NECON is moving!

I suppose most people already learned this exciting news via other mediums, but in case anyone out there only goes by my blog updates;

NECON, the NorthEastern Writers Conference, has a major change coming for NECON 40, in July 2020. After holding 39 NECONs in Rhode Island, the conference is moving to Salem, MA. This also allows them to move the cap from 200 attendees to 250.

You can read all about the hows & whys here;

NECON is moving to Salem!

tinyurl.com/y5kwqwjv

What do I think?

I think it looks great!

Yes, my ride will be much shorter. Believe it or not, I'll kind of miss it. I liked getting away to Rhode Island annually. I will miss all the osprey sightings. But the new arrangements look amazing. I'm really glad there will be lots more common spaces to cluster and hang out. That was definitely a limitation of the old location.

Often during NECON at some point, people will take a break and head into Providence or other destinations, and that usually eats up a half-day. With downtown Salem so near, quick breaks can be taken to visit sites without taking a chunk out of the conference programming.

Speaking of the programming, if you didn't know, historically NECON spun out from World Fantasy Con. NECON's focus is usually the horror genre. In recent years, "horror" has been dropped from the official name (the 'H' was never included in the NECON abbreviation, anyway.) Lots of the guests write across genres. A handful or more of crime & thriller writers have been attending in recent years. The conference is more for speculative fiction now, though many of the panels are still horror oriented.

It will be a great time!

Current writing goals & miscellanous publication news

Social media has definitely eaten into posting. Quicker to share news that way than to take the time for a post. But, I should be better about it--even if I'm not sure who comes by here anymore without a social media prompt.

Anyway...

Over the past few years my writing goals have shifted from the calendar year to a more natural rhythm of NECON to NECON for me. That is July to July. Attending NECON gives me a push like nothing else. And this year I really needed it.

I've got my goals laid out now. I need to stay on track and see where I end up next summer.

Other news;

My story, "The Painted Girl," will appear in the New England Horror Writers anthology, WICKED WEIRD. They will debut the book at NecronomiCon Providence in a few weeks. It should be available through Amazon after that.

Doug Draa accepted my story, "The Toll Taker and the Troll," for WEIRDBOOK. That will be appearing sometime in 2020-21. (Yes, Doug has filled out the issues all the way until then!)

Bryce Beattie accepted my story, "Makani and the Vulture God," for STORYHACK. It should be appearing in issue 5. Issue 4 should be out soon. I encourage you all to support the 'zine.

I have another acceptance on short story for an anthology but I am not at liberty to divulge information at this time. I hope it will come out this year, too.

I have one other bit of news but--also unfortunately--that appears delayed so I'll wait to announce anything there. Hopefully I won't be waiting too much longer.