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.

The second annual BristolCon convention will be held on 6th November this year.

This is a great little convention for science fiction and fantasy fans, and is especially convenient for those in central and South West England, and South Wales.

Guests for BristolCon 2010 include Paul Cornell, Joe Abercrombie, Colin Harvey, Alastair Reynolds, Juliet E McKenna, Eugene Byrne, and others.

Tickets are available at the special price of £15 until midnight tonight, after which they rise to £20.

I’ve bought mine. To book yours, click here.

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.

I appear to have accidentally volunteered myself to be the media liaison for Bristolcon.

Bristolcon is a one-day science fiction convention being held in conjunction with the British Browncoat Ceilidh on 26 September, organised by Kumara Conventions at the Mercure Holland House Hotel & Spa in Bristol. There will be discussion panels, trade stands, book signings, live music and a bar. The guest of honour will be Alistair Reynolds and profits from both events will be donated to the charity Equality Now.

All media enquiries should be directed to me at: media “at” bristolcon.org

Tickets can be bought here: http://www.bristolcon.org

I will be appearing on a number of panels at this event.

Further information from: www.hierath.co.uk

In April, Swimming Kangaroo Books release their latest anthology, Future Bristol.

The book contains nine stories imagining what the future holds for the South West’s largest city, including contributions from nine leading British authors: Liz Williams; John Hawkes-Reed; Stephanie Burgis; Joanne Hall; Nick Walters; Christina Lake; Colin Harvey; Gareth L Powell; and Jim Mortimore.

It will be released in April 2009 with a cover by award-winning artist Andy Bigwood, and its launch will be marked with two launch events:

• The first takes place at 2pm on Sunday 12 April as part of the Eastercon event at The Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford. Andy, Christina, Colin, Gareth, Liz, Stephanie will be present to read extracts of their stories and sign copies.
• The second event tales place at 1pm on Saturday 25th April at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in Bristol, and Andy, Colin, Gareth, Jim, Jo, Liz, Nick will be in attendance.

UPDATE 31/03/2009: Forbidden Planet event has been postponed by the store. I don’t know the full details but will post updated date and time when available.

Continue reading “Future Bristol Launch Event Details”

I returned home this evening from a two-day business meeting in Chepstow to find an email inviting me to participate in a panel discussion at Eastercon discussing:

“Sex and the Singularity – Will our posthuman future be a matter of living next-door to the god of love, or will the only wangs around be carpets? What will really happen to gender and identity if we upload—and who’s written about it?”

It seems that Gareth D Jones has managed to convince the organisers of next year’s Eastercon to let the FFF gang run a flash fiction workshop… I’ll relay more details as I receive them.

The Eastercon souvenir brochure arrived in the post this morning, containing photos and memories of the Easter weekend we spent in Chester. There’s even a (very small) photo of me sitting next to Liz Williams on the “gender in SF” panel.