KillerCon 2018 was held in Austin TX (Round Rock, to be specific) August 24-26. Being from Louisiana, it is one of the rare horror conventions that are within driving distance... if you consider 7 hours to be "driving distance."
Because of the long drive, I missed all of Friday's programming, but I did get to hang out with Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, Bev Vincent, Kelli Owen, Stephen Kozeniewski, and other fans in the bar that night. This is the unofficial programming of the weekend, and always the stuff that I remember most about horror conventions: the impromptu, personal interactions with the writers and fans.
So, Saturday was my first day of the con. I went down to the registration table, where I humble-bragged to Wrath James White about beating his 5K time at the Scares That Care race. Side-note: bragging about beating a 5K time to someone that can break you over their knee, Bane-style, is at least mildly pathetic. Wrath then gave me the goodie bag which had the usual amount of con detritus: business cards, travel brochures, melted chocolate that leaks over everything, and if you're lucky: a hardcover edition of Edward Lee's Header 2 (which I've already read, but I still appreciate a high quality goodie bag item).
First event of the day: mass signing. I had Ryan Harding and Edward Lee sign a 3.5" hole saw drill bit. Fans of Ed Lee's Header series will recognize how brilliant I am for this. My biggest autograph regret of the weekend was the fact that Carlton Mellick was signing. I have at least ten unsigned copies of his books on my shelf. I also forgot to tell him that I made my book club read QUICKSAND HOUSE. This is relevant because my book club consists mostly of me...and a bunch of women that are NOT ready for a Carlton Mellick book. Then, I made Jeff Strand sign my copy of SICK HOUSE. I also made my book club read one of his books this year (BLISTER). I'm almost positive that my book club hates me.
After putting my books back into my room, I visited the Vendor room. Horror literature convention purists would be happy to know that there was not even ONE bobblehead, or Freddy Krueger soap, or Friday the 13th keychain to be found in the vendor room. There weren't a lot of vendors (small con), but every one of them had BOOKS on their table. It was refreshing. I bought 1000 Severed Dicks by Matt Shaw/Ryan Harding (lol), Scummer by John Wayne Communale, and Just Like Hell by Nate Southard. Only 3 books; I was feeling fiscally responsible on that day.
I attended two readings that day: Joe Lansdale and Brian Keene. Lansdale's reading was superb (of course). He read a few short stories and was generally fun to listen to. I suspect that part of the allure is his East Texas accent; but jeez....that guy can sure write a great story. Keene had his usual theatrical reading, which was fun. It was also entertaining to hear him talk of behind-the-scenes goings on in the horror business.
The two events I was most excited about were the first time ever SplatterPunk/Extreme horror awards and the Gross-out contest, which were both being held that night.
Splatterpunk/Extreme horror awards: go to www.Killerconaustin.com if you want a full list of nominees, but here are the winners:
Novel: White Trash Gothic, Edward Lee
Novella: Header 3, Edward Lee/Ryan Harding
Collection: Gorilla In My Room, Jack Ketchum
Short Story: The Tipping Point, Jeff Strand
Anthology: Splatterpunk fighting back, Kit Power/Jack Bantry
Gross-out contest: Was hosted by Jeff Burk of Deadite Press, who is always entertaining. He has the look and body style of an 80's punk rocker, but the voice of a 90's WWF wrestler. For those unfamiliar with the gross-out contest, the rules are simple: you have three minutes to deliver a story that will make me want to throw up. At the 3 minute mark, the audience is given the power to either allow the participant to continue, or be removed from the stage. This audience was particularly brutal; they shut down around half of the participants at the 3 minute mark. The winner was Stephen Kozeniewski, with his story about Godzilla and the town that he uses as his toilet.
After the gross-out contest was the obligatory Saturday night con suite party. For the uninitiated, this is when you stuff around 100 people into a hotel room, add alcohol and potato chips, and try to act like you don't notice it's about 482 degrees in there. Oh...there was also a cake with a crudely drawn icing penis drawn on it. I assume there is a good story attached to that; I'm guessing someone's dick was having a birthday. I also assumed that the bakery in Walmart didn't draw that dick.
I left the convention early Sunday to go to a Cat convention in Austin (yeah...I like cats). I'm not making this up. Austin is so cool.
