From the Front Lines

Welcome to the continuous column, from the front lines. I'll be posting here after every single event I attend, giving my thoughts, feelings, and reflections.

LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING 2026

What an amazing year for the Gallowglas Army at Life, the Universe, and Everything. I talked a bit about why I decided to go back on the official M Todd Gallowglas site. tL; dr: the Utah area members of the Gallowglas Army made it known that my absence in 2025 diminished their experience of LTE. When that many people in a professional creative's community speak up, it's best to listen. I cannot express how flattered, honored, and humbled I am by this show of support... and I'm pretty good at expressing myself.

My pen is scribbling across the page at 37,000 feet and I'm trying to make some semblance of sense of all the awesomeness of this last weekend. I'm going to do a best of 10 for Tuesday tomorrow on the main site, but that cannot possibly do justice to this last weekend.

Let's start with this: the Gallowglas Army made this weekend for me. And... y'all made the weekend more and more epic with each passing day.

EXAMPLE #1

A small handful of young men and women remembered me from previous years. They came to Bard for life on Thursday evening and helped set the tone for the rest of the audience. Those members of the Gallowglas Army JROTC brought an infectious energy, which spread, and that energy put me in such an amazing zone that I was in super rare form. By the end of the weekend, the GA JROTC had grown to over a dozen. Throughout LTUE, the Gallowglas Army battle cry would spontaneously erupt across the convention hotel.

And yes, we will be putting together Gallowglas Army JROTC T-shirts and other swag.

EXAMPLE #2

Y'all made the Villainry Academy panel epic beyond words. Before the event, the moderator emailed the panelists and asked us to assume the persona of a literary villain. We had Dracula, Doctor Doom, Mother Gothal, Dolores Umbridge, and, because I am a chaos trickster spirit, I played myself. I know for a fact that several other writers consider me their villain. Also, Brandon Sanderson once said (being completely snarky and not at all serious) M Todd Gallowglas is the inspiration for all my characters, especially the villains. Again, Sanderson was not at all serious... And again, since I am a chaos spirit and more than a little snarky myself... why not run with it? Anyway... back to the Gallowglas Army. At least two dozen of you went to that panel, and each time I prompted you, y'all let loose with the battle cry. None of the other villains could compete. Doom referenced his Doombots to which I replied, “You have Doombots? I have an army...” and you all let loose and showed who the superior villain was.

As always, I organized my own rogue programming, or p'rogue'ramming, if you will.

EXAMPLE #3

Each morning, before regular programming gets going I ran a micro workshop at this year's at the big conference table in the lobby. Thursday morning, we had a handful of people. Four I think. Friday and Saturday, we had to pull chairs from other tables to accommodate all the people who wanted to participate. Thursday I covered fight scenes. Friday, I covered magic, and Sunday, we did world building. My micro workshops always involve writing for practical application of what I'm speaking about, and people seemed to dive in with full gusto.

EXAMPLE #4

Thursday night after barred for life, I ran a nerdy trivia night. This is always a good time period we had six teams this year, if I remember correctly. 3rd place team each got a gallon glass army challenge coin. The 2nd place team each got a gallon glass aren't each got challenge coins, and a wooden bookmark. 33rd place received the above and a free book. I'm still looking for a spiffy name for nerdy trivia nights. If you have any ideas, let me know. Likely, you will be immortalized in some way somewhere in one of my works.

EXAMPLE #5

Friday night, after the mass signing, I hosted Genre Underground, my geek themed poetry open mic in the hotel bar. This was a good year for it. Lots of great new readers. The energy was palpable, and everyone was supportive of each other period the legend of Genre Vnderground is growing. Hopefully, it will grow more once I launch the Genre Underground webzine in April. Get ready to submit your nerdy and speculative poetry.

As I said, so many awesome and epic moments, but some of my favorite interactions were quiet and subdued. Three people told me that I had reignited their passion for writing. That right there is reason enough for me to attend events. Even thinking back on these conversations gives me a smile and warmth in my heart. I believe that should be the primary goal of anyone speaking at a writers conference: to inspire attendees to want to create work they are passionate about. Granted, it can be expensive, so we have to also hustle so that we don't break our bank accounts.

After Genre Underground, a young lady came up to me and thanked me for having a community that feels so safe, open, and welcoming. I'm not sure she realized what a great compliment that is. And it's not just a compliment for me. It's a compliment for all of us. Ain't no gatekeeping in the Gallowglas Army, and that's largely due to all of you. Here and there over the years, I've had to do some quiet quality control and send a few folks on their way due to their choices and behaviors, but that's different than gatekeeping. New recruits feel welcome not because of me; rather, you all make them feel safe and welcome. We're a small little army, but we're growing into something that awesome, nerdy, and creative people want to be a part of. For that, I cannot thank you all enough.

Also, even before LTUE ended, several committee members approached me about heading back next year. So... we'll see what adventures and shenanigans we can come up with.