PAUL DALE ANDERSON RIP OLD CHUM

Paul died last night around 7:30PM.  I would have been walking home around then, it had stopped raining and it wasn't that cold out at all. I knew Paul longer than I did most writers in the area, because I first met him when he and his late wife Gretta were editing and publishing 2AM, which I've always considered to be the best small press magazine to have been published in. So we're talking 1985, 1986 here. I'm still living in Rogers Park. Paul published "Bleeding Between The Lines" (which was illustrated by Douglas C. Klauba) and was the last part of the Dennis Cassady trilogy. Paul had read both "Rapid Transit" and "Take The 'A' Train" when they were reprinted in YEAR'S BEST HORROR over two respective years and was willing to look at the third piece.

Three years ago, he did a reading at UIC, part of Bad Grammar Theater, and I had the pleasure to meet Elizabeth Aisling Flygare, who was with Paul at the end, at his home in Rockford. They had met at the Rockford Library, surrounded by books. If you were in Paul's house, you were surrounded by books.

He also wrote many novels, the first was CLAW HAMMER, and I lost my unsigned paperback copy from the 80s  to someone who borrowed it and lost it. Thankfully, he had found a home with Crossroad Press and they have a whole stack of his work in their catalogue.The one pictured was signed to me by Paul last year before we headed to St. Paul with Roger Trexler, the designated driver since it was his car, for Arcana 47. We were able to meet William F. Nolan, who is best known for LOGAN'S RUN, but we were all glad to see artist and actor Rodger Gerberding again. That's him holding up his beard soon after we first arrived. Within an hour we would be watching Jack Palance in his only role as Dracula. Roger, by the way, published FIENDS BY TORCHLIGHT and I CAN'T COME CLEAN.

I'll miss you Paul. A lot of people are talking about you right now. Know peace.

ONE OF THE GOOD THINGS FACEBOOK DOES...

Reminds of of old memories. Here's the gang at Arcana 47 last October in St. Paul. Rodger Gerberding, Paul Dale Anderson, Roger Trexler, me and four lonely mozzarella sticks.

PHOTOS FROM ARCANA 41

I'll eventually post my photos once T-Mobile lets me do so. For now, here's one of Rodger Gerberding, a fantastical artist and stage actor from Council Bluffs, Iowa, Paul Dale Anderson, author of Claw Hammer and a million other books, Roger Dale Trexler, who published two books of mine and has published several books of his own. Now a filmmaker, his first film, PLATYPOSSUM, was shown at a theater in Carbondale, Illinois. Then there's me with my mozzarella sticks. The second photo was taken by a very serious looking kid with a Wausau t-shirt on and he honestly looked like Snake Plisskin in Escape From New York. The third is of me in Paul's backyard in Rockford as we waited for Roger.

NEVER DID MAKE IT TO AXEMAN'S SURPLUS

Never did get a chance to go to Axeman's. I thought about taking a cab, it was only three miles away, but just gave up on the idea as Arcana 47 chugged along. Also, I was worried about money, but I did sell more books in the last few hours of the convention then I had expected. In retrospect, I should have gone.