So this was my first British Convention, I was really nervous and terrified that no one would speak to me or that, even worse, Graeme Reynolds who invited me would pass me by! Wow was I wrong..... thankfully. I walked into the hotel bar, spotted Graeme and was instantly given a HUGE hug and he handed me a signed copy of High Moor 3 (more on that later!), and that's basically how the convention went for me. A bit of terror, huge hugs, the bar and lots of books.
The first panel was The World As We Know It (Edward Cox, Jan
Edwards, Peter McLean, Al Robertson & Sue Tingey with Penny Reeve as
moderator).
Unfortunately I was unable
to hear most of it due to the microphones either not working or the guests not
realising you needed to actually lift them up. It was a shame not to have heard
it as the panel were clearly having a laugh at something!
The joy of learning
about new authors and seeing my favourites in the flesh is hard to describe.
Whilst I want to worship them and lick their toes I do enjoy finding out that
they are human and not something to be worshipped making me much more
loyal.
The panel itself was very
illuminating, Edward Cox has some very interesting concepts and Al Robertson
took getting on board a plane to new levels of sci-fi; basically showing that daily
life is actually magic.
I loved hearing how they write about
elements/characters/storylines and how they develop them. Of course mythical critters, folklore and
mutually assured dragons is how we are going to achieve World Peace, so glad I
found that out.
The second panel I attended was Chills, Shocks & Empty
Bladders: Writing “The Fear” :the amazing Ramsey Campbell did not overshadow the other guests (Neil Buchanan, Sara Townsend, Simon Bestwick & Lynda
Rucker with Emma Audsley as moderator) in the slightest, he merely proved what
an awesome gravitational force he is and what a total gentleman. I really liked the smaller, more intimate,
venue room.
The one comment that
really struck me was that horror is cathartic, for me that was a revelation.
Having had this phrase pop into my head several times now I can fully appreciate
how horror saved my sanity from an early age and has stayed with me as the one
constant in my life; whatever monster was in those pages I could deal with, I could
escape from; it made the real monsters in my life less scary, that holds
true today.
It did make me snigger
that they all confessed to being scaredy cats and who knew that Rupert the Bear
could be so terrifying! But then again Worzel Gummidge scared the poop out of
me as a kid; what normal person takes their head off!
After this I was dragged off for one of the worst meals of
my life in the hotels brasserie, for some reason they had decided to reduce
their normally lovely menu to three choices that did not appeal in the reading,
ordering or eating of them. I have seen more fish (in my seafood pie) in an empty anchovy can and the salad looked like it had just had CPR. Forget extra drinks
or even the offers of pudding as the waiters chose to ignore us after plonking
the plates down. I suppose we should
count ourselves lucky we got to sit down at all really as the first attempt at
arranging a table was met with disgusted looks by the head waiter and a flat
refusal to sit eight of us together despite an empty restaurant, when two of us went
back and asked for two tables of four suddenly all was well, perhaps dragging
them together is what then got us the shoddy table service.
However, this experience may have
blotted the day, it did not ruin it as I was far too excited and was happily now
following my new friends off to my first “reading” with Chris Barnes and Matt Shaw; a fabulous story was narrated in that beautiful Scottish accent, although
I feel I have now marked my card by telling my new friends that his version of the
horrifying Connie in the High Moor series will forever only bring Mrs Doubtfire
to mind post enjoying the audio version.
The real and very gorgeous boys.....
As we sped into the evening I continued
to stalk my new convention buddies (Carrie & Neil) into the Conference
Theatre for The Atrocity Exhibition, not sure what I was expecting but an
hilarious game show was not it, but I was delighted with an hours’ worth of
giggles and interesting non facts. Wonderfully hosted by Donna Scott who kept
forgetting her own team names (Mark West & Kim Larkin-Smith vs Gareth L.
