Tuesday, August 1, 2017

August 1, 2017

I am going to be a guest at two conventions this year.  The first of these is the Carnival of Para Horror 2017 in Buffalo, New York.


The Carnival runs from Friday, August 25th, 5 PM - 9 PM, through Saturday, August 26th, 11 AM- 7 PM & Sunday, 11 AM-4 PM.  This is the 6th Annual Carnival of Para Horror and each year, the Carnival gets better & grander. 

The Carnival will be held at the Buffalo Central Terminal, 495 Paderewski Drive, Buffalo New York. Tickets can be purchased online at the Carnival of Para Horror website and at the door of the event. There is free admission for children 10 and under.

My presentation will take place on Saturday & Sunday. The time for both presentations will be late afternoon.

The title of my presentation is "H. P. Lovecraft's Cosmic Carnival of Horror", which will be a very innovative presentation. I will demonstrate exactly why H. P. Lovecraft's "horror" is, in fact, the ultimate horror & much more disturbing & frightening than the horror that one usually encounters in contemporary cinema & literature.

The second convention that I will be attending is the Scarefest X Convention, taking place right in the middle of my favorite season.


I am giving a two-day presentation & book signing on Saturday, September 30, 2017 at an hour to be determined between 10:00 AM-6:00 PM, and Sunday, October 1, 2017, 12:00 PM-5:00 PM.

The Scarefest X Convention will be held in the Lexington Convention Center in downtown Lexington, KY.  This is a three-day event starting on Friday, 9/29/17 and running through the week-end.   Tickets can be purchased on the Scarefest website or at the door. Call 859-576-5517.

My presentation is "H. P. Lovecraft’ Cosmic Scare Fest” and this will be very similar to the Carnival of Para Horror presentation. Lovecraftian horror, in fact, is deep, existential and a part of the fabric of the universe itself- soul-chilling & devastating in its implications for the future existence & well-being of mankind.

The presentation will be, as always, informal and despite the subject-matter, I want my listeners to feel totally relaxed and to have fun; guests should feel free to ask any questions during the presentation and raise any issues they may wish me to address.

At both the Carnival & Scarefest X, before and after the presentations, I will have a table & a booth (#93) to visit with other guests and attendees.  Signed copies of my book, H. P. Lovecraft & The Black Magickal Tradition, will be available for purchase.

I am particularly looking forward to chatting with anyone who wants to just drop by and say hello.

There will be a wealth of great guests at both conventions. The guests this year at the Carnival of Para Horror include John Carl Buechler, special effects wizard & director of Friday the 13th Part VII & Troll; Mitch Markowitz, TV personality & producer of The Hilarious House of Frankenstein; R. A. Mihailoff, actor from Texas Chainsaw Massacre III & Krampus; and Patty Mullen, actress from Frankenhooker, among others. 

As for the guests of Scarefest X, these include the well-known actors Robert Englund, Amanda Wyss & Barry Bostwick, along with John Kassir from Tales from the Crypt, Mary Jo Pehl from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Amy Allen from The Dead Files, among others. 

The atmosphere of the Carnival of Para Horror is, in itself, worth the visit.  This is held at the central terminal in Buffalo; a magnificent, eldritch, crumbling edifice much like an antiquarian building in a Lovecraft story- vast, sepulchral, dark and filled with shadows & the ghosts that live in the shadows.

In contrast, the Scarefest X convention is held at the Lexington Convention Center, located in the center of historic, downtown Lexington, KY. This is a very contemporary, versatile, multi-purpose event facility with 66,000 square feet of dedicated exhibit space, 40,000 square feet of elegant meeting spaces, and a mall and food court, all of it relatively free from darkness & shadows.   However, the guests and the attendees will easily make up for this by providing ample darkness, shadows & ghosts of their own!

So, come on out and see me & the other wonderful guests at the Carnival of Para-Horror & Scarefest X.  

JLS


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