BFS in 'not in London!' Open Night Shocker!
Hot off the BFS forums - Lee from Hub magazine has organised a BFS Open Night in York for October! Woohoo!
Here's the blurb from himself:
On Saturday October 13th, Hub will be hosting a York-based BFS Open Night - a chance to catch up with all your buddies oop north. Trains to York are regular, and take a little over 2 hours from Kings Cross. Why not make a weekend of it? York is a fabulous place for a weekend break.
The Perfect Venue
The event will be held at York Brewery, which will hopefully put to bed the rumour that I couldn't organise a *&$^-up in one!
A private Brewery Tour will be held for anyone interested, prior to the main meeting. There is a small charge for this (£5, but that includes a pint of their brew). Similarly, anyone who requires feeding can book a buffet dinner, but the brewery (naturally) charge for this, also.
The bar is well-stocked (and not just with beer) and prices are surprisingly good!
What we need to know
We need to know rough numbers of attendees so the brewery know how many staff to lay on that night, so please head on over to: www.hub-mag.co.uk/bfs to register, or to book yourselves on the tour/order buffet.
Dealer Space
Anyone requiring table space for a launch or other promotion should email me with the details as soon as possible - there's not a lot of space for this, so it'll be on a first come, first served basis.
13 July 2007
11 July 2007
10 July 2007
Hatshepsut
So, recently in the news there's been reports of a mummy being identified as Hatshepsut, the first female King of Egypt. Now, personally, this couldn't have come at a better time as my current Egyptology paper is on Hatshepsut (hee! Finally working with current info!) although I was quite amused to read the Mail's take on Hatshepsut. Specifically the retread of the whole wicked domineering stepmother who stole the throne theory. Oy vey. Darlings, that little thing is so passe now!
While you could extrapolate that from the fact that some serious work went into removing Hatshepsut from all the records - chipping her name off monuments, cutting her image off of reliefs, totally missing her off the kings lists... there are still plenty of places where evidence of her can be found (and from all I've read, the surviving evidence is all of Hatshepsut before she made herself King) suggesting that it isn't so much Hatshepsut that was being objected to, more Hatshepsut as King - something which went against all the traditions up to that point.
Not that a female couldn't rule Egypt on her own - there was a queen, Sobeknofru, who ruled solo about 500 years earlier due to there not being any male heir. But she ruled as queen, not king/pharaoh which may be why no one had the a problem with her.
The other irritating thing was the glee the Mail had in announcing that the mummy was that of a fat, bald middleaged woman. What, they were expecting maybe a mummified supermodel? Sheesh. (Mind, really not a fan of the Mail style of reporting, makes me want to hit things.)
Touregypt.com has a better short article on Hatshepsut (written before the recent discovery) and the Guardian reports the recent discovery better, but if you want to read deeper into Hatshepsut then I totally recommend Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh by Joyce Tyldesley.
So, recently in the news there's been reports of a mummy being identified as Hatshepsut, the first female King of Egypt. Now, personally, this couldn't have come at a better time as my current Egyptology paper is on Hatshepsut (hee! Finally working with current info!) although I was quite amused to read the Mail's take on Hatshepsut. Specifically the retread of the whole wicked domineering stepmother who stole the throne theory. Oy vey. Darlings, that little thing is so passe now!
While you could extrapolate that from the fact that some serious work went into removing Hatshepsut from all the records - chipping her name off monuments, cutting her image off of reliefs, totally missing her off the kings lists... there are still plenty of places where evidence of her can be found (and from all I've read, the surviving evidence is all of Hatshepsut before she made herself King) suggesting that it isn't so much Hatshepsut that was being objected to, more Hatshepsut as King - something which went against all the traditions up to that point.
Not that a female couldn't rule Egypt on her own - there was a queen, Sobeknofru, who ruled solo about 500 years earlier due to there not being any male heir. But she ruled as queen, not king/pharaoh which may be why no one had the a problem with her.
