Meet Our Fantasycon 2026 Guests of Honour: V. Castro

With Fantasycon getting ever-closer, our online content editor Lauren McMenemy caught up with this year’s Guests of Honour for a very different sort of interview. No spoilers for their chats at the con proper; hear more about their Fantasycon experiences, and, importantly, what they’d like to wear to mark them out as Fantasycon Royalty.

We’re excited that acclaimed horror writer V. Castro joins us in Glasgow as one of our Guests of Honour. Watch the interview on our YouTube channel, here, or read the transcript below.

Who is V. Castro?

V. Castro is a two time Bram Stoker award nominated writer born in San Antonio, Texas, to Mexican American parents. She’s been writing horror stories since she was a child, always fascinated by Mexican folklore and the urban legends of Texas. Castro now lives in the United Kingdom with her family, writing and traveling with her children.

Drawing on horror, fantasy, sci-fi and plenty of heat to craft lush, unique tales, her works include: Aliens: Vasquez, The Haunting of Alejandra, The Queen of The Cicadas, Goddess of Filth, Hairspray and Switchblades, and Out of Atzlan. You can find out more about her and her work here.

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Interview transcript

Lauren: Awesome! So you have been named a guest of honour. How did you find out, and what does it mean to you to be a guest of honour for Fantasycon?

V: Yeah, so I found out through an email. I’d been to Fantasycon before, and have been doing more and more UK events, but again, coming from the US, even though I’ve lived here a long time, most of my readership has been the US because that’s what I’ve kind of written about. But I’m starting to write more stories about the UK and living here, because as I travel, just seeing so many amazing spooky places here. The UK has its own legends and folklore, and so it’s interesting to speak to people about that. And Fantasycon is just a great way to meet like-minded people, but also other authors who genre blend, which I like to do. I I just love books, and it’s nice to see and feel that energy because writing is very solitary, and so being around other people who love the same thing, it’s great. It it fills your soul. It gives you kind of a boost of energy.

Lauren: Yeah, absolutely. I of course saw you at Edge-lit on the weekend, and I know I personally came home from that just ready to go. I was like so excited, like buzzing.

V: Yeah, yeah.

Lauren: So we’ve got our guests of honour. I like to refer to them as kind of like the prom kings and queens of Fantasycon. If we were to bestow upon you some sort of token to mark you out publicly as con royalty, what would it be? What would be like a crown or a sash or antlers or what? What would you like to to sort of say, hey, I’m a guest of honour.

V: Oh, I that is a good one. Probably a crown of dark red roses.

Lauren: You’re no stranger to wearing those sorts of flower crowns anyway.

V: Exactly. I love a flower crown. Roses especially—blood red, bright red.

Lauren: So do you remember your first FantasyCon?

V: Yes, it was down in Brighton, I believe, because I went to Worldcon where I first met you in Glasgow. But Brighton, and, just again, meeting more people in the UK—because there’s fewer events here than in the US, and I’m typically always going over there. But here, it’s nice to settle in to meeting more people, going to more UK-based events. I’ve done quite a few Waterstones events as well, and seeing similar faces, and it’s great because we are close. Whereas going to the U.S. you know, I go as much as I can, but it is a flight. And yeah, that first one, everybody was just very relaxed, and it’s not as overwhelming as Comic Con or even some of the bigger U.S. cons. So that’s what I like about it. It’s a good size. It’s easy to feel comfortable. Everybody’s very welcoming and just yeah, it’s a great vibe.

Lauren: Yeah, absolutely. So when you say Brighton, are you meaning like last year’s or the one a few years ago?

V: Last year’s.

Lauren: Okay, so what I was going to ask you is how your career has progressed since then, but it’s not really not a lot of time for it to have progressed. But I guess if we look back over your career, over your many books that you published, what are you most proud of with your with your book career?

V: Having the guts to stick with it, because publishing can be really exhausting and it’s filled with ups and downs. And that’s another reason it’s great to come to these cons because if you are, say, in a down period, it’s nice to get that energy back, to hear other people’s stories like, Hey, it doesn’t last. There’s an ebb and flow to publishing, to the book world. What’s hot changes, but don’t you don’t have to write to market. You can continue be creative—and also networking. Whether you’re looking for an agent, smaller publishers, or just talking to someone about the journey, because again, when you’re writing a book or a story, you’re on your own typically, and you can get discouraged if you’re getting rejections or you’re stuck; when you go into these things, you can speak to other people about it. You can feel less alone in that process, especially if you’re struggling. And we all go through that, and that’s what I find really helpful when I’m when I’m here. And it’s nice to meet people in the UK who are kind of going in their journey here and hearing about new events and where everybody’s located and getting, you know, meet-ups—that’s really that’s really important, I think.

Lauren: Yeah, absolutely. So as a as a sort of very seasoned con goer, whether it is here or in the States, do you have any tips for surviving these longer three-day conventions?

V: Drink lots of water.

Lauren: I thought you were going to say something else for a sec. Drink lots. That’s usually what happens at FantasyCon!

V: Drink lots of water. If you need to take a break and go back to your room or wherever or have some quiet time, that’s absolutely okay. I know sometimes you can feel the pressure, like you’re going to miss out on something, or you won’t see anybody, or kind of an urgency. But taking a break, taking time out—because it can be overwhelming if it’s your first one or you’re just starting out, you don’t know a lot of people, and you feel a little self-conscious. It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay to walk away for a minute. You’re not going to miss out, okay? And have fun. Just have fun. Have fun with it. That’s my best advice. There’s always time for the serious part of publishing. This is this can be the fun part, the meeting people. That’s probably it, really.

Lauren: So we’ve got a couple of weeks before we all meet up in Glasgow. If people want to check out more of your work, learn more about you, so they can all come and hear us chat at Fancycon when we do our interview, where can they go to to find out?

V: Instagram and Threads, V Latina London. I’m on BlueSky, same handle. TikTok, V Castro Books. Yeah, so I’m on all the socials, on YouTube but I don’t really do very much. But again, you can look me up. I’m on YouTube and I kind of put things on there that if you’re not on Instagram or TikTok, you will find it there.

Lauren: And of course, go to your local bookstore or online retailer of choice and search V Castro and grab them all. Grab them all. V, thank you so much for a quick chat. We will see you in Glasgow in a couple of weeks.

V: See you guys there!