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L–R: William R. D. Wood, Joe Maddrey, James L. Hill, Valerie B.
Williams, J. T. Glover, Charles Wood, Sidney Williams, Old Dude, Mike Rook, D. Alexander Ward |
I had a reservation at Williamsburg's America's Inn, which is pretty close to the Williamsburg Premium Outlets, where the bookshop is located.
Upon arriving there and attempting to check in, I ended up having problem
after problem, not the least of which was the hotel guy being unable to create
a key that would unlock the room door. The room itself didn't appear horrible,
but the building was in lousy shape, the WiFi didn't work, and there appeared
to be no way to produce a key that would allow me to get in and out of the
place. In other words, it was a fucking dump, so I left, figuring I
could at least try to get a refund by way of Expedia. My unsolicited advice is to NEVER
ATTEMPT TO STAY AT THIS FUCKING DUMP. And now, given the wholly
unacceptable explanation that just came in from Expedia — that I will get no refund because they
cannot reach anyone at said fucking dump — Expedia is on my permanent shit list
as well. Be warned.
So, anyhoo, there was a
Hilton hotel next door, and since it was late on a Friday afternoon and I
didn't care to risk going on a wild goose chase trying to find a habitable
room somewhere in the vicinity, I went ahead and checked into the obscenely expensive but assuredly superior lodgings at the Hilton.
Saturday morning, after a fair breakfast at the hotel, I made my way up to the
bookshop, where I met friend and fellow author/editor Joe Maddrey,
one of the Virginia antho's editors. Joe had paid Ms. B. and me
a pleasant visit in Martinsville fairly recently. Soon, our other editor,
Mike Rook, arrived on the scene, followed by a veritable deluge of authors loaded with their books. Ten of us, there were, and after a
while, a few customers began showing up. Most happily, old friend and proprietor of
Horror Drive-In Mark Sieber dropped by. It's always great to see Mark. Back in
the dark ages, we used to meet in Durham at the Starlight Drive-In,
almost inevitably when the weather was freezing cold. Those were some wunderbar adventures...
Sadly, the weather turned nasty and stayed that way all day, so traffic flow
in the store wasn't what any of us might have hoped. Regardless, I managed
to do reasonably well, and I believe everyone moved at least a few books.
So, overall, to my mind, the event turned out pretty decent. Once we closed up
shop, most of us migrated to the nearby
AleWerks for a spot
of refreshment. And, finally, Joe Maddrey and I trucked down to Fat Tuna Grill & Oyster House, where I found myself facing an utterly incredible surf & turf dinner. I believe Joe enjoyed his dinner as well.
I love hanging out with authors I like and respect, and that counts in spades
for this bunch of folks. A couple of them, like Joe Maddrey and
Sidney Williams, I already knew, and it was a pleasure to make the others' acquaintance. At the end of the day, it's not just the book sales but the
company at such events that make them so worthwhile.
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| Mike Rook devaluing a passel of copies of Dark Corners of the Old Dominion with his autograph |
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| Author J. L. Hill supporting his little buddy, Fred |
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| Fellow author and tablemate, Sidney Williams, looking entirely too pleasant, while at the left-most edge of the photograph, author Charles Wood furtively slaps his moniker on some books. Yeah, he thought he was gonna get away with it... |
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| Madness at the Alewerks! |