Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival Autopsy

 

Another quality post brought to you by Steve!

Hey, kids!

I had a very bad week last week (I may talk about that in a future post) so this actually feels like ancient history, but a little over a week ago I attended a brand-new-to-me event, the stunning Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival in Haverhill, MA!  (Forgive me if I informally refer to it mostly as "Haverhill" from here out.)

Haverhill has largely been the brainchild of author Christopher Golden, and is a one-day event.  I rarely do one-day events, and almost never travel for them, but Haverhill is legendary in the horror community at this point for being well worth the effort.  I managed to finagle a half-day slot this year, which gradually expanded into a full day-slot at the half-day table after a few inevitable cancellations.

So, fellow central PA stalwart Wesley Southard and I hopped in the car around 7:30 am on Friday morning and buckled in for our seven plus hour drive to Massachusetts.  

We tackled all of the important questions on the ride up of course: Penny or Bernadette, is "Jersey Mike's" just called "Mike's" in New Jersey, why is everyone so pissed off about "Halloween Ends," and so forth.  Then, an exciting sign post!

That's right!  "That" Tarrytown, New York.  A perfect portent for some Halloween shenanigans in the Northeast.

We stopped briefly in Connecticut and then arrived in Massachusetts around 4:00 or 5:00 pm.  I haven't actually been to Massachusetts since probably my visit to Plymouth Rock in fifth grade.  (As far as I can recall from when I was eleven, the state hasn't changed a bit.)  So, naturally we did what everyone does when coming to New England for the first time: went out and got Mexican.

The event started bright and early (who even knew there was a 10:00 "in the morning?") so we headed over to Haverhill Public Library to set up right after continental breakfast.  (And in case you're wondering: yes, it was extra continental.)

As I mentioned, I was at the half-day table, but for the whole day, so I got to spend the first four hours hanging out with Erin Underwood, who I admire for her efforts to try to bring sci-fi and fantasy back to the playhouse.  Erin also runs BosCon in Boston, so I was happy to familiarize her with a few of the people present such as "that guy with the huge line" (Jonathan Janz.)  Then I spent the back half of the day with John Durgin, who is making big waves with his debut, THE CURSED AMONG US.  And I also got to spend the whole day sitting next to Clay McLeod Chapman on the other side, who some of you will remember from Christian's interview right here on ATB a few weeks back.

I was very excited to get to see some superfans I've never met in person!  First, Erica Robyn stopped by and had to check her list (I didn't much care if she checked it twice) to see which books of mine she didn't yet own.  I told Durgin if he was smart he'd make friends with her, because Erica will be your biggest promoter imaginable online.

Then I got to meet some of the Books of Horror denizens in real life.  First, Donna.

Then, Spike and Steph.

I'll go by my usual blogging rules and not "out" anybody who isn't a public figure, but suffice it to say that all three of these lovely folks are major contributors to BoH and the rest of the indie horror stratosphere.  I sent Spike with a big sloppy Roman kiss to visit our good friends Aron Beauregard and Daniel J. Volpe who were vending down in Monstah Mania the next day, but I never did hear if that was ever delivered.  Ah, well, I guess I'll follow up next time I see them in person.

I also got to see Char of Char's Corner of Horror, but I'm not sure if we got selfies, or, at least, I haven't seen them online yet.  (Yes, I know, I should probably take some photos of my own at these events, but I just never remember.  Be happy you got the Beastie Boys pastiche.)  In any case, Char was a huge booster for the "Summer of SKINWRAPPER" in particular, and of my work in general, so that was another Haverhill highlight for me.

Around 12:30 I broke for my only panel of the day, "Extreme Horror" with Eric LaRocca, Wes, Michael Seidlinger, and Jonathan Janz.  Several people told me it was their favorite panel of the entire festival, and considering we had to go up against a rolling convoy beeping in support of a teacher's strike right outside, I'm surprised that was the case.  But maybe the regular honking kept us all from bloviating on too long and broke up the tension, so maybe it all worked out in the end.  In any case, it was easy for me to moderate, I just had to make the connection between the audience's questions and the panelists' (except Wes) boundless knowledge.

Overall, sales were robust (read: "dollar dollar bills, y'all!") and I'm glad I did finally sit down to write this autopsy, because it reminded me to make a donation to the library.  They were hosting us free of charge, after all, and public libraries are vital to the entire reading ecosystem, and Haverhill Public Library is a particularly nice one.

We packed our now much lighter crates into Wes's car and headed to the after party.  Wes and I sat down initially with Michael Clark and ordered some beers (or, in Wes's case, apple juices.)  We were soon joined by Rio Youers and Sadie Hartmann (aka "Mother Horror.")  I'd never met Sadie before, but she was also a big booster of SKINWRAPPER and THE PERFECTLY FINE HOUSE in the early days of both of those releases, and it was great to finally meet her.  I actually think I'm the first person she ever interviewed, so that's probably how I'll earn my footnote when Grady Hendrix writes the history of this era in horror.

Now I have met Rio before, and we spent a long time going back and forth about the pros and cons of traditional publishing, and I felt like I had to act as a translator between Wes and Rio, having dipped my foot in both the indie and traditional realms at one time or another.  But hopefully everyone was a bit clearer on all of the asymmetrical ways that accountants can fuck over authors in both massive and tiny settings.  Rio also prepared me for the trip I'll be making next year to Kayleigh's wedding in Cardiff.  He advised me that everyone in Cardiff spends all of their time fighting, and that there will probably be three or four fights during the wedding itself, so I am looking forward to some Dothraki-style nuptials next year.

We were soon joined by Josh Malerman, Cat Scully, and a new person to me, Olaf Buchheim of Cemetery Dance Germany.

I've never met Olaf before, but I told Sadie and Rio how I'd reached out to German-language publishers in the past, hoping that my background as a Germanist might make a difference to them, but had always received a firm "Not for our lists right now" back.  But, then introductions were made and I attempted to dust off my German, which I probably haven't spoken regularly since I quit translating at the company that inspired BILLY AND THE CLONEASAURUS over a decade ago.  Hopefully I didn't make too big of a fool of myself.  I did at least get to dust off my old "Herr Stefan" chestnut.  

See, at the American company I used to work at, our script always had us introduce ourselves by our first name, but Germans always introduce themselves by their last name, sometimes without even a "Herr" or "Frau" in front, so I always ended up halfway through conversations being addressed as "Herr Stefan" instead of "Herr Kozeniewski" and by that point it was too embarrassing to correct anybody.

Perhaps you had to be there.

In any case, we all had a lovely time and I can't wait until next year.  Thanks to everybody that came out and I'll see you all back here same time next month!