Powell & Emma Newman) but did keep those naughty people in check although
giggling deliciously at their often bonkers answers did provide me with a few
more smirking moments. I think the
highlights for me where the face eating, murder beavers and button holes!
The next reading was by Carrie
Buchanan who captivated me with her breathy, heartfelt reading of her brothers
Road to Palladium; it was no surprise then to find out she is the voice
of Stormblade Productions.
After deciding that the Karaoke
was not my thing I headed back into the reading room armed with a fresh drink
to be delighted and horrified by further readings; Will MacMillian Jones was so
kind as to give me an almost private reading and then remembered me the next
day whilst I was trolling the Dealer Room (he did convince me to buy a 1st
Edition of one of his YA books for my nieces xmas present!). Other delights were Terry Newman, Simon
Bestwick, Marion Pitman, Michael Millar and the joyful Craig Saunders. Poor Craig, after the reading I managed to
trap him (on a chair) against the wall, in the bar, with a bribe of a Guinness
whilst I picked his brain on life, the Universe and everything.
I went to bed at the reasonable hour of 2.30am, I understand
that others stayed up until 4am!
Up with the lark like a kiddo on xmas day, I ran down to
breakfast and managed to snag one of my favourite authors (Graeme Reynolds of the Highmoor trilogy) all to myself! It was a
real pleasure moment as I gazed at him over a plate of sausages, eggs and
beans; I think I managed to speak coherently but then again he could have just
been hung over and nodding in all the right places, or trying to keep his
brains from falling out; and here is proof of my beautiful signed book.
and in return I was able to present him with a little gift too! (lets hope he doesn't find the little microphone and satnav receiver inside!)
The next panel was Monster Mash-Up: Were-vamp-zomb-zilla….With
Wings! (Carrie Buchanan, Cassandra Khaw, Tim Lebbon, Will MacMilliam Jones
& Adele Wearing – Jon Oliver was moderator).
Do you ever get that feeling that someone is pointing
at you? In a moment of terror at being singled out I became aware (like that scene from Jaws on the beach) that the lovely Adele Wearing,
who I now know is from Fox Spirit Books, was pointing about my multitude of
foxy items hanging off my bag, this of course endeared me to her for the rest
of the panel and I nearly ignored what all the others were saying!
The main comments and thoughts that stood
out for me were the idea that monsters are just humanity's faults made into
characters; how these artists brought those concepts to life differed enormously. The other interesting comment was the “new”
Asian monsters that are creeping into modern, Western horror; there was a word
of caution from Ms Khaw that these critters should be given the respect they
deserve from their origins in folklore and not bastardised too much. It almost felt like a threat (wink) but it
gave me the chills. Some members of
the panel, who shall remain nameless, forgot they were there when asked a
question, so engrossed in the discussion were they; fully understandable!
12pm and a book launch for Adam Neville's Lost Girl was pretty impressive with a queue almost out the door for signings. However, our little gang was huddled in the
corner, after some more anonymous fan-girling (not me this time!) as we
waited to watch Jim Mcleod of Ginger Nuts of Horror fame to be floored by a personalised book presentation; enjoy THAT post on his
blog.
At 2pm the next panel was being seated and then unseated due
to a fire alarm, there are rumours as to who set it off, my money is on the
kitchen staff and those burnt to cinder repulsive burgers. The panel was Turn Up The Volumes: Marketing
& Selling Books (Sophie Calder, Jo Fletcher, Graeme Reynolds, Matt Shaw
& Danie Ware with Adele Wearing as moderator). I thought Adele did very well in not
allowing any one person to overshadow the others PoV and both Graeme and Matt
did admirably in showing that Indie Publishing is not only established but
knocking socks of Traditional Publishing.
My only thought really as I was nodding away and rolling my eyes at some
of the name dropping was: Where were the readers? The bloggers? The reviewers? Now
I know I am biased but it’s often the word of mouth reviews or blog posts that
get me interested in buying a book. That group of marketing should have had a
voice, IMO.
