Kevin Lucia

Well, I worked it into the budget, and I'll have a table at Horrorfind Weekend this year, down in Maryland.  Any vendor can buy a table, so it's not really a status symbol, and I have no plans of making any money - in fact, I'm sure I'll lose money, or maybe break even.

But that's not really the point, is it? This is like Borderlands Press' Writers Boot Camp - a chance for me to fling myself out there, into a world foreign to me. With Hiram Grange coming and some other cool places I've managed to land myself, I actually have some stuff to put on a table. Plus, Horrorfind is perfect for me, because my best friend lives about an hour away. No hotel fees for me.

This is kinda the year to fling myself out there, basically. It started with Bootcamp. Next up is the Institute of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror at the Flushing Queens Museum in Queens, New York. Next will be MoCon IV, where I just plan on having a great time and finally meeting Maurice Broaddus, Coach Culbertson, Michelle Pendergrass, and Tom Piccerelli face to face, and to see Gary Braunbeck again (Among many others). Then will be Necon...I'm pretty sure, anyway...and Horrorfind.

I don't plan on doing this next year - won't have the coin. I figure next year I'll be able to swing everything except Necon and Bootcamp. This is a chance for me to dip into an ocean far bigger than anything I've ever swam in, and I'm giddy over the prospects (See? Who even uses the word giddy anymore?)

Pictures and updates there will be galore. I have a recap of Bootcamp coming, but I'm letting it simmer for now.

Later!

Posted by kevinlucia at 01:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Cover by Adrian Rivero

A little over a year ago, I was very fortunate to see my writing career begin with an Editor's Choice Award in the new genre anthology, Coach's Midnight Diner: Jesus VS. Cthulhu Edition. However, the collection featured a lot of other great stories, and it was fairly well received, got some decent reviews, and most importantly in THIS economy: didn't die. Now it's back: Coach's Midnight Diner: Back From the Dead Edition.

Here's the thing: while the first edition was creating a new space for the speculative genre - a flexible place where violence, death, murder, mayhem, evil...and faith, goodness, redemption, and retribution can meet, it was also its first run ever. I can unashamedly say that, even though my story won Editor's Choice. HOWEVER - this edition looks to deliver the goods of some top shelf stuff, written by:

Bram Stoker Award-winner Kim Paffenroth

Cemetery Dance Author, Novelist and Editor's Choice Winner Daniel G. Keohane

Novelist and Occult Detective Bob Freeman

Plus, Jesus VS. Cthulhu Edition Diner Alumni authors Chris Mikesell, Mike Duran, and Michael Medina. I was originally tagged as an editor, but had to downscale because of my own schedule to a reader - but WOW: these stories are the real deal, and make my story in the first edition look silly. Mike Duran make a strong showing with his "En Route to Inferno", and Greg Mitchell's "Flowers for Shelly" was top-notch also.

It doesn't stop there, though - especially with over 300 hundred pages of this stuff! Also, I believe there are tentative plans to expand the Midnight Diner to website featuring lots of regularly written content, perhaps even quarterly .pdf ezine editions (though it's been awhile since I heard anything about that).

Anyway - the names involved with this one speaks volumes. Like Shroud Magazine, Apex Publications and Doorway Publications, Coach's Midnight Diner is here to stay, and is worthy of your patronage! Fans - preorder and check it out! Writers, download the sample edition of the first Diner, pre-order the second Diner, and start thinking towards submitting to the next diner.

Posted by kevinlucia at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One week from now, I'll be waking up for the final day of the Borderlands Press Writers Bootcamp. Then, I'm sure my head will be swimming with ideas, potential, and dreams of the future. Right now, I'm going out of my head just thinking about it.

Don't get me wrong. The conference itself isn't an instant pass to fortune and glory, my ticket to writing stardom. So much more plays into that. However, just my going there is like everything else that has happened in the past year and a half: the Editor's Choice award for Coach's Midnight Diner, placing a story in Shroud's Abominations anthology, pitching a good enough idea to write a short novel, teaching high school English - before every one of these things occurred, I told myself: "These things don't happen to guys like me. I'm Average Joe. The good guy who didn't get dates in high school because he was too nice. The fundamental role-playing basketball player who got by on guts and knowledge, played junior college ball because he wasn't athletic enough to play elsewhere.

These things don't happen to me."