The other irritating thing was the glee the Mail had in announcing that the mummy was that of a fat, bald middleaged woman. What, they were expecting maybe a mummified supermodel? Sheesh. (Mind, really not a fan of the Mail style of reporting, makes me want to hit things.)
Touregypt.com has a better short article on Hatshepsut (written before the recent discovery) and the Guardian reports the recent discovery better, but if you want to read deeper into Hatshepsut then I totally recommend Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh by Joyce Tyldesley.
08 July 2007
So I'm currently reading Anita Roddick's 'Business as Unusual' and there's a chapter about women in business with a paragraph that goes "Corporations as we know them were created by men for men, often influenced by the military model, on complicated and hierarchical lines and are both dominated by authoritarian principles and resistant to change."
Hmm. Don't know about the whole military model thing, but the rest sounds disturbingly similar to things be debated on the BFS Forums.
It's tricky making too much comment about this here, though, as still being on the committee means I'm still in the position to change anything I may have a problem with. Not that I ever manage to do much good, but that doesn't stop the suggestions and 'oi, buts'.
For diplomacy's sake, I'll just say that I agree with Nick C. (Lermentov, on the forums) - I still think we are somewhat static, slow to do things and in absolute desperate need of a massive reworking of pretty much eveything.
On the plus side, I also know we're definitely making movements to fix a couple of things - the website and the publications. There are possibilities on the bubble for events and odd publicity bits but sometimes it just feels like it's going way too slow...
Hmm. Don't know about the whole military model thing, but the rest sounds disturbingly similar to things be debated on the BFS Forums.
It's tricky making too much comment about this here, though, as still being on the committee means I'm still in the position to change anything I may have a problem with. Not that I ever manage to do much good, but that doesn't stop the suggestions and 'oi, buts'.
For diplomacy's sake, I'll just say that I agree with Nick C. (Lermentov, on the forums) - I still think we are somewhat static, slow to do things and in absolute desperate need of a massive reworking of pretty much eveything.
On the plus side, I also know we're definitely making movements to fix a couple of things - the website and the publications. There are possibilities on the bubble for events and odd publicity bits but sometimes it just feels like it's going way too slow...
06 July 2007
Well if it's good enough for the BFS...
Ok, so I'm still not entirely sure what to do with the thing, but Myspace looks sorta fun so I signed up... Catch me here
(Yes, I know, I'm cheating a bit with the avatar... no way a photo of me is ever going on the internet... screens everywhere would crack in terror...)
Ok, so I'm still not entirely sure what to do with the thing, but Myspace looks sorta fun so I signed up... Catch me here
(Yes, I know, I'm cheating a bit with the avatar... no way a photo of me is ever going on the internet... screens everywhere would crack in terror...)
A little more BFS
Yay! We found someone for the boxes! Woot! (Whatever 'woot' means. I'm guessing it's good!)
Also, the BFS is now on Myspace so if you're on it, do the friend thing here
(Of course I have absolutely no idea how the Myspace thing works...)
Yay! We found someone for the boxes! Woot! (Whatever 'woot' means. I'm guessing it's good!)
Also, the BFS is now on Myspace so if you're on it, do the friend thing here
(Of course I have absolutely no idea how the Myspace thing works...)
03 July 2007
Been a while again!
The inevitable BFS section.
News of the day... I'm standing down from Fcon and all BFS related activities as from Sept so once the AGM is done, I'm a free woman! (Although how long that'll last is anyone's guess. ) So at last discussions, Marie & Paul were going to take over as Fcon organisers, with Vicky on registrations for 2008.
Naturally this means the whole thing will run a hell of a lot more efficiently next year. :-> Ah well. Be nice to go to the '08 Fcon without having to work all weekend!
Now all we need is to find who's going to take the many many boxes of old BFS books off my hands... so far, everyone else is staying very quiet... :->
As for Fcon '07. It pootles along nicely. Schedule's been taken down while we rework it. Some people have changed and some times are changing. Won't have the next version ready for another week or so.
