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My Worldcon experience: Final day

08 Sunday Sep 2019

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Monday was the day my flight left and it left at a time that meant I couldn’t stay for the dead dog party nor really do much more at the con. If I ever make it to another Worldcon I will try to make sure that I can stay longer and have more fun.

Books arranged on a stall for sale

The Hodges and Figgis stall, showing the self published books they had agreed to stock. Seen here Gods of the Deep, Lurking Miscellany and Out of this World Alphas.

However, I did manage to wander round the dealer’s room a bit and pick up the unsold books I had left in the competent care of Hodges and Figgis. Unfortunately, this turned out to be all of them but I did swap one with F.D Lee in exchange for hers. I now need to read the one she gave me and do a review. Once I finish all the other books I need to read…

In the course of wandering the dealer’s room I found out I had actually won a Hugo. It was the Hugo for ‘best panel moderated by me’ and it was hotly contested this year. Luckily, I managed to beat myself to win this prestigious, non-existent award. Thank you to the #holdahugo team for voting for me to win this.Me holding a Hugo award

I also explored the freebie table which was mostly populated with leaflets and fanzines but did have some interesting stuff. For example, I picked up a copy of Ninefox Gambit (unfortunately too late to get it signed) to read on the plane and a curious bottle of ‘Pastor Oat’s Holy Water’ which was a nice little idea from the Discworld universe.

Finally, I got to actually meet the rest of the literature team – the ones who I had been working with online for months to bring to fruition many of the Programme items that had just been played out over the past few days. We had a nice lunch in a restaurant nearby and we all got paid in strange Cthuloid coinage…

In all, my first Worldcon was a fun one, if somewhat busy in places. I got to do a lot of things that were great but also didn’t get to do some other things that I really wanted to do. I guess it all balanced out, though. I am unlikely to make another Worldcon any time soon – New Zealand is beyond my budget to travel to, as are any future US ones – but I am actively working to help bring about a Worldcon in Glasgow in 2024 by foolishly volunteering to help out.

I flew home tired but happy, looking forward to the next event I will be attending – Eastercon in Birmingham 2020…

My Worldcon experience: Day 4

05 Thursday Sep 2019

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After the relative relaxation of Saturday, Sunday was back to full steam ahead with a packed schedule. It was also the day of the now notorious Hugo award ceremony but more on that later…

I started out the day over at the Point where (at her request) I photographed the second show of Death Ingloria. This one, unlike the show of the previous day, was ‘unplugged’ and an excellent performance. I talked with them afterwards (while waiting to be interviewed for a Podcast) and we discussed the concept of ‘interactive comics’ and the use of QR tags in a printed media to add audiovisual elements. Their comic, issued free to the audience, included such tags that linked to concert performances when scanned with a smart phone.

Death Ingloria, musical artist, sat in chair with guitar

Death Ingloria plays unplugged in Warehouse 2

After that concert, I headed back to the CCD where I had agreed to meet with Robin Shantz of the Invaders from Planet 3 podcast. There I was interviewed alongside Galina Rin of Death Ingloria for an episode that will be available on the linked website soon (I guess…). Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to hang around and socialise after that because I was moderating a panel and needed to get to the Green room in order to prep for it.

In the Green room I met one of the panellists. Yoon Ha LeeYoon Ha Lee, author of Ninefox Gambit, and we had a chat about the panel and other things. They said they were practising drawing people and so asked if they could sketch me, which I agreed to, meaning I got the honour of being sketched by a Hugo award nominee!

After a short while, Brian Smith turned up. He was our ‘logistics expert’ for this panel and also got his portrait done. At that point, we were only lacking our GoH panelist – Ginjer Buchanan and my anxiety by that point was already thinking she was standing us up (she wasn’t… but you know paranoia…). We headed down to the room without her and got as far as my announcing the start of the panel and apologising for her absence when she turned up.

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The sketch of me…

Apparently, she had been at a previous item and had turned up at the door to the panel to be told it was full. Luckily, she was recognised and allowed in and the panel could start with a full complement.

