Category: Cons

It’s Archon time!

It’s time for our hometown party! Archon is a neighborhood con for many of us here in the Literary Underworld, and always a great time. This year we expect to see Underlords Jim D. Gillentine, Kathy Brown, Sela Carsen/Silke Campion, Cole Lanahan, Diana Morgan, Mary Koppenhofer, Michales Joy, and perhaps some others! (Oh, and Overlord Elizabeth Donald.)

Literary Underworld will have our usual booth just to the left of the dealer’s room entrance. We have planted our flag on that spot and it is ours. This year we are premiering a few new books released over the last few months by our amazing Underlords!

Blackfire Rising by Elizabeth Donald

It was an experiment. A way to create a better soldier. Colder, more efficient. But some things shouldn’t be altered, and some creatures are best left to myth.

Sara Harvey has faced the Cold Ones again and again, losing friends and comrades in a running battle to keep the world safe from the monsters released by an experiment that should never have happened.

Because you shouldn’t have to pray to just stay dead.

 

 

 

Madam, Don’t Forget Your Sword

Do we ever think of them, the little people who make their masters larger than life? The ones tasked with the routine jobs: Picking up the laundry, packing snacks for the quest, renting the secret lair, oiling the death machine, walking the eldritch horror? The people who keep the heroine’s sword sharp and her chainmail polished—does she ever notice? What are their lives like? How did they get their jobs? There would be no story without them, but what are their stories?

Here, we present twenty-eight innovative and remarkable speculative fiction tales that reveal how the companions, sidekicks, and minions make that hero—or villain—super. Authors include Underlord Diana Morgan.

 

 

 

Vegas Run by Rachel Brune

Some debts you can’t outrun.

An unprovoked attack destroys Rick Keller’s refuge and sends him back to civilization. Adrift, alone, his past reaches out to him as the agency he escaped–and the old Soviet spook he almost didn’t–call in their debts. His choice: work with MONIKER one more time, or face the rest of his life on the run.

From the snows of the north to the sand of the Las Vegas strip, Rick finds himself enmeshed in a web of old alliances and new, as his team heads out on the trail of the latest development in the supernatural arms race. While Rick has been hiding in the north country, MONIKER has been building a supernatural army. No matter how fast or far he runs, it won’t be enough. This time when they call him in, they don’t need an agent–they’re eliminating the competition. This time, he’s going to burn them to the ground.

 

 

Marathonarium Vol. 2
Ed. by Stephen Zimmer, including Underlord Kathy Brown

The short stories within this anthology are the result of a creative journey that began on Thursday, July 18th, of 2024, on the eve of the 11th Imaginarium Convention. Writers of many styles and genres gathered together for a marathon writing session of three hours in length. All of the participants were encouraged to tell the story that they wanted to tell; there were no restrictions on genre, there was no common theme, nor were there any parameters on the voice the story had to be told in.

The stories were completed and edited in the months that followed, and the result is a group of tales that will entertain, captivate, provoke thought, stoke the imagination, thrill, and engage readers of a broad range of fiction!

Discover a highly talented group of up-and-coming writers dedicated to the craft of writing and the art of storytelling in Marathonarium II.

 

 

Weird STL, ed. by the St. Louis Writers Guild.

Eighteen short stories, poems, essays, flash fiction, and even a script that were all written by St. Louis Writers Guild members. Among them are Underlords Elizabeth Donald, Kathy Brown and Diana Morgan, each exploring the weirdness of our beloved St. Louis.

 

 

 

 

Baby Monster by John McFarland

Return with us to Ste. Odile, a cursed town indeed.

A familiar scientist is conducting a study on teeth, using participants from the women’s wing of St. Mathurin’s Home for the Insane.

A resolute woman must perform an unspeakable act to save herself from a life-ending condition.

An abandoned and crumbling orphanage hiding a horrific secret, a woman’s obsession with speaking to the dead, and her husband trying to save their son from potential murder come together in a thunderous storm of shock and terror.

Step into the end of intimate acquaintances and the beginning of tenuous relationships. Mysterious men, undaunted women, warped creatures, maddened minds, human atrocities… all await you in McFarland’s second volume of harrowing short stories, including two novelettes, published here for the first time.

“In Baby Monster, McFarland revisits the cursed town of Ste. Odile, where the darkest angels of our souls, all our souls, reside.” ~ Dacre Stoker, author of Dracul and great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker.

