Camp NECON 34

This past Friday I was fortunate enough to attend one day of "Camp NECON" in Rhode Island. (It is a 4 day affair, but I figured I would ease into it considering family time demands, etc.) NECON is the abbreviation New England Horror Writers Convention. I don't know why HW is left out of the acronym - I guess it's not as fun to say. And NECON is fun!

I haven't really tried my writing pen on horror in a long time, but there have been some short stories in that vein of late on my computer. I've been reading more horror lately, and a lot of the writers attending are genre-crossers anyway.

I met Charles Rutledge and Jim Moore in person. Charles showed me all the ropes. We spent most of the day together and with others chatting & socializing.  I cursorily had brief greetings with Amber Benson, Kasey Lansdale and Christopher Golden, among higher profile names you might recognize.

Yeah, Jim & Charles are big guys!

A panel on Horror & Crime fiction and the lines they blur.

A panel on film making (mostly indie, but some network t.v., too!)

Christopher Golden and James A. Moore

I met and bought a pile of signed books from Darrell Schweitzer, plus a few other books.

Loot! And all signed except the Keith Taylor collection.

I just missed meeting F. Paul Wilson as he showed up just as dinner started, and I headed home afterwards.

Aside from those names you know, I met plenty of other friendly, considerate, passionate and kind folks. The panels were fun. The informal KaffeKlatsch discussions were informative and fun.

I must thank Charles publicly for including me. Learning that he had been in my backyard (so to speak) last year, I wanted to meet up this year. Then I figured I didn't want to just third-wheel my way into a dinner, so I decided to do at least a day of the convention properly. And Charles agreed that was a fine plan.

 I ate well, I talked writing and books and genre and Doctor Who and I had a blast.

The unfortunate bit was that this is NECON's 34th year, and the convention founder and organizer Bob Booth died last year, so I never met him. But there was a wonderful tribute to the man, his legacy. We watched an interview where he went over the history of NECON. It was touching and very informative.

And that was all in one day! And I didn't even get to stay for the evening stuff!

NECON is a great, small, no pretensions, all inclusive little convention.They do keep it small. But, if you ever get the chance to go, especially if you know someone else attending who can guide you through the first time, it's is absolutely worth the experience.

Great motivation, too. I can't show up empty-handed next year, or Jim Moore will look me in the eye and say, "Write your damn book." ;)

Book binges

No, not binging on the reading, but the buying. I found an eBay dealer with a bunch of overstock books. As though you were in the bargain section of B&N. But, he offers many paperbacks and many fiction titles that appeal to my interests. Combined for cheap shipping, these are new, though shelf-worn in very minor detail. In most cases, I also bought them cheaper than their ebook versions.

 I already scored a complete set of 5 Cosmos (Wildside imprint) Robert E. Howard mass market volumes (for reading copies of public domain REH stories) and a hardcover Saberhagen's Berserker Death omnibus a few weeks ago.

My second order came in today;

I've been stocking up on the Mammoth Books of.

I've wanted to read Midnight Mass for a very long time. I assume it is a rewrite of Wilson's short story "Midnight Mass." A story set where vampires have overrun our world.

The two Drake titles are from his newest TOR fantasy series. Unlike his Isles series, this one is supposed to close out at book number four, and was planned that way from the start. (One per classic element, I guess.) I did enjoy the Isles series though it had (intentionally) repetitive plotting.  I will be interested to see how this series unfolds.

I've been curious about the Gabriel Hunt books. It starts with At the Well of Eternity, I believe. There was a mistake in the eBay listing, the second one shown here was listed as being written by David Schow, but Schow wrote a different one. Ah well, I'm still glad I got them as they appear to have already been revamped with new, less interesting cover art.