The discussion was another good one with a lot of references to Star Trek: Voyager and the infamous shuttle replicator (for some reason). Yoon Ha Lee introduced themselves as someone who ‘always does it wrong’  with logistics and gave an amusing anecdote about their mother sending them beef jerky from South Korea to the US ‘as a special treat’ despite beef being very easy to obtain in the US. A variant on the coals to Newcastle analogy. Brian Smith commented on various examples of authors not really understanding what logistics is. The Romans were mentioned too. There was also a discussion about ‘going too far’ and obsessing on the ‘little details’ too much. Though Ginjer did point out that the examples given (usually the sort of military/tech thriller/spy thriller adventures in which they take a whole page to describe the technical specifications of a gun) were considered ‘didactic* fiction’ which is, apparently, very popular. Finally there was also reference to the infamous Game of Thrones (TV Series) ‘teleporting characters’ situation – which I have blogged about elsewhere.

A particular sticking point for the panel was when I asked a question about whether there was a SFF story where the logistics issue was the story. We all drew a blank on that one (even me since it was an off the cuff question so I hadn’t even prepared any answers of my own). However, the audience were full of wonderful ideas. If any of you are reading this and want to comment with your suggestions, please feel free (I’m afraid I did not write them down).

After this I went along to sit with Russell Smith on his literary beer and managed to drag Fangorn along for the ride too. Much was discussed…

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Fangorn and F.D Lee

After dinner I went along to Martin’s bar to watch the live feed of the Hugo awards. Much has already been said about this – about the issues with closed captions, the too loud music in the bar that detracted from the events on screen, the controversial speech by Jeannette Ng and the issues with the Loser’s party. I won’t spend too long reiterating those issues other than to say that I totally agree with Jeanette’s comments and am pleased they later agreed to change the name of the Campbell Award to the Astounding Award. I also would say that I quite liked the rowdy nature of the Hugo watching in the bar. OK, we could not see nor hear the speeches but the atmosphere was very jovial and energetic with popular winners (especially ‘Archive of our own‘) getting cheered. It felt very convivial and I think we all knew that we could, if we wanted to, watch the ceremony again at a later date with full sound. I also did not disagree with any of the winners and heartily endorse many of them. Though, I still feel Peadar was robbed…

The evening ended with more Barconning…

*In case you were not aware, didactic refers to a teaching method where you tell the student what they need to know (traditional, old fashioned lecturing) as opposed to more modern methods. Obviously, in writing it refers to a similar idea – the author is explicitly describing an object rather than giving vague details and expecting them to fill in the gaps with imagination.,

My Worldcon experience: Day 3

03 Tuesday Sep 2019

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Saturday was more of a working day for me. As a member of the listener team at the Con, I had a number of shifts I had to be available for – either as a roaming Listener (keeping being available for anyone who wants to approach for help or being called in to deal with issues) or at one of the listener desks (these being in the foyer of the CCD, the main con area, or the information desk at Point Square).

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The Beckett Bridge over the Liffey, taken from the CCD

This day I was scheduled to be at the Point information desk at 9am until lunch time. Which would have been fine, still not an early start for me even with the slightly longer trek to Point square from my accomodation, had it not been for the Great Breakfast Crisis.

You see, Dublin apparently does not wake up before 930 on a Saturday. Or at least the part of Dublin the conference was in doesn’t. I guess because it is mostly university and conference facilities and no sensible student is up before midday on a weekend and any conference attendee is, of course, safely in a hotel with a breakfast bar. Apart from me, that is…

So the cafe I had breakfast in on Friday (that did lovely GF bacon sandwiches) was not open when I walked past not long after 8, nor was the restaurant that promised Omlettes I spotted on Friday night and wanted to try out. Even the Starbucks at the cinema was closed. So I had to sit at the info desk breakfast and coffee free until Ed Fortune (SF journalist, Podcaster and old friend from university) came to rescue bringing coffee. Thus saving the universe (or at least Dublin) from the evil that is uncaffeinated me. Actually, this was part of some strange, mystic confluence thing where several of my old friends from university just happened to turn up at that location. Iain and Janet Clark (both exhibiting in the art room that was located in Point), Ed, Russell Smith and me. I knew there was something story based about to happen when Iain walked up to the desk and said “We’re putting the band back together.”

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One journalist, two writers and two artists… it’s early in the morning, none of them smoke, they’re out of booze, it’s light and they don’t have sunglasses…

You’d think we were all there for the same conference or something…

Most of my morning was spent dealing with info desk enquiries rather than actually being a Listener, which was fine because, to be honest, like First Aiders, Listeners at events are people you really prefer to be not doing much because it means nothing bad is happening.

