jacey | Entries tagged with conventions

Fantasycon-by-the-Sea in late September was... interesting. It was held at the Grand Hotel, Scarborough, which is undoubtedly no longer grand, though it is big.

It remains the most writerly of cons with most panels aimed at writers and peopled by writers and industry professionals. Its progamme is hard to fault and there are lots of book launches and plenty of freebie books. (I scored Adrian Tchaikovsky's Guns of the Dawn, Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Helen Keen's The Science of Game of Thrones.) I signed up for a couple of excellent small events, including the Scott Lynch and Elizabeth Bear one on being a writer.

The panel rooms were a good size (some of them in the Grand's sister hotel just round the corner) and there was always social seating available in at least one of the bars. The Grand Hotel was actually a perfect setting for a horror con, but it worked for fantasy, too. 365 rooms, 12 floors, four turrets for days of the year/months/seasons. It's Victorian Gothick or possibly Victorian Grotesque. (Just check out the brickwork in the photo.) It must have been very grand in its heyday, but now it's being milked by Pontins. The maximum profit for the minimum amount of renovation/upkeep seems to be the way of things, so there are patches of damp plaster, broken toilets, lifts that don't work (and when they do you kind of wish you weren't trusting your life to them). The lounge bar which still has glorious ornamental plaster pillars similar to the ones in the Brighton Pavilion now has a row of fruit machines, and the corridor leading to the dealer rooms was jam-packed with re-charging mobility scooters.

IMG_20160923_140643448

But the staff were unfailingly pleasant and you can't beat it for value for money. The basic room-share cost £40 per person per night for bed, breakfast and evening meal. I'm surprised they can function at all at that price. We paid an extra tenner per person per night for a sea-view room and a place in the 'posh' dining room. (Same food but no gueues.) That was a good move. Our room was tired, but functional and clean, and the view over South Bay was magnificent. Bonus was an enormous 'afternoon tea' at the Grand. It was so big we didn't know whether to eat it or ride it. I don't normally take photos of food but this had to be an exception.

Here's a list of things you might be interested in on my writing blog over on Wordpress.
No pressure.

Christmas is Coming November 18, 2015

Winterwood Cover Reveal October 31, 2015

Gail Z Martin – Five Questions – Guest Post October 30, 2015

Winterwood Cover Revealed at Fantasy Book Cafe October 30, 2015

What has NaNoWriMo Ever Done for Us? October 26, 2015

Fantasycon 2016 October 25, 2015

Loncon3, page proofs, Milford1, 4 days at home, Fantasycon (York), 5 days at home, Milford2. That's my August/September schedule. In the middle of all that I have to keep up the essentials of the day job and continue writing the second book.

Well, I just got home from Fantasycon in York, which was a small but very friendly convention (highly recommended) with a high proportion of writers. I met a number of new people, attended some interesting panels and caught up with friends. I also came home with an overdose of freebie books, which... well... no... there's no such thing as too many books, so let me revise that. I also came home with a stack of exciting new books to read, learn and inwardly digest. Many thanks to Gollancz and all the publishers who contributed. The freebie books almost made up for the cost of the hotel. Comfortable as The Royal York was, the price was appallingly expensive for anyone without a room-share, at £129 per night (single occupancy. It would only have cost £139 for two people to share. Basically a single person pays for two - minus the cost of one breakfast. Next year's Fantasycon is in Nottingham, so hopefully at a more modestly priced hotel, because I really would like to attend again and if I attend a con I don't want to be in an outlier hotel. I want to be able to retreat to my room as and when I need to.

So... I've successfully survived, Loncon3, Fantasycon, one Milford (and all the reading for it) and the trial of having to do page proofs for my upcoming book in three days flat. So now all I have to do is all the reading prep for the second of this year's two Milfords and the Milford week itself, which (due to intensity of schedule and cost) I'm departing from early - catching a train back to Huddersfield on Thursday evening after the last crit session.

