Post Bristolcon Musings
Well, that was good. Bristolcon 10 was over three times the size of last year, with an attendance of over 150 people. Now, that’s a proper con. The panels were well attended — I opened on the Juliet E. McKenna moderated Publishing panel with Mike Shevdon, Andy Bigwood and Dave Bradley of SFX, then sat in on the Joe Abercrombie interview, both of which were excellent. I follow
ed that with an hour on the con dealer’s desk and then the Dark Spires launch.
That went pretty well, although it became a little chaotic (mea culpa) as the event progressed. There were definitely learning points to be taken from it. Like, put the box -and the designated treasurer- at the end of the line. Still, we had good sales, and people seemed to like the actual finish of the book, which is marvellous, IMHO.
After a late lunch and a visit to the Dealer’s Room to pick up Murky Depths 14, containing Neil Beynon’s ‘Stone,’ onto The Future of Science panel. Impressed as expected by Alastair Reynalds and Gareth L Powell, but it emerges that Paul Cornell’s urbane exterior camouflages an Inner Science Geek…
The Programme culminated with ‘Writing Fight Scenes,’ in which Joe Abercrombie was repeatedly thrown down by Juliet E. McKenna and Meaney-san. I was supposed to moderate this panel, which turned out to be an exercise in futility, but by this time a worsening chest infection (which has seen me confined to barracks while Kate and Sharon hit Bath) forced me into withdrawing from both my panel and the 6.50 reading. Cheryl Morgan was a more than adequate replacement.
And so, here’s looking forward to next year…
Aw, hope you feel better soon, Colin! I don’t think John and Juliet needed a moderator so much as a lion-tamer… Chris described them afterwards as “Mr Mayagi – squared!”
Yeah.. moderated by Colin ‘Undead’ Harvey. get well soon. Now we need to get the various parts of Dark Spires ‘nominated in all catagories’ by BFS and BSFA.
Hope you’re feeling better. That was a nasty cough.