Donna Lynch, Arnzen, Jen Barnes at Horrorfind 08

Last weekend, I attended HorrorFind Weekend 2008 held in the Mariott at the University of Maryland in Adelphi, along with my wife Renate and my friend from graduate school, Bill Hamilton. Though the new space thinned out the herd a bit too much for my taste, it was a decent convention with a great dealer’s room and I had a generally good time hanging out with some old friends while making many new ones. My wife and I also took a break and drove into Baltimore to visit Poe’s grave and one of the locations for the Homicide TV show at Fell’s Point (which I later learned is rumored to be haunted). And it was rewarding to screen Exquisite Corpse in the huge auditorium at the convention, with such a great sound system.

The highlight for me at Horrorfind this year was celebrating Raw Dog Screaming Press’ fifth anniversary, during their reading sessions and successful room party. It was fun to hang out with all the RDSP authors and meet some new fans and writers who wanted to talk in depth about Audiovile and 100 Jolts.

It was great laughing it up with Ron & Darin Malfi, learning about acting and horror from Michael Boatman, talking about medicine with F. Paul Wilson, finally meeting Stephen Segal, shaking hands and joking about sunglasses with Roddy Piper and meeting one of my favorite actors, William Forsythe, talking shop with the wonderful D. Harlan Wilson, buying art from Steven Archer, talking about Black Sabbath and Bowie with Donna Lynch, swapping chuckles with Lisa Mannetti and Elizabeth Blue, chatting with Brian Yount and his wife about Doorways magazine, contemplating the impact of flash fiction with Nate Rosen of microhorror.com, reflecting on the sad state of the publishing world with Gord Rollo, hearing Jen Barnes’ speech about the company, hearing the “meet the parents moment” of Matt Warner & Deena Warner, reminiscing with my old friend Ed Lee, joking with Nanci Kalanta, loving the spirit of JL Comeau, seeing John Lawson do the meat puppet cabaret live, and…oh, it’s impossible to list it all, and I’m leaving out too much. Rather than get any deeper into the nitty-gritty, I’ll just collect related links to con reports and photos online here:

RDSP 5 Year Anniversary Party & Reading Photos at Raw Dog Screaming Press: Raw Dog’s report includes not only photos but also great video clips from the reading series, including my funny tribute to the publisher and fiction reading.

My photos in the Gorelets Gallery: some of the photos that actually survived my trip.

The Crab Hat Clue Game at Adrienne Jones’ Briney Blog: Here’s the deal — I won a free novelty “crab hat” for pre-ordering a great book called Brine by the hilariously weird writer, Adrienne Jones. I decided to take it to the con and asked the more daring attendees to pose for a shot wearing it. (I would have done this too, but I lost it (or was it stolen?) at the con!)

On my bleary-eyed way out the door at the end of the con, I was interviewed on video by the wonderful Judy Comeau for the Gore de Vol show. (link forthcoming)