Boyd:
Could you please post this over to the forum? Thought the rest
of the gang would enjoy this. More later, with photos! Scott

--- In ZothiqueNights@yahoogroups.com, "Scott Connors
<wwhateley@m...>" <wwhateley@m...> wrote:
There is a lot of ground to cover, and I am not sure if I will
be able to cover it all in one message or not, but northern-
California-area ZN'ers were doing yeoman service in the service of
Tsathoggua and Thaisadon this weekend. There was a goth-oriented
horror convention in SF this weekend, yclept "SpookyCon," which
boasted as GOH Ramsey Campbell and Poppy Z. Brite, among others
(Reggie Bannister of PHANTASM fame was also present.) When I found
out about this con from James Patterson back in November, I knew
that if a)a convention dedicated to the genre CAS dominated, b) held
in a city closely associated with CAS' life, and c)held the weekend
closest to CAS' 110th birthday, did _not_ have any programming
dedicated to the Emperor of Dreams, then what use are we?
Accordingly I contacted the head of the convention, Darren McKeeman,
and offered to help set up some programming. I contacted Don Herron
and Dennis Rickard and together we were to form a panel on "The
Legacy of Clark Ashton Smith: 110 Years of Klarkash-Ton." Caitlin
R. Kiernan was to be on the panel with us, but at the last minute
was not able to attend the convention, for which we may thank Tom
Ridge. Darren acted as moderator, working from a list of questions
I sent to everyone the night before. The crowd was small, ranging
from 14 to 19 people, but it was a small convention. After everyone
went through the questions, which ranged from "what did CAS mean to
us?" to "why wasn't he more popular?" and "why does he endure?", we
answered some very intelligent questions from the audience.
Afterwards several members of the audience came up to us and
complimented us upon our preparation and our knowledge of the
subject. (This was my first con panel, and I was nervous as hell and
fearful of developing verbal diarrhea!) Although CAS was not a well-
known personage among the habitues of SpookyCon, we at least alerted
them to his existence, and many of them recognized in our
descriptions of his life and work a kindred soul. I met Steve
Black, head acquisitions librarian at the Bancroft Library, who
informed me that the Sam Loveman letters are now available for
inspection. I also had a nice talk with Ramsey, renewing a pleasant
acquaintanceship if not full-fledged friendship. Don Herron drove
over with me from his place in Emeryville, helping me navigate the
streets of SF, but I had to leave around 8:00PM to get home while he
stayed and clubbed.
I got up early the next day and drove over to Auburn's
Centennial Park for the dedication ceremony, being the first to
arrive. I was shortly joined by James Patterson, and then by a
caravan consisted of the Hilgers, Master Donald Sidney-Fryer Last of
the Courtly Poets (that's to be said on one breath, incidently),
fellow ZN'er Leo Grin, and Margie Hill, a surviving friend of
Clark's who is a good friend of Ron and me. At this point I'm
calling it quits, and will pick up the thread later on.
Incidently, there was also a fine story on CAS in the
SENTINEL, the locally-owned Auburn paper, by Persia Wooley, which I
will try to scan and send through the group.
After all the proselytzing we did this weekend, I feel like
forming a new group, maybe calling it "Tsathoggua's Witnesses!"
Only thing is, our Watchtower is on Leng... .
Best,
Scott Connors