FantasyCon 2011 – hot, hot hot

I’m suffering jet lag. Okay, the distance between Brighton and Chester is only a handful of hundreds of miles and four hours by train, but the distance in terms of literary milieu I am on the other side of the planet. A day ago I was shaking hands with Brian Aldiss. Brian Aldiss! And Christopher Priest, Ramsey Campbell, and other writer friends such as Jonathan Pinnock, Ian Whates, Robert Harkess, Raven Dane and Sam Stone. My experience became enhanced with the artists too – Steve Upham, Vincent Chong and Andy Bigwood. Then the publishers – most of whom are also fine writers but are these days mostly producing exquisite publications – Terry Martin, Lee Harris, Christopher Teague, Simon Marshal-Jones and others. My hand hasn’t been so excited for years. Loved the hugs too… thanks Sam.

Copies of my Exit, Pursued by a Bee and the Escape Velocity anthology were among other items in the FantasyCon raffle. My SF mystery might have gone unnoticed but the Mistress of Ceremonies, Sarah Pinborough was ‘tired’ by the time she had to read the title and so fumbled it. Luckily, a helper said. “Exit, Pursued by a Bee, and it is a good book!”. Yeay, Sarah can be a Mistress again!

Link to FantasyCon 2011 >>> here

Speaking of the Escape Velocity anthology, I met several of the contributors during the weekend – besides Bec Zugor (I travelled up the railtrack to Chichesterto have lunch with her and her family – excellent day). EV contributors at FantasyCon included Jonathan Pinnock, Robert Harkess, Roy Gray, Mark Lewis and Ian Whates. I also met the charming Carmelo Rafala of Immersion Press, who wrote the Mother Tongue story in Escape Velocity issue one. Jonathan Pinnock was there to launch his amazing Mrs Darcy Versus the Aliens – see the link here. I’ve known Jonathan for years on various forums and admired his writing style but I had no idea he was soooo tall. I had to stand on a box of his books to shake his hand.

I attended several literary panels including one in which graphic artists discussed cover art issues and I learned why you rarely see turquoise in digital-art covers. Thanks, Vincent, who explained it to me in detail in the bar later. Also, in a panel on the future of SF Brian Aldiss said how single-word titles work best for promotion, then quoted his own Hot House as an example. Ian Whates pointed out to him that it was two words… ha ha. But in fact it really is one word – Hothouse as it was published in 1962. Ian could have quoted his No Time Like Tomorrow title back at him. Nevertheless, a one word title does have appeal. I tend to go for two or more.

Xaghra’s Revenge is a case in point. I managed to have a quick word with the Angry Robot publisher, Lee Harris, who have had the synopsis and samples in his inbox since May. They’ve been very busy this year including having an unagented submission window with the resulting flood of novels to consider. I bought Peter Crowther’s latest book, Darkness Falling, from them. A fantasy thriller with people disappearing – unnerving when that includes the pilot of a plane you are in. Hopefully, there will be good news about XR in due course.

Besides the exuberance I went through meeting all these folk – all good people in spite of their chosen genre of unspeakable horror! – there were other moments of excitement. A burlesque show was laid on: all based on fantasy themes we were treated to playlets and delightful striptease. Of course being based inBrightonin the British heatwave (28 C shade temp in October), there was plenty of bare flesh of all sexes on display on the beach and even bikinis in the town. I thought I was inAmsterdamin some of the narrow lanes with their windows wide open and an interesting sweet aroma wafting along. I was distinctly light-headed by the time I reached the end of the lane. With that, the hot sun, the ocean, the marvellously friendly gay communities, the cosmopolitan eateries (many many veggie cafes) and the runners along the promenades, Brighton was a combo ofAmsterdam and Sliema in Malta. I hope to go back soon.

Escape Velocity: The Anthology

The anthology of best and new stories submitted to Adventure Books of Seattle’s Escape Velocity magazine is nearing fruition. Last night I finished proofreading 35 stories for the anthology. Not all will be used in it because some are now rather dated and we want the publication to excite readers with its brilliance. Names you might know that are in it are in random order:

Rebecca Latyntseva, Ian Whates, Rosie Oliver, Robert Harkess, William C McCall, Clyde Andrews, Gayle Applegate, David Tallerman, Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano, Mark Lewis, Gareth D Jones, Joshua Blanc, Gavin J Carr, David Wallace Fleming, Karl Bunker, Sheila Crosby, Ben Bamber, Branden Johnson, Barbara Krasnoff, Ian Smith, Tina M Crone, Bec Zugor, Barry Pomeroy, Lawrence Buentello, Richard Jay Goldstein, Paul Freeman, Adam Colston, Kaolin Fire, Derek Rutherford, and a couple of stories from me and Robert Blevins. Hopefully, we can squeeze in a cartoon by Roberta Gregory too.

We have March 17th as a release date. That may be optimistic but best to have goals. The stories range from edgy noir near future, to struggling on a space rock, weird stuff in future in-ear audio devices to how can a child-bride save herself, both from a violent husband and the psychiatrist. I am exuberant over this anthology. It’s taken a lot of time and work – the nearest an editor gets to giving birth – in a literary sense!

New pals at NewCon5

I’ve just returned from NewCon5 in Northampton – a convention for lovers of science fiction. I had a nice long chat at what in many conventions are called Kaffeeklatsche (German – sort of – for a coffee chat about almost anything with Paul Cornell: author of many SF books and graphic comics including Dr Who novels, Captain Britain, and the recent Young Avengers series. I had a good chat with Jaine Fenn, successful author of Principles of Angels. We discussed the possibility of Adventure Books of Seattle (I am the British branch) being a distributor of Sam Stone’s books. Also with Juliet McKenna, who has graciously accepted to read my Xaghra’s Revenge novel with a view to endorsing it. I have an endorsement for it already from Jon Courtenay Grimwood, who was born in the Maltese Islands where the novel is set.

While there it was a pleasure to meet up with old friends such as Ian Whates. who organised the successful NewCon, and with others such as Sam Stone, her publisher, Terry Martin, and with my old friend, Terry Jackman of the BSFA Orbiters. It was my pleasure to read and review a pre-published version of Sam Stone’s Demon Dance. Also from BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) Orbiters but whom I’d not met in person before, was Robert Harkess and his wife. Robert is a skillful writer and has helped me with critiques of many of my short stories. At the con was Northampton’s jester, Kevin Burke, on his modern bendy stilts. Always a friendly chap – remember he was with me at NewCon4 helping me sell Exit, Pursued by a Bee. Which reminds me that it was a pleasure to hear Robert Harkess say he’d just finished reading Exit on his Kindle. Excellent!

On my train homeward journey I’ve been planning the science fiction workshop session I am doing with the Llandudno Writers’ group. I did a session with them earlier in the year on how to win short story competitions. A creative and appreciative bunch they are too. Brian Lux, writer of excellent children’s stories, is my contact with them.

My nephew, Ben Bamber, is in the papers again. His dystopic novella, The Vast and Gruesome Clutch of Our Law is now out as an ebook at the innovative site, Smashwords, and an article about it has appeared in the Gloucestershire Echo.  The text of the piece is on the Echo’s site here.

Another link for you is my review of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale at Compulsive Reader. Is it Science Fiction? I don’t think so: just because a story is set in the future it doesn’t make it SF automatically unless the change in the future features intrinsically. Nevertheless. I enjoyed reading the book. My review.