Our gracious host is the Hilton Garden Inn of Edison, New Jersey. They are giving us a rate of $85 -- which is, candidly, pretty damn amazing for a Hilton. Call the hotel to reserve your spot - (732) 225-0900.

MAKE SURE THEY PUT YOU ON THE SECOND FLOOR!

This will mean that you are in our room block. At our last event, the hotel put us on different floors, and this proved very problematic, because we were mixed in with regular hotel guests. This drastically increased the number of noise complaints and problems we had... plus, being on the 4th and 5th floors was really unpleasant when there was a problem with the elevator.

If you smoke, just email me; I have arranged with the GM to create some smoking rooms on the 2nd floor (they're normally restricted to the 5th.)

Go ahead! Get a room! Relax! Celebrate after the event ends! Hang out with other attendees! Buy more rooms, which in turn means I will save slightly more money, which makes me really happy, because I am a greedy bastard.

General etiquette note We are taking out a room block, and people within that room block are going to have less likelihood of bothering their neighbors than people on floors with non-conventioneers. Still. Be considerate. Don't be really damn loud. If you desire to use intoxicants of some kind, do so in private. And--you know, I am sure I don't have to say this, but... in general, do be aware, ESPECIALLY in public areas, that we are not the only people in this hotel, and the nice hotel needs to stay in business and not have its "normal" guests be miserable. Oh, don't get me wrong, if you are wearing a kangaroo outfit and some tourist complains, I have totally got your back. But if you are acting wholly inappropriately in some area that we haven't rented for our exclusive use--say, a hallway--and the hotel wants to kick you out, I may very well take their side. I am all for being wild. But I am really against being STUPID.

FOOD

Hotels have strengths and weaknesses. They're really well set-up for specific, sit-down dinners. They're not amazingly well set-up for large numbers of a la carte diners.

So here's what we've done.

The hotel's charging us $16.95/person, plus 20% gratuity (so, yes, you're paying less for this food than we are. Because we love you.)--for an excellent meal for sixty (buy your tickets now!). Yes, there will be vegetarian options. No, other than the fact that there will be coffee, tea, soft drinks, salad, main course, and dessert, they haven't told us what the menu is, exactly. We hope to know by next week.

What we've decided to do, then, is take this meal and make it as fun as we can, and give it a real "Halloween" flavor...it will be... a Spooky Murder Mystery!

Possibly Lovecraftian! Probably Lovecraftian!

You provide $18. The hotel does what it's good at, providing nice linens, a table setup, silverware, and catered food. We provide the murder.

What could be better?