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Attempting to make a yearly tradition of this one as well.

I suppose the big statement for 2009 is: Man, I sucked. I try not to get hung up on wordcounts too much, but 60k is not a hell of a lot for me, particularly when you realize I didn’t do much other writing besides. I completely blew my Get Your Words Out challenge, I only managed to get a single chapter of the novel-length work I hoped to have completed done, and was just generally swamped. I even flaked on Yuletide this year, since I didn’t remember it existed until after sign-ups were closed; I actually had to go to radu_fics to jog my memory as to what I had written this year. I’m a mess!

The list:

Subspecies:
Limerence, Radu/Lillian
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, Sophia
Cathexis, Radu/Lillian
Subspecies: Bloodloss, cast
Apologia, Radu, Mara
Amphictyony, Radu, Ash
May Your Sorrows Have A Name, ahem

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?
Way, way less. I could offer a zillion excuses, all of them legitimate, but the plain fact is that fic comes dead last on the priority list. Sucks, though, as I have a ton of fun with it!

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2009?
Not a pairing, per se, but I never expected to have much to say about Sofia; she always struck me as the genre-required damsel in distress, which is how I picked her up in Bloodlines. But, as usual, once I got to thinking about it… that’s the thing I love about the Subspecies movies, everybody has pretty realistic reactions to things. Sure, she was petrified and traumatized and didn’t really have a lot of agency–do you seriously think you wouldn’t/would, if you were in her shoes? We’re also talking about a woman who had the ovum to pack up and move to a pretty sketchy place in pursuit of her art. There’s gotta be some depth there.

Then, of course, there is May Your Sorrows Have A Name, but I’ll get to that later on.

What’s your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I like Limerence a lot, because it’s PWP that actually sort of does have plot (the world will never know how close it came to having to read a Radu/Lillian AU, but I eventually realized that would pretty much just be long-form creepy porn, and did not have the heart to inflict that on the internet).

I also think Amphictyony is pretty genuinely funny, but clearly, I am biased. Ash is another one of those characters that had to grow on me, but he’s just such a scuzz, I can’t help but like him any more.

Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?
I am actually having a hard time fessing up to this–and since my rule of thumb has always been “if you are embarrassed to tell people about it, you shouldn’t do it”, the answer should be obvious–but I did start a story with a major OC in it. Yes, yes, I know. Me. Writing an OC. Yep.

And, of course, the problems inherent in that became immediately apparent. I sincerely do believe it’s a hell of a good yarn; but, at the same time, I found myself taking out more than I was putting in. Yes, when you’re talking about characters that live for centuries, they have a lot in their backgrounds; yet, with a little bit of massaging, this particular story would work perfectly fine as original fiction. And it probably should. But I envisioned it in this specific way, so… gah. Clearly I am still way on the fence about this!

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
Bloodloss, Bloodloss, goddamn Bloodloss. This isn’t cute any more. Other than that, considering how spectacularly I failed to meet my goals this year, I am hesitant to set myself up for further disappointment.

From my past year of writing, what was…
My Favorite Story: Bloodloss. That would have been a stunning intro had I not immediately flaked and not posted the follow-up!
My Best Story: Bloodloss again. I always have a hard time with beginnings, but my God, I slaved over that. Count the callbacks and references in that one single chapter! I dare you!
Story Most Underappreciated by the Universe: Once again, I don’t really think I have one; tiny fandom = tiny audience. I suppose I would have liked Amphictyony to get a little more love, but it’s not like it got ignored.
Most Fun: Limerence. It’s pr0nz!
Most Disappointing: The Trick Is To Keep Breathing. The ending really sucks, and I am wholly aware of that, but I could not figure out how else to put the brakes on before it turned into a big huge story of its own, which I just was not gonna do.
Sexiest: Limerence!
Story with a Single Sexy Moment: Going to buck the trend here and say, surprise surprise, Cathexis. Beware what lurks in the subconscious!
Hardest to Write: Bloodloss was certainly the one that got the most effort, but I think Apologia was actually the most difficult to get right. Radu is really a horrendous excuse for a person, and it’s tough to inhabit that kind of headspace without going cartoonishly evil or falling back on comic relief.
Most Unintentionally Telling: You know, even throwing an OC into the mix this year, I really don’t think any of them are. The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, maybe, as I have certainly had some awful hangovers in my time, but I don’t think the rest of it is particularly clever. :)

Hopefully I can make a yearly tradition of this!

