It’s been a goal to both update the site and write more in the blog just to have an outlet that isn’t in the social media ecosphere/echo-chamber, but I wish I had a better story to tell in starting that effort.
A few months ago, I was honored to take part in a book signing for “The Villain’s Club: A Delightfully Devious Anthology” in San Diego along with several of the other authors that contributed stories to it, including Dr. Janina Scarlet, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Talamas, Dennis K. Crosby, M.B. Bruce and “Chance” Alan Pablo Kistler. (I wrote “Origin Story” for it.) That is an incredible group of talented people to be included in, and I had such a great time. (Shout-out to Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego for hosting us!)
That went really well and, a short time later, I got an invite to be on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con entitled “Writing Cozy Villains” with many of the same people I had such a great time with at Mysterious Galaxy. I’m not exaggerating in saying that it has been a life goal to be on a panel at WonderCon and especially SDCC. I was and am so proud and excited to have been thought of in such incredible company at such a renowned event and I was looking forward to contributing.
Enter Amtrak.
I had planned on driving to San Diego for the panel and knew that my rear brakes needed some work done beforehand, so I’d planned on getting that maintenance done the week of the trip to avoid any issues. That plan got sidetracked when one of our dogs had a medical issue that required veterinary examination/intervention. She’s home now and comfortable, so that’s most important but the resulting bill pushed the mechanic plans back a bit. (Just explaining why I ended up relying on such a notoriously unreliable company to begin with.)
I checked online and Amtrak has what they call the “Pacific Surfliner” that runs daily between LA County and San Diego, and there was a stop about 10 minutes from our house. There was a return train the next day as well, but for some reason the site wouldn’t let me book a round trip and I had to get the two tickets separately as two different purchases. (More on that later.)
The train was slated to get me to San Diego by 1:30am Sunday morning, which was plenty of time to get to a 10am panel, especially with the station being a short tram ride or a 15 minute walk away. Even if the train was delayed, I had enough time to pivot.
So I thought…
Bluntly, Amtrak completely, utterly, totally fucked me on getting there as if it was their personal mission. The train was roughly on-time, but then they canceled the trip halfway through it. They said the tracks had washed out near Oceanside and the train had to stop in Irvine. The tracks washing out isn’t something they can necessarily control, but a bit of research online revealed that this happens often enough that I feel they should have mentioned that very realistic possibility when I bought the tickets to begin with, because I would have considered other options. It was still fine though, because they promised buses would come to pick us up and get us to San Diego. Obviously that would mean a delay, but so far, so good.
We’re waiting in silence on the train with no real updates for what I think was over an hour. Finally, when the update arrives, it’s not a good one. The Amtrak employee informs us over the PA that, due to SDCC, Amtrak Management had decided to not commission buses to complete the trip. (And the wording is important- he went out of his way to say this was a “management decision and not the decision of anyone on the train.”) It’s not that they couldn’t get buses, it was that it was better financially to just ditch us all in Irvine. The other option for passengers was to stay on the train and it would leave in another 20 minutes to head back to LA. I got an automated text and email stating that I would be brought back to my place of origin if I chose to stay on the train.
“Travel Update: As of 12:16 AM PT, Due to track closure stemming from severe washout conditions. Train 794 is now canceled between Irvine (IRV) and San Diego (SAN). All Customers will be returned back to their points of origins.”
At this point, I’m super-pissed that we were promised buses that we’re now told Amtrak just simply decided not to follow-through with. Some passengers are pooling resources for late-night Ubers to get to San Diego, and I almost took that route but was concerned I’d then be stranded the next day with no way to get home if the rail was still closed. I decided to stay on the train, get brought back to Van Nuys to get picked up and then just drive overnight down to make the panel.
Then I get told by a really rude Amtrak worker (who I’m sure wasn’t having the best night himself, but regardless…) that the train was ending at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and “No, we are NOT going that far north” (to the Van Nuys stop where I’d started.) They offered no options for what I could do to get home, and made it clear I was on my own after they dumped me in downtown LA in the middle of the night. I had to call my wife and wake her up again to ask her to pick me up in LA instead of the station 10 minutes from home and she was supposed to get up at 4:30am for her job.
I am absolutely seething at this point and am just anxious for the train to start moving so I can get home, get to the car and start the drive back south.
The train doesn’t move. For at least another hour, it doesn’t move. The only updates given over the PA is that there are no updates. Finally, they say that the train needs to reverse course, but the computer isn’t working and that’s why we’ve just been sitting here. The train FINALLY starts going back. I exit the train at Union Station and get picked up by my wife (who had to call off work later since she was too exhausted to function properly/safely) and we didn’t get home until after 4am.
I traveled over 7 hours just to end up right back where I started, and Amtrak wasted so much time that they eliminated the realistic possibility of me jumping in the car and driving to San Diego once I finally got home as I was so exhausted at this point that I wasn’t confidant I could drive without dozing off, especially on a return drive later in the day. I had to cancel my SDCC appearance.
I got an email from Amtrak to add insult to injury giving a pat apology and stating that “A refund for this portion of your trip will be processed to the original form of payment, and you can expect to receive it within 2-3 weeks.”
Three weeks to get a refund? I called Amtrak on Monday and was on hold for about two hours before being told that any refunds would be 7-10 business days no matter what and that “Amtrak would not offer any further compensation” for the canceled trip and the way in which they went about it. I complained again and got a partial voucher for a future trip, as if I’d ever want to entrust this company with anything that was even remotely urgent or important again. This process also involved two different case numbers and separate complaint tickets since I’d been forced to buy two separate trips at time of purchase instead of one transaction.
Such was my SDCC 2026 experience, brought to you by Amtrak. I apologize to those I’d committed to that I wasn’t able to meet that commitment. Congrats to Divine Feminine Publishing and everyone who was a part of the “Writing Cozy Villains” panel at SDCC and I don’t doubt for a second that it was a great one given the talent involved. Amtrak will always be the villain of this particular story for me.
Here’s a pic from the Mysterious Galaxy signing to end on a happier note.
