Well guess who's going to be a panelist...this guy. That's right; hide your sanity, leave your common sense at home, and bring some sort of recording device, because I'm going to be sitting on some panels (and not nice wooden ones).

This year I'll be attending the Life, the Universe, & Everything Symposium in Provo, Utah. While there, I'll be on the panel for "So You Want to Write Horror?" on Friday, Feb 13 (fitting, right?), as well as the panel for "The Magic of Minis" on Saturday, Feb 14 (hopefully it's about the use of miniature figurines in role-playing games and not the magic of mini candy bars. Because, let's face it... mini candy bars are not magical). So if you are going to the symposium, come stop by and learn some mystical knowledge (or at least be entertained for an hour or two).

I was recently involved with the creation of an anthology. As a group, the Utah Regional Chapter of the HWA, of which I am the Organizer, decided to create an anthology to help spread some horror. Inside this fine piece of work, are fourteen tales written by authors who have a Utah connection. That means they either live in Utah, have lived in Utah, or have family in Utah. The tales are a collection of Utah horror, many with an Old West vibe. My story, "The Demons We Bring" can be found inside. It's the prequel to "Horishi Tom" so if you are familiar with that tale, you can reacquaint yourself with Jeremiah Redford as he tries to find a way to bring his family back from the dead.

After we decided what the theme would be, we put out an open call for submissions. I think we gave the authors a couple of months to get stories back to us. At that time, we didn't quite know who would be the editor/editors. The majority of the Utah HWA submitted stories, as well as a decent number of folks who were outside of the chapter. Once the submission process came to a finish, we reached out to find folks who want to be readers to decide which stories would be kept for the anthology. Due to a lack of volunteers, it ended up being me and two other folks from the chapter. Since I had a story submitted, I didn't vote on my own piece. We went with a simple Yes/No vote. If a story ended up with two no's, then it was out. Basically, that meant if any of the other readers didn't like my story, only one would have to say no then I would have been out (since I wasn't voting on my own piece).

After the stories were selected, we needed editors. Once again, due to a lack of volunteers, it came down to me an another Utah HWA member. Once again, I left my story alone and let the other volunteer do the editing. It was strange being a reader and an editor on a project that had my own story involved, so I did my best to mitigate.

The editing process involved multiple passes between the authors and us. It was a lot more involved than I thought it would be and required a lot of communication between the other editor, as well as with the authors. Luckily, one of our members owned Griffin Publishers, LLC and helped us out with the formatting and publishing of the anthology on Create Space. Another member was good friends with Carter Reid and was able to hook us up with an original piece of art, custom-made for the anthology. Carter, I just want to say that you are an awesome fellow for doing this. Please check him out at his website where he creates a zombie web-comic. 

While at times it was a major pain in the ass to get this project finished, I kind of liked it. Maybe I'm a sucker for punishment, but I think I might do another anthology. This time I'll try and tackle it by myself (don't worry, my stories wont find their way into that one). 

You can pick up a copy of the book here: http://griffinpublishers.com/publications.html or you can come see us at FanX in Salt Lake City, January 29-31, or Life, the Universe and Everything in Provo, Utah in February and get signed copies at a discounted rate.