Urk! It’s Wednesday, it’s ten to ten and it’s . . . no, not Crackerjack! As if you need me to tell you . . . It’s LonCon! As Nicola said yesterday, the World SF Convention is rolling into London this week and nothing will ever be the same again . . .
All right, so maybe there’s a little bit of exaggeration there, but there is no doubt that more than 8,000 avid fans of science fiction and fantasy – publishers, agents, editors, artists, writers and readers – descending upon our fair city is certainly going to have an impact, especially now that we’re practically mainstream, thanks to the inordinate book-and-film-and-tv success of series like True Blood and Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games and Twilight, amongst others. The week’s already full of exciting events, from Goldsboro Books’ Fantasy in the Court last night to a slew of publishers’ parties ranging from the insanely exclusive to the mad fun of our own birthday celebration, with gatecrashers and all. And yes, it’s true: I bought my team a badge-making machine, and they are now expert in the use of same (and a great many Quercus colleagues have been sidling by, muttering things like, ‘Oh! Could I just—?’ and gazing with lascivious envy at the kit ). Masