ANOTHER amazing HorrorHound Weekend is in the books and for many reasons, this one was one of my most successful yet. Thanks so much to Nathan Hanneman and his team, who put on the best horror convention! The community that exists around this show is awesome. It gives me energy for weeks afterwards. I have so many readers seek me out every year to catch up, buy books and just talk horror. It’s amazing.
As always, I hung out with my friends at Synapse Films (Jerry Chandler and Don May are the best!), got treated to an old man birthday dinner by Sean and Carol (THANK YOU!) and got my phone battery ass saved by Rafael and Matt from Severin Films, who are two of the coolest cats you’ll ever meet.
This con, Kay Ratliff, who I met at this show years ago, volunteered to help at my booth, which was a huge help. She could actually talk about some of the novels – since she has read them – when things got busy and there were a lot of people at the table, and when there weren’t… she spelled me to go shopping at Severin!
But not just Severin. For the first time ever, since my table was covered, I got to see the food court and movie room and extra dealers room downstairs. In years of doing this show, I had never gone down there.
As always, it was cool to catch up with Erica Kauffman and Rhea Dysangco and Mitch O’Connell and my super cool horror author booth neighbor Michael West. Tabling with Michael has been one of the highlights of HorrorHound over the past few years.
Thursday Throwdown
In another first, this year I started the weekend with a Thursday night pinball tournament.
I planned my drive this year to arrive in Cincinnati on Thursday in time to play in a Pinball Tournament at Arcade Legacy! This arcade is amazing, with more than 70 pinball machines, plus arcade games and a full bar. So, I always spend a lot of hours there at night during HorrorHound Weekend. But this is the first time I have played in a tourney here. And… I didn’t finish last! I actually would have been in Finals if they only did 4 rounds (as is typical where I usually play near Chicago), but they do 7… and I choked on the last three rounds. But, overall, I finished in a tie for 40 out of 77 players, so basically right in the middle. A good way to kick off the weekend!
I spent some time on Flight 2000, an old Stern game with a unique multi-ball mechanism, but did not do nearly as good as I did the last time I was here in the fall. And I discovered Taxi, thanks to being put on it in tournament. I played that a bunch after losing to figure out how to play better. And I spent a little time on Dr. Who, which I rarely get to play.
Friday Set Up and Go Time!
The next morning, I started the day at Waffle House, as I always do on Day One of the show, and then headed to the convention center to unload my car and set up.
Friday is always the late night at the show since it runs from 4 – 10 p.m. and there aren’t a lot of dinner options at that hour, so we always end up at Twin Peaks just up the road a bit. This time, Sean and Carol treated me to dinner for my 60th birthday, which was super cool of them.
Saturday, Insani-day!
Saturday, as always, was the madhouse day, with seemingly thousands of people going through the convention center. I talked to so many horror fans and reconnected with readers and friends from past shows. It was amazing. There were some amazing cosplayers, since there is a costume contest on Saturday afternoon.
Afterwards, Jerry took me to a little restaurant he discovered just down the street inside a Mexican grocery. The food was excellent and it was a true escape from the convention – there were no other HorrorHound peeps in the place.
Afterwards, as always, I shot down to Arcade Legacy and played over 3 hours until 1 a.m. My time at Arcade Legacy is always too short but I did squeeze in a bunch of games, from Batman, King Kong and my first spin on the new Pokemon, to Mars Attacks, The Addams Family and James Bond. This place is a literal nirvana for gamers and I already can’t wait til I come back in the fall.
Sunday, Fun Day
On Sunday, Kay spotted me so I could wander the show a little bit and see what was going on outside the view of my aisle, which was fun. Many of the pix below were taken on that walk.
And then she helped me tear down and pack up (huge thanks!!!). As usual, I headed up to Indianapolis to have dinner at the Yard House there… but when I arrived, I found a sign on the door – it was closed due to plumbing issues! That just opened a new door though – I checked out The District Tap a block or so away, and it was great. Yard House now has some competition for my post-HH layover dinners!
All in all, it was a great weekend. I saw so many friends … and even met a ferret who was being walked around through the aisles! I’m looking forward to doing it all again in September!
