We’re back from the World Horror Convention (WHC), this year held in the hot and muggy city of New Orleans. Tonya and I enjoyed our trip, but we had to leave a day early due to an event at the Thornton Barnes & Noble.

One of the things we did was venture out on a treasure hunt for our friend, Quincy J. Allen. He asked us to pick up a brick of Community Coffee with Chicory, so Tonya and I headed out into the steamy city to track some down. The concierge at the Hotel Monteleone told us to go down Decatur Street to find a Community Coffee store. We found it, only to discover they didn’t actually sell their coffee bricks there. We picked up some iced coffees and a bag of chicory and headed out to a place called Rouss. They did have the coffee bricks, so we picked up two for Quincy and one for us.

On the way there, we passed by a small tourist shop, where Tonya spotted two aprons she had to have. One said Will Cook for Sex, and the other said Don’t Make Me Poison Your Food. I snagged two bags of Pat O’Brien’s Hurricane Mix for Quincy and Kathryn.

Between Community Coffee and Rouss, we found a funny tank top for Tonya with a New Orleans law concerning lost or abandoned women getting fined five bucks for lewdness. With that in the bag, we oozed back onto Royal Street.

I stopped by Cafe Beignet to pick up more coffee and a bunch of beignets, which are fried pastries covered in a quarter pound of powdered sugar — no, that’s no exaggeration. I expected my heart to explode.

The final bit of our stay was the HWA Bram Stoker Awards^® banquet. Peter and I had a graphic novel up for an award, but the competition was fierce. As expected, Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton won it for their work, Witch Hunts, drawn by Greg Chapman. Congratulations to all of the Stoker winners, especially Lucy Snyder, Mort Castle,  and Gene O’Neill.

Now, back to work. These books won’t write themselves!