October – Octocon and Book Launches

This month has been packed. We held our National SF&F Convention in a new venue, the Maldron Hotel in Tallaght. This is on the outskirts of Dublin City but at the end of a tram line from the centre. Octocon was this time, one day in person and one day on line, as the cost of venues continues to spiral. I was proud to be a volunteer helper on the day again. I was also a member of a panel on the Space Race and how it affected SF. This was a lively and interesting conversation.

Other guests included Michael Carroll from the comics world and Shauna Lawless, author of the Gael Song series, who was lovely to meet after reading her fantasies set at the time of Brian Boru and Viking Ireland.



I was still engaged in distributing books we won’t read again, so I brought fitting ones to Octocon for the giveaway table, and another couple of bags full to the RDS Library sale. In both places, of course, I bought some books. But overall, the total has dropped dramatically.
I was discussing this with a similar fan who told me he’d collected an entire very long series after reading the first couple of books, some from charity shops or secondhand shops, but hadn’t had time to read more. He was going to install a shelf for the series. I told him that in my opinion, only the first two were really good, and after that they went downhill fast. I had started getting them from the library and then I stopped even bothering with the library. At some point the books are going to have to go out of his house. I recommended starting to read them and weed out any he didn’t intend keeping. I would add that it’s nice to take a photo of the series books together, and shelve them on Goodreads, after which you may find you don’t need to keep all the physical books, just the best ones.

I covered a book launch of fiction set in the Balkans during 1996. Frank Shouldice wrote Beneath the Cedar Tree about Irish people travelling to Medjugorje during the ongoing Balkans conflict. Speakers included Senator Lynn Ruane and an Ambassador for Croatia. Samples of Croatian wine were provided, which I hadn’t tried previously, and I found the red wine tasted of black pepper.

I also covered a book launch of an anthology with illustrations, about leaving room on the farm for nature, The Hare’s Corner. Jane Clarke and Catherine Cleary wrote poems and prose, illustrated by Jane Carkill. Released by independent publisher New Island Books and launched in independent Dublin bookshop Books Upstairs. A foreword was written by Mary Robinson, our former President. The delightful book highlights Burrenbeo Trust.

While in town, I spotted pumpkin spice coffee in a specialty shop, and just had to try a pack. I read about this so often in American novels. The coffee smells and tastes delicious!


The solar panels are now inputting power to the grid and it’s coming off our electricity bill. The bill is half what it was this time last year, and we only had panels for one month of the two-month billing period.

Age Action digital skills classes have started up again. Our students seem pleased to be learning. That’s not the lot of what I did during October, so I’ll tell you more next time.

I’m making A Dozen Dogs Or So free to download, 1 – 4 November. Grab it at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CJNG7N5

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CJNG7N5

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www.clareobeara.ie