First the good news: the prelim details for Fantasycon '10 have been released...
It'll be on 17th–19th September 2010. (Probably at the Britannia in Nottingham, but it doesn't say anything about location in the announcement...)

Early bird bookings are available until 31st December at the vastly reduced rate of £35 for the entire weekend. From then until 31st March the price is £45, and on 1st April it rises to £55. From 1st July the price will be £65. Non-members pay £10 more in each case.

Tickets for Saturday only will be available for £35.

Now for the bad: both the BFS and Fantasycon are grievously short of volunteers to do... stuff... especially Fantasycon organising stuff. Apparently the lack of interest from new blood getting involved is reaching crisis proportions (and the printer mishaps with the last piece of the latest membership mailing isn't helping much...)

So if you want to help out, don't be scared and check out the the Fcon news page for the emails to contact...

Wheeeeee! Technological crisis averted. Typical, ain't it, that just when you want perfect performance from your writing machine, it keels over and dies. And then so does its predecessor. Luckily, this time, the back up discs were actually working....

So, here we are at Nano day 26, and my current wordcount is now a sniffle over 132k! Woohoo! This means that I've beaten my wordcount from last year and, with luck, may just exceed the wordcount from the year before (which was 155k.).

Alas, England: Elsewhere is rapidly falling down the Word War scoreboard. We're at no. 7 currently, with absolutely no chance of ever approaching those lofty scores that Oxford and Birmingham are pulling...

So, the werewolf thing is well and truly done, the not!TombRaider one is done, if a little on the short side, and I'm now switching between the pirate-mermaids and the urban fantasy short story collection thingy. Which is fun. :-)

Though it must be admitted that the words are increasingly harder and harder to find. Just have to keep looking at my spreadsheets from the last couple of years to remind myself that, yes, this is actually a normal thing...

75k. :faints: And it's slowing down horribly... argh!

Must. Write. Faster. We're slipping down the scoreboard in the wordwar and this will just not do. (Doesn't look at Oxford, who are just total freaks with their insane amount of wordage :sticks tongue out: Not that I'm jealous at all. Oh no.)

Remind me, next year, that I need to do way waaaaaaaay more pre-planning. And be less vague on the chapter notes. Vague is not helpful.

Now to squeeze in some OU work on the Da Vinci TMA that's due in two weeks. Unsurprisingly, and not entirely unconnected, there's a genius inventor chick kicking stuff over in the current plot line... :-)

60k.  That's all I'm going to say!  :-)

After a couple of days of total word-fail, the nano mojo is back!  Hurrah!  Alas, England Elsewhere has dropped abominably in the word war table.  6th place?  Behave!  Oxford is still top of the regions, with a top wordscore of 76k, with Brum bringing up the second place.  Essex comes in third with someone on the team toting 98k.   ::faints::

Must.  Write.  Faster. 

Alas, my lovelies, did not quite manage to hit the 40k target last night.  Gave it up at 38,001 on account of no conceiveable brain cells left. 

On the plus side, I did manage to write 8,000 words in 5 hours.  Which was nice.  :-)  (I make no comment on the actual *quality* of said words...)

So what's new from Nanowrimo-land?  The regional word wars have started up and Team England: Elsewhere are running second on the leader board.  (out of 15 regions competing.)  We're being soundly beaten by the mad gits in Oxford, who have one insane chap who reached 50k last night.  This is the same chap who regularly pulls in epic level wordage - he was at 18k on the first day.  Yipes.  We've plotted to kidnap him from the Oxford team but they've hidden him in a secret location...

The Inter-Family Word War is new thing for this year.  For some quite bizarre reason both mum and li'l sis have decided to have a crack at Nano.  Surprising mainly as our Hell's doesn't write, and has had no previous desire to.  She's at 9,057 words so far.  Nice one that Evil Twin!  :-)  Mum's progress is also nicely surprising and is making her very pleased with herself given that she's got two manic businesses to run at the same time and is always complaining she doesn't have enough time to think about writing, let alone do it.
She's at around 27k at the moment, but keeps forgetting to officially update her count on the site....

What's particularly fun about mum playing this year is that she's by nature a very fast typist so we were in direct competition Sunday on the word front.  She was keeping about 1000 or so words ahead of me all day until bedtime, when I snuck in an extra 100.  I'm getting the advantage at the moment as I don't have as much day-job work to do as she does, so currently I'm in the lead, but things will probably get very interesting when the weekend hits.  (Or they will once the associated day-job paperwork has been cleared up...)

Then there's the funky BFS peeps... (waves at funky BFS peeps!)
We've got Adrian F. rocking the house with 19,484
Stephen Theaker's at 9,085
Selina of Girlycomic fame is at 5,611
Ben McG was floating around the 2k mark last we checked.

And that's before we hit the Authonomy crew!
(Waves at Patty Jansen, who''s at 37,027!)

Me, my goal for the day is to attempt to reach 50k.  Possibly I should have got up earlier this morning...  :-)  Ah well, what you gonna do?  Vamps to kill, wolves to unmask as traitors to the cause, ghost callers to take down... 

Knackered. But happy. This shall be my mantra for the next three weeks. That and Must. Write. Faster.
So before today's wordage get started, here's the state of play in Nano-Land.

Current words: 30,423
Body count: up in the 40s somewhere. (There was a break out at a blood farm, carnage ensued!)

So, now our kick ass chick has discovered she's being haunted by a vague ghosty presence, had a couple of failed attempts at finding the mobster's son, managed to finally find and kill crazed werewolf, been kidnapped (wolfnapped?) by blood harvesters and helped stage the amazing break out and mass destruction of the blood farm. She's also picked up another possible lead re. mobster's son and moved into wolf town after getting evicted on grounds of werewolf.  (New pack fun to follow!)

Today's action: spying on a sorcery retreat/commune thingy, extracting mobster's son whilst avoiding the mage wars that are about to kick off, more ghostly pesterings and then there's the vamps bringing charges for her killing their head enforcer. Which is going to get very very messy. :-) (More body count!)

Aiming to hit 40k by end of play tonight, but we'll see how that goes!

Now I've just got to squeeze in the work on two OU courses... honestly, non Nano stuff in November should be illegal...

We interrupt your Nano broadcast with some awesome news from those funky people at the David Gemmell Awards...

-- PRESS RELEASE --

New Award Categories

"When we established The David Gemmell Legend Award For Fantasy it was with the intention of subsequently introducing further award categories to cover other aspects of the fantasy genre.  We are now pleased to announce two new, additional awards, to be presented at next year’s ceremony.  They are -

The David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Newcomer
and
The David Gemmell Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art

 
"The Morningstar Award will give recognition to emerging talent in the field of fantasy fiction.  As David Gemmell always took a keen interest in new writers, and helped many onto the path to publication, we regard this as an appropriate category to add, and one we feel sure David would have approved. 

"The Ravenheart Award will honour the best fantasy book cover art.  The importance of fantasy cover art deserves admiration, as do the artists who produce it, yet there is no major UK award acknowledging this.  The Ravenheart Award will fulfil that role.

"Like the Legend Award, the winners of these new awards, for best debut author and best cover/artist, will be decided by popular vote.  The first Legend Award, for best fantasy novel of the year, presented at a ceremony in London in June of this year, garnered an incredible 11,000 votes from around the world.  We are confident that the Morningstar and Ravenheart awards, which are being created with the full approval of the Gemmell family, will be greeted with no less enthusiasm.

 "Details of the process whereby these new awards will be administered can be found on our website. 

"Our aim is to establish, over time, a set of awards covering all aspects of the fantasy genre.  Launching this pair of new awards takes us a step nearer to that objective.

"The 2010 David Gemmell Awards ceremony will again be held at The Magic Circle headquarters in London, on Friday 18th June."

 
 



 

 

So can I just say, word count for the end of Nano Day 1 is... (drumroll...) 11,110 ::faints:: This makes it an all new Nano first day record. Woohoo!
Body count so far: 3. And they totally deserved it too.

So far, kick ass chick has been attacked by ghosts, had her beloved bike nicked, been attacked by a crazed werewolf, then attacked by some idiot muggers just as she was going through her first change, had to juggle with the bureaucratic aftermath of being a new werewolf who needs to get registered and also avoid getting done on a murder charge. (It was totally self defence, I swear!) And that's before having to deal with the ex husband and a couple of highly arrogant pack enforcers...

