Up bright and early as we had to be out of the airbnb by 10am. With two ours to kill before the GNS fancon began, we had a quick stop-off in Knighton town to collect some seeds from a beautiful Honestly plant we'd seen growing wild there the day before.
That done, we took a little drive to Kinsley Woods to pass some time. The place was very quiet and was a lovely way to while away an hour or so.
I even happened upon a small pond, which appeared exactly like I expected Guy N Smith's Sucking Pit to appear in real life.
I will admit to it being a nerve-wracking experience walking into a building of people I hardly knew in real life, or didn't know at all in many instances. It had been made easier by having bumped into a few people I knew from the GNS fb Group both the day before and that morning whilst collecting the wild seeds though. 🙂
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| The Raffle Table |
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| The Auction Table |
Before the event had even got started, I swapped a couple of items with Shane Agnew, receiving in exchange for a copy of my GNS zine and the model I used for its cover shot, these two signed Polish editions of Guy's book:
He was also kind enough to sign my copy of his GNS Bible:
It was great to finally meet Paul Evans, the man resposible for kick-starting my GNS collecting habit with his sale of hand-written manuscripts of Guy's short stories. I didn't know whether to thank him or admonish him lol. He proved to be the professional gentleman I expected him to be.
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| Paul |
Except for a group of 5 or so regular forum faces I'd engaged with online over the last couple of years, I was swamped in a sea of unfamiliar visages. My, and maybe their introvert characters, keeping me from spotting online folk I admired even their were sat just a few metres from me!
Tara, Guy N Smith's daughter, kicked off proceeding with some readings from the newly republished Crabs books that brought her father fame in the 1970s. Long out of print, its's great to see these titles back in print and with modern cover art work.
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| Tara |
The authors Paul Lewis & Steve Lockley (far right in the above pic) were sat next to and kindly signed a couple of my books :)
Fresh, off-theprint copies, signed by both Tara and Guy's wife, were up for sale at a ludicrously cheap price and sold like hot-cakes once the merchandise tables opened for business. Mark Morris wrote the new introduction to Origin of the Crabs and, being a later speaker at the event, was happy to add a personalised autograph to my copy of the book :)
I chilled with the friendly Nick Caton during lunch, discussing, amongst other things, the heart-breaking loss of poor Soosh-cat ealier this year.
Lunch ended with a fascinating film of Guy showing us his prized book collection. It was fascinating to see his signed Enid Blyton and Rupert the Bear books - works that have had a greater influence on my wanting to be a horror writer than might be imagined.
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| Mark Morris |
After Mark Morris' reading from his new novel, the event closed the raffle drawer (I won nowt) and the eagerly awaited GNS auction.
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| Shane Agnew with his raffle prize |
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| Nick Caton with his raffle prize |
There were a few items I wanted from the auction table - the first being Guy's crab tie. Bids started low and I got a few bids in before it reached £30. Now I was in a quandry. I really wanted the tie but I had a limited budget and if I overspent on this item, then I might not be able to afford the Graveyard Rendezvous titles I wanted for my collection. And so I stopped bidding and the prized crab tie went into someone else's hands. The winner, who I spoke to later, was chuffed with his purchase and said he would be framing the prized tie. And, honestly, seeing the delight at his acquisition, I was pleased he had won. The tie would be better served framed on a wall in someone's home than pushed into my attic chest with my other GNS stash.
I hadn't intended to bid for anything else on the auction table until the last two GR zines came under the hammer, but with a signed London Mystery Selection book stalling at £10, I stuck in a bid for £15 and was genuinely surprised when I won!
I won 3 other auctions following that first win.
The transcript of the new Night of the Crabs reprint - complete with the editor's markings, some of which were ignored from the published book. Mine for £30:
A signed GR - mine for a tenner:
And a grail penultimate GR, signed by Guy and also kindly signed by Tara at the event. Mine for £35:
I missed out on the last auction of the day - the very last issue of Graveyard Rendezvous. Like the issue I had previously won, this issue was fought over by both myself and Nick Caton. We had discussed over lunch that we would be bidding on the last two GR items and our bids on this last issue rose from £5 to £40 rapidly. I really wanted this issue but Nick wanted it more, and acquired the rarity for £45. I did mull over adding one extra bid, but I already had one of the two issues I was after, I'd kept my planned spending to under £100 to please Mrs E and Nicks GR collection was closer to completion than mine so his need was greater. So, reluctantly, I let the item slip from my fingers. Hopefully, another will come my way one day - fingers rossed.
And with that the event came to a clsoe. I said my goodbyes, signed Nick's copy of my Guy N Smith zine (I was shocked how many people came up to me during the Con for me to sign theirs too) and, just as I was about to vacate the Community Centre hired for the event, I bumped into someone I recognisedinstantly from his Youtube channel. He had a proposition, one that I could hardly refuse. More of which soon...
More merch purchased at the fancon:
We got back home a little after six in the evening, where I found a magazine waiting for - the new edition of The Dark Side magazine, featuring 6 pages of Guy N Smith material :)
And with that, my Gathering for Guy weekend came to a close.
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