Complaints and Compliments (WHC 2014)

Finally home after a week in Portland, Oregon at the WHC (world horror convention).

It was a daunting prospect to arrange and go, not only the travelling, Hubby and I have not flown for a loooong while (I hate it) but the cost involved coming from the UK.

Add to this the stress of meeting authors who I have been squeaking/fan-girling over for a few years and the good/bad reviews I have done about they work. Would they like me? Talk to me? or want to take me out in the woods and skin me alive for that bad book review?

Whilst the journey out was fraught simply because of the length and connections all in all it went smoothly, although I have to say that Delta Airways are definitely the poor cousins of Virgin Atlantic; the planes are dirty and in need of an update, the food is rank and you need to pay for it (bit of a shock after all the "inclusives" of Virgin) and the trollydollies whilst polite do look like the Walmart/Asda versions of the airways.

We enjoyed our lay over at JFK we did some Yankies shopping and had lunch, just as well with the cost of a sandwich on the 5hr 40min flight to PDX!

We were dismayed to find that one of our suitcases was damaged beyond use at the other end and trying to find a suitcase shop was interesting, after discussions with the hotel staff; who were generally amazing (DoubleTree Hilton - my TripAdvisor review) we found one in Macy's but the cheapest was $116   eeeek.

The actual convention was brilliant, I have my niggles about it such as the dealer room was not open to the public so basically the authors were trying to sell to each other mostly and it also left the room a little flat. 

The awards were fun to watch but I was dismayed not to have heard of half the entries (probably my lack of reading) and a little disappointed to find that Stephen King won the top dog award - I doubt very much if he cares for such accolades and it would have been better to have given it to another writer. Also there did not seem to be any readers choice awards, group or category.

As for the actual authors, they were amazing. All so friendly and mostly approachable. The ones I did stalk/grope/ etc were very nice about it all and even signed books for me.

The authors I like to call friends were exceptional to meet and all for different reasons - I do hope some of them decided to visit the UK so we can show them all the fabulous places/things/food/beer we have over here. 

All that said I am excited to try and plan to go again, next year? maybe depends on the finances, this transatlantic travelling is not cheap!

I really loved taking out jaffa cakes, chocolate and Union Jack gifts for my friends and managed to also buy a ton of Oregon/USA stuff back for our nieces/nephews and even the cats got some USA treats!

On the way home Virgin/Delta out did themselves with "how shite can you be" - checking our luggage in we noted that the lady was too busy telling her colleague what she wanted for breakfast so completely ignored us asking questions about our connection flight, as it happens she also managed to forget to put labels on our luggage and its currently floating around the USA baggage system somewhere. 

The Delta crew were the same, just a bit more grumpy than last time, just dont ask for a second cup of coffee.  We were amazed though at the things people brought on to the flight - a pizza, boxes of Voodoo doughtnuts (ok if we could have we would have!), huge bags of MacD food and a cat; poor thing howled the whole 5hr 40min flight.  oh and David Miliband! who put him on the flight (and in the cheap seats too)

We were given 55mins to run from one end of JFK to the other for our connection flight, all well and good when you know where you are going, dont have 23lb back packs and a Hubby with two naff knees!

As it was, the connection flight was delayed and we ended up waiting for over an hour, however we did get to speak to fellow Brits and lots of (very loud!) locals all telling us about President Obama being in town, apparently it ruined the traffic!

After a very very very long flight, the time difference really kicking us in the butt, not helped by really awful seats and some annoying fellow passengers we arrived in Blighty. BUT remember the luggage issue! so eventually we spoke to a lovely lady at baggage reclaim and then grabbed our car with no issues at all (Holiday Extras) other than the chaps making a huge joke and pretending to have lost the car when we explained about our lack of luggage!

So now at home, weighed in a fat club (dont ask!) what little luggage we do have has been unpacked etc.

I was pleased to note that our awesome house/animal sitter retains her title of awesome and that the cats did all jump all over us on return.