All these and many more are waiting for you at the Literary Underworld booth at Archon this weekend! And if you can’t make it to the show, they are all available on our online store. Just click the book covers to purchase! Remember, when you shop from the Literary Underworld, you’re buying directly from authors and small presses, which pays them more than buying from Big River. Support small presses, support authors, buy Literary Underworld!

See you at Archon!

Imaginarium ahoy!

By Elizabeth Donald

We are delighted to be returning to Louisville for Imaginarium, a convention we have attended most of the years since its inception. The Literary Underworld will have its usual booth, as well as the Traveling Bar, of course.

In addition, we have our own panel! Literary Underworld has been in operation for more years than any of us have counted, outlasting many such experiments in author and small press cooperatives. But what the heck are we? A lot of people assume we are publishers, or a self-published hub, or a cult. Okay, no one said cult. It was implied.

So we’ll be holding a panel at Imaginarium to explain what we do, how it started, what evolutions we’ve tried, and the current state of the Underworld. More importantly, we hope to help people understand that we’re all in this together, and a cooperative could possibly be a useful thing for them in their own careers.

Of course, it’s happening in a year where we have an all-time low in Underlords attending. I can’t remember the last time Shrews missed Imaginarium, but he won’t be there this year. Many of our other longtime miscreants will be missing in action, including J.L. Mulvihill, Sara Harvey, and Sela Carsen. Fortunately Jim Gillentine and I will be there, and hopefully Stephen Zimmer, who is both author and publisher in Literary Underworld for mumblety years. We also get to see Angelia Sparrow, who co-founded Literary Underworld with me and Sara Harvey a thousand years ago. (I told you no one kept count.)

At some point between now and Imaginarium, I will have to look up how many years we’ve actually been in operation, supporting small presses and their authors and trundling ourselves to conventions all over the midwest and the south. It’s a labor of love, a love of the written word, of genre fiction and the writers audacious enough to lay their souls bare on the page despite the monumental pressures against them.

So pass the bourbon, and come join us in Louisville on July 18-20. We’d be delighted to see you.

Imaginarium 2024

By Elizabeth Donald

The Imaginarium leaders say this year saw more works nominated for the awards than they have ever seen, and I was honored to be among them. My screenplay, “The Train,” was a finalist for the Imadjinn Awards in the category of unproduced screenplays, and Underlord Steven Shrewsbury was a finalist for Reckoning Day in the category of best fantasy novel. Neither of us won, but we had a good time nonetheless!

Imaginarium isn’t really a convention with a lot of cosplay, but we do get the occasional costumes, as seen above. Mostly it’s a writers workshop and film festival, with one of the most writing-intensive panel listings on the circuit.

The convention was a delightful and exhausting time, with good conversation and bad coffee throughout the weekend. I did three workshops and two panels, plus a last-minute reading on Sunday:

“The Art of Legal Prostitution: Selling your work at cons and book fairs.”

“Death, Taxes and Freelancing”

“Nevermore: Edgar Allan Poe and The Raven.”

That third was more of an academic lecture taking the MFA out for a spin, and I was surprised that the con picked it from my list of workshops to present. I was even more surprised when the small room was pretty much full, as a lecture in the life and work of a 19th century poet is not your standard con fare. But it was a lot of fun, and well-received, as were the two business workshops.

I was really dreading the panel on AI and ethics, assuming I would be surrounded by techies who think it’s the second coming, and speaking as a writer, an English professor and a journalist, I have seen little to recommend it. It turned out to be a really interesting discussion, respectful and thoughtful even among those who use AI. I presume I was on that panel because of my position on the Society of Professional Journalists ethics committee, which is funny considering that many members of the committee have a more flexible attitude toward AI than I do.

The other panel was on literary fiction, so once again I took out the MFA and my few literary credits. Any discussion of genre has to start from defining that genre, and that can be problematic because in essence you are defining what it is not, and how it differs from other genres. The official definition of literary fiction is that it focuses more on characterization, language, and subtext/meaning than entertainment. This is frequently interpreted as “literary means boring.“ But you have to start from somewhere, and my fellow panelists and I had some really interesting discussions. I think we could have easily nerded out for another hour or two if it hadn’t been Sunday afternoon.

