WONDERCON Recap: 3 Panels and Book Signings, Reuniting w/ Writer Friends!
I had a great time at one of my favorite conventions in Anaheim!
I'm just back from WonderCon, one of my favorite conventions held in Anaheim.
If you're not familiar with it, it's run by the same folks that put on the big show in San Diego. It reminds me of what SDCC said to be before all the big movie studios realize that it can be a marketing job or not for their movies and television shows.
That means, the focus is still more securely on comic book writers and creators, and also authors like me. Although I do write graphic novels, and had two original ones out (Spectre Deep 6 and 200). It feels more like a real convention, driven by fans and not corporations and marketing machines. So rare these days, right?
Not that I don't love movies and television. After all, I did start my whole career working in Hollywood on a lot of that stuff. And I still long to create TV and film content. But right now it's a really hard time in the market with a lot of contraction.
The cosplay at WonderCon is one of the best features. I love seeing the creativity of fans and what they can build, and their desire to participate in the worlds they love.
I had three great panels over the weekend, along with book signings for Mysterious Galaxy Books (one of the best indie bookstores based in San Diego). My first panel was on “Writing in Other Worlds” about Media Tie-In writing (what I do for Disney and Star Wars), put together by Jonathan Maberry and representing our authors group.
The panel was excellent with superstar authors, it made me realize even more that I'd love to write something for the Alien or Predator universes (or BOTH!).
My next panel was called “Mary Shelley Presents,” all about the author who penned Frankenstein when she was only 19 years old, and other Victorian writers. Finally, I appeared on a panel about “YA Fantasy” hosted by Henry Herz with Corey Doctorow, Jonathan Maberry and Stacia Deutsch, who I'm pretty sure wrote a lot of the books I loved as a child especially Nancy Drew and The Boxcar Children.
For me, the main highlight of the weekend involved being around other writers and creators who tackle similar genres in fiction. It should come as no surprise that being an author can feel really isolating. You stay home by yourself and make a whole worlds in your head, hoping somebody will want to publish them. Or your writing on crazy deadlines, hoping that readers will like the second or third book in your series.
Also, all of this is gotten so much harder since the pandemic accelerated trends and media and publishing that were already in progress. I've moved four times since Covid. I had to leave Los Angeles, my home of 20 years, after rent skyrocketed, finally landed in the hi desert community of Joshua tree, where I hope to stay for the foreseeable future. Just like I didn't expect the pandemic, I think it's necessary in these days to stay flexible about where you live … and what’s you’ll write.
When the world gets really dystopian, it can be hard to stay creative. Just look at the news headlines. They read like the crawl in the beginning of a Hollywood disaster movie. Even worse, is there a real journalism anymore?
Publishing and media are experiencing massive change and contraction. Publishers and studios are run by corporations, not by creatives. They are less willing to take a risk on new writers and books, instead recycling the same old material, or adding sequels upon sequels upon prequels … in a never-ending cycle …
I should know because I worked on the forefront of this trend. For my first job out of Harvard, I worked for Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. I didn't know then that it would spur a whole trend I'm going to today.
In the last week alone, I've read major articles about how science fiction book sales have massively declined. Book publishers no longer want to publish this genre of fiction. They prefer fantasy. I've also been told again and again that middle grade fiction is impossible to sell right now, which is one of my favorite things to write.
All of this felt really depressing. I'm not going to lie. I had a day or two feeling really desponded. I think science fiction literature is critical to the future of humanity. Likewise, I think it's so important to get kids and twins excited to read. These trends are not driven by actual readers, but by corporate interests who value money above all else, and seek to come modify art as if it's some kind of mass manufactured product.
This never works. It has never worked, and it will never work.
But that doesn't mean they'll ever learne. Just look what happened during the WGA strike in Hollywood, or what's going on with AI replacing writers and creators.
I had conversations with my very experienced representatives in both books and television about these trends and the current contraction in the marketplace.
So, what does that mean for me another authors like me?
I've committed to continuing to write even the genres in categories that aren't "popular." We can't let corporate interests dictate art.
Does that mean that I have to hustle a little more to make a living as costs continue to climb in the middle class disappears?
Yes.
The simple answer is… YES!
But to give up and surrender is to give up on life and humanity itself. Writing is like breathing for me. Creating stories is what makes me get up in the morning.
Anyway I'll sign off for now!
Being at WonderCon did help replenish my soul and give me inspiration to keep doing the crazy thing I do in writing all of these books and stories.
Next up, I’ll be at StokerCon (the Horror Writers Association conference) at the end of May, and I'll be at SDCC hopefully at the end of July.
My next book is up for PREORDER … OUT IN SEPT!