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Academic Conventions Events Fantasycon Fiction New Column New Story Readings Shoreline of Infinity

Update: Fantasycon 2023

Update: Due to a family bereavement, I’m sorry to announce that I will no longer be attending Fantasycon 2023. However, the details in this blog on the Shoreline of Infinity pre-orders and the BFS Journal special issue still stand. Neil Williamson has agreed to take my reading slot on Saturday at 5pm, which’ll be well worth attending instead.

Join me at Fantasycon 2023 for some brand new fiction and hopefully more! For schedule details for Fantasycon, as well as updates on Shoreline of Infinity and the British Fantasy Society Journal special issue on Fantasy & Gaming, read on.

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Conventions CYMERA Festival Events Festivals Readings Satellite

Satellite 7 and Cymera Festival

Thanks to everyone who made it to the Scottish Writing Centre last week, where the first ever reading from my novel-in-progress got an amazing response from the crowd! Wish you’d been there? Fear not. Over the next two weekends you catch me reading in-person, plus chatting online with Premee Mohamed and Ren Hutchings! Check out the details below…

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Conventions Eastercon Eastercon Events Readings

Eastercon and Scottish Writing Centre Spring Showcase

It’s been a while – but to make up for it, here’s not one, but two events I’ll be appearing at this April (virtually and in London) and May (in Glasgow). Read on for more details…

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Academic Academic Events Book Launch Conventions Eastercon Eastercon Events Readings Workshop

Ytterbium: Eastercon 2019

Last week I mentioned I was taking on some new projects this year. Well, here’s one of them. I’m part of the Programme Committee for the 2019 Eastercon: Ytterbium, acting as Guest of Honour liaison. This year will boast a truly stonking line-up of genre events: not least because we’ll be joined by John Scalzi, Frances Hardinge, Sydney Padua and the legendary DC, and the event is chaired by genre luminary Farah Mendlesohn, so expect an entertaining and insightful event, especially if you’re into cross-media SF, Fantasy, Fandom, or Alternative History.

Of course, it’s not an Eastercon without you, and right now, we’re really interested in hearing your ideas for programme items. As regular con-goers ourselves, we also have a wishlist for what we’d like to see and do this year. So, if you’re thinking of making some suggestions for 2019, here are a few of the sorts of things we’d particularly like to hear about.

1) Items that aren’t panels: It’s great hearing your favourite creators chew the fat about genre, but we’d also love to hear about other items too. We’re talking workshops, talks, meet-ups, tasting sessions, games, quizzes, and so on. Not sure if your idea is right for us? Drop us an email at programme@ytterbium.org.uk and we’ll have a chat.

2) Anniversaries/Notable Dates: Is 2019 the anniversary of a key film, book, or LARP society in SFF? Are there any key events in Science that are coming up? Is there a re-release or reissue coming out that raises questions about the influence and impact of your favourite game, video- or otherwise? Get your ideas in to us.

3) Beyond Diversity 101: Regular convention goers will be familiar with the Women in Genre, Diversity in Genre, and LGBTQ+ in Genre panels. Do you have any ideas for items that tackle related issues, but go beyond these basic panels, e.g. Reproduction in Genre, Non-toxic Masculinities in Gaming, and so forth? Get in touch.

4) GoH items: This year, we have John Scalzi, Frances Hardinge, Sydney Padua and DC joining us. Do you have any ideas for items that tap into our Guests of Honour’s particular areas of expertise? Would you like to hear Frances Hardinge talk about the Oxford influence on genre? How about John Scalzi talking about the appeal of writing the stories of background characters? Or Sydney Padua on the appeal of alternative history? How about DC talking about what really makes Glasgow such a centre for genre fandom? Let us know your thoughts.

If you have any programme ideas, or would like to volunteer this year, click here for our Programme Participation Form. Alternatively, if you’d like to run ideas past the Programme Team first, email programme@ytterbium.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Events Readings

On and Off Series – Episode 2

(Photo by Ruth Booth, taken at The Sound Of Silence, The Old Vic, Saltburn 4th July 2014)

The On and Off Series is a series of reading nights hosted by Dan Husson and Erin MacDonald in the West End of Glasgow. It’s become something of a showcase for the budding writers at University of Glasgow, and a really great source of fresh new writing across all forms and genres. So I’m pleased to say I’ll be joining them for Episode Two later this month.

This will be my last official outing until 2019, so join me and a host of excellent writers of fiction, poetry, essays and more on Monday 19th November at DRAM! from 8.00pm.