The Artist’s Head-Drabble Friday

From now on, come hell or high water, I will post a fresh new Drabble (100 word story) on my wall every Friday. Today’s is inspired by a little clay head I bought at last week’s World Horror Convention. I heard two days ago that a well-known artist in the horror genre, James Powell, was killed in a car accident. Sadly, I never got to meet him. He didn’t come to the convention but his art was on the badges we wore. He wasn’t the artist that did this sculpture, but for a moment I wondered. What if it WAS him and his spirit lived in this little sculpture? So here you have today’s installment:

 

The Artist’s Head

By Tracy L. Carbone

A tiny clay head, with gaping eyes, hangs from a string on the door to my room.

At night it swings and creaks, rubs against the door like a cat scratching to get in.

In the morning it is still, with a look like the cat who swallowed the canary.

The artist was killed in a mugging gone bad, just a day or two after we met.

What if he’s in it? What if he lives? So I let the head stay, with its nightly forays.

Creak. Scratch. Again, the head swings, trying to get in.

I bolt the door.

Thanks for reading,

 

Tracy

 

Connecting with People

 Years back, I used to attend a lot of conferences. This is in the time before Facebook or Twitter. I went to World Horror and World Fantasy, Thrillerfest, Love is Murder, NECon, New England Crimebake, Romantic Times…

But then there was Social Media and suddenly I could keep in touch with people I’d met and also “meet” brand-new ones. I knocked it down to once a year conferences thinking that would be enough, that in person meetings really didn’t matter anymore. That Facebook was really all I needed.

Last week though I attended the World Horror Convention, hosted by the Horror Writers Association. I wrongly assumed I’d know a lot of the people, based simply on the small amount of people I correspond with and the ones I knew “way back when.” Instead I knew only a small percentage. It hit me then that I really need to 1) go to more conferences, 2) update this blog more  and 3) become a little more visible even if that means posting to my nearly forgotten Twitter account.

So to kick off, here are some pictures of some old and new friends from this year’s World Horror Conference in Atlanta. It was wonderful time, chockfull of panels and movies, readings and great conversation.

Please check back as I will be updating the blog a lot more often now.

For today, please check out the sites for as many people in these pictures that I can name. From the top:

Brad  C. Hodson, Rene Mason, Lynne Hansen, Frazer Lee, John Skipp, Jack Ketchum, Jonathan Maberry, Christopher Golden, John Farris, Bob Eggleton, Eric Miller, John Palisano, Maria Alexander, Joe McKinney, Robert Payne Cabeen, Eric Guinard, and finally Dacre Stoker, who I just met at the con.

There was tons of talent gathered in Atlanta but this is a good start.

Thanks for reading-

Tracy

Please visit my Amazon site for a list of all my works in print.