Sci-Fi Weekender 4

Well we're home, I've been recharging my batteries literally and figuratively. Sci Fi Weekender has been a blast and I've enjoyed 95% percent of what has gone on. This event evolved from last year's SFX weekender my blog about that can be found here.

This event was a vast improvement in almost every way from last year and I'm going to reflect on my experience of the event.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and check in took forty minutes from joining the queue to getting out again having organised which signings we wanted to go to having bought VIP tickets.

The caravan chalet was modern spacious but cold, it took us a while to work out the best way to heat it up - I'll come back to that.  We also decided to mainly self cater and heartily recommend to those who drive to the venue to bring your own slow cooker and throw things in it works a treat.

Thursday evening was spent in the Mash and Barrel, meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. Hello @geekcampgirls. The atmosphere was great, relaxed and happy great hugs a gossip with Sam Stone and all was well with the world.

I kept quite a busy schedule, I went to Here come the Girls which despite the hopeless title was actually a wonderful discussion of the issues that writers who happen to be women face. On the panel were Emma Newman, Amanda Rutter, Sam Stone, Raven Dane, Stacia Kane, Kim Curren and Frances Knight.  Lots of interesting points especially about genre and horror and distinctions between how things are perceived I was fascinated.

My other must see was Just a Minute ably compered by Paul Cornell (nicest man in the world - official) This had been a highlight for me last year and was not disappointed this time round as Emma Newman, Gareth Powell, Stacia Kane and Chris Brookmyre did battle. Watching Emma Newman's inner pedant wrestle with her anxiety was brilliant.

One of the things that was disappointing was that two of the major TV guests pulled out in the week preceding the event and it left the event feeling a little bit light on that side of things.  I spent most of my time in the Spaceport listening to writers and learning as much as I could. I loved the panel on dystopian futures and post apocalyptic fiction.

Other huge things for me were meeting Brian Blessed and Peter Davidson both were utterly lovely and charming.

We attended the imaginarium on Friday night and having missed out last year was mostly impressed we felt that some of the acts went on a bit too long and an interval of 15 minutes would have been a godsend.

Saturday more signings and author panels. I have a hard time speaking to people I don't know so chickened out of speaking to some authors because I was a little bit intimidated.  The saturday night entertainment ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

On the side of Sublime, Professor Elemental who was fantastic. He kicked ass and I vounteered to go up on stage and was an apprentice monkey butler who was also a dalek.  Yes I am Dalek Jane.

The Gameshow between Robert Rankin and Dez Skin which on paper sounded good, was excrutiating and went on too long.

The dancing afterwards was epic, I got my geeky dancing on with the GeekCampGirls who had been cosplaying their asses off all weekend and much fun was had.

Bad points?

Just a few, TV and film guests were few and far between.  Guests are fairly important to me, I like to meet me heroes when I can and was disappointed when the big names pulled out.

It was cold.  our fire didn't light automatically and we had to buy matches, the heating in the bedroom was completely ineffectual. But we spent so few hours in the chalet it didn't really matter.

I thought placing the author panels in the space port was a bit rude, the sound was dreadful and a bit disrespectful to the guests.

The 'gameshow' on saturday night was awful.  Jokes about child abuse aren't funny. 

I didn't hear any abuse from muggles thrown my way, but I would have been gutted if there was.

We'll be back next year but Chic will have to up the ante and sort out some of the issues.

To sum up, you get out of these events what you put into them -  this time I took a big risk and I dressed up and I loved it and I've made friends from the experience too, that made the event worth while.

SFXweekender

Well it's Sunday and we're home from the SFXweekender. It was epic.

There were  some problems, firstly the derailment which stopped people like Stephan Mangan, Anthony Head, didn't make it.  The queues for Autographs were beyond insane. So I missed my chance to meet my hero Brian Blessed and Sylvester McCoy and my chap missed out on getting Hattie Hayridge's autograph.  I did however, get to meet Eve Myles who I now have a bit of a girl crush on and I love the fact that she was drinking pints of wine.

So despite the hiccups most of which were unavoidable we did have the best time.  Now because we won the tickets we didn't have accommodation on site but being based in North Wales we were less than an hour to travel each day. We've remedied that for next year, we've already booked VIP tickets ;)

So Panels and shiz... I went to what become the Sylvester McCoy panel, (Sophie Alred had got stuck in the rail bru ha ha).  Sylvester McCoy decided to do the Q & A from in the middle of the audience.

Next off we went to Dan and Tony's Audience Participation Comic Creating work shop of awesome. It was Very silly and lots of fun.  Then to Paul Cornell's Just a minute with Joe Abercrombie, China Miéville, Sarah Pinborough and Toby Whithouse.  Much silliness followed.

Afterwards a how to get published panel and then the Blastermind quiz with our friends. During the Friday day I stopped by Sam Stone's stand, she's an author I met at Wrexham Comic Con and we've kept meeting at cons.  She introduced me to her friend and fellow author Raven Dane who was lovely and I may have bought her new Steam Punk novel: Cyrius Darian and the Technomonicon.  We saw some of the imaginarium but by this stage I'd been up 18 hours and could barely stand so we headed home.

Saturday we were back at Prestatyn by 9.40 am owch.  First port of call was Toby Whithouse Q and A for Being Human. ZOMG SPOILERS!!!! I know what's going to happen tonight and I can't tell you anything but the scenes were intense so my friends you need to watch Being Human tonight.

We stuck around for Eve Myles who was fantastic and Welsh and mad-eyed and lovely. Tales of John Barrowman's cock and all.  She came across brilliantly and I for one will be taking the baton up for the campaign to only drink wine in pints from now on.  She spoke passionately about Torchwood and Wales and Gwen Cooper and when she was talking about her beach and about Cardiff I may have got something in my eye.

