Mayday: New York!

I’m not completely certain what happened to the month of May. I think it’s under a pile of dusty calendars and broken clocks. What started with Demicon and ends with ConQuesT also included several business trips to the west coast, my daughter’s high school graduation in the Midwest and my son’s college graduation in New York that I just returned from this week. Whew!

Our five-day adventure to New York included a great amount of excitement, tested all of my patience, and included some really good family time. My wife and I, our daughter and all four grandparents all flew out to see my son graduate. It was a lot of work, and I can honestly say went better than I could have hoped.

Wednesday night we enjoyed an incredible meal at Bar Americain. My mother-in-law is a great fan of Bobby Flay, and now I am too. We spent most of Thursday at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, something my mom had always wanted to do. It was amazing, and worth every effort to visit. Friday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it shouldn’t be a surprise we spent most of our time checking out arms and armor. That night we had dinner at Benjamin Steakhouse where I shared a steak for two with my son. It was that serious, and that incredible. The entire trip was really about Saturday and seeing James receive his diploma, in the same week my daughter received her high school diploma. I’ve got amazing kids and I have no doubt they will both do much better than their dream-ridden father. We finished the trip by seeing Wicked on Broadway. It was my first time seeing the musical, and was the best live performance I’ve ever experienced.

Aside from my son’s commencement, I had some favorite moments. I really enjoyed people watching in Times Square at night with my wife. It was a little less crowded (a little), we weren’t rushed so we could just sit and enjoy the view. You see everything from international tourists taking selfies to half-naked street performers (I even made a new friend for only $5). I also enjoyed going out early in the morning before things started happening, when the square was almost empty, and you could breathe. That was nice. There is also a certain pride from the people who live there that I really appreciate. When I told the doorman at our hotel that my son had graduated from Fordham, he smiled, nodded, and said, “That’s a fine school,” almost as if he was a founder of the university.

The trip was great, but honestly, I find New York to be a challenge. I overheard an older person on Times Square say this was the most people he’d ever seen there. Yup, me too. It was an almost constant overcrowded sea of people rushing in different directions. I’m not claustrophobic, except in New York. Whether on the sidewalk, in a store, or on the subway, it was always elbow to elbow. Unfortunately, I have found courtesy and good humor to be the exception in New York. A security guard at The Met threatened a throw down because my parents were sitting on the stairs…where everyone else was sitting. On the other hand, a nice man serving water at Wicked shared how he had performed in My Fair Lady at Starlight. The few times I’ve been to NY, it has felt like there are a lot of angry people. But what do I know, maybe there are just more people, period.

The culture shock isn’t just the experience of traveling to New York, it’s also coming home. The parking attendant at the airport wished me a nice day, I didn’t hear any honking cabs on the drive home, my man cave is pleasantly devoid of people, and it doesn’t cost $15 to refill my drink. It’s quiet…too quiet. I look at my June calendar, and it’s shockingly empty. What am I supposed to do without all of the people, without all of the noise, and with all of this free time…write a book?

About that Demicon 27

Flying the Brass Falcon

I tend to pack waaaay too much into my days of late, and I’m sure that will slow down when I retire, but probably not. Aside from some long hours and traveling for my day job, I’ve been planning a family trip to New York to see my son graduate from college. This trip not only includes my wife and daughter, but my parents and in-laws. It’s going to be a great adventure. I’m also doing some (all) house repairs in preparation of my daughter’s High School graduation party. (Needless to say, I’m a very proud dad.) I’m also building an arc reactor for my Iron Man suit to be the hero this nation needs, and I’m going to lose 20 pounds in the next month...but not really. Oh, yeah, and I’m also writing a book! It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’ve been overwhelmed and stressed and haven’t had a lot of David time. It happens, it will pass, and I really have a lot to be grateful for...all at once. Demicon 27 couldn’t have come at a better time.

I attend some cons with the hope of selling books and marketing myself. They are a different kind of beast and well worth the effort, but it’s a lot of effort. At the end of the day, I still have the pleasure of meeting some amazing people, but it’s not a party or a getaway. It’s my understanding that there are several cons George RR Martin attends somewhat regularly. In my five years of attending ConQuesT in Kansas City, he’s been there twice. Once as a guest, and once as not a guest. I like to think that he attends, more or less, to have fun. That’s what Demicon is to me.

When Cristi and I went to our first Demicon in 2013, we didn’t know what to expect. There is no advertisement that says, “Come to our con, you’ll sell a ton of books and meet 50 amazing people!” It is hosted at a nice enough Holiday Inn. They squeeze 20 or so vendors into a room about the size of a Tahoe, and knee-to-knee we wondered what we were doing there. That first day, everyone looked at us like non-nerds would look at aliens. “I see a gorgeous young 20-year-old in a chainmail bikini and an old dude who is obviously not her dad. He’s trying to sell me a book. Approach with caution. She’s really pretty. Approach closer, but still with caution.” We didn’t sell many books.

