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This past weekend (Aug. 19-21) I went to Horrorfind, a horror/Halloween convention billing itself as “the spookiest show on Earth.” I went for one day last year and planned to go for all three days this year with two goals in mind:

1) To provide a review of such an event for The Genre Traveler.

2) To find potential interview subjects for The Genre Traveler features.

Alas, I did neither – but that is another story. What I did do, however, is have the opportunity to speak with Richard Moore, one of the editors of Red Scream, an erotic horror magazine that launched earlier this year. He’s the fiction editor for the publication and obviously passionate about this project.

Our conversation got me to thinking about what is horror anyway? It is such a subjective genre. According to wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn, horror is “intense and profound fear.”

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, a fairly well known author in speculative fiction, once responded to the question “How do you define horror?” with “Horror, according to the Greeks, is fear of the unknown, as terror is fear of the known.”

F. Paul Wilson, another genre author, answered the same question with “Horror fiction can shock, disgust, and frighten. But at its heart, horror fiction unsettles and disturbs.”

Wilson’s definition points to what makes horror so subjective. What unsettles and disturbs one person may have no effect on another. For example, I will share with you one of the more horrific moments of my life – an image I’ve never been able to remove from my mind and an experience that sometimes still has the power to bring tears to my eyes.

It happened while I was taking Biology 1A in Junior College. During one lab, while we were studying single-celled eukaryotes (a eukaryote is a cell that has a nucleus – human cells are eukaryotic), we were asked to watch as a paramecium (a single-celled organism commonly found in pond water) produced something (I forget what) when exposed to a certain chemical.

So, I focused my microscope on a paramecium in drop of water I had put on a slide. I put a drop of the chemical on the slide so that it merged with the water and then I watched.

The paramecium wandered about, its flagella undulating rhythmically about its body. It approached the chemical, which I remember being blue. And then the horror began. The paramecium convulsed three times, its body contracting intensely with each convulsion. Then its cell membrane came apart, producing the things I was supposed to observe for the lab.

Does this tale horrify you? Probably not. No one else in the class understood why I was so upset. This is a single cell. Why should I care that a single cell died?

On one level I don’t. I probably kill millions of single-celled organisms every day.

It was the convulsing that got to me. A paramecium may not have a nervous system, but what I saw was clearly pain – if only on a spiritual level. I’ll never forget that paramecium, nor the convulsions it went through so I could see some stupid thing for a biology class lab.

What is horror fiction? It is fiction that brings about the emotions I felt when I saw that paramecium convulse. Will all fiction that calls itself horror bring about that emotion? Yes – for someone, but not for all.

So. What horrifies you?

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

• To learn more about Horrorfind, go to www.horrorfind.com.
• To learn more about Red Scream, go to www.redscream.com. Warning, this publication is not for the feint of heart or stomach.
• To learn more about paramecium and see images of one, go to ebiomedia.com/gall/classics/Paramecium/paramecium1.html.
• For more about Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, visit www.mindspring.com/~ebowden/Yarbro/yarbro_homepage.htm.
• For more about F. Paul Wilson, visit www.repairmanjack.com/index2.html.

The gaming industry is a consumer consumer – it needs gamers who will constantly buy more games and lots of them. “They’ve got to expand their market,” says Suzie Reider, senior vice president of sales and marketing at CNET games and entertainment, according to Ad Age.

To do this, game publishers are turning to festival-like events aimed at young (18-24 years old), hard-core, male gamers. Of course, they expect their target demographic to bring along friends and girlfriends, thereby expanding their market.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., the developers of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo gaming franchises, recently announced the first Blizzard Convention. BlizzCon will take place on Oct. 28 and 29 in Orange County, Calif., and will feature an Invitational tournament of pro-gamers, live question and answer sessions with developers, and more.

GameSpot, a division of CNET is organizing its own festival, as well. Games And Music Experience (GAME) will be held Dec. 2 through 4 in San Francisco, Calif., and will mix concerts with a game-sampling expo.

Sony has its PlayStation Experience, a touring truck filled with 26 different kiosks featuring the software, hardware and peripherals from PlayStation, big screens, competitions and contests for PlayStation prizes.

What is driving this event marketing? The rising cost of developing games. As games become more complex and movie-like in production, the more they cost to develop. The more they cost to develop, the more they need to sell to make a profit. Therefore, the more buyers game publishers need to attract.

Reider promises that “GAME will be an attractive entertainment destination for women and older gamers.”

Along those lines the gaming industry is trying to create more games that appeal to women, as well as bring more women into the industry for their careers. Women In Games International (WIGI) was created “to promote the inclusion and advancement of women in the global games industry.” They hold an annual conference, this year slated for Sept. 10 in Seattle, to help women learn how to break into the industry.

What does this all mean for genre-related travel? It means there are more events for those who are interested to attend. It is also a sign of the times – marketing is becoming more ever-present and the line between fun events and sales expos is blurring. In addition, the speculative fiction community is opening up even more to women – something that has been developing, slowly but surely – for a few decades now. It just seems that it’s taken this long for the marketers to catch on.

The Genre Traveler recommends that you go and enjoy these events – many are free or low in cost in the hopes to entice you to spend your money on the products available there – but watch your pocket book and don’t spend money you don’t have or didn’t want to spend.

SOURCES:

• Blizzard Entertainment’s website: www.blizard.com


• Oser, Kris and Klaasen, Abbey. (2005.) “Game Makers Turn to Festivals to Broaden Audience.” August 16, AdAge.com.


• Women In Games International’s website: www.womeningamesinternational.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

• For the current schedule of the PlayStaion Experience, go to www.us.playstation.com/events.aspx?id=4


• If you’re interested in a career in the gaming industry, check out Mary-Margaret.com Recruiting & Business Services. They specialize in “recruitment for the interactive entertainment arena.”