After lunch, I headed to a Kaffeeklatsch hosted by Roz Kaveney, having been thoroughly impressed by her during our Thursday Panel. There followed an entertaining conversation (during which, yes, Pennyworth was mentioned again…) that covered a lot of UK SFF literary history and during which I found myself wishing I knew what had happened to my copies of Temps and Eurotemps (long ago lost, likely in some appropriate bureaucratic mess of a house move) as I would have loved to have had a signature. I may have to buy them again…

By some miracle, I actually managed to have an early night. Mostly because many of the people I usually hang out with at the bar had gone to the Masquerade and I was too lazy to bother going to get a wristband for it. Though I did spoil my early night by staying up late editing photos instead…

 

My Worldcon experience: Day 2

03 Tuesday Sep 2019

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The black superhero panel.

Friday involved me being on two panels.

The first was entitled ‘Guiding Star: discussing the Lodestone award shortlist’ and was moderated by the wonderful writer, Charlie Jane Anders. It also featured three other great writers in the form of Tasha Suri, Dr. Mary Watson and Nicole Kurtz. Our job was to discuss the nominees for the newly minted Lodestone award for YA fiction and speculate on which one would win.

Building up to this event, having known I was on this panel, I had spent an awfully long time reading the books on the list as soon as it was revealed. My Kindle was loaded with most of them (only Tess of the Road was unavailable in ebook for some reason) and they formed my holiday reading. The list, for those who didn’t know, was:

  • The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
  • Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
  • The Invasion by Peadar Ó Guilín
  • Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

Our brief was to gush about them and gush we did. Though we were also suitably critical. After all, I am a BSFA reviewer, and there is an ancient oath we reviewers must take to never give an unbalanced review. It was interesting to see where we agreed and where we disagreed, especially on some of the different interpretations of each work, and we each presented a different favourite to win the prize. My personal bets were on Peadar Ó Guilín to take it, partly because I always love his writing (and I nominated him) but also because I felt it apt that a local talent would win it. Of course, as we all know by now (unless you don’t, in which case SPOILERS!) Children of Blood and Bone took the award – a book which I think would make an excellent Anime adaptation.

Overall, I considered the nominees to be a great mix of writing styles and character diversity – incorporating gender, ethnicity, disability and trans issues in different but always entertaining ways.

Though, one final thing to say about this panel was the location. We were located at Point square, in the Odeon cinema which basically meant we were sat at the front of a small cinema. This made me feel that we were less like a group of authors and reviewers doing a panel and more like the cast and crew of a new Hollywood blockbuster lining up to introduce the premier.

My next panel was heading into more adult areas with a talk on Romance. Specifically, an ‘Introducton to SFF romance’. In this I was harkening back to my days as a romance writer (my introduction to the audience did say I was a ‘lapsed romance writer’) and the panelists were all there to talk about how romance can be better incorporated into SFF. In this were moderated by Cora Buhlert, and joined by Darlene Marshal and Jeffe Kennedy. We started with the SFWA’s definition of ‘romance’ which lays down some rules for what ‘SFF romance’ should look like, including ‘there must be  a happy ever after or happy for now’ ending and ‘romance must be a substantive part of overall character transformation’. This is to distinguish from ‘Fantasy with Romance elements’. With the rules laid down, we started to discuss examples and give thoughts on how romance can drive a plot. In all a very useful discussion was had. It (along with other discussions had later…) led to me making a decision about ressurecting a particular character from my repertoire.

I also got time to attend two panels as an audience member. One, entitled ‘let’s do the time loop again’ was an entertaining discussion moderated by E. Lily Yu which touched on all the many and varied examples of time loops in SFF and fantasy and came up with some interesting thoughts on some classic tropes. It was, however, unfortunately impossible to say how many times the panelists and audience had been forced to endure the panel repeating… The other was moderated by my old friend, Russel A Smith and looked at Black Superheroes in TV and Film. This one looked back to the days of Blaxspoitation and forward into what is hopefully going to be a more diverse future in comics, TV and film. The Time loop panel

The day ended with more Barcon work… hanging out with F.D Lee and associates where we each frothed about each other and shared reviews… incidentally, her review can be found here and our discussion not only led me to want to bring Helen back for more torment but also made some ‘character arc driving decisions’ about her that will hopefully be seen when the story I am working on at present is published…

My Worldcon experience: Day One

01 Sunday Sep 2019

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Dublin 2019 An Irish Worldcon August 15 - 19 Convention Centre DublinThose of you who follow this blog regularly (I’m sure there are a few of you…) will know that my ability to keep a consistant way of writing about events is somewhat sporadic. For my first Eastercon, I did a daily blog but wrote it after the event. For the more recent Eastercon, in London, I actually managed to write my blog every day while at the event (including photos taken that day) and include a bonus preCon day.

