icebluenothing

There's that chill in the air again, that sharp wind through leafless trees that makes you pull your coat tighter. The days are growing shorter and the dead are closer every day.

It's almost time.

Come to my seventh annual Horror Fiction Reading on Saturday, October 30th.

I'll be reading a few of my short stories, including at least one brand new piece and something from my anthology, Counting from Ten. (I'll also have copies with me, if you'd like to buy one afterward.)

As always, the Reading will be at the Aurafice, an Internet coffee shop, on 616 East Pine Street, between Belmont and Boylston on Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA. It will be from 7:00pm until 8:30pm. (Early enough, I hope, for everyone to come to the reading and still be able to go out and enjoy the rest of your Halloween weekend.)

If you're not familiar with my fiction, please check out my personal website at: http://bloodletters.com/

If you're planning on being there, then please consider posting this link image in your LiveJournal, or to your website or weblog. I look forward to seeing you all. Thanks!

Here's the code for it:

<a href="http://www.bloodletters.com/"><img src="http://bloodletters.com/pub/montoure-oct2004.gif" border="0" width="300" height="300"></a>

Not that my whirlwind flyby visit to the Mercury was without its pleasures -- chief among them being the dear little rivethead busker boy outside with his accordion (!) who played New Order for me when I tipped him a dollar; getting to dance to Seven Nation Army, of all things, with the always charming ajka; getting to see (and pet) the dress I picked out for m_cobweb at the last thrift-store expedition; spotting someone I thought was windbourne until I noticed she had short hair, who in fact turned out to be .

But.

My point is, and I do have one, I was out busting my cute little butt tonight for the sake of my Art. When I should have been home, in bed, dying.

Whereas you have done nothing!

That's right. I'm not feeling the love here, people. Here it is, only one week until the socio-cultural event of the Halloween season, and only one of you has posted a link graphic to my reading like I asked you to. (Thanks, lt_howitzer!)

I can only assume that this is because you all secretly hate me and hope that I die.

(Special shout-out here, though, to ajka, who agreed to take some of my flyers to the Vogue. She will be spared when I call down my horrible army of elder gods and giant robots.)

prncsmoonbeam

Go visit gothicmissmanners.com, let Jilli enlighten you in the ways of ettiquette, and bask in the warm glow of my mad web skillz. Praise welcome.

If you're in Seattle, you need to come to my fifth annual Halloween Horror Fiction Reading tomorrow night at 7:00pm at the Aurafice, on 616 East Pine Street.

If you do, I promise I'll only keep you a little while, lead you through some very dark places, lead you safely back out, and send you on your way.

But if you don't, then all your friends will prove false, you and your true love will never meet, and you'll never achieve your heart's desire.

So come support your local arts. What are you afraid of?

Come to my fifth annual Halloween Horror Fiction Reading on Thursday, October 31st!

I'll be reading several of my short stories, including some unpublished pieces. This year, everything I'm bringing is brand new, so this will be your first chance to hear them.

The Reading will be at the Aurafice, an Internet coffee shop, on 616 East Pine Street, between Belmont and Boylston on Capitol Hill. It will be from 7:00pm until 8:30pm. (Early enough, I hope, for everyone to come to the reading and still be able to go out and enjoy the rest of your Halloween.)

If you're not familiar with my fiction, please check out my personal website at: http://bloodletters.com/

If you're planning on being there, then please consider posting this link image in your LiveJournal, or to your website or weblog. I look forward to seeing you all on Halloween. Thanks!

Here's the code for it:

<a href="http://www.bloodletters.com/"><img 
src="http://www.bloodletters.com/pub/reading2002.gif" 
border="0" width="300" height="300"></a>

On the bright side, I ran into Hardrock, who pointed out to me that Peter Straub was going to be speaking in ten minutes. I have to confess here that I don't think I've ever read any of Straub's work, but, ummm, I've seen Ghost Story, and, well, I'm a big enough Stephen King fan that I was excited at meeting his collaborator. It was the most recent collaboration, in fact, that Straub read from today, Black House. It was quite good; I look forward to reading it, although I imagine I'll have to read The Talisman first.

I was a little dismayed to realize that the occasional cheering I'd been hearing in the background was from the large number of people who were watching the Mariners game on the televisions throughout the exhibition hall. "Seven to two!" were the excited words I was greeted with by the door guard when I came back in from putting more change in the parking meter -- it took me a second to realize she was telling me the game's score, a fact that of course I had to be interested in, I'm breathing, aren't I? Actually, no, I was here because of the books, thanks awfully.

How did I get to this planet? And when can I go home?

I left shortly afterward, feeling depressed about the flyers and alienated by the baseball, and drove off with the intention of going downtown to drop some flyers off at Borders Books. (Yes, Borders does have a flyer table. Yes, Borders is better set up to serve the needs of a local author like myself than the Northwest Bookfest was. Yes, that's kind of sick.) But silly me! Did I think there was somewhere to park downtown? No, naturally not. After circling uselessly for a while, I gave up and headed to the U-District, with the intention of leaving some flyers at The Comics Stand, which had been closed when I'd tried it on Thursday.

The Comics Stand doesn't have anywhere to leave flyers, either.

Undaunted -- okay, okay; really, really daunted -- I headed for Lake Forest Park Towne Centre to leave some flyers on the copious flyer tables there, and to drop in and say hello to wendolen.

While I'm in Third Place Books, I hear an announcement that Timothy Zahn will be speaking in a few minutes. I'm not terribly interested -- the only book of his I've ever tried reading was his first Star Wars novel, and I couldn't get through it -- but as I walk past, I notice only three people have shown up to hear him. I instantly imagine how I'd feel in his position, and I take a seat.

I'm glad I did. I've met him before -- he and I were on a panel together at some convention a few years ago -- and he's fun and interesting to talk with. And that's just what this turned into; the five of us sitting around talking about science fiction, bad movies, and most importantly, storytelling.

I left content, feeling the connection with my calling that I hadn't found at the Bookfest.