'London Falling'

I've met Paul Cornell  several times, at BristolCon, and EasterCon, and Melksham, and he's alkways lived up to his reputation as one of the nicest men in SciFi.  He also wrote one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes (Family of Blood), and is a good friend of my friend Cheryl.

He's now written a novel, 'London Falling' and he was in Bath at Topping and Co to read from it.

It was a bitterly cold night, but despite that there was a reasonable turnout, and it was a fun evening.

 Paul  talked about the book (it's all about the occult history of West Ham football club, apparently), read several extracts from the novel, and answered questions.

And, of course, afterwards, he signed copies of the book for those of us who wanted them, plus extras, so if you are in Bath and want a copy, Topping & Co should be able to meet your needs!

Several of the others who came to the event know Paul from Cons. and Paul had some time before his train home, so after the official event, a group of us popped into the pub down the road, where conversation covered issues as divergent as Fringe, the Church of England, Arrow, Wicca, Marriage Equality, and Babies.

And Paul showed us a picture of baby Tom, who looks adorable.

It was a good evening. I'm looking forward to reading the novel.

Parents and Patchwork

My mum enjoys patchwork and quilting, and had heard that there was an exhibition on at Radstock Museum, so she and my dad came down for the weekend so that she could go to see it.
I had also booked a ticket for the Melksham Comic Con (The first, and still very small, con in Melksham), so I spent the morning making beds and buying things to cook, then went over to Melksham where I caught Paul Cornell's talk about writing comics (and novels and TV), which also wandered off into discussions about otters, kangaroos and seahorses, with regard to their child birth and parenting (Paul and his wife are of course expecting a baby, in October), It was fun.

I didn't have time to stay long, but the con seemed well organised, and seemed to be appealing to a wider audience than is often the case - there was someone modelling balloons, so visiting children could have their own 'Captain America' shield, or 'Hulk' arms, and a full size, remote control R2D2, and a storm trouper or two attracted a lot of attention.

My parents arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we spent the rest of the day catching up, and eating, and things like that.

On Sunday, mum and I went to the museum while my dad stayed home to watch the Grand Prix.
I'll admit that my interest in the quilts was fairly lukewarm, but I enjoyed seeing them, and then looked round the museum itself , which is tiny, volunteer run, and a little frustrating in having a distinct lack of information about many of the exhibits.

 However, it's a pleasant enough way to spend an afternoon, and I had come prepared with a book so was perfectly happy, after exhausting the pleasures of the museum, to sit and wait and read until my mum had had her fill of the quilts!

Unfortunately I didn't have a copy of the catalogue so can't credit the makers of these two quilts, but all the quilts were made by people with a connection to the local quilt shop, Midsomer Quilting - customers, students of the classes run there etc, so most will be local.

All in all, it was a good weekend. My parents stayed over Sunday night, and having gone to bed before them, I found it oddly comforting to lie in bed, listening to the muffled sound of their voices downstairs - like being a child again, and knowing that everything was alright, because they were there! I was tempted to go and ask if they would come up and read me a bed time story, but I decided that wasn't really practical!

In Which I Go to Bristol

A long time ago, I signed up to attend BristolCon, having enjoyed it last year, and then I mostly forgot about it, and suddenly it was time to go.. The con was on Saturday, in (unsurprisingly) Bristol, which is of course practically on my doorstep.

The day didn't start well. I got distracted, so was still eating toast when the train I had originally thought of left. Then having, as I thought, left enough time to get to the station, I found that Every Single Traffic Light between my house and the station (5 sets) turned red as I approached it, and just for good measure there was the driver going Very Very Slowly and then randomly changing lanes in front of me without indicating. All of which, combined with the unheard-of event of the local train arriving (and leaving) on time, resulted in my missing the next train by a whisker. I saw it at the platform as I turned in to the station car-park, and it pulled out as I parked. So I ended up on the next train, arriving in Bristol shortly after 11. On the plus side, this meant I didn't have to queue to pick up my name badge, but it did mean I missed the Welcome, the first panel, Alex Keller's reading (which I'd wanted to catch) and the start of the second panel.