How many books read in 2008?
135! I think this is a new record for pleasure-reading; it certainly is since I started keeping a log. :)

-Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
71 fiction, 64 non-fiction–though, admittedly, that’s helped by the fact that I read a pile of yoga/stretch/physical therapy books after I hurt my back, which are usually not exactly deep reads. Still, better than my paltry four-to-one ratio last year; it is hard to believe that I used to require myself to read two improving books for every bit of fiction I consumed. I am getting old and lazy!

-Male/Female authors?
68 male, 67 female. I confess, I was kind of keeping an eye on this simply because, prior to doing this meme last year, it had literally never crossed my mind to think about this in the context of pleasure-reading. Surprised to see it come out so even; I think my male count is as high as it is simply because women don’t seem to write a lot of goofy travelogues, which I had a brief fling with this year.

-Favourite book read?
As usual, it’s like asking someone to identify their favorite child. However, since I only use ratings functions when I am really riled up about something one way or the other, here’s what I liked enough to motivate me to click a button:

• Under the Dome, Stephen King (Yes, really.  The old fella had at least one last one in him!)
• My Dead Body, Charlie Huston (I’m not sure I’ve ever been quite so sorry to have a series come to an end–what an ending, though!)
• The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly (Who’d've thunk a guy renowned for his grisly crime fiction would have such a sweet, thoughtful fairytale up his sleeve?)
• Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (I will be sorrier to finish the end of this trilogy than I was My Dead Body.)
• Sweetblood, Pete Hautman (Possibly the specialest of special interests, but if you know any teenage diabetic goth girls, BUY THIS FOR THEM IMMEDIATELY.  Seriously, had to Google Mr. Hautman to make sure he wasn’t a former teacher or something, the similarities were eerie.)
• In The Miso Soup, Ryu Murakami (Did you know Audition was based on a book?  Can your brain encompass the idea that its author has written another story that makes it look like a nursery rhyme?  HOLY FUCK.)
• Fool, Christopher Moore (If Mr. Moore can stick to stuff like this, rather than crap like Fluke, he will come to merit the “American Pratchett” moniker I’ve heard being tossed around.)
• The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (I blew off an important outing to stay in and finish this.)
• Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Dreamy, weird, sad, and funny.  This is the sort of po-mo I can handle.)

Least favorite?

• The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, Chandler Burr (Mr. Burr is an abrasive douche who misses no opportunity to let the reader know he’s really above all this perfume nonsense.)
• Dracula the Un-dead, Dacre Stoker (I think the amazing failure of this book is going to get its own post one of these days.  I seriously have PTSD from reading it.  It invents whole new levels to be wrong on.)
• The Night Inside, Nancy Baker (Awful angsty edgy Mary Sue crap.  It was all cliche, even back then.  Rarely have I encountered a main character I so thoroughly despised.)
• The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson (This would be one of the rare instances!  Finding out that the author is a neckbeard otaku who wrote it while teaching English in Japan made a lot of sense.)

Dishonorable mentions: I am usually one of those people that will slog through even the worst of books just to see how it turns out, but I am coming to the conclusion that life is too short, and am learning to let stuff go.  Here’s what I started and didn’t finish this year:

• Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament, S.G. Browne (Smug, grating, and nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is; the author was also very clearly going through Mary Roach’s Stiff chapter by chapter in search of indignities to visit upon zombies.)
• We, Yevgeny Zamyatin (I think this is either a mistake or the result of a brainscab; I very clearly remember sitting down and reading the introduction, but…)
• The Golden, Lucius Shepherd (I just have not got the patience for Anne Rice-style vampire novels any more.  Woe, the heartrending angst of being rich and beautiful and getting laid!)
• The Story The Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War, Thomas P. Lowry (You wouldn’t think such an interesting topic could be rendered dry as dust, but Mr. Lowry achieves it!  I think this may actually have been self-published.)
• Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, Robert McKee  (Turns out it’s tough to comprehend a subject when you are wholly unfamiliar with 90% of the examples given in the text.)
• Blue Blood, Edward Conlon (Fuck the police.)
• A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara W. Tuchman (The odd one out here, this is actually really interesting, exhaustively researched, and pretty engagingly written, for an academic text from the 70s.  It’s also friggin’ HUGE, and I had already renewed it three times by the halfway point.  Keep meaning to buy my own copy to chip away at.)

Oldest book read?

Pilates’ Return To Life Through Contrology.

Newest?

