My World Horror Con Friday
I woke up far too early last Friday morning while in Austin for the World Horror Convention. I have no idea why I was unable to get back to sleep at 5:15 a.m., but for whatever reason, I was suddenly wide awake. Since I knew my first stop was going to be Round Rock Donuts (part of my Man v. Food triathlon), which opens at 4 a.m. each day, I figured, why not just get going? So I showered, shaved, cruised the lobby for any other bleary attendees who might want to board the crazy bus, and then hopped in the car and pointed it toward the city of Round Rock, TX.
By the time I got there, not that much past six, the sun was barely up, but the parking lot was packed, as were the nearby streets, the line for the drive-through went around the block, and people had to step aside so I could get in the lobby. I bought six dozen donuts, plus that one monster donut I showed you here, and headed back to the con hotel where, since the con suite was not yet open, I set up in the lobby and made sure people started the day out right by handing out free donuts as they woke.
Luckily, that con suite eventually did open, so I was able to dump the remaining donuts there and head off in time to see the Yvonne Navarro/Weston Ochse reading which started at 10:00 a.m.
Yvonne went first, reading Chapter 13 of her novel Concrete Savior, and if you click below, it’ll be just as if you were there.
Click to viewWes went next, reading the short story “Fugue on the Sea of Cortez” from his collection Multiplex Fandango.
As soon as the readings were over, I scooped up Gene O’Neill, Gord Rollo, and Jeff Strand for stop number two on my Man v. Food Tour-the Salt Lick BBQ, which as far as I’m concerned has the best BBQ I’ve ever eaten, as I learned during one of my previous visits to Austin. (Which was either for a Nebula Awards weekend or a World Fantasy Convention.) I got our waitress to slip us something not officially on the menu, burnt ends, so we were in heaven. Hog heaven.
Then it was back to the hotel so Gene could man the HWA table, and I could take part in the panel “Artists Are People, Too!” All I can say is, they may be people, but they don’t know how to show up for panels, because two (unnamed) panelists never arrived. The three of us who were responsible winged it, talking about what it was like to either work with artists or be an artist. Anyone out there who’s ever seen me doodle knows under which of those two categories I fall.
I wandered the dealers’ room for a bit, then took off for an “illicit cultural outing” organized by Liz Gorinsky. It started with dinner at Casa Columbia with Liz, Nick Mamatas, Eugene Fischer, Meghan McCarron and Jen Volant, after which we saw the amazing experimental theater group the Rude Mechanicals perform their play “I’ve Never Been So Happy,” which I won’t go into now, because believe me, the experience deserves an entry all its own.
After the play, it was back to the hotel for partying in the con suite. One conversation of note was with Claude Lalumière. He and I recently had a heated back and forth over on Facebook about my post on Jack Kirby’s Captain America run, and we’d promised to pick it up face to face in Austin. Which, as the photo below proves, we calmly did.
I gave up on the partying around 1:30 a.m. and headed back to my hotel room. I wasn’t to get much sleep, though, because of … well, let’s just say it involves a crying woman. (That ought to get you to come back and see what my Saturday was like!)
Originally published at Scott Edelman. You can comment here or there.