panels, talking writing craft etc. He has some great stories...

Had real good times with Larry Correia, dinner etc talking shop and all sorts of hilarity ensued. His fans seem to think of me as a mini-me ---- That I could do without. But in relation, I was asked last minute to go and guest speak at a fantasy comparison panel at Fantasycon across the street from Westercon (two cons going on side by side at the same time) I wasn't on the guest list so when I went over there I told them I was Larry Correia and the old lady at security beamed happy that I had shown up. Larry laughed when I told him how I got through security, and asked if I would be interested in completing the next three weeks of his book tour for Monster Hunter Nemesis!

Met Ksenia Solo (Sy-Fy's LOST GIRL) She was very nice. I've met starlets who felt like they were doing you a favor -she was very down to earth, I've only watched the first season, but always enjoyed her on the program. I asked what her next projects were coming up and she said she couldn't say, hope its something cool.

My wife was excited about the Regency Dance Recital at Westercon hosted by Mary Robinette Kowal, I'm more of a Sword & Sensibility kind of guy but my wife had a lot of fun.

I've been a fan of Donato Giancola for a long time, love his work, I got a small print of the cover I have for an edition of Lord of the Rings and had him sign a pair of Red Sonja cards. He even showed me a new Red Sonja in progress!

Brom is another artist I have been a fan of for a good long time, so excited to meet him and get Snakeheart! I've been enchanted by this painting, but didn't want to buy And Their Memory Was A Bitter Tree, so much better to have a limited edition signed print!

 There were an awful lot of cosplayers, here is one of the better ones I saw.

 Huge smoking dragon in the central hall.

I finally got a big signed print of all the Space Eldritch contributors! Thanks Carter!

Another great artwork I grabbed by the phenomenal Eric Velhagen of Morgoth vs Fingolfin.

 And now some William Stout who I realized after seeing him around the con, quite a few times - that I love his art and made it a point to get the Kong print and his book titled Inspirations, he did a custome signature and it is full of pulpy goodness!

I got a copy of my friend Nathan Shumates cartoon book, and he customized the front of all them with different cartoons, he did a pic of Dave Butler riding Larry Correia in Dave's,(Larry signed that one too!) when I asked what I wanted, I was still gushing over William Stouts pinups and dinosaurs so he merged them for my copy.

And Carter Reids, Undeath and Taxes has become my kids favorite book I brought home out of all of them including signed books by Larry Correia, Dave Butler, Carter Reid, Nathan Shumate, Sara Seeley, Peter Beagle, Mark Ryan and Peter J. Wacks- Bloodletting,    I sold a few books, made a lot of new friends - too numerous to mention everyone, it was a blast of a weekend - can't wait for September's Salt Lake Comicon!