Scares That Care V Autopsy

Another quality post brought to you by Steve!

Hey everybody!

In case you missed it, this past weekend was the Scares That Care Weekend V in Williamsburg, VA.  This is a great charity event which supports three families in need each year.  It's also like a great homecoming for all of the horror industry's authors.  STC is very much a horror literature focused event, one of the few I've had the pleasure to attend.

I arrived in Williamsburg with my girlfriend around midnight on Thursday before the convention began.  I was very fortunate to appear in the celebrity room this year.  Brian Keene, who I've mentioned on ATB before, was in charge of setting up the celebrity room and decided to play a little prank by sitting me next to the legendary Jonathan Janz. 

As you can see from the photo above, that's a bit like seating a baboon with the handsomest, perfectest author who ever lived.  The real joke, though, is that I declared Jonathan my rival a few years ago when his CHILDREN OF THE DARK consistently beat out my own HUNTER OF THE DEAD on every horror blogger's end-of-year list.

Jonathan, of course, turned out to be as charming as he is handsome and perfect in real life.  But, actually, we were very much kindred spirits.  We chatted a bit about the industry and realized how similarly we felt about a lot of things.

Friday night I got to hang out with a lot of people I haven't seen since, well, STC last year.  It was also around this time that the rumor went out that Brian would be receiving an award from the convention this year.  More importantly: an award he didn't know about.  The award was for people who have donated an extraordinary amount of time, energy, money, etc. to the charity.  In previous years it's gone to Kane Hodder, Sid Haig, Count Gore De Vol, and other STC luminaries.

Saturday I had a panel scheduled for 7:30 about crossing genres, but we only really got through introductions before we all had to break and go to the costume contest, where Brian's award ceremony was taking place.  It was great seeing him shocked as they announced his name.  The board had apparently made the decision behind closed doors and then told him someone else would receive it.

Saturday at 10:00 pm was my reading with Somer Canon.  Somer is a good friend and amazing author and as she began reading, I was surprised at her confidence and projection.  It turns out this was her first reading ever, and she blew it out of the park.

My own reading was a piece called "This Reading is Going to Suck."  As I was working on it at the vendor's table, Armand Rosamilia, who was sitting on the other side of me from Jonathan, asked what I was working on and whether he was in it.  So, I nodded and added him to the piece. 

Of course, Armand did not attend my reading, and learned only from rumors that he was in it.  Sunday morning he was all in a tizzy about what his position in the piece was, how significantly he was featured, and etc., etc.  Sadly, I had no answers for him as I certainly couldn't reveal what had been said on Saturday night to someone who hadn't been there, naturally.

We headed out on Sunday after a few more sales.  This was, for me, my most successful convention ever, financially speaking.  But that will never be as important to me as the good times had with friends, new and old, and, of course, the chance to do something good for others.  Hope to see you all next year!