James Melzer

Top 10 Highlights of Horror Realm

James Melzer | Sep 22, 2009 | Comments 0 Comments

This past weekend in Pittsburgh, I attended Horror Realm as a guest of Permuted Press. While I learned a lot about conventions my first time out (more on that later), I just want to break down my own top 10 personal highlights of the con.

After I was finished with my authors panel reading, I was picking up my pages and Jonathan Maberry leaned over and whispered, “That was really good.” I didn’t know what to say so I just smiled and said, “Thanks.”
Meeting S.G. Brown, the author of ‘Breathers.’ Perhaps one of the most humble men I have ever met and one of the nicest, too. We got the chance to talk at length about the roller coaster of a ride his career has been on since his first published novel came out. A true gentleman.
Finally having a face-to-face meeting with Jacob Kier, my boss over at Permuted Press. He’s a giant of a man but all heart and it was good to actually talk to him in person.
Corey Graham from The Midnight Podcast was all smiles when I met him. We’ve talked before on Skype and twitter but it was really cool to finally meet him. Corey, when I move to PA, we’re definitely gonna hang out more.
Signing audio books for people. It was a thrill to meet some great fans of TZC and sign stuff for them. While the majority of people there had never heard of me, it was cool to not only have strangers buy my work, but those few die-hards who showed up made it all worthwhile.
Tom Savini showed up and it was cool to meet him in person. He’s always been an idol of mine and to get the chance to shake his hand was very cool.
Having Tony Todd knock on my hotel door at 11pm. Apparently he was looking for Ken Foree, who was in the next room over. Oops!
Meeting all the people on the Permuted Press forums who I’ve had a great relationship with. It was nice to meet them all face-to-face finally.
Jonathan Maberry asked me for some quotes for his new non-fiction book to be released in August of 2010. That was an honor and a privilege to have someone I look up to so much ask me for my input.
Getting the chance to read the winners of the Horror Realm Flash Fiction contest. There were lots of great entries but there could only be 3 winners. It was a pleasure reading them all (see video below).

While there were many other highlights from the convention, those are probably my top 10. Like I said, I learned a lot, met a bunch of great people and am now hard at work on something that may see my writing career take an entirely different turn. We’ll see. For now though, I will just sit back and think about all the great moments of a weekend that was perhaps one of the best of my life.