I am back in my flat, and for the moment, not calling the boiler guy. Mainly because I’m worried about how much fixing the boiler will cost, but partly because last night wasn’t that cold and I figure I can cope without heating for a bit longer.
We’ll see how long THAT lasts.
I went to BristolCon on Saturday, and it was BRILLIANT. The day was damnably long, because I decided to save money by making a day trip of it rather than staying overnight either before or after. Because I was down in Worthing already I was able to get the train over in about three and a half hours each way, which was great, and only paid £44 in total for said train journey, which was also great. This meant getting up at six am and getting home at midnight – not so great.
BUT it was utterly worth it.
I walked in, registered, turned around and saw Anne Lyle, who is lovely. She’d just bought a painting and on our way to show me the new purchase we ran into Emma Newman, who is also lovely and was looking particularly awesome in a spectacular red tail coat. I don’t know if that’s what you call it, but that’s what I’m going to call it. Either way, it was beautiful.
Then I got a guided tour of Bristol city centre because Anne went to university there, and we discovered the TASTIEST TAPAS ever down by the waterfront. We afterwards resisted buying fantasy fairytale finger puppets, which was a pity because if we hadn’t we could have had a finger fight between a knight and a dragon when we got back to the con. I feel an already wonderful day could have been improved in this way. Oh well, maybe next year.
There then followed a three hour conversation in the bar (where else?) which covered tent pegs, green dragons, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Sadly, the tent pegs and green dragons segment is what really stuck in my mind, but I’m sure we covered other subjects too. I got to see Lou Morgan (writer – BLOOD AND FEATHERS), Jenny Sargent (artist), Rob Haines (writer), Jennifer Williams (writer), Fran Terminiello (writer), and Janet Edwards (writer – EARTH GIRL) again. I met David Moore and Jonathan Oliver (editors at Solaris and Abaddon Books) and Guy Haley (writer – CHAMPION OF MARS)for the first time. I saw Colum Paget (writer and James White Award winner) and Tricia Sullivan from a distance but didn’t actually get to talk to either of them. Very briefly chatted to Del and Kim Lakin-Smith (who both looked their usual awesome, rocking selves). There was a very funny steampunk panel where people actually had opinions and disagreed with each other – it was awesome and made me want to read more steampunk, particularly anything by Alex Dally MacFarlane, cos she was GREAT.
General note: Con panels are rather more fun when people aren’t afraid to state their opinions and disagree with the opinions of others on the panel. Or people in the audience, for that matter.
Edit: I also saw Den Patrick (writer and bookseller), Marc Aplin and Paul Wiseall (book reviewers), but only spoke to Paul. They were all busy DOING stuff!!
Then I had to get on a train and go home. Boo.
This morning I’ve been planning out my NaNoWriMo project over breakfast. Got about halfway through the second act before realising that, yes, this story really does need a second POV. This means length will most likely not be an issue, except for it running considerably longer than the 50k I had envisaged. Oh well.
In publishing news another word baby of mine is preparing to make its way into the world, this time self-published by moi. Here is the cover art for THE SCENT OF FREEDOM:
A family debt obliges the Hunter to kill a thousand demons in the human world before being allowed to go home. Now only two kills remain.
I’ll keep everyone informed as to when it’s live and buyable. Once it’s up I think I’ll do a My Fiction page here on the website. Of course, I currently have a story out in TALES OF THE NUN AND DRAGON, but I feel kind of daft having a My Fiction page with only one piece of my fiction on it. It seems a bit out of proportion. Of course, I could include SF with (coming soon) next to it. Which feels a bit like cheating, but maybe not. What do you think?
