We are thrilled to welcome the following amazing dais of Guests for Camp Necon 43!
Please read below to learn more about our Writer Guests of Honor, Artist Guest of Honor, Toastmaster, and Camp Necon Legends!
Writer Guest of Honor Eric LaRocca
Eric LaRocca (he/they) is a two-time Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award winner. Named by Esquire as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” and praised by Locus as “one of strongest and most unique voices in contemporary horror fiction,” LaRocca’s notable works include Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Everything the Darkness Eats, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories, and You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood. His upcoming novel, At Dark, I Become Loathsome, will be published in January 2025. The book has already been optioned for film by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. He currently resides in Boston, MA with his partner.
Writer Guest of Honor Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet.
Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, The Shoemaker’s Magician, as well as dozens of standalone short stories and poems.
Loteria, which was her MFA in Writing thesis at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was re-released to praise with Esquire calling it one of the ‘Best Horror Books of 2023.’ Santa Muerte and The Missing, her young adult horror novels were each nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was nominated for an Elgin Award. Into the Forest and All the Way Through was nominated for an Elgin Award and was also nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. Children of Chicago was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in Superior Achievement in a Novel and won an International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery. Crime Scene won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. The Shoemaker’s Magician has been released to praise with Library Journal awarding it a starred review.
Her forthcoming novel, The Forgotten Sisters, will be released by Thomas and Mercer in 2024 and is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Her works have been reviewed in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Review of Books, and more.
She is represented by Lane Heymont at Tobias Literary.
Find Cynthia on social:
Or at Cynthiapelayoauthor @ gmail dot com
Writer Guest of Honor Errick Nunnally
Errick Nunnally was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he served one tour in the Marine Corps before deciding art school would be a safer — and more natural — pursuit. He is permanently distracted by art, comics, science fiction, history, and horror. Trained as a graphic designer, he has earned a black belt in Krav Maga/Muay Thai kickboxing after dark, and first prize in one hamburger contest. Errick’s writing includes: the novels, Blood for the Sun, All the Dead Men, and Lightning Wears a Red Cape; a comic strip collection, Lost in Transition; and a short novel The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile, available in April 2025 from upstart publisher Clash Books. The following are some magazines and anthologies that he has appeared in: Galaxy’s Edge; Fiyah Literary Magazine; Lamplight; and Nightlight, a Black Horror Podcast. Eventually, Errick came to his senses and moved to Rhode Island with his two lovely children and one beautiful wife. Visit erricknunnally.us to see more of his work.
Artist Guest of Honor Dan Brereton
Dan Brereton is a Northern California native, an award-winning comics illustrator and graphic novelist , and creator of such properties as Nocturnals, Giantkiller and The Psycho.
Over the last four decades Dan has worked for every major comic book publisher including Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse and Image on characters like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man. Justice league and the X-Men.
He is known for his work in the Horror genre as well. Work there includes story and art for Vampirella, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as graphic novel adaptation of Clive Barker’s Dread, which earned Dan an Eisner nomination. Dan’s penchant for monsters , ghost stories and Halloween has a tendency to show up in much of his work. He has collaborated with James A. Moore, Christopher Golden, Bracken McLeod, Cullen Bunn, Howard Chaykin, Walter Simonson, Allison Pang and many other masterful authors.
Dan has freelanced for clients such as The Walt Disney Co., Hasbro, NBC, and musicians such as Rob Zombie and Toto. (Yes, really, Toto.)
You can find Dan and his work on both Meta platforms and on his Patreon page. Dan’s books can be purchased from budsartbooks.com
For more of Dan Brereton’s art, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
Toastmaster Richard Dansky
With 25 years’ experience in video games, Richard Dansky has written for over 60 titles in iconic franchises like The Division, Might & Magic, Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and Hunt: Showdown. Richard is also the developer of the 20th anniversary edition of the acclaimed tabletop RPG Wraith: The Oblivion, and has published eight novels and two short story collections. He serves on the advisory board for the Game Narrative Summit at GDC and curates the narrative track at East Coast Game Conference. Richard lives in North Carolina with his mathematically improbable collections of books and single malt scotches.
Camp Necon Legend Robert McCammon
Robert McCammon is the author of 23 novels and two short story collections. Starting with his first novel, Baal, in 1978, McCammon quickly became one of the bestselling horror authors of the 1980s, with three consecutive novels hitting the New York Times Bestsellers List: Swan Song, Stinger, and The Wolf’s Hour. During that time, he also won several Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel and Best Short Story.
As the ’90s dawned, McCammon expanded his writing away from the horror genre, and his 1991 classic Boy’s Lifewon the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. After Gone South in 1992, McCammon decided to try historical fiction, which had always interested him. After clashing with a new publisher over the direction of his new books, McCammon retired from publishing for ten years.
He returned in 2002 with Speaks the Nightbird, which became the first book in a ten-book series about Matthew Corbett. The Corbett books are set in the early 1700s, and each volume has explored different genres: mystery, adventure, chase, pulp, thriller, and more. In addition to the Corbett books, McCammon has also written contemporary novels, including The Five, The Border, and The Listener.
Seven Shades of Evil, book nine in the Matthew Corbett series, was published by Lividian Publications in November 2023. The final book, Leviathan, will be published by Lividian in December 2024.
McCammon is currently gearing up for his next project. He lives in Birmingham, AL.
Camp Necon Legend Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow has been editing sf/f/h short fiction for over four decades. She was Fiction Editor of OMNI Magazine for seventeen years, then Editor of SCIFICTION, the fiction arm of the SCIFI Channel’s website for six years.
She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com and its horror imprint, Nightfire. She has edited numerous anthologies for adults, young adults, and children, including The Best Horror of the Year annual series, When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson, Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror, Screams From the Dark: 19 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, Christmas and Other Horrors, and the forthcoming reprint anthology Fears: An Anthology of Psychological Horror.
She’s won multiple Locus, Hugo, Stoker, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy Awards plus the Splatterpunk Award, and in 2012Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor.
Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre” and was honored with the Life Achievement Award given by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention. The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. recently presented her with a special award in recognition of the anthology When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books, 2021).
