Email, bah, humbug...

So it seems the technical problems are not, in fact, down to the server people. It's something to do with my PC (oh now there's a BIG surprise...) Luckily I can still access the emails off of webmail on someone elses machine (as my machine won't even let me go near the website... double bah!) so all is not lost!

BFS recommendations

See, I knew there was something else I should be babbling about... after seeing the absolutely shameless shouting messrs Pendragon Press, Gray Friar Press, Elastic Press and Desmondo of Nemonymous have been doing on the TTA boards, I'm reminded that the BFS reccommendations for the awards are upon us..
(You'd think I'd have twigged since I spent the weekend stuffing envelopes with the forms in, wouldn't you..)

So, all you BFS members, if you want to recommend any stories for the awards, both Issue 5/6 & Issue 7 are eligible as they both came out in 2005.
Stories eligible for you to recommend are:

Issue 5/6:
Guitar Heroes - Simon Kewin
Blooming Britain - Leila Eadie
Fear of Fitness - John Llewellyn Probert
The Autumn Beast - Michael D. Winkle
Better and Better - John B. Rosenman
Charlie the Quantum Computer - Sarah Dobbs
Choices - Justin Thorne
For Old Times’ Sake - Gary Couzens
Humpback IV - Mark Anthony Brennan
Greenleaves - Davin Ireland
From Freak to Unique - Steve Dean
Lorna - Alasdair Stuart
Modern Life - Jason J. Stevenson
The Mermaid’s Tears - Steve Lockley
Lost - Paul Bates
Mokey - Kay Green
The Pan!c Foundation - Arthur Lyte
Rainmaker on the Run - Jetse de Vries
Seeing Red - John Graham
She Who Controls the Wind - Ken Goldman
Alan Smithee Lives in Hell - Matthew S. Rotundo
Burning Bush - Jennifer Pelland
The Green Man - Paul McAvoy
They Let You Live - Ian Hunter
Calling the Tuna - John B. Rosenman
Unicorn - Gary McMahon
When the Lights Go Out - Eugie Foster

Issue 7:

Big Brother - Gary Fry
The Stone Prince - Barbara Davies
Flickering Pictures Hypnotise - Simon Kewin
My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie - Eugie Foster
Stength in Numbers - Frank Roger
Eliza - Bev Vincent
A Sordid Boom - Ian Creasey
Dear Sirs - Robert J. Santa
Daisy Strikes Back - James Brindle
The Seat - Francis Duffy
Habitation Without Representation - Laird Long
Oriental Mist - James S. Dorr
Omegalpha - Frank Roger
Field Trip - Stuart Young
Pick Me Up - David Murphy
Like Tears, Cast in the Steps of Her Mother - Gerard Houarner
Philip K. Sheckley's Astounding Discovery - Frank Roger

And feel free to recommend H&N in the Small Press category too :-> Not that we'll win when we're up against all those other small press peeps, but it would be nice to make the short list...

More technical problems... if you've sent anything to the bradanpress email in the last couple of days, I've not got it as the server for that address seems to be doing weird things.
Meantime, the majorarcana addy is working fine, so re-send stuff to that one please (or use prism at britishfantasysociety dot org dot uk.. as that one forwards to my majorarcana one)

Fcon

Got the news on the final GoH... Yes chaps, Clive Barker is now an official GoH for Fcon 2006! (Thud!)

H&N
... and messageboards are back down again. Will look for something more secure.

Honestly... they were only up 12 hours and how many spam posts? Too many! Oy and Vey.

H&N
Messageboards are back... should the idiot spammer types flock to fill it up with rubbish again, then I'll disable the boards again and look for some newer more secure solution. The current one is a freebie thing I get from the server peeps so the search for a replacement freeb may take a while.