However, I was able to sneak into the 'Battle of the Books' panel, which featured Bob Neilson, Steve Westcott, Dolly Garland, John Meaney and Paul Cornell, arguing for their best books (and against those picked by the other panellists), and which was moderated with Extreme Prejudice by Cheryl Morgan armed with her zap-gun.  It was highly entertaining, despite some doubts as to the existence of one of the books, and made an excellent (if late) start to my day.

Alex Keller, Harriet Castor, Philip Reeve, MD Lachlan & Alastair Reynolds

I stayed on for the next panel, 'The Genesis Panel', which started out discussing how and why novels become epics, and which featured Alastair Reynolds, Philip Reeve, MD Lachlan, Harriet Castor and Alex Keller, and included commentary about books getting split in two by publishers, and the temptation to become epic-y. Interesting stuff.

It was followed by a short reading from Philip Reeve, which I enjoyed even though it was the second time I'd heard him read the same extract. (and I still want a Samovar Hat)

I then popped out of the Con to go down to Waterstones to meet Angie Sage, who was signing there - I enjoyed meeting her, but couldn't chat for long as she had too many others wanting to buy books and yet them, signed.

When I got back I was fortunate enough to bump into Philip Reeve and Thomas Martin (and others, whose names, I am ashamed to admit,  I did not note) over coffee, and chatted for a while.

Later, I went to the 'Life Cycle of the Author' (AKA 'George RR Martin is not your bitch') panel I enjoyed Wayne Simmons' moderating, which started by asking the audience what questions they would like to hear about, and which included comments about dealing with criticism and rejection,  writing avoidance techniques, and reader entitlement. (Also the revelation from Paul Cornell that he knows people who assume that comics come to a writer with all the pictures done, and the writer simply has to fill in the speech-bubbles... !)

I would have loved to go to Mike Shevdon's panel on Archery, but it clashed with Paul Cornell's Kaffeeklatsch, so I wasn't able to. |The kaffeeklatsch was small, and I think all the better for it, as were were able to have a casual chat, rather than  a mini panel. Much fun. this was followed by the "Dude, where's my jetpack?" panel, and what was and wasn't predicted, and what we all still want..

The final panel was another difficult choice as I would have liked to go to both of the streams! I actually picked the 'storytelling or literature' one, which was included topical conversation about the Booker prize, and when is genre not genre.

After which it was time to wind up the day and go home. It would have been fun to stay and chat in the bar, and try my luck in the quiz, but it was dark, and cold..

The day ended, as it had begun, with transport issues - half the roads in Trowbridge were closed, for the carnival, but very few of them had signs anywhere useful (such as at the start of the road) to tell you - I think we had to do 2 u-turns and 2 detours before finally making it home!

all together, though, a good day. Next year, BristolCon is on 20th October. Put it in your diary.

Bristol Comic & Small Press Expo

So, after my mini-blog this morning, I thought, as one does, that I had plenty of time to run an errand or two, and so of course I almost missed the train I'd planned to catch.

However, I did catch it, and managed to do a couple of other errands in Bristol before heading to the Ramada to register and then to look around.. 

The Con is spread over two hotels - the Comics Expo in the Ramada, and the Small Press Expo at the Mercure, which is just around the corner; they have a symbiotic relationship but are not, I believe run by the same people.  The first things I saw  in Reception at the Ramada were a pair of Imperial Stormtroopers, and guy dressed as Batman, and three slightly bewildered  hotel guests checking out.

always a reassuring sight!

After looking around, and managing to not buy any comics, I headed over to the Mercure. They keep all their conference rooms on the 5th floor, but there was a familiar looking blue box in the reception area, which gave me confidence that I was in the right place!

There were lots of comics (unsurprising, at a ComicCon, really, I suppose), lots of writers and artists, and a small number of panels.

I only went to one panel - 'Women, Politics and cartooning' - this was moderated by  Jasper Bark, and featured  Blue Lou, Kate Evans and a third artist (unfortunately I didn't make a note of her name, and it's not written in the programme). It was very interesting, with discussions about activism, motherhood, guilt, politics and politicians, viciousness, and breastfeeding. Later in the day, in the bar, I had the opportunity to chat further with Lou and Jasper, and to look at more of her artwork. I recommend it. Go look at her site.

I then met up with Cheryl and we went out for lunch in a dodgy pub, where we had some not-very-good beer, and some decent fish & chips, and where we were accosted by a random drunk enquiring as to whether we were east German Stasi. (No, we couldn't quite work that one out either...)