And just heard this afternoon that we can definitely have an artshow as we've now got the artboards. Though, apparently news leaked out before we could make the official announcement - this, and other interesting things turned up on the BFS forums... which have done their usual summer heat up. Don't know if it's the thought of awards, the agm or what, but it's always this time of year it happens.
Of course, there was also the inevitable whinging about people on the committee desperately clinging onto power, or some such twaddle. How people come up with these things I've no idea.
At least we've not gone back to the genre bias stuff, for that, small mercies. Kind of surprised gender bias hasn't reared its head though. Must be about time... :->
Oh, and mum's also standing down. (I stood down first! So nyah!) And there's a bit of a reshuffle of committee and other bits going on so hopefully that'll freshen things up a bit.
Other Bits
We now have 3 kittens (yeah, yeah, I'm sure you really wanted to know that!) They're 10 weeks old and total pain in the arses. Why 3? Mum was supposed to come back with 1 and decided that she had to have 2 so they'd be company for each other, then it became 3 when someone didn't pick up one of the other kittens. Oy vey. And she went and got a couple of goldfish last week as well. That and the budgie are getting the kits very excited. Namewise, all my suggestions got vetoed so we're down to Benson (the scraggy grey and white one with a leg fetish), Indie (black and white and the obvious alpha bitch of the bunch. ) and the black one that is mainly being called Izzy, (short for Isis, apparently) but is alternately called fluffball and lampchop and git.
Yeah, alright, enough with the domestics...
Mindless Genre blather
Interesting Dr Who finale last week - like many internetweb peeps I'll just say Tinkerbell! and Dr Gollum! Apart from that, some interesting revelations. Last scene was funny. Shame that incarnation of the Master is gone now cos John Simms and David Tennant played off each other rather well.
Reread King's Skeleton Crew yesterday - my favourite story of it has now changed from The Mist to Mrs Todd's Shortcut. My, that was a fun one.
Ooh, and just under 3 weeks until Pothead day. :-> Yes, I preordered it months ago, and yes, I've got the publishing date marked on my calendar just in case I forget... what?!
Linkages
More feminist genre links to chew on:
Feminist SF
Neither Doormat or Prostitute
Asking the Wrong Questions
The inevitable BFS section.
News of the day... I'm standing down from Fcon and all BFS related activities as from Sept so once the AGM is done, I'm a free woman! (Although how long that'll last is anyone's guess. ) So at last discussions, Marie & Paul were going to take over as Fcon organisers, with Vicky on registrations for 2008.
Naturally this means the whole thing will run a hell of a lot more efficiently next year. :-> Ah well. Be nice to go to the '08 Fcon without having to work all weekend!
Now all we need is to find who's going to take the many many boxes of old BFS books off my hands... so far, everyone else is staying very quiet... :->
As for Fcon '07. It pootles along nicely. Schedule's been taken down while we rework it. Some people have changed and some times are changing. Won't have the next version ready for another week or so.
And just heard this afternoon that we can definitely have an artshow as we've now got the artboards. Though, apparently news leaked out before we could make the official announcement - this, and other interesting things turned up on the BFS forums... which have done their usual summer heat up. Don't know if it's the thought of awards, the agm or what, but it's always this time of year it happens.
Of course, there was also the inevitable whinging about people on the committee desperately clinging onto power, or some such twaddle. How people come up with these things I've no idea.
At least we've not gone back to the genre bias stuff, for that, small mercies. Kind of surprised gender bias hasn't reared its head though. Must be about time... :->
Oh, and mum's also standing down. (I stood down first! So nyah!) And there's a bit of a reshuffle of committee and other bits going on so hopefully that'll freshen things up a bit.
Other Bits
We now have 3 kittens (yeah, yeah, I'm sure you really wanted to know that!) They're 10 weeks old and total pain in the arses. Why 3? Mum was supposed to come back with 1 and decided that she had to have 2 so they'd be company for each other, then it became 3 when someone didn't pick up one of the other kittens. Oy vey. And she went and got a couple of goldfish last week as well. That and the budgie are getting the kits very excited. Namewise, all my suggestions got vetoed so we're down to Benson (the scraggy grey and white one with a leg fetish), Indie (black and white and the obvious alpha bitch of the bunch. ) and the black one that is mainly being called Izzy, (short for Isis, apparently) but is alternately called fluffball and lampchop and git.
