Still Unpacking Horrorfind: Part I
In many ways, I’m still unpacking from Horrorfind. It was the most fun I’ve had on the Con circuit this year - with the exception of Context 22 - and I learned a lot. For example, I learned that as a relative unknown, you don’t book a vendor’s table, because you most certainly will NOT move all the copies of the anthologies featuring your stories, (which you foolishly bought extra copies of), and you will not make back your investment.
Of course, I came to Horrorfind in a weird way: it was the first Con I registered for, and the last Con I attended, and in the middle, the learning curve was WAY steep. I’d learned the vendor table thing by then, but with the fee already paid, what do you do? Wing it, consider it a lesson learned, if a pricey one.
Secondly, I learned that doing a reading is no fun if the folks you really wanna read to - and yourself - are all having more fun at a Japanese steakhouse watching a chef make a volcano out of a mound of onion rings. However, next year, if that happens again, I WILL perform dinner theater right there in the restaurant, Alethea. Count on it. ;)
Also, I learned that sharing your love for horror and the dark spooky things that go bump in the night with your decidedly non-horror best friends can be pretty awesome. Sunday, my very logical, rational, but rock-solid and steadfast best friend - the best man at my wedding - and his wife came and hung out at Horrorfind with me. They’re a “non-horror” couple, (though Olivia is a ‘Twilight’ and ‘Vampire Diaries’ fan), but they weren’t wigged out by the experience at all, in fact they seemed a tad disappointed that much of the stuff had been packed up by then, and of course they missed the trans-formative wondrousness that was Margot Kidder.
Anyway, when I return to Horrorfind next year I WON’T book a table, so I’ll be freer on Saturday to hang out with them, because I’ll certainly crash at their place again (they live only an hour south, in Frederick). To commemorate out experience, Olivia purchased a ‘Twilight’ Christmas ornament from one of the vendors, with the resolution that for every following Horrorfind, she will add to her collection. It was very cool to open that part of myself to my non-writing, non-horror friends and to have them enjoy it as much as they did.
Two final things that made the weekend the awesomness that it was. First was Kelli Dunlap’s quip Saturday night ; “Look at you, kiddo. You’ve finally adapted. Lost that ‘deer in headlights’ look, because let me tell you - you were a scared puppy at MoCon!”
She’s right, of course. Though rationally we know that celebrated writers and notables in the genre are regular folks too, it’s intimidating meeting people you’ve read and read about for several years, especially for the guy who jokes that Llourdes Hospital created a special “foot from mouth removal” unit just for him. That, and I’m an odd bundle of contradictions, (oh, stop it. Like you didn’t already know this), because while a large part of me wants to hide in the back of the room and go unnoticed, I’m like everybody else: I just want to be liked and have friends.
So, in essence, it takes me a long time to warm up, and I don’t warm up to just anybody, but when and if I warm up to you, you’ve just gained a friend for life, no matter what. I got probably the best compliment ever in high school when my then track coach remarked to my father at a meet, “You know...Kevin’s not like the rest of the kids. He doesn’t have a lot of friends, but the ones he does keep are real.” So, now...Kelli and crew: you’re stuck with me. I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Same goes for Dan Keohane, Tim Deal, Scott, Sheldon, and all the other fabulous folks from Context 22.
Anyway, I'm going to stick to my goal of writing shorter, easy-to-manage blogs, and sign off for now. In a few days I'll post part two of this, "Still Unpacking Horrorfind Part II: Meeting An Icon". See you then.