I received my contributor's copy of Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 in the the mail Thursday and noted that I am listed on the back next to Liz Hand, which only by hazard of alphabet but looks impressive nonetheless. On the front cover I take my billing with Bev Vincent's old pseudonym, "and Many Others."

However, more exciting was seeing several copies of the book on the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble. It's the first time I've published anything in a venue that could be easily found in a brick and mortar store, and looking at it there gave me more than a little thrill. In the introductory material's "Summation 2007, Fantasy" Grant and Link describe my story (along with those of fellow Bandersnatch contributors Nick Mamatas and Vylar Kaftan) "particularly memorable."

The book also got a strong review from Gary K. Wolfe in this month's Locus. That he paired my story with Laird Barron's was a tremendous compliment to me; he said that both "open up in unexpected ways."

I'm in the process of giving the reviews for Dead Reckonings 4 their initial editorial pass before I send the files over to S.T. Joshi. S.T. was up at the Lovecraft film festival this weekend (as was Laird; wonder if they met), which makes me mildly jealous. My only con appearance for the remainder of the year will be at next weekend's Rock and Shock.

What's Rock and Shock, you ask? It's one of those crazy horror-movie-fan cons populated by celebrities at various points in their career trajectories, both rising and falling, whom fans can pay $15-$20 for an autograph and featuring a huge dealer's room selling DVD's, posters, t-shirts, books, and toys of dubious taste. There are movie screenings, interviews with actors, and a "literary panel" (by which they mean a talk by people who don't make movies) on which I will be sitting alongside Jeanne Cavelos, Jack Ketchum, Joe Knetter, and Joseph McGee. Yes, all of us have first names starting with "J", which is prerequisite to being on the panel. Other authors will be at the show, manning the table of New England Horror Writers in the dealers' room.

Of the celebs appearing this year, I'm most interested in meeting Chris Sarandon, best known as neighborhood vampire Dandrige in Fright Night, the seminal '80s horror film, and as the evil prince in The Princess Bride. Sarandon will be joined by FN co-star Stephen Geoffreys, who played "Evil" Ed Thompson. Other movie folk new this year include Michael Biehn (Terminator, Seventh Sign, The Abyss), Corey Haim (Silver Bullet, The Lost Boys, Watchers), and Jason Mewes (Feast, The Tripper--best known for playing Jay in Kevin Smith films).

What sets R&S apart from things like Horrorfind Weekend and Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, besides size and a Worcester location, is the "Rock" part of the title. As with previous years, the Saturday-night concert will be headlined by GWAR, one of the worst metal bands in American history. Friday night features Children of Bodom, a Finnish melodic death metal band (according to Wikipedia); they're musically superior to GWAR by a couple orders of magnitude, but are unfortunately marred by the scream/growl/Cookie Monster vocals of most death metal bands. Oh, and Sunday we'll be treated to an appearance by Insane Clown Posse. You can get a taste--or your fill--of any of these bands on YouTube.

And finally, today marks the celebration of, to steal from Jack Benny, my second thirty-ninth birthday. I had a massive sirloin last night during a lovely dinner with family. Today I'm headed to Farm Days at Water's Farm in Sutton, MA. And then finishing up all these essays. Oh, the glamorous life!