BristolCon 2014 is done

As you may have guessed, I was at BristolCon last weekend and had a great time. Shame on you if you didn’t go! Book sales weren’t spectacular but I met some fantastically friendly people and the hotel put on free tea and coffee, so that’s an extra point right there.

The only thing that annoyed me was that I didn’t find out until late in the day that dealers could attend the panels. I figured it would be like every other con – you pay for a dealer/exhibitor table and if you want to attend any panels or shows you either paid extra or just had to suck it up. Not here! At least I’ll know for next year.

Speaking of next year, you can already sign up for membership. It’s £20 until end of April, then £25 until the event itself where it’s £30 on the door.

I would definitely recommend it if SF/Fantasy is your thing, and especially if you’re a writer yourself – there were several panels on writing and publishing tips that looked useful.

Shout out to a few people I met:

• Will MacMillan Jones who writes fantasy comedy was on the table next to me and we had a good series of chats over the course of the day.
• Hello to Geoff Nelder who spoke to both myself and Will and whose ‘infectious amnesia’ premise for his ARIA books sounds intruiging.
• GEG (pen-name obviously, don’t know if he wants his real name broadcast so I’ll stick to this) and his wife stopped by my table for a chat about self-publishing. Not sure if I sold it to him completely, but I passed on all the information and tips I could. He also bought a copy of each of my books, so in return I’ll plug his book The Altruis Duad, 30 years in the writing!
• Hello also to Jasper Fforde who took a look round the dealer’s room in between panels and book signings, and whom I had a lovely chat with about my books and self-publishing in general.