BristolCon meeting this evening. Staying overnight. Straight on to Birmingham for BICS tomorrow. Not much blogging. Hopefully lots of tweeting.
Conventions
Grossman Meets Banks
Over at Time Lev Grossman talks to Iain Banks (and Iain M Banks) about Transition, The Culture and other things. I’m kind of surprised that the discussion of fantasy didn’t mention Inversions, because I have seen at least one review where the poor reviewer thought it was a fantasy novel. However, the question that many people will focus in on is the one about Banksy’s mountaineering exploits at the 1987 Worldcon. And that question got me all pathetically excited because it sounds like Grossman first heard the story when he was listening to the interview that I did with Neil Gaiman at Worldcon.
(No, of course I didn’t get a name check. Don’t be silly. But I am now even more pleased that Neil chose to tell the whole Brighton Metropole story.)
Imagine a World…
World Fantasy is now only a month away. I’m obviously very much looking forward to seeing California again (and especially to seeing Kevin), but there are lots of old friends I want to catch up with, and many new friends I want to make. One of the people I’m looking forward to meeting is Malinda Lo, whose debut novel Ash I am planning to buy. If you are interested to know why, check out this post on Nicola Griffith’s blog and listen to Malinda talk about imaging a world free of homophobia.
FantasyCon Report
That’s another con report done. My thoughts on FantasyCon are here. I’ve also added a video diary, thanks mainly to Gail Z. Martin who was working hard as a reporter as well as being a Guest of Honour.
A Mysterious Evening
I’m back in Darkest Somerset, but I need to do a quick report on last night.
Feeling somewhat pleased with ourselves, Colin Harvey and I went out in search of food and ended up having a nice dinner at The Mud Dock. I celebrated with a rather nice piece of turbot.
Then we went back to the hotel, expecting the ceilidh to be in full swing. Most people seemed to have not bothered to stick around for the evening, which suggests that most of the attendees had been there to see our SF panels. This was probably just as well, as the ceilidh never quite happened. The band didn’t turn up, and while the DJ was there, he didn’t have anything to do because the Firefly folks spent all evening auctioning signed mementos and the like. They appeared to have been happy with that.
Still, the rest of us sat in the bar and did our best to make the hotel happy, and a good time seemed to be had. The bar prices were rather high, but that’s something that can doubtless be negotiated should we do another con.
As to whether we’ll do another one, I don’t know. Running a convention requires a significant amount of work from a bunch of people. If everyone does their bit then it isn’t hard, but people do have to put the work in. I don’t know whether the local Bristol fans will have been sufficiently energized by their first experience of con-running to want to do it again, let alone to do something bigger next time. We shall see.
Con Happens
Well, that went rather well, though I do say it myself. We had a minor panic at the beginning because the hotel had sold some other space near ours to a trade union for a meeting, but they were no great nuisance once we got signs up. After that, everything ran smoothly.
We got about 50 people, which is what I expected. We had two artists and three dealers. I don’t think anyone made a profit, but they all seem to have enjoyed themselves. And we had a few hours of panels which were very well attended.
Huge thanks are due to Al Reynolds, Charles Butler, Paul Cornell and Juliet McKenna for turning out to such a small event, and to Angry Robot and Colin Harvey for making us look like a grown up convention. Also thanks to Anna from the Mercure who has been very helpful all day. And finally thanks to Jo, Andy, MEG, Roz, Colin, Gareth, Philippa and everyone else from Bristol who mucked in to make it happen.
Dinner now. Dance and pub quiz in the evening. More later.
A FinnCon Report
Tomas Cronholm has posted a lengthy report about Finncon 2009. It only went up on Sept 5th, so many of you may not have seen it. There are a lot of pictures, and reports on panels with George and Al. I appear to get mentioned a few times too. I see from the photos that I spend much of my life peering at my iPhone.
BristolCon Reminder
BristolCon happens this weekend. The program section is only Saturday afternoon so you can do it in a day trip from anywhere that has a good train connection to Bristol. We’ve got Al Reynolds, Charles Butler, Juliet McKenna, Paul Cornell, Colin Harvey’s book launch with Angry Robot, and an opportunity to fondle my new Hugo. I hope to see some of you on Saturday.
FantasyCon Photos
My photo archive from FantasyCon, much of which is actually Nottingham tourism, is now uploaded. A con report will follow in due course. In the meantime, here’s stuff to look at.