Tomorrow there will be adventures in witch country, the hunting of both the crazed werewolf and the missing mobster's son and possibly some sneaky ghosts mucking things up...

And I'm soooo done for the day! :-)

'twas the day before Nano and all across the house... manic housework was being done because procrastination is the name of the game... :-)

Crumbs.  Not long to go now.  Have decided that the werewolf story is the winning first project although some last minute ideas on pack politics have complicated things somewhat...  And that's before we get into werewolves and religion.   Yowch.

Just a bit of reading to do to get my brain in the Urban Fantasy mood and a few whoops-should-have-done-it-earlier  clear-the-day-job bits of work... and then... 

Takes biiiiiig breath, limbers fingers, tries to find where put brain....

Oh, apparently it's also Halloween - so have a funky one!

As it's five days until Nanowrimo 2009 officially starts, it's about a time I did a post about it! Excited? Not 'alf. I've only been planning for it all year...

This year I want to take things to new extremes of insanity - we came so close to the number one slot in the regional word wars last year... so very frustratingly close, only to be knocked off the top in the last couple of days. Bugger.
(And if you're a Nano bod who happens to claim England: Elsewhere as their home, word war sign ups have started in the forum... get in there and kick ass...)

Anyhoo, what lovely projects is yer 'umble blogger chick going to attempt this year? Ah ha, sez I, many and various, as my first drafts tend to only just skim the 50K and there's many words need doing... As yet I have no idea what one's getting done first, so, in no particular order, there's:

Aquarius:
Being the prequel to last year's Nano project 'Taurus'. (For those of you who remember last year's blatherings, Taurus was the Minotaur thing with the ridiculously high bodycount... which is currently being edited & rewritten to within an inch of its life in the hopes of getting enough decent wordage together for an Authonomy upload...)
But back to Aquarius - starring kick ass not!tomb-raider chick Abigail Jones, whose search for the ruins of Lyonesse take her into multiple worlds. Hijinx ensue! :-)

Then there's Blackthorn:
This one's another Nano prequel - charting the rise of Alice Blackthorn from respectable(ish) trader to planetary rebel to queen of the Salia system pirates.

A recent addition to the line up is Ghost Wolf:
An urban fantasy with werewolves. (Definitely was not expecting I'd write that, but the more I plan it out, the more fun it looks!)
So here we have Lena Morrigan, ex-mob hit-woman turned magic-supplies courier whose recent attack by a werewolf is just the start of what's turning into a really bad week. Do I need to mention at this point that assorted supernatural hijinx will ensue? :-)

Then there's Wicked Sisters:
The Little Mermaid gets a curse intervention and dumps the idiot prince, then chooses to make the most of her new human life by turning pirate, much to the chagrin of her nearest and dearest.

For a little breathing time there'll be Durrington Tales:
Being a collection of short stories of the urban fantasy/contemporary mythic fantasy type, set in the town of Durrington. With urban mages, old gods and other wild spirits wandering around causing chaos. A bit Charles De Lint meets Hellblazer in tone. I hope!

And if I'm feeling particularly brave there'll be a more traditional secondary world fantasy called Tides of Marigan:
In which the acolyte of an exiled goddess must find a way to free her people from invaders while trying to survive the fall out of making questionable allies.

Plus there's a few smaller projects, but we'll cover them as and when (and if) they get done!

Ultimately, the aim is to get somewhere between 5000 - 10,000 words a day done to keep the word war numbers up. (And then my fingers will drop off and my brain will dribble out of my ears in a picturesque pile of goo...) :-)

And welcome to Support Our 'Zines Day! And what is it, you may be wondering? Very simple. SOZ Day is the day when you shout your love for your favourite 'zines across the internet and if you're in a flush mood, donate a little to keep them putting out the stuff you love... See here for the whys and wotnots...

So here are my faves:
Clarkesworld Magazine
Fantasy Magazine
Strange Horizons
Hub Magazine
Murky Depths
The Lorelei Signal
Weird Tales
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly
Expanded Horizons
Theaker's Quarterly Fiction

Your turn!  :-)

Ooh, 10 days later... :-)

‘twas the night before Fcon, and after spending some quality time parked on the M-whatever-it-was due to an accident on the opposite carriageway, we managed to spend a few minutes admiring the unchanging décor of the Britannia before moseying down to be sociable.

