Friday: First Day at Festival of Fear

I'm back from Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear (part of Hobby Star's Fan Expo). I'm dead on my feet, but I had a great first day. Let me tell you about it.

I've never attended the convention on the Friday. It's less crowded than the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds that flood the aisles on Saturdays. According to Ghoulish Gary (who was kind enough to come over from the Rue Morgue booth next door and say hi despite my threats on twitter to lob small pumpkins at him) it's generally how the weekend goes: Friday is for browsing, Saturday is for spending, Sunday is for spending whatever little bit of money you have left over.

This is encouraging, because while I was able to earn just over half my 'base target' (covering expenses), I didn't move as many items as I would have liked out of the gate.

And what was the most popular item? The peek-a-boo plants. I think they'll all be gone by Sunday...perhaps by Saturday night.

So, my table has Rue Morgue beside it, and the celebrity lineup in front of it (I'll be able to make faces at Bruce Campbell tomorrow). I watched as crowds of people lined up for Barbara Steele and Udo Kier. But there wasn't much time to people watch.

I talked to a lot of people. I had a great time watching people react to my work, and chatting about it. I also tried to slip away from the table now and then to talk with fellow exhibitors.

This included visiting the crew for my favourite online horror store, Fear Werx.

I like Fear Werx because they tend to offer products you don't see elsewhere like the Winchester Pub pint glasses (a la Shaun of the Dead) I've been drooling over for the better part of a year.

They didn't have the glasses at last year's event, so I thought I would be out of luck this year. But as I am chatting with the lovely fellow at the booth, I spy them on display.

I immediately went back to my booth, raided my cash box, headed back to Fear Werx, plunked down my money, and asked for 4 glasses. The staff was kind enough to try and find me a box for them. In the meantime, I chatted with Scott about the important things in life - like H.P. Lovecraft (he had a picture of his grave on his cellphone).

When they weren't sure if the box they had for me would work, I (being the cheeky monkey I am) said "Don't worry. Just wrap it up in...say...one of these t-shirts."

I wasn't expecting anyone to take my pitiful joke of wanting free items seriously, but before I knew it, I had free schwag. I stammered my thank yous as they wrapped up my glasses in shirts.

And this is why even though I am a complete zombie, and this is probably one of the less polished posts I've submitted, I needed to get this blog out tonight. It's folks like the people at Fear Werx who remind me not only of what customer relations are, but how awesome the horror community can be.

Ok. I have more news, but I need to get some sleep. I still have some touch ups on plants to do, and tomorrow is going to be a long one.

Goodnight ghoulies.