I had thought I might go to one of the 2 o'clock panels but Cheryl led me astray we wandered into the bar, first, where Cheryl introduced me to Paul Cornell and later we wandered around the Expo, and I bought a copy of Alice In Sunderland, in which Bryan Talbot drew me a beautiful Mad Hatter.

Later again I found myself back in the bar, (perfectly sober, but in need of a comfy chair and a cup of coffee) and had lots of interesting conversations - this was when I had the opportunity to chat with BlueLou and Jasper, and with a writer/reviewer named Mark, and Paul Cornell again, and various others whose names I failed to note. 

Conversations wandered from subject to subject - some SciFi / Comics related - Which Doctor Who Episodes deserve to win Hugos, whether Superman and Clark Kent were either or both ever American Cctizens in the first place, how quickly trade paperbacks of comics should become available, and what the chances are of fielding a cricket team entirely made of Doctor Who writers are; Some not - babycare and breastfeeding, government cuts, the tendencies of large organisations to become reactionary, and the excessive cost of coffee in the hotel bar.

I enjoyed the afternoon.

Photo stolen from @MrTonyLee http://yfrog.com/gydxhmvmj

I stayed on in order to watch Neil Gaiman's episode of Doctor Who -  The Doctor's Wife. It wasn't the optimum  viewing experience - the TV was in ne corner of the hotel bar, but there were a lot of people in the bar who were not watching Doctor Who, and so there was a lot of noise - it took a while before we were able to get subtitles up, and of course subtitles are not as good as being able actually to hear the dialogue, but even with those disadvantages it was a great episode (and good company!)

Once Who was over, I headed back home (where I watched the episode again, with sound, this time, and also watched the 'Confidential' - both very good. A nice end,  to an interesting day.

I had bought a ticket for the full weekend but having a lie-in on Sunday morning meant I left it too late to get to Bristol in time to see the 'Just a Minute' game, which was the main attraction, to my mind, so I didn't go back. Maybe next year.

(EDITED TO ADD: the 3rd cartoonist was Vicky Stonebridge. Thanks to Aldous Russell for pointing that out, over at lj)

In Which I Go to Bristol

Some time ago, my friend Cheryl suggested to me that I might like to go to BristolCon (of which she is a committee member) and, as it is practically on the doorstep, and membership was only £15, I thought "Why not? It might be fun"

So I spent yesterday there, and it was.

My day didn't start too well. Having got up remarkably early for a Saturday, dealt with some urgent errands in town and got myself to the station on time, I found that the train I was planning to catch was running very late, so had to wait half an hour for the next one, and arrived a little later than intended.

However, one I arrived and was registered, things sarted to improve. The hotel had provided tea & coffee, so I was able to get by blood-caffiene levels up, and to take a look around the dealers room and art show before heading to my first programme item - a short reading by Juliet McKenna. The programme was set up so that each panel item was 50 minutes long rather than an hour, with 10 minute readings sandwiched in the gaps. A nice idea - you get the chance to get a 'taster' of different books and writers, or alternatively to make that essential coffee or loo break without missing or disrupting a panel.

My first full panel was Cheryl Morgan interviewing Joe Abercrombie, one of the Guests of Honour.

I have to confess that I haven't actually read any of Joe's novels, but hearing him speak about the process of writing was interesting. cheryl was also able to disclose that George RR Martin is a fan, and any further delays in his completing the next book may be blamed on the fact that he is reading Joe Abercrombie novels instead of writing...

There was much discussion of hacking people to bits, and of blood spatter. Joe Abercrombie: "People getting hacked to pices, what could be funnier?"

I stepped out for the nxt cupld of pnels as I was supposed to be meeting a friend for lunch, and was back in time for local journalist and novelist Eugene Byrne's talk about Bristol.  This was fascinating - he started by telling us Bristol's founding myth (which has brothers who were rivals in love) then de-bunked the urban myth about the Bristol Zoo carpark and talked a little about the Suspension Bridge, and the Victorian lady who threw herself off it, butwas saved by a combination of her crinolenes and the very soft mud into which she fell. He then took us on a brief 'walking tour' via google streetview of some notable spots in Bristol, including Thomas Chatterton's house (almost opposite the hotel), the (site of) the church of Saint Wilgefortis, (AKA St. Uncumber) who is the patron saint of unhappily married women, and the non-existant street. It was all fascinating and highly entertaining.

