The first official day (Friday) at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon was incredible.

The problem with trying to summarize the Festival is that I can only be in one place at a time.  But I’m having so much fun.  At 5pm, my wife and I attended the VIP party: wine, beer, musical entertainment, and early access to the artist alley.  My friend Nick Gucker has some incredible work for sale, as usual.  I talked again with Sandy Petersen, introduced my wife to W.H. Pugmire, and and spoke with many others.

Next, I was scheduled for a panel on diversity in Lovecraft.  I thought it was a very thoughtful panel with some great discussion.  Then, at 8pm, I attended W.H. Pugmire’s reading, and that video is below.

At 9pm, I watched Dead Shadows with Nick Gucker and Tom Lynch.  Afterwards, we walked around for a bit and talked with other Lovecraft fans.  I got to see Leslie Harker and her husband, and talked with Kelly and Rick with Strange Aeons.  Kelly Young is my arch-nemesis a good friend of mine.  (We like to joke that we’re enemies, since he and I both run a Lovecraftian magazine.)  Be sure to order a copy of Strange Aeons — you’ll be glad you did!

So the first evening was a lot of fun.  Stay tuned to the Lovecraft eZine Facebook page throughout today, because I’ll be posting a lot of pictures.  I’ll also do a video tour of everything for you guys, and try to walk you through everything just as if you were there in person.

Here are some pictures and video from Friday.  The volume on Wilum’s reading is low, but it’s the best we could do without being 2 feet away from him.  As I wrote above, I’ll be taking a lot more video today, and I’ll post that later tonight, so stay tuned.

From left to right: Mike Davis (me), Joe Pulver, Dennis Weiler

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From left to right: Pete Rawlik, Kelly Young, Brandi Jording

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View more pictures from today at the Lovecraft eZine Facebook page!  Danielle and I have a lot of pictures and video from Saturday, and I’ll try to post that later tonight.