Oh, yes, and I have to finish the second book by October.
<ahem>
Better get writing, then.

What an experience. Upwards of eight thousand people in London's Excel Centre (out beyond Docklands) experiencing SFF overload for five days with panels, costumes, exhibits and retail therapy. Famous names and infamous ones. And a lot of people having fun.

Excel is cavernous and impersonal but the Con Committee had done their best to humanise the Fan Village with gazebos and designated areas for kids, quiet reading, bar, enquiries, societies and all the con bids for future years - most of them offering freebies, food, drink and parties to swing the vote their way.

There was also plenty of extra seating space on the concourse, a kind of elongated food court that was also the through way from Excel East to Excel West - a half-mile hike which felt twice that long. Excel is so huge you can catch a DLR train from one end to the other. I walked my feet off.

The programme was great and I did see some panels, but not as many as I had marked in my book. Sadly some were oversubscribed and the security crew (hired in by Excel) were hot on kicking out anyone who hadn't got a chair - in some cases interrupting panely that had already started with little in the way of tact. Some panels didn't quite end up being what they were supposed to be (the post colonialism one missed its mark by not extrapolating into the future, or talking in general terms about how to write post colonialism, and seemed to take an hour to tell us which current countries were post-colonial), but some were excellent. Full marks to the one on swearing in SF. Great laugh! I did three panerls and no one threw rotten tomatoes, so they seemed to go down well.

Lovely to meet Ann Leckie at the SFWA reception. I'm delighted Ancilliary Justice got the Hugo. Well deserved.

rasfc meet1024x764

There were lots of Milford people there, regulars and new ones, and a gathering of people I knew from the usenet newsgroup, r.a.sf.c (rec.arts.science fiction.composition) consisting of people I'd met before and some I knew only from the net from as far afield as Germany, France, the USA and Alaska (yes, I know that's the USA as well!). Great to be goven a signed copy of Bill Swears' book Zook Country. Thanks, Bill.

I got whisked off to dinner twice by my editor, Sheila Gilbert, once to a small gathering and once to the official DAW dinner with Sheila and Betsy plus Seanan McGuire, Michelle Sagara West, Tanya Huff, Fiona Patton, Kari Sperring, Ben Aaronovitch, various partners and DAW's British agent. A delightful gathering at the Gun, a historic riverside pub in the Docklands area with a private dining room on the riverside opposite the Dome. Highly recommended.

Here's my schedule for Loncon-3. Hope to see some of you there.

Extrapolation on Screen
Thursday 18:00 - 19:00, Capital Suite 4 (ExCeL)
SF on screen, even or perhaps especially at its most political, seems reluctant to extrapolate directly from our present time. Instead, political works such as The Hunger Games or Defiance are often set after a radical change; or avoid extrapolating at all by dealing in secrets and conspiracies, like Orphan Black and Person of Interest. Possible contemporary exceptions include Continuum and Almost Human, but why are they so uncommon? Are important questions being dodged, or can the absence of extrapolation be a strength (and if so, how)?
With: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro , Juliana Goulart, Michael Morelli, Adam Rakunas, Jacey Bedford

2014 Hugos: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Saturday 11:00 - 12:00, Capital Suite 13 (ExCeL)
The nominees for this year's Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form, are:

An Adventure in Space and Time written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Terry McDonough (BBC Television)

Doctor Who: “The Day of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Television)

Doctor Who: “The Name of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Televison)

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot written & directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television)

Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

Orphan Black: “Variations under Domestication” written by Will Pascoe, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space / BBC America)

But which should win? Our panel will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the nominees, try to second-guess the voters, and tell you what else should have been on the ballot.
With: Ashley Pollard, Iain Clark, Jacey Bedford, Abigail Brady, Saxon Bullock

