FantasyCon 2012

Nearly forgot to mention that the national British convention for fantastical and weird fiction is taking place this weekend in Brighton. It’s still not too late to catch some of it. Drink beer, raid the dealers’ room, etc.

Full Fathom Forty Launch

The Full Fathom Forty launch will be taking place between 5-6pm, Friday 30th September in Bar Rogue of the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton as part of Fantasycon 2011.

British Fantasy Awards 2010

Congratulations to the winners!

Dark Horizons 57

Dark Horizons 57 has now been published and contains fiction from Malcolm Laughton, Stephen Bacon, Charlotte Bond, Zachary Jernigan and – tra-la – me. Louise Morgan interviews Mark Charan Newton, Jenny Barber interviews Aliette de Boddard, Stephen Theaker interviews Allen Ashley, and Mike Barrett writes about the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Poems a-plenty from Allen Ashley,  J.R. Salling, Graylin,  Sarah Doyle, Ian Hunter, Roy Gray,  Alessio Zanelli and Rick Coonrod. And it’s all wonderfully illustrated by Martin Hanford, John Shanks, Inna Hansen, Alf Klosterman, David Bezzina and Les Edwards.

Of course, to get it you have to join the British Fantasy Society. Or you can try and buy a copy at FantasyCon next weekend. However, if you join the BFS you will also get a copy of the latest Prism, not to mention £10 off the price of a FantasyCon ticket. What to do?

Fantasycon 2010

Fantasycon 2010 is taking place next weekend in Nottingham (17th-19th September). It’s organised by the British Fantasy Society and lots of writers of strange fiction with be there. Plenty of  publishers will have a presence, including Mutation Press and  TTA Press.

Beer, books and more beer. The horror, the horror…

FantasyCon 2009

FantasyCon 2009 is taking place between 18th-20th September (next weekend) in the Britannia Hotel, Nottingham. It is the annual bash for the British Fantasy Society where awards will be awarded, books will be launched, beer will be drunk and nets will be worked. This year’s guests of honour are Gail Z. Martin, Jasper Fjorde and Brian Clemens, and the MC is Ian Watson, but you won’t be able to move without bumping into authors and publishers. It is highly recommended to anyone interested in the field. The dealers’ room will be packed as well (I particularly recommend the TTA Press and Screaming Dreams stalls, of course, and Waterstone’s has also been known to carry the odd intriguing title as well).

I won’t be there (because it is career suicide for me to appear in public) but there should be a strong Glaswegian contingent in attendance.

FantasyCon 2009

FantasyCon 2009 is the  British national fantasy convention, and it is taking place in Nottingham between 18th & 20th September. If you’re intending to attend, remember that the cost of registration will be going up from £50 to £60 on 1st July.

British Fantasy Awards 2009 Shortlist

The shortlist for the British Fantasy Awards has been announced. Screaming Dreams and TTA Press are listed in the PS Best Small Press catagory, Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn (from Interzone) and Bookzoner Paul Kincaid’s What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction are in the Best Non-Fiction catagory, and Interzone itself is in the Best Magazine catagory.

If you’re a member of the British Fantasy Society, remember to vote before the 1st of August.  If you’re not a member, join here and then vote. The winners will be announced at FantasyCon, 18th-20th September.

British Fantasy Awards 2009

The longlist ballot for the BFAs has been posted. British Fantasy Society and Fantasycon members will vote in it and the top five or so will make the shortlist, and another round of voting will decide the winners. I think. Democracy is so confusing.

Anyway, congratulations to Neil Williamson and Hal Duncan from the GSFWC on making it onto the Short Story and Novel lists respectively.

Interzone is nominated for the Best Magazine Award, with Greg Egan’s Crystal Nights (Interzone 215) making it on to the Best Novella list, and M.K. Hobson’s Comus of Central Park (interzone 217) and Jason Sanford’s The Ships Like Clouds Risen By Their Rain (Interzone 217) making on to the Best Short Story list. Warwick Fraser-Coombe was nominated for Best Artist with his artwork in Interzone 215, and TTA Press was nominated in the Best Small Press catagory. Nick Lowe’s film column, Mutant Popcorn, was nominated in Best Non-fiction catagory, as was Bookzoner Paul Kincaid’s What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction. Another Bookzoner, Juliet E. McKenna, has a nomination in the Short Story catagory.

Ah, who else? I’m going to miss out someone, somewhere. Well done, also, to Beccon and Screaming Dreams for their nominations for Best Small Press Award, since they have also published (or are about to publish) some of my stuff.

And well done to everyone else. Just to be on the safe side.

It’s still not too late to add a write-in nomination if you think there’s something missing.

British Fantasy Society & FantasyCon

Dang! I can no longer claim to have a story in the current issue of Dark Horizons. The latest BFS mailing arrived today and it contains Dark Horizons 53. The good news is that it has a story and a poem from fellow GSFWCer Ian Hunter. Eric Brown also says some very nice things about the GSFWC in his Prism column. We really must hand over those negatives some day.

Eric won’t be at FantasyCon this weekend, and neither will I. However, if you’re heading down (or up, or across) to Nottingham, feel free to buy some copies of Dark Horizons from the BFS stall. I particularly recommend issue 52. And if you’re looking for any GSFWC people then the bar should probably be your first port of call.