Technical support now claims that the messageboard problem has been fixed... what a load of bollocks. All the user accounts and archives are still evaporated so the new start-from-scratch board is permanent.

And now all my emails have decided to go off in a huff too. Hammer. Computer. Let me introduce you to.

In brighter news, at least mums new website at www.first-time-tenant.com seems to be working out all right. The photo's a bit scary though.

So technical support isn't being very (supportive, that is). Apparently most of the core programming php files got sucked up in wherever all the files got sucked up to. I dunno.

So new boards now wanged up on http://bradanpress.netfirms.com/chat2/nfphpbb - have altered links on the main site so off we go again...

And the forum seems to have completely disappeared to. Arrrrgh. If the technical support chappies don't come up with answers in the next few hours (like what they did promise), I'll wang up a new board.
I told you, technology hates me.

Good grief

So now all my web pages have managed to magically disappear off the server overnight? I mean, I could maybe almost sort of understand it if I'd actually been transferring files to it but nope, been nowhere near it, I swear.

The world's going mad.

Le Mag

How long's it been? At least 22 years, and now at least half of you are drawing your old age pensions... (Or in the case of one Steve R, died, passed right through the light and reincarnated...) :->
So Issue 5 then, is now going to be a double with Issue 6, due out end of this month. Oh yes.(Another computer blew out on me, losing about half the contents of Ish 5 in the process - hence delays on mags & website updates etc. Have now given up using other peeps gronky second hand machines and have got a lovely new HP beastie that seems to be behaving itself so far.)

Issue 7/8, another double issue, will be out July.
After that, we'll be open to submissions (new guidelines & rates etc will go on site in June) and I'm looking at sorting out a more sensible (timely) schedule. Ideally I'd like to get another issue out this year, most likely Nov/Dec - after I've got Fantasycon out of the way, then after that we'll probably be shifting to a bi-annual schedule for '06.
Will update the the website with the basic details this week, and will save the complete site overhaul til June/July.

Fantasycon

Yoiks. We've got Simon Clark and Mark Chadbourn confirmed as GoHs, and are waiting to hear back on an MC and third GoH.
But more on that another time, else I'll get distracted.

The fabulous book de la mama...

...is going to be launched next week! That mother person got her freebie copies a couple of weeks ago and has been nagging me to get a website up for her before the thing hits the streets. No pressure. Oy vey.
Actually the book don't look too bad (forgetting the completely jumbled contents page and the last minute addition of pictures in odd places because they'd decided they'd finalised the text layout, finito.) And can I just be a little bit smug in the fact that half the editorial changes the publisher guy asked for were ones that I'd suggested to herself but she decided to ignore (snigger!) - plus the layout people used a couple of things in the book that I'd put on her manuscript to neaten it up. :-> It's the small things...!

So the beast is called 'First Time Tenant' by Patricia Barber, available for ordering anywhere you like. (And a good daughter would be organised enough to put a link up, but the good daughter's down in Bournemouth so you're stuck with me...)
Her website will (eventually) be at www.first-time-tenant.com next week (oh grief, I think it was .com, it's on my list of things to check.)

And herself has started the first draft on a companion Landlords book (meant to be more of 'here's how to get a stress free tenancy' than the bundles of bizarre techy stuff most other buy-to-let books do).

And wouldn't you know, now that we don't need funny renting stories for the PR (we spent December/January racking our brains for oddities); funny stories are popping up all over the place. Like Tuesday, herself had to check out a flat previously occupied by a total nutcase who was evicted because he shit in the doorways of all the other flats in the block. And apart from trashing the place, he left a live chicken in the oven. (Well, I'm sure it was live when he left it there, by the time mum got in to see it it was going green and pretty much as gross as you'd imagine!)

Lovely.

Oh, and I've added H&N messageboards here so go play!

Oh, and I've added H&N messageboards here so go play!

Le mag

Yes, yes, I know, the all new publishing schedule (version 156) is all shot to shit. Ish 5 will be going out in December no matter what. Ishs 6-8 will be out in 2005. No matter what.
The website is about due a total overhaul so I'll be working on that one, most likely over Xmas. (This includes link fixing and vanishing the dead ones and updating the submissions guidelines etc.)
Have been doing some serious thinking about the mags future recently and was on the verge of sending it to the dead zone but after juggling and wotnot, we're good. (And when you get down to it, I love it too much to quit.)
We will be implementing a couple of changes in the new year to help make it easier to produce, both financially and other.
For one, cover price will be going to £3.50 for UK, (and similar hike for you foreigners.) So subscribe now if you want it at the cheapy prices.
For another, the current payment rates are crippling me so we'll be looking at either a 50% cut in rates, or a total downgrade to '4theluv'.
Also, when fiction subs re-open we'll be accepting emailed submissions.

(and talking of emails - if anyone's got any outstanding queries that I haven't answered, email again and put 'H&N kick' in the subject header)

Fantasycon 2005

Can you say Mark Chadbourn (woohoo!)? I knew you could! That lovely chap and fantabulous author dude, of whom I may mention occassionally on this very blog, has agreed to be a guest of honour! Oh yes! Knew there was a perk to this committee organising malarkey! (Please pause while Jen does the happy dance of the shameless fan-girl! I thank you!)