Ah the joys of Nottingham on a Thursday night! So there we were, the fabulous Gail Z Martin, the equally fabulous Jan & Pete Coleborn-Edwards, the rather awesome Debbie & Clare Bennett, dearest mama and yours truly. And the question of the night was: where, oh where, could a group that includes some of the pickiest eaters in the country get some decent food…

That’ll be the Big Wok on Parliament Street then, host of our anti-banquet foray from last year. All you can eat Chinese buffet plus sushi bar and, ladies and gentlemen please contain yourselves, a chocolate fountain! What’s not to love?
The charming young gentlemen that bear the titles of John Aitken and George Budge were also seen in that legendary establishment so it must have been good!

Have sympathy for poor Sir Coleborn-Edwards, as after enjoying such delightful repast, he had to drive all the way back to sunny Stoke to pick up many and various (and oft mysterious) items and was not seen again until Friday. Meanwhile, the rest of us engaged in that oldest of Fcon traditions and sprawled in the bar, gossiping and drinking until the faintest of hearts left for bed. Young Paul of the Clan McCampbell joined us for a spell and outlasted the best of us in our bar-sprawlerie.

So onward to Friday, the day that looms strongest in the hearts and minds of all Fcon organisers… will our many boxes still be there, are we going to find someone encamped in our function rooms (‘ware the ides of Walsall, for they were double booked and snippy about our quite reasonable setting up noises, the blaggards...)
Will anyone turn up?

Yes, no, and oh yes! And it was quite the calmest set up I’ve experienced yet.
The Dealers Room developed Tardis-like dimensions and managed to include far more tables than previously anticipated, the mountains of Goodie Bags didn’t avalanche and endanger the lives of small children and stuffed toys, and we were so laid back we were almost horizontal.

Apart from the slightly manic attempts at stopping Les Edwards and Peter Crowther noticing that their surprise party was in the program… :-> Apparently they were still surprised!

Alas, the life of a Registration Babe does not allow for such frivolities as actually seeing the panels and other Fcon amusements, so, dear readers, please sally forth about the internet and see what the unchained people had to say…
(see bottom of post for a few links!)

Done? Excellent.
So what other small snippets can be told? The Banquet! Ah ha! Edible. :-> Now despite the annual complaints, personally I didn’t find it that bad. (But then, my expectations go as far as – can I eat it? If yes, then success.) So the starter was lovely, the main was ok, the pudding would have been nice if they hadn’t been serving the same thing in the restaurant at lunch… Could have quite happily done without the main altogether, but that’s just me.

But let me tell you about our banquet entertainment. On our table we were sat with the fabulous John Lenahan, magician, comedian, voice-actor, and now writer. (yes, we bought his book!) Both Evil Twin Hells and myself managed to avoid deluging the poor man with Red Dwarf quotes (tempting as it was. Was he a waffle man? We will never know!) And the man has so many stories it would have been very easy to listen to him all night!

Praise be to Evil Overlord Pete, after the banquet there was no raffle! (And the entire Fcon population fainted in shock.) But, dear readers, you have no idea how close to peril you were, how discussions raged in the shadows about this fell ritual that plagues us…

So what did we have to amuse and entertain us instead? I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, the Fcon version. (No, I had no idea what it was either!)
But it was marvellously done with Sir Guy of Adams the erudite grandmaster trying to whip some control over teams of Sarah Pinborough & Julian Simpson and Jasper Fforde & (oh bugger, can’t remember who the other chap was. Was it Graham Joyce? Tim Lebbon? Mark Morris? Help!) Sarah Pinborough was definitely the highlight of that!
Oh, sorry, there was also the awards. Of which much has been written, both good and bad. Congratulations to everyone that won.
And after that, I believe that Talkie the Toaster (er, sorry, John Lenahan…) entertained with a stint on stage, thereafter followed by some chap name of Ramsey Campbell…

So to Sunday and the AGM. It overran. :-> But honestly, Sir Guy, only an hour allotted for the AGM? Pure craziness! :->

But with Sunday came the opportunity to escape the bondage of the Registration Desk and see the Art Show. Gosh. Never seen an art show before. Coo. That was excellent. Particularly liked the work of Vincent Chong, Anne Sudworth, Steve Upham, Andy Cooper and David Hardy.

