Me, Christa Faust, and Maria Alexander at Dark Delicacies

In 2008, I did my first book signing as a “real” author.  Before that, I’d done events for Morbid Curiosity magazine for 10 years, but in those cases, I was showcasing the work of other authors.  I served as emcee, but those shows weren’t about me.  They were about the community brought together by the magazine.

That changed when Sins of the Sirens came out.  The book was a four-women anthology.  The editor chose my four stories to open the book. Two of the stories had been published previously: “Still Life with Broken Glass” in Cemetery Dance magazine and “Last-Born,” the first Alondra story to appear, in The Ghost-Breakers anthology. The others were new to the book: “Sound of Impact,” about a breakup gone spectacularly wrong, and “The Angel’s Lair,” the short story that led to my novel Lost Angels.

I got on a plane, flew to Burbank, and was practically consumed by nerves as I walked into Dark Delicacies for my first signing as an author.  Del Howison, whom I’d met through the World Horror Conventions, was the perfect host.  I came away with a Dark Delicacies t-shirt and a pen that was my favorite for signings to come.  Thanks to Del, I felt like my work belonged alongside all the treasures he had for sale.

Dark Delicacies is an amazing bookstore.  It’s dedicated to horror: books, movies, magazines, collectibles, clothing… You name it.  I always spend more than I can afford there because it has things I’ve never seen anywhere else.

I returned in 2017 to sign copies of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. It was great to meet so many of my fellow taphophiles there, co-owner Sue Howison among them.  Dark Delicacies has the best collection of cemetery books for sale that I’ve ever seen in one place.

For years now, the owners have watched their neighborhood changing around them.  The little mom and pop places have been driven out by increasing rents and more restrictive parking limitations.  Del and Sue fought for the neighborhood, but the time has come.  They have to move.

They’re doing a Go Fund Me to raise money to fix up a new home for the bookstore.  It is also in Burbank, but away from their lovely tree-lined street.  If you can possibly kick in a few dollars to keep this amazing bookstore alive and help with their move, here’s the link: https://www.gofundme.com/dark-delicacies-relocation-fundraiser