This coming weekend, I’ll be at the Queen in Chester hotel for the British Fantasy Society’s Fantasycon. For full details, click here.
As well as enjoying seeing friends and colleagues, I will be discussing reinventing Arthurian myth, considering underused fantastical creatures, and deciding how muppets can make everything better. I will also be doing a reading, and there’s a good chance that will be readers’ first chance to learn a bit about the forthcoming new Green Man book…
Then I get a weekend off, before Bristolcon on 26-27th October. The Guests of Honour are Peter F Hamilton and Joanne Harris who are lovely people as well as terrific writers – and this is a wonderfully friendly convention, so that will be another great couple of days. More details TBA.
The weekend after that, I’ll be in Sweden, where I am one of the Guests of Honour at Fantastika, the 2024 Swecon. As well as reflecting on my own work in an interview and various conversations, I’ll be discussing the challenges of writing across different genres, and blending aspects of different genres in a piece of writing, with the other guests. I’ll also be considering the role of forests in fantasy fiction, and the challenges that old supernatural forces face in the modern world.
After that I’m having a week’s holiday in Stockholm with my husband, since for various reasons, we haven’t had any sort of break so far this year!
That’s a lot of conventions! Especially in a year that’s had the Worldcon in Glasgow as well – which was excellent, by the way. So what do I get out of these events that makes committing the time, effort and expense worthwhile? The BFS is currently asking various members to remember their first Fantasycon across social media, and that reminded me I’d written up my recollections back in 2006, for a BFS publication back then. I dug that out of the archive here, and yes, it still holds good.
My First FantasyCon in 2000 – looking back in 2006
I won’t say I was apprehensive travelling to my first FantasyCon in 2000 but I had come prepared with a good book, in case I found myself with time on my hands, or eating alone. After all, I didn’t know anyone else who was going to be there. As it turned out, the organisers had anticipated people like me. There was a designated table where ‘virgins’ could meet each other, and be warmly welcomed by David Howe. All relieved not to be the only newbie, we consulted our programmes and agreed to meet up at various panels.
The next thing to make me feel welcome was several people recognising my name on my badge as the author of The Thief’s Gamble. Even better, they said they’d enjoyed it! That was thrilling but there are more important things I remember from the weekend. I made good friends whom I look forward to meeting each year now. All the established authors extended a generous welcome to a rookie, together with helpful advice and useful, cautionary tales. Notably Stan Nicholls and Anne Gay made sure I certainly wasn’t left eating dinner alone with my book.
Doug Bradley’s illustrated talk on movie makeup and masks was utterly fascinating and as well as doing my bit on panels, I went to others and to the GoH interviews. I came away from every session with intriguing questions to ponder and inspiration for developing my own writing. I also went home with a list of books to find that I might never have considered reading. The book I’d brought with me went home unopened, by the way.
