With the lead up to Scares That Care AuthorCon VI I wanted to take some time to look back at the previous AuthorCons that I had attended. AuthorCon III was the very first and it was my first book convention! I had heard about it by chance from a Facebook group for horror readers and was happy to find out that it was held from Williamsburg, which wasn’t too far of a trip for me.
I gasped when I saw some of my favorite authors like Eric LaRocca and Grady Hendrix listed as Guests of Honor, so I jumped at the opportunity to go! There were other names I was familiar from around Goodreads and other social media, but at this point admittedly I knew very little about the indie horror community, having only recently started reading a few indies between 2023 and 2024. I missed Friday because my husband couldn’t take the day off work, so we made our way there on Saturday.
Vendor Anxiety & Poor Eyesight
I have severe anxiety and though I brought a few books to be signed, I could barely talk to any of the sitting authors. Even meeting my literary hero Eric LaRocca I was horribly anxious getting my books signed, he was busy talking to other people one table over and was not very engaging. I was a nervous wreck, but I was happy to get my books signed. Some authors were very kind and were chatty and brought me out of my shell a bit. I didn’t know what to expect and figured I could maybe spend $100 or $200 total on a handful of books. I was surprised that some books ended up being quite expensive. Some were reasonable and a lot of folks offered discounts for picking up multiple books, but I did guiltily buy a paperback that was $40.
I also started to realize during the con that I was starting to have vision problems. For context, I’m nearly blind in one eye, it’s been that way since birth. I never really noticed however and the eyesight in my remaining eye had always been very sharp. I don’t know what it was, but I realized when I was walking through the lanes of tables that I was having a hard time seeing, so my husband and I admittedly did a lot of laps while I was trying to figure out what tables I wanted to stop at. I was too afraid to walk up to a table and not buy anything, not wanting to offend an author.
Admittedly, I did end up picking up a few books that I wasn’t super interested in reading again due to that pressure and guilt that I mentioned. I also unintentionally bought several books that had AI covers, one of which that was filled with terribly AI art too. I didn’t realize right away because I was picking up a few books for a bundle discount and was annoyed when I got home. AI was still kind of a new thing at that point and I hadn’t learned how to spot it yet. All of the aforementioned books are on my shelves and I’ll still give them a try at some point, who knows? Maybe I’ll enjoy some of them. But I learned a hard lesson about being careful where I stop.
Favorite Conversations
♥ Wrath James White: My husband and I got to meet Wrath and his sister and they were both lovely to talk to. They offered us a free temporary tattoo and I made a joke about putting it on my husband as a tramp stamp. My husband, being the0 golden retriever that he is, got excited and wanted to go run to get some water, and this got a good laugh out of Wrath. I was bummed that by the time I got to his table he was sold out of all of the books I was hoping to get, but I did end up picking up a book that wasn’t on my TBR.
♥ Aron Beauregard: I hadn’t read any of Aron’s books at this point, but I had certainly heard about Playground. He was very kind and he gave me a free signed poster for purchasing a few books. That poster sits framed above my desk now. 🙂
♥ Candace Nola: Though I had stopped at her table to buy a book, I ended up getting an anthology she was included in later. Not wanting to miss her later when we were getting signatures for the anthology, we had stopped her when she was walking. My husband had just read her short story, his very first horror story, while sitting in a panel and was flabbergasted. The story was Crab Apple Game, and she was happy that her story got to be his first. She told us about her inspiration for the story and was so incredibly kind and sweet. In hindsight I feel bad for stopping her, not even thinking that she might have been on the way to a panel or to rest, so I appreciate that she took the time to stop and talk with us.
♥ Paul Tremblay: Paul was so warm and I was able to chat with him a little bit. I hadn’t read any of his books yet, though I had read a few of his short stories. I ended up picking up a special edition copy of one of his books!
Panels
I went to a few panels this year and they were fun! If I recall, they were the Folklore and LGBTQ Horror panels. The folklore one was really fun and I ran to pick up a few of the authors books afterwards. The LGBTQ panel was a little more of a bust, most of the folks sitting on the panel I think were starstruck by Eric LaRocca who was in attendance (I don’t blame them, I was too) and they didn’t participate much even when asked questions directly by the moderator, Anton Cancre. The panel was held up heavily by the Anton and Eric. It was still a good panel however and I was just so grateful to get to hear from my favorite author.
In Conclusion
It was a fun con overall despite some not so great things about it. My husband and I had a blast and we didn’t want the con to be over, it was the first trip that we had taken together so it made it extra special for me, and I was able to get him a little into my hobby. About my vision after? Yeah I started to notice not long after that I couldn’t see the cars in front of me well and got my eyes checked, and now have prescription glasses. My one good eye had a good run, ha.
Book Haul
I ended up purchasing 32 books, and I received 1 chapbook and 1 CD for free!
♥ Hush Little baby by Caytlyn Brooke
♥ When We Appear Before You Without Masks by Anton Cancre
♥ To Cut a Man by Justin Holley
♥ Crossroads by Laurel Hightower
♥ This Skin Was Once Mine & Other Disturbances by Eric LaRocca
♥ The Haunting of Elena Vera by Steven Pajak
♥ Along the River of Flesh by Kristopher Triana
♥ Lethal Lords & Ladies of the Night by Scott Harperr
♥ The King and His Worms by Hailey Piper
♥ Crimson Cobblestones by Marie LeStrange
♥ Your Mind is a Terrible Thing by Hailey Piper
♥ Tethered to Darkness by Justin Holley
♥ Desolation by Kristopher Rufty
♥ The Story of Sorrow by Daniel J. Volpe
♥ Hellweg’s Keep by Justin Holley
♥ Plastic Monsters by Daniel J. Volpe
♥ Old Scratch by Kristopher Rufty
♥ Beverly Kills by Sean McDonough
♥ Mean Spirited by Nick Roberts
♥ Through the Eyes of Desperation by Aron Beauregard
♥ The Day of the Door by Laurel Hightower
♥ I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House by Ben Farthing
♥ A Bouquet of Viscera by Bridgett Nelson
♥ Like Porno for Psychos by Wrath James White
♥ Six Rooms by Gemma Amor
♥ Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
♥ Playground by Aron Beauregard
♥ Talia by Daniel J. Volpe
♥ It Watches in the Dark by Jeff Strand
♥ For You by Mona Kabbani
♥ Evil Little Fucks by R.E. Sargent & Steven Pajak
♥ The Devoured and the Dead by Kristopher Rufty
♥ Blush & Bone by Candace Nola
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