You can check it out here, or download the MP3 right from here.

I should mention the conversation is not work-safe. We had a lot of fun with this one.

Thanks again to those of you hanging out in the chat room. I thought about trying to keep up with both the chat and the interview, but in the end I know I’m horrible at multitasking and would have ended up punching keys instead of talking horror flicks and Lovecraft. It was a fun time, and I’ll definitely have to link the show when they post it to their website.

I fully expected to be talking about the paranormal, but it was just a great conversation we could easily have had at bar instead of on the air. That’s what makes a great show as far as I’m concerned, and I recommend folks check them out. (And though I fall more into the skeptic category regarding the paranormal, I do enjoy that sort of thing. The geek in me never left, I just give him a swirley from time to time to keep him in line.)

So browse around, kick the tires, and maybe next time I’m on the show I’ll remember to mention there’s a small reference to Bigfoot in The Pack: Winter Kill.

Visit www.theparafactor.com for details and to listen in live. I’ll be following Brad Steiger, author of Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse.

Tune in, jump in their live chat, or better yet, call in to the show and ask a question! I’m sure it will be a good time.

Though it’s only one day, I’m excited to see how the convention plays out. This one’s in Chicago proper, it’s at a larger venue (McCormick Place), and the reports from the other Reed-run shows like the New York Comic Con are always very good, so I imagine it will be a fun con.

I was hoping to bring my son to his first show at this one, but with only one day there it’s going to be all business. Evileye Books and I still need to recruit some artists, and I’ll also be speaking to my editor about future plans for The Pack, so chances are once we do that and meet up with a few other folks, it will be a packed day.

I’ve updated the Appearances page accordingly. It’s looking sparse right now, but I’ve got some things in the works for late summer or early fall out East. And yes, we still need to nail down something for Chicago, we just haven’t been getting much love from Chicago retailers yet. Hope to have news there soon.

Meanwhile, I need to keep plugging away at Book 2. Hope to run into some of you at C2E2!

Meanwhile, I recently did an interview with Comics Bulletin, which you can read right here. The interview includes a few pages from Big Bad Wolves, the short comic that will be appearing at Evileye Books soon. It was a fun interview to do, and I think you’ll enjoy it. The BBW art is by Mike Henderson, by the way. Browse his blog, he’s got some good eye candy over there.

My next scheduled interview is an Internet radio interview with The Parafactor on May 20th. They’re a live, paranormal call-in show, and lately they’ve been interviewing horror writers like Brian Keene. I’m looking forward to this one, and keep an eye here for more details because you should be able to call in and ask questions.

We’re still looking for an artist for the first The Pack OGN, Chimaera, so I encourage artists to send portfolios or samples to Evileye Books. Yes, they pay. Promptly.

Prelim work on the follow-up to The Pack: Winter Kill is still moving along. I’m moving into Spring Break this week and I hope to have everything finalized by then and to complete the actual writing soon. We’re aiming for fall for this one, but that’s going to depend upon me turning in the manuscript in a timely manner.

Right now I’m punching in the edits for a short story called “The Malice Engine”. Wish me luck, as I will be submitting it to an anthology before I crash out tonight. This story has sold once and I’ve been paid for it, and though the book it was to appear in never saw print, maybe the story still has some magic left in it.

Busy busy busy. As always, I’m looking to up my game and I’m getting a few things lined up. More news soon.

This year’s con was a bit bigger than last year’s, and as always the con staff and crowd was great to work with. I set up shop between Cullen Bunn and Russ Dickerson, and while we didn’t have a ton of shopping traffic, we moved some product and met a lot of people, and we generally had a blast.

I didn’t have an opportunity to take a lot of pictures this year, but Amanda from Geek Details shot me a link to her Flicker set of VisionCon photos. You’ll see many of the guests there (including my fat ass), as well as some shots of the nightlife. For example, you’ll see that old white guys like to stand and yap until you get a few drinks into them.

Saturday morning I volunteered to be a kicking dummy for Wrath’s Muay Thai demonstration. We’ve got a few pictures of that, which I’ll share separately.

The other big event on Saturday was the return of the infamous Gross-out Contest. Formerly a fixture of the World Horror Convention until it was killed a few years ago, the con staff graciously allowed to resurrect it given the attendance of former champions Cullen, Wrath, and Mark McLaughlin. Brian served as emcee and I sat in on the judges’ panel, and we had over 50 people sit in on the readings. More than a few of them almost lost their dinner as the champions and several first-time readers brought their worst to the mic, and in the end Cullen won his 5th title, Wrath came in 2nd, and S.D. Hintz took 3rd.

