Stephen wrote The Ink of the Perverse, a short story loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe story The Imp of the Perverse, and submitted it to a literary contest that was part of Poe Fest International, an annual celebration of the life and works of Poe.
After a couple of rounds of judging Stephen was named an Award Nominee and invited to come to the weekend event.
Bela and Stephen drove to Baltimore on Friday, October 2nd. On Friday evening they attended the world premiere of the documentary What Keeps Us Alive on the life of actor Vincent Price.
Price’s daughter Victoria was there, and the film’s producer. A dance troupe also debuted an excerpt from a full-length ballet on Poe.
After the Friday events we drove to Washington, D.C where we stayed with Lee Ordeman, his wife Elizabeth Jernigan, and their five-year-old daughter Esme. They kindly hosted us for the weekend, and made waffles on Sunday morning, October 4th, for Stephen’s 77th birthday!
On Saturday the festival took place at Lexington Market, with a costume parade, live bands, and other activities, including a vendor room where we sold copies of Stephen’s recently published novel The Zen Time Traveler.
The main event was the Black Cat Ball! It took place at Westminster Hall where there is a museum featuring Poe. His gravesite is in the cemetery outside the Hall.
Part of the fun and excitement was dressing up in period costume:
Bela was particularly resplendent!
An actor performed a staged reading of Poe’s The Raven.
An organist played organ music on the giant refurbished pipe organ:
Including Bach’s Toccata and Fugue.
During the Ball, one could go downstairs from the outside, through the graveyard, into the Catacombs, where numerous graves lay beneath the Hall.
Stephen didn’t win the literary award, but we had a grand time all weekend. Here’s Stephen after receiving his certificate as an SVA Nominee.
On our way home on Sunday, we stopped to see old friends Kesh Narayan and Annelie Wilde. As a fitting finale to the weekend, we went back to Rosy Tomorrow’s in Danbury, Connecticut to reprise the dinner we had on the last night of our 2022 road trip, coming home from our 30-day, 9,000-mile, nine bookstores journey around the country in support of our coauthored novel Pilgrim Maya.
Thanks to Egar Allan Poe for the inspiration! And the fun!
AUDIOBOOK COMING SOON: Stephen (and Bela) have just finished recording an audiobook version of The Zen Time Traveler for Discovery Publishers, with Stephen reading the part of the main character, Stephen Maine, and Bela reading the parts of the two women, his wife Joanna in the 21st century and his love interest Yabaku in 13th-century China. We had a great time making this recording! It should be out on Audible and other platforms in a couple of months.
Also, if you’ve purchased any version of The Zen Time Traveler including Kindle, and haven’t posted a review to Amazon or Goodreads, please do so. It helps us greatly. Thanks!