Finding an Agent
Saturday 12:00 - 13:30, Capital Suite 16 (ExCeL)
A great query letter is all you need! Write a great manuscript and the rest doesn't matter! Network at conventions and you're in good shape! These nuggets of advice and dozens like them float around the writersphere as gospel. How many of these have a ring of truth? What is the secret to finding an agent? And what does an agent do once you have one? Our agents will decrypt the process.
With: Betsy Mitchell, Jacey Bedford, Joshua Bilmes, Ian Drury, John Jarrold

Looks like I’m going to have a busy morning on Saturday at Loncon3 in August. I get to spout guff about Doctor Whoish goodness and Red Wedding gore. And then sit on a panel with: an agent who rejected me, and an agent who made me an offer but whom I turned down (with much heart-searching) in favour of my present agent Amy Boggs of Donald Maass. Should be fun.

2014 Hugos: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Saturday 11:00 – 12:00

The nominees for this year’s Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form, are:

An Adventure in Space and Time written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Terry McDonough (BBC Television)

Doctor Who: “The Day of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Television)

Doctor Who: “The Name of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Televison)

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot written & directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television)

Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

Orphan Black: “Variations under Domestication” written by Will Pascoe, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space / BBC America)

But which should win? Our panel will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the nominees, try to second-guess the voters, and tell you what else should have been on the ballot.

With: Ashley Pollard Ms. (M) , Iain Clark , Jacey Bedford, Abigail Brady, Saxon Bullock.

Finding an Agent

Saturday 12:00 – 13:30

A great query letter is all you need! Write a great manuscript and the rest doesn’t matter! Network at conventions and you’re in good shape! These nuggets of advice and dozens like them float around the writersphere as gospel. How many of these have a ring of truth? What is the secret to finding an agent? And what does an agent do once you have one? Our agents will decrypt the process.

With: Betsy Mitchell (M), Jacey Bedford, Joshua Bilmes, Ian Drury, John Jarrold

I hope to see some of you at Eastercon in Glasgow. I'm on a couple of panels as follows:

Writers' groups
Friday 17:00 - 18:00
Panellists: Tony Ballantyne, Tina Anghelatos, Ruth E.J. Booth, Elaine Gallagher, and Jacey Bedford

Writing, submitting, and finding an agent
Saturday 15:00 - 16:00
Panellists: Tony Ballantyne, Martin Sketchley, Jacey Bedford, John Meaney, John Jarrold

When not on panels you might very well find me in the bar with various writer-folks. If you need to find me I'm staying in the main con hotel.

Andromeda One is a one-day SF, fantasy and horror convention taking place on Saturday 21st September 2013 from 11am to 22:00pm with Dealer's Room open at 09:00am and early bird kaffeeklatches from 08:30am.

Taking place at the Custard Factory in Birmingham, it brings together a host of science-fiction, fantasy and horror writers and publishers for a day loaded with book launches, kaffeeklatches, panels, signings, writing and publishing workshops and much more.

There will be a stream dedicated to workshops on gender parity and multiculturalism and disabilities in the SFF/Horror community

Single Tickets are £25 each; Group Tickets (for up to five people) are £100. Prices held until 9th August 2013.
Prices go up 10th August 2013 to £27.00 or Group ticket £110.00

GUESTS OF HONOUR include Paul Cornell and Jaine Fenn.
Plus sessions with an impressive range of speakers: Chris Amies, Jacey Bedford, Misa Buckley (SFR) Mike Chinn, Theresa Derwin, Jan Edwards (Alchemy Press & Editor/Writer) Janet Edwards SF Writer, Simon Marshall-Jones of Spectral Press, Adrian Middleton, Stan Nicholls & Anne Gay/Nicholls, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mark West and Ian Whates.