As Underlord Jim Gillentine had forgotten to fill out his paperwork to be a guest author, he was booth babe all weekend. As you can see, he chose a subtle and dignified appearance to represent the Literary Underworld.

We ran the Traveling Bar both nights, and as usual made as much or more serving drinks and selling books in the room as we do in the dealer’s room. Conversation was pleasant and the vibe was chill, as it often is at Imaginarium.

We debuted our line of merchandise on the table, which did require giving up a little real estate from the books, but was a big hit. We started selling stickers before the dealers room even opened. Once upon a time, we could cover our cost for the booth just by selling Pocky. This got problematic when the hotels said we couldn’t sell food. But if the stickers can cover some expenses, that’s more profit for the authors.

In all, Louisville was a delight and I wholeheartedly recommend the Troll Pub downtown for the post-con dinner. It’s quite nifty.

Now we are back home, the email inbox is staggering and I have about sixty tasks to catch up on all week. I hope you all had a great weekend, and I’ll see you on the circuit next time!

 

The Fellowship of the Book

By Elizabeth Donald

I’m honored to share that I’ve been awarded an AWP Community Scholarship to attend the 2024 conference in Kansas City.

I was lucky to attend last year’s conference in Seattle, and I absolutely loved it. AWP is one hell of a conference, with about 25 panels per hour aimed for writers and writing programs. Think Dragoncon, but all books. It’s got a heavy literary bent, but there is also programming for commercial and genre writers, tons for poets and a LOT for the teaching of writing. And unlike the very white-cis-male spaces we find in publishing, AWP has more diversity in all forms than just about any other space I’ve seen.

A few of the panels I’ve got my eye on:

  • Social justice on the page: How writing and activism feed each other
  • Writing practices for neurodiverse and disabled writers
  • Mapping the creative and pedagogical terrain of community colleges
  • Breaking the rules on chapbooks: New approaches to an old form
  • Women of new fabulism and speculative literature
  • Be Shameless: Everything you need to know to nail promotion
  • Writing life post-MFA: Unearthing the realities
  • A turn of the page: From journalism to creative writing
  • Greater than the sum of its parts: Writing and structuring essay collections
  • The fine art of the craft talk
  • Writing the literary sex scene: Dethroning the male gaze
  • Show (Me) Don’t Tell: Missouri writers grappling with the state of their state
  • Ableism off and on the page
  • How do you eat? Writers talk plainly about funding their writing lives

And about two dozen others among the hundreds available.

In addition to the daytime panels, AWP really comes alive at the evening off-site events. Readings are everywhere, wine-and-cheese receptions and gatherings in dozens of locations every night until the wee hours. I made the grave mistake in Seattle of skipping the nighttime events for the first couple of days, thinking it was like a con room party: fun but skippable. It was only on the third day that I realized it’s where so much of the creative energy of the convention comes from.

In fact, I wrote a column on ten tips for attending AWP, which you can read here. Tip No. 3 was “The real beauty is in the offsite events.”

I strongly recommend AWP for beginning writers, established writers, poets, librarians, students, editors, publishers, creative writing teachers, memoirists… basically if you put pen to paper and/or teach others to do the same, there’s something for you here, particularly in academic and literary circles.

Having graduated out of student rates, I was very afraid I could not afford to return even though it’s so close to me this year: Kansas City is a mere four hours according to Google Maps, which always means five hours for me. The scholarship makes a huge difference, and I’m incredibly grateful to AWP for its generosity and those of the donors who kick in to help underserved, disabled and low-income writers join in the fray.

If you’re interested, check out the website at awpwriter.org. And let me know if you’ll be there! All adventures are more fun with a fellowship. Didn’t Tolkein teach us that?

Archon is a smash!

We had so. much. fun. at Archon last weekend – so much fun, indeed, that it’s taken me six days to write it up because I’ve been recovering.

Archon is always one of the highlights of our year, and it’s our home con, so it’s also a family reunion. Literary Underworld authors were out in force, including Sela Carsen, T.W. Fendley, Nikki Lanahan and Michales Joy. At any given time you might have seen any of us at the booth, or our Minions, Cole and Ian – who have actual minion badges now. We’re very proud of that. Our good friends from Pro Se Publishing and Yard Dog Press were also there, and it was great to catch up with them in meatspace. We also launched preorders for A Woman Unbecoming, a charity anthology from our friends at Crone Girls Press to benefit reproductive healthcare advocacy. Click here to preorder your copy.