Yeah, alright, enough with the domestics...
Mindless Genre blather
Interesting Dr Who finale last week - like many internetweb peeps I'll just say Tinkerbell! and Dr Gollum! Apart from that, some interesting revelations. Last scene was funny. Shame that incarnation of the Master is gone now cos John Simms and David Tennant played off each other rather well.
Reread King's Skeleton Crew yesterday - my favourite story of it has now changed from The Mist to Mrs Todd's Shortcut. My, that was a fun one.
Ooh, and just under 3 weeks until Pothead day. :-> Yes, I preordered it months ago, and yes, I've got the publishing date marked on my calendar just in case I forget... what?!
Linkages
More feminist genre links to chew on:
Feminist SF
Neither Doormat or Prostitute
Asking the Wrong Questions
20 May 2007
Fantasycon mega-post
As promised, here's everything you need to know so far...
When? Friday 21st Sept - Sunday 23rd Sept
Where? Britannia Hotel, St James Street, Nottingham
With Who? Terry Brooks, Michael Marshall Smith, Stephen Jones & M.C. Peter Crowther
Website: www.fantasycon.org.uk
Preliminary schedule of events:
- * -
Banquet Menu
-
Fcon 2008 is confirmed for the Britannia, Nottingham. Date and guests to be advised.
We'll have a decent amount of details about it well in time for this years event! Hurrah!
-
As promised, here's everything you need to know so far...
When? Friday 21st Sept - Sunday 23rd Sept
Where? Britannia Hotel, St James Street, Nottingham
With Who? Terry Brooks, Michael Marshall Smith, Stephen Jones & M.C. Peter Crowther
Website: www.fantasycon.org.uk
Preliminary schedule of events:
*Please note – there will be some additional items and panellists added shortly. Panellists appear subject to prior commitments. Some times may be rearranged.
(JB blog note! Also, some of the descriptions will be expanded on - we have yet to pretty up some of the titles!)
Devonshire Suite
7pm – 7.15pm - Welcome to Fantasycon
7.30pm – 8.30pm - Mass Signing/autographing party with GoHs and other authors.
8.45pm – 9.30pm - Solaris Launch Party
9.30pm – 10.30pm - Chills vs Thrills - Discussion panel with Tim Lebbon, Mark Morris, Michael Marshall Smith & Nancy Kilpatrick)
10.30pm – 11pm – Chaz Brenchley reading
11.30pm – Midnight – Ramsey Campbell reading
Saturday 22nd September
Devonshire Suite
10am – 10.45am – Comics: Easts meets West – The rise of Manga & Anime. Discussion panel with Jay Eales, Mike Carey, Mike Chinn, Jonathon Oliver
11am – 11.45am – Terry Brooks interviewed by Debbie Miller
12pm – 12.45pm - Are Fantasy Tropes Dead & What is the Perception of Modern Fantasy – Discussion panel with Chaz Brenchley, Juliet McKenna, Sarah Ash, Mark Chadbourn.
(1pm – 2pm – lunch break)
2pm – 2.45pm – Trials and Tribulations of Publishing – Discussion panel with Stephen Jones, George Mann, Peter Crowther, Jo Fletcher.
3pm – 3.45pm – Crime Crossover – Discussion panel with Michael Marshal Smith, Sarah Pinborough, Chris Fowler
4pm – 4.45pm – In Conversation with Smith & Jones – Stephen Jones interviews Michael Marshall Smith, Michael Marshall Smith interviews Stephen Jones.
6pm – 6.45pm – What Makes a Book work on Film? Scriptwriting discussion panel with Stephen Volk, Stephen Gallagher, Tim Lebbon
(7pm – 8.30pm – Dinner break)
8.30pm – 9.15pm – Taboo – Discussion panel with Chris Fowler, Ramsey Campbell, Adam Neville, Nancy Kilpatrick.
