Yesterday evening, as this year’s highly enjoyable Bristolcon convention drew to a close, the organisers  announced that John Meaney, Anne Sudworth and I will be their Guests of Honour at next year’s convention.

Although I have participated in panel discussions and readings at a number of conventions and events, this is the first time I have been invited as a GoH, and I am deeply honoured to have been asked.

One of my duties as GoH will be to be interviewed in front of an audience by Kim Lakin-Smith, where we’ll talk about my work, etc.

1) Thursday 20th Oct — from 6pm-7pm, I will be discussing genre fiction on a panel with Juliet E. McKenna, Cheryl Morgan and Jo Hall, at St Mark’s in Easton as part of the Bristol Festival of Literature.

2) Friday 21st Oct — from 12pm-1pm, I will be joining Juliet E.McKenna, Justina Robson, and Paul Cornell for a lunchtime book signing at Forbidden Planet in Clifton.

3) Saturday 22nd Oct — from 10am-11pm, I will be one of the guests at BristolCon, which is being held at the Ramada Hotel on Redcliffe Way, close to Temple Meads station, where I will be participating in at least four panel discussions and performing a reading from my latest book.

I hope to meet as many of you as possible at these events.

If you are coming to BristolCon on 22nd October, you’ll be able to see me participating in the following programme items:

10.00 – If all Men are Authors, Who are the Audience? Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. – Marcus Tullius Cicero. They say that everyone has a novel in them (sometimes they say that’s where it should stay). How do we unleash the inner novel? Do we really want to, and anyway, if everyone is really writing a book, who is going to read it? With Justina Robson (Mod), Gareth L Powell, Alex Keller, Joanne Hall, Dolly Garland & MD Lachlan

14.00 – Tricks and Tools For Writers – Experience Shared. There are lots of computer applications and sources of advice for a new writer. The amount of information on the internet can sometimes be overwhelming, and that’s before you even open one of the hundreds of “How to Write” books out there. Here we bring together some really neat hints and tips from authors who have learned the hard way. With Alastair Reynolds (Mod), Emma Newman, Gareth L Powell, Wayne Simmons, Anne Lyle & Eugene Byrne

15.00 – The Recollection book launch

15.50 – Author reading: Gareth L. Powell

18.00 – Sci-Fi Now! Sliding doors, tricorders, communicators, space stations, and exploration of Mars. What have we achieved that was only science fiction fifty years ago? What happened to teleporters, jetpacks and flying cars? Will we ever get our base on the moon for our vacations? If so, when? With Gareth L Powell (Mod), John Meaney, Eugene Byrne, Dev Agarwal, Paul McAuley & Tim Maughan

19.00 – Storytelling or Literature? Some might argue that a good story is in itself a work of art. But do I want people to read my story, or do I want to be appreciated for my art? Are the two really mutually exclusive? With Paul Cornell (Mod), Juliet E McKenna, Justina Robson, Harriet Castor, Alex Keller & Gareth L Powell

Here is the official press release for this year’s BristolCon event:

Bristol Sci-fi convention returns for third year

BRISTOL 12/05/2011 -  For the third year running, Bristol will play host to the south-west’s premier science fiction and fantasy convention, the aptly-named ‘BristolCon’.

This one-day event, which takes place on Saturday 22 October at the Ramada Bristol City Hotel, gives fans the chance to attend discussion panels on a variety of genre-related topics, browse the merchandise stalls, and rub shoulders with well-known writers and artists.

Guests this year include writers Juliet E McKenna and Justina Robson, artist Jim Burns, and Keith Blount, the creator of the popular ‘Scrivener’ writing software. Also attending will be authors Alastair Reynolds, John Meaney and Stephanie Burgis, TV and comics writer Paul Cornell, and local authors Gareth L. Powell and Colin Harvey.  Our art show will feature work by Jim Burns, as well as local artists Andy Bigwood, Kirk Stacey and Simon Breeze.

Books, comics and merchandise will be available in the dealers’ room and authors will be available for book signings. There will also be a pub quiz and live music in the evening.

