World Horror Convention - Stokers

What was the worst, most embarrassing event at the World Horror Convention?

I'm sure, if asked, most people who attended the Stoker Awards banquet, would probably say the video played prior to the awards featuring Debra LeBlanc, the Horror Writers Association current president. It was so bad I must admit I felt embarrassed even to be a member of the HWA.

The HWA President shows how not to make a farewell speech

World Horror Convention - a few more pictures

The top two pictures are of the pier and sea across from the convention hotel.

The next is of Ian Alexander Martin, Steve Jones, Johnny Mains, Dave Sutton and Charles Black on a Pan Book of Horror panel.

Below this is James Herbert shaking hands after his Guest of Honour Speech, Steve Jones behind him. Neil Gaiman is also there, stood up.

The bottom picture is almost self explanatory: Dave Carson during his Artist Guest of Honour interview.

We would have taken a lot more pictures but unfortunately the battery for our digital camera developed a fault and wouldn't stay charged for more than a few minutes.

World Horror Convention - Brighton

Like everyone else I bumped into there, I found it a well organised, busy, packed convention, with surely something for everyone who is interested in the horror genre.

It was great to meet so many people for the first time, many of whom I had only met online - or knew about from what they had written. Some, like Gary McMahon, Charles Black, Dave Sutton, Des Lewis and Mark Samuels, I had previously bumped into, but others like Paul Finch, Johnny Mains, Simon Bestwick, John L. Probert, Basil Copper, etc were known only either by what they had written or by telephone and emails. I wasn't disappointed in any of them, and a nicer group of people it would be hard to imagine.

Steve Jones and the rest of the WHC committee did a splendid job in putting together a packed venue of events. Some highlights were Reggie Oliver's superb theatrical renderings of two of his best stories, Puss Cat and The Copper Wig, John L. Probert and Kathleen's production of "Corruption", and the inimicable In the Gloaming troupe.

Not only were the goody bags for this convention astonishingly well filled, but I also received copies of Johnny Mains' anthology, the strikingly well-produced Back From the Dead (which contains my story The True Spirit), and a US hardback reprint of Steve Jones' zombie anthology from the mid-nineties, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, now retitled The Monster Book of Zombies, which contains my story Out of Corruption. These on top of Charlie Black's latest addition to his long-running Black Books of Horror, now up to number six, in which I have yet another story! This is a record for me - and one it will be hard to beat at future conventions, I'm sure.