Alas, no Fcon will let you escape its tender clutches without an assortment of books both freely given and bargain-bought. Mine for this year were: Kelly Link’s Pretty Monsters, Robert Holdstock’s Avilion, Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands & Teeth, Katherine Howe’s The Lost Book of Salem, John Lenahan’s Shadowmagic, Stephen Lawhead’s Tuck, Juliet Marillier’s Heir to Sevenwaters, Kaaron Warren’s Slights, Vicki Pettersson’s The Scent of Shadows, a couple of Penguin Classics in the form of Fantastic Tales and 1984. (Can not believe I didn’t already own a copy of 1984!), a samplet from Allyson Bird entitled For You Faustine, the Mammoth Book of Wolf Men, and last, but definitely not least, some Newcon Press titles – being the Myth-Understandings anthology, The Gift of Joy by that there Ian Whates, and And God Created Zombies by the funky Andrew Hook.

And apparently I took 115 photos. If you’re on Facebook, hop on over and check out the ones that didn’t come out blurry or consist of the backs of people’s heads!

Other than that, one of the most relaxing Fcons I’ve had, so in that wave of bliss I’ll leave it at that and see you all next year!

Linkety Links!
Tim Lebbon, Gail Z. Martin,Angry Robot, Juliet McKenna, Adrian F. one & two, Cheryl Morgan - Settling In, Morning in Nottingham, Testing the Technology, Wimped Out, Snoozy Sunday.

Mark Morris, Kari Sperring, Chris Fowler, Mark Deniz, Mark Charan Newton, Andy Remic

(This is a long one, you have been warned…)

Another thing that happened over Fantasycon weekend was the explosion in the blogosphere over the all male content of the BFS’ newly launched In Conversation book. The book: In Conversation: A Writer's Perspective, Volume 1: Horror, edited by James Cooper is intended to be the first in a serious of interview collections, with the two following volumes covering fantasy and SF.

Things were first picked up by Maura McHugh, with debate springing up on the blogs of Cheryl Morgan, Christopher Fowler and Publishers Weekly.
Then yesterday the Guardian picked up on it with an article by Alison Flood.

Commissioning Editor and BFS Chairman Guy Adams has issued a public apology and from his reactions when the issue was mentioned for the first time during the BFS AGM on Sunday, he is genuinely horrified that he didn’t notice the lack of women in the book. In Guy we trust. :->

Debate has wandered to the BFS Forums and a thread on the BFS’ Facebook page with responses switching between those that think the gender of the writers is unimportant and those that think otherwise. (Also, the phrase ‘feminist claptrap’ got used, but we won’t touch that one.)

For what it’s worth, this is my take:

When a fiction anthology is widely open to submissions, then of course, you take your chance on what stories the editor likes. Editors are quite capable of picking good stories that fall outside their normal reading comfort zone and no-one in their right mind is going to refuse a good story because of who’s written it (or who hasn’t).

When a fiction anthology is filled by commissioned pieces, then to fill it with all male authors seems somewhat archaic. (Unless that's the particular point of the anthology!) If the editor’s tastes don’t naturally run to stories that happen to be written by women (or anyone who isn’t the standard white male), then the editor needs to expand their reading or talk quietly to someone who can clue them in to what else is being written that might fit the theme of the book.

But when it’s a collection of commissioned interviews purporting to give voice to the sixteen most accomplished horror writers around, then to not have a single woman in it is just ridiculous. And this goes double when it’s being published by an organisation that, by its own constitution, is there to promote excellence in the genre.

I love the BFS. I’ve grown up with it – signing up for the first time as a fresh faced wannabe writer at sixteen and then getting quickly pulled onto various committees for things as folks jumped on my enthusiasm for helping out with odd bits. The BFS has always been filled with many wonderful people and meeting them every year at Fantasycon is one of my favourite things.

What frustrates me is two things. One of them is the apparent dominance of the male authors when I know there are plenty of female authors in the BFS. They don’t seem to get talked about as much as the chaps, but it’s from seeing them at Fantasycon that I discovered their work. Authors like Juliet E. McKenna, Sarah Pinborough, Freda Warrington, Justina Robson, Storm Constantine, Pauline Morgan (and her alter-ego Pauline Dungate), Raven Dane, Sam Stone, artists like Anne Sudworth. Editor Selina Lock produces the excellent Girly Comic amongst other Factor Fiction titles with her partner Jay Eales.

