With BristolCon just around the corner — the corner being Friday — it might be a good idea to catch up with the one-day con I attended in July...
Back when summer was actually a thing that was happening, I headed over to Derby for Edge-Lit, a one-day SF/Fantasy/Horror con. My main reason for going was the launch of the We Can Improve You anthology, featuring my story "Ragdolls", and introduce myself to Alex Davis, who runs Boo Books, the publisher of both We Can Improve You and Haunted (which features my story "Promises You Can Keep").
Like BristolCon, it's a moderate-sized single-day event, but with quite a different emphasis and style. There were two tracks of workshop sessions with a strong writer focus. I attended one led by Alex Davis on the teaching of writing where I picked up a couple of ideas I might use in future workshops. As well as attending panels, launches, etc., I bumped into a couple of authors I knew from BristolCon, another who I saw this year at CrimeFest and I also got the chance to meet Joanne Harris. Although my original motivation was the anthology launch, there's enough there that I plan to return next year.
As for BristolCon, there's lots to look forward. I'm going with Stefan, so I'll be interested to see if and what he blogs, especially as I went with him to the somewhat larger Loncon last year. There's panels and interviews and more that I want to see, but I'll be missing Ian Stewart's "Time Travel and Real Physics" (if you asked me the one panel I wanted to go to...) because I'm on the "How Green Is Your Future?" panel. For my reading straight after I think I've figured out what I'm going to read... I think.
Back when summer was actually a thing that was happening, I headed over to Derby for Edge-Lit, a one-day SF/Fantasy/Horror con. My main reason for going was the launch of the We Can Improve You anthology, featuring my story "Ragdolls", and introduce myself to Alex Davis, who runs Boo Books, the publisher of both We Can Improve You and Haunted (which features my story "Promises You Can Keep").
Like BristolCon, it's a moderate-sized single-day event, but with quite a different emphasis and style. There were two tracks of workshop sessions with a strong writer focus. I attended one led by Alex Davis on the teaching of writing where I picked up a couple of ideas I might use in future workshops. As well as attending panels, launches, etc., I bumped into a couple of authors I knew from BristolCon, another who I saw this year at CrimeFest and I also got the chance to meet Joanne Harris. Although my original motivation was the anthology launch, there's enough there that I plan to return next year.
As for BristolCon, there's lots to look forward. I'm going with Stefan, so I'll be interested to see if and what he blogs, especially as I went with him to the somewhat larger Loncon last year. There's panels and interviews and more that I want to see, but I'll be missing Ian Stewart's "Time Travel and Real Physics" (if you asked me the one panel I wanted to go to...) because I'm on the "How Green Is Your Future?" panel. For my reading straight after I think I've figured out what I'm going to read... I think.