And so ends the saga of the WHC 2014, I hope you have enjoyed reading about all my fun, the silly pics, the amazing food and the awesome authors. Please continue to read all the reviews and feel free to make comments :)

WHC 2014 - Fifth/Sixth Days in Portland, Oregon.

This wonderful place has some brilliant and beautiful extremes!

We spent yesterday at the beach, with our amazing friends Todd & Denise.

However on the way we stopped at a little place called Voodoo doughnuts and we were treated to a huge box!

There was a bloody (jammy) massacre in the back of the car on the way!

Decimation of the Doughnut

Ivor was then treated to an American football game! and I got to go Walmart shopping, now I must burn out my own eyes  (hehehe!)

And here comes the extreme, approximately an hours drive in the opposite direction to the beach is Mt Hood, a dormant volcano that is well known for its wonderful ski resort Timberline, which just happens to be the "Over Look Lodge" from The Shinning.

The inside was not used in the film as it really is just a quaint little ski lodge,  but its still impressive to drive up that winding road with "Here's Johnny" running through your mind :)

Tomorrow is our last day in Portland, Oregon and we are cream crackered from all the excitement. So it will be a day of packing all our goodies away and preparing to fly back to Blighty and our much missed fur babies.

We have had an absolute blast and I have been fan-girled out by all the amazing authors I have finally been able to meet, hug and squeee over.  

We do hope to be able to return the favour of their amazing hospitality to any of them that wish to fly over the pond. 

WHC 2014 - Forth day in Portland, Oregon.

So today was spent mostly on panels and readings.

I was over the moon to listen to Jeff Strand and Wrath James White!  Joe McKinney was pretty awesome too.

I picked up my second goody bag of books from TW Brown and Heath Stallcup

 I am also now drinking my "mountain dew" from a Monster Squad coffee cup!

I also managed to snag a signed book from SG Browne - a horror writer with comedy, a true favourite (sub) genre of mine.

Food was very subdued today which is just as well as we are reaching bursting point and I must have put on at least 10lbs! 

I did try some fish tacos!  

Strange but tasty combination of tortilla wrap, coleslaw, battered fish piece, salsa and guacamole! 

The evening and WHC festivities, for me, ended with the Gross Out competition, which I was not all that impressed by to be honest, lots of chat from the organiser and not much actual competition. There was only one really great story for me.... will have to wait to see if they win and the stories get printed.

Tomorrow we are off to Portland beach so I hope the weather holds out!

WHC 2014 - Third day in Portland Oregon

Today was all about panels, snagging signed books and generally schmoozing!

I have been lucky enough to meet several new (to me) authors and as you can see by the HUGE pile of books I got signed today I have a lot more to read, and review, in the coming weeks! That is if I can prise them from Hubby's hands of course as he has suddenly become very zombie orientated!

John O'Brien writes the A New World series and Shawn Chesser has the equally impressive Surviving the Apocalypse set.

It was also super cool to meet Jeff Strand who has written a huge amount of books and he was kind enough to sign his very awesome Wolf Hunt for me. This was one of the first books I ever left a review for on Amazon and its woefully inadequate in its praise - so I hope to reread and give a new improved review within the next few weeks. 

Tomorrow I have been promised the whole DEAD and That Ghoul Ava series by TW Brown!!  I will definitely need excess luggage on my flights home.

I also did a few "panels" and talks today too, another feature of the WHC. Listening to some of the couples that both write and how their creativity really affects their relationships was interesting and funny. 

Another amazing moment was the talk given by Victoria Price in which she honours her father, the wonderful Vincent Price, with her beautiful chat and montage to him, it was a real pleasure and highlight of the day.

However I think the pinnacle of the day was voodoo doughnuts. The menu is extensive and the taste is wholly amazing!  but seeing grown ups get SO excited and start actually sprinting for the van that was outside was hysterical!

More pictures of the doughnuts when I do a proper shop run on Sunday prior to being taken to the "beach"!!

Another brilliant day over here, more panels, chats and adventures await me tomorrow.

