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.
Fantasycon 2023 runs over 14th to 17th September at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in Birmingham, and I’ll be easing in to in-person conventions with a bunch of new goodies for you.
Firstly, if you’d like to hear what I’ve been doing fiction-wise, I’ll be reading some brand new words on Saturday evening, alongside the fabby Trip Gailey and Phil Sloman.
For the more opinion, non-fiction or community-inclined, I’ll be chairing Fandom Then & Now at 10am on Sunday morning. As I’ve roped in Stewart Hotston, who wrote an amazing piece on inclusive worldbuilding and the whiteness of LARP for the issue, I’m hoping we can touch on our upcoming BFS Journal special issue on Fantasy & Gaming (which I co-edited with Charly Harbord), alongside post-COVID fan events, a decade on from Sad Puppies and more.
Here’s where you can find me:
Saturday
5:00pm – 6:00pm
Reading Group 28 (Room 4, i.e. it’s a reading room, not the Reading Room)
Ruth EJ Booth, Trip Gailey and Phil Sloman
Sunday
10:00am – 11:00am
Fandom Then & Now (Panel Room 2)
Ruth EJ Booth (M), David Cartwright, Stewart Hotston, Andrew Knighton, Lucy A. McLaren
“The 2010s saw Fantasy fandom in upheaval, from the Sad Puppies and Gamergate, to greater fan-creator interaction, the legitimization of fanon, and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it TV. With the rise of hybrid conventions after COVID, and on the eve of the BFS Journal special on Gaming, we ask where are genre fandoms in 2023? And what does the future hold?”
You can find the full programme on the official website from organisers HWS here.
Talking of the BFS Journal special issue on Fantasy & Gaming, we’re still on course for release very soon. Elsewhere, Shoreline of Infinity #36, featuring ‘Letter to a Future Architect’ by me, is available for pre-order now ahead of its 28th September release. Will it be available at Fantasycon? I’m not sure, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. Hope to see you there regardless!