Ok, so not completely offline... need the stress relief...

And, as expected, holiday cover has already driven me beyond batty... seems to get worse every time they go...

On the bright side, waiting for tenants to finish moving out (dudes! you knew what time you had to be out... the appointment was booked months ago!) and waiting for them to turn up (ditto!) does give plenty of time to catch up on the for-fun reading...
So I've managed to read both Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House (v. good, though not quite as scary as I'd been led to believe. Great storytelling, though.) and Stan Nicholl's Orcs Omnibus... a comment on the BFS forum said the books were improved by having them all together in the omnibus edition, and I agree... but then, most series are better if you can binge read them...

Anything else not biz related I haven't had a chance to look at in great detail yet... got an offer for help for the next batch of H&N submission reading, which is fab. (Thanks mate!)
Sorted out piles of things that need dealing with... (including the shock revelation that the income tax self assessment deadline was 30th September! Yipes! Missed that one...)
Had to wake up briefly to deal with some complete arse and their totally incorrect claims and rants... which just gets a tad wearing...

Robin Hood eppy 2 was marginally better than eppy 1. Which isn't saying much. Good god, people, it can be done miles better than that...
Saw a trailer for eppy 2 of Torchwood (yay!) on Youtube somewhere - looks fun!

Had a frantic moment when I thought I'd broken the business mobile... (the boss'd kill me!) but seems to be working ok now...

Hating the Reading roads with a passion... they've started fiddling around ready for this reworking of the IDR they reckon they're going to do (idiots!) so a couple of main access roads have now been bus-lane-ised and there's only one route out of Reading. Which is a terrible road. Terrible. And if you want to get to Caversham (where one of our other main agents is based... also there's a not bad independent bookshop that way...) there's, like, 1 decent road to use now... and of course everyone uses it... and getting to the agents in Reading is almost as nightmarish as finding parking for them...

I'm a Wokingham girl, me. Really. Despite quirks in the address, Lower Earley is technically in the Wokingham district. (Don't ask me what that's about... we pay taxes to Wokingham, but Royal Mail has us down as Reading...) And it's a lovely little town (used to have my market stall there... and hated it as no bugger ever spent anything! And I'm a lousy saleswoman. Y'know, if you don't want it, I'm not going to force you into it... ) and the roads and the parking is nice and civilised.

Just give me the amazing power of teleportation and my life would be sooo much easier... :->

Hold that thought...

Shall be completely offline and not even haunting the usual online places for the next week due to reasons of:
a) necessary finishing off of outstanding catch up work... (almost beaten the submissions!)
and
b) it's that horrible time of year when I get sole charge of the family biz while everyone else nicks off to Lanza-grotty for some sun... (honestly, they already did a week back in, what, May was it? 2 in one year's just greedy!)

...not that I mind the people going off on hols bit... it's the bloody estate agents and landlords and tenants and rebellious staff and emergency last minute we need it first thing tomorrow morning jobs... and having to answer calls from 7.30am to 8pm, 7 days a week...and the paperwork... god, you wouldn't believe the paperwork... keeps you working til late night, gets you started early morning ... drives you utterly mental... and I do not want to be spending my evening arguing with a tenant about why they have to pay for the whacking great hole they kicked in someone's wall because the estate agent is too chicken to do it... or explaining over and over to the landlord why they can't charge the tenant for a new carpet because of a couple of minor marks on an ancient and already ratty pre-existing floor, because the agent is too chicken to do it... (hmm, a trend emerges...)

Chanting for a quiet week... (oh please, oh please, let it be a quiet week this time... nothing like the bloody chaos of the last time... quiet... calm.... quiet... calm...)

More Fcon blather

So one of the (as yet unnamed) GoHs we were relatively sure of getting, probably won't be able to (ironic, given that the date we chose was because that was his only free weekend next September... )

So now we argue about who else to get in, and it's fun and it's frustrating and just how do you choose who'll make the best guest?
There's economics... you want a guest that will tip people over from 'meh' to 'ooh, just got to go to see X' so you want someone bordering on interstellar...
But what if the author you really adore isn't quite interstellar? How do you decide who's big and who isn't?
What if the not so interstellar one will be better entertainment?

And then there's keeping balances. Between horror and fantasy. Between
the ones that might possibly be at Fcon anyway and those that wouldn't. Between the ones you love and the ones you've not heard of but rumour has it they could be good.

And then there's the interesting point of non author guests. If we're really to cover the full lot what about comics guests or artist guests or media guests or editor guests? There's a limit to the amount of people we can afford to have a GoHs, so do we go for a bunch of authors, or delicately balance the authors with the others?

