The Gillings Suite

LXcon Loses Maggs

Just heard via Dave Langford that Dirk Maggs has had to drop out as a GoH at LXcon, the 2009 Eastercon.

Dave also reports that attending membership is now £50, the dealers' room is fully booked and the main hotel is full.

Albacon 2010
It is now possible to join Albacon 2010 by downloading a form from the new updated website. Membership is currently at the incredible price of £30 until Novacon.

Announcing Aetherica 2009 - A Fantasy Convention

Announcing Aetherica 2009 – A Fantasy Convention

We are proud to announce Aetherica, a new fantasy convention to take place in Chester, England on the weekend of June 19th – 21st, 2009.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in the centre of Chester will play host to a weekend of diverse fantasy-themed programming, ranging from presentations and panels to craft workshops and team building activities. Just as fantasy ranges from fairy tales to complex epics, So Aetherica will offer everything from in-depth literary analysis to whimsical games.

Guests of honour include Peter Beagle, a superb author best known for his novel, The Last Unicorn who has been described as “America’s greatest living fantasist,” and Joe Abercrombie, a critically acclaimed new talent whose books have been labelled as “edgy”, “humorous” and “compelling, with a gritty, real-life feel.”

Join us at midsummer 2009, and spend a weekend celebrating all that is magical.

Current membership rates are:
Adults: £35 (until November 16th 2008)
Juniors (5-18): £25
Infants (under 5): £5
Please see our website (Aetherica FAQ) for more details on the rates and price rises.

For more information about the convention, to join or to book a hotel room, see Aetherica.org

Media Enquires: Wednesday Jones
Publicity@aetherica.org

Less than two weeks till Redemption price rise
Just a reminder to anyone who is planning on going to Redemption and hasn't yet booked, that the price for an adult goes up from £50 to £55 on 1 September. You can book online or by post; details are at:

http://www.smof.com/redemption

Celebrating Terry Nation
My pictures from Celebrating Terry Nation in April are now on the web at:

http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson/nation.html

Winspit supersoaker fight
The annual Winspit quarry super-soaker fight is this Saturday.

Spend a sunny summer afternoon with a fantastic view of the sea while running in and out of dark caves and shooting your friends in the glorious Dorset countryside.

Who could ask for more?

All fans (regardless of what you're a fan of) are welcome. You can be a fan of anything from Red Dwarf to Iain Banks.

Bring a supersoaker, sturdy footwear, dark clothing (well, you can wear light clothing, but we'll all happily shoot you as we spot you in the dark!), a picnic lunch, a container for carrying water, and a towel/dry t-shirt to change into afterwards)

Meet at Wareham station at 12 noon. (It's in Dorset)

If you're driving, allow half an hour more than you think you'll need. The roads get clogged on sunny summer days.

We can provide a lift from the station if you're coming by train - just let us know how many people need transport.

If you're going to be late -- caught in a traffic jam or delayed train or whatever, then give my mobile a ring and let me know. 07759 784901

There's an optional gaming session afterwards in the evening, and crash space is available overnight.

It's always a blast (which is why we've been doing it for the last 15 years or so). Come along and join in the fun!

Just a reminder to everyone that there are still rooms available in the Queen's Elms for attendees going to MeCon 11. The rooms are single en-suite, and cost £30 per person per night. We need to be giving a full list of attendees to the Elms so they can allocate rooms no later than next Friday (8th August), so if you would like to book a room please let us know before then.

MeCon 11: 29th - 31st August 2008, Queen's Student's Union, University Road, Belfast. Guest of Honour: Charles Stross. www.mecon.org.uk

Current Mood: busy

London Blake's 7 meet
The Blake's 7 Forum London meeting will be Saturday 2nd August. All welcome. We will meet at Lancaster Gate tube staition, from 1 till say 1.30pm. Lancaster Gate is on the Cenrtal line.

The nearest train station is Paddington, (on the Circle, District and Bakerloo lines).

We`ll then walk from Lancaster Gate station to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. This park boasts formal plantings, the serpentine gallery (free to enter, so could provide shelter). It also has a Lido (outdoor swimming pool).

Other attractions include boating lake, Peter Pans statue, kiosk, bird sanctuary, restaurant and cafeteria.

Remember to bring your own food and drink (NO BOOZE).
It would also be nice to bring nuts and seeds for the wildlife...

After eating we can explore the parks facilities of peruse the long list of cheap/free museums exhibits.

For those who come down the day before, the London group will be having their monthly Beer & Blake's 7 event on the Friday night. This will start at 7pm at the Knights Templar, 95 Chancery Lane WC2A 1DT. This is a real ale pub that does reasonably priced food.

Bristol Beer and Blake's 7
There's going to be another gathering for Blake's 7 fans in Bristol in July. All welcome; the more the merrier:

When: Saturday, 19 July, 12:15 PM

Where: The Knight's Templar, Unit 1 Temple Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, Avon, BS1 6DG.

To get to the pub from the (railway) station, you walk straight through
the ticket gates and foyer, ignoring the main exit to your left, and out
into the covered car park. Go straight through the car park and out, and
you'll be on the path leading to Temple square. As you arrive in the
square, the pub is the large glass-fronted building on your left.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/10/10235/Knights_Templar/Bristol

Here's how to get to the pub from the station

http://www.spacefall.co.uk/FC/b7meet.jpg

The event goes from approx 12.20 to 7pm, though some of us may stay longer.

If this is your first time and you don't know any of us, let us know what you look like and roughly when you'll be arriving so we can look out for you.