BFS bits
Prism was mailed off this weekend, Dark Horizons, so I hear, is on it's way for layout. So it will appear soon. It's going to be bumper issue of roughly 180 pages to make up for its absence last year.
Also, don't forget, if you're in London this Friday the BFS Open Night is being held at the Devereaux. Usual time, all the details can be gotten from the BFS site or by checking out the the BFS messageboards Open Night thread.
(Or, indeed, from the news section in the latest Prism!)

There's also a slim chance that I'm going to be there for this one (and if that isn't enough to put you off, I don't know what is!)... it'll be my first one so be nice if I see you!
Andrew Hook and David Swann will be launching the latest Elastic title - The Last Days of Johnny North... so take some crispies to make them happy bunnies!

H&N

Will be catching up on outstanding H&N stuff in the next couple of days so if you're waiting to hear back from me on general email queries then hold tight. Haven't had a chance to read any submissions yet, in case that helps. Should be doing that in the next couple of weeks.
Messageboards still down as the spammers are relentless.

Fcon
And Oh. My. Holy. F***!
Have just had confirmation about 2 more surprise GoHs. Surprise, as in, we thought we'd reached our limit with the 3 fab ones we'd already got - but no, one of these chaps is over on a tour for his latest book around Fcon time and his publisher asked if we wanted him.. so, sluts that we are, we said yes. Then there's this other chap. To be named in a few days at his request, but O.M.G.! The details will go up on the Fcon site shortly (and I really must get around to doing something on the fcon blog...) You definitely have to get in early for Fcon this year cos this may well be a sell out... :->

H&N
In case you noticed, the messageboard is currently out of action - this is due to severe overload from those poxy spammers. 30 spam posts a day is bordering on excessive, no?

Fcon
So close to announcing stuff, dammit.... we're just waiting for the BFS web guy to finish doing the new website then it's all trumpets and brass bands.

Prism
This is your last call for news if you've anything that needs going in the Jan/Feb issue - I'll need your press releases etc. by the end of the week or it'll have to wait 'til the next one!

Egypt...
...was fab! Totally recommend it to anyone thinking of going. (We did it the easy way - a Nile cruise with guided tours almost every day - subsequently, I'll have no money for the next 5 years.... )
Evil twin and I had a lot of fun playing spot the Stargate/Mummy Returns references... Karnak! Philae! (Seen them, been harassed by the tourist tack touts...) Abydos! (Which, apparently isn't just a planet in Stargate, it's actually a real live town too!)
Didn't get to see the pyramids as we were at the other end of the country (and the Cairo overland trip was on the same day as the one to the Valley of the Kings so we went VoK instead)
And I'm all templed out now!

And they take English money everywhere! How handy is that?! Although the whole tipping thing gets very old, very fast. (What, you want me to pay you a tip for selling me something in your shop... dude, please...)
And someone offered 3000 camels for Evil Twin! Seriously! (Someone else started out offering 1 camel for taking me, mum and Hells as a package, but obviously we were holding her back because someone else offered 20 camels for Hells on her own, then one of the waiters upped it to 3000 after seeing her in Eqypt gear on one of the boats theme nights. They also all begged dad to leave Hells behind when we left...!)

Good grief the Nile gets a bit manic with boats, though. Apparently there's about 346 cruise ships going up and down it (and they park up 6 in a row, so sometimes you have to walk through a few other ships to get ashore...) then there's hundreds of these boat taxi things (the word 'taxi' should give you half a clue about their style of driving... how they never hit anything I'll never know...) plus feluccas (small sailboats) and rowboats all over the place.

So much wow! So I'll shut up now!

Body present, brain elsewhere....

Morning! So, we got back from Egypt at 4am yesterday (more on *that* in a day or so when I'm awake...) and it seems I've now got the gross sounding cold the people in the seats behind me on the plane had. Double yuck. Like I need any encouragement for ear, nose & throat problems...

Meantime, while I've been gone, it seems everyone has been busy sending in their submissions! Nice one, thanks. (People have also been busy filling the forum with spam posts again, the gits...)

Now just the 400 odd emails to sort out....

Have a cracking Christmas folks! I'm off for the week now so I'll see you all in '06!