I stayed for the short reading by Mike Shevdon - I saw him on a panel at EasterCon talking about fanastical London, and wrote his name down intending to buy his book, and I finally managed to buy 'Sixty One Nails'(the first one) and get it signed. He read the opening of the book and I am looking forward to reading the rest.

I also had a brief chat with him earlier in the day, when I spotted him with Paul Cornell, and asked them each to sign books for me ;-)

The next panel I went to was entitled "Future Science" and featured Alastair Reynolds, Jon Turney, Nick Walters, Gareth L. Powell and Paul Cornell,  discussing the science which they hope, fear or expect for the  future.

Paul Cornell wants to live forever, everyone expects that there will be a total loss of privacy, and that science fiction today is notably more pessimistic than it used to be.

This panel was followed by Paul Cornell's GoH spot, in which he talked, very entertainingly about past and current projects, including writing 'Death' for the Lex Luthor comic (and being able to liaise with Neil Gaiman about her dialogue, his current work in progress which is an urban fantasy novel, but without sexy, sparkly vampires - more police proceedural with supernatural elements (which to me sounds as though it may have a similar sort of flavour to Mike Carey's 'Felix Castor' novels, which would be just fine by me!)

He also broke the disappointing news that the BBC will  not be commissioning 'Pulse' - apparently it was initially approved but then cancelled, which is a great shame.

At the end of his spot Paul read from his short story "The Occurrance at Slocombe Priory", an hilarious M.R.James/ScoobyDoo mash up... That was the last of the panels I attended.

As well as the panels, however, I enjoyed meeting Alex Keller, after a mutual friend told me, via Twitter, that he would be there and I should say hello. An he was, and I did, and I bought his book, and we chatted ., and I enjoyed myself :-)

 I also briefly met Ben Jeapes - sitting down before Paul Cornell's talk I noticed the name badge of the person sitting behind me, so asked whether he was the Ben Jeapes who wrote 'His Majesty's Starship', and it was! So I was able to tell him how much I enjoyed it, and asked whether he has anything else in the pipeline (yes, but probably not for a year or two). A completely unexpected pleasure. And if you haven't read HMS (which I think was also published under the title 'the Ark') and the sequel, 'The Xenocide Mission' give them a go.  He has more convincingly alien aliens than I've come across for a long time.

All in all, I enjoyed myself a lot.

I didn't so much enjoy my trip home. I got to temple Meads about 15 minutes before the train was due, to discover it was running 40 minutes late. The next one (25 minutes later) was on time, but very crowded, and with 2 platform changes, which is a lot of running around. Oh, and the reason given for the first one being so late? It was due to "the number of people wanting to board the train in Cardiff, following a rugby match". Now, I don't claim to know much about sports, but I am pretty sure that International rubgy matches  are planned in advance, and do not simply happen spontaneously, flash-mob style. I am also fairly sure that lots of people will use trains every time there is a match, so you'd think the train operaters might be able to work this out, too, and consider, just maybe, putting on extra trains/carriages or at the very least, taking the extra volume of people into account and adjusting the timetable if needed. But obviously not.

Oh well.

"Pulse" - (Spoiler free) Review

I just had the opportunity of watching the pilot episode of 'Pulse', a hospital horror drama written by Paul Cornell and featuring Claire Foy & Stephen Campbell-Moore, which will be broadcast on BBC3 soon - and which will potentially be picked up as a series.

The BBC Press release says

Pulse
St Timothy's is one of the UK's top teaching hospitals, home to some of the country's most promising trainee doctors. But beneath its veneer of medical normality lies a secret network of dangerous experiments pushing back the boundaries of science with potentially horrifying consequences in this one-off 60-minute medical horror drama written by Paul Cornell.

Hannah Carter's mother was a consultant at the hospital, but died suddenly a year ago. Grief left Hannah (Claire Foy) teetering on the edge, but following a year off, she's back to resume her training. But Hannah remains fragile, so when she starts glimpsing peculiar events in the hospital and unsettling behaviour from her ex-boyfriend and star surgeon Nick (Stephen Campbell Moore), she's unsure what to believe.