Unfortunately the bar couldn’t put together a decent boilermaker, but the beauty of a con like VisionCon is the people know how to put together a good room party. In addition to Cullen’s patented diet margaritas, we grabbed drinks with names like Mojo, Green Slime, Deception, and Rusty Bucket. They all go down easy, and if you’re not having fun at a con like this, you’re just not trying.

After two weekends in a row on the road, it’s good to be home. I’m still catching up on email and other writing business, but I’m feeling energized and eager to get some more writing done. Finding a new good review didn’t hurt, either. Thanks again to Dave and his staff for bringing me back this year, and thanks as well to all the folks who came to hang out with us (there are far too many of you to list!). I hope to be there again next year!

The tour officially kicked off Saturday at Dark Delicacies in Burbank. Dark Delicacies is a cool little store catering to horror fans, selling books, movies, and novelties. The iconic Frankenstein’s monster statue waited out front, just as it had on my first visit about eight years ago.

Which one has the better complexion?

The signing didn’t start until 2pm, but we had folks coming in as early as a quarter after one. Several of our friends from the area showed up, as well as many long-time readers and fans. Brian Keene sold out of his books, and J.F. Gonzalez and I weren’t far behind.

Scribble scribble

I was surprised how many older books folks brought in, such as The Rising: Necrophobia, The Best of HorrorFind I and II, and even an ARC of New Dark Voices. One fan even had a limited edition copy of Deadliest of the Species (though he didn’t bring it), and asked what the status of the movie rights are. If only, right?

Keene, David Schow and Gonzalez

We signed until people stopped showing up, then hustled off to a meeting. While we did make some time to hang out and visit friends, next time we’re going to have to make it a longer trip to give us a little more time. Early the next morning we jumped out of bed and onto a plane bound for San Francisco.

We arrived at Borderlands Books just as they finished setting up, and again we found fans and friends waiting for us. Not to mention Ripley the furry hairless cat.

Ripley got the crowd -- and the table -- warmed up for us

We did a brief reading to a packed store. It’s been a long time since I’ve read in public, and while I eased back into it, I pulled a pinhead move and read a different chapter than I intended. Whoops. However, the werewolf transformation scene seemed to go over well, and folks eagerly snapped up copies.

One seat left. I think Brian's breath scared 'em off.

We didn’t completely sell out, but the cold and rainy weather didn’t exactly work in our favor. I also can’t complain because a great review showed up in the Examiner while we were out there.

The Pack: Winter Kill is short, snappy, and about as sweet as a chewed stogie, combining elements of pulp horror, hard-boiled detective, noir, and cinematically fast-moving action. — L.J. Moore, Examiner.com

Again, I wish the camera had taken better pictures. Though it’s a 5 megapixel cam and does a fair job with movies, it’s rather slow and unwieldy with stills. The slightest motion throws it off, so most of the pictures came out blurry. The rest of what I felt worth salvaging can be found here on Flickr.

The next leg of the tour starts tomorrow at VisionCon in Springfield, MO. I’m going to set Twitter to post to the blog again, and hopefully it will actually work this time. I hate leaving all that dead space here while I’m out and about, but technology being what it is, I sometimes don’t have a choice.

Hope to see some of you there!

There will be a bar in there somewhere, anyway.

Wish us luck, and we’re looking forward to seeing you there. I’m off to get my stuff together and maybe squeeze in a last minute Photo Friday entry.

For now I’ll leave you with an unrelated picture from this morning:

He's coming for us all!

Look at that magnificent bastard

Written by Louis Peitzman, the full article is “Mike Oliveri: He’s betting on werewolves“.

Way, way cool.

First up, the first reviews have been rolling in to Amazon (both the paperback and the Kindle edition), and so far they’ve been very positive. The noir-horror hybrid seems to be a big hit, and people have been happy with the pacing and action. So far, so good. I just hope magazine and newspaper reviewers are as generous.

In an attempt to encourage even more reviews, the publisher, Evileye Books, launched a review contest. If you’ve read the book, drop by and tell the world (or at least Amazon shoppers) what you think and you may just win a signed, limited edition hardcover edition of The Pack: Winter Kill. You’ve only got ’til Friday to enter, so get crackin’!

On Friday I’ll be catching a flight out to California to meet my friends (and authors) Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez, and on Saturday you can catch us at 2pm at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, CA. The following day, we’ll be heading up north Borderlands Books in San Francisco to sign at 3pm. I’ll be doing a lot of flying a s a result, but I’m looking forward to reconnecting with some old friends and meeting some new readers. (It’ll also be nice to trade in the snow and cold for some warmer weather.) There’s a full schedule on my Appearances page.

These are exciting times, and with a little effort, I should be able to keep up the momentum.