Book your tickets now at http://terror-tree.co.uk/andromeda-one/

I had a lovely time at Eastercon in Bradford this weekend. A big congratulations and thank you to all the organisers and volunteers, plus kudos to the hotel staff for being unfailingly helpful and friendly. I ended up on two extra panels so I had a busy Friday moderating the Zulu Culture panel, taking part in the Characterisation panel and then MC-ing the Zulu Tradition concert. The Zulus had a whale of a time and stuck around afterwards to continue answering questions as long as peorple wanted to ask them. They gave excellent value in the Culture panel introducing it with a song and a small dramatisation to illustrate the work of a Sangoma (traditional healer) and then talking about historical and present day aspects. It was a perfect example of how and ancient and modern culture can exist side by side, curled around each other like puppies in a basket. The Zulu concert was hugely energetic and, judging by the queue to buy CDs in the interval, extremely well received.

I always love the opportunity to babble on about writing and books, so the Character panel was probably my favourite of the weekend, but I was asked to do a couple of panels on Sunday, one on Alan Garner (a favourite of mine from my childhood) and the other on Cityscapes, which I didn't think I knew much about, but it turns out I had plenty to say.

And the other lovely aspect of Eastercon was seeing friends: I travelled up with Jaine Fenn and her husband Dave Weddell who had stayed over with us on Thursday night. I'd arranged to meet up with Charlie Allery, Tina Anghelatos, Sue Thomason (my room-mate) and John Moran - all writers I've known for many years from Milford and from the r.a.sf.c usenet newsgroup, with John's wife Sara, a proto writer working hard at her craft. We planted ourselves firmly in the corner of the bar, becoming adept at maintaining a space even with various people coming and going were several other writers who have attended Milford over the years, including Chris Butler whose novella, 'Flight of the Ravens' was shortlisted for a BSFA award (which sadly he did not win, but the nomination alone was great recognition). Well done, Chris.

I'm already booked for World Fantasy Con in Brighton in October/November 2013, Eastercon 2014 in Glasgow and the London Worldcon in August 2014. Looking forward to future events and meeting up again with good friends. I've only been going to SF cons for a few years, but I'm hooked.

I'll be at Eastercon from fairly early on Friday until fairly late on Monday. I just got my schedule for panels and everything was crammed into Friday evening so I've had to drop put of the Superheroes on Film panel as it doesn't fiish until 5 and and I'm moderating the Zulu panel at 5 and will have to meet them and prep them for ut. They've never been to a SF con before.

So unless they give me something to replace the Superheroes panel later in the weekend I'm here:

Friday 5 p.m. Boardroom: Moderating the Zulu Panel. 'In advance of tonight?s show, members of Zulu Tradition talk about the Zulu culture and tradition. ' With Thandanani Gumede, Buhle Mhlongo, Khethukhuthulu Kheswa, Mzwandile Ngema and Bongi Siyabonga Gwala.

Friday 7 p.m. Boardroom: Writing Believable Characters. Practical experience and observations on writing believable and interesting characters. Gillian Redfearn moderates Sarah Ash, Jacey Bedford, Gareth Powell and Ian Watson

Friday 8 p.m. Zulu Tradition in Concert. From Kwa-Zulu Natal to the world's stage, rekindling the spark of Zulu culture and heritage, through song, dance and drums. Some of you have read about the trials and tribulations of the Zulus on my blog,so come and see what they're all about.

I hope there's going to be an opportunity for folks who've been to Milford to get together - and maybe fior folks who want to know more abut it to come and meet us, too. Milford 2013 is already fully booked, but with 2014 being the worldcon year we're hoping to run two separate Milford weeks, one in August to happen shortly after Worldcon to enable folks from out of the country to do Milford and Worldcon on the same plane ticket - and then one at in September to enable those folks tied up with working at Worldcon to recover from it and not miss out on Milford.

I'll be at Novacon in Nottingham over the weekend. Hope to see some of you there. I hope to be arriving lunchtine-ish on Friday as I have some writing to do and can just as easily take the little eeePC and get on with it in the bar/in my room until everyone else arrives. I'm on the 'Conspiracy Theory' panel in Friday evening and probably hanging around with friends most of the rest of the time.