Ignoring the pleas of those around her, Hannah puts her sanity on the line to uncover the truth about the hospital"

It's good. Bloody good.

The opening scene, (which I hope I can forget if I ever need to go into hospital for an operation) gives viewers a glimpse of what is happening (although not how or why) - letting us know more than Hannah does: enough to make us fear for Hannah's safety as she begins to look into the anomalies she witnesses, and to realise what is happening.

Hannah and the other characters are believable, and even in the confines of a single episode we see them start to develop in a realistic and believable way, and learn more about Hannah's past, without heavy-handed flashbacks or exposition.

There are some bloody moments, but this doesn't rely on blood for its horror.

In short: Pulse is very well written, tightly plotted, and left me at the end, staring at the screen and saying "but I want to know what happens next.."

I really hope the BBC commission a full series so I can find out. And you should definitely watch this whenit airs.

You might not want to watch just before going into hospital, though.

More EasterCon. Probably Sunday

An early start - I had put my name down for the Kaffeeklatch with Mike Carey, which was scheduled for 10 a.m., so necessitated getting to the Radisson by 9 to check the list. Happily, it was worth it, as I was on the list, so having marked myself in I was able to forage for coffee and ensure I was actually awake, before heading down to reclaim the room from the Clanger knitting panel immediately before us.

We were very lucky as not only did we get the conversation with Mike, there was no-one using the room from 11 and so we were able to simply carry on, and the kaffeeklatch ended up continuing until 1/4 to 12. Bonus!

There seemed to be a cross section of those who were primarily fans of Mike's comics / GNs and those coming in as fans of the Felix Castor novels, so part of the conversation veered into a quick run down of Mike's back catalogue and recommendations of where to start for a non-comic reader (possibly 'Season of Mists' followed by Lucifer)

There was talk about the 'grittiness' of the settings - the fact that the London in which Felix lives, and he other places he visits are very real, (except of course specific buildings etc which Mike invents - and which people apparently regularly claim to be familiar with!) as are elements such as the time taken to get from one part of it to another. Also talked about adapting other people's work, the fact that Mike has been offered but turned down suggestions that the Felix Castor books should be adapted as GNs (because, at least in part, of the difficulty in representing music in comics), but that a possible film is in the offing (Contracts have been "on the verge of being sent" for 2 years now...

We also talked about the Constantine film (general consensus seemed to be that it wasn't necessarily a bad film, as long as you don't expect it to be anything much to do with Hellblazer...) the importance of characters taking responsibility for their own actions and mistakes, Felix Castors's sex life (or lack thereof), families (born and made), Frankenstein and the morality of monsters, torture, John Constantine's successor, and reading recommendations from all around the table.

I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all - I certainly enjoyed it, and hope Mike did, too. The extra time meant that I missed the '1st editions & fine bindings' panel, which was a pity, but one cannot have everything.

After a couple of hours in the Green Room, which included a brief conversation with Paul Cornell & other waiting panellists about Jane Austen, lost in Austen and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, all conducted with the faint background smell of smoke & cordite from the Pyrotechnics display in the main hall, I headed down to the Hall for the Guest of Honour interview with Mike Carey, conducted by Paul Cornell.

This started late due to the pyro stuff, and some of the clean up had to go on during the interview, with people from (?Ops) mopping the stage as the interview continued!

The interview covered some of the same areas which were discussed at the Kaffeeklatch but also featured the Pantera comic "Probably the worst comicbook in the history of the world [,...] I convinced myself at the time that it was ironic, but it wasn't, it was just bad"- Mike Carey and more discussion of Lucifer, an how the character changed from Neil Gaiman's original character (Prompting Paul Cornell to declare "I love Lucifer. [pause] that wouldn't go down well with my wife")

Mike also talked about "The Unwritten" (including explaining that if/when JK Rowling's lawyers come knocking claiming it rips off Harry Potter the defence will be that no, it wasn't nicked from JKR but from 'Books of Magic'....

Both Paul & Mike seemed to be having fun during the interview, and we learned Mike's research consists of "bumming about on the internet...."