BSFA/SFF joint AGM meeting, 7 June
This year, the two AGMs and associated meeting are back in London:

Date: Saturday 7th June
Venue: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square (nearest underground: Holborn)
From: 10am to 5pm.

Detailed programme:

1000 Doors Open
1030 Opening, then Guest - Geoff Ryman
1130 Panel: The BSFA - Historical Footnote or Force for the Future?
1230 SFF AGM
1300 Lunch break
1400 BSFA AGM
1430 Guest - Peter Weston
1530 Break
1545 Panel: Fan Media in the Dock - the legal status of fan art and fiction.
1645 Close
1700 Pub

As usual, this event is free, and open (except for the formal AGMs) to anyone interested - whether or not a member of either the BSFA or the SFF (though both organisations will be taking the opportunity to try to recruit new members).

P-Con Update: 12th May 2008

OK - some updates re P-Con VI.

( Read more... )

Be well all.

Frank

Current Mood: busy

Paul Cornell to be guest at Redemption 09
We are pleased to announce that Paul Cornell will be a guest of honour at Redemption 09.

Paul is best known for his work as a Dr Who writer, but his experience is much wider, and we will be making the most of that on the Redemption programme.

Those of you who saw him at Orbital, will know he is an entertaining panellist and we are sure he will make a great guest. A biography of Paul will be going up on the Redemption web site in the next couple of days.

What a busy day

From reading LiveJournals today I found the following snippets re guests for P-Con VI.

I'll start with Maura McHugh aka splinister, a well known person at Irish cons, always bubbly and charming, and it's an honour to be the first to invite her as a guest to a convention, who had this to say.

Following this was an item from Chaz Brenchley aka desperance

Last and by no means least, this news from C.E. Murphy aka mizkit

Those of you who have met her will know that Catie always looks charming and delightful.

On a separate note, I know that some of you have great artistic talents, so here is a small challenge to you. Would you like to design a poster for P-Con VI? I've put a deadline of May 31st on this, so send in your design, and we'll use the best.

Finally, I think I asked this before. I know a lot of photos were taken over the P-Con weekend, and I'd love to see them. So please if you have any could you email them to me? I'd love to have a con gallery page.

NISFA May Meeting
In other news, the next meeting of NISFA is on Tuesday 13th May, and the guest speaker is that well known raconteur, narrator, storyteller, conversationalist, bullshi......, I mean good friend and author Michael Carroll, one half of the successful double act on the recent auction. He is always a pleasure to listen to, and I can well recommend being there at the White Horse Inn, 8pm, Tuesday 13th May.

Odyssey 2010 Registration Live.
Hi all ...

Just a quick note to let you know that the Odyssey website is starting to go up and most importantly the online registration form is live and available.

Given the time it has taken us to get all the memberships we took at con processed we have decided to keep the at con price for a short while longer - until April 30th in fact. The prices will change from the 1st May.

So check out www.odyssey2010.org to join up and keep an eye on the website for a major announcement later this week

Current Mood: cheerful

First an apology as I'm cross posting this.

Is there a list of upcoming UK/European Conventions on the web? Other than that I'd like to compile such a list. A basic What.and when, are the upcoming conventions?

I know about

Discworld 22-25 August 2008 www.dwcon.org/

Novacon 14-16 November 2008 www.novacon38.org.uk

Redemption 20-22 February 2009 www.conventions.org.uk/redemption/

LX Eastercon 19013 April 2998 www.lx2009.com/

I also know there's a bundle of others coming up Satellite II. Picocon, Octocon and others covering both the rest of this year and 2009

I appreciate any help thank you

MeCon XI - Unicon XXII

29-31 August 2008
Queen's University Belfast, Students Union, Belfast

GUEST OF HONOUR
Charles Stross

OTHER GUESTS

Michael Carroll
Paul Cornell
Paul J Holden
John McCrea
Ian McDonald
John Vaughan

(Please note - all guest appearances are subject to availability and work commitment.)

PRICES

£15/€22 Full Weekend
£10/€15 Concession
Supporting membership is a mere £5 (€8)

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Orbital, "Doctor Who"

2D - Northern Ireland Comics Festival 2008
The second 2D - Northern Ireland Comics Festival takes place on Thursday 5th, Friday 6th, and Saturday 7th of June 2008 in the Verbal Arts Centre and Sandinos Bar in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Events will include Signings, Sketching Sessions, Workshops, Panels, Dealers, Portfolio Reviews, and an Art Exhibition. Entry to all events is FREE. Not only that, but tables for Creators, Dealers, and Publishers are also supplied free, although there is a limited supply, and it will be allocated on a first come – first served basis.

Guests so far confirmed for the event include:
Charlie Adlard, Bob Byrne, Shane Chebsey, Rufus Dayglo, David Hine, Laura Howell, Ilya, Garry Leach, Alan Martin, Stephen Mooney, Nick Roche, and Stephen Thompson.

More information about all aspects of the Festival can be got form the Festival organiser, David Campbell. Email: david[at]2dfestival[dot]com

Well what can I say? It strikes me as being a bit narcissistic to write a review of a convention that I’ve run. And of course, I was unable to attend the panels, so I can’t really comment on them. If those of you who were there would like to pass on comments re the panels, please feel free to do so.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: content

They think its all over....
it is now

A full report will be online soon, but I'm more than delighted with the weekend. Thanks to all - I'm off to sleep for a day or three.

But now the planning for P-Con VI is underway.

So see you next year?

Current Mood: accomplished

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