I then had a mooch around the Dealers Room and again thought
the organisers had missed the opportunity to provide tables for artists other
than publishers; cover artists, audio, merchandise, films etc
At 5pm I was gobsmacked to see this little fella in huge boots
jump on a table and start reading; apparently I had stumbled into the launch of
GodBomb! by Kit Power. Later his reading at 23.45 was so very well delivered,
not only was the story gripping and heart wrenching but his performance of the
story made the whole audience jump in certain places and oooh in others, I
asked him when it would be available on Amazon as I was very impressed with his
launch reading too, only to be presented with a signed copy. Go me!
Whilst the downside of the whole convention was the horrifying crap they dished up
as food and then charged you exorbitantly for, the saving grace was breakfast. Thankfully I was able to join a super cool
gang of people for a very nice Indian meal and ended up giving a lift to the super
cool Kit Power and his UBERcool parents! His dad was Twitteratting about the #Fcon2015 whilst waiting for his Cobra!
Post poppadums and naan breads we dashed back for the disco,
only taking time out for another
reading. Neil Buchanan is such a calm,
gentle and quiet man until you hear him read his work. It is not an over exaggeration
to say that at his reading the originally rowdy (yes drunk, it was a theme)
crowd were silent from about two lines in, all the way through to the end when
for about 5 seconds we all sat there in shock (and me in awe) until a lady who
was waiting to read next suddenly piped up with “that was disgusting”, followed
by Graeme Reynolds croaking out “what is wrong with you?” which kind of summed
it really. I really fan girled about ten mins later when,
walking down the corridor to the bar, Neil threw his script in the bin and I (nearly)
screamed “what are you doing!” only to fish it out again and clutch it to my
chest! It’s now proudly sat on my shelf,
my only regret is not getting him to sign in, but it does have his sweat on
(sorry too much information huh).
Whilst many of the readers were exceptionally nervous prior
to their readings, without fail NONE of them let their work down.
Back to the Disco, without a shadow of a doubt the most fun
time! The only shame was it finishing
at 1am?? Shocking! We are not 12 year olds at a school disco… this was hard
core partying! And by that I mean Hey
Micky (which will stay with me forever, thank you Mark West) followed by Fire
Starter, The Macarena, Dancing Queen and Ace of Spaces (or Nasal Spray as was
whispered in my ear by Neil Buchanan; giving me a squirmy eye twitching moment –
see back to fan girl moment). Not only
was this eclectic mix enjoyed by all I was astounded to see that the dance
floor was 8/2 men/women…….. yup! Although
I did fear for some of their, and my, safety at some points; especially the guy
who thought it was in a hybrid mix of Riverdance and Ring, a Ring of Roses! When the lights came on we all skulked away
to have much more chatting in the bar and I finally gave into sleep at 3am.
A greasy breakfast was most welcome on the Sunday morning as
I seemed to have soaked up someone else’s hangover (I don’t drink) but managed
to stumble to my final panel Sounds Like A Story: the science and psychology of
audio fiction with the silky sexiness known as Chris Barnes (James Goss &
Emma Newman with Alasdair Stuart as moderator – Del Larkin-Smith was off
getting told he was organising 2016 Fcon!).
This panel was probably the most informative of all the panels for me as it opened up a whole new world not least the amusing podcast Tea & Jeopardy by Emma Newman, a nice cup of tea, some cheeky cake, some brilliant interviews and a bit of jeopardy from the barking mad Butler Latimer.
I am now making my way through Pseudopod too. One of the funniest things I did jot down and then search out on YouTube was ID4UK; basically it's the Independence Day film with THE Sir Patrick Moore, it's a must listen and I guarantee you will giggle!
Thoughts overall - I LOVED IT!! Have already booked my ticket for next year where I can join forces with my new Con bestie (Carrie) and terrorise Jim McLeod's knees......