That night, we hit room parties. Half of the top floor was filled with everything from amazing cosplayers to cardboard knights. Cristi was her approachable self, and everyone was excited to take pictures with her. I was good at drinking. In short, we were very welcomed and had a great time. The next day, we sold more books than any con I had attended to date. It took me awhile to realize what had happened, I’m slow like that. This con is a family, in a way, and once they realized we were there with good intentions, they became supportive.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Whitlatch

This sentiment was very much reflected by their guest of honor this year, my friend Adam Whitlatch. It’s well deserved, Adam is an accomplished author of many well received, well reviewed books. I highly encourage you to buy his books. I thought it was very cool of Demicon to make him GoH! He’s a pretty young author, in the sense that he has only published a handful of novels, and I felt like the con was supporting someone who is a part of their family. I couldn’t be more impressed! http://adamjwhitlatch.com/published-works/

Demicon is a convention I would love to bring all of my friends to, but not really. I’m a little selfish in that regard. This year it’s the one con that only Cristi and I are attending. She’s my best friend, and the adventure couldn’t have come at a better time for me! One of my favorite stories from this con was the hotel room. Drake Relays was the same weekend, and the Holiday Inn was mostly booked when I called, all they had was a suite. When we walked into the room, Cristi said, “This is nice, there’s a microwave and a fridge and...David, there’s only one bed.” Being the helper that I am, I placed my hands behind my head and said, “Oh, yeahhhhh.” I let that hang out there for several awkward moments before explaining I would sleep on the hide-a-bed. I’m grateful she gets my sense of humor!

We were late getting there on Friday, something I don’t usually do, and hit the room parties casual. (That means Cristi wore jeans and comfortable shoes instead of platform thigh highs and booty shorts.) Several asked about her lack of costume, but it was small talk and many were just happy to see us. The next day we did our thing in the dealer room, attended the room parties in “traditional garb”, and slept well. The weekend flew by, and it was so good to see everyone. That’s the thing about Demicon. This con isn’t about book sales. I sell books, but I feel like it’s old friends being supportive. This con is very much about seeing so many people I like.

If you live within driving distance of Des Moines, I highly recommend you check out this awesome convention. It’s small, friendly, welcoming, and once you go, you’ll never want to miss one!

You can find pictures from Demicon 27 on my Facebook page!

Angst Team Profile: Matt

I have always had a tendency to keep people. Back in the summer of 1978, my parents moved from Omaha, NE to Kansas City, MO. Dad worked hard and did well. They weren’t sure about the public schools in the area (that I eventually graduated from) so they put me in a private school that was walking distance from our house. That’s where I met Matt.

It didn’t take long for us to become best of friends. We’ve had many adventures growing up. Over the years, we were superheroes and software developers on our Apple IIe computers. We created our own newspaper. We sang obnoxious songs to beautiful young women. We tried to make a Lego movie way before Lego did. We went to every opening night blockbuster movie you could name and quoted every line you could think of.

Matt and I went to colleges in different states, but still stayed in touch. (Snail mail and phone calls, because we’re old like that.) We were the best man at each other’s weddings. He is my son’s godfather. We’ve climbed up fourteeners together, and fragged in the New Year with video games for over a decade. There are stories upon stories that I could share, and probably shouldn’t. It comes down to this. We’ve been friends for almost 38 years, and that will never end.

My writing “career” started with a newspaper by Matt and I called The Kansas City Gazette. There were maybe five issues of stories, articles and comics. Each one was hand typed and then copied at my dad’s office to be sold for .25 each. I had the great desire to be a journalist back in that day, and Matt was always there to support and participate. He drew some great comics, and wrote articles far more politically savvy than any 6th grader I knew.


Years later in high school, I wrote a lot of stories, including my favorite, “The Unknown Knight,” featuring a forlorn character filled with angst. (Go figure.) Matt encouraged me to continue with my writing more than anyone, and I did. When we graduated from college, I started my first book which was similar to The Matrix. Matt was one of the few who read it, and pushed me to write more, yet, without actually being pushy.

That’s the thing about Matt. He has always been one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met. He’s a better father than I’ve ever been for his two amazing kids. That bastard was late for gaming one Friday night, and then had to rush from watching Deadpool Saturday afternoon, all so he could see his son in a play both nights. :) He has been married to his lovely wife Susan for 17 years, and they are parents to two amazing children! Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of the man I’ve known for so long.