I had planned to stay for the European Torus & Alan Moore talks, but the lure of a shower & nap won out. I must say, that whatever its other failings, the Ibis cannot be faulted on water pressure :-)

I got back to the hotel in time for Ian Sorensen's "Harry Potter and the Half Cut Prince", billed as ' a musical with jokes and live quidittich. It was very funny, involving many appalling puns, reworked lyrics to such classics as 'Fame' and 'Pinball Wizard' , lots of Dr Who, Alan Rickman, Galaxy Quest and Rocky Horror references, and audience participation. All good, grubby fun!

An hour later, back in the hall for the Mitch Benn gig - introduced by Paul Cornell "He is one of us", Mitch's set included 'Be my Dr Who Girl', 'I might just have to Murder James Blunt' The Very Hungry caterpillar rock opera, 'Crap Shag' plus singing in dalek voice... this is a man who knows his audience. Lots of comedy between songs, including comments on not being a real Dr Who fan as he has never built his own Dalek, (and that what can what do with a dalek, except perhaps sulk) which amused me as I left, as I overheard a plaintive little voice saying "but I can think of *lots* of reasons to build a dalek"...

There seemed to be a lot of people queueing up to buy CDs afterwards some of whom didn't appear to have previously heard Mitch's stuff.

There were also lots of people milling around the atrium in fantastic costumes, preparing for the Steampunk Ball - also a rather splendid 10th Doctor.

It was shortly after this that I ended up in the Polo bar, where I had interesting conversations with several strangers, congratulated Paul Cornell & Cheryl Morgan on their Hugo nominations, drank guinness, and acquired a perfecty splendid hat from (I think) Sith Happens, before staggering back to the hotel at around 2 a.m.

Sadly, I didn't make it to the dealers room on Monday morning to get the e-mail address of the dealer from Brighton I was chatting to in the bar, so if you're reading this - sorry :(

EasterCon - Day One

Friday started early, in order that we could get to EasterCon at Heathrow at a reasonable time. The journey went well - not too much traffic (One of the advanages if you leave early, on a Bank Holiday Friday) and no navigational problems, apart from a minor glitch at the end when the SatNav tried to lead us astray (fortunately,Heathrow airport is pretty well signed, so we weren't fooled for long!)

We are not staying at the con hotel itself, but at the Ibis, which is about 10 minutes walk away and about 1/2 the price - AND we were able to check in early, so very satisfactory!

I spent the morning listening to a talk about timetravel, thena fascinating presentation by Juliet McKenna about Homer's Odyssey, and whether it was the wqorlds first fantasy novel (Answer, no, given that it is a dramatic poem ment to be performed, not a novel!) Juliet's enthusiasm was infectious; I really enjoyed it, and left wanting to re-read the Odyssey with her comments about the female characters, guest friendship and Odysseus's failings in mind.

After a pause for coffee and food, I then headed down to the Room Which Is Nowhere Near Anything Else (aka room 12) for a panel abuout "The English in the Marvelverse" with Mike Carey and Paul Cornell, moderated by Roz Kaveney - lots of fun, although it has to be said in wandred a little, at times, from the original brief... I rather liked the idea, floated by Paul cornell, of a comic in which Blade shows his English roots: "He should stake a couple of vamps, then have a cup of tea, and scones" which in turn led to a suggestion for a time-travelling 'Blade and Jane Austen' storyline . . . (I'd read that one!)

I had planned to stay for the next panel about whether one should censor what children read, but almopst without any conscious volition found myself instead, in the bar, where I bumped into Cheryl & Jetse de Vries, briefly met Ian Watson, and met (and got my shiny new book signed by)Mark Charan Newton and, after a very long wait, managed to acquire a very expensive pint of beer! The bar is a nice room, with comfy chairs, but very expensive, and considering how empty it was, astonishingly slow service..

However, refreshed and invigorated I moved on to a presentation by Dr Kari Maund (Kari Sperring) 'Arthur & Merlin - Where do the legends originate' which was fascinating - a whistle-stop tour of Gildas, Geoffrey of Monmouth etc which was very entertaining as well as informative - Gildas compared to the Daily Mail - a little later, I saw the first part of a panel about modern interpretsations of the Merlin legends, moderated by Kari, but unfortuntely couldn't stay to the end, as that sounded fun, too!

I then spent the evening volunteering in the Green Room, which mostly involed repeated runs to the bar, interspersed with the occasional delivery run, and then I finished the day with "Dr Horribles Sing-along-Blog", complete with proper singing along.

Lots of fun.