For the 2019 Worldcon in Dublin, I am writing my account about 10 days after I got home from the con and I have no idea how many posts I will make…

This was my first Worldcon, though I didn’t manage to get the coveted ‘First Worldcon ribbon’ as they had ran out of stock by the time I got there. I also didn’t really feel like it was ‘my first time’. Partly this was because I’m an old hand at other cons now, being a regular at Eastercon since 2016 and, if I am being honest, a lot of the people I was seeing in Dublin were also Eastercon regulars so I didn’t feel left out socially – there was usually at least one person I could say hi to and get a conversation with. It was also because I’d spent the last couple of years working behind the scenes on the con – starting out as a member of the Brainstorming group (whose job it was to suggest really crazy panel ideas that the organisers would inexplicably consider worth doing) and progressing to being a member of the Literature programme team (where our job was to take these crazy ideas, add some panelists and write a description of it). So, compared to some other first time Worldconners, who might have been walking in and feeling a little out of place, I was already in a quite privileged position.

I arrived for the event itself on Thursday morning. Early on Thursday morning. And I didn’t really have time to have a rest after my 5am wake up call and flight. I had to queue to register at the Con, head to my accomodation to drop my bags and then get back in time for lunch with the Milford/Northwrite possee (that turned into drinks with them as lunch options were limited in the convention centre…) before heading to the first panel I was moderating – Franchise Characters.

Author F.D Lee and me at WorldconIn this, I was joined by F.D Lee (fantasy and SF indie author). Scot Edelman (writer for Marvel comics), Keith Byrne (Artist and character designer with Tantalus) and Roz Kavenay (writer, critic and all round great person to talk to). We mostly discussed Marvel vs DC and the reasons why one was better than the other at maintaining a franchise. However, this also led into a discussion on Pennyworth (Roz’s current new obsession – one I totally intend to check out for the promise of fascist 60’s Britain) and a few other franchises – including trying to define what a franchise actually is. There seemed to be some agreement to my definition of it being a creation that appears in more than one format but the focus of the panel was more on how the use of ‘background characters’ can help to build the depth of the world. Here I think we were all in agreement… I was a little disappointed we never got to discuss Pratchett’s Discworld as a franchise as much as I would have liked as that is a perfect example of  a franchise where main characters from one book become minor ones in others and I had a whole thing planned around Gaspode the Wonder dog… Also, the fact that Death appears in every single Discworld novel and how that is SIGNIFICANT.

After a break for food, I headed to another panel. This one was entitled “How close are Cosplay Tony Stark and Pepper Potts outside the Dublin CCDwe to Frankenstein’s Dream?” and I was with Dr. Helen Pennington (Plant scientist from DEFRA) and Heidi Lyshol (of the Norweigan Institute for Public Health). I was actually a little nervous about being on stage with some very eminent names in science with my mere MPhil and teaching background (I guess it could have been worse… someone of the academic oopmh of Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell could have been there, even though her area is more physics) but it worked out great and we had a wonderful discussion with lots of audience questions and the line “We could do that but it would be just slightly unethical” was uttered many times. We touched upon cloning, 3D printing of organs, head transplants, building a complete body out of 3D printed organs and several other bizarre applications of biology, medicine and engineering. I also got to talk about gerontology, which is my secondary area of expertise after immunology, and discuss things like the calorie restriction diets. In all a fun panel.

After this, I had planned to meet some people for a photowalk around Dublin. I was expecting no one to show up so was pleasantly surprised that we got two more photographers and a couple of Cosplayers (Chris Corbitt and Alicia Faires). So, we started the evening with some shots of the Cosplayers before the sunset then did a post sunset walk along the river.

After that, it was time to hit the bar and then to bed… but before I do, have a photo of the Liffey looking rather Cyberpunk…

The river Liffey, Dublin, at night.

