As you may know, I've done a fair amount of research on the Wisconsin horror writer Helmut Finch, and I wrote a retrospective of his work that appeared on Pseudopod last year. So you can imagine that I took a personal interest when it came to light recently that the writer C. Deskin Rink had discovered a new Helmut Finch story on a property of his near Chippewa Falls.

There hasn't been a new Helmut Finch story discovered since I unveiled "The Mind Worms" at BoneCon a few months ago. Which made me suspicious that Mr. Rink had forged a Helmut Finch story to steal my thunder. But the story has been verified by Dr.Gentz and Torrek Bestlonic, the two greatest Helmut Finch scholars of our age (even greater than me!), so it must be authentic.

The story that C. Deskin Rink has found is called "What They Consumed" and follows the fall of a prestigious Wisconsin family into a psycho-sexual madness spawned by the cruelties of a young rake against his wife, and the utterance of twelve powerful words. You can find the story produced by the promising new horror podcast "Cast Macabre" and read by the super-extremely awesome Alasdair Stuart.

For the devout fans of Helmut Finch this is a must read (listen). For fans of horror, this is a terrifying descent into madness.

Okay, everything has more or less come together. I think the internet meme of the clay tablets has died down a little. The eBay listings have gone up, but there's still a deal on clay tablet #14.

The clay tablets at the Armadillocon art show haven't any bids yet, so you can definitely grab them still for a bargain. You should also look into the great illustrations up for sale by Space Squid artists like Chris Friend and American Wife.

It's good to see everyone in the sci-fi community I only see in person once a year.

Speaking of which, here's a photo of me taken by the lovely Lawrence Person, as I was on my way to the art auction.


As I write this, I am in the hotel room that will become party central for Space Squid! Woooo! Lots of booze and poorly photocopied versions of issue 9! Woooo! Be there!!!! Tonight!!!!!! Woooooooooo!

Within moments I will have completed my huge list of things to do before Armadillocon. I get up early in the morning to help out with the writing workshop, so this is my last chance to prepare before everything goes nuts.

For instance, I have prepared all the materials for the Armadillocon art show. Space Squid will be selling the clay tablets you've been hearing about, and since we have a table at the show, we're selling some of the original artworks produced for the illustrations. We have some beautiful work by newcomers Morgan Wilson and Baylor Estes, as well as familiar artists like American Wife and Chris Friend. All the illustration sales (minus the con commission) go to the artists, so support these talented people who let Space Squid exploit their abilities.

At the last moment, as I was packing things together, I also decided to put up on the art show the resin cast that was used on the backside of the clay tablets. It's a gag seal that depicts a man defecating.

The cuneiform around the edge of the seal may or may not spell out the words "Mikal Trimm."

And you know how people participating at cons post their itinerary on their blog ahead of time? So that people who don't immediately have access to the con grid schedule will know where to find them? Well, I've gone and done them one better. I've declared my programming schedule a programming track.

Or maybe a con in its own right. It's hard to tell exactly how vain I'm being at any one time.

For those of you who can't get down to the Armadillocon art auction this weekend, there's two of our clay tablets up for sale on eBay.com. There's #6 and #14, two of the most readable of the tablets I printed.

The auctions are only up for five days, so start your crazy bidding now.

If you would rather handle the product in person, and maybe bite a corner to see if it's genuine clay, then this weekend at Armadillocon would be the ticket.

It's only two days until Armadillocon and Space Squid issue nine is nearly ready for its debut. The PDF of our electronic version is about 90% completed. The photocopier (Sanjay2) is partially working, so I will likely run off a very limited run of the PDF for distribution at the party on Saturday. Yes, there's a Space Squid room party! Could anything be more exciting?

You know what's more exciting! It's the fifth anniversary of Space Squid party! Yay!

Anyways, the clay tablet run of Space Squid has got a bit of a buzz, so I thought I would show you what it looks like.

That represents an afternoon of grueling clay working.

Here's one fresh off the template and just beginning to dry in the 100 degree Texas heat.


There was a lot of clay left over, so I made a little token of the fifth anniversary of Space Squid.

The clay block to the left is a miniature tablet with a piece of J.M. McDermott's story on it, because we had to push it to the next issue and it's too bad that he couldn't be a part of this.

And then I decided, hey, with all this extra clay, why don't I make my own panelist nameplate for the con?

You have to figure someone is a programming pro if they show up to the con with their own nameplate.

And this is what the clay tablet looks like when it's dried: