LonCon 3 – Reaping the Whirlwind

Back from LonCon 3, which I only attended on Sunday. That said, I have still managed to pick up some kind of bug!

Absolutely packed day, but looking back I didn’t do that much, compared to some.

I turned up and almost immediately ran into Dave Gullen and Sarah Ellender who were running the Pirate Program that morning.

Pirate programming is something that started up last year. It is basically a way to run alternative readings and events at cons who don’t or won’t support amateur readings. It works like this – you turn up, you sign on the list, and then you read 10 minutes or 1500 words worth of your work. Everyone claps. Then it’s someone else’s turn. That’s it.

There’s something rather wonderful about the grab-bag nature of it all, since despite it being a con on science fiction, there was a wild variation in both the form and the content of the readings. Some read from their novels or works in progress (everyone in the afternoon sesh got a dose of Sleepwalker, for instance), some read verse, some read their short stories. One lady, a Japanese writer, read a beautiful, very short ghost story in her own language, while handing out printed translations. T Party bods Francis Knight showed up and read from Shellshocked, Martin Owton read from Shadows of Faerie. You never know what you’re going to get.

While there I ran into Gaie and Martin. Martin ran the T Party Writing critiques sessions, which were well-attended. They’re on for Eastercon next year again after a year’s hiatus, which is great news for the group.

Then I tried to get into the gallery – part of what I’d wanted to do while there was look at the art. Maybe even source an artist for the Sleepwalker covers – but it was shut. It was shut at noon as well, so that aspect of it was quite disappointing.

However, I got it together to wolf down a surprisingly good steak pasty. Con food can be terrible – I remember having an open sandwich at Fantasycon in Brighton a couple of years ago that nearly killed me. Then I joined Sarah and Gaie’s workshop on character over in the South Galleries.

Gaie and Sarah ran several workshops over the con under their Plot Medics umbrella. This, however, was the only one on Sunday. I have been wrestling with a character in Bethan Avery, so this worked for me. It was an interesting insight into all the stuff I engage with on a daily basis. Loads of the people there – it was booked out.

After that I manned the Pirate Programming and was Pirate Queen for an afternoon. Some guys showed up and read short stories and poetry (whimsical comedy poetry, fun and well-done and well-delivered). It was all good. And I read too, so that was also good. Interesting to see Sleepwalker’s opening effect on a mostly male audience. Gary Couzens ambled over, and it was lovely to see him.

Then we shut shop and I went to the launch for Mind Seed. This is an anthology celebrating the life of Denni Schnapp, T Party member and scientist who died last year. It was great, very well attended, and I signed a ton of books. Francis Knight, Peter Colley, Ian Whates, Deborah Walker and Rosanne Rabinowitz showed up – as well as all my other T Party buds. Fredericke Schnapp, Denni’s sister, was there with her partner, as well as John Holroyd, Denni’s husband. I got quite emotional remembering Denni, who always backed my work with unfailing honesty and generosity.

(Also ran into Tom Pollock passing through, who had had his first-ever Kaffeklatsch, which apparently went really well).

Anyway, it was a lovely end to the day, and the launch felt like a success. Hopefully it will do well for Next Generation Nepal, the charity the anthology’s proceeds are being donated to. So, if you fancy dreadful stories about man-eating drugs and body-snatching (as well as other, better put-together and less histrionic works) then you could do worse than support the Mind Seed anthology.

Just sayin’.