The last of the conventions! Until Fantasycon in a few weeks…
By the start of the convention, I was already pretty tired. I didn’t end up packing my schedule quite as full as I did for NineWorlds, because otherwise I’d collapse. But even so, I still managed to see and do a fair amount.
On Thursday I had a panel at 11, which was “Reimagining Families” with Cherry Potts, Jed Hartman, David D Levine & Rosanne Rabinowitz. I didn’t anticipate the Queue of Doom, but I was able to use the panel to jump it, which I felt vaguely guilty about. As it was so early on the first day, I wasn’t sure how many people would arrive, but the room was packed. In the panel, we discussed polyamory in SFF, the prevalence of chosen families, and other books that look at non-normative families. While more and more in our world, people live in different types of families, there’s still that expectation of the default nuclear family. It was a great discussion.
I saw a bit of the opening ceremony with my friend (Hugo nominee!) Foz Meadows, and wandered about some more. At 1.30, I went to the panel on “The Changing Face of the Urban Fantastic,” with Paul Cornell, Robin Hobb, Freda Warrington, Liz Bourke & Sophia McDougall. During the panel there was a brief but furious storm, with rain lashing against the windows and thunder echoing the panellist’s words.
Corset!
Afterwards, there was a lot of greeting old friends and getting lost in the airport hangar of the Excel Centre. I bought a corset in the dealer’s room and proceeded to wear it over my normal outfit, and it looked quite cool, if I do say so myself. In the evening I went to the YA Set in London panel, moderated by Tom Pollock and featuring Edward James, Ian McDonald, Gillian Polack, and Liesel Schwarz, which was interesting though it featured more on London and why it’s such a strong location in fiction versus YA especially. I stayed around for a bit more before making the trek back to Kim’s house, where I was still staying. I was really starting to crash at this point, and felt grumpy most of the evening. A half-decent night’s sleep helped me ready myself to do it all over again…
Friday I also had to trek back fairly early to get to the Excel Centre for my 11 am signing slot. It was really nice to see the Hobblings, who are a group of people who post on the Robin Hobb yuku board. I used to post on there a lot a few years ago, though I don’t as much anymore. I still interact with a lot of them on Twitter/Facebook etc. I was touched that they came to keep me company, for I didn’t have a large queue of signers by any stretch. I also had one fan come and I signed her Kindle case! Louise Buckley of Tor also came to hang out so I wasn’t sitting there alone, which I really appreciated.
Reading. Photocred: Adam Christopher
Again, not too many panels, though I was able to not only go to listen to Kim Curran read from her awesome book, GLAZE, she was kind enough to let me jump on and read a bit of FALSE HEARTS. I did have a reading on the Monday, but it was too close to my flight so I wouldn’t be able to make it. Afterwards we stayed in the room to listen to Lauren Beukes read from BROKEN MONSTERS before she had to head to the airport and fly back to South Africa.
I hung about in the fan village for a little while, and then Marieke Nijkamp, Sarah Benwell and I snuck into the “Trouble with Teens” panel a little late. This panel featured Julia Rios, Suzanne van Rooyen, Amy McCulloch, Eric Senabre & Janet Edwards, examining the obstacles with writing a teen-centric story. One thing I really appreciated was that they made sure to ask the actual teens in the audience what they thought.
I think at that point I went back to the hotel room and hung out for a bit, and then went to the party at the Fox bar, thrown by Tor UK, Jo Fletcher, SFX, and, in the upstairs bit, Titan books. Total squee moment: I got to see a bit of FALSE HEARTS in print in the Tor samplers!
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There was face painting! And a magician! Tom Pollock didn’t end up getting his face painted, so I accommodated him by drawing the London skyline across his brow. At one point, I tried to be sensible and go to bed and a half-decent time, but before I knew it, I was at the ceilidh. And so I stumbled to bed quite late once again.
Face painting! Photocred: El Ashfield
Full effect. Photocred: Nazia
Best selfie ever: Ewa, Kim, Mahvesh, Me, Anne, Jared. Photocred: Mahvesh Murad
Saturday morning, I went to Amy McCulloch’s kaffeeklatsch, and then afterwards wandered around the dealer’s room for a bit. I spied Robin Hobb and said hi, and managed not to go pink and stammer like the first time I met her. There was an exhibition of Darwin’s pigeons for one of Robin’s earlier works as Megan Lindholm, so we got to pet a pretty curly-haired pigeon.
At 1, I had my own kaffeeklatsch, and was pleasantly surprised when seven people ended up turning up! I’m still not exactly sure what you’re meant to do for a kaffeeklatsch (which didn’t have coffee). I ended up doing a short reading of FALSE HEARTS and then rambling on about different things for a while. Afterwards I think I hung around for a little while and then went back to the hotel room. I read while my roomie Kim napped, then nodded off myself when she headed out. A few hours later, I staggered out of the hotel room to the Gollancz evening party, and stayed up chatting until 2.30 am.
Den Patrick looking fetching wearing my elf ears.
Sunday was the last day of the con for me. I was feeling worn pretty thin by this point. I queued for the Robin Hobb interview with some fellow Hobblings, which was lovely. Jane Johnson did a great job asking the right questions, and since they’ve worked together for 27 years on many different books, it’s clear they’re comfortable and have such a mutual respect for each other.
Laura and Laure hanging out in the green room. Photocred: Sam Eades.
In the evening, I was able to go to the Hugo pre-party as Foz Meadow’s +1, and felt super cool. But I had to duck out pretty soon because at 7 I had my last panel, which was “There are no New Stories, But…” with John Hornor Jacobs, Pierre Pevel, Jon Wallace & Kari Sperring. This was a bilingual panel! Our moderator Kerri translated for Pierre, who spoke in French. I was quite proud of how much of the French I could follow. We discussed tropes and how often if you reach for them time and time again, it can be a product of laziness and result in poor storytelling. Yet, at the same time, we all recognized that certain tropes speak to us and there’s a reason they’re so perennial.
Afterwards, I chatted with another Hobbling Skywolf and awesome Hermitknut cosplaying as the Fool!
My photo turned out really blurry so here’s a better one I borrowed from Bookpunks – check out their page to see other cosplay photos.
I stayed for most of the Hugo ceremony, and near the end realized that I was about four feet from David Tennant! That was cool, but by then, I had no more fuel in the tank. I went back to Kim’s and the next day flew home.
I’ve come down with a bad case of “con crud,” and the head cold is only just now going away. Must now get back into the swing of writing! :-)
Literary London: Loncon3 The last of the conventions! Until Fantasycon in a few weeks… By the start of the convention, I was already pretty tired.
