Yesterday I travelled to Edgbaston Cricket ground for Birmingham Horror Con with my buddy Stefan and his partner, Steph, and boy was it a lot of fun! Aside from the fact that I got to see my friends C L Raven again I met some awesome people who all seemed really nice. I brought a load more books, T-Shirts and some really cool artwork, as well as a couple of comics.
My Swag From Birmingham Horror Con
One of the things I’ve loved most about the cons I’ve been to (DemonCon, Bristol Horror Con, and now Birmingham Horror Con) is how warm and welcoming these events are. I’ve not encountered any negativity from anyone. It just seems to be everyone there to enjoy themselves, which is really refreshing! In a world where there’s so much hatred and desire to stop other people enjoying themselves it’s something I’ve found to be really quite awesome.
The Awesome Cat and Lynx Raven
As for Birmingham Horror Con, it was vibrant, full of great people selling their books, works of art, clothing, jewellery, and a tonne of other horror related merchandise. As I mentioned it was great to see Cat and Lynx Raven again, and spend a little time talking to them. It was also great chatting to Dave from From The Shadows, J.R. Park, Daniel Marc Chant and very briefly with Adam Nevill. This is where I fail a little. I need to get better at talking to people. I do have a shyness and I need to get over that. Just talking to the cosplayers and getting some photo’s of them would be great as well because they all looked so cool!
There’s another one later in the year, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get there for it but I’m going to try. I will definitely be there again next year because it was just so much fun.
Yesterday my buddy Stefan and I drove to Bristol for Bristol Horror Con at the Future Inns in Bristol, and damn it was a lot of fun. It was quite a long drive from my home in Kent but I wanted to go because CL Raven were going to be there, and although I’ve know them for a couple of years we’ve never met. I like a little horror in my life as well, so I thought screw it! Let’s go! And I am so glad we did. Not only was it great to meet Cat and Lynx I met a bunch of other people who I found to be awesome and welcoming. The atmosphere was just so chilled out and relaxed, it was great just being there and soaking it all up.
Cat and Lynx Raven
We spent most of our time on the 6th floor of the hotel where all of the dealer tables where but went down to a Jazz Club below the bar for author readings, which Cat and Lynx were a part of. That, I found a lot of fun and very interesting. There was four people doing readings, including Cat and Lynx. The other two novelist were A K Benedict and Martyn Waites. Sitting and listening to all four reading excerpts or short stories was really thought provoking. Both in that once I actually get my butt into gear and get stories written, then I’ll be (hopefully) doing this sort of thing. But also in listening to writers whose work I hadn’t come across before. Obviously I’ve read a fair bit of Cat and Lynx’s work, but it was a lot of fun hearing it out loud, and they really aced the reading. Both A K Benedict and Martyn Waites are new to me but both rocked their readings and I’ll be checking their work out.
The Swag!
Needless to say I brought a load of books, six in all. As well as a couple of comics, a few key rings, CDs and a T-Shirt from the band Lesbian Bed Death, and a gorgeous skull paperweight. I could have brought a lot more, but managed to reign myself in.
Lesbian Bed Death was an awesome experience, I brought their first album years ago but like with all music I lost track of them and am seriously out of date. So I managed to pick up a couple of albums, including their latest and damn, it’s some good stuff!
The comics I got were Domeinion: A Threat From Within, and Dark Matter. Both are from Close2Immortality, and really caught my eye. Some very gorgeous artwork and the stories sound fantastic.
The skull paperweight I got is really cool and hopefully will be the first of a number of badass ornaments that I’ll gather over the next few years. Definitely check out the creator From The Shadows. He’s got some really sweet bits on his site.
Now, onto the books. I brought Deadly Reflections and The Malignant Dead by the aforementioned CL Raven. The Starblood Trilogy by Carmilla Voiez. A Tiding Of Magpies by Peter Sutton. Dead Cells by Adam Millard, and The Last Plague by Rich Hawkins.
Speaking to each of these fantastic authors was a lot of fun. All of them were very engaging and all of them seemed really nice and down to earth. It was very inspiring, speaking to people who are getting their words out into the world.
Everyone was so nice and welcoming. I can feel awkward at times, and not quite sure of myself, but at Bristol Horror Con, and DemonCon, I felt at ease in these groups of people. They’re there for the same reason I am, a love of horror and sci-fi and comics etc. My buddy Stefan, who is a big horror nut, loved it too. We’ve both pretty much deciding to go back again next year.
Peter Germany's World 