Phat Book L00t from WHC
So when I got to World Horror Convention, I told myself I wasn't going to buy books. Not that I didn't want to buy books, mind you, but Melinda and I have a lot of books. We've got books in the bedroom. We've got books on top of the DVD rack. We've got books on a windowsill in the dining room. We have a bookshelf full in my office closet. We have, in short, more books than we have any sane notion of what to do with, pending some sort of apocalypse that destroys the rest of humanity and leaves us multiple pairs of eyeglasses with which to avoid ironic Serlingian fates. So as gorgeous as the books were, I was resolved that I wasn't going to buy any. At least, not until Sunday, when I'd know how much space I had in my suitcase from selling those last straggling copies of Firefly Rain at the mass autographing (but that's another story).
So Sunday rolls around. I'm mostly packed. It's 10:30 AM. The dealer's room is open. And I decide to take a stroll around, since I sold a couple of books, so I could, you know. See if anything really, really grabbed me. Because I wasn't going to buy any books, even on a Sunday, unless they really, really grabbed me.
Next thing I know, I'm in my hotel, sitting carefully balanced on top of a perfect replica of Devil's Tower I've constructed out of the books I've bought, alternately cackling "My precious," "This means something," and "Oh God, my wife's going to kill me."
Below, the evidence, or at least some of what I picked up:
In Concert , Steve and Melanie Tem - Centipede Press makes absolutely gorgeous books, and this one, a collection of short fiction from the Tems, is no different. I don't know what mad genius decided to match their words with a Dali piece for the cover, but whoever you are, bravo. Now the trick will be working up the nerve to actually crack the book and read it, as I don't want to risk damage to book-as-artifact and I'm an absolute beast on books.
Dweller , Jeff Strand - I'm a sucker for anything Bigfoot. I'm a sucker for anything Jeff Strand. So when Jeff Strand does a Bigfoot book, well, forget it. There goes my money.
Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories , Joe R. Lansdale - Somewhere, I've got a mass market edition of Lansdale's first short fiction collection, Bestsellers Guaranteed . For no reason that I can comprehend, it has a dragon on the cover. This one, well, let's just say there are no dragons.
Vanilla Ride , Joe R. Lansdale - Because I loves me some Hap and Leonard, and I need to catch up before picking up Devil Red.
The Bone Forest , Robert Holdstock - The 1991 Grafton UK edition. My beaten-up paperback thanks it for coming along.
The King In Yellow , Robert Chambers - The Ace edition, with the same font for the title that's been made immortal by a zillion Star Trek novels. I picked it up as my freebie from a "buy two books from the top of the table, get one free from the bottom" deal, and it seemed like a better pickup than House of Caine by Ken Eulo. Seriously, every used bookstore and flea market I've ever been to has one copy of House of Caine by Ken Eulo. I don't know Ken Eulo. I've never read his book. But I remain convinced that it's actually part of some demonic plot, and that when the stars come wrong, all of those copies will suddenly blossom into monstrous, devouring corruption and blot out the sky with their hellish blooms. Either that, or they just printed a hell of a lot of horror novels back in the day.
Planet Stories Double Sojan the Swordsman/Under the Warrior Star , Michael Moorcock and Joe R. Lansdale - Neither of the two dudes on the cover of this Planet Stories double feature are wearing shirts. One has a sword and what looks like an adult diaper. One has a shield, a ray gun, a circlet, and male pattern baldness. God, I love pulps. (OK, this one was actually in the con goodie bag, along with a couple of others, but damnit, it's pulps!)
Growing Dread , C. Dombrowski, editor - Given to me by the marvelous Angel McCoy, who in turn edited Night-Mantled (which you should be reading right now, instead of this). The cover claims it's bio-punk; Angel swears her story is 90% bio and 10% punk. I look forward to determining the exact ratios in the other stories.
