Star Wars Party with Author Ryder Windham

Star Wars author Ryder Windham will be part of the Providence Community Library’s Star Wars Party and Blood Drive on October 15th, 2011 from 10:00am-2:30pm at the Rochambeau Library in Providence, RI.

Star Wars fans of all ages are invited to a Star Wars Party and Blood Drive at the Rochambeau Library, 708 Hope Street, Providence RI, on Saturday, October 15, 2011, from 10:00 a.m to 2:30 p.m. If you were already planning on wearing a Star Wars costume on Halloween, this event will be a terrific occasion to wear that costume early! And you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get your picture taken with members of the 501st Legion New England Garrison, who will be attending in their own movie-quality Star Wars costumes.

Star Wars author (and avid blood donor) Ryder Windham will be making presentations about his upcoming book projects. If you own any books by Mr. Windham, bring them in so he can sign them! Mr. Windham will also have some exciting Star Wars giveaways for all who attend, especially those who donate blood. The giveaways were donated by some very generous folks at Dark Horse Comics, DK Publishing, Del Rey, Hasbro, and Scholastic Inc. What are the giveaways? The only way you’ll find out is to come to the party!

Visit http://www.provcomlib.org/calendarofevents.php?id=132928 for more information.

The Big Broadcast of 1954

Update: The October 26th performance has been cancelled.

The Post-Meridian Radio Players will be presenting their annual Halloween live radio show, “The Big Broadcast of 1954″ and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, at The Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA:

Travel back to 1954 with the comedy and variety stylings of the Byfar Hour featuring Frank Cyrano, Amelia Adams, Charley Kendall, Jenny Brennan and the gang! This halloween Frank Cyrano meets Katherine Hepburn with hilarious results!

Then settle back as we present the classic Washington Irving tale, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow!’ Adapted by Roy Sallows (But Oh, What Happened to Hutchings!), our version of Sleepy Hollow is guaranteed to leave you looking over your shoulder on the way home. Boston-band Jaggery provides the music for the creepy tale.

The Big Broadcast of 1954 is staging seven performances this year at the Regent Theatre:
Wednesday Oct. 19
Thursday Oct. 20
Friday Oct. 21
Wednesday Oct. 26
Thursday Oct. 27
Friday Oct. 28
Sunday Oct. 30
All shows start at 8pm and are 2 hours long.

Visit http://bb1954.pmrp.org to get all the details.

[Tip from Emma at PMRP]

DAMNATIONLAND 2011

DAMNATIONLAND is a film festival focused exclusively on short horror films made in Maine. This year’s festival is a traveling show that will be screened at several different locations:

• October 20th, 7:00pm and 9:15pm, The Nickelodeon in Portland, ME
• October 27th at 7:00pm, October 28th and 29th at 7:00 and 9:00pm, Flagship Cinemas in Auburn, ME
• October 28th and 29th, The Magic Lantern in Bridgton, ME
• October 29th at 10:00pm and October 30th at 3:00pm, The Strand in Rockland, ME
• Dates and times not yet announced as of the time of this post: Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, ME; The Colonial in Belfast, ME; and The Frontier in Brunswick, ME

Other dates and locations may be added. Learn more at http://www.damnationland.com/.

J. Cannibal’s Feast of Flesh XI

“J. Cannibal’s Feast of Flesh XI” will devour the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA at midnight on October 1st.

Real-life undertaker and long time zombie fanatic J. Cannibal—dubbed the King of Horror Burlesque—presents a gruesome banquet of midnight mayhem!

This frightful night of fun kicks off with Acaro. Combining old school intensity with monstrously riff-driven songs that will slay you then nail the lid on your coffin, Boston’s rapidly rising metalcore quintet offers one of the most intense live metal shows this side of the grave! Following their set will be a bevy of grotesque burlesque courtesy of the infamous horror troupe, Black Cat Burlesque. Dedicated to putting the BUMP back into the night, Black Cat Burlesque has been raising pulses, the dead and a whole lot of hell since 2003. As the bad seeds of Boston Burlesque, this scream team mines the depths of their twisted psyches—blending striptease thrills and spookshow chills to push the boundaries of the art form and explore the dark, cobwebbed corners of neo-cabaret.

For the night’s feature, Mr. Cannibal has hand-picked the Italian supernatural splatterfest, DEMONS, in beautiful 35mm! Co-written and produced by cult film maestro Dario Argento, and directed by his young protégé Lamberto Bava, this film has it all: samurai swords, motorcycles, helicopter crashes, 80s new wave punks, exploding wounds, and a soundtrack featuring Mötley Crüe. You definitely want to catch this one on the big screen!

Free gory goodie bags will be handed out to all, and J. Cannibal will award a number of prizes for the best zombie costumes.

Visit http://www.coolidge.org/content/j-cannibals-feast-flesh-xi-featuring-demons if you dare!

Science on Screen: The Little Shop of Horrors

The Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA kicks off the return of its “Science on Screen” series with a showing of the 1960 version of The Little Shop of Horrors hosted by ecologist Aaron Ellison, who will “shed light on the bizarre and amazing ways that carnivorous plants lure, trap, and digest their meals and on how these fabulously complex plants can offer insight into how a complete, functioning natural ecosystem works.” The screening will be held October 3rd at 7:00pm. Find all the tasty details at http://www.coolidge.org/content/little-shop-horrors.

Boston Book Festival

The Boston Book Festival is a free event being held on October 15th in various locations around the city. Some genre-related events are planned, including:

11:00am, at the Boston Public Library, Steampunk! with editors Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, author Holly Black and creator Allison DeBlasio.

