I've Made It to Cross Plains - Now What?

This REH Days Overview Part 3 is brought to you by It's Thursday - What the Heck Do I Do Now?!

With all the magical electronic gadgets available today, getting to Cross Plains, Texas is a lot easier than it used to be! So, you've driven in to this small town for Howard Days and you have found the House located on the western edge of town on the south side of Highway 36. You made it! But it's Thursday...

This year the Howard Museum will be open on Thursday June 12 from 2-4 pm. If you come in then (and a lot of folks do) you will find there are no docents on duty at the House, but you can enter and look around to your heart's content; the Gift Shop is open as well. You can also hang out at the adjacent Alla Ray Morris Pavilion, where tables and chairs are set up for the weekend's activities. You will most likely find a number of people already there swapping lies and telling stories. The Pavilion is the congregation point for Howard Days, the place where we meet up for the entire weekend. All are welcome to come and sit and make up your own lies; some of the Featured Attendees will be there as well. It is all very informal and we are all happy to help with any questions you have or information you need. We are friends first, anal-retentive Robert E. Howard fans second! Step right up, don't be shy! We're all here because of Bob Howard!

There is usually an informal dinner gathering on Thursday; we drive to Brownwood, eat at Humphrey Pete's and then make a sundown sojourn to REH's grave site in the Green Leaf Cemetery. This is not a scheduled activity and most folks do this on their own. Later, after dark we congregate again at the Pavilion for the first of three nights of such an activity. More lies and stories (you're probably seeing a theme...)

Friday is Day 1 of Howard Days, starting at 8:30 am and going long into the night. Donuts to Dinner and Beyond, you might say. Saturday is Day 2 and very similar to Friday: Nine AM to Sunset BBQ. I've published the summary schedule in an earlier blog post, so please refer to that. I'll be adding details to all the scheduled events in future posts over the next week, so please check back. No lies, I promise.

Now THIS is a Silent Auction Item!

Well, all right! The Silent Auction items are starting to roll in for Howard Days on June 13-14! Pictured above is a truly unique piece created by Larry Pointer. Here's what he has to say about it:

"While doing some repairs to the REH Museum, we saved some of the original siding, and a glass pane from Robert's bedroom. Shirley Petty Clark used her remarkable talent to do the etching of Robert on the glass pane, and I made the frame from the siding. This will be one of the items for the auction during the banquet on June 13th, 2014. A must have item for a Robert E. Howard fan."

Thanks go out to Larry and Shirley! The bidding is sure to be fast and furious for this wonderful piece. Remember: 100% of the proceeds from the Silent Auction go to the upkeep of the REH Museum! But - you can only bid if you are in attendance at the Celebration Banquet. One of the perks for showing up in Cross Plains for The Best Two Days in Howard Fandom!

Y'all come!

Robert E. Howard Days Overview Part 2

Why the heck I haven't uploaded this before is beyond me! Project Pride produced this handy dandy promotional brochure a few years ago. While there have been some minor updates and additions to the house since then, this flyer holds true to give you an incredible amount of information within the space of two pages. Overview Part 3 coming tomorrow!

Featured Attendees - FULBRIGHT & HAWKES

Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes have been inspired by Robert E. Howard since childhood. Professional Horror and Fantasy writers, Fulbright & Hawkes are former members of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. Their annual pilgrimage to Cross Plains for REH Days usually results in a new Howard-inspired work of fiction or at the very least a long list of awesome ideas.

Christopher Fulbright is a journalist turned technical writer whose fiction has received honorable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and Best Horror of the Year. Angeline Hawkes is a former high school teacher turned Bram Stoker Award nominated writer who writes primarily historical horror and heroic fantasy. Her heroic fantasy series Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar, is very much inspired by Howard's works.

When not writing individually or collaboratively, the Texas Twosome are busy parenting four children and an insane cat who fancies himself "the fifth child." Check out their website, Fulbright & Hawkes.

