The weekend of May 1-3 is fast approaching, and that means Texas Frightmare Weekend is right around the corner!

Come visit HWA guest members Charlee Jacob, C. Dean Andersson, Angeline Hawkes, Christopher Fulbright, Joe McKinney, Steven Wedel, Gabrielle Faust, Kim Paffenroth, and Brian Moreland at the DFW HWA table in the dealer's room. If this year is anything like last year's TFW, it's going to be a bloody good time. Guests of honor include Alice Cooper, Tobe Hooper, Barbara Steele, Linda Blair, and a slew of other horror film guests. Check out their website for more information.

Hope to see you there!

The DFW HWA has several events planned for 2009, including ConDFW VIII coming the third weekend in February. We'll plan a chapter lunch or dinner gathering closer to the event, and when we do, details will be posted here. A preliminary list of DFW HWA folks scheduled to appear as guests include Angeline Hawkes, C. Dean Andersson, Christopher Fulbright, and Gabrielle Faust, with more likely to join us as the date creeps nearer. Guests of honor David Weber and Jim Butcher make this one not to be missed!

For details on ConDFW, click the following link:

• ConDFW VIII - Dallas, TX, Feb. 20-22, 2009

Our biggest event of the year with the most members in attendance is shaping up to be Texas Frightmare Weekend in May. In addition to the usual roster of local guests, our local chapter will also host out-of-town HWA guests Deborah LeBlanc, Steven E. Wedel, Kim Paffenroth, and Austin author Lee Thomas a.k.a. Thomas Pendleton.

• Texas Frightmare Weekend - Irving, TX, May 1-3, 2009

Alice Cooper and Tobe Hooper top a growing list of TFW guests for 2009, with more added closer to the date. Stay tuned for additional updates!

A new HWA anthology edited by bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson has been released. Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories "promises to give readers a unique taste of horror combined with just the right amount of humor" according to Hellnotes.

Including stories by bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Sharyn McCrumb, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kelley Armstrong, F. Paul Wilson, and other horror staple favorites Joe Lansdale, Don D'Ammassa, Lucien Soulban, Nancy Holder, and more, Blood Lite promises a dark twist of humor with each gruesome morsel of menace.

"This toothsome anthology of 21 funny-scary stories from members of the Horror Writers Association arrives just in time for Halloween. On the humorous end, Matt Venne's Elvis Presley and the Bloodsucker Blues recreates Presley's voice with pitch perfect swagger and sets the record straight on how he really died, while Charlaine Harris's An Evening with Al Gore depicts a novel way to deal with environmental criminals; both tales are truly outstanding. In a creepier vein, Steven Savile's Dear Prudence finds a conflicted man repeatedly revising a note where he details gory plans for his significant other, and Nancy Holder's I Know Who You Ate Last Summer features stomach-churning rock star cannibals. Big names like Jim Butcher and Sherrilyn Kenyon will have comic horror fans grabbing this anthology off the shelves." --Publishers Weekly

FenCon V is less than three weeks away, with guest of honor Gregory Benford, special guest Jay Lake, toastmaster Howard Waldrop, and a whole roster of HWA folks including Charlee Jacob, C. Dean Andersson, Angeline Hawkes, Christopher Fulbright, Deborah LeBlanc, Lee Thomas, Steven Wedel, Gabrielle Faust, Byron Starr, and possibly a few others! This promises to be a great event with three days of panels, a writers workshop, art show, and room parties galore.

The DFW HWA will have a dinner meeting on Saturday evening, open to all members and those interested in becoming members. The details are listed below:

• FenCon DFW HWA Gathering
• Saturday, October 4
• 6:00 p.m.
• McArthur's inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel where the con will be taking place.

For details on FenCon, click the following link:

• FenCon V - Addison, TX, October 3-5, 2008

Stay tuned for additional updates as new members are added, and be sure to visit the message board. Until next time!

The DFW HWA will have a dinner gathering at Conestoga in Tulsa, OK on Saturday evening, July 26, tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. We will wait near the couches just outside the main entrance to the dealer's room until everyone is assembled, and then leave from there. All members of HWA, plus those interested in joining the organization, are invited to join us.

Details on the con:

• July 25-27, 2008 - Conestoga 12, a fan-run speculative fiction convention, will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Guests include Diana Gabaldon, Stephen Hickman, and toastmaster Gordon Van Gelder. HWA members appearing as guests include Deborah LeBlanc, Rachel Caine, Steven E. Wedel, Angeline Hawkes, and Christopher Fulbright.

We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Some of you may have heard about the failed FedConUSA convention this weekend, which cancelled its proceedings Saturday while the convention was in progress, much to the dismay of fans and guests alike. We would like to assure everyone that FedConUSA is NOT associated in any way with the very successful FenCon, run by the Dallas Future Society, which has held a great convention in the Dallas area for four straight years, with a promising line up for FenCon V October 3-5, 2008.

FenCon has always been supportive of DFW HWA, and is consistently one of the best-run conventions in the area. We further hope that the FedConUSA debacle does not reflect on any of the other Dallas conventions which take place year after year successfully and without a hitch.

On an upnote, Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, TX was a success this weekend. Few other fan events can boast such a close-knit and friendly group of folks, where everyone who comes even for the first time leaves feeling like a member of the REH family. If you are a Robert E. Howard fan, please try to attend and lend your support to Project Pride, a group of volunteers dedicated to preserving the Howardian legacy.

Congratulations to DFW HWA member Charlee Jacob and her collaborator Marge Simon for winning the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in poetry for their 2007 book VECTORS. Congratulations are also due to DFW HWA's C. Dean Andersson; he was nominated for a Stoker for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for his short story "The Death Wagon Rolls On By" which appeared in Cemetery Dance #57.

In other news, Texas Frightmare Weekend 2008 was an absolute blast. Our sincere thanks go out to the organizers of this event for inviting our members to appear as guests. They've invited us back again for next year, and we're looking forward to it.

Coming up next on the DFW HWA calendar:

• June 13-14, 2008 Robert E. Howard Days will be held in Cross Plains, Texas. This event celebrates the life and work of Texas author Robert E. Howard with tours of his house and environs, plus panels and viewing of manuscripts and pulps in which Howard was published. Present this year will be Christopher Fulbright, Angeline Hawkes, and HWA member Charles Gramlich, among others.
• July 25-27, 2008 Conestoga will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Guests include Diana Gabaldon, Gordon Van Gelder, HWA members Steven E. Wedel, Deborah LeBlanc, and others.

Check out our updated photo gallery, and don't forget to drop into our message board and say hello!