Technically, Under the Dome, but plenty of new releases this year: Unseen Academicals, Fool, Catching Fire, My Dead Body, Beautiful Creatures, Ruined, Dracula the Un-dead, Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, Sundays With Vlad, Hollywood Monster, Animals Make Us Human, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Devil’s Cape, The Vampire Diaries: Nightfall, and… goddamn, I got to read a pile of brand new books.  Go library!

Longest book title?

Unbelievable: Investigations Into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena by the Duke Parapsychology Library

Shortest title?

We

How many re-reads?

Absolutely none!  :)

Any in translation?

Let Me In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which is also the novel the amazing Let The Right One In is based upon, and In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami.  Let Me In is a bit clunky, but I found that added to its charm, and In the Miso Soup is chillingly precise.

And how many of this year’s books were from the library?

124!  It has been my privilege to live in an area with an amazing public library system this year–the only things I’ve actually purchased are some reference materials and a couple of brand new things I couldn’t bear to wait for–but I bet yours is probably a lot better than you think it is.  Free books!  You don’t have to store them or pack them up and move them or anything! YOU CAN’T LOSE.

Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors is a name to conjure with among horror fen. Running for about two decades, these conventions–which now run in every third of the country; yowza!–boast attendance by some of the biggest names in both movies and literature, are bristling with world premieres and exclusive content, and are an all around awesome time.

So the ads would lead you to believe, anyway. But I first became aware of these when I was an impressionable youngster, and have always wanted to check one out; I just never quite managed to be in the right place at the right time. (I actually heard about the last LA one literally a week after it happened!) So when Fangoria announced that they were going to be doing their mondo three-day 30th anniversary bash right down the road from me, how could I do anything but scurry on over?

Alas, I didn’t manage to make it on Friday night due to Mr. Victus being a huge jerk some unforeseen scheduling conflicts, which turned out to work out in my favor, as registration was not actually open! I’m not exactly sure what happened, but based on the grumbles Saturday morning, the staff were for some reason unable to give anyone their official credentials, even the folks with three-day passes, so everyone got to stand in line once more. Except, oops, staff only had one laptop open to process memberships on Saturday! So all of us who thoughtfully preordered and bankrolled the event got to stand in line for about forty-five minutes, watching in annoyance as the folks paying cash strolled on in. My heart truly went out to the “Silver Bullet” passholders, as they had paid $275 to be treated this way.

But even though Mr. Victus, who does professional conventions for a living, was just about ready to crawl out of his skin at the incompetence, I am a vet of DragonCon and am not really put off by crazy registration drama, and figured all would be okay once we got upstairs. Right? Right?

Oh my God. It was like visiting death row at the pound. The way Fangoria advertises these things is announcing that there will be talks, and announcing big lists of guest names; a reasonable person (or, well, okay, me) assumes that means all/most of those guests will be doing little Q&A sessions at some point, so you can hear what it was like on the set of your favorite movie, or what it’s like working with so-and-so or whatever. No. That’s not how Fangoria conventions work. What actually happens is that you are herded into a big room empty of everything except card tables, at which most of those people are seated, gazing hopefully at you in case you might want to spend $20 on an autographed 8×10.

Yeah. It’s just… I mean, it’s not panhandling, there’s obviously a market for this if there’s three conventions a year, but it’s so sad. Being acquainted with the music industry I’ve always figured that ‘movie stars’ are nowhere near as well off as most people think, but seeing people whose work I’ve admired reduced to this… I mean, Malcolm McDowell was there! Granted, he had three card tables stuck together in deference to his status, but he was still shilling pictures from A Clockwork Orange!

(This is where the crazy prices for Silver Bullet passes come in–they include half a dozen or so autographs in the package, so if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s not a bad deal, I guess.)

But while Mr. McDowell was there, a lot of the advertised attendees were not; there were apparently a bunch of no-call, no shows, the most disappointing of which for was Charles Band and whatever passes for Full Moon Pictures these days. I find it hilarious that people would just flake–the convention organizers had their spaces set up, but, welp, nobody turned up! But this was apparently one of the most sparsely attended conventions there’s ever been on both sides of the crepe paper; I don’t think I ever saw a theater more than 2/3rds full.

But as depressing as the “merchandise hall” was (Mr. Victus promptly dubbed it The Exhibition Hole), the weekend was far from a total loss, even though we only got to see one movie.

