This past weekend in Pittsburgh I had my convention cherry popped. I was honored to not only be at my first ever convention as a fan, but also as a guest. I was on an authors panel reading from Escape, along with Jonathan Maberry and Rob Fox, and we answered some questions from the audience as well. A grand time was had by all.

I learned a lot about conventions (more of that in part 2), but mostly I’ll remember meeting so many great people. Jonathan Maberry, S.G. Browne, J.L. Bourne, Jacob Kier, Rob Fox and his wife, Darcy and Corey Graham, just to name a few. The friendships and bonds that were created are those that will last a lifetime.

It was also great to meet fans of The Zombie Chronicles. I was outside having a smoke and someone walked up to me and said, “Are you James Melzer?” It was a bit surreal to be recognized like that, but it was my pleasure to sign audio books (and boobies) for so many wonderful people. Two in particular, Dave and Sandy, were around all weekend and I got a chance to talk to them in the lobby for about 20 minutes and I had a blast.

I got advice and made contacts, went to some after-parties, got a little tipsy and did some interviews for UNLEASHED. It was just an all around great weekend. One that I will never forget.

Now I am in Muncy, PA with Jenny to relax for a bit before heading back to Canada. I’ll be writing and recording more on all of this later. For now, I will leave you with my reading of Escape at the authors panel on Friday night, September 18, 2009.

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