Imaginales in Crisis

Long-time readers will remember that I very much enjoyed my trip to Épinal (the ‘home of comics’) in France for the Imaginales festival. It had a lot of the feel of a traditional science fiction convention, but was run in conjunction with the municipal authorities which meant that it was a) free and b) very […]

Imaginales 2009

I should start off this diary by apologizing for mis-pronouncing the name of the convention in the first few videos. As some of you may have seen me note from France, I think I’ve picked up Spanish-language habits from California. For non-French-speakers, the ‘s’ on the end of Imaginales is silent. The first video is […]

More Imaginales Photos

Thanks to a comment on David Anthony Durham’s con report, I have found some more photos from Imaginales. These are by a professional photographer and are therefore much better than mine. There are two sets, one mainly of the costumed persons, and one of the body painting. See, I wasn’t fibbing about the nakedness.

Imaginales 2009

Well, that was my first convention in France, and I have to pronounce it a great success. Where to start? Probably on the Eurostar. Mostly when I go to conventions I fly. In the USA it is often the only sensible way to get from one city to another. But Europe has trains, which are […]

Imaginales – Day 2 Wrap

First up I have discovered to my embarrassment that I have been mis-pronouncing the name of the convention for ages. The final ‘s’ of Imaginales is silent. I have been spending too much time with Latino people, I think, and my mind processes foreign languages as if they are Spanish. Today has been amazing. Around […]

Imaginales: Day 2

Hello everyone. I am writing this from the Internet lounge at the convention, which is an interesting experience as the French keyboard layout is subtly different to the UK/US one. My laptop is back at the hotel and it is raining heavily. I don’t want to get my fur wet. If you have seen the […]

The Race for 2023

There has been some discussion on Twitter today about potential future Worldcon sites. Washington DC has been awarded the 2021 convention. It is probably too late to do anything about 2022, for which Chicago is unopposed. That leaves us with 2023 as the next possible non-US Worldcon. Prior to Dublin the extant bids for 2023 […]

Trudi in France

Had I not run into some fairly severe financial problems, I would have spent last weekend in France. As it turned out, I had a lovely time in Oxford instead, but my Melbourne friend Trudi Canavan did make it to Epinal (she’s on a book tour) and she has posted some lovely pictures of the […]

Off to Oxford

It is convention time again. Tomorrow I will be in Oxford for the The Write Fantastic’s annual get-together. There is a fabulous line-up of guests including Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Pat Cadigan, Mary Hoffman, Stan Nicholls, Anne Gay, Ben Jeapes, Mike Shevdon, Ian Watson, Sarah Ash, Juliet E Mckenna, Kari Sperring, Freda Warrington, Liz Williams and […]

Alt.Fiction 2010

Alt.Fiction is a rather different sort of convention. Indeed, a lot of fans would not recognize it as a convention at all, because it isn’t run by a fannish group, but by an arts organization. And, like Imaginales, it is funded in part by the local council. The current parent organization is Writing East Midlands, […]

Forthcoming Events Reminder

As people have been asking, here’s what’s coming up in the next couple of months. This Saturday I will be in Oxford for the Write Fantastic 5th Anniversary Convention. Juliet McKenna has a great collection of writers lined up. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there. I doubt that I’ll make the first panel (sorry […]