Saturday started out with a bang: Ken Foree was the first Q&A. I would not have considered myself a huge fan of his, but, hey, it’s Peter! (And, okay, I really liked Sleepstalker. And The Phantom of the Mall. Don’t judge!) Man oh man, do I ever now, though. Mr. Foree did not bother to talk much about his filmmaking career, except as it pertained to his other anecdotes; he instead decided to herd everyone down into the first couple of rows and scare the hell out of a bunch of dopey white people by having a conversation about privilege and prejudice. :D He is an amazing speaker, and handled some very touchy subjects with grace and candor; I hesitate to repeat some of his remarks lest I inadvertently misquote him, but he made a lot of impact without ever being overbearing or hostile. I really, really admire what he did there, as startling as it was; if you can teach horror fans, you can teach anybody! (And, yes, hearing that the guy from Dawn of the Dead wasn’t allowed to sit at the lunch counter when he was a kid made a big impression on at least some of the crowd, from the conversations I overheard on the way out.)

This was also the first time I spotted Tony Timpone; I thought he was Foree’s agent or something. I have got to tell you that this man is one of the most punchable human beings I have ever encountered. He did not do anything wrong or misbehave in any way, but just exuded an overwhelming aura of ugh. Seriously, people who know me in real life, think about this: he gave me the creeps. I think he’s a slimeball. Just from being in the same room.

After that, it was time for John Waters’s one man show, This Filthy World–Filthier and More Horrible. I dislike the few movies of his I’ve seen, (Mr. Victus is quite fond of him), and was dubious about seeing a one man show–what was he going to do, eat poo? No! He did seventy-five minutes of some of the most hilarious standup comedy I have ever heard in my life. Seriously, he was worth the cost of admission alone; I honestly cannot remember the last time I’ve laughed that hard. I strongly urge anyone who ever gets the chance to hear him talk to jump at it; he’s amazing.

The SFX panel with Greg Cannom, Robert Kurtzman, and Tom Savini was… well, about what you might expect. Savini is poisonously jealous of Cannom, and doesn’t seem to care who knows it; questions from the audience were along the lines of “Remember, in that one movie, when you did that one thing? …wasn’t that cool?”

Bruce Campbell, the man, the myth, the legend, the chin, was even funnier to hear speak than I had been led to believe (and I have never heard a bad word about him). He seemed completely loaded and spent most of the first session berating the audience; during the second, he asked more questions than he answered, quizzing people about their jobs and hobbies. He’s obviously done this quite a bit, and is quite talented at wrangling a crowd and keeping things moving without seeming obviously artificial about it. Definitely book him for your next party.

As crap as his last few movies have been, I was expecting George Romero to be somewhat out of it, but he had a lot of interesting stuff to say about video games being responsible for the continued popularity of zombies. His newest, Survival of the Dead, was set to debut at midnight Saturday night; we weren’t able to attend, which is just as well, because the projector broke!

Roger Corman was there to receive a lifetime achievement award from Fangoria which was, sadly, witnessed by about a dozen people. :/ It’s not like there was anything else interesting going on, either, people just don’t know their roots. They had a list of his credits running on the projector while he was interviewed, and man, he really has worked with everyone, and has probably made about a quarter of your favorite movies, I don’t care what sort you like. He was incredibly well-spoken and put together; I would never have guessed the man was 83 years old. Happily, he’s getting an Oscar this year–finally!

Dee Wallace was, well, collecting an appearance fee. She is apparently some sort of Reiki healer now.

All in all… gah. I’m not sorry I went, but that was certainly not what I expected after a decade or so of wondering what Fango cons were like. If you like flea markets full of sad B-movie actors, these events are definitely for you! I think I will be skipping future iterations.

Paranormal Activity, 2007
Need I even say anything more about this one at this point? I suppose, for those who didn’t get to watch me spaz out in realtime over Twitter, I ought to reiterate that I am wildly enchanted with this one, and feel it deserves every bit of praise it’s garnered. I was lucky enough to see this during the second round of sneak previews, when no one was quite sure what to make of it, and have been watching the subsequent advertising campaign with glee. I admit, I found the whole DemandIt concept rather dubious, but it has evidently worked smashingly for them.

I love it when the little guys win. This movie is proof positive that all one really needs is a good concept; these folks made one of the most terrifying horror movies released this decade for about ten grand, and have gone nationwide and made a zillion bucks with it. I don’t care if you need to riffle through the couch cushions for change: you owe it to yourself to go catch this one in a theater, preferably with an enthusiastic weekend crowd.