Except now...they are.

So I'm taking next weekend for what it's worth. My writing is going to be read by bestselling authors and the senior editors for Berkeley Books. That alone is enough to scare me. I'm also feeling self-conscious about the story I sent. The sample I used to qualify I feel good about, but the short story I offered for critique was the only unpublished one I had in the works at the time, and, well... there's a real good reason it's still unpublished! After reading the rest of the submissions, I really wish I'd something better to send in.

I'm also planning on lying really low. Being reserved. Quiet. I'm socially awkward by nature (which doesn't jive with being a teacher and talking in front of people all day. Go figure.) and I tend to stick BOTH feet in my mouth, often. (Wilson Hospital has foot-from-mouth removal specialists on call, just to service me). I laugh at things others don't. Hence, I'm really scared of making an ass of myself next weekend - something I'm exceedingly good at.

I also hope for a moment to read. I'm taking stacks of unread issues of Cemetery Dance with me for the breaks. Hopefully, I'll still be able to get up at 3 AM and write like I have been.

I'm nervous. Mind-numbingly nervous. Plus, it doesn't seem real. Brian Hatcher - author - told me this conference will advance me ten years. Brian Keene - from whose blog I learned about this thing on the LAST day to submit - told me it'd change my life, as long as I had an open mind. Open mind? Man - my SKULL is going to be wide open, at this point.

I'll be traveling other places this year. I have my first ever con - of sorts - at the Institute of Horror at the Flushing Queens Library in Queens, New York. I'll be at Necon and Horrorfind. I'm diving into a whole new world, and I'm desperately afraid of being looked at as someone who's somehow wheedled through the cracks and doesn't really belong.

But hey - I'm in the game. I may never hit a home run. Probably not. Like I said above, I'm more like the guy who humbly and willingly bunts when told to. Even so - I'm on the field, and I plan to play my heart out - win or lose.

Posted by kevinlucia at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here 'tis.




To many of us, a hospital may be one of the most frightening scenarios there are. It can leave you completely vulnerable and places your livelihood in the hands of complete strangers. It's the perfect formula for horrific tales. All that's missing is YOU; the ideal catalyst.

Think Dr. Mengele meets Bedlam Hospital - and you have Bloom Memorial Hospital. Every town has a Bloom Memorial...or every hospital has a door leading to Bloom's OR. Welcome, and enjoy your stay.... though it may be the death of you.

TOC

Longer Fiction:

RECRUITMENT by Felicity Dowker
THE CURE by Bruce Cooper
ALL THE GIFTS OF LIFE by W.D.
Gagliani and David Benton
SYMBIOSIS by Paul Milliken
SPECIAL DELIVER, BLOOM by Derek Rutherford
DEEP KIMCHI by Wayne Helge
THERAPY by Kevin Lucia
AVAILABLE by Horace James
COLD COFFEE CUPS & CURIOUS THINGS by Catherine J Gardner
A KIND OF LIVING by Paul Harris
HEART MATTERS by J.P. Wilson
POST-PROCEDURAL CARE ON THE BLOOM MEMORIAL LINE by Jeremy Kelly
PROSTHETICS by Daniel I Russell
UNIVERSAL DONOR by Bryce Albertson
7734 by Douglas Burchill
SNIP by Jennifer Greylyn
THE NIGHT NURSE OF COBBLESTONE by Vince A. Liaguno
OHRWURM by Brendan P. Myers

100-worder's:

MALIGNANT by Daniel R Robichaud II
TRAUMA by Stephan Davis
CASE NO. 36 by Chris Chapman
GRAVITY FEED by Lee Pederson
CUTS BITE AT BLOOM MEMORIAL HOSPITAL by Bill West
THE ITCH by Alex Moisi
BREACH BIRTH by Ken Goldman
THE CREATURE OF BLOOM MEMORIAL by Emma Kathryn McDonald
ADVANCED CLASS by Paula Villegas
PATIENT CARE by Joel A. Sutherland
AUTO-DE-FE by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
HOSPITAL DIET by Mark Onspaugh
MINOR SURGERY by Rob Brooks

Posted by kevinlucia at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm not much of a poet, but here it is:

Mr. Alistair FInnegan Black

Enjoy! Or poke fun.
Either is acceptable!

Here's the "issue" cover:

 

Posted by kevinlucia at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)