Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast

First, I've got to point out that this was held at Columbia River Brewing Company. This is a restaurant that is also a brewery. And, things were set up so that you could see some of the equipment. Just, oh, wow.

Brewing!

 I wonder if people working there ever feel like animals on display.

Same thing, slightly different angle

So, you may be asking what the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast is. Well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is a closely guarded secret. So closely guarded, in fact, that those of us who attended are sworn to secrecy.

...no, just joking. It's not any sort of secret.

It's a breakfast for people to hang out, talk about the con, just generally be geeks...and of course, there are also special prayers. And stories. If you want a taste of what those prayers and stories were like, below is a video I happened across from the breakfast.



By the way, I wrote about some interesting films and authors from the con over at my book blog, here.

Cthulhu Con: Loot

After getting distracted by recent events in my life, I would like to resume posting about Cthulhu Con. And specifically in this post, about the loot I brought home.

I spent a bit more money than I meant to, but less than I might have. I think that I was pretty responsible with my money. Mostly. Overall. I think...

Book!

First, I got a book. I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet, but it's definitely eye catching, and was pleading with me to liberate it from the book seller. It's Screaming Science Fiction: Horrors From Out of Space by Brian Lumley. Between its covers is a collection of short stories that look pretty neat.

A ring...

Yes, I know the info thingy says Nenya. But if you'll look at the photo, you'll see it's not really Nenya.

The vendor was really selling Nenya, though, and the ring I got was from Lord of the Rings as well. So I guess they decided to give me the info for Nenya. Anyways, I liked the three leaves on the ring I got, and kept going back to drool over it until I finally gave in and bought it.

Stickers

Someone was handing out stickers. An awesome one that simply says "Word Horde" and shows some angry vikings ready for a fight. (Seems like a good sticker for any writer to have.) The other seems to be an advertisement for a website.

Another book!

Someone actually just gave this to me, because he had too many books to take home already. It's A Cthulhu Mythos by Chris Jarocha-Ernst. It's basically a good cross reference for someone who is learning about, or wants to looks up details about, Lovecraft's world.

Artsy business card

And finally, the last (non food) thing I bought was a piece of art. Due to copyright I don't know that it's ok for me to share a photo of it here without the artist's permission, but I can certainly share her business card. I can also share a link to what I bought, as well as another link to what I really wanted to buy, and couldn't because it was too darned expensive.

Don't ask me to explain why I want the second one, since I'm scared of spiders. I just like it. And it would have cost a bit more than all the souvenirs I did buy added together. *sigh*

One thing's for sure. The artist Liv Rainey-Smith picked up at least one new fan at the Con. Her stuff is amazing.

Cthulhu Wars

Info...or rather, advertisement

It was at Cthulhu Con that I had my first real brush with people playing RPGs face to face. Yeah, I guess the D&D I've played is technically an RPG, but I've only played it online. Not with someone else who was actually sitting across the table from me.

The game was Cthulhu Wars, and its creator Sandy Petersen was test running it. The game pieces were even prototypes, apparently, and Sandy was telling people not to pick them up by their tentacles or wings. Apparently he had to glue Cthulhu's head back on at one point, because it came off...

I didn't follow the game very well. I missed the beginning, and I left to attend a reading before I could catch the end. But I did pick up a few little details, such as the fact that the players are playing the Old Ones themselves, which is apparently unusual in Lovecraft inspired RPGs. I can also tell you that it looked like a lot of fun.

Maybe I'll get a chance to play Cthulhu Wars sometime. Or perhaps another RPG with people who are sitting across a table from me. I would like that.

Nerdy gamers having fun -- Sandy is bottom right

I also attended a panel about keeping fear alive in games, which was pretty interesting. I shared the notes from that on my book blog, which you can read here.

Cthulhu Con

On my first "date" with my Murray -- back when I was insisting things would remain strictly platonic -- he decided to introduce me to horror movies. I wasn't too keen on the idea of watching horror movies, and tried to insist that we not watch any horror.

I'm afraid that I lost that argument, but I really can't complain. I discovered that the older horror movies aren't really scary after all. There are some of the newer ones I won't watch, and Murray knows that. But for the most part they're ok, and I really like some of them.

And last weekend, my boyfriend took me to a horror film festival: Cthulhu Con.

What really shocked me about it was that I felt like I belonged. I mean, I've hardly read any H.P. Lovecraft, and his works are at the center of what it's all about. Many of the jokes went over my head. And yet, I was just so comfortable there.

I also got to step outside of my comfort zone a little, and learned a few things. At my boyfriends encouragement, I tried some almost black lip stick. I learned a little bit more about the horror genre, and was introduced to the bizarro genre. I actually got to see an RPG in action. I may have gotten slightly drunk for the first time at an after party (someone fed me two drinks, and I get tipsy on just one). I also determined that I'm not a huge fan of noisy bars, but that the quiet(er) ones are ok. Also, there's a different between middle aged people being noisy versus people my own age being noisy. And the latter is harder to handle.

There will be one or two more posts about Cthulhu Con this week. For now, I'll leave you with a photo from the pre-party, which had very interesting entertainment.

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