Fiend: H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Other Misadventures of the Crimson Circle in Portland, OR.

Oh man, where do I even begin.

Kyle (KA) and I departed by train on Monday Oct. 2nd and arrived in Portland on Tuesday.

Tuesday, Oct. 3rd

We met Dave (D. L.) Myers at the train station, who just arrived from his 6 hour drive from Washington, and headed toward our host, Adam Bolivar. The Crimson Circle unites!

We made a quick stop at Adam's house to drop our luggage and take showers and then headed to the Horse Brass Pub to dine. After dinner, we headed to our favorite cemetery, Lone Fir, and were gifted by Kyle pewter medallions, made by the amazing Joe Broers, of the Crimson Sign. The Crimson Sign is a sigil representing the Black Shepherd, designed by Adam. Learn more about the Black Shepherd in The Lay of Old Hex by Adam Bolivar. We escaped the graveyard as we saw flashlights; not wanting to find out if they were security guards or merely grave robbers or necrophiliacs....

Wednesday, Oct. 4th

Wednesday we headed to this huge pumpkin patch and corn maze. So it's the beginning of October and I guess the popularity of the corn maze hasn't hit yet, for we wandered through discarded Halloween props and not-yet-built props. We were the only people wandering through this maze. It was actually creepy in the middle of the day.

(Adam, Kyle, and Dave)

(The Crimson Circle)

We found a blackberry bush entangling a structure of some sort and cut through the corn to try some.

(Blackberries)

(Our travels were almost thwarted by this guy.)

(We had to have a sacrifice for the corn gods.)

The corn maze then led us to a mysterious abandoned carnival tent. It also had four canned sodas still cold on a table. Whoa. Why were they still cold? How did they get there? This is in the middle of the day and the tent is nowhere near...anything. There is nobody else around but us.

(Headless saint)

After we escaped the corn maze, we couldn't just head back and buy the pre-plucked pumpkins they had at the stand... No, we had to trek across the field to the actual pumpkin patch and pick pumpkins ourselves, because Kyle. I chose 2 pumpkins; a perfect white pumpkin and an orange pumpkin shaped like a flying saucer. We saw a garter snake and tons of frogs. With our picks, we trekked back across the field, past the corn maze and carnival, back to the little market to purchase our pumpkins.

After that, we headed toward the legendary Witch House.

(Witch House story)

We then headed to dinner at a lovely Cuban place and headed back to Adam's, where we sampled some Absinthe as poets are wont to do.

(3 different kinds of Absinthe.)

(Adam perfects the art....)

Thursday, Oct. 5th

Arising bright and early, we headed toward the airport to pick up a man of most refined poetry taste; Derrick Hussey, publisher of Hippocampus Press. We all squeezed in the tiny car and headed to breakfast that had unlimited tea! We chatted for a long time and then headed off to drop Derrick off at his hotel room. We headed back to Adam's house to carve the pumpkins so they'd be ready as our props for our reading.

(And here Kyle is mad at me because I suggested it have a skeleton nose [because it's white!] instead of the vintage triangular nose.)

(Oh, I messed up? What a tragedy! That's okay, I can easily make it into a triangle....-Kyle)

(The Crimson Sign. UFO Saucer pumpkin in the background.)

We picked up Derrick and headed to an antique shop to kill time before heading to the Book Bin in Salem for the release party of The Audient Void: A Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy Issue Four, The Lay of Old Hex, and Diary of a Sorceress.

(Spotted Cassilda's mask.)

(The Book Bin)

(Dave and Kyle read first)

(Dave, Kyle, and Obadiah Baird, editor of the Audient Void.)

(Adam and me.)

(I'm reading Atop the Crystal Moon.)

(I'm reading Master of Potions.)

After the reading, we did a raffle, and then people could come up and buy our books and get them signed. That was awesome, of course, but I was excited to see David Barker and get his autographs for various books I brought. He came up to me to ask about Atop the Crystal Moon and I told him to sit next to me so that I could tell him all about it.

After the reading, we brought the party to Obadiah's house to end the night.

(Dan Clore and Adam)

(Kyle and Dave)

(Blaine Stevens reading Diary of a Sorceress and Dan Clore)

(Obadiah and Dan)

(Dan Sauer and Derrick Hussey)

(Kyle)

(Derrick and Dave)

Friday, Oct. 6th

The Crimson Circle returned to the scene of the crime in Lone Fir cemetery where we could enjoy it legally, in the day time.

(Squirrel on a headstone.)

Fresh from the cemetery, we headed to the festival to get our guest badges and cause mischief. We walked into the EOD Center where Ross E. Lockhart announced our arrival. Lol!

At 7 pm, the Crimson Circle read.

We then attended Scott Connor's presentation on Clark Ashton Smith's art.

The rest of the night is a blur. We probably ate dinner with Obadiah and Dan Sauer, because we ate with them for three days at various mealtimes so they're all kind of blurring together. Best company.

Saturday, Oct. 7th

We attended a mass author signing in the morning. It would have been better if I had been sitting somewhere else.

I can't remember anything after that and before the Hippocampus Happy Hour party at Sam's Billiards that started at 4 pm. Probably because I was nervous as Hell.

(Dave, Adam, Dan Clore)

(Obadiah and Scott Connors)

(Derrick)

(Snacks and drinks!)

(Dave)

(Adam, Dan Clore, Derrick, Dan Sauer, Obadiah)

(Kyle)

(Obadiah with Derrick and Rob Matheny in the background)

(Rose O'Keefe made an appearance.)

(Adam)

Our reading was recorded by DB Spitzer of the People's Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos podcast.

http://pgttcm.podbean.com/e/hippocampuspresscom/

Kyle and I were also interviewed by Rob Matheny for the Grim Tidings podcast.

Sunday, Oct. 8th

Last day! We stopped at Blue Star donuts as appetizers before having breakfast at Sam's Billiards with the Audient Void gang.

We checked out vendors, bought books and various things, ate, drank, hung out with friends, and received and gave autographs.

We attended a panel on Fungi, which was moderated by Orrin Grey. It was awesome. Afterwards I sat at the Hippocampus table and signed my Diaries for Derrick to have on hand.