Trick R Treat, 2007
Apparently 2007 was a really good year for horror movies, and we’re only just finding out about it now. (Perhaps In Memorium may actually come out one of these days!) I’ve been hearing about this one for years, as it’s been playing at festivals to universally rave reviews; so, clearly, the only thing to do was to bury it for years and then squeeze it out with an ignominious direct-to-DVD release. Good job, Paramount!

What happened to this film is heartbreaking, because with the right leveraging this could easily have become one of those perennial holiday classics like A Christmas Story–and hopefully still might. As blasphemous as it may sound, I wish some of the gore had been cut from this (there isn’t much as it is) for a PG-13; it’s got a wonderful, super-saturated Tales From The Crypt vibe that younger folks would get a kick out of. I’m told this was originally shot as an anthology, but the version I saw featured four main tales and a host of smaller ones intercut with one another so well I could scarcely tell where one ran into another. This is a heartfelt paean to all the spooky, creepy, eerie things that go bump in the night–you included. :)

The Wolfman, whenever
Yet another one that was hyped to the skies and then just… didn’t come out for some reason, that I think may go back even further than 2007. Stellar cast, effects by some of the best in the business, a tall budget for a remake of one of the most hallowed movies in the genre… poof! It’s making me wonder how the hell bad movies get released; I understand the thought behind trying to recoup something, but if studios are willing to can things like the films in this post, why the hell do we get stuck with things like The Uninvited?

I was fortunate enough to see a test screening of this–according to our handler, the first audience to do so–and, man, I just don’t get it. This movie is gorgeous; if it stays largely similar to what I saw, this will blow Coppola’s Dracula out of the water. They were treading on sacred ground here, and they knew it; even with the changes made–it’s a period piece!–it is still a delightfully faithful update on the original. The creature itself is amazing, and may be the first really “realistic” werewolf ever shown on film; it’s a practical effect smoothed out with CGI so deftly one could scarcely tell which was what. It is beautiful, well-written, well-acted, and a thoroughly worthy successor to Chaney Jr.’s film. Yes. Really.

Deadgirl, 2008
This movie. This movie. This fucking movie. I guess this is going to be the post where I don’t actually tell you anything about the movies I bring up, but I walked into this one completely blind, and I think that’s the best way to do it. I could describe its premise, but you’d be inclined to dismiss it as sicko exploitation shit; I could talk about its terrifyingly insightful look into the loser psyche, but that really would not prepare you for how over the line–though never over the top–this flick is. Heathers wishes it was this kind of social commentary.

Okay, sorry this has turned into shitty iPhone pictures Still Life W/ Cats, but we’ve had Thud for a year and a half, and this is the first time Bitca has ever deigned to let him in the chair with her; I’m enthused. :)

It’s harder to find a sleeve for an 11.1″ AAO than you’d think.

A lot of film buffs choose to celebrate Halloween by trying to watch a horror movie a day for the month of October; the folks over at The Awful Forums have come up with a pretty involved meme to try to categorize the stuff they’ve already seen.

Of course, being me, I could probably fill 90% of this off the top of my head, which is why I’m going to use it as an excuse to join in the fun; I am going to attempt to watch a movie I have not yet already seen to fill each of these categories. I doubt I have enough hours in the day to do that without doubling up on at least the decades, but, hey, that’s where the challenge comes in. :) It also provides a great excuse to patch up some glaring omissions in my viewing history–no, I really haven’t seen Shadow of the Vampire. I know, I know.

So here are my tentative picks, based on interest and availability; ideally this will also provide a good excuse to start writing actual reviews again once I’ve got some of these under my belt. As always, I’m up for suggestions on the blanks (or not, if there’s something you really think I ought to see). New releases get an asterisk; current theatrical releases get two.

Watch a film from each decade:
— 1890
— 1900 – The Infernal Cakewalk
— 1910
— 1920
— 1930
— 1940
— 1950
— 1960
— 1970
— 1980
— 1990
— 2000 – Deadgirl*

Watch a film for each rating:
— Unrated (pre-MPAA)
— G
— PG
— PG-13
— R
— NC-17
— X (not porn; several horror films were rated X)
— Unrated (post-MPAA)

Watch a film starring:
— Bela Lugosi – White Zombie
— Lon Chaney Sr. – London After Midnight
— Boris Karloff – Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
— Lon Chaney Jr.
— Vincent Price – House of the Long Shadows
— Peter Cushing – The Vampire Lovers
— Christopher Lee – The Wicker Man
— Robert Englund – Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
— Bruce Campbell – The Woods
— Jamie Lee Curtis – The Fog

Watch films in at least two languages other than English.
— First language – Korean, Tell Me Something.
— Second language – Finnish, Sauna*.

