By B.L.Morgan, Federal Way author
The weekend of June 5-7 was exciting to say the least.
I’m going to make a statement right now that you should write down, stick on your icebox or anywhere else you’ll see it every day: Chase your dreams! You can never imagine what can happen because you have the courage to go after what you really want out of life.
On the first weekend I was a guest at Crypticon Seattle, the largest horror convention in the Northwest.
Me and my wife, Judi, showed up extremely nervous.
Let’s be realistic here. For the first time in our lives we were hanging around with major movie directors, movie stars, the best special effects people in the world and legends in the field of literary mayhem. These are the people who create adventures that we vicariously live through either in a theater or by reading novels.
On one level, I’m a writer, a professional in my field. I want to present a professional face to all these people in the entertainment industry. I do want to have my books made into movies. I don’t want to look like a total idiot.
On another level, at the age of 50, I found out I’m still the wide-eyed kid who fell in love with scary movies and scary books when I was a child.
After taking part in Crypticon, I have much more respect for these people than I ever did before. The hours were long and it was tiring. More so for the celebrities than for me. After all, the people came to see them.
All the celebrities there were totally professional, greeting everyone with a smile and sharing their life’s experiences with all their fans. They accepted me and Judi as a part of their gang, and that meant more to us than they could ever realize.
Who we met:
• Don Coscarelli, director of “Bubba Ho-Tep” and the “Phantasm” films.
• Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma Studios.
• Adrienne Barbeau: Needs no intro. An ultra-classy lady. I can’t say enough good things about her.
• Doug Jones, Abe Sapien from “Hellboy,” The Silver Surfer in “Fantastic 4: Rise of The Silver Surfer.”
• Ken Foree, starred in “From Beyond,” “Rob Zombie’s Halloween” and “The Devil’s Rejects.”
• Reggie Bannister, accomplished musician (has his own band) and Reggie from the “Phantasm” films. I got one of his albums, it’s really good.
• Brian Sipe, one of the best make-up and special effects artists in the world.
• John Skipp, New York Times bestselling author of several horror novels.
• Cody Goodfellow, bestselling author of “Radiant Dawn & Ravenous Dusk.”
• Adrienne King, the only survivor of the original “Friday the 13th.”
• Tom Atkins, star of “Halloween III” and “Night of The Creeps.”
• Michael Berryman, star of the original “The Hills Have Eyes” and countless other horror films.
• Bill Johnson, Leatherface in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2:” Very friendly classically trained actor.
• Charlotte Kemp, star of “Frankenhooker:” A very funny lady. I caught her movie. It’s as funny as its title.
• Charles Cyphers, starred in “Halloween,” “Halloween II” and “The Fog.”
• Eileen Dietz, worked on “The Exorcist,” “Helter Skelter” and many other movies.
• Electra and Elize Avellan, otherwise known as “The Crazy Babysitter Twins” in “Planet Terror.”
• Troy Holbrook, owner of BodyBag Photography and FX: Very friendly and proud of his work. When you see what he can do, you know he has a right to be. He’s definitely one of the best in his field in the world.
• Scott Allie, editor at Dark Horse Comics for 15 years.
Federal Way resident B.L.Morgan is author of The John Dark Books: johndark1985@yahoo.com.
