October Means Octocon!
I'm shortly going to attend the annual Octocon for a great weekend of SF &F in Dublin. Once more I will be representing Fresh Fiction, the book and media website based in Texas. And I'll be making a couple of my books free for the weekend. Here is the article I wrote covering last year's Convention.
Octocon 2016
Authors Diane Duane and Peter Morwood headed the guest list at Dublin's Octocon, Ireland's National Science Fiction Convention, with Rhianna Pratchett, games reviewer and game script writer.
The theme was Rebellion, as 2016 is the centenary of the Easter Rising; the Con booklet was illustrated with YA dystopian girl characters and the headline 'Girls Just Want To Rebel'.
The busy weekend had panel topics ranging from Elves to Spacefaring Navy and Pirates,
to representations of LGBT or disabled characters in F&SF. One panel looked at future inventions. An author came up with the idea of powering equipment by the pressure of pedestrians walking on something, and was told that a Japanese railway station powers its lighting in this way.
Diane Duane was born in Manhattan and given to a foundling hospital, later adopted. She reckons this is the perfect beginning in life for a fantasy author. She described her adventures while writing Young Wizard books
and for Star Trek, Scooby Doo and other TV series. She met Peter Morwood through Cons. Peter is from Northern Ireland and trained as a pilot with the RAF. His books are chiefly about medieval fantasy warfare, and he kindly brought in his collection of real swords for a fascinating Sunday panel. Peter and Diane married 29 years ago... at a Con. Diane had to sit on a panel in her wedding dress because there wasn't time to change. They live in County Wicklow.
Oisin McGann writes YA books and he explained that if he writes a steampunk,
a fantasy, a space story, a historical and a western, they all sit on the same shelf in the bookshop. If he was writing for adults they would be scattered all around the shop. YA writer, Rachael Kelly, said that her fantasy books are called dystopian but she hadn't written them with that intention; they were based on her formative years in 1980s Belfast.
A late night panel on romance in F&SF featured authors Eileen Gormley and Caroline McCall, who team up to write tasteful erotic romance for Penguin under the name Evie Hunter.
Eileen pointed out that sex may now be separate from pregnancy, and in the future this could be taken to extremes, with sex for relationships and recreation while babies are produced by artificial means. Caroline mentioned that underwear has changed a lot in the past hundred years, corsets having been replaced. Issues of consent were seen as being increasingly more important in a society that communicates by digital means, and laws will need to keep up. Panellist Edmund Barrett discussed computers and romantic relationships, and how tech will affect human relationships.
The party on Saturday night was tremendous fun.
Given the theme of rebellion, we saw pirates and punk rockers dancing until the early hours as well as Superman and Star Trek characters. I chatted to a fan from Poland who said he had been in Ireland for seven years; the punk look was what he was wearing in Poland as a student.
Sunday morning saw the sword panel with
discussions of medieval warfare, followed by a panel on writing fighting scenes into your book or film. The fight should have a beginning, to raise tension and set the stakes; a middle, the combat; and a resolution, to show the outcome and how it changes the character or plot. Another track for budding authors was a writing workshop hosted by Eileen and Caroline. They later told me that the attendees had all brought material but were not ready to publish, and could benefit from the support of a writers' group. The next panel focused on copyright and intellectual property.
Rhianna Pratchett, born in England, qualified as a journalist like her father Sir Terry Pratchett, and reviewed video games. Going freelance she gained work from California game studios as scriptwriter for games including Thief and Tomb Raider. This led to her winning awards including in 2013, Women in Gaming in Europe's Achievement Award. She freely talked about her journey and how she was thrilled to meet the voice actors from games she loved to play.
The Golden Blasters are awarded annually for short films from Europe in F&SF and horror, judged at Octocon. These were presented at the Closing Ceremony.
Michael Carroll, a superhero comics writer, was presented with an award for his editing. A special presentation was made jointly to Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, the Creative Content Award in recognition of their long support of F&SF writing and fandom.
