Signed up for Fantasycon

This year's WHC in Brighton was so good that, urged on by my wife, we have signed up for this year's Fantasycon in Nottingham this September.

Fantasycon

Although I used to be a regular convention attendee from the early seventies (starting with Eastercon in London in 1970 when the GoH was the late James Blish), over the last fifteen years I have only attended one, and for just one day. Perhaps I'd been to too many and got burned out. Or just got out of the habit. I don't really know.

I suppose as editor again of the BFS newsletter, now called Prism for some reason, there's an added incentive. I really should get to know my fellow members of the BFS and its committee better. Also, perhaps more importantly for me, my writing output shrank to almost nothing for over a decade and it was only a couple of years ago that I started writing again. Since then I have probably written more than in all the years previous, finishing the first draft of one novel and with two others almost finished, not to mention a number of short stories and novellas. Having a break from writing, though, I'm sure was beneficial. I feel reinvigorated. And ready to head off in new directions.

So, going back to my roots in the BFS and attending conventions once more, is almost like being given a new lease of life. There are new faces as well as many old ones there, but if anything the atmosphere is even more relaxed and friendly now, while the growth in the small presses, which are incredibly professional in their standards, is one of the most impressive developments I have ever seen and an important feature in our genre today, especially with few mainstream publishers touching it.

The future looks good.