In Mid November Portland was host to the first annual Bizarro fiction convention. I was there only on Saturday as I have been busy and Try Vegan PDX was holding a class on Sunday so I was only there for one day.
Several of the bizarre movement Flag bearers were there and the day was full with readings. The reading were diverse and the highlight of the day. The first half of the day was only soured by a fruit fly invasion that right before the panel I was on moved to a back up room. I was apart of a discussion on Bizarro crossover.
The discussion was suggested by Chicago based bizarre writer Garret Cook. The lead question was “how do we crossover into other genre and ensure that writers will not lose their bizarro cred?” That wasn’t hard for me since I am more of horror writer with a little bit of bizarre cred. It was a short but productive discussion.
The readings were wonderful, probably the highlight was Bram stoker award nominated Jeremy Robert Johnson reading a story he wrote when he was 14 - It had a killer twist! Personally I read a chapter from The Very Last Drop the book I’m working on at the moment.
I always enjoy hanging with my local bizarre pals but I was super excited to hang with Gina Ranalli. Gina is kicking butt and taking names of late. Recently she has gotten acclaim from the peeps running Horror Mall and has become one of their best selling authors. She also is getting a $150 a book limited edition slipcase of her horror novel House of Falling Leaves. It is a milestone when an author has book published they can’t afford to buy. It’s a great read by the way, so far it’s my favorite of Gina’s work.
So what is icing on Gina’s vegan cake? Well Saturday was also the first annual Wonderland awards the new highest prize in bizarro Fiction. Gina won for best short story collection with her book 13 Thorns.
So next year consider heading to the bizarro con it’s a great time. Thanks to Rose and Carl for doing such a great job putting it on!
http://www.ginaranalli.com/
http://www.bizarrocentral.com/
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