Keep an eye on my Amazon pages during Octocon this year as one or two books will be free or reduced during the Con. 7 - 8 October, and maybe I'll see you there!
https://amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?u...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...
Octocon 2016
Authors Diane Duane and Peter Morwood headed the guest list at Dublin's Octocon, Ireland's National Science Fiction Convention, with Rhianna Pratchett, games reviewer and game script writer.
The theme was Rebellion, as 2016 is the centenary of the Easter Rising; the Con booklet was illustrated with YA dystopian girl characters and the headline 'Girls Just Want To Rebel'. The busy weekend had panel topics ranging from Elves to Spacefaring Navy and Pirates,
to representations of LGBT or disabled characters in F&SF. One panel looked at future inventions. An author came up with the idea of powering equipment by the pressure of pedestrians walking on something, and was told that a Japanese railway station powers its lighting in this way. Diane Duane was born in Manhattan and given to a foundling hospital, later adopted. She reckons this is the perfect beginning in life for a fantasy author. She described her adventures while writing Young Wizard books
and for Star Trek, Scooby Doo and other TV series. She met Peter Morwood through Cons. Peter is from Northern Ireland and trained as a pilot with the RAF. His books are chiefly about medieval fantasy warfare, and he kindly brought in his collection of real swords for a fascinating Sunday panel. Peter and Diane married 29 years ago... at a Con. Diane had to sit on a panel in her wedding dress because there wasn't time to change. They live in County Wicklow. Oisin McGann writes YA books and he explained that if he writes a steampunk,
a fantasy, a space story, a historical and a western, they all sit on the same shelf in the bookshop. If he was writing for adults they would be scattered all around the shop. YA writer, Rachael Kelly, said that her fantasy books are called dystopian but she hadn't written them with that intention; they were based on her formative years in 1980s Belfast. A late night panel on romance in F&SF featured authors Eileen Gormley and Caroline McCall, who team up to write tasteful erotic romance for Penguin under the name Evie Hunter.
Eileen pointed out that sex may now be separate from pregnancy, and in the future this could be taken to extremes, with sex for relationships and recreation while babies are produced by artificial means. Caroline mentioned that underwear has changed a lot in the past hundred years, corsets having been replaced. Issues of consent were seen as being increasingly more important in a society that communicates by digital means, and laws will need to keep up. Panellist Edmund Barrett discussed computers and romantic relationships, and how tech will affect human relationships. The party on Saturday night was tremendous fun.
Given the theme of rebellion, we saw pirates and punk rockers dancing until the early hours as well as Superman and Star Trek characters. I chatted to a fan from Poland who said he had been in Ireland for seven years; the punk look was what he was wearing in Poland as a student. Sunday morning saw the sword panel with
discussions of medieval warfare, followed by a panel on writing fighting scenes into your book or film. The fight should have a beginning, to raise tension and set the stakes; a middle, the combat; and a resolution, to show the outcome and how it changes the character or plot. Another track for budding authors was a writing workshop hosted by Eileen and Caroline. They later told me that the attendees had all brought material but were not ready to publish, and could benefit from the support of a writers' group. The next panel focused on copyright and intellectual property. Rhianna Pratchett, born in England, qualified as a journalist like her father Sir Terry Pratchett, and reviewed video games. Going freelance she gained work from California game studios as scriptwriter for games including Thief and Tomb Raider. This led to her winning awards including in 2013, Women in Gaming in Europe's Achievement Award. She freely talked about her journey and how she was thrilled to meet the voice actors from games she loved to play.
The Golden Blasters are awarded annually for short films from Europe in F&SF and horror, judged at Octocon. These were presented at the Closing Ceremony.
Michael Carroll, a superhero comics writer, was presented with an award for his editing. A special presentation was made jointly to Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, the Creative Content Award in recognition of their long support of F&SF writing and fandom. Keep an eye on my Amazon pages during Octocon this year as one or two books will be free or reduced during the Con. 7 - 8 October, and maybe I'll see you there!
https://amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?u...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...
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