On this date ten years ago, I was set up at the Flashback Weekend show, selling my usually wares of horror reference books. Some things just don’t change, you know? Well, on this fateful day, a guy stopped by the table and was looking through the books I had on display. I noticed this bad-ass Godzilla shirt that he was wearing that I knew my son would get a kick out of, since he was really getting into the Kai-ju films around then. So I mentioned this to him and asked him where he got the shirt. That led us to talking about Godzilla films and eventually horror reference books. It seems that this gentleman was in the beginning process of starting to write his own film guide book. Of course, I offered my services to him, that I might be able to help him out finding some titles that he hadn’t been able to find. We had a nice conversation, exchanged info, and he walked away. Little did I realize how much this man was going to change my life. In the ten years since that fateful weekend, he has not only become my editor, my soundboard, my Turkey Day co-pilot, a life coach, but also has taught me in more ways in not only appreciating the horror genre, but other fans as well. He has also become one of my best friends. This guy’s name is Aaron Christensen.

On his first trip out to the Krypt, his goal was to have me look over his list of movies and see if I could give him my thoughts on trying to narrow down the number of titles for the first part of his book. But as we were going through my collection, I kept pulling out titles saying “Wait…you’ve never seen this? This one HAS to be in your list.” After about the tenth time, he finally realized that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he first realized. Of course, after many discussions later, and many films watched, this would evolve into the book Horror 101: The A List of Horror Films and Monster Movies. Not only was I honored to be able to contribute two essays for it, this would also be my first real published work. Unless, of course, you count the few letters that showed up in Fangoria’s Postal Zone! But Aaron was always encouraging me in my writing, beating into my head the joys of self-editing, and pushing me farther than I ever would have gone on my own. I would later contribute another essay to his second book Hidden Horror, as well as writing a column for HorrorHound magazine, which would eventually win a Rondo Award for. I really don’t think these would have happened without Aaron’s guidance, faith, and friendship with me. And that is a debt that I could never repay, but will forever keep trying. There are people we have in our lives that inspire us to be better. Better at what we do and at who we are. Aaron is one of those.

Over this last decade, we have travelled together to many conventions, film festivals and movie marathons, and watched more than a few flicks together, always bouncing off our opinions with each other, sometimes agreeing and sometimes agreeing to disagree. And I really hope that this is just the beginning.

Thanks Aaron for what you have done for me, not just on a professional level, but more importantly on a personal one.