I was about to summarize my recent ReaderCon experience when I realized I have a folder of photos I meant to share, along with a summary of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in San Pedro, California. It’s been over for about 2 1/2 months and I forgot to post, until now!

Many of these photos are borrowed, so I’ll give credit to the photographer where I can. If I’m sharing your photo and you’d prefer I take it down, please just let me know.

Cody Goodfellow was one of the primary organizers of the convention and was good enough to pick me up at the airport and drop me off at the end of the weekend. When I arrived at Cody’s house, I had to obtain a live photo to convince certain parties overseas who wanted reassurance that Joe Pulver had survived the trip intact. Here is “proof of life.”

At the convention’s opening ceremony, Cody acted as emcee. Cody is one cool cat.

Here I am behind the Word Horde table. My book’s official release date happened to fall on the weekend of the convention, which made it easy for me to decide to head down to LA for the long weekend. I believe Ross Lockhart took this photo.

Here I am outside the Warner Grand theater, the primary venue for the convention, in old downtown San Pedro. Photo is by Nick Gucker.

Speaking of Nick Gucker, another book released at the convention was S.P. Miskowski’s excellent Stag in Flight, published by Dim Shores and illustrated by Nick. Dim Shores and Word Horde shared a dealer table so I was able to spend lots of time with Ross Lockhart, Sam Cowan, Nick Gucker and S.P. Miskowski.

This was my first time meeting S.P. in person (along with her husband Cory), a real highlight for me. Here we are clowning for a selfie.

I also picked up my copy of Michael Cisco’s The Knife Dance, another Dim Shores release. The hardcover is super beautiful! As I write this, they’re pretty nearly sold out, but you can still get the trade paperback. The Dim Shores store is HERE

Something I’ve experience at almost every convention I’ve attended is that there always seems to be one restaurant to which everyone returns at least once a day. Here’s a crowd gathered outside Happy Diner, where I ate breakfast four days in a row.

The photo by Mike Davis shows (L-R) Nick Gucker, Sam Cowan, Ross Lockhart, Kelly Young, me and Leeman Kessler. Excellent gentlemen, all but one.

This is the kind of thing I ate every day, severed with a generous jar of fresh-made salsa.

After this many of us were interviewed one at a time by Leeman, then we ended up at Sacred Grounds, a pretty cool coffee shop next door to the theater. This time Mike Davis included himself in the photo, and you can also see Leeman, me and Kelly Young. It’s got to be very, very early because Kelly and I have soft drinks.

Soon after this, we migrated down to the “Annex,” a little theater down the block where author readings and panels took place Saturday. Here’s yet another Mike Davis photo of several of us preparing to read, namely (L-R) Cory Herndon, S.P. Miskowski, Joe Pulver and me.

Matt Carpenter very kindly brought a bottle of one of our favorite libations, which lubricated many of the readings, and later panel discussions. Several of us read, all in a row. Here’s S.P. reading from Stag in Flight.

Here is the great Pulver reading!

After the reading, I posed with the sole existing “proof” copy of Autumn Cthulhu. Everyone was trying to get a look at this book, which was set to be released a week after this event.

The Cosmic Horror panel was a lot of fun, featuring Mike Davis, Leslie Klinger, S.P. Miskowski, Cody Goodfellow, me, Joe Pulver, Kat Rocha and Ross Lockhart.

Pulver at the Skinner mural in downtown San Pedro.

Leeman Kessler in the lobby of the Warner Grand…

… and later gazing into Lovecraft’s eyes.

One of the best fun parts of every convention is the night everyone stays up way too late, talking and laughing and drinking and who knows what else. I’m pretty sure the next 3 photos are by Sam Cowan. Here we have John Skipp, Ross Lockhart, me and Pulver out on the patio outside the hotel very, very late at night.

Nick Nacario, Nick Gucker and Leeman Kessler.

And me, Joe Pulver and Kelly Young.

Ross on the left, Sam on the right. The final day’s events were off-site, in this big warehouse down by the water. Everyone was exhausted, as is usually the case by the end of a long convention weekend.

Being driven back to the airport by Cody Goodfellow was an experience I will never forget. The important thing to understand is that this is a convertible and we’re driving something like 95 miles per hour. The wind knocked me around so much, I think I lost consciousness.

I had a great time, signed many books, met a lot of cool people and spent time with great friends. Convention success!