[shashin type=”album” id=”31″ size=”medium”]
Anticipation Masquerade Details
I’ve put a document listing all of Anticipation’s masquerade entries — including what they were called, who was on stage, who made what, and what prizes they won — on the ConReporter.com web site.
FantasyCon Wrap
Last night I spent 3 hours on the phone to California for a World Fantasy Con committee meeting. That was followed by an hour or so in the bar where I ended up doing more WFC stuff. I also got to talk to Gail Z. Martin and Rob Shearman, both of whom turned out to be lovely people. Gail is a regular at Dragon*Con and confirmed everything Lou Anders has said about it having a vibrant and well-attended literature track. Rob is a multi-talented guy who sees himself first and foremost as a playwright, rather than a World Fantasy winning author or Hugo nominated scriptwriter.
I also had a chat with Guy Adams about the “Women don’t write horror” thing. Slightly to my surprise, no one had accused either Maura or myself of being “shrill” all weekend (at least not in my hearing). It is possible that Sarah Pinborough had rearranged a few people’s testicles to dissuade them from complaining, but if she did so then it was in classic horror writer fashion and done in a padded room where no one could hear her victims scream.
Anyway, Guy was very contrite, and quite aghast at how easily he failed to see the problem with what he was publishing. As I’ve said before, men do learn to ignore women’s writing as they grow up. It is often subconscious, but very powerful. Hopefully having made such a mistake once, Guy won’t make it again. He assured me that the other two books in the series do include interviews with women writers. Also the 2009 BFS Yearbook, which is an anthology, includes stories by women. Guy has posted an apology to the BFS web site.
Snoozy Sunday
Not a lot is happening today. There were a few panels this morning, but most people are intending to travel home today and as travel in the UK on Sundays is not at all easy that tends to mean heading off as soon as possible. I, however, am staying the night, because travel to Darkest Somerset on a Sunday is close to impossible. Besides, I have a World Fantasy Con committee meeting tonight that will require me to spend 3+ hours on the phone to California. Thank goodness for Skype.
Of course another trip to the pub was unavoidable. On the way back we took advantage of the most un-English weather to photograph bits of local history. Nottingham is apparently notorious for young men in hoodies who live outside of the law, terrorizing upstanding local citizens and stealing their money. The local constabulary assures us that everything possible is being done to apprehend these villains and bring them to justice. They are asking Parliament to pass a new law banning possession of bows and arrows, knives, and anything else pointy and menacing.
Wimped Out
Serious drinking is still going on down in the bar, but I appear to have consumed at least one bottle of wine over the course of today so I’m wimping out and answering email instead.
The live coverage of the BFS Awards went very well. We didn’t get an enormous crowd, but I was able to do it interactively and that’s a huge amount of fun. Hopefully World Fantasy will be just as much fun and with lots more people.
The reaction to the winners appears to have been fairly positive. Obviously people outside of the BFS will raise eyebrows at Neil Gaiman and Stephen King both losing in two categories, but the electorate here is fairly small and tends to reward people it knows rather than people who are famous. Joe Hill they know and love — he came to FantasyCon as a newbie PS Publishing author long before the news of his parentage broke. His father, they think, doesn’t need their awards, and they are probably right.
I’m off to bed now. I have the new Rob Holdstock to read. G’night.
Testing the Technology
I am sat in the back of the main programming room at FantasyCon where the awards banquet will take place. I’m getting four green bars on the hotel wi-fi, which is very encouraging. I think we should be good for the live coverage tonight.
In other news we have been having one of those stereotypical British conventions. The morning started with a book launch for Ian Whates’ Newcon Press and Storm Constantine’s Immanion, both of which had several books out. There was cava (Catalan sparkling wine), so it was more or less a champagne breakfast. Then we went to the Trip to Jerusalem for lunch (we being myself, Chaz Brenchley, Juliet McKenna, Kari Sperring and Phil Nanson).
After that I went shopping and finally got a copy of the new Rob Holdstock — the dealers’ room only has small press publishers in it — and then I had a look round the art show which is quite good. Neither of these activities involved alcohol. I will probably have to go to the bar soon.
Meanwhile I’m in the main program room and there’s a panel going on. Storm, Chaz, Kari, Graham Joyce and a couple of other writers are talking about mythology. I’m going to listen to them.
