Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I bought this at the first Readercon I attended, wandering through the dealer room, with Gemma sitting at her autograph booth.   She was starting out on her career, although this wasn't the first piece she'd had published, and I was completely and utterly unaware of her existence.   

I probably had that look on my face, the one that told her I was new, unaccustomed to the glitz and glamor of the dealer's room.  (It's a huge room full of books and authors signing books in a corner, or at the dealer tables.   It's hella glamorous to me just for that.)  I vaguely recall staggering around, staggered by the enormity of this convention - not in size or number of attendants, but by the enormity of being able to meet so many bibliophiles and authors and editors and publishers, and it hit me hard. 

Anyway, I don't remember much of the conversation with Gemma.  I don't remember much of that convention, in fact.  I do  remember she mentioned this has a Wolverine reference, and pretty much her hook being, 'it's just two dollars!   What can you lose!'   Anyway, I bought it, she signed and personalized it, and it was love.   I read this in a frenzied half hour, rereading favorite lines, and ever since I've reread it now and then just because I love it, it's twenty pages, and I get taken back to that Readercon and how Gemma lured me into her trap.   (I remember her beckoning me over, but I was very shy about approaching authors during my first con, plus I was mind blown, so I may be remembering that incorrectly.   I believe it was probably accurate because I think I would have been too embarrassed to approach Gemma on my own.   Either that, or she said something as I stood in line waiting to see whoever was next to her.   There are two signature tables, right next to each other.)

Which says nothing about this short.   Which is a fun, quirky take on drugs turning people to zombies.  It's not even the concept, it's the small details, the two main characters who are in a lesbian relationship, the gore of it at the end, the popular culture references.   It's a short, sweet pulp.   The cover announces, 'A Lurid Melodrama!' and it delivers on its promise.   

In addition, and I can't say this enough, I absolutely adore this author.   And nothing's better than learning that a favorite author is also a wonderful person - or knowing that going into her first story.   

I never told Gemma, and I don't think I even realized it until I actually typed out that story, but she was one of the first unknown-to-me authors I talked to at Readercon.   I do believe she approached, or initiated, the contact, and I'm in her debt.  I learned a very important lesson at that table: that the authors that I don't know at Readercon are just as amazing as the ones that I went there to see.   She helped me approach other authors, even if only to tell them I liked their story, or I liked a concept for a story - and I believe that it helped me enjoy the other cons more than I would have otherwise.  I owe her so much more than I realized until right now - and I hope to be able to tell her so in person next year!

PS - it's more like a magazine than a book: a short story with a glossy covered stapled together.  I knew this when I bought it, but it's getting in a bit of a rough condition, edges folded over, etc, so if it ever falls apart completely, I will cry!