9.45pm – 11pm – The Fabulous Fantasycon Raffle
11.30pm – Midnight – Michael Marshall Smith reading.
Gallery Suite
10am – 10.45am – Funding workshop – Chaz Brenchley & Alex Davis
12pm – 12.45pm - Write for Life – Seminar with Simon Clark
3pm – 3.45pm – Making a Living from Scriptwriting – Seminar with Stephen Volk
4pm – 4.45pm – Write for Life – Seminar with Chaz Brenchley
5pm – 5.45pm – Editorial Seminar - Jo Fletcher
Film show in the evening – times to be decided.
Dealers Room
5pm – 5.45pm – Monster Small Press Launch
Sunday 23rd September
Devonshire Suite
1pm – 3pm – Banquet (tickets to be booked in advance only)
3pm – 4pm – British Fantasy Awards Ceremony (all welcome!)
4pm onwards – Clear Up and Dead Dog Party
Gallery Suite
10am – 11.45 – BFS AGM (BFS members only)
- * -
Banquet Menu
(Tickets to be booked in advance. Limited numbers. Please indicate your menu choices and any food allergies/special requirements when booking.)
STARTER
Choice of:
Cream of Vegetable soup
Fan of Charantais Melon served with a compote of Mixed Berries
*
MAIN COURSE
Choice of:
Breast of Chicken presented on Bacon Mash, stuffed with a Herb farce & finished with a Madeira jus.
(Veg. option) Stuffed Roast Pepper with Zuccini, Aubergine, Red Onions & Cous Cous with a Tomato & Herb sauce
(Selection of vegetables & potato served with either)
*
DESSERT
Choice of:
Mixed fruit cheesecake
Chocolate Truffle
*
Coffee & Mints
*
Price also includes 2 glasses of house wine & water/orange juice at the table
- * --
Fcon 2008 is confirmed for the Britannia, Nottingham. Date and guests to be advised.
We'll have a decent amount of details about it well in time for this years event! Hurrah!
-
19 May 2007
Fcon
Yeah! A particularly fine Fcon meeting, thank you so very much. When I get my brain back tomorrow (3 hours driving on motorways does nothing for the concentration) - I'll get the schedule posted on here, the Fcon blog and and BFS forum. We've got a couple of peeps to get confirmation on, and a couple of panel/workshops we're waiting on confirmation on, but other than that, all done there. Everything from how to get into scriptwriting, editor seminars, publisher seminars, illustrated talks, late night readings, workshops, huge opening ceremony for which we will be plying you with wine and doing signings for the GoHs, all new and improved raffle, and, ooh, bunches of good stuff.
Hotel-wise, there's way more chairs and tables in the public areas now, and we've agreed better opening times for the smaller bar just outside the dealers room. More munchies available at the main bar, and we're getting a quote for getting real ale in. (And they promise the Theakstons is fixed.) Smaller bar should be open 7pm - midnight on Fri, Noon to midnight on Sat, and not sure about Sunday. Main bar will be open until dawn or beyond depending on who's still conscious and drinking.
And we're doing an art show! We weren't sure, but we had a walk around today and worked out a way of doing it with a little rearrangement of the Dealers room and spreading some things out to the room with the booths that you have to walk through to get to the main area. So now we know we've got the space, we're getting that sorted!
And we'll be in Nottingham for Fcon next year too - whether it's the normal Sept date, or the earlier one we may need to do for that year.
And we've sorted the banquet menu now. Better veggie option this time. Better organisation on the service so peeps get it hot. Hotel have asked that peeps choose their options before hand so need to contact peeps to get them to state their prefs for that.
We also decided what we're doing about the limited attendence for the workshops etc. There'll be sign up sheets somewhere prominant (probs near registration) so you write your name down on the day and when the list is full that's it. It'll most likely be something liked 30 - 40 maximum for most of the thingybobs so plenty spare. The room holds 60 so some seminars/workshops may have room for more peeps.
