My trip to Oshkosh was, as I predicted, not terribly profitable. However, it was _very_ entertaining. First of all, I got to meet my host family’s friends and I had that instant feeling of being among "my people." These are gaming, science fiction, fantasy, TV and movie fans – geeks, even. Ah....
Even though I sold exact zero copies of _Tall, Dark & Dead_ at Apple Blossom Books, despite all the promotion that Candy, the owner, did for me, I ended up buying several books about subjects that I think will make their way into the novel I’m currently working on (tentatively called) _Bloody Smashing_, book three of the Garnet Lacey series.
For instance, did you know that Wisconsin has its very own werewolf?? Well, according to Linda S. Godfrey who wrote _The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin’s Werewolf_, it might. The cool thing is that this is non-fiction. These are unexplainable sightings that actually happened to people in an area not terribly far from Madison -- the town where the Garnet Lacey books are set.
Plus, Candy pointed me to several other cool books, including _Weird Wisconsin_ which I plan on ordering from her soon.
What I love about this is that when I sat down to decide where I was going to set the Garnet Lacey books, I picked Madison both on purpose and somewhat randomly. Let me explain. I love Madison and I make a yearly pilgrimage to State Street and surrounding environs. It’s a very funky, cool place where I could quite easily imagine vampire and other paranormal things hanging out (and not being bothered much, since it’s such a eclectic, accepting town in many ways.) Plus, there really is an occult bookstore on State Street (Shakti Bookshop).
But, even though I grew up in Wisconsin, I’m not from Madison, so the decision was a tad random… so it’s wonderful when I discover that my home-state is, in fact, EXACTLY the kind of place where werewolves and such could live.
Anyway, if you’re interested I found out that Weird Wisconsin has a web site. And, I found Haunted Wisconsin too!
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