I know there must be more, but the men’s names come to mind quicker than their female counterparts. Authors, artists, editors, both small and big press. I could list twice as many of the chaps twice as quick. I’ve seen them on the awards lists every year, and they’re always getting news items and interviews and the like inside the pages of the assorted BFS publications.

(Incidentally, the other niggle is the apparent dominance of horror over fantasy, but that latter is a debate we’ve been having for years and is never one that gets resolved.)

So gender balance and the BFS - you’ve only got to look at the awards list this year. When the long list came out it was excellent, filled with a good mix of everything by everyone. I was proud to be a member of a society that produced that kind of a list. When it got voted down to the shortlist… it was mostly horror and mostly men authors. Good authors and publications, true, but nowhere near as diverse a list as I’d’ve liked.

I do think it’s particularly brilliant that out of the four women that made it to the shortlist, two of them scooped the awards in their categories… Go Sarah Pinborough and Allyson Bird!

Without seeing the current BFS membership list, it’s difficult to tell if this is indicative of the membership as a whole being predominantly male (which does make the brash assumption that the menfolks only like the work the other chaps are writing. Which I’m certain is not the case.) Or if it’s just indicative of the people that bothered to vote.
(And what’s quite interesting is that of the two juried awards, both were won by men too… and I know there was at least one woman on each list that went before the jurors…)

So Fantasycon then? How was the gender split there this year? Out of the prebooked attendees (including guests) we had 89 female vs. 167 male. On-the-day walk-ins were also predominantly male.
Panellists? Excluding the on-the-day reading sign ups & launch-ees, 50 men vs. 12 women.
Film show? Difficult to tell from the list in the schedule, but 11 films and only one listed as written & directed by a woman (with a couple of films uncredited).

Story competition – now that one was better, from the 5 finalists, 4 that made it were women. (For completeness, the first round reading panel was 4 women to 1 man, the celebrity final judges 1 woman to 2 men…make of that what you will!)

And the really frustrating thing is, none of the mis-balance is deliberate. The committees of both the BFS and Fantasycon work their asses off to keep things balanced so everything gets covered and everyone gets a voice. There are always women on both the committees, some years they’ve been in the majority, and not a one of them have ever been shy about voicing their opinion about things.

Women have edited the publications, they’ve organised the conventions, they’ve written reviews and interviews and poetry and fiction, they’ve provided cover art and internal illustrations. And yet women are still outnumbered by the men in pretty much every aspect of the BFS.

I want this to change. I’ve wanted this to change since I first joined and that was way too many years ago, and the only way things are going to change is if people keep shouting about the female professionals in our midst. Keep submitting to the BFS publications and keep their names on the radar, make it so that there’s a bigger range of names at the front of people’s minds when it comes to choosing guests and panellists for Fantasycon, when it comes to possible contributors to commissioned publications, and especially when it comes to voting on the shortlists of the awards.

I mean, seriously, the last time a woman won the Best Novel Award was Tanith Lee in 1980!!! 1980, people! And that was the only time it happened too. Come on. We can do better than that.

Will post about Fantasycon once I get my brain back in gear.... but if you're on Facebook, I added a load of photos there - mostly of the awards banquet, but a few set up ones too...

Anyhoo, whilst I was nicely distracted by Fcon, the OU results came in.  So I'm well chuffed to say I passed the Archaeology: Science of Investigation module.  It was only a shorty 10 pointer thingy, but still nice to get the pass!   :-)

Next on the OU list are another couple of short 10 -pointers - Perspectives on Leonardo Da Vinci and Life in the Oceans... fun things to keep me going until the big one starts in February.  Namely, Arts: Past and Present.

This one's a proper sized module  :-)  and also apparently something of a foundation course for OU study as most of the courses I was looking at doing all say somewhere in their blurb that it's recommended to do the Arts one first.  At least, if you've never studied with the OU before, which I haven't.  (And given the distinct lack of prior education elsewhere, I figured it was probably not the time to blag it and leap straight to the World Archaeology module, which is a level 2 course...)

