Orbital 2008
Filed under Friday Flash Fiction • 23-03-2008 •
I’ve spent the last few days at Orbital, this year’s Eastercon, in the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow – and what a few days it’s been…
I travelled from Bristol on Friday morning, with Colin Harvey, author of Lightning Days and The Silk Palace. We got to the hotel at luchtime and pretty much launched straight into the thick of things – the highlight of the afternoon being an energetic panel discussion on the future of the UK short fiction market.
I also met up with some of the Friday Flash Fictioneers, and finally got my hands on a copy of our anthology, Illuminations – which looks absolutely awesome.
We launched the anthology Saturday afternoon at a flash fiction workshop, which went very well. But by that time, I had started to feel ill – a feeling that would only get worse as the weekend progressed.
I met some old friends, such as Jetse de Vries and Roy Grey from Interzone, Andrew Hook from Elastic Press, Neil Williamson, fictioneers Gareth D Jones, Justin Pickard, Martin McGrath, Neil Beynon, Paul Raven, and Shaun C Green – and some new ones, such as fellow Interzone author Aliette de Bodard, Dev Agarwal, and Christopher Teague from Pendragon Press.
But by Sunday morning I had begun to feel really dreadful and had to miss the guest of honour speeches by Charles Stross and Neil Gaiman – but before I retreated to my hotel room with some rice cakes and bottled water, I did manage to stop by the art auction and buy the original artwork for my short story, Ack-Ack Macaque, drawn by SMS.
Tags: Eastercon • Orbital2008
Ah. I saw you beating a hasty retreat at the start of Stross. It was good to finally meet you in person, and I hope you’re feeling better.
Good to see you too, man – and I second Justin’s wishes for health.