Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Nicole and I have returned from the World Horror Convention in San Francisco, and now that we’ve had a couple of days to recover, I wanted to post at least briefly about the trip.
I’ve always found conventions to be a wonderful experience, full of great programming and great people, and this one was no different. It started off early when we ran into Chris Golden at the airport, and arranged to sit together for the whole flight out. What a great guy! The time went by much faster with such good conversation.
Once we arrived and checked in, it didn’t take long to get into the flow. Over the course of the next few days, I didn’t catch as many panels or readings as I would have liked (Steve Shrewsbury, Cullen Bunn and Chesya Burke being notable exceptions), but because of this I did get more time to talk with so many fantastic writers, booksellers and editors.
I don’t think Nicole and I ate more than one meal alone; there were tons of fabulous restaurants right around the hotel and we hit a bunch of them, including a great Thai place with John Skipp, Cullen Bunn, Lynn Hansen and Jimmy Johnston, a fantastic Italian place with Kelly Laymon, and a cheap–and VERY good–Chinese place with a whole crew including Chris Golden, Jim Moore, Paul Miller, Monica Kuebler and others. But the find of the trip for me was the little diner called the New Village Cafe, which offered Nicole’s favorite the #4 breakfast special that included 2 huge pancakes, 4 strips of bacon, 2 eggs and hash browns for $5. That’s right, $5.
Can you tell I’m fixated on food?
We also spent a good deal of time in the dealer’s room chatting up folks like Jude Feldman from Borderlands Books, James Beach from Dark Discoveries, William and Deborah Jones from Elder Signs Press/Dark Wisdom, and many others.
And of course, there were the parties. The Red Light District party, Bizarro, Leisure Books, Borderlands, and more. All of them were fantastic–and as an added bonus, Nicole and I won the best prize of the raffle on Saturday night, a complete set of Haunted Memories photos! These things are great–Eddie Allen is a heck of an artist and a great guy to boot. Eddie serenaded the Leisure party with his guitar and harmonica after the raffle from the balcony overlooking the city. He even took requests. What a talented guy!
These cons are all about friendships. I feel like I strengthened some old friendships and made many more. In addition to those already mentioned I got to talk with Jeff Strand, Lynn Hansen, Brian Keene, Alan Clark, Nate Southard, Norman Partridge, Jon Reitan, Nick Kaufmann, Norm Prentiss, Susan Taylor, Dan Fox, Paul Puglisi, Brian Knight, Gary Frank, Minh Nguyen, Gord Rollo, Ray Garton, Mort Castle, Bill Gagliani, Tim Waggoner, Bloody Mary and Horrorwench, Lee Thomas, Cat, Dave Solow, John Little, Simon Wood, Mike Arnzen, Weston Oche, Yvonne Navarro…the list goes on and on, but I’m going to stop here because I’m bound to forget someone.
As usual, it ended too quickly. We found ourselves back on an airplane before we knew it, but not before sharing a shuttle with Brian Knight, Tim Waggoner and others and getting a little impromptu tour of the city when the driver couldn’t find the last pickup location. After a long plane ride we arrive home around midnight on Sunday, exhausted but full of great memories, as always.
Speaking of memories, before I wrap this up I’d like to make special mention of Steve Shrewsbury’s reading. Shrews read a fantastic and gripping passage from his upcoming novel, “Black Ribbon of Josephine.” But what made this event really unusual was his decision to read an essay afterwards by our late friend James Sneddon.
James passed away a few months ago and before his time, and Shrews wanted to honor his memory by reading his essay on horror and religious faith. This was both difficult and very moving for me. James was a fellow Five Star author who I’d corresponded with many times via email, but I met him in person for the first time at last year’s World Horror Convention in New York. James was a remarkable human being, and the horror community suffered a great loss at his passing (I wrote more about him at the time on my blog; go here if you’re interested in reading it).
I thought about James quite a bit during this trip, since I’d seen him last almost exactly one year ago. I was a newbie then, and he didn’t hesitate to welcome me into his group, making sure I didn’t feel lost and alone during the convention. This was very much appreciated, since I’d gone by myself and it was my first con.
I’ll always be grateful for what he did, and for the friend that he became. And I’m grateful now to Shrews for keeping his memory alive. Good work, my friend.
So that’s it for now. To all of you I met out there in San Francisco, thanks for the good times, and I hope to see you again soon!
May 24th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
Hey, Nate - I’d be interested in reading/hearing his essay. Know anywhere online I might find it?
May 26th, 2006 at 1:25 am
Hi T.L.–Steve Shrewsbury could probably email it to you–but I don’t know anyplace it might be otherwise. I don’t think it was ever published, though I might be wrong. It was a very good essay on faith and horror, and his own personal journey. Particularly touching to look back on after his death.
Best,
Nate