A Robert E. Howard Days Overview Part 1

As there are less than three weeks to go until Howard Days begins, we're beginning a series of posts to give you as much information as possible to enhance your attendance or even to entice you into coming! There is a total information package over at www.rehupa.com (click the REH DAYS 2014 tab) that gives you pretty much everything you'll need to know in one shot. We'll be doing a more condensed version of that here but still give you the facts about The Best Two Days in Howard Fandom.

A brief history will tell you that the first Howard Days was actually a day: June 13, 1986 found ten intrepid visitors converging on Cross Plains for an event organized by Rusty Burke and some of the fine folks of the town. The wise people of Cross Plains then realized that they "had" something here - their town was home to a man who created a literary sub-genre and a world-known fictional character - and people wanted to come see where he lived and worked. When the house in which Bob Howard lived became available, the civic organization Project Pride of Cross Plains was formed to buy the house. Without making it sound overly easy, Project Pride not only fixed up the ramshackle structure but then turned it into the Robert E. Howard Museum. Their foresight has insured that the Legacy of Robert E. Howard will continue on.

Ok, down to brass tacks: ROBERT E. HOWARD DAYS is a two-day festival honoring the memory and legacy of Ol' Two-Gun Bob Howard, a true Texan and American original. It takes place every second weekend in June in at the Robert E. Howard Museum on Highway 36 in Cross Plains, Texas; this year it will happen Friday and Saturday, June 13th & 14th.

Howard Days includes these (and more) events: the Howard House & Museum is open both days from 9 to 4; you may tour the house and the surrounding grounds and enjoy a cool drink in the Pavilion next to the house, view a large selection of Howard items in both the Gift Shop and at the REH Swap Meet, attend panels at the Cross Plains Library where you can view original REH manuscripts, get a special postal cancellation souvenir, take a bus tour around town, have a cook-out lunch, enjoy a celebration Banquet and Silent Auction, have some genuine Texas BBQ at a genuine Texas ranch - and best of all, enjoy the fellowship and friendliness of Robert E. Howard fans and the people of Cross Plains.

There is a small fee ONLY for your dinner at the Friday night Banquet. Every other event and activity is FREE of charge. There's not a better deal around for your vacation dollar!

If you are still on the fence about coming down, please know that you don't need to officially register - but if you do decide, the registration fee applies only to your dinner at the Banquet. The folks of Project Pride like to also use this registration as a measuring stick, but you do not have to register to attend any of the activities.

If you would like to register, send $15.00 per person to Project Pride REH Registration, POB 534, Cross Plains, TX 76443 or via Pay Pal: ProjPride@yahoo.com. Seating is limited at the Banquet so please register as early as you can (by June 6th).

Like I was saying, this is the first in a series of more specific posts about Howard Days. We'll be continuing with our Featured Attendees posts as well.

We certainly hope to see you at Howard Days this year. It really IS the Best Two Days in Howard Fandom!

Featured Attendee - LEE BREAKIRON

A fan of Robert E. Howard since the 1960s and a collector for nearly as long, Lee Breakiron has been a regular attendee of Howard Days since 2002 and a member of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association since 2009. He has contributed articles to various publications including The Cimmerian, REH: Two Gun Raconteur, and The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, as well as the essay collection Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Celebration.

Considered the leading authority on Howard fanzines, Lee posts his work at the REHEAPA web site and is currently compiling the first comprehensive Bibliography of Secondary Sources on REH. A retired scientist, he resides in New Jersey with his wife Teiko.

Featured Attendee - BARBARA BARRETT

Barbara Barrett has been an enthusiastic and dedicated Robert E. Howard fan since 2006. Shortly after watching The Whole Wide World, she began reading REH and through his stories she discovered his extraordinary ability with words, images and strongly written characters.  Eventually Barbara found her way from Howard’s poetic prose to his poetry and subsequently compiled and edited The Wordbook: An Index Guide to the Poetry of Robert E. Howard, which won the the 2009 REH Foundation Atlantean Award.

She has won three other REH awards for her work on Howard and has she has contributed to the The Cimmerian, REH: Two Gun Raconteur, Black Gate, and others. She has been a member of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association since 2008 and her ongoing REH column "Word of the Week" has appeared weekly in various venues since 2010.