2005 - 05/2005 Meeting
Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/29/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 06/04/08.
C J HENDERSON
Genre Books:
Baby's First Mythos
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies
A Field Guide to Monsters
Step on a Crack
The Teddy London Series:
All Things Under the Moon
The Only Thing To Fear
Some Things Come Back
Some Things Never Die
The Stench of Fresh Air
The Thing that Darkness Hides
The Things that Are Not There
The author's website is: http://www.cjhenderson.com/.
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: May 14, 2005.
Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 32.
Meeting Program: Talk by Fantasy Writer.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2005 Philip J De Parto:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County conducted its most recent general meeting on Saturday, May 14, 2005 at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Author C J Henderson was the speaker.
The pre meeting events went a bit differently than originally planned. Chuck Garofalo was sick, so we were unable to show TOKOYO GODFATHERS. Instead, we screened THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE at the gathering of Anime Associates. The Final Frontier's discussion of Underwater Science Fiction soon turned into a requiem for ENTERPRISE and the whole STAR TREK franchise.
Mr Henderson is the author of over a dozen fiction and non fiction books of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery and media. He has also written numerous short stories for a variety of theme anthologies, especially those with a bent for Lovecraftian horror.
One of the non fiction books penned by our guest is THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES, and the first section of his talk was devoted to science fiction cinema. He and a group of his buddies would get together every Friday night foor a span of four years, drink beer and watch five movies in a row as research for the project. Entries include movies from three centuries, the oldest being from 1897.
There was a lot of give and take from the audience on this subject, with cheers and jeers being expressed for some of his ratings. Occasionally different parts of the room applauded and booed the same opinion.
Mr Henderson's first love is hard boiled detective noir. He enjoys the moral ambiguity of the genre, but his heroes ultimately own up and take moral responsibility for their actions. He resolutely avoids one cliche of the genre -- his characters are never knocked unconscious by a blow to the head because that causes brain damage. He sets his stories in present day New York because that's his turf, and he knows it. No matter how much research you do on Montana, for example, you will always have someone come up to you and tell you that you got something wrong.
Another love of the author is the Cthulhu Mythos. He first encountered Lovecraft when he was 14 and the stories "scared the piss out of me." He has often crossed the two genres, having a noir detective become involved with a bit of Lovecraftian horror.
This led naturally to his most creative and delightfully demented book, BABY'S FIRST MYTHOS. Illustrated by his daughter, Erica, his children's book format has entries like "C is for Cthulhu, Who lies in Ryleth a'dreaming, One sight of whom leaves most, Gibbering, drooling or screaming." There is a whole meeting's worth of stories from this title along. Simply put, a great guest and a great meeting.