Before I start the story, I need to explain a few things. Sorry. Pretend it’s that FBI Warning screen that you can’t skip when you start a DVD.

Here’s what happened: I had all of “Friday” segmented into three separate posts, each with five pages (if you remember, HorrorCon is split into three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Each of the pages went on for about one-thousand words and were, obviously, written in the tiny little type that you’re reading right now. It was brilliant…unless you didn’t feel like sitting in front of your computer for an hour and reading tiny type that is a pain in the ass to print. Also, you might not be crazy about having to wait a week for subsequent posts of similar lengths in order to read the story. At this rate of posting, it could possibly take three months – or more – to get it all in. The combination of these factors struck me as a big ask of a visitor to a blog. The chances of losing you would be very high and then what was all our work for, huh?

Also, because WordPress doesn’t allow for indentation, I had to skip a space for each bit of dialog. It worked okay, but “okay” is just “okay”. I spent about a month getting this story out of my head, so I probably shouldn’t settle for anything less than “better than okay”. Don’t you think?

So what I’ve decided to do is to make the segments available via .pdf, and kick off each post with a few words or a little “summary” of sorts as to what the reader can expect. A bit of a teaser, so to speak. This way, I could also make the posts about something current and unrelated and you could get more out of your visit. It also seemed easier to have you download a file that you could print or read on your computer later, and it would even look like a book with indentation and the correct font and stuff. To make it even easier, each installment would be concurrently available in the “stories” section of the blog in case you missed one or more of them, or wanted to wait for a bigger chunk to bring with you to the beach. Sound good?

Greeeaaat. So “attached” please find the first installment of HorrorCon (a.k.a. Lost in Transfusion) and I sincerely hope you enjoy it:

In this chapter we meet Eliza (being played above by the outstanding Blythe Auffarth), and travel with her to the hotel just as the convention is kicking off. She’s planning to set up her booth in the Dealers’ Room just as she’s done many times before, but we’ll find out she’s dealing with some pretty serious issues, and that a weekend she used to look forward to more than anything has now become one she is dreading.

HorrorCon – Friday (part one) available by request only.