1968: Cassandra Is On FIRE!

My Cool Prize from the Fest

 Okay, so this is gonna sound weird: at Fests past, there were always tons of old fanzines and novels for sale in the dealers room, and I was hoping that such would be the case this past weekend in L.A. Well, not quite (I did pick up an old issue of Inside the Old House, which was pretty rad). I went into the weekend with my heart set on acquiring what has become a fairly hard to find, fairly pricey collectable: The History of Dark Shadows 1966-1967 book. I have my copy of The Introduction of Barnabas book from the DS Fest I ordered way back in 1996 that looks very similar to the History book I so desperately desired; I wanted both volumes!

No dice. No real old treasures to be found in the dealers room. And the book was fairly exorbitantly expensive on the ebays. Ah, well, I thought. I'll stumble upon it, all in good time.

Then: Saturday night. The auction. Oh, the auction! An hour in, and my friends and I had pretty well played that scene, and then auctioneer Jim Pierson announced that he was offering up Lara Parker's personal copy of The History. Lara Parker's personal copy, you guys. You know me; I'm a die-hard Angelique fan (see my previous post or click on the Angelique link to your right). I bid, thinking, man, there's no way I'll ever get this.

Well, girl. I got it.

Here's the proof:

A picture of Joel Crothers I've never seen before!

  Lara Parker's personal copy, y'all. I'm still in shock. And cheaper than you can get it on ebay. I live.

My New Novel, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A SCHOOL FOR WITCHES!

 Hey, fiends! I was interviewed by the delightful Penny Dreadful last weekend at the Fest for her podcast, Terror at Collinwood; I listened to the episode today (which you should check out here) and I was so happy that Penny offered me the opportunity to plug my forthcoming novel, There's No Such Thing as a School for Witches, coming this fall from Timber Ghost Press. If you're a Dark Shadows fan, and if you're a queer Dark Shadows fan especially, I think you'll really like this one.

Here's the cover!

 Available 11/24! Pre-orders coming soon!

Back from the Fest!

 What a wonderful time ... hanging with my friends, meeting Joanna Going, meeting Craig Hurd-McKenney, author of the Curse of Dark Shadows graphic novel, and artist Jok,visiting Greystone manor, hugging Sharon Smyth Lentz who comforted me when I was freaking out because my mother fell and hurt herself and my god that is one of the most awesome moments of my life ... and, somehow, winning Lara Parker's copy of The History of Dark Shadows fanzine I've wanted FOHEVAH.

Let's start with some a few of the coolest moments from the weekend!

My darling Frannie and the original "Josette's music box" prop from the 1991 series. Fran won it at an auction at one of the Fests 20 years ago or; she asked me to bid for her, a job I embraced with great fervor, and used all my actor powers to be SUPER dramatic whilst bidding (if you've ever met me, you know) ... and we won!

She showed it to actress Joanna Going, who was supah-dupah impressed.

Okay, hot take: I actually prefer Joanna Going's portrayal of Victoria Winters to Alexandra Moltke's. (Whatever; my blog, my rules.) So it was with great excitement that I was able to meet her and grab this rad 30 year old copy of fanzine Inside the Old House which just so happened to include an article and photos about the (then current) revival cast. Ms. Going is a big advocate of the LGBTQ community, which I told her I appreciated.

My dear friends Rebecca Jamison and Nancy Eron were part of a panel with author Matt Hall, son of Sam and Grayson. Excellent, informative panel.

I finally got to meet the guh-REAT Penny Dreadful, who has graciously invited me to participate in her podcast Terror at Collinwood, which you should totally check out; go ahead, I'll wait.

Bobby! The loveliest human being. I've followed him on Instagram forever, since he's also a huge Dracula fan. His Julia costume was FABULOUS.

My dear friend, fellow author Amanda Desiree, brought copies of my novels for me to sign because she is thoughtful and generous. Check out her books here, and you can check out mine, Black Forest and Haunt Me, Then.

Penny interviewing my friend Nancy.

 Nancy models this rad poster from MPI, who have just released a bunch of cool new merch, including the first of the 40 intro to Barnabas episodes on BluRay!

 More to come!