My Worldcon Schedule

28 Sunday Jul 2019

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Dublin Worldcon Logo showing a stylised harp shaped D with a dragon and a rocket.So, between the 15th and 19th of August, I will be in Dublin for the 77th World Science Fiction Convention (or Worldcon for short). If you are also attending (apparently memberships are now getting in short supply and may not be available on the day so you need to book now if you haven’t already) you will be able to enjoy panels and talks from many wonderful people such as Diane Duane (fantasy writer) and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (phyicist credited with discovering Pulsars). You will also be able to attend some panels that have me in them…

Below is my final schedule as it currently stands (changes are always possible even at a late stage but this is unlikely to change now). Some of these will be moderated by me, others will just have me blethering on about stuff.

I am also planning to do some photoshoots (contact me on my photography facebook page to arrange this) and a walk around Dublin with my camera that others are welcome to join the group here to find out more.

 

Dublin 2019 An Irish Worldcon August 15 - 19 Convention Centre Dublin

Franchise characters

Format: Panel
15 Aug 2019, Thursday 14:00 – 14:50, Wicklow Room-2 (CCD)

Marvel characters are often mentioned in other MCU films, reminding us of their shared universe; DC TV shows have annual crossover events. How have these franchises – and others such as Star Trek – taken advantage of their epic canvasses to deepen characterisation? Are the in-universe reputations of some characters used to challenge our understanding of them rather than reinforce it?

How close are we to Frankenstein’s dream?

Format: Panel
15 Aug 2019, Thursday 19:00 – 19:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

Science has been making remarkable progress in rebuilding bones, growing organs, and transplants. Researchers recently succeeded in restoring a mammal’s brain from cryogenic freezing, leading to speculation about ‘head transplants’. How close does this bring us to the vision of the ‘Modern Prometheus’? What are our current capabilities and ethics behind the science?

Guiding star: discussing the Lodestar Award shortlist

Format: Panel
16 Aug 2019, Friday 12:30 – 13:20, Odeon 4 (Point Square Dublin)

Let’s gush about this year’s amazing list of Lodestar Award finalists! What do we love about these books? Who will win, who else would we have loved to see on the list, and what else are we looking forward to seeing from this fantastic group of authors?

  • The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
  • Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
  • The Invasion by Peadar Ó Guilín
  • Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

Introduction to SFF romance

Format: Panel
16 Aug 2019, Friday 15:00 – 15:50, Wicklow Hall 2B (CCD)

SFF romance is as varied and creative as the speculative genre as a whole but, along with other romantic sub-genres, has often been dismissed and undervalued. From shapeshifting billionaires to far future secret agents, vampire brides to Highland flings, this panel will provide a broad introduction to SFF romance in all its glory as well as providing a range of reading recommendations.

Things that SFF writers often get wrong: logistics

Format: Panel
18 Aug 2019, Sunday 14:00 – 14:50, Wicklow Room-4 (CCD)

That’s not how it really works! Organisational planning and logistics often get overlooked or written wrong – whether it’s the time needed to hunt and cook an animal in the forest, or to develop the cure for a disease. Timing, availability, and coordination of things often get pushed into a grey area where good logistical planning goes to die. What does it take to get these details right? When the details don’t work within the story, how does an author work around them? Our panellists share their own experiences, including what they have got right and wrong along the way.

New year musings…

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

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As usual, I am late at doing a retrospective of the old year. In fact, I may be more than a year late as I cannot recall if I did one of these last year or not…

Anyway, after being name checked in Russel A Smith’s blog yesterday I have been shamed into doing a new year post of my own…

Eddie the smooth coated fox terrier on a beach with a ball2018 has been a mixed year. I lost two things. One was my full time employment, with redundancy in June. The other, more tragic and personal, was the loss of Eddie, our Smooth Fox Terrier. This last one is still very recent (December) and he will be sorely missed. He has featured both in this blog as ‘Christmas dog’ and also had a small cameo in my first novella publication (Transitions) where he is found eating from an upturned bin during a scene where the hero, Brandon, leaves a love note on Helen’s doorstep. I am sure he would have been the first to tell you that the entire plot of that story was all about him and the bin eating scene was artistically essential for the overall plot of the novel and if you cut it out the whole story collapses.

However, there were also good things in 2018. For one, the loss of employment has allowed more time for writing – both fiction and non-fiction. This has meant that I have now almost completed my second educational resource and will be starting a third later in January. I will be using this blog to announce when these are published so keep an eye out for that. The two current ones are based on the BTEC level 3 Health and Social Care specifications for 2016. The potential future one will be based on the Applied science specification.