And, of course, there was the Traveling Bar. As is our custom, we opened our doors both nights to serve drinks and talk shop. Jim served as bouncer with backup from our good friend Scott Cousins, and Sela was our Social Butterfly keeping the conversation light and friendly and alerting either of us if there was a potential problem. At this point, we’ve got it down to a science.

On Friday, we opened the doors at 9 p.m. and I started serving drinks about 90 seconds later. My arm literally did not stop moving until I yelled union break at 11:45 so I could hide in the bathroom and stretch my poor arms for five minutes. Then I was back behind the bar until we yelled last call at 1:30 a.m. Saturday was almost as crazy – there were a couple of five-minute spells where I didn’t have anyone asking for a drink, which did not occur on Friday.

Oh, was I tired. I’m still tired just thinking about it, and I’ve slept since then. But everyone had a fantastic time, and that’s the important part. Well, that and making a living, of which Archon is always a major part. But there’s something really fun about being the bartender at a con party, and that’s the people. Most people are happy when they come in and happier with the drink in their hand, but some people are so happy, so grateful, and greet me so cheerfully, it creates this lovely positive energy that I absolutely love. It really felt like the vibe at Archon was back to normal, or as close to normal as we can get with the spectre of the Voldevirus still looming over us.

And around the corner were our friends at SausageFest, raising money once again for cancer research. Sadly I did not get over there to try this year’s snausages, but fortunately everyone else at the con did, or so it seemed. If you want to kick in a little toward their fundraising, click here. They are the bestest neighbors.

Many thanks to all our friends who greeted us so warmly, to our customers who bought books, to our guests who drank the booze and partied with us, to the Underlords and member presses who were there or who supported us from afar, and especially to Minions Ian and Cole, who hauled all the books and booze back to the van and to LitUnd’s dungeon until the next time. (Okay, it’s a storage unit we like to call the warehouse when we’re feeling grandiose, but “dungeon” suits, don’t you think?)

Click here for the photo array. Because what is Archon without costumes?

Old Home Week at Midsouthcon

It was a delight to return to Midsouthcon, in many ways a “hometown con” for some of the Literary Underworld. Finally back in person after two years of COVID hibernation, Midsouthcon also has returned to the famous airport hotel where it was held waaaaaay back in the 1990s when Literary Underworld co-founder Elizabeth Donald was in college and attended far too many literary panels as an aspiring writer, which she remembered fondly years later when she was a Guest of Honor at the Memphis show.

It’s also home territory for Jim Gillentine, born and raised in Memphis, and for some time, Midsouthcon was the only con he knew. Joining us this weekend were the usual suspects, including Underlord J.L. Mulvihill, the good folks at Pro Se Publishing and Dark Oak Press, and our newest member, Rachel Brune of Crone Girls Press! We threw poor Rachel into the deep end of the pool with a full LitUnd con marathon including two nights of the Traveling Bar, and she’s still speaking to us.

We also got badges! (We don’t need no stinking…) Underlords and Minions each got a badge identifying them among the LitUnd crew, and David Tyler received the one and only Henchman badge after all the many many cons he has done through the years. These will be upgraded to actual buttons when Management gets her act together.

 

Rachel meets Yorick, booth mascot lo these many years. She shook him and asked, “Why does he rattle?” Of course, we vets know that Yorick has had a screw loose for many years….

 

The current state of the Traveling Bar. Hm. I think we’re out of vodka…

 

Two philosophy majors found Jim at the party. There may have been discussion of Kant and Nietzche; the rest of us were too busy drinking.

 

Jen Mulvihill asked them to watch her purse.

 

The Literary Underworld Bouncers. Fear them.

 

It’s been a hot minute since Elizabeth say Tyrone Tony Reed Jr. and his lovely wife, and they got to do a signing together!

 

The inevitable signing.

 

Many panels were rocked, many books were sold, many drinks were poured, and Jim had a baptism of fire on the Dark and Stormy panel, which Elizabeth has sworn to never do again. We all had a terrific time, are thoroughly exhausted, and thank the con staff for their hard work and showing us such gracious hospitality.

Rachel says Yorick demands his own badge. We will take this up at the next staff meeting.

Welcome to Crone Girls Press!

