I spent Saturday legging it down to Bristol and back again.
No, I haven’t gone mad. I was attending the second annual Bristolcon but with a somewhat tighter schedule this year I decided to opt for the train reasoning this would allow me to not worry about tiredness, it was in no way prompted by a desire to drink. *Coughs*
Anyway…
It was great to see this small event effectively triple in size from last year. Smaller cons are often more pleasant – I think – than larger ones because you are in much closer proximity to the guests, it’s far less intimidating to talk to people than at a larger event where you can be overwhelmed by the numbers* and you don’t run into inevitable scheduling clashes that plague larger events. The panels themselves were nicely judged topics with a good range of panelists that provided entertaining discussion and got good audience involvement. I particularly enjoyed the Future Science and Fantastic worlds discussions.
Big thumbs up to the whole team at Bristolcon. Nice one.
It was great to catch up with friends like Gareth L Powell, Becky Powell, Gareth D Jones, Colin Harvey**, Sharon Kae Raemer and others. Murky Depths had a very good showing, and I had a chance to catch up with Terry before I shot off on the train back to London, a brief wave at Danie Ware on the Forbidden Planet stand, and have a chat with Kim Lakin-Smith (who was really nice, given I was probably quite quiet). Yes, I think we can count my first solo con as a success.
Now, if I can just get myself bold enough to put myself forward for a panel…
*I am quite shy in person.
** Colin has a new anthology out that launched at Bristolcon. It’s called Dark Spires and features work from the likes of Colin, Gareth L Powell, Roz Clarke and art work from Andy Bigwood.