BY: S.L. Schmitz
What do you call a room full of Hellraiser Cenobites, a line of people, a megastore in downtown London, and a brand new anthology from Dark Continents Publishing? The December 9, 2011 Phobophobia Book Launch, that’s what! 
The high profile book launch was hosted by the famous Forbidden Planet Megastore in Picadilly Circus, London, and the event was a huge success! Authors at the signing included Adrian Chamberlin, editor Dean M. Drinkel, Wayne Goodchild, Jonathan Green, Greg James, and S.L. Schmitz.
In addition, Dark Continents Publishing was honored to have Barbie Wilde, the Female Cenobite in the movie The Hellbound Heart from the Hellraiser film franchise, contribute a story to the Phobophobia Anthology – and than we were even more honored when she brought along some friends to the book signing! 
Cenobites Doug Bradley, otherwise known as Pinhead, and Nicholas Vince, The Chatterer, came to visit and stood patiently in line to have their copies of Phobophobia signed. They were really nice guys, too, which made the experience even more special.
After the Forbidden Planet launch, everyone gathered up their signing supplies and headed over to the London Bridge area to the British Fantasy Society’s gathering at the Mug House Pub. There, another rousing round of launching and signing occurred, and two lucky people won copies of Phobophobia in a drawing. Interim BFS Chairperson Graham Joyce and newly ratified BFS Chairperson Lee Harris were there, and they both congratulated Dark Continents on the successful publication of Phobophobia. Author Paul Kane, also a contributor to the anthology, showed up later in the evening. 
The Mug House was still full of people at last call, at which time editor Dean M. Drinkel rounded up a bunch of friends and led the way to a private after-hours club. After a few hours of dancing, drinking rum and Cokes that cost £10.50 each (that’s $20 American dollars per drink, for those of you that need a conversion) and listening to really bad drum machine music, a few hearty souls known as Dean, S.L. Schmitz, Ade Chamberlin, Greg James, and Fiona Ní Éalaighthe went in search of good curry and good 5AM conversation.
Everything that happened after that is top secret to protect the innocent. See you next time at the next fabulous Dark Continents Publishing book launch!