Matt is crazy smart. Not only because he is a software developer, but the man reads and understands. A lot of people read, and you can ask them what they read and they will look at you with blank faces. Matt’s the guy I go to before purchasing something, because chances are he has already read up on it and will provide valuable input. It doesn’t matter if you are discussing investments or computer parts, he just knows.

Fast forward through twenty years of marriage and kids and jobs for both of us, I finally started writing Angst. At 25% I really questioned what the hell I was doing, so I decided to share it with him. In spite of everything going on in his life, Matt read it immediately and said go, so I did and shared with others. I met with my alpha team after the first half of Angst was complete and Matt was the only one to show up with a stack of notes. His input was amazing.

Recent comments on Angst 4!

Funny story: Matt read from those notes about one of the women in the story, about how she was beautiful and curvy and voluptuous...if you’ve read my books, you’re familiar. He read the description of another woman, and another. They all sounded pretty amazing. Matt then read out loud about one of the men from the stories and went on to describe that they had arms. I hadn’t included a single description for any man. Not one. He was the only one to catch that. Anyone that tells you friends shouldn’t critique your work can go fuck themselves. My oldest friend had totally saved me from this blatant oversight. He made Angst better, and continues to do so.

To this day, Matt encourages me to write more than anyone. I couldn’t be more thankful to have him on my side after all of these years. While we may not serenade pretty girls these days, not much else has changed.

My 2016 Visioncon Adventure

Rio and Punk Cosplay

Whoa! I'm not sure what happened, but I think a con passed by at light speed! Isn't that always the case? The things you look forward to the most take for-ev-er to get here and then when it arrives, time speeds up as you try  to take it all in? This happened to me the weekend of February 26th, 2016, and  I'm pretty sure that blur was Visioncon 25!

Since first attending four years ago, I've always been a fan. Those coordinating and attending have always been gracious and supportive. This year, something came together, both for Visioncon and for me. First of all, Visioncon became VISIONCON! They turned the Branson Hilton Convention Center into a Valhalla of geekdom. The vendor room no longer felt squeezed into my garage. It was this great sprawling thing that provided wide aisles where gifted cosplayers could traverse unhindered. I had room to breathe, and space to tell my tale. It just felt good to be there!

I was on my own Thursday night and all of Friday, but I still won't admit to waiting in the hotel lobby like a puppy looking out the window Friday evening as Cristi, Marina and Mayra rolled in. If you were at Visioncon, or saw the pictures, you probably noticed I had 3 spokesmodels for this con. I’d like to say this happened because I’m actually Bruce Wayne and hot 20-somethings are falling all over me all the time. The truth is, I have some amazing friends and things just sort of fell into place. Marina and Mayra are Cristi’s best friends, and close friends of mine as well. They’ve both joined us at cons in Kansas City, and it worked out that they could come to Visioncon. I couldn't be more grateful!

I refer to them as my muses because they are as beautiful as they are inspiring. We had an amazing time outside of the con, even if I totally failed at trying to be 20 again. There were some odd looks thrown at us from our waitress at one restaurant, to the point I finally explained I was married to all of them. I don't think she found it as funny as we did. One of my favorite moments was when my muses arrived in full costume Saturday afternoon. The line of photographers and numerous camera flashes made it feel like paparazzi at a Hollywood Red Carpet.

My muses did amazing! Not only did they do an incredible job helping promote my Angst novels, they made the con a lot of fun for me! A special thanks to Amanda Lynn Chainmaille Creations for providing their costume tops and belts!

This was also my best Visioncon to date for sales. I even pre-sold quite a few copies of my fourth fantasy novel, Burning with Angst (even though I'm only about halfway done with the rough draft.) One reader picked up a copy of Angst on Friday, read the entire book Friday night and purchased the rest of the series Saturday. I couldn't have been more flattered.

I should shout out my excellent neighbor at the con, who I spent all of my downtime pestering. If you enjoy romantic urban fantasy, be sure to look up Lisa Medley! You can learn more about her books here: http://lisa-medley.com/books/

I didn't think the con could get much better than all of this, but I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brandon and Nate Shaw for their “Brothers on Whatever” show, which airs on St. Louis radio station 920AM. This was my first radio interview, and I had a blast. I’ve been listening to the entirety of the show throughout the week, and these guys are great! I highly recommend listening to their show either live, streaming, or by download! Thanks to both of them for the opportunity, and to Ed Gehlert for inviting me. You can find my portion of their show below.

You can find pictures of the con posted to my Facebook page. And finally, thanks to everyone who attended and organized Visioncon 25, I'm already excited for next year!

Now, back to writing book 4: Burning with Angst!