The Texas Frightmare Weekend— a show for horror enthusiasts to play with their closest friends they have never met.
And I was there.
When I got in on Friday I was already hooked, just walking through the lobby trying to get my vendors pass. Cosplay, rock music, and the infectious excitement over being a part of the weekend was oozing from everywhere. In a few seconds, every bit of being tired from the trip that never wanted to say die just slipped away.
Now for the hard part– selling books.
I am a ridiculously introverted. This is part of the reason I aimed to get to the hotel four hours early; I wanted to get the lay of the land, meet some of the best authors I’ve known face to face, adjust. Since that wasn’t in the cards, I jumped in, needing to salvage part of the night.
Too bad my pitch was a mess. I… uh… wrote… um… a book? It’s… a zombie book?
Yup. That’s definitely the way to get people’s attention– in the smile and nod and back slowly away sort of attention. It’s an absolute wonder that I did sell any that night. I’m wondering if it was a pity sell. I marveled over David Lund’s easy manner with talking to people, saw how well he moved through his speech. When that day ended I warned him that I was going to be copying him the next day.
Fortunately, Saturday was a whole new shot.
I woke up, told my roommate that it was time to go to work, and suddenly that crazy introvert anxiety slipped away.
I’m getting ready….
Booth is set up…
Dave prepared a short video….
And we’re off!
Our booth was really busy! The needs to be patented Lund pre-show pep talk worked! People were coming over, listening to my pitch, and it was amazing!!
(BTW I warned everyone before in a very clever meme that I hated shoes. Yeah, my California hippie was showing here)
Here you see David Lund, Thomas Watson, fellow Winlockians and me, as we talk to Michael Wilson, President of Permuted Press (a huge alliteration, I know). It. Was. AWESOME!
This is Ryan Cusick of iHorror.com, a fellow medical person and Californian. Super cool guy!!
And this is Katie Cord, horror writer and nurse as well!
There are a lot of medical people in the horror fandom world!
By the end of the first full day, I had already sold over half of my stock. OMG.
To celebrate the first full day, I went out to dinner with the Lunds. They are an amazing team. It was funny, as I listened to them banter, I had a question for them…. I asked if they had been married for around 10 years. I was very very close, and they were curious how I knew. I laughed and said that the way they were going back and forth was way too familiar. Lifers seem to be able to identify other lifers…
When I got back to the hotel, I went and hung out with some amazing authors, like Tim Long and Peter Clines.
It was just so perfect.
Then came Sunday.
Just so everyone knows, there is a disturbing lack of Monster at this particular horror convention. I mean, what’s with that? Someone high up needs to get on that, stat.
Thank God for very nice guest services people that discovered that the hotel employee vending machine had monster inside.
It was time to rock this.
There’s a saying that you better work it like the rent is due tomorrow. So that’s what I did. Dave had already gone through and sold out of book one of his series, and even gone through the book 1&2 compilation. We had talked earlier about how cool it would be if I also sold out. Dave is a rockstar, and I credit several of those final day sales to him.
And right at 3pm? I joined him in the sell out status.
To say I was excited is so not enough. I never dreamed that I would go, find my brave, and rock it. I knew I would have fun, but this was so much more.
This was AMAZING.
And I can’t wait for next year. I’m a Frightmare junkie.
