Lots of miles covered during the month of July. I was in Texas (of course), Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Washington D.C. (airport), Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Jersey (airport).
This time last week, I was at Necon. I believe it was my 13th time attending. Something like that. Had a hassle-free journey. In fact, thanks to my trips to Japan earlier this year, my airfare cost a whopping $12 for the round trip and on the leg from IAH to Dulles I was in first class. Metal cutlery and ceramic dishes and everything. First time I’ve ever been in Boarding Group 1 instead of 6 or 9 or 42.
It was sweltering hot when I landed in D.C. but in Providence it was only 65 and it started raining heavily when I turned of 195 onto Highway 24. I stopped at the same small-town liquor store where I go every year, in Fall River, MA. Always the same people working at the place. I wonder if they recognize me and think: must be time for his annual binge! It’s a more convenient stop for me than 1776, the liquor store in Bristol, RI, for which Necon weekend is probably their Black Friday.
The weekend alternated from cool and rainy on Thursday to sweltering hot on Saturday. I had a panel on Friday where we discussed books we’d read recently. It was good catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while. I didn’t go to Necon last year. Hank Wagner and I spent a lot of time talking, and nearly 80 minutes discussing Season 3 of Stranger Things for our Dead Reckonings tag-team review, which I now have to transcribe into something sensible.
I was also the “fake nominee” for the Necon roast. Apparently Mike Myers had a blistering speech to roast me, so imagine his chagrin when the victim turned out to be him! I was half-prepared for a double-fake out, but I was reasonably sure I was safe. If Brian Keene had been there this year, I would have been less confident.
I had to get up at 3:30 am on Sunday to get to PVD for a 6 am flight. Those early morning flights always seem to be a good idea when I reserve them. On the plus side, I was back home by about 11 am, and the flight to IAH was almost half an hour early arriving.
Three forthcoming publications I can mention: I have a story called “The Patience of Kane” in the anthology The Eyes of Texas: Private Eyes from the Panhandle to the Piney Woods, edited by Michael Bracken from Down & Out Books, due to be published on October 21, 2019. I have a sort of review slash essay about the Angel episode “That Old Gang of Mine” in Outside In Gains a Soul, and my short story “Game Seven” will be published in the anthology Across the Universe later this year. This latter one is kind of fun: the anthology speculates possible alternate realities where the Beatles aren’t the Fab Four but instead something else. In my tale, they’re from Liverpool, NS and play for the Liverpool Beatles hockey team.
I also received my copy of Cemetery Dance issue 77, which contains my 40th News from the Dead Zone column. This one has been a long time coming and I was amused to see that I stated with near certainty that by the the time it appeared, we would still be waiting on It Chapter 2. True, but only just!