And the Arts course is quite the fascinating beast... it covers history, art history, philosophy, classical studies, history of science, religious studies, music and English.  Plus there's nifty looking stuff on the reading list... Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (which I've never read, so this makes the perfect opportunity), an anthology of multi-cultural short fiction (which I've read and there's some good stuff in it!), a poetry collection (which has me mildly worried) and The Burial at Thebes - the Seamus Heaney translation of Sophocles' Antigone.  (Which definitely has me worried!)  And there's also the quite cool looking film Bhaji on the Beach to watch for the course too!  (Hell, I just love the name of the film!)

And that's without whatever the OU sends out for the course...  It looks quite hefty from the course description as the first part of the course is titled Reputations and is going to include case studies of Cleopatra, Josef Stalin, Michael Faraday and the Dalai Lama, as well as examining the artistic reputations of Christopher Marlowe and Paul Cézanne.   Which is nice.  :-)   Apparently this part of the course is designed to develop close listening skills (for the music section) and basic competency in visual anaylsis and crticial reading.  All of which I definitely would like to get the hang of, so it promises to be a good course... 

(This has not been an advertisement for the Open University!)  :-)

Sell your pets, pawn your children, because this year the Fantasycon Dealers Room is stuffed with goodies from:

TTA Press -
On this years' British Fantasy Award shortlist not only are TTA Press are up for Best Small Press but their authors and contributors like Paul Meloy, who is up for Best Collection - "Islington Crocodiles" - and Best Short Fiction - "All Mouth" and "The Vague" - along with Joel Lane - up for "Winter Journey" plus Nick Lowe's regular Interzone column, "Mutant Popcorn" is up for Best Non-Fiction.
Obviously, after that list, Interzone and Black Static are up for Best Magazine. Such difficult choices but by then Interzone will have reached its 224th issue and Black Static will be coming up to number 13. They can't all win but you can, in the Fantasycon dealers' room where all these books and magazines will be on sale on the TTA table and Paul Meloy will join us. But if you can't wait follow those links.

Screaming Dreams –
Screaming Dreams is a small press based in South Wales, dedicated to all things fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Along with producing the free Estronomicon eZine and free eBooks on its website, SD also publishes a range of paperback books including short story collections, novellas and novels. Visit the website for more info at : www.screamingdreams.com
Also available on the Screaming Dreams table: assorted other books from Atomic Fez, Black Books and Pendragon Press!

Telos Publishing –
Purveyors of high quality collectible books for all fans of cult TV and film, and of genre fiction, you can find Telos at Fantasycon for one day only! If you miss them, check them out here: http://www.telos.co.uk

Gray Friar Press –
Gray Friar Press will have a whole range of superb horror titles on offer at FCon '09. The back catalogue can speak for itself, but fresh faced and bloodied this year are Pictures of the Dark, 23 powerful horror stories in Simon Bestwick's first out-and-out horror collection; Groaning Shadows, four superb novellas from Paul Finch; Mindful of Phantoms, a collection of 18 ghostly tales from Gary Fry; and The Castle of Los Angeles, a first novel from Bram Stoker-award winning Lisa Morton. Check out everything here: http://www.grayfriarpress.com/index.html

Elaine Hillson -
Elaine Hillson is an artist and jeweller working in a variety of metals and fibres. Her work incorporates chainmaille, wires, reclaimed antiques and felted wares. Metals used include sterling silver, copper, aluminium and brass, with her larger silver pieces fully hallmarked. Elaine's wire and chainmaille sculptures are unique flights of fantasy inspired by literature and the natural landscape around her home in the Welsh mountains. Find her at http://elainejhillson.artfire.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/elainechainmaille/

Houthe of Igor –
Purveyors of finely stitched beathties… http://www.houtheofigor.co.uk

NewCon Press –
NewCon Press is known for their high quality anthologies containing work from some of the most notable Science Fiction and Fantasy authors working today. As a special treat for Fantasycon attendees they will be launching their new title: And God Created Zombies by Andrew Hook (with introduction by Sarah Pinborough).
http://www.newconpress.co.uk

Dark Smile Productions –
Dark Smile Productions bring fresh talent and ideas to the realm of audio drama. They not only develop new work but also new artists, working with professionals and complete novices alike. Check out their work here: http://www.darksmile.co.uk

Morrigan Books –
Morrigan Books is dedicated to furthering the work of writers and editors working within the field of dark fiction. Morrigan Books will be launching their Dead Souls anthology with stories from Ramsey Campbell, Gary McMahon, Paul Finch, Simon Strantzas and many others.
http://www.morriganbooks.com