Also, if you're small press and want to launch, we'll be doing the usual in the dealer's room on Saturday afternoon so please let Vicky know if you're up for it. As luck would have it, the smaller bar is going to be right outside the dealer room entrance this year...
Erm. Think that's it. Got to get the attendee list up in places too. Fcon website will be getting updated next week and we may actually get the cafepress Fcon shop working. (Hope so, cos there's an Fcon tshirt I want done so I can wear it to the June open night.)
Prism
Word on the wossname is that it's back from the printers Wednesday and our Vicky will be doing the stamping and stuffing dance over the bank holiday Monday so expect it soon. There should be an Fcon Reporter going out with it too, also the voting form for the awards.
Other bits.
Don't know if I mentioned this before, but Slow Motion Wars, the fabalicious collection from Andrew Hook and Allen Ashley, wot woz going to be a Bradan book before we went kapootski... is now being published by those funky chaps at Estronomicon / Screaming Dreams. So buy it when you see cos it's cool!
Yeah! A particularly fine Fcon meeting, thank you so very much. When I get my brain back tomorrow (3 hours driving on motorways does nothing for the concentration) - I'll get the schedule posted on here, the Fcon blog and and BFS forum. We've got a couple of peeps to get confirmation on, and a couple of panel/workshops we're waiting on confirmation on, but other than that, all done there. Everything from how to get into scriptwriting, editor seminars, publisher seminars, illustrated talks, late night readings, workshops, huge opening ceremony for which we will be plying you with wine and doing signings for the GoHs, all new and improved raffle, and, ooh, bunches of good stuff.
Hotel-wise, there's way more chairs and tables in the public areas now, and we've agreed better opening times for the smaller bar just outside the dealers room. More munchies available at the main bar, and we're getting a quote for getting real ale in. (And they promise the Theakstons is fixed.) Smaller bar should be open 7pm - midnight on Fri, Noon to midnight on Sat, and not sure about Sunday. Main bar will be open until dawn or beyond depending on who's still conscious and drinking.
And we're doing an art show! We weren't sure, but we had a walk around today and worked out a way of doing it with a little rearrangement of the Dealers room and spreading some things out to the room with the booths that you have to walk through to get to the main area. So now we know we've got the space, we're getting that sorted!
And we'll be in Nottingham for Fcon next year too - whether it's the normal Sept date, or the earlier one we may need to do for that year.
And we've sorted the banquet menu now. Better veggie option this time. Better organisation on the service so peeps get it hot. Hotel have asked that peeps choose their options before hand so need to contact peeps to get them to state their prefs for that.
We also decided what we're doing about the limited attendence for the workshops etc. There'll be sign up sheets somewhere prominant (probs near registration) so you write your name down on the day and when the list is full that's it. It'll most likely be something liked 30 - 40 maximum for most of the thingybobs so plenty spare. The room holds 60 so some seminars/workshops may have room for more peeps.
Also, if you're small press and want to launch, we'll be doing the usual in the dealer's room on Saturday afternoon so please let Vicky know if you're up for it. As luck would have it, the smaller bar is going to be right outside the dealer room entrance this year...
Erm. Think that's it. Got to get the attendee list up in places too. Fcon website will be getting updated next week and we may actually get the cafepress Fcon shop working. (Hope so, cos there's an Fcon tshirt I want done so I can wear it to the June open night.)
Prism
Word on the wossname is that it's back from the printers Wednesday and our Vicky will be doing the stamping and stuffing dance over the bank holiday Monday so expect it soon. There should be an Fcon Reporter going out with it too, also the voting form for the awards.
Other bits.
Don't know if I mentioned this before, but Slow Motion Wars, the fabalicious collection from Andrew Hook and Allen Ashley, wot woz going to be a Bradan book before we went kapootski... is now being published by those funky chaps at Estronomicon / Screaming Dreams. So buy it when you see cos it's cool!
17 May 2007
Morning. Been a while!
