FantasyCon 2015 – Here We Come!

It’s been rather a funny old two weeks. A lot has happened on the publishing front but it all feels a bit unreal and detached from me.

On Tuesday the 6th October “Marked” was released in hardback (or hardcover as they say across the Pond) and e-book in the USA and the German translation was released in Germany (obviously) on Monday the 12th. Apparently I will get sent copies so they will be a nice addition to my keepsake collection. I am writing a couple of blogs for Quercus USA, which they hope to put out on review sites in the US, but that’s it from me.

Even more exciting is that we are now on the run up to FantasyCon 2015. My first conference was in 2011 when I went for just the Saturday to see what it was like and enjoyed it so much I followed it up by volunteering in 2012 and for WFC 2013. I was lucky enough to meet some wonderful authors; one being my hero James Herbert who is sadly no longer with us.

A big part of every conference for me was hearing all the different authors speaking on panels about writing and publishing and world building and other authory stuff and I used to wonder what it must be like to be sitting up there talking about the process you love. Well this year I will find out; I’m doing my first FantasyCon panel (I did sit on a panel at Nine Worlds, but I was so nervous I can’t remember a whole lot about it!). If anyone’s interested my panel is at 4pm on the Friday afternoon straight after the opening ceremony. It’s in the Conference Theatre and will be on the subject of The World As We Know It: Modern-Day Fantastic. My fellow panellists are Edward Cox (author of The Relic Guild), Jan Edwards (author of Sussex Tales amongst others), Peter McLean (his debut novel Drake is being released in January 2016), Al Robertson (author of Crashing Heaven) and Penny Reeve (from Angry Robot) is the moderator and I am very much looking forward to meeting them all.

Another cause for celebration is that my publisher the wonderful Jo Fletcher is a Guest of Honour (I know the GoH – to talk to!!!). My lovely editor Nicola will also be there and she’s on a panel on the Saturday at 12 noon in Suite 1 entitled Hack ‘n’ Slash; Editing Dreams and Editing Nightmares. This is a not to be missed opportunity for aspiring authors who might want a bit of inside information on what editors like and dislike to see in manuscripts. I will certainly be attending – I just hope Nicola doesn’t mention any of my “editing nightmare” moments.

Unfortunately Nicola’s panel coincides with Jo being interviewed by Stephen Jones in Suite 2 and I really wish I could be in both places at once as I imagine that there will be a whole load of banter between Stephen and Jo as well as some interesting questions and answers. However as Jo is GoH she can be found on various panels throughout the weekend, so I will get to see her in action. She is even holding a not to be missed Kaffeeklatsch at 3pm on Saturday. If interested you will have to sign up on the day and, as there are only 12 places, it’s on a first come first served basis.

Last but not least I will hopefully get to meet the newest addition to Team JFB – Olivia Mead who has taken on the role of publicist. Welcome Olivia!

For those of us who can still remember how to boogie there’s a disco Saturday night in the Conference Theatre starting at 9pm. Be there or be a strangely angular four sided thingy. I will probably be propping up the bar and shouting words of encouragement to the younger contingent, but my heart will be out there on the dance floor if not my feet.

Anyway that’s me for the moment. I will be posting something again after the conference and letting you know how it goes. Hopefully I won’t be a bag of nerves this time!

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