Monday, October 19, 2009

Indiana Jonsing


Back in St. Louis. Back in my own bed. Back to my old bad habits. First a big thanks to Frank Bill and his lovely wife and apologies about the toilet. BTW they make some good sturdy industrial strength plungers in Indiana. Email Frank and I'm sure he can tell you where to pick one up. I got to see first hand the locations described in his dark stories of rural blood feuds as well as good hunting and fishing spots in the area. We stayed up too late talking reading, writing, horror movies and the guilty pleasures of Bud Light Lime. Yes, Blimey. Friday afternoon I drove up to Indianapolis and found a place to park, then made a line for the hotel bar. On the way to said bar I accosted Duane Swierczynski then made an ass of myself to Martyn Waites, Gary Phillips, Megan Abbott and Reed Farrell Coleman. A while later Anthony Neil Smith came to my rescue joined by fellow First Offender Karen E. Olsen who helped me learn some conversational subtleties that I put to good use when I chatted up Sophie Littlefield and Craig McDonald. Ran into fellow St. Louisans John Lutz, Robert Randisi and Rod Wiethop dragging their long suffering wives along to yet another event populated by misanthropic alcoholics. Scott Phillips showed up as I was sharing a "tall guy" moment with Kieran Shea and Seth Harwood and we were joined in dinner by Stacia Decker, John Rector, Dan O'Shea, Dennis Tafoya and other pleasant rummies too numerous to count with double vision. After dinner I made fan boy advances on Victor Gischler, Sean Doolittle, Dennis McMillan, Sean Chercover, Marcus Sakey, Alison Janssen, John and Ruth Jordan before retiring to befoul Greg Bardsley's bed, (cause he didn't arrive till Friday) in K-Shea's room. Shea was a class act it's gotta be said who made the whole thing possible for me. No way I could've afforded it without his offer of a place to sleep. In the morning Shea and I shared breakfast and spoke of our various projects then he encouraged me to sneak into a noir panel featuring Mr. Gischler and Christa Faust before skipping town to attend to aforementioned familial commitments. Thanks to everybody who made the trip a possibility and a pleasure.

19 comments:

Sophie Littlefield said...

hey it was great to meet you...hope we can talk longer next time

Scott Phillips said...

You mean Thursday afternoon....Friday people were already asking "WTF happened to Jed?"

Craig McDonald said...

As Sophie said, so great to see you in person at last, and, as she also said, sure wish it could have been for much longer. And Scott's too right, too: you were very much missed as the event rolled on, Jed.

Greg Bardsley said...

Okay ... Okay ... Now I know why the hotel-room toilet was burping and gurgling by the time I arrived. ...

Damn pissed that I missed you

Sean Chercover said...

Sorry you had to split, Jed. Great meeting you - next time, hopefully for longer.

jedidiah ayres said...

Next time- schmext time folks. You're all invited to noir at the bar in St Louis anytime you come through town. Hell you can even make a special trip and sleep in my dungeon, er, nice basement.

Neil said...

How was the wedding?

jedidiah ayres said...

Neil - completely legal

Cullen Gallagher said...

Will I be seeing you at NoirCon next year?

jedidiah ayres said...

Cullen - depends on what price my kidneys will fetch

jedidiah ayres said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kieran Shea said...

wouldn't that be kidney, jed? sell one of those and you've got the con circuit sewn up tight for the next decade, chum.

jedidiah ayres said...

K - you got a buyer?

Kieran Shea said...

do i have a buyer. shit, dog, didn't you ever read:

http://www.thuglit.com/zine/thug16/docs/organ.pdf

Unknown said...

Man it was a pleasure having you at the Bill's Doo-Drop Inn. Next year you drive up to my place and I'll drive us to Noiricon.

jedidiah ayres said...

K - shudder... okay. Wait, lemme see if Frank is serious

Frank - you serious?

Kieran Shea said...

Frank, Jed...you guys do NoirCon next year? driving? i mean, ..holyfreakincrap. holyfreakincrap!

Unknown said...

Fuckin' A-Right I'm serious. (Sorry for the late reply busy on the edits and a few re-writes). But hell yeah. We got till November of 2010 to save and plan. Maybe we can get Neil to drive to Indiana, park at my place and off we go.

Paul D Brazill said...

Well, I'm jealous!Sounds like tasty time.