Canister X – A.P. Fuchs

On February 13 and 14 I attended C4’s first Horror Con here in Winnipeg at the RBC Convention Centre.

C4 has been around for a long, long time and has run multiple conventions, but this was their first horror one. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect or if, from a tabling point-of-view, it would be a good venue for me. Sure, there was the obvious: I write monster fiction and that should do well at a horror show, but that doesn’t matter if nobody shows up.

Well, let me tell you, people did show up. A lot of people. I don’t know the exact numbers, but Saturday was hopping and there were times I had so many people getting books from me it was hard to keep up. There were a few lulls, but they didn’t last long and I was back to explaining my books, talking horror and having a good time.

My table:

On Saturday, I was on a panel for writing horror along with Chadwick Ginther and J.H. Moncrieff. It lasted about an hour and we talked about writing gore, going for the gross out, killing characters, that little nonsense thing called writer’s block, and a whole ton more.

The panel:

As usual, my zombie trilogy, Undead World, moved like crazy. I had to bring extra copies in for Sunday. As well, Magic Man Plus 15 Tales of Terror was a popular choice along with Viscious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes.

In the end, I’m pleased to report it was a very solid show, both in terms of fun and selling books. I was shocked because my total-books-sold tally was not far under all those copies moved at C4 last fall, the big show that I wait all year for and with an attendance of over 40,000 people. This certainly makes a point about niche marketing.

But all this book number junk aside, in the end, I was just glad to go, hang out with my convention friends and share in a common fandom.