Poets, Vampires, & The Tears of Isis: World Horror Convention 2014

THE TEARS OF ISIS didn’t quite go all the way to winning a Stoker(R) this year, Isis now being free to resume her career as a major cthonic as well as maternal figure in the pantheon of Ancient Egypt, but otherwise — and despite rain on Thursday and Friday — World Horror Convention in Portland Oregon was fun.  For one thing the hospitality suite was hospitable this time (as compared to last year, see June 19 2013), and extremely so for which kudos go to the convention staff.  The programming was interesting and fun as well although there were complaints even before the convention started about the lateness in its being announced, including participants being told what panels they’d been assigned to — in fact at least two authors told me they’d have to miss Sunday’s vampire panel because they’d already had to make conflicting travel plans.  In my case, however, having found a bargain hotel about four blocks away from the convention, I’d already planned to stay over till Monday, more on which later.

I’m writing this before and between things on Sunday, so more will come.  My first “official” duty was a videotaped interview Friday just after noon. as one of several award finalists who agreed to it — results, if any, probably not to come for up to two months.  Then later Friday came “Violence and Verse,” the poetry panel, in which we dismissed the violence part quickly and just talked about poetry.  Moderator was poet Rain Graves who gave me the opportunity to tell an anecdote about our first meeting at WHC in Chicago a dozen years back, and why one’s poetry “shalt not suck.”  We also missed one panel member, Linda Addison, but due to a temporary indisposition, not a scheduling conflict (in fact, Linda and Rain were the first ones I met Thursday evening at or about the registration desk).

Panels I attended Friday were “The Short Form” on short stories, “That Is Not Dead — H. P. Lovecraft’s Contributions to Modern Horror” (possibly more on Lovecraft and cosmic horror in general rather than specific examples), “Victoria Price Presents the Life and Influence of Vincent Price” (one of the con highlights, a wonderful, fun presentation of the actor’s life — which also inspired me to buy a DVD of FROM A WHISPER in the Dealers Room the next day, an anthology movie with Price as host that I’d been unaware of), and a brief stop-in on “The Work of Edward Gorey” (mostly about setting up the not-quite-museum Gorey House in Massachusetts).  The evening also included the Mass Autograph Session (sold two poetry books, as well as getting my picture taken in the presence of money, which has shown up on Facebook — strange, these modern times!) and a fairly sparsely attended, at least when I stopped by, Gothic Masked Ball (I did like the music, even if canned).

Saturday was a free day for me until the evening, with panels attended being “How to Put Together a Great Anthology” (pretty much along the lines of my putting together THE TEARS OF ISIS, though I had the advantage of already having determined whose work would be in it), “Life After the Walking Dead:  Zombie Fiction Today” (fun), “The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion” (self-explanatory), and a late-running selection of short indie horror films.

Then came the Bram Stoker Award(R) Ceremony in which I and Mike Arnzen presented the one for Poetry Collection (my third time, inspiring my joke-du-jour of how I was beginning to feel like the Lord Chancellor in Gilbert and Sullivan’s IOLANTHE, “giving agreeable awards away”) with the half that was present of the four-part authorship of the winner, FOUR ELEMENTS, consisting of . . . wait for it . . . Rain Graves and a back on her feet Linda Addison coming up for hugs and trophies.  A complete list of awards is below.  ISIS, as noted before, did not win for Fiction Collection but as co-presenter Steve Rasnic Tem pointed out, with the sheer number of good collections published in 2013, she can still be proud to simply have been on the list.

Then, the awards having been completed relatively early, I was able to catch most of the alternate program across the hall, “Dedite Press Presents the Bedlam Sisters Sideshow,” a wonderfully decadent cabaret circus (and in my opinion another highlight of the convention) which, yes, included some “you must be over 21″ acts.  Though I came in just after the one that required sweeping broken glass from the floor, I did catch the worm-eating, the male striptease performed on a unicycle, the man on stilts/girl with strings attached human marionette act, the nail bed sandwich and gyrating woman on top with hula hoop act, the hanging inverted straitjacket escape, as well as several songs.  However I skipped the after-finale “attach money gratuities to the star’s body with a staple gun” session, being both squeamish and on a budget.

Then followed parties and overeating.

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And here’s the “official” list, for those who might not have seen it already:

The winners of the Bram Stoker Awards® for 2013 were announced at the Awards Banquet on May 10, 2014, at the Bram Stoker Awards Weekend and World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon. The winners for superior achievement in each of the categories are:

Novel

Stephen King – Doctor Sleep (Scribner)

First Novel

Rena Mason – The Evolutionist (Nightscape Press)

Young Adult Novel

Joe McKinney – Dog Days (JournalStone)

Graphic Novel

Caitlin R. Kiernan – Alabaster: Wolves (Dark Horse Comics)

Long Fiction

Gary Braunbeck – “The Great Pity” (Chiral Mad 2, Written Backwards)

Short Fiction

David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan./Feb. 2013)

Screenplay

Glen Mazzara – The Walking Dead: “Welcome to the Tombs” (AMC TV)

Anthology

Eric J. Guignard (editor) – After Death… (Dark Moon Books)

Fiction Collection

Laird Barron – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories (Night Shade Books)

Non-Fiction

William F. Nolan – Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (Hippocampus Press)

Poetry Collection

Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison – Four Elements (Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press)

The following awards were also presented:

The Lifetime Achievement Award

Stephen Jones

R.L. Stine

The Specialty Press Award

Gray Friar Press

The Silver Hammer Award (for outstanding service to the Horror Writers Assn.)

Norman Rubenstein

The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award

JG Faherty