Thoughts from World Fantasy 2018, #1

I’m writing today while at World Fantasy, a professional conference, which began on November 1st. I’ve never attended before, which since it is in Baltimore, is close enough to where I live to make for a wonderful long weekend, offering a chance to network and unwind as well.

World Fantasy is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. At the Opening Ceremony’s last night, there was a dramatic reading of opening of the book, which for the writers and aspiring writers in the audience shows the Mary Shelley basically came up with the story based on a prompt one night to come up with a ghost story.

She wrote that she thought about what would scare her and started to think along the lines of reanimation, but had no idea how that could become a story. She then went to bed that night and had a nightmare, seeing a body on a slab and machines all around it, then saw the body essentially twitch. She woke in shock, then soon realized she had her story.

As the month of November begins NaNo WriMo, I think it is a bit ironic that a prompt spurred Mary Shelley to write a seminal tale of science fiction 200 years ago and NaNoWriMO will produce hundreds if not thousands of stories based on prompting this month.

A prompt in September spurred me to write a flash fiction piece, which I submitted a couple of weeks later – a story I would not have written otherwise. In a way, World Fantasy being held close to where I live encouraged me to attend for the first time.

I’m not on a single panel or even doing a reading, but the experience of being here and seeing friends again makes this a vacation for me – another opportunity for me to be a fan. One other thing I learned, as I mentioned in my Capclave posting, is that I learned there is a mass signing here. I’ve now learned that literally everyone will be offered a table at the signing. World Fantasy puts out table tents with the names of every attendee. That may sound odd, but it's definitely inclusive.

I’m going to be at the mass signing tonight and this convention offers Indy authors and small press publishers for the time a table where they’ll sell our books on consignment. So, I signed up and have several books available. When I dropped off my copies yesterday, I was given an hour today when I could promote and sign my books – and encourage folks to come to the mass signing tonight. Hmm, I'll say this, I certainly feel welcome at World Fantasy...

Well, that’s my thoughts on my first day here. More to share in this series of articles later...

Dare to Believe,

D. H.