dRead Con 2024 Event Wrap-Up

I was thrilled to been selected as an influencer for dRead Con Canada, the first-ever Dark Fiction Literary Festival in Canada!

This was an amazing event! You wouldn’t have ever guessed it was the first time this was being run. Eerie River Publishing did an amazing job getting a wide range of vendors including indie authors, artists, publisher and booksellers together.

I brought a reusable tote, but that quickly filled and then filled a second one!

The sense of community in the Canadian author horror community is amazing. Everyone was so open and made themselves available to talk about books and of course sign!

The panels were relevant and interesting. The one question I wanted to ask Andrew Pyper was about his pseudonym with his latest book William, and there was a whole panel run by Steve Stred speaking to Andrew Pyper (Mason Coile) and Craig Davidson (Nick Cutter) about how, why and when they use their alter-egos.

Folk horror is very top of mind and in demand in the horror community at the moment. So the panel about Canadian folk horror with Ai Jiang, C.M Forest and Tim McGregor was timely and deeply engaging. “Our technology is creating its own ghosts” <— Tim M.

I also loved being able to celebrate the launch of C.M Forest’s newest short story horror collection ‘ The Roots Run Deep' and grab a copy two weeks before it’s available publicly.

I was also able to request an indie horror book from Little Ghosts (Toronto’s indie horror bookshop and publisher) and they graciously brought it with them :) The book is The Flesh of the Sea by Lor Gislason and Shelley Lavigne.

I am already advocating for dRead Con 2025! Maybe a little closer to Toronto.