I've left BB a big beefy, red-winy, root-vegy casserole in the slow cooker. (Himself is a committed non-con-goer and will be spending the weekend talking to the dog, whose conversation is generally better thsan mine during NaNoWriMo anyway.) I've almost finished packing - aiming for a minimalistic approach but I'm not sure I'll succeed. Now I have a bit of day-job work to mop up before getting my act together and... see some of you tomorrow...

Just back from Eastercon held this year at Heathrow and featuring guests George R R Martin and Paul Cornell, amongst others. Lovely to see so many friends. Mentioning everyone by name would be next to impossible, but I flew down from Manchester with John and Sara Moran and arranged to meet up with

charlieallery,

tina_anghelatos and

heleninwales (and despite the weirdgeography of the hotel actually managed to do that).

mevennen was there with the lovely T and their Witchcraft Shop stall in the dealers room and I ran into no end of writers I know from Milford, some of whom I haven't seen for a few years.

Panels were great, with many interesting ones on various aspects of books/writing/publishing. Special kudos to Joe Abercrombie who, despite his books being dark, gritty and full of entrails, proved to be a funny and charming panellist and not at all inclined to wield edged weapons. One of the best panels of the whole weekend was 'There's a hole in my plot' which, despite Joe Abercrombie bouncing laughs off the rest of the panellists for the whole fifty minutes, still managed to deliver some useful insights about plotting.

George R.R. Martin and Paul Cornell were both hugely entertaining and seemed like jolly nice chaps.

I volunteered for panels this year - first time ever - and was pleased to be invited to sit on a panel called 'How pseudo do you like your Medieval?' A nice little session (I thought) discussing the use of historical periods as a setting for your fantasy book. I didn't find out who the other panellists were until a bare couple of weeks beforehand: George R R Martin, Juliet McKenna, Anne Lyle and Anne C Perry (moderator). And instead of being in a little room it was on the main stage in the big Commonwealth auditorium with cameras and a video screen (and also streamed live over the net) and a full audience of several hundred. I have to say that Anne C Perry did an amazing job of moderating it. Everyone got a fair turn and the questions kept us all right on track. I managed to get a couple of laughs and a ripple of applause which was very gratifying. I must have said something pertinent, though for the life of me I can't remember what. I don't think it was recorded, but if anyone finds it on youtube, please let me know.

The Easterecon committee did a fabulous job or orgaising and delivered four days of excellent programming. The only thing that let the con down was the hotel, or aspects of it. The rooms were fine and the beds comfortable, so I could forgive almost everything else, however there wasn't enough social space (apparently one of their bars was out of action) and the available spaces (the Bijou Bar or the Atrium) were extremely noisy. The Bijou Bar having thump-thump music which increased in volume as the night progressed and the Atrium being a huge open space with acoustics like a swimming pool and very little seating. The con food - which was very reasonably priced at a tenner for two courses - offered no choice of menu, do if you didn't happen to like beef stroganoff served with minted potatoes, you were left with the restaurant at between £13 and £22 for a main course or Bijou Bar prices at £11.50 for a burger. One thing which did rankle in the Bijou Bar was £7.50 plus a service charge for one cappucino and one half-full cups of coffee which took fifteen minutes to make. I do appreciate that there are a limited number of hotels big enough to take a convention of 1400 people, so I have no problems with the committee's choice of venue.

What I have decided is that after a somewhat shaky and bemused start at the rescue con at Chester a few years ago, where I felt totally out of my depth, I like Eastercon and will be signing up annually. Birmingham last year was hugely enjoyable and Heathrow this year has clnched it.

la_marquise_de_ is one of the organising committee who recently got the go-ahead for Eastercon 2013 in Bradford, so I've paid up for that. I'm told that the hotel is lovely and very welcoming to Eastercon, and it has the advantage of being close to home. Already looking forward to it.