And that's without the tricky business of overseas guests...

Flying visit...

Just a quickie, as I'm mid submission reading (hallelujah!) - so expect to see the Slushblog updated in 2 or 3 days...

So Fcon again (what? I'm a girl obsessed, I know!)
We've got confirmation and are announcing the first 2 guests and MC....

GoHs: Michael Marshall Smith & Stephen Jones; MC: Peter Crowther.

And we've got 2 more GoHs in the pipeline, plus a possible extra one, maybe, possibly...
(We weren't going to have so many for next year... but you know how these things go, they snowball... gonna be a great lineup, and that's without some of the attendees we know are going to be there but can't announce yet!!)

And the website has already been updated with the first lot of details (gotta love that picture of Pete... it's something about the hat...) but if you have any suggestions, complaints, general comments or the like, please pop over to the BFS board as that's where you'll get the quickest and best answers!

Random girlie blather...
...so, apparently, the reason my feet were absolute murder over Fcon was because my old trainers were past it. Discovered I had a whacking piece of plastic sticking up through the inner sole... (no, I don't know why I didn't notice it before either...) so this week have had to go through the torture of buying new shoes... I hate live shopping if it's not for books. I especially hate shoe shopping because unlike most other things, experience proves it can't be done online because sizes are just too variable... was going between size 6 to size 8 depending on the shoe and the shop.... and it really couldn't be put off as I only own the one pair of shoes...! So 4 shops later, finally found the perfect pair. Phew. That's me good for another 6 or 7 years then!

Eeuurrggghhh...

I am that Shaun of the dead zombie...

Gosh, where did last week go? Fcon recovery only happened yesterday, as everything between then and Fcon is a blur of slipping in and out of consciousness (apparently it's the M.E. relapse - happens every so often. Bah. Humbug. I spit on your M.E. relapse. When I have the energy.)

And now we're talking about next year!! Venue is confirmed as Britannia, Nottingham. Date is confirmed as 21st - 23rd September 2007 (did I say this already here?) and we've got 1 guest and the MC confirmed, are waiting to hear back from guest 2, and are discussing guests 3 and 4. Guest 3 is someone most have been nagging us about for years... guest 4 is a wee bit unusual for an Fcon - if we can get him.

The official announcement will be made in a couple of weeks, I think. Once we've heard back from at least 2 of the outstanding guests...

And if you want to have a nosy and what people thought of Fcon check out the BFS forum thread here - http://www.marieoregan.net/bfsdiscuss/index.php?topic=806.0 where someone with improper use of awake time has dug out blog links and the like for peeps that talked about Fcon... (ok, so it was me...) There's links to Juliet & Clive's speeches too.

-

So with Fcon both gone and upcoming nicely covered for the time being, onto other things...

Prism & DH STILL at printers! Will have to check to make sure they haven't sent them to Finchley as well... (They (the printers) been taken over by someone new and there seems to be a few teething problems... so may have to find a new printers! Arrgh! They used to be so good too...)

Next Prism will now be 1st week of November (ish - have to carefully time it to come between the Prism/Dh mailing and the Xmas mailing) - with Fcon report and reviews and columns from James Barclay and Mark Morris and hopefully a debut author section. Would also like to do a complimentary old masters type section so authors published about 15 years or more ago can have a wee bit of exposure. Sort of a who's been an influence and why type thing - (useless at explaining it - Juliet managed to wrap it neatly up at the AGM but can't for the life of me remember what she said!) Want to have a review of one their books plus a short blurb on their influence either on the genre or on someone personally - or if they're still alive, a short interview! (volunteers to write one please speak! Or send something in on spec.) And the new mantra is - please remember that DH is the place for the longer features etc. - Prism only gets the really short stuff as we're news, reviews and the odd views! Zat is the law!

--- BFS bit ends!

All things Bradan...

So now that all that is under control, I can finally get to grips with all this other outstanding stuff... and you know how this goes so a little more bearing with me... there's Ish 8 to finish off, the subs, the emails, the odd outstanding stuff that I thought I'd sorted but obviously hadn't...

And, seriously chaps, if anyone wants to volunteer to help me out with the mag, let me know. No money will change hands, alas, but if someone with a quirky taste in fiction wants to help out on submissions reading & replying ... I'm waiting to hear from you!!

Fantasycon...

Gosh. How cool was that? I know I said last year was best Fcon ever - but dudes! This year! Totally, absolutely, BEST FCON EVER!!! (Apart from my feet - been killing me ever since Friday lunchtime and was v. painful to walk for the whole weekend...) but apart from that...