The obligatory BFS section!
Jay and Selina's first Prism has been proofed and should be at the printers now. Quite looking forward to seeing it - especially as I'm now in the position to be as surprised as everyone else about when it lands on the doormat! Word from those that have seen the proofs is that it looks good and has a bit of a comicy feel to it...
Fcon is getting rather interesting - or rather, Fcon and assorted BFS related events for 2008 & 2009. It's all very hush hush at the moment and I'll be skinned alive if I gossip too much about it yet. 'tis quite tickle-some, though... It may entail a slight shifting of next year's Fcon date to a smidge earlier in the year, though. Probs around late June or first week of July before the schools break up - depends what happens about some other things first.
We're doing a Britannia meeting this Saturday to give the hotel bods what for and decide if we can squeeze an art show into Fcon this year, or not. Have got the event schedule pretty much worked out now - solid double streaming with a good lot of workshops and seminars as well as the usual panels. There may be a chance that there's a smaller room we can use if we fancy, it only holds 2o peeps though so we're not sure what we can use it for, unless we try a lot more readings during the day this time.
If you want a space in the dealer room this year, you need to talk to Vicky sharpish as there's limited space and we're almost full up. If you want to pay online for your membership email Vicky or Pat - it's not a facility we can advertise widely on the Fcon site due to various, erm, complications, but it's there if you want it.
Those of you who have booked, confirmation letters will be on the way shortly.
And the raffle has had a complete overhaul. And we're doing a mass signing with the guests and a few other authors on the Friday night as part of the opening festivities (so no quiz this year.)
Ooh, and Mike Carey's coming! He'll be on a comics panel on the Saturday.
And Simon Clark returns with his Write for Life talk, also the utterly fabulous Chaz Brenchley will be doing one as well. We're just working out what the maximum numbers for these will be then we'll sort out if they're going to be ticketed events or not.
The obligatory technological whinge.
I hate broadband. It's official. Especially BT Broadband. Bastards.
Bookie bookie...
Kelley Armstrong's latest one, No Humans Allowed, is fab. Highly recommended.
Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged is also an excellent read.
Looking forward to the next Locke Lamora one, due 21st June... hurrah!
Have also been on a bit of novelisation jag - 9 Resident Evil ones and 5 Tomb Raider ones. My eyes hurt. Problem with the Resident Evil ones are that the non-movie ones are a bit out of step with the game continuity, and generally with each other - so, for eg. if Zero Hour, written as book #0 of the series, you have the lovingly described account of Rebecca Chambers and the whole crashed train thingybob, then in the next few books where she's gets her cameos in the mansion and in the further between-game adventures, it's written like the mansion was her first experience with the zombies. Logically this suggests that book #0 was written later than than #1 - #5 or #6 but it's still mildly irritating.
The non-movie Tomb Raider ones are between-game adventures now if only someone would do game tie-in novels like they did for Resident Evil, then I'd be a happy bunny as I do love me my Tomb Raider! The comic book TR wasn't bad, the novelisations are better. Although TR: Man of Bronze is a bit blah.
Game fun
Alas, TR:Anniversary isn't going to be out on a platform I've actually got (as I hate playing it on the PC, so it's Xbox or PSone, or not at all...)
TR: Legend's been giving me a bit of hassle though - no matter how many walkthroughs I diligently follow, I still can't get near the gold treasures in Bolivia or Kazahkistan. And don't even talk to me about that bastarding sea monster. Possibly the most irritating end of level bad guy in the world, ever.
Please buy a house
Nope, they've still not sold the Blandford house. Someone please buy it. Or rent it. Or something.
Other fun
Some of the Write Fantastic will be knocking around Uxbridge library next Thursday as part of the Hillingdon litfest - may make it as Hillingdon's near my old turf. It's Jules McKenna, Sarah Ash and Jessica Rydill I believe.
Didn't make it to Alt-Fic after all that, someone decided to take the weekend off (bad boss) so had to work on the Saturday. Apparently it was really good too! Damn it.