In summary, I recommend attending Killercon if you like horror books and dick cakes.
Written by Jason Cavallaro
Because of the long drive, I missed all of Friday's programming, but I did get to hang out with Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, Bev Vincent, Kelli Owen, Stephen Kozeniewski, and other fans in the bar that night. This is the unofficial programming of the weekend, and always the stuff that I remember most about horror conventions: the impromptu, personal interactions with the writers and fans.
So, Saturday was my first day of the con. I went down to the registration table, where I humble-bragged to Wrath James White about beating his 5K time at the Scares That Care race. Side-note: bragging about beating a 5K time to someone that can break you over their knee, Bane-style, is at least mildly pathetic. Wrath then gave me the goodie bag which had the usual amount of con detritus: business cards, travel brochures, melted chocolate that leaks over everything, and if you're lucky: a hardcover edition of Edward Lee's Header 2 (which I've already read, but I still appreciate a high quality goodie bag item).
First event of the day: mass signing. I had Ryan Harding and Edward Lee sign a 3.5" hole saw drill bit. Fans of Ed Lee's Header series will recognize how brilliant I am for this. My biggest autograph regret of the weekend was the fact that Carlton Mellick was signing. I have at least ten unsigned copies of his books on my shelf. I also forgot to tell him that I made my book club read QUICKSAND HOUSE. This is relevant because my book club consists mostly of me...and a bunch of women that are NOT ready for a Carlton Mellick book. Then, I made Jeff Strand sign my copy of SICK HOUSE. I also made my book club read one of his books this year (BLISTER). I'm almost positive that my book club hates me.
After putting my books back into my room, I visited the Vendor room. Horror literature convention purists would be happy to know that there was not even ONE bobblehead, or Freddy Krueger soap, or Friday the 13th keychain to be found in the vendor room. There weren't a lot of vendors (small con), but every one of them had BOOKS on their table. It was refreshing. I bought 1000 Severed Dicks by Matt Shaw/Ryan Harding (lol), Scummer by John Wayne Communale, and Just Like Hell by Nate Southard. Only 3 books; I was feeling fiscally responsible on that day.
I attended two readings that day: Joe Lansdale and Brian Keene. Lansdale's reading was superb (of course). He read a few short stories and was generally fun to listen to. I suspect that part of the allure is his East Texas accent; but jeez....that guy can sure write a great story. Keene had his usual theatrical reading, which was fun. It was also entertaining to hear him talk of behind-the-scenes goings on in the horror business.
The two events I was most excited about were the first time ever SplatterPunk/Extreme horror awards and the Gross-out contest, which were both being held that night.
Splatterpunk/Extreme horror awards: go to www.Killerconaustin.com if you want a full list of nominees, but here are the winners:
Novel: White Trash Gothic, Edward Lee
Novella: Header 3, Edward Lee/Ryan Harding
Collection: Gorilla In My Room, Jack Ketchum
Short Story: The Tipping Point, Jeff Strand
Anthology: Splatterpunk fighting back, Kit Power/Jack Bantry
Gross-out contest: Was hosted by Jeff Burk of Deadite Press, who is always entertaining. He has the look and body style of an 80's punk rocker, but the voice of a 90's WWF wrestler. For those unfamiliar with the gross-out contest, the rules are simple: you have three minutes to deliver a story that will make me want to throw up. At the 3 minute mark, the audience is given the power to either allow the participant to continue, or be removed from the stage. This audience was particularly brutal; they shut down around half of the participants at the 3 minute mark. The winner was Stephen Kozeniewski, with his story about Godzilla and the town that he uses as his toilet.
After the gross-out contest was the obligatory Saturday night con suite party. For the uninitiated, this is when you stuff around 100 people into a hotel room, add alcohol and potato chips, and try to act like you don't notice it's about 482 degrees in there. Oh...there was also a cake with a crudely drawn icing penis drawn on it. I assume there is a good story attached to that; I'm guessing someone's dick was having a birthday. I also assumed that the bakery in Walmart didn't draw that dick.
I left the convention early Sunday to go to a Cat convention in Austin (yeah...I like cats). I'm not making this up. Austin is so cool.
In summary, I recommend attending Killercon if you like horror books and dick cakes.
Written by Jason Cavallaro
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