Even more Fcon stuff

So, guest no. 2 has just confirmed. And our MC is also a happy chappie.
Just guest no. 3 to hear from now.
And, (shhhhh....) there is also the potential of a guest no. 4 if we can get his publisher to help out on the airfare. So that's possibly 2 US guests, 2 UK guests & our MC. Crikey.

There can be only one...

... which will make sense in a minute.... so, once upon a time we had 5 cats. The last couple of years, however, has seen a rapid decrease in numbers 'til we were left with just the one (who also happened to be the oldest of the lot, strangely). They all seem to get afflicted with this weird thing that the vet can't quite diagnose which basically ends you up with a skinny cat who can't bear to be touched or even come inside the house no matter how cold it is...

Anyway, one morning, a couple of weeks ago, dad comes in from his early morning whatever it is he does in the garden thing and says he's just done burial duty as the cat was found curled up dead in the strawberry patch. Nice image, and as far as we thought, she didn't have to suffer through the mysterious illness for as long as the other cats did, so, bonus.

However, last week, in random conversation, he actually admits to mum that it wasn't quite as simple as that.
Apparently something got into the garden and ripped the cats head off and he found her mauled body half way up the veggie garden. As yet, the head's still missing.
Crikey.
Current theory is that it was a fox, but we're not exactly in the most rural of locations. Do you get that kind of fox activity in the middle of the suburbs? And going after a cat?
Bizarre.

Naturally, the first thing that came into mine and evil twin's heads was that it was some weird cat version of Highlander...

And as an end note to this fascinating little story...when evil twin popped down for the birthday thing on Sunday she quite innocently suggested to mum that she let the local paper know so they can do a Pets Beware type thing. (Why would you want to? Honestly!) So she rang them up, they said they would (tried to go totally tabloid about it... was there any young children in the house/in the street/blah blah let's overdramatise it...) and it's going in tomorrows edition. They were after a photo of mum to go with it too, but, alas, she's down in Bournemouth wintering up the caravan so the world will have to miss out on that little pleasure!

Fcon stuff

So, on a slightly Fcon related note, the BFS messageboards are finally back up and functioning - they've been down for the last couple of weeks due to some sort of weird spammer overload.

Why is this Fcon related? I'll tell you for why...! The 2006 Fcon, is, as I may have mentioned several dozen times already, the 30th Fcon. And for the Fcon mag this year we'd love to have retrospectives of each Fcon, ever. (I mention this now because it'll be January before it gets mentioned in Prism and I want to get peoples memories to work while it's still early!)
So, what we're looking for is your memories of either the first Fcon you went too, or any subsequent ones. 500 words or less (or if you've got a particularly funky story, as many words as it takes!) Email them to me, or post them up on the BFS board in the Fcon memories thread here

Alas, there is no payment involved for your participation :( but all items will be credited. Ooh, and if you've got photos you can email me, even better (though please identify people that are in the picture as I've a lousy memory for faces...!)

**
In other Fcon news.... guest no. 1, the same one we almost got last year, has said that he would love to come (yay!), only possible problem may be that he's got a film awaiting greenlighting and if that happens at the wrong moment he'll be directing it (or doing something with it... I get very confused..) so won't be able to make it. (sobs!)

Guests no. 2 & 3 have been asked and we're waiting back. And we're on the verge of asking our MC.
Now just the other million and one things to do... :)

Other BFS news

Prism is back from the printers and will be mailed off tomorrow morning - for all you folks who do the London open nights, the Xmas open night is on 2nd December at the Devereaux pub, 20 Devereaux Court, Essex Street, The Strand, London.
Apparently it's a little hidden away if you've never been there before so if you need to know.... Devereaux Court is a little side street off the Strand, at around the spot where the Strand meets Fleet Street.
Also, allegedly, the side street is next to The George Pub and opposite the Law Courts! (Okay, I'm getting confused now...)
Oh, and it'll be in the upstairs of the Devereaux.

It's from 6.30pm onwards and Chris Teague of Pendragon Press is the guest and may or may not be launching something book-like.

Prism news (well, sort of...)

And in other Prism news... the issue that's about to get mailed out is Debbie's last one (I'm sure I've mentioned that before as well...) and taking over from her in January is Nicki Robson, ex- BFS chair; and the infamous Pat Barber..., er, mum!

PB will also be helping Marie with Dark Horizons next year. (Aaagghh, please adopt me.... she's getting everywhere...)

And mum's taking a turn at running the 2006 BFS story comp too.. (ye gads!) We've got 3 out of 4 of the '05 author judges to come back for next year... haven't heard back from the fourth one yet.

(And now you see exactly where I get all this horrible volunteering malarkey from...)

:-)

H&N

Yes! Finally. It's gone and will be back soon! Phew.

Have updated the website with a few bits inc. starter details for Issue 8 (There'll be a few more faction bits to add to the Ish 8 line up... just as soon as I read the submissions I've got waiting for me...!)
Have more tweaking to do on the website though.

Then, once I've mailed out Ish 7, I can work out the all new fiction submissions guidelines (version 132!).

Other Bits

Highlander. In 30 seconds. With bunnies. See it here

Lovely stuff!

Talking of, apparently they're making either one, or a whole trilogy of sequals to Highlander: Endgame. God that was an awful film... I'm actually something of a fan of the Highlander TV series... so the theoretical concept of the cast etc. didn't bother me but god that was a boring story. Apparently the one they're filming at the moment is going to be search for the Immortal holy grail/source of power thingybob. With more Methos & Joe Dawson (yay!)

Ooh, and American Gothic is finally out on DVD (double yay!) except, as far as I can tell, only in the States and on US format DVD (boo!) Ah well, give it another year and they may get smart and UK friendly it.

Fcon'06

Yes! Venue booked! Definitely 22 - 24 September 2006, definitely Nottingham.
One of the hotels on St James Street, so it is. Room rates are something like £45 per night for single and £50 per person/per night for double (or possibly it's the other way around...)

Beyond that, I'm not allowed to get too gossipy with the details (as is my natural inclination..) as we're planning to do the big announcement stuff at the beginning of January... including a bigger Fcon website with more actual, y'know, details on it! :->
Plus, we've guests to chase down, and all that kind of junk...

Now if we can just get a venue for 2007......