Chaz Brenchley & Juliet McKenna!!! Hands down, the best double act in the world. Ever ever. Their interview should have gone on longer... And I got to sit with Juliet at the Banquet! She's totally, totally fab!
And Chaz was totally on form! There could be some mega-cool BFS/WF combi events in the pipeline if conversations can continue... (and apols for the high school teen speak that will be peppering this post - it's early, I'm excited...)

We made £1000 on the raffle (split between Black Dust and Daisy's Dream)

Neil Gaiman - what a terrific chap! I shook his hand! And talked to him!

Clive Barker - great guy! What a trooper! He was poorly all weekend but still managed to come up with an on the spot after dinner speech... and when he signs books he draws pictures!

Ramsey Campbell! Shorts in September! The only man I know who can make a story about cheese toasties sound entertaining!

Ray Feist - fun guy! Looked like he really enjoyed it and could be found hanging in the bar chatting to everyone! Great sense of humour, that man!

Garry Charles! Thanks for the CD!

Steve Jones - total sweetie!! And his reaction when he won the Special Award was just excellent!

Dave Howe - worked his ass off! Buy his books!

Awards! While I remember (although, this is from memory, so I may have mixed up winners and categories and the like...)

2006 BFS Award Winners are:

British Fantasy Award for Best Novel: The August Derleth Award
Neil 'shocked, delighted, bemused' Gaiman, ANANSI BOYS

British Fantasy Award for Best Novella:
Stuart 'Shocked and utterly speechless' Young, THE MASK BEHIND THE FACE

British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology:
Allen 'I've just scored the winning goal!' Ashley, THE ELASTIC BOOK OF NUMBERS

British Fantasy Award for Best Collection:
Joe 'twice in one day!' Hill, TWENTIETH CENTURY GHOSTS

British Fantasy Award Best Short Fiction:
Joe 'the plaque's dropped off' Hill, BEST NEW HORROR

British Fantasy Award for Best Artist :
Les 'share the glory with the other artists present!' Edwards

British Fantasy Award for Best Small Press:
Peter 'back in the game!' Crowther, PS PUBLISHING

And the Karl Edward Wagner Special Award went to a very surprised Stephen Jones! Who took at least 5 minutes of persuading before he'd believe we were actually trying to give an award to him! (You had to be there... :-> )

The Committee also decided to present 4 Special Founders Awards this year in appreciation of the people whose hard work and enthusiasm got the BFS rolling in the first place: Keith Walker, Rosemary Pardoe, Phil Spencer & David A. Sutton. Dave accepted on everyone else's behalf... and what a sweetie he is.

And we surprised Pete & Jan with champagne and gifts...
And we surprised Debs & Rob too!
And the hotel was brilliant (the bar staff were a bit dodgy - we got one of them fired!!) - we're pretty much 98% certain we're using it again next year (and how cool would it be to have a permanent Fcon home for a while?) but just need a couple more discussions. As soon as it's booked, we'll announce the date and first two guests...

And I actually did a banquet! And could eat the food! (That never happens!)
And the food stayed hot and was good quality (which, apparently, hardly ever happens!)

And we had a bunch of people join up as new BFS members!
And we sold things off the BFS table!! Lots of things!!! (Can't remember the last time that happened!)

And didn't get into the dealers rooms to spend money due to the headless chicken thing but there looked like a whole heap of great stuff!!

And the raffle went on *forever*!

And other lovely guys and gals: Mark Morris! Andrew Hook! John L. Probert! Nick Lermentov! (Sorry, can't remember his real surname!!), John Connolly, Mark Chadbourn, the guy from Chronicles Network whose name slips my brain (and his business card is stashed in the luggage somewhere), Paul Cornell (dropped in for a surprise visit on the Saturday and would have been squeezed onto a panel if we could have thought of one!!!), Paul 'also worked his ass off' Campbell, Mike Chinn, Peter Coleborn, Chris Teague, Jan Edwards, Nicki Robson, Sandy Auden, Mandy Slater, Anne Sudworth, Talking Dead Bob, Erik Arthur, and many more...

And the AGM was terrifying - huge room, we were up on stage, with microphones!! Arrgh! Next year it's going in one of the smaller rooms. I am organiser, that is the law!!
And we were overrunning before the AOB bit so that was waaay shorter than expected -I'm sure we must have forgotten something...
We voted in a non-fiction award, no one raised the Newcomer award that was talked about, though, and I only remembered about it on the way home last night... I think the whole DG newcomer award thing was being done independentally or something.. I dunno, brain went into meltdown..

And, Fcon and Prism (ie. my report areas) got the most discussions on them... you gits! Did I mention I hate talking into microphones? Suggestions were made, notes were taken... beyond that, my brain is going hazy...

