This article is complemented by a vlog covering BristolCon 2024, which was meant to be a lot fancier than it ultimately was but I realise I'm gonna be one of those slightly scrappy vlog makers. And I don't mind. Below is an expanded prose version of the originally-planned script.
BristolCon is now fifteen years old. And in celebration of that, it held a two-day event from October 26 to 27th, with the usual Friday "BarCon" where people were social and maybe a little silly. Herein follows my written impressions of that event.
The days prior to my Friday departure were consumed by home affairs, and of course choosing what to take and what to leave behind. A simple train ride, simple meaning one change, brought me to that city of scooters, churches and beautiful views. Bristol. The Friday, of course including meeting old friends and acquaintances including Juliet E McKenna, Stephen Cox, and others I sadly can’t remember offhand (please). I also got my convention paraphernalia, and tried…karaoke. Never again.
Saturday, the first day of BristolCon, was a fun time and in parts an instructive one too. I actually did a reading from my novel Lost Station Circe, and got a good response. I heard later that the first live reading of your work is always the worst, and I think I did alright. After that, the panel on writing non-human characters with Grace Picknett-Powell, one of the guests of honour Peter F Hamilton, S Slottje, and moderator Koel Cornah. I also stayed for the wonderful Anna Smith-Spark’s entertaining reading from her novel A Sword of Bronzes and Ash, which was hilarious. She does grimdark, and I tend not to expect comedy from grimdark. So, good on her, that book’s further up my reading list.
The small group session led by E J Doble, “Good, Bad, Undefined” was a whole load of fun. I even introduced Doble to the original meaning of nihilism when he used it in a context that…I have opinions on. Basically, a whole lot of interesting talk. Stephan Cox’s small bit on “Being Interesting” was also great fun, and it made me feel more confident in myself of being able to bring together a short pitch for different parts of my work. Something I…am not always good at. I caught SOME of the panel “Sex in the Citadel”, before my stomach called time and I had to get some lunch NOT from the hotel. And let me say, Spark, Tej Turner, Danie Ware, and David Cartwright can be truly hilarious about writing… Well, a certain song says it all.
Next was a whole hour of wandering around, and that’s where I got my haul (more on that later) and met up with a couple of other people including Emily Inkpen, who recently successfully kickstarted the third season of her sci-fi radio drama Dex Legacy. I tried capturing a little footage here, but… Well, I'm not good at vloging. After, the glorious Pete Ellis gave us a fascinating talk on Chemistry in Sci-fi and Fantasy. Since my late father was a research chemist, it was interesting getting even a brief overview of how the subject has been used. Which isn’t much, basically a couple of Isaac Azimov short stories, Clarkes’ The Fountains of Paradise, and a few others.
I almost went home after that as I was pretty tired, but decided to stay for Piotr Swietlik’s talk on Dialogue in Genre Fiction, and I’m glad I did. One, because it highlighted some points where my writing can…flag. Two, because it wasn't one-to-one with the previous year's version. And three, because I ended up triggering rounds of recurring giggles due to someone bringing up erotic fiction, there being some dialogue examples, and my brain ran with it…straight into the gutter. After that, I decided to end the day and head back to my hotel.
The Sunday was quiet to start, and I was able to have a long and interesting talk with Joanne Harris, the other guest of honour. Then the Small Group Session I led, “Must Main Characters Be Strong”, was a surprising amount of fun. Partly because I had about six more people than I was expecting, I think eleven or thirteen of us talking through what I felt might be a fairly shallow topic. But, what depths we found.
After that, I decided to check in on the panel “Rogues & Ruffians, Pirates & Thieves”. Featuring, when I got there, by Doble, David Green, Bav the co-chair, and Judith Mortimer acting as moderator. I have long wanted to write a specifically roguish character, and it was interesting hearing about some of the panel’s favourites. Sad no-one mentioned my personal favourite rogue character, Varric Tethris. But maybe he’s a bit niche… Then, something initially unplanned when I set out for Bristol on the Friday, Emily Inkpen’s session on audio dramas. Extremely informative, and great to meet her again in person.
After that, I attended Gareth L Powell’s Kaffeeklatsch. If you want to know what that is, a kaffeeklatsch is “an informal gathering over coffee”. There wasn’t any coffee, but it was delightfully informal. I like Gareth, nice guy. And I had a feeling that some of the insecurities I’d been feeling about how I got into wanting to be a writer and author were very common, and… Well, things could well work out in different ways. There is no absolute way to do it.
Then I decided to attend the final panel on “Lost Cities And Abandoned Places”. This panel, hosted by Bav and featuring Piotr, Emily, Penny Hill, and Jonathan L. Howard, was a great time. The whole thing was livestreamed, as was everything from Panel Room 1, but I managed to record a section related to a question on the appeal of abandoned places. The audio quality's horrible, but hey ho, I was using a phone. And then the closing ceremony, the first I've ever attended, and…well, I’ll just show you my completed haul.
Now, onto what might be difficult. This two-day BristolCon was a huge amount of fun, but it also threw into perspective some elements of my life and attitude that I needed to rethink. And it's time for me to take a break from BristolCon. Will I never go back? Absolutely not, it's a lovely event and I've met people there I consider colleagues at least and friends I would hope. Will I give it a year's break? Yes. I've been going there or attending in some form for six years running, and it's beginning to lose its lustre. I don't want anything I do to do that. If there is no lustre, there should be comforting familiarity. Also, I have other things to commit to, like my current quest with the Open University to get a degree, and my writing endeavours.
I'll still be doing my best to keep in contact with these people, and keeping an eye on how things go, and finding other things I could attend virtually or otherwise should I choose. But to carry on loving BristolCon as much as I do, I need to take a break. If you want more BristolCon content, and some other comments, here's a vlog of my time down in Bristol and at the event on my YouTube channel.