We've also got the hotel confirmed now - definitely the Quality Hotel, Bentley, Walsall... but we couldn't get the date we were after (weddings...boo... hiss!) so the all new Fcon date will be (drum roll please...) Friday 30th September - Sunday 2nd October 2005.
It's a wee bit early to know anything panel related but there'll be the GoH interviews, late night readings, some indie horror film showings and, most likely, some RPG stuff - as well as all the Fcon regulars like the infamous raffle, the quiz, the banquet, the AGM... :->
Booking forms will be going out with the current Prism mailing (which I'm in the middle of doing at the moment - you get a Prism, a Dark Horizons & a funky dunky calendar with this one, though for size reasons the calendars are going out seperately. Please take a moment to sympathise with the poor people who have had to lick all those hundreds of envelopes and stamps - we have no tongues left at all now.)

So many things, so where to start....

Alrighty then, let's do this as logically as we can:

Le Mag
Ish 4...

was back from the printers and waiting for me when I got back home from Fcon on Sunday.
It's getting posted out Mon/Tues.

Ishes 5 & 6

Now here's the dilemma - given the lateness of Ish 4, do I stagger the dates on the next 2 to compensate, or do I combine 5 & 6 into a bumper Xmas issue to keep 7 & 8 on track for next year?
Currently I'm leaning towards the joint Xmas issue but need to work out the figures properly so will update as and when.

When we re-open for fiction submissions next year, I'll have a new submissions editor to handle things.... still working out the finer details.

Fcon

Was great! Despite the fact that I spent most of it sick as a wotsit. (So apologies for those that tried to get some sense out of me and were met with zombie brained blank looks.)

Unfortunately I missed ALL the panels, which was a shame cos from what I could hear, there were some good ones with Juliet McKenna and Graham Joyce and many others...

Argh, just don't mention the Sunday BFS AGM.

Fcon 2005

Now here's where the fun starts.... Debs & Nicki decided they didn't want to organise it again next year so Vicky Cook and myself promptly went and opened our gobs and volunteered.

So what are we looking at for next year...? Well, we'll be in the same hotel as this year - The Quality Hotel, Walsall. (Yes, we know it looks like a motorway hotel, but trust us, we can do things with it....)

On dates, we're looking at mid September... sometime around the weekend of the 16th/17th ish.
(Difficult year next year as there's Worldcon up in Glasgow in August and some folks have said they won't be able to afford both... to them I'd say come to Fcon instead, it'll be lovely!)

On guests - we're plotting to get a US guest over, as well as UK ones.

We're still in the early discussions stage so that's about as good as the interesting details get.
Naturally, since this our first Fcon, we want thoughts and ideas on what folks want to see/do. Either email me or leave a message on the BFS boards here

Meantime, I've discovered it's possible to function with only 4 hours of sleep a night!


Other bits

So mum wrote this tenants help guide book thing, drawing on her centuries of experience as a letting agent/landlord/tenant/inventory bod etc. and a publisher accepted it and she's signed the contract and it's coming out in April. Blimey. Don't know where she gets the energy from.

At the moment, she's at the proofing stage which is quite a fascinating process. She got sent a copy of the manuscript with these coloured sheets with all kinds of suggestions & questions on.
Some of the questions/points were a bit daft, most were more sensible - like grammatical points on the mixing of tenses & possessives etc.

One of the things up for discussion is the title - she wanted to call it The Tenants Survival Guide, but unfortunately someone's already done one with that name (which is currently out of print, but still...) so we spent an afternoon bashing names around and have got it down to about 3 we really really like.
Which I can't remember off the top of my head.

Apparently she's got 2 weeks to look it over and change/discuss. (Hasn't had time to look it over properly yet, given the usual end of month frantic-ness the Barber Empire suffers from. She's scheduled it in for next week so will add more later about the weird world of factional book publishing...)


And, naturally, mum being mum, she's already plotting the next few books.... she's already started an 'interesting' retirement guide book, and wants to drag me in to co-author a couple of sacred site type books. My favourite potential project idea being the 'The Lazy Bastards Guide to Ancient Sites' :->

Good grief, it's Fcon time again. Naturally this means that the ensuing burst of panic has gotten more things done in the last few days than I usually pack into a normal week. There's various annual accounts for the BFS AGM, all the admin-y bits for the BFS calendar (of which the printer says he can get 50 copies to us before Fcon, all the rest will have to be after... sheesh), and assorted other bits that I promised to do/bring/find.

Plus, the H&N printer chap swears Ish 4 will be back at the end of this week so I've been getting things ready for a speedy ship out as and when the mags hit the lounge.

And it's income tax time again, which is a pain in the ass cos I always put off doing the forms til a week before the deadline, then spend days worrying about all the receipts I know I have but can't find (and which will innocently turn up in 6 months or so when I'm looking for my socks).

And, on the day-job front, Fcon means losing a couple of the busier work days of the month so we've been on trebled workloads to clear it so we can leave the rest of the staff with a sensible amount of jobs while we're away.
(and, heh! finally dad gets to see what it's like to run the business on his own while the rest of us swan off, usually it's me that gets stuck with it!)

So it's back to comfort reading Stephen King to wind down from the hyper spells and, yay, The final Dark Tower book is out (actually, today I think, but will hold off from buying it in case there's any publisher freebie copies knocking around at Fcon.)

Aagh, too jittery to write calmly. Still got a ton of stuff that needs doing.
See you the other side of Fcon.