Of books and monster clowns
Oct. 25th, 2025 11:29 pmI headed back to Charleston's convention center for the Book Festival. Neal Shusterman was one of the featured authors. I did get a late start but I got there with 3 hours left on the clock. It was barely enough. Neal wasn't there....to be honest I expected that, like maybe he took off at midday. But what disappointed me was no one thought to have him sign books. I mean, Barnes and Nobles and Books a Million all sell autographed copies. That just felt like a lost opportunity. I didn't buy one. If I want to read it I can get it for free from the library.
I concentrated on the indie authors which was 90% of them. I did have fun with that. There were a lot of interesting ones but shocking also a TON of picture children's books, more than I usually see which was nice as there were kids there (plus a play area for kids). I walked off with three short novels and one hardback, two mysteries and two horror. One of them is a 80s/90s Slasher homage choose your own adventure. How could I pass that one up?
However, at 3 pm (it ends at 5) people were packing up. Not just the sold out ones but everyone. There was still a talk at 4 and people were coming in still (it wasn't a ghost town) I have NO idea why they did that because I left then at about quarter after 3 as a result and passed people going in. Shakes head. However there was also a used book sale. Every book you could fit in a box for 5$ I did NOT go in there.
I did spin the library's wheel, hoping for a cryptid sticker. Won a book. Unfortunately I couldn't find a list of talks online so by the time I got there, there wasn't any I was interested in.
I am staying the night so I go to find the restaurant I missed 2 weeks ago Pies and Pints (which is a small chain apparently) It's downtown so I had to pay to park (5$ not complaining) had a caramelized onion, feta and roasted shrooms pizza and brown ale from a place in Huntington I didn't know existed. Both were good.
I get back in time to run back to the convention center for the Horror Circus. They have you take a picture with a zombie thing and I find a really good seat (not a comfortable one mind you). So let's see, it was fun. Mostly a lot of acrobats, hoop dancers, unicyleing and juggling. A lot of humor too with the ringmaster/clown (I believe they're all from Mexico)
They brought a little girl up on stage and she took to the skit so well I thought she was a plant until they pulled up a couple of dudes and another girl. (might have gone on a little long)
One of the people on the unicycle was a girl 10-12 hard to tell at a distance with make up (reminded me of a porcelain doll merged with the two little girls from The Shining) She could bounce her unicycle and jump rope. She also bounced it up 5 stairs to the platform and ride it back down.
The two acrobatic guys were good but we needed more of them.
They went for a break which was a reason to sell overpriced crap but one was cool, basically a clear orb (balloon?) with fairy lights in and around it and along the clear stick which could be set at twinkling or steady and it was neat...but breakable...not something I need...probably takes expensive batteries (did not buy)
they came back and did about another 20 minutes if that and then the ringmaster says that's it, get out. (in character for him) and we were looking around going...is that for real?!? Yes it was. it was 840. It was supposed to go until 9. Hell I didn't even need this hotel room. At 9 I could have driven home. Oh well.
As for the horror part of the circus it was literally just clown faces and black/white face paint. I was expecting a merger of haunted theme park and circus (which is how the advertising made it sound) there was nothing horror about it. Oh, wait, yes there was, the price of the water bottle and popcorn. (It was literally only 5$ less than the ticket price. I ate every kernel and drank every drop).
I concentrated on the indie authors which was 90% of them. I did have fun with that. There were a lot of interesting ones but shocking also a TON of picture children's books, more than I usually see which was nice as there were kids there (plus a play area for kids). I walked off with three short novels and one hardback, two mysteries and two horror. One of them is a 80s/90s Slasher homage choose your own adventure. How could I pass that one up?
However, at 3 pm (it ends at 5) people were packing up. Not just the sold out ones but everyone. There was still a talk at 4 and people were coming in still (it wasn't a ghost town) I have NO idea why they did that because I left then at about quarter after 3 as a result and passed people going in. Shakes head. However there was also a used book sale. Every book you could fit in a box for 5$ I did NOT go in there.
I did spin the library's wheel, hoping for a cryptid sticker. Won a book. Unfortunately I couldn't find a list of talks online so by the time I got there, there wasn't any I was interested in.
I am staying the night so I go to find the restaurant I missed 2 weeks ago Pies and Pints (which is a small chain apparently) It's downtown so I had to pay to park (5$ not complaining) had a caramelized onion, feta and roasted shrooms pizza and brown ale from a place in Huntington I didn't know existed. Both were good.
I get back in time to run back to the convention center for the Horror Circus. They have you take a picture with a zombie thing and I find a really good seat (not a comfortable one mind you). So let's see, it was fun. Mostly a lot of acrobats, hoop dancers, unicyleing and juggling. A lot of humor too with the ringmaster/clown (I believe they're all from Mexico)
They brought a little girl up on stage and she took to the skit so well I thought she was a plant until they pulled up a couple of dudes and another girl. (might have gone on a little long)
One of the people on the unicycle was a girl 10-12 hard to tell at a distance with make up (reminded me of a porcelain doll merged with the two little girls from The Shining) She could bounce her unicycle and jump rope. She also bounced it up 5 stairs to the platform and ride it back down.
The two acrobatic guys were good but we needed more of them.
They went for a break which was a reason to sell overpriced crap but one was cool, basically a clear orb (balloon?) with fairy lights in and around it and along the clear stick which could be set at twinkling or steady and it was neat...but breakable...not something I need...probably takes expensive batteries (did not buy)
they came back and did about another 20 minutes if that and then the ringmaster says that's it, get out. (in character for him) and we were looking around going...is that for real?!? Yes it was. it was 840. It was supposed to go until 9. Hell I didn't even need this hotel room. At 9 I could have driven home. Oh well.
As for the horror part of the circus it was literally just clown faces and black/white face paint. I was expecting a merger of haunted theme park and circus (which is how the advertising made it sound) there was nothing horror about it. Oh, wait, yes there was, the price of the water bottle and popcorn. (It was literally only 5$ less than the ticket price. I ate every kernel and drank every drop).