I’ve also kicked the fiction writing up a notch. I have been working with a new writing Authors incliding Jacey Bedford and Ruth Long doing a panel at Mancunicon Eastercongroup, courtesy of the wonderful Jacey Bedford who is shown in the photograph from a panel I shared with her at Mancunicon (Eastercon) and that has given me some inspiration and encouragement. I am currently working on two novels. One is a sequel to Gods of the Deep called Gods of the City which will bring us back to the Arcroc and the adventures of Rachel and Everyn. The other currently does not have a name (it was formerly Fortune and Troy but that title no longer works for various reasons and I need a rethink…) but will be set in the Waypoint universe which has already featured in two of the stories in Lurking Miscellany.

Final thing in writing is that I have become a reviewer for the BSFA Review. My reviews have not (at present) made it to the page but are expected to start appearing in the next issue which is due out soon. I have been reading a mix of trad and self published books. Spoiler alert, my review of Lost Gods by fellow Mancunian Micah is largely positive. This has nothing to do with the fact I got to attend the lavish release party…

Purple relief figure in Brick lane, LondonIn photography, I have made massive changes. I attended a course at the London Institute of Photography in August. I spent a few days in London with them doing artistic shoots in Brick Lane and the Barbican centre and a few other places.  I learned a lot there and have been applying what I learned to my work. One of the images I took there is shown here – some of the fascinating graffiti in Brick Lane, London. I also traveled to Cyprus to photograph my sister’s wedding, which was an amazing experience and have found a group of local photographers who have been meeting in a pub in Manchester every Wednesday to experiment with interesting photography ideas. I have set up a facebook page to showcase some of my more recent shoots both from those sessions and others.

I also found out that a good friend of mine has recently qualified as a professional photographer and did a residency abroad which was very successful and which makes me very jealous of her. You can see examples of her work here. She is absolutely amazing and I want her to do well if only so that the wonderful photos she took of me and my wife at a friend’s wedding become collector’s pieces in the future :).

For the year to come I am making my usual creative resolution but modifying it. Over the last two years I have made it a policy to do at least one creative thing every day, even if only a small thing (literally a word or two on a document counted). It didn’t matter what it was – writing something, taking a photograph or editing a photograph all counted. However, in the latter half of 2018 I modified the rule a little. Now, instead of being able to do photography OR writing tasks I am being strict and saying that I must do writing every day. I am not making a similar rule for photography as I know that it is often erratic when I can get to do that. However, I am sure there will be more of that to come. The writing every day is essential for the writing group anyway. There must be new stuff for them to critique each meeting and that means I have had to up my volume.

Coming up this year are a number of things.

First of all there is the release of Out of this World Alphas due soon. 15th January is the release date you should put in your calendar. FB_IMG_1545486717540.jpgOr you can click the link and pre-order if you prefer and it will be delivered to your e-reader on the release date. I have a story in this anthology set in the Arcroc that stands between Gods of the Deep and Gods of the City.

Secondly, thanks to the aforesaid Russel Smith, I am working on another anthology which will be based in Manchester. I have the vague concept of a story incubating for that which involves druidic magic.

As for conferences etc. I am not able to make Picocon again this year, which is a shame because I really enjoyed my time there last year. However finances are against me there and, besides, I have two other amazing conferences to get to this year. One of these is Eastercon which this year is in London and gives me the chance to catch up with Frances Hardinge again after too long not seeing her. Regular readers will recall many years ago when she appeared on this blog having done a reading for World Book Night at the Fab cafe. I also did a reading then but I am not sure as many noticed. I am looking forward to a good weekend of panels and talking with people who I tend to only see once a year over Easter…

The other main event this year is like Eastercon only bigger… Worldcon is coming to Dublin this year and as that makes it far more accessible than it has ever been I am going to travel there in August. I have also been involved in the brainstorming sessions for this, which seem to involve a bunch of people sending emails with crazy panel ideas and the rest of us either agreeing with them or making them crazier. No spoilers but I am sure any of you who attend will be in for some treats… I am looking forward to my first Worldcon and will be there with a camera in order to take lots of photos of Dublin to bore you all with.

So that is it… plans for the new year as they currently stand. I hope you all have a good new year yourselves and are successful in any and all ventures you attempt.