The Road to Providence - The Horror Begins!

So I'm sitting here, listening to the fall of rain and the crash of thunder outside of my window, drinking a Red Hook Brewing Out of your Gourd Pumpkin Porter, thinking of another Red Hook. The Red Hook, NY neighborhood where H.P. Lovecraft spent two years of his life - two long miserable years - married to Sonia Greene. It was the only time in his too short life he lived anywhere but in his beloved Providence, and he hated it. He returned to Providence in 1925 and wrote The Horror at Red Hook in the same year -- the story very much an allegory for his own turmoil at living in such a non-New England environment.

And, it is on that note, that I'm excited to say that plans are starting to come together for my own trip to Providence. I'm presenting at the Henry Armitage Symposium on Saturday, 8/22, at around 9:30.

And, HOLY SHIT, I just realized I'm a little over a week from leaving! Wow. It's coming up quick! I need to put my presentation together!

So far, I've signed up for just a few things that I need to attend for the conference, but there's also a lot of free and/or down time to explore.

I'm doing two sponsored tours of Lovecraft's Providence; one by foot and the other by bus. I've been assured by the Con organizers that they are different and both exciting. I'll also be partaking in a new card game taht's being play tested called "Feed the Shoggoth". I've recently learned that Sandy Petersen, the designer and creator of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu will be there as well! I'm really hoping he will be available to sign a copy of my original CoC rule book, or perhaps my original copy of his Peterson's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters!


I've also signed up to see a live theater production of The Shadow over Innsmouth, as well as a big Party honoring HPL's 125th  Birthday on 8/20. How cool is that, I'll be in Providence, on HPL's birthday, and partying with live music and plenty of Narragansett Innsmouth Ale and Lovecraft Honey Ale!

My Convention experience will end on Sunday morning with a special Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast, and then I'll begin the long trip home -- with a stop in a special old town north of New York City, on the banks of the Hudson River. A town that Washington Irving described as, "In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of Saint Nicholas, there lies a small market town." Indeed, I will venture, at the early cusp of Autumn, to the haunts of the late, mourned Ichabod Crane and his haunting, goblin pursuer... the Headless Hessian of lore!

I'll probably be updating as the week goes on, doing a combination of vlogs and blog article on shit that happens.

Stay tuned, this is going to be Doctor Zombie's biggest Horrific Road Trip to date!