The roots of Fandemonium

The lovely folks at Books etc., a fine online bookseller in the United Kingdom, invited me to file a guest post on their blog about Fandemonium. Here’s what I came up with:

“Write what you know” is the writer’s proverbial first rule. So my

decades-long passion for comic books was a logical jumping-off point for my

first novel, Fandemonium, which revolves around a comics and fantasy

convention.

I’ve attended quite a few cons, and the creators and fans I encountered at

them inform Fandemonium’s cast of characters – particularly dissipated comic

book writer Ray Sirico. But Fandemonium is about more than just comics, and

many other aspects of my life went into it.

For example, as a media professional I’ve seen corporate takeovers and

downsizings of the sort that propel the novel’s plot. As an entertainment

journalist I’ve interviewed actors, which helped shape the character of

bellicose actress Harmony Storm. Like Fandemonium’s striving artist and

publisher Tad Carlyle, I’ve struggled to succeed in New York City after

emigrating from the hinterlands (Carlyle’s from South Dakota; I’m from

Buffalo, New York). And along with many other comics fans, I was once an

awkward adolescent like the book’s youngest protagonist, Fred D’Auria, for

whom fantasy offers refuge from often harsh reality.

All these elements come together, comically and sometimes dramatically, at

the nexus between art and commerce, fantasy and reality, hype and hope: a

comic-con.

Welcome to Fandemonium!

 

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