HNT - Haunted Hamilton 2009

Today is the launch of CAMPUS CHILLS -- an anthology of all original tales of terror by 13 extremely talented Canadian authors which I had the extreme pleasure of editing for the three campus bookstores that have produced it.

Titles Bookstore McMaster University, University of Waterloo Bookstore and University of Alberta Bookstore combined their resources to sponsor paying authors professional rates to craft stories specifically for this anthology.

Their tales are set on campuses across Canada and run the full range of horror -- from classic ghost stories to eerie "Twilight Zone" tales to the utterly disturbing and shocking. They have a couple things in common though. All of the tales draw upon some sort of speculative element (ie, some historic ghost legend, a classic "monster" or a new discovery from a campus lab) and they are brilliantly crafted tales by some of the finest writers I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

The book, which is being produced on the Espresso Book Machines at Waterloo, U of A and McMaster, (a 308 page perfect bound trade paperback retailing for $19.95) is launching and going on sale today at the following stores:

University of Waterloo Bookstore (Waterloo, ON)
University of Alberta Bookstore (Edmonton, ON)
Dalhousie University Bookstore (Halifax, NS)
Algonquin College Bookstore (Ottawa, ON)

...and, of course,

Titles Bookstore McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) where Titles is joining forces with Haunted Hamilton. The launch of Campus Chills will be taking place inside the bookstore where a series of 20 minute guided ghost walks of the campus that start and end at the bookstore will take place.

We will be featuring the following Campus Chills contributors who will be doing readings and signing copies of the anthology and their other books at the store: Kelley Armstrong, Kimberly Foottit, Sephera Giron, Michael Kelly and Edo van Belkom.

Steve Vernon, Julie E. Czerneda, James Alan Gardner, Douglas Smith, Susie Moloney and Brit Trogen will all be attending the launches in Halifax, Waterloo and Edmonton today. Plans are being draw for a pre-Halloween event in Ottawa at the Algonquin Bookstore with Carol Weekes and Nancy Kilpatrick.

Titles Bookstore did a similar event last year, branded Haunted McMaster (and yes I blogged about it last year, too) -- so, fittingly, enough, this year, we're calling it Haunted McMaster 2009.

For this week's HNT post, here's a picture of me handing out one of the many exciting door prizes from last year's event. You can count on the fact that I'll be posting pictures from tonight's event in Hamilton as well as the other ones.

The question is, will I be wearing the same "skull" tie this year?

I'm not telling.