I do love a good convention and FantasyCon is one of my favourites. This year, once again, the event was held in Brighton at The Royal Albion hotel. I was lucky enough to be an attendee and I had a pretty spectacular time. Panels and Launches The event organisers always go out of their way to try and accommodate as wide a variety of discussions, launches and readings as they possibly can and this year was no exception. It’s great, you can attend as much or as little as you like. I sat in on panels covering topics on book blogging, apocalyptic fiction and interviews with guest of honour Mark Gatiss and Brent Weeks. Every session was fun, informative and in one memorable moment embarrassing enough that my face was the same colour as my hair. Books Obviously a big part of FantasyCon every year are the books themselves. I came back with 14 titles that I am looking forward to devouring. Here they are (in no particular order) Tomorrow the Killing by Daniel Polansky The Red Knight by KT Davies Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback edited by Stephen Jones Ecko Rising by Danie Ware Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon Seven Princes by John…

Earlier this year Alt.Fiction moved from Derby to Leicester. In its absence, EDGE-Lit has sprung up to fill the void at The Quad.   Preparation   It doesn’t matter the duration of a convention the same rule always applies – preparation is key. When a convention is only a day long I advise focusing your attention on a good breakfast. Our day started at 9am in Jack Rabbits in Derby, check out my friend Vick’s review of Jack Rabbits. Based on the conversations occurring around me at the table I can confirm the following: 1. The bread for the cafe is delivered by pandas? (I can’t confirm this is 100% factually accurate as this delivery occurred while I was looking the other way) 2. I am reliably informed that the bathroom design for the gents is predominantly based on Logan’s Run 3. Anne Hathaway appeals to many people for the same reason, irrespective of gender. Oh, I can also heartily recommend Jack Rabbit’s bacon sandwich as it got the day off to a perfect start.   The Panels (The ones I was at anyway)   Guest of Honour  – Christopher Fowler:  After a reading from next Bryant and May novel, The Invisible Code, Fowler answered some…

This weekend Leicester played host to the sixth annual Alt Fiction event. Mrs Cheesecake and I were there all day Saturday and had a great time sitting in on panels, chatting to any one who would listen, and chilling out in the bar. I managed to sit in on in three panels throughout the day. The topics covered were Genre TV, Horror, and Comics. Insightful stuff, and it offered a lot for me to think about. I’m certainly going to try expanding my reading horizons based on some of the items discussed. Mrs Cheesecake, meanwhile, attended sessions on the business of writing, and how to write a novel in an hour. Ten Random Things that I learnt at Alt.Fiction 2012 The idea of Downton Abbey with Zombies has potential. Someone please write this and then make it into a TV show. I would happily read and also watch. See you’re guaranteed at least one viewer already. I must try to remember that if I am going to make comments at any panel try not to drop the F-bomb so regularly. Kids don’t copy Uncle Pablo – swearing is not big and not clever. Mark Chadbourn is proud winner of “Most…