We denizens of LitUnd Towers are absolutely thrilled to announce that Crone Girls Press has joined our cooperative! Some of us have already had the pleasure of seeing our work published by Crone Girls in its fascinating and creepy anthologies, and we’re looking forward to many more terrific volumes from this up-and-coming new press.

This coming weekend is our triumphant return to Midsouthcon after four years or so of missing out on the Memphis fun, and we’re delighted that Crone Girls publisher Rachel Brune will be joining us for the first time there! (That means Rachel also hasn’t experienced the Literary Underworld Traveling Bar. Shhh, no one tell her.)

We hope you enjoy the offerings from Crone Girls as much as we have, and look forward to sharing them with you! And now, a few words from Rachel.

 

In 2019, I sat down to publish a collection of my sister’s short horror fiction. When she sent a grand total of one story, I decided to recruit some of my writing friends who also wrote horror, and our first anthology, Stories We Tell After Midnight, was born.
With our first title under our belt, I decided to branch out and publish two anthologies in 2020. The first, Coppice & Brake, was a full-length anthology of horror and dark fiction with distinct Ray Bradbury vibes. Its publication also coincided with the Great Plague of March 2020 and beyond.
Even though writing, reading, and publishing horror in the midst of a life-changing pandemic isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, we’ve managed to put together a decent slate of horror anthologies that feature the work of authors from all over the world. In addition to the full-length projects, we began a series of three-novella mini-anthologies, Midnight Bites, the first of which featured the work of Literary Underworld’s own Elizabeth Donald.
So, what’s next for Crone Girls Press? We’re currently working on a sequel anthology to Coppice & Brake, titled Tangle & Fen. We have several Midnight Bites volumes scheduled for 2022, and are currently reading submissions for more. You can find us at a number of fan conventions throughout the southeast, as well as with the Literary Underworld.
And, finally, if you’d like to come hang out with the Fiendish Readers of CGP, come check out our Facebook group.
______________________________________

 

As a military journalist, Rachel A. Brune wrote and photographed the Army and its soldiers for five years. When she moved on, she didn’t quit writing stories with soldiers in them; she just added werewolves, sorcerers, a couple of evil mad scientists, and a Fae or two. Now a full-time author and writing coach living in North Carolina, Rachel enjoys poking around former military installations and listening for the ghosts of old soldiers… or writing them into her latest short story. In addition to writing, she is a contributing editor to the Writerpunk Press anthology series, which benefits the PAWS no-kill animal shelter in Lynnwood, WA. She also contributed her editing talents to the Pride Park anthology, proceeds of which benefit the Trevor Project. She lives with her spouse, two daughters, one reticent cat, and two flatulent rescue dogs.

Contra!

There’s a no-photography rule at Contra, but it doesn’t apply to our inanimate objects! Delighted to be here with our friends in Kansas City, and to return to Contra after the Voldevirus-induced year off.

We’ve had a wonderful time. We missed you!

Imaginarium ahoy!

We here at LitUnd Towers are absolutely thrilled to be returning to the convention circuit with Imaginarium! Literary Underworld has been attending Imaginarium for every year of its existence with the exception of last year, when a stupid virus ruined everybody’s fun.

Now we’re back, and delighted to bring our booth AND the famous Literary Underworld Traveling Bar back to Louisville, Ky.! Many thanks to Stephen Zimmer and the good folks at Seventh Star Press for helping to make this possible. We always love attending Imaginarium, as we not only get to hobnob with our fellow wizards, but we usually learn a thing or two ourselves.

Imaginarium will be offered as a hybrid convention, with both virtual and on-site events for the weekend of July 9-11. Literary Underworld authors in attendance virtually include Sela Carsen; if you’re on-site in Louisville, you’ll meet Elizabeth Donald, Steven Shrewsbury, Stephen Zimmer and J.L. Mulvihill in person!

If you’re able and comfortable doing so, we hope you’ll join us in Louisville! Look for the Literary Underworld booth in the vendor hall, and watch our social media and signs on the booth for the location of the Traveling Bar. And if you’re not ready to travel, consider joining us virtually! We’ll try to post the panel schedules of our members as we can, including which ones can be accessed online.

Here’s to a fun, safe and delightful return to the con circuit, and to a better year than the last! (Not that it would be hard….)

Also! Mark your calendars for Archon in October and ContraKC in November, because we’re back, baby!