Tickets can be purchased at a special advance rate of £15 from the convention website at www.bristolcon.org until 31 May. After this date pre-sale prices rise to £20, and tickets on the door will priced at £25.

BristolCon 2011 will take place on 22 October at the Ramada Hotel in Bristol.

Guests of honour include Juliet McKenna, Justina Robxon, Keith Blount (of Scrivener fame) and artist Jim Burns.

Also appearing will be Stephanie Burgis, Paul Cornell, Colin Harvey, John Meaney, Alastair Reynolds and Gareth L. Powell.

This is the convention’s third year, and if the previous two are anything to go by, it will be a lot of fun.

Tickets are available now priced £15.

Click here to book online.

The second annual BristolCon event took place on Saturday, and it was a roaring success with an attendance of over 150 people.

As well as the main programme room, the con included an impressive art show and a dealers’ room. The main programme kicked off at 10am with a discussion of publishing, followed by a reading by Juliet McKenna and a Q&A session with Guest of Honour Joe Abercrombie.

Personally, I took part in two panel discussions, both of which I ended up chairing, and both of which were a lot of fun. The first was in the morning, and it was a discussion of special effects, both audio and visual, and the part they play in movies.

Following that, I read part of the first chapter of The Recollection, which was the first public outing for the material. Afterwards, a number of people came up to me and said they couldn’t wait for the book to be published, as they were desperate to find out what happened next.

At lunchtime, Wizard’s Tower Press launched their new anthology, Dark Spires. I have a story included in the book, so I joined the other authors for a mass signing session.

Unfortunately, I missed Eugene Byrne’s lecture on the strange corners of Bristol, as I was taking a turn manning the membership desk – but I hear that it was a fascinating look at urban myths, and streets which appear on maps but not in reality.

My second panel of the day was especially enjoyable, as I joined Paul Cornell, Alastair Reynolds, John Turney and Nick Walters in a wide-ranging discussion about the future direction of science and technology.

Then I took some time out to record a reading of one of my short stories for the next issue of Dark Fiction magazine, and to venture out of the hotel to get some dinner. By the time I returned, the pub quiz was in full swing, and the evening ended with much drinking and much laughter, as befits all good cons.

Throughout the day, the atmosphere remained relaxed and friendly, and everything appeared to be organised extremely professionally. In fact, it was one of the most enjoyable conventions I’ve attended, and I was particularly pleased to meet up with some old friends and to make some new ones.

Particular shout-outs go to: Joanne Hall; Neil Beynon; Kim and Del Lakin-Smith; Danie Ware and the team from Forbidden Planet; MEG; Paul Cornell; John Turney; Colin Harvey; Cheryl Morgan; Gareth D Jones; Stephanie Burgis; Andy Bigwood; Nick Walters; Alastair Reynolds; Adam Colston; Terry Martin; and everyone else I spoke to during the day.

Tomorrow sees the second annual BristolCon convention.

I’m scheduled to appear on the following discussion panels:

• 12.00: Special Effects from Harryhausen to Avatar.
• 16.00: Future Science

Plus at 12.50, I’ll be performing a short reading from my latest novel, which will be followed by a signing session.

I know lots of you will be in attendance, and I’m looking forward to catching up with some old friends from conventions past. If we haven’t met in person before, please feel free to come up and say hello.

If you missed this year’s BristolCon event, don’t worry; the convention will be running again next year.

The convention will take place on November 6th, 2010 at the Ramada Hotel in Bristo, a two minute walk from Bristol Temple Meads railway station.

Following the success of this year’s event, the convention is being expanded from an afternoon to a whole day’s worth of programme events. Guests and rates have yet to be finalised, but will be announced in due course.

Click here to read my review of BristolCon 2009.

My BristolCon review is now live on the BSFA website, with accompanying photographs by Gemma Morgan.

There are some excellent pictures of Bristolcon on Gemma Morgan’s website, featuring myself, Alastair Reynolds, Cheryl Morgan, Paul Cornell, Roz Clarke, Huw Powell, Colin Harvey, Nick Walters, and many others…

See the pictures here: www.gmorgan-photography.co.uk/portfolio72059p2.html