Let's Play White , by Chesya Burke - All weekend, I told Chesya I was going to be picking up a copy of the book on Sunday and that I wanted her to sign it. When I picked it up, though, she was already gone. How dare she put airline schedules ahead of signing a book for me? Then again, she got blurbs from Nikki Giovanni and Samuel R. Delany, so clearly, she wins. She wins a lot.
A Mammoth Murder , by Bill Crider - It's got a Bigfoot on the cover. I'm sold.
So Sunday rolls around. I'm mostly packed. It's 10:30 AM. The dealer's room is open. And I decide to take a stroll around, since I sold a couple of books, so I could, you know. See if anything really, really grabbed me. Because I wasn't going to buy any books, even on a Sunday, unless they really, really grabbed me.
Next thing I know, I'm in my hotel, sitting carefully balanced on top of a perfect replica of Devil's Tower I've constructed out of the books I've bought, alternately cackling "My precious," "This means something," and "Oh God, my wife's going to kill me."
Below, the evidence, or at least some of what I picked up:
In Concert , Steve and Melanie Tem - Centipede Press makes absolutely gorgeous books, and this one, a collection of short fiction from the Tems, is no different. I don't know what mad genius decided to match their words with a Dali piece for the cover, but whoever you are, bravo. Now the trick will be working up the nerve to actually crack the book and read it, as I don't want to risk damage to book-as-artifact and I'm an absolute beast on books.
Dweller , Jeff Strand - I'm a sucker for anything Bigfoot. I'm a sucker for anything Jeff Strand. So when Jeff Strand does a Bigfoot book, well, forget it. There goes my money.
Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories , Joe R. Lansdale - Somewhere, I've got a mass market edition of Lansdale's first short fiction collection, Bestsellers Guaranteed . For no reason that I can comprehend, it has a dragon on the cover. This one, well, let's just say there are no dragons.
Vanilla Ride , Joe R. Lansdale - Because I loves me some Hap and Leonard, and I need to catch up before picking up Devil Red.
The Bone Forest , Robert Holdstock - The 1991 Grafton UK edition. My beaten-up paperback thanks it for coming along.
The King In Yellow , Robert Chambers - The Ace edition, with the same font for the title that's been made immortal by a zillion Star Trek novels. I picked it up as my freebie from a "buy two books from the top of the table, get one free from the bottom" deal, and it seemed like a better pickup than House of Caine by Ken Eulo. Seriously, every used bookstore and flea market I've ever been to has one copy of House of Caine by Ken Eulo. I don't know Ken Eulo. I've never read his book. But I remain convinced that it's actually part of some demonic plot, and that when the stars come wrong, all of those copies will suddenly blossom into monstrous, devouring corruption and blot out the sky with their hellish blooms. Either that, or they just printed a hell of a lot of horror novels back in the day.
Planet Stories Double Sojan the Swordsman/Under the Warrior Star , Michael Moorcock and Joe R. Lansdale - Neither of the two dudes on the cover of this Planet Stories double feature are wearing shirts. One has a sword and what looks like an adult diaper. One has a shield, a ray gun, a circlet, and male pattern baldness. God, I love pulps. (OK, this one was actually in the con goodie bag, along with a couple of others, but damnit, it's pulps!)
Growing Dread , C. Dombrowski, editor - Given to me by the marvelous Angel McCoy, who in turn edited Night-Mantled (which you should be reading right now, instead of this). The cover claims it's bio-punk; Angel swears her story is 90% bio and 10% punk. I look forward to determining the exact ratios in the other stories.
Let's Play White , by Chesya Burke - All weekend, I told Chesya I was going to be picking up a copy of the book on Sunday and that I wanted her to sign it. When I picked it up, though, she was already gone. How dare she put airline schedules ahead of signing a book for me? Then again, she got blurbs from Nikki Giovanni and Samuel R. Delany, so clearly, she wins. She wins a lot.
A Mammoth Murder , by Bill Crider - It's got a Bigfoot on the cover. I'm sold.
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