The obligatory BFS section!
Jay and Selina's first Prism has been proofed and should be at the printers now. Quite looking forward to seeing it - especially as I'm now in the position to be as surprised as everyone else about when it lands on the doormat! Word from those that have seen the proofs is that it looks good and has a bit of a comicy feel to it...
Fcon is getting rather interesting - or rather, Fcon and assorted BFS related events for 2008 & 2009. It's all very hush hush at the moment and I'll be skinned alive if I gossip too much about it yet. 'tis quite tickle-some, though... It may entail a slight shifting of next year's Fcon date to a smidge earlier in the year, though. Probs around late June or first week of July before the schools break up - depends what happens about some other things first.
We're doing a Britannia meeting this Saturday to give the hotel bods what for and decide if we can squeeze an art show into Fcon this year, or not. Have got the event schedule pretty much worked out now - solid double streaming with a good lot of workshops and seminars as well as the usual panels. There may be a chance that there's a smaller room we can use if we fancy, it only holds 2o peeps though so we're not sure what we can use it for, unless we try a lot more readings during the day this time.
If you want a space in the dealer room this year, you need to talk to Vicky sharpish as there's limited space and we're almost full up. If you want to pay online for your membership email Vicky or Pat - it's not a facility we can advertise widely on the Fcon site due to various, erm, complications, but it's there if you want it.
Those of you who have booked, confirmation letters will be on the way shortly.
And the raffle has had a complete overhaul. And we're doing a mass signing with the guests and a few other authors on the Friday night as part of the opening festivities (so no quiz this year.)
Ooh, and Mike Carey's coming! He'll be on a comics panel on the Saturday.
And Simon Clark returns with his Write for Life talk, also the utterly fabulous Chaz Brenchley will be doing one as well. We're just working out what the maximum numbers for these will be then we'll sort out if they're going to be ticketed events or not.
The obligatory technological whinge.
I hate broadband. It's official. Especially BT Broadband. Bastards.
Bookie bookie...
Kelley Armstrong's latest one, No Humans Allowed, is fab. Highly recommended.
Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged is also an excellent read.
Looking forward to the next Locke Lamora one, due 21st June... hurrah!
Have also been on a bit of novelisation jag - 9 Resident Evil ones and 5 Tomb Raider ones. My eyes hurt. Problem with the Resident Evil ones are that the non-movie ones are a bit out of step with the game continuity, and generally with each other - so, for eg. if Zero Hour, written as book #0 of the series, you have the lovingly described account of Rebecca Chambers and the whole crashed train thingybob, then in the next few books where she's gets her cameos in the mansion and in the further between-game adventures, it's written like the mansion was her first experience with the zombies. Logically this suggests that book #0 was written later than than #1 - #5 or #6 but it's still mildly irritating.
The non-movie Tomb Raider ones are between-game adventures now if only someone would do game tie-in novels like they did for Resident Evil, then I'd be a happy bunny as I do love me my Tomb Raider! The comic book TR wasn't bad, the novelisations are better. Although TR: Man of Bronze is a bit blah.
Game fun
Alas, TR:Anniversary isn't going to be out on a platform I've actually got (as I hate playing it on the PC, so it's Xbox or PSone, or not at all...)
TR: Legend's been giving me a bit of hassle though - no matter how many walkthroughs I diligently follow, I still can't get near the gold treasures in Bolivia or Kazahkistan. And don't even talk to me about that bastarding sea monster. Possibly the most irritating end of level bad guy in the world, ever.
Please buy a house
Nope, they've still not sold the Blandford house. Someone please buy it. Or rent it. Or something.
Other fun
Some of the Write Fantastic will be knocking around Uxbridge library next Thursday as part of the Hillingdon litfest - may make it as Hillingdon's near my old turf. It's Jules McKenna, Sarah Ash and Jessica Rydill I believe.
Didn't make it to Alt-Fic after all that, someone decided to take the weekend off (bad boss) so had to work on the Saturday. Apparently it was really good too! Damn it.
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