2:30pm, Trinity Church Sanctuary, Graphic Novels: Drawing the Story with Daniel Clowes, Seth, and Alison Bechdel.

4:30pm, Trinity Church Sanctuary, Far Out Fiction with authors Gregory Maguire, Karen Russell, Chuck Klosterman and Kate Beaton.

See the schedule of all events at http://www.bostonbookfest.org.

Salem Haunted Happenings

It’s going to be Halloween throughout the month of October in Salem, MA, and you can find out about all the spooky events at http://hauntedhappenings.org/. There will be all kinds of tours, theatrical presentations, contests, dances, costume parties, and ghostly visitations. A few items of note:

October 6, 6:30pm-8:00pm, Haunted Happenings Grand Parade. Wizards from the local Harry Potter group, http://hp-ma.com/, will be participating.

Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery has several celebrity appearances lined up:
October 10, 2:00pm-6:00pm, Kane Hodder from Friday the 13th
October 14 and 15, 1:00pm-6:00pm, Bill Johnson from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
October 21-23, 1:00pm-6:00pm, Doug Bradley from Hellraiser

The Omen Psychic Parlor and Witchcraft Emporium will have some author signings:
October 22, 11:00am-4:00pm, authors Lesley Bannatyne (Halloween Nation) and Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Haunted Salem)
October 31, 12:00pm-3:00pm, Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Haunted Salem)

[Thanks to James of The Greater Boston Area Harry Potter Social Group for reminding me]

Author Appearance: Sarah L. Thomson

A book launch party for Sarah L. Thomson’s MERCY: The Last New England Vampire will be held at the Eastern Cemetery in Portland, ME on October 1st at 2:00pm. You can find out more at http://www.islandportpress.com/; however, the web page has an impossibly small font size when viewed in Internet Explorer (it’s OK in Firefox, at least on my computer), so I’ve copied all the details below:

What better place to celebrate the book launch of Mercy: The Last New England Vampire than in a cemetery? Join award-winning author Sarah L. Thomson to celebrate the release of her new young adult novel on Saturday, October 1, from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Eastern Cemetery, 224 Congress Street, Portland.

Take a “Dead Girl” tour of the cemetery, led by cemetery caretakers Spirits Alive; get your own ghoulish photo taken at a photo booth; and look for sightings of Mercy Brown’s ghost wandering the graveyard. Thomson will also sign copies and read from the book, and all visitors will leave with a memento of Mercy.

Mercy breaks new ground in the genre of young adult vampire stories in that it is inspired by a true story. Mercy Brown and her family lived in Exeter, R.I., in the late 1890s, when the New England vampire tradition held powerful sway. When Mercy’s family members began to die, fear struck deep in the hearts of the small community. Following Mercy’s death, when her brother took sick, villagers convinced Mercy’s father to have the corpse exhumed. They dug out her heart, burned it, and fed it to her brother. He too died – as Mercy had – from tuberculosis.

Middle-grade and young adult readers will easily identify with the modern-day narrator, Haley Brown, a 14-year-old girl who’s struggling to cope with a new stepmom and baby brother, a terminally ill cousin, and falling grades. When Haley digs deep into her family history for a school project, she uncovers a disturbing New England tradition and a ghostly past. Haley must overcome doubts and confront a vampire in order to save herself and her family. Thomson’s gifts as a storyteller make Mercy an exciting coming of age story about loss and family.

Thomson has published more than 25 books for young readers. A versatile writer, her books include Dragon’s Egg, an adventure about two friends who rescue a dragon’s egg (winner of the 2007 Maine Lupine Award), a picture book biography of Abraham Lincoln, and the young readers’ version of the bestselling title Three Cups of Tea. A former children’s book editor at HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, Thomson now lives in Portland.

The event is co-sponsored by Islandport Press, the Portland Public Library, and Curious City. In the event of rain, the event will be held at the Teen Room at Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Square. Islandport Press is a dynamic, award-winning publisher dedicated to stories rooted in the essence and sensibilities of New England. For information about the event, contact Curious City at 207-420-1126. For more information about the book, please call 207-846-3344, visit www.islandportpress.com or e-mail books@islandportpress.com.

[Tip via Strange Maine]

Albacon 2011 Has Been Cancelled

Albacon, previously scheduled for the weekend of October 21-23 in Albany, NY, has been cancelled. According to a statement on the website at http://www.albacon.org/:

For multiple reasons, the Albacon 2011 convention has been cancelled. The Albacon Committee and LASTSFA apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. A letter from the President of LASTSFA is available on the Albacon website. Paid registrations that we have in-hand will either be returned or transferred to 2012 as per the registrant’s preference. Albacon 2012 is still on schedule and we hope you will join us for it.

[Tips from James of RISFC and Mary]

Viscera Film Festival

All Things Horror will present the “Viscera Film Festival: A Celebration of Women in Horror” September 23rd and 25th at the Somerville Theater in Somerville, MA:

The Viscera Film Festival is an internationally touring festival conceived to celebrate women in horror. It was designed to provide a positive forum for women to express themselves creatively through the power of film. It’s the only festival aimed at expanding opportunities for women behind the camera.

There will be two completely different programs of Viscera shorts. In addition, there will be special screenings Maude Michaud’s “Bloody Breasts”, a documentary about women and the horror film experience, Karen Lam’s feature film “Stained”, and a program of provocative shorts from Montreal’s Izabel Grondin.

The film schedule is different each day; visit http://www.allthingshorroronline.net/p/72-night-of-horroritca-at-somerville.html to see a complete schedule and to purchase tickets.