Talking Dead / PS Publishing –
Talking Dead return with a vast selection of secondhand paperbacks, pulps and magazines and will also be selling choice goodies from PS Publishing! http://store.pspublishing.co.uk

Abaddon Books –
Dedicated to publishing the best in high-action Science-Fiction, Horror and Fantasy, Abaddon will be launching their latest title at Fantasycon.
http://www.abaddonbooks.com

Geoff Nelder with BeWrite Books / AB of Seattle -
Geoff Nelder is manning a showcase for three speculative fiction publishers. He is the British branch of Adventure Books of Seattle and will be selling Escape Velocity magazines of science fact & fiction and some scifi titles. For Double Dragon Publishing Geoff is toting his own Exit, Pursued by a Bee science fiction mystery. Geoff is the new administrator / publisher of long-established BeWrite Books. He is to start a speculative fiction imprint as a focus for the fantasy and scifi BeWrite now publish eg by John Grant.
http://www.bewrite.net

Waterstones –
For one afternoon only, Waterstones Nottingham branch will be offering up a selection of titles from both Fantasycon’s finest authors and those who couldn’t make it! Catch them on Saturday between 4.30-6.30.

Raven Dane –
Raven Dane is the author of the Legacy of the Dark Kind series of Dark Fantasy novels. Described many times as 'beautifully written', 'original' and 'refreshingly different' with a fast growing and enthusiastic international fan base, her series is published by D A Diamonds. Read more about the books here: http://www.bloodtears.co.uk

Jon Webb –
For Saturday only, Jon Webb will be selling his debut novel – a single book fantasy thriller called Geas. Available online from http://www.librosinternational.com

In other news, m'good friend Mike Chinn is about to have one of his Damian Paladin stories published in the almost-hitting-the-streets Dark Horizons #55.  

Mike talks about the return of Damian Paladin on his blog here.

And if, like any sane person in the universe, you can't wait to get yourself some Paladin goodness, there's an extract of Mike's story Ace in the Hole here.

Yep, it's that time again, when everyone (yes, everyone! Even you, gallant reader!) wakes up and realises just how close Fantasycon is... (ye gods I love September!) :->

Am I panicking? Am I 'eck as like. This year my pre-con duties are fairly simple. Namely, 1) organise the Dealers Room and 2) Banquet decoration. (eep! Decoration sooo not my forte... There will be no squidgy eyeballs this year, oh no. And definitely no body parts to be thrown at the ceiling...)
After that, you'll find me lurking around Registration. Or possibly finding new and exciting ways to get up to the 10th floor where there's a bunch of stuff going on.

The program seems to be shaping up nicely, including a fab panel on Sunday entitled 'Pulp Adventure and Dodgy Archaeology'. Alas, it's on at the same time as the BFS AGM so what's a girl to do?

The Big Boss will throttle me if I dare divulge any more before he's got final confirmation on everything but I can reveal a stonking Steve Jones double launch/signing in the Main Bar. Yep, not only can you get the brand new Best New Horror signed by all attending authors, there's a Mammoth Book of Wolf Men coming out too!
And if that wasn't enough, Immanion Press and many others will be launching and signing many and various!

For more things Fantasycon, check out the website here!

If you're in the mood to throw some sheckels to a good cause, m'cousin Stace and cousin-in-law Maria will be doing a Race for Life thingy in aid of Cancer Research UK on the 26th July.

And just to make it easy, you can sponsor them online! Their sponsorship page on the CRuk site is here so go spread a little love their way!

(Meanwhile, I'll be trying to avoid thinking about the OU end assessment that's due, oh, quite soon...  eep!)

DGLA gossip is picking up across t'internet.

Check out Torque Control, where you'll find a selection of links to other posts as well as some interesting comments. Particularly fascinating is Mark Charan Newton's blog and the mass of comments it's attracted...

Joe Abercrombie posts about his near miss and shows you how dangerous he looks when packing weapons... this is why we're all voting for him next year...

The Science Fiction Awards Watch site looks at the numbers while Speculative Horizons muses on public perception.

Also, check out the DGLA thread on SFF World, which includes contributions from the fabulous James Barclay!