Watch a film in each of the following subgenres/types:
— Vampire – Vampitheatre*
— Frankenstein
— Werewolf
— Mummy
— Invisible Man
— Ghost/haunting – Paranormal Activity**
— Witchcraft/satanic/religious – Jennifer’s Body**
— Zombie – Pontypool*
— Slasher/psycho/homicidal maniac – The Poughkeepsie Tapes
— Monster/creature feature/Godzilla
— Documentary – The American Nightmare
— Musical – Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
— Spoof/comedy
— Revenge – The Seamstress*
— Killer/evil doll
— Killer/evil animal
— Killer/evil child – The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
— Giallo – Opera
— J horror
— MST3K/rifftrax/CT – Twilight
— film and its remake – Halloween II/H2**
— based on a video game
— based on a novel – Mary Reilly
— directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis or Uwe Boll or Ulli Lommel – The Boogeyman
— won an Academy Award – Shadow of the Vampire
— silent film
— Criterion version film – M
— with commentary
— film and at least two of its sequels
— anthology film – Trick R Treat*
— takes place on a holiday
— takes place in space
— takes place on or under the sea
— animated film – Tomb of Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned
— called “Night of the …”
— called “Return of the …”
— called “Revenge of the …”
— called “Attack of the …”
— with the words “Living Dead” in the title

Oh, hey, I can do something with my blog besides use it as a Twitter repository!

I’m going to share what is sure to be a stunning and totally unforeseen revelation: Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday in all the world! Since my household has already declared October to be Chill The Fuck Out Month, as we have been all et up with the dumbass lately, I am looking forward to the festivities even more than usual! Admittedly, it’s tough to feel very Halloween-y when it’s 101 degrees today and it’s not supposed to dip below 95 all week but, hey, we do the best we can.

Despite that, for once, I think I am actually pleased to be in Vegas, since there is a lot of cool stuff going on this month. First and foremost, we’ve got tickets to Fangoria’s Trinity of Terrors convention over the weekend itself. Why did they announce it so late and with so little fanfare? What will the programming end up being like? What has a trinity got to do with it? Why is their website so damn noisy? Who cares! I have been wanting to attend a Fango con ever since I was a wee little grossbag, so if nothing else, this is one for the bucket list–though I will be getting to hear John Waters speak, and you won’t! ;)

Other than that, Vegas is reputed to be oozing with high quality haunted houses; I’m not sure how much patience I will have for that, but I believe we will check out Circus Circus’s Fright Dome, despite my distaste for the SAW films, and the folks behind Hotel Fear seem charmingly earnest; they’re pinging the same sort of indulgent pity that often brings me to small theatre performances. Alice Cooper is going to be in town the weekend before with what is supposed to be one of his most theatrical performances in decades, but the ticket prices are sticking in my craw; yes, the Showroom is a beautiful, intimate room, but it is not worth literally more than twice what any other date on the tour is costing. (I’ll probably get over it.) There is the obligatory Haunted Vegas Tour, which does seem a little cheesy, and for totally off-topic entertainment there is the Age of Chivalry, which is supposed to be the largest Renn Faire on the West Coast. I have a hard time believing California can’t beat it, but as it is walking distance from my doorstep, I really can’t complain.

Then there are costumes, parties, and all sorts of other exciting personal life stuff I’m not going to share with the internet, but rest assured I am well pleased. There are also, as usual, piles and piles of horror movies to be watched, but I think I shall save that for another post; there’s a cute meme going around that may actually prove helpful!

He’s lost some weight!

…but this is a particularly fun one. I’ve seen these types of images floating around, but had never really thought much about them. Turns out they’re from a site called Wordle, which will analyze a given text and create a cloud based on word usage. Mostly they’re odd and pretty, but some interesting stuff jumps out nonetheless.

Here’s Subspecies: Bloodpact:

Subspecies: Bloodlines:

and Limerence, Cathexis, and Apolgia, all together:

You’d expect plenty of ‘the’ and ‘be’ and such, but I really had no idea I used ‘enough’ quite so frequently, and have no idea why that might be; to boot, I am apparently really down on possessives.

I also suddenly find myself pondering a fic in which Radu, Michelle, and Rebecca ended up together, but I suspect it’s probably tacky to write fanfic of your own stories. ;)

Definitely a neat little doodad.