WHC 2014 - Second Day in Portland Oregon

So, day two and all is going well!

Breakfast started off well and then the food just kind of exploded!

some yummy melon with nice slice of carrot "like" cake and this morning I took a photo of the cornbread before eating it!  How cute is that!

Then we managed to get our tickets for the WHC and it all started to feel a little real, especially when the goody bags were presented to us  :)

The convention didnt start until the afternoon so we took the opportunity to visit the local "Mall" and grab some Oregon gifts for the nieces/nephews back home.

Once back at the hotel my favourite authors started to appear and I was on full on stalking mode.

Thankfully some of them actually like me and I got to have coffee and beers with a few of them!

Me and Mark Tufo - author of the Zombie Fallout series,  Timothy  and The Books of Riley.

Then there was Armand Rosamilia author of Dying Days series and Miami Spy Games amongst many other titles and the other lovely lady is  Jaime Johnesee    author of the brilliant  Bob the Zombie series.

We had a great dinner at Jake's Seafood place, fish and chips!! and crab cakes.

Today was lots of internal Squeeee moments, tomorrow is going to be even more so as I track down more awesome authors and get them to sign their books so I can have some excess luggage on the way home!

WHC 2014 - First day in Portland Oregon

So, after making the LONG trip from London to Portland via a 4hr stop over in JFK we were cream crackered!

However, the people of Portland could not be nicer, from the lovely lady on the plane showing us how to use the MAX tram line service to the great receptionist at the Double Tree Hilton handing us a warm choc chip cookie!

After throwing our (damaged luggage - shame on you Delta Airlines) in the room we headed for the bar and managed to stuff two amazing burgers, huge amounts of salad and some lovely applewood smoked cheese really made it yummy!

8hrs of time delay lead to very tired bunnies.... so an early night for us, but that also meant we were up at the crack of dawn, well 6am actually.

Showered and eager to explore we headed for breakfast and I have to say the variety was astounding. We tried spicy cornbread; so weird to have sweet bread with a peppery after taste, but it went down well with the "lean" streaky bacon! The array of fruit was great and I tucked in with gusto. Discovered I am not keen on american scrambled eggs - too much butter.

We jumped back on the MAXline and headed for the Rose Garden, famed for its 10K+ roses!  However, as we cant read USA maps we got a bit lost and ended up at the Oregon Zoo, which was a brilliant (and reasonably priced) morning out. 

We loved seeing the three new, really cute, lion cubs. It is a very small, intimate zoo, the layout is great with easy to follow trails and the animals are very close contact. It is clear by their enclosures that they are all well cared for and loved.

One thing we have noticed is that Portland loves its bronze statues - the place is littered with them, but they are all beautiful.

Post Zoo we wandered back to the MAX and found ourselves outside the Worlds Largest 2nd hand book store Powell's - I was entranced, but of course it was Hubby that found multiple books that he just HAD to have!

We then stumbled across the street to Deschutes Brewery where we tried six of the locally produced beers, all small samplers before you think we were on the lash! we also had an amazing waitress and enjoyed some chowder!  the pizza was so enormous, we had to carry half of it out!

The afternoon was spent tootling around town on the MAX and StreetCar lines, taking in the sites and the locals, all of whom wanted to chat to us and tell us the best bits of Portland to visit, I guess our English and Scottish accents stuck out a mile!

After a little book review (please see previous post!) we snuck out of the hotel and met some friends for the first time in the flesh!!

They took us to the most fun place, Montage,  with some really great food, but the best bit about that was leaving some as then we got  a fantastic take out package! My whale (cruddy photo, sorry, he has a spout of water coming out of his blow hole!)

And a whale is kind of how I feel after all the spectacular food we have eaten today!

So what does tomorrow hold for us, well the reason for coming all this way begins! World Horror Convention!

We also get to meet loads more awesome authors! speakers! and who knows what else.... but in the morning The Mall beckons.... uh oh!!

I may need to plead the 5th when it comes to the credit card bill when we get home!