And I don't have the final attendee count but it's got to be around the 350 mark! Gosh!!

And there were loads of new people there!

And you were all so nice! And thanks for coming!!!

One of those Friends/elbows moments...

EEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! (That's me joyously screaming) :-> It arrived! With one hour to spare! Despite the fact that half the boxes were addressed to one of the other houses on our road (thank god we got a smart delivery driver!) A bit battered, but all there.

Phew.

And now I really am going...

Almost there...

1 day to go. And darlings? We must be nothing short of fabulous!

...and I'm back to that state of disturbing calm now... we're leaving in a few hours, as much paperwork as I can think of is done, boxes are packed and inventoried (yes, I'm that much of a control freak... coded by area of operations, with contents lists etc! They've been laughing at me... but they'll see... :-> )

Still haven't got the Fcon mag... hopefully it will arrive this morning, if not, the old man or one of the staff will be bringing it up to Nottingham tonight...

Will things go wrong? Probably. Will I have forgotten things? Definitely. It's inevitable. Do I care at this point? Nope. Done everything I can, covered the important things, after that, I'm stopping worrying...

I've got an ARC of Juliet's latest to read tonight once all the heavy lifting has been done, (love those Prism perks!) ; I've just heard that Mark Morris is going to do me a horror column for Prism (so that's v. cool!); I've listed out what I need to say in the various reports at the AGM on Sunday (genius! And it was such an obvious worry-buster, doing this preperation thingy I keep hearing so much about...)

So this is the last you'll hear from me until Fcon is over (unless we get the Fcon mag in the next couple of hours, then I'll be back to scream joyously...) - if you're coming, see you there, hope you have fun... if you're not, I'll talk to you next week when things have calmed down...

AARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

... yes yes, 2 days etc...

And I had gone back into eerie calm this morning - right up until we phoned the printer to find out where the Fcon mag was.... Apparently they tried to deliver it to Finchley yesterday! Finchley?! Who lives in Finchley?! (Well, ok, that was Marie's old place last year...)

But why Finchley? In every email, phone conversation, and accompanying document to files I'd put very clearly that delivery and invoice was to me at my address.... But still... Finchley... and as it's out for redelivery today (to Finchley!!) we've no chance of getting it near Reading until tomorrow (we're leaving tomorrow!! Argh!!) Even then, they're not sure we'll get it to our house... but "at least it will be in the Reading area" W.T.F!!?!

We did suggest we could drive up to their depot tonight to pick it up, but no, apparently the driver may just go straight home and not return to the depot with his van...

And it's not as if they don't know me - they're the ones that we use for Prism, DH & H&N and last years Fcon mag.... and everything has always been delivered to my address...

And we finally hear from one of our missing goodie bag people -apparently that's going out with the courier today - so, what, another thing arriving tomorrow morning then...?

Talk about sailing close to the wind....

Of lists and things...

...3 days... 3 days...3 days to go.... arrrrrggggghhhh!

And disturbing calm has left the building as we're well and truly into panic mode again! (I say we, in actuality, everyone else seems to still be fairly calm about things, it's only me getting all het up... not that I'm highly strung... oh no...) 2 and half days til we set off (Thursday lunchtime, with a man & van) and there's lists and lists and lists to do... Running order for the awards has changed slightly since last we knew (no, I don't know who's won... I do know who's getting the Karl Edward Wagner Special award and I'm not telling so nyah!), last minute banquet issues, preparation for next year, prep for the AGM (Agh! 3 reports!! Please don't ask anything. Let's just move along to AOB...) and trying to think of all those little things we might need like plasters or a bottle opener/corkscrew or aspirin or decent pens for the writing of name badges or posters and signs beyond the usual... and where are we putting the reg. desk - due to an item that got more complicated that previously anticipated where we were going to go will have to change from originally anticipated... will it be secure over night, are we going to have to do nightly shifting of the good stuff into the lockable bit? And what about storage overnight in the hotel on Thursday... I'm wildly paranoid about that one. And what about the noise from the Con bar? Are the walls thick enough to block it from the main room? We did tests last time we were up and it seemed to be ok. But there was only a few of us shouting...
Will we be able to get the PA system to work (we've lost Handy Andy due to a work training course so we're on our own for technical stuff... arrgghh!)

And why is it only now I think of those fun little touches that it would have been better to have thought of a couple of weeks ago to do them properly...

And boxes! Why did we throw out all those cardboard flats last month - we need them now! Stupid stupid stupid!!

And a chunk of promised goodie bag hasn't turned up, but we've also had a couple of surprising additions at the last minute...

And I'm just worrying about EVERYTHING!