She spent a lot of time with her head in her hands when talking about Barrowman's cock, just saying.

After that we attempted to get autographs and that didn't really work out so well the Queue for Brian Blessed was more than insane, I resigned self to the fact that it wasn't going to happen and due to Phil being eagle eared, he managed to get early in the queue for Eve Myles so I joined him.


After this there was Flash fiction, a good panel and funny, Unicorn sandwiches has taken on a new significance for me.

My boy went shopping while I went to the Brian Blessed Q and A for me the event of the weekend. Brian Blessed is by turns, hilarious, filthy, awesome, insane and wondrous and he held an over capacity crowd in the palm of his hand. There were moments of Gordon's alive, a tarzan yodel and opera. He's an incredible speaker his parting message was you can do anything you like if you don't let the bastards grind you down.

I then went shopping whilst my chap listened to people talk about maps in fantasy fiction, I stayed for a bit but really, it wasn't my bag.  I got a nommy massage, went and met Robert Rankin but couldn't pluck up the courage to speak properly, I iz an idiot noob sometimes.



We watched Norman Lovett and Hayridge's stand up which just about finished me off.  I didn't make it to the sing a long a buffy which made me so sad it's untrue but I was broken and not about to break self further.

I left the event feeling inspired and in awe at a really good weekend, it's given me quite the hunger to be geekier and to read more and to experience more and to write so much more. I left a little bit of my heart in Prestatyn, it was an amazing convention.


Any regrets, not meeting Paul Cornell and flaking out on Saturday but I'll be back next year and I'll have cobbled together a costume.

The good photos in this Blog post are all down to my boyfriend, the shoddy photos are all mine, save the Sylvester McCoy one ;)

Hateful Heart

The fourth in the Vampire Gene series by Sam Stone.  What I have enjoyed about the series is the mix of historic fiction with the contemporary and the supernatural element along with the time travelling elements and magick. It sounds like a mixed bag but the ideas really work for me and I have found each of the novels a really good read.

Hateful Heart picks up a short time after the events of Demon Dance with some news and a new arrival at Rhuddlan Castle. This initial incident triggers a series of events and adventures through time with appearances from the Templars and possibly the Illuminati and a really interesting take on a biblical story.

I like the way that throughout the series Sam Stone mixes religion, mythology, magicks and, science to create a universe that is complex and requires a bit of brain power to keep things straight.  The pace is fast and a lot of incidents occur, coloured with some very vivid descriptions which don't shy away from violence when necessary.

I will say I'd worked out some of the plot points well before the reveals but all that did was make me feel smug that I'd worked it out.

A really enjoyable ride and I've heard from Sam herself that she'll be starting work on the fifth novel in the series Silent Sand in January.

Futile Flame and Demon Dance by Sam Stone

Where the first novel focuses on Gabrielle the second novel concentrates on Lucrezia (yes Borgia) and her story. I have to say Sam Stone doesn't shy away from tough storylines and the second chapter might be rather tough for some readers.

The pace of the novel is quick and I've had to do a few things one handed the last couple of days just so I could see what happens next.

The last third of the novel really takes an unexpected turn and I'm not 100% convinced by it, it's quite a departure to what has gone before, what I will say is that it didn't make me any less determined to read the third in the series.

Demon Dance is the third in the Vampire Gene series of novels and by far the most complicated in terms of its narrative. Futile Flame left us dangling with Lilly disappearing and then phoning up from Sweden and Demon Dance picks the tale up from that point and runs with it.

Again I don't want to give much of the plot away but the major theme in this of time travel and paradox and places which were visited within Futile Flame are returned to and explored from a different point of view.  Lilly is very different to the version we meet in killing kiss. The change is necessary and  does make sense once you start reading.

I have to confess some elements of the book didn't move me, some of the mystical stuff was a bit bangly hobbity for my tastes and the Allucians don't really work for me but having said all that it didn't stop me from enjoying the book.

I like that the author is prepared to make her narratives unreliable and things that one character has told us might not be the truth. I like being hoodwinked by an author it means I have to make decisions as a reader and that's always fun.

I do like the author's use of language, the imagery that she uses to describe scenes is evocative and I particularly enjoyed the description of the relationship between Lilly and Rhuddlan castle.  The description of her magical elements, ley lines and gene magic are both utterly compelling and so vivid.

One thing that I thought sorted itself a tad too easily was the triangular relationship between Lilly, Gabrielle and Caesare. I would have expected there to be some awkwardness even if that was dealt with in the next book.

Overall a very enjoyable and entertaining read, less disturbing than the previous one, I'm looking forward to the next one which I believe is out soon.

Killing Kiss

I picked up all three Vampire Gene novels at a convention I recently attended and as such I got to meet Sam Stone we got to talking about how vampires have been defanged somewhat, she reassured me that her vampires didn't sparkle and so I bought the books and have been looking forward to reading them.

And I have made a start, I've read killing kiss and it is enjoyable. First off I think this is probably one of the few urban fantasy novels that I've read that is set in the UK so that immediately gets bonus points from me. Secondly Gabriele is definitely a predator, the reader is left with no misconception that he's a pretty efficient killer.

That said, I found the character fairly easy to empathise with, as the novel fills in his backstory alternating with the contemporary one.

Lilly is a really likeable character, she's strong willed and really doesn't take any vampire crap.

The story rattles along at a good pace and is both fiercely enjoyable and rather sexy, even if I do say so myself.

I am really looking forward to reading the sequels.