04 Apr The Outer Dark in San Jose
The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird in San Jose was every bit the tremendous experience it was in 2017, hereafter to be known as Year One ODS. It was good to see old friends and meet new ones, many of them talented writers I’ve admired long before meeting them this weekend. Many thanks to Scott Nicolay and Anya Martin for putting together another wonderful Symposium with topflight panels and readings. I’m already looking forward to the next one. I know I’m going to forget people, but it was a delight to spend time with Rebecca J. Allred and Zak, Gordon B. White (we made it to the airport!), Eric Schaller (next time I’ll hang around for an extra day, I wish I’d gone to the coast with you), Sam Cowan (Fortitude 4EVA) Marc Laidlaw (possibly my favorite reading of the event), Ross E. Lockhart, Brian R. Hauser, Greg Bossert, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Cody Goodfellow and Ross T. Byers (shit, I’m going to forget people!). John Claude Smith and Philip Fracassi are gentlemen both and you’d never know from their easy demeanor what horrors they conjure with their prose. I already knew Mike Griffin was a class act in addition to being one helluva writer. Scott R Jones delivered such a scorching reading I wanted to dig out some old copies of Castaneda and dive down into sorcerous depths even if it meant my doom. What a joy to hear great stories from Tiffany Scandal, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and David Bowles and…dammit I’m not done but my dog is staring daggers into the side of my head, drool slick drills of canine mind-force insisting that I spent too much time in the outer dark and must return to the now and get her treats. I am fortunate to know such a generous and talented group of people. Until the next time, my friends!
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