Morning in Nottingham
Hello, I am awake. It is a bit overcast here today, but it looks like it might burn off. My room is on the Floor #9, which after allowing for the function space and converting to US numbering is, I think, the 13th floor of the building. I have a fabulous view out over the city, but I think I’m looking the wrong way to see Sherwood Forest. Some mad fool is up in a hot air balloon and is doubtless getting very cold.
More about the convention later. In the meantime, here is the web site for the food festival.
Settling In
I have spent the evening doing important stuff like eating curry and drinking Guinness. Specifically:
Pete Crowther and Les Edwards are celebrating their 60th birthdays and we have been helping them.
“Chutney” in Nottingham is a rather good Indian restaurant.
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem is a well known local pub that dates back all the way to 1189 and claims to be the oldest pub in England. Although they started business almost 600 years before the founding of the Guinness brewery, they have managed to keep up with modern developments in beer.
Tomorrow there is a convention. There is also a big food festival in the city center. Choices, choices… I think I can do both.
It appears from the program that the British Fantasy Awards banquet is tomorrow night and not Sunday lunchtime. This is good, because it means that all you folks in the USA will be able to join us. Expect live coverage on SFAW from around 4:00pm Eastern, 1:00pm Pacific.
Arrived
The trains were all running to time, and I managed to get seats on all of them. I’m now checked into the convention hotel and there is free wi-fi. Things are looking good for weekend bloggery.
Hie Thee To Nottingham
Yeah, I know, it must be awful to be famous primarily for someone who may have lived hundreds of years ago but may just be a myth. I wasn’t up to making Brian Clough jokes in a headline. Sorry, people of Nottingham.
Of course Nottingham is also famous for two other things. It is the location of the secret World HQ of Angry Robot Books, whence the furious metal horde will one day march forth to claim their rightful overlordship of the universe. And it is also the current home of FantasyCon. I will be there. Tweetage will happen. As I’m in the UK I can use AudioBoo without fear of roaming charges. There will be the British Fantasy Awards (can Graham Joyce beat the Gaiman Juggernaut?) There will be beer.
And first, there will be trains.
Invisible Again
I’ll be off to FantasyCon tomorrow, where I hope to catch up with a number of friends. One of those friends is Maura McHugh, who has been taking a look at the pre-convention publicity:
I immediately noticed the cover of a new book the BFS is launching at the convention: a collection of interviews with writers (the first in a trilogy) in which they discuss their genre. It’s called In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective. Volume One: Horror. It’s edited by James Cooper, and is composed of 16 interviews with horror authors Ramsey Campbell, Tom Piccirilli, Greg F. Gifune, Conrad Williams, Joe R. Lansdale, Gary McMahon, Brian Keene, Stephen Gallagher, Jeffrey Thomas, Peter Crowther, Tim Lebbon, Ray Garton, Mark Morris, Gary Fry, Graham Joyce and Norman Partridge.
Not a single woman is interviewed.
Well, of course, women don’t write horror do they? Maura’s post has a good list of likely candidates, to which I would immediately add CaitlÃn R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Hand and Kaaron Warren. Of course the BFS might argue that they were looking for British writers (though by no means all of the people that they interviewed are British), but in that case I think the British horror novel that has received most critical acclaim this year is White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi.
It will give us something to talk about in the bar.
We Are Culture
Today the wonderful World SF News blog led me to this report from the Syrian Arab News Agency about the 2nd Science Fiction Literature Seminar in Damascus. According to the report, the seminar was, “organized by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).” And the Minister of Culture, Dr. Riad Naasan Agha, was on hand to address the delegates.
The Minister concluded by calling for bolstering science fiction literature in Arab culture due to its ability to open up new horizons.
Can you imagine the UK ministry of culture doing anything like that? Do you even know who the UK’s Minister of Culture is? (I didn’t, and it turns out that her portfolio also includes tourism – New Labour isn’t too keen on culture unless it also brings in dollars to Theme Park Britain.)
The USA doesn’t even have a Minister of Culture (though the NYT thinks that perhaps it should), though the US does appear to make it easier for citizens to promote culture as individuals than the UK does.
Worldcon in Damascus, anyone?
No, thought not.
By the way, the conference was named in honor of Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusi, known as Ibn Tufail in Arabic countries and Abubacer in the West, a 12th Century Muslim philosopher best known for his allegorical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan. Wikipedia describes the book as follows:
[it] tells the story of an autodidactic feral child, raised by a gazelle and living alone on a desert island, who, without contact with other human beings, discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process of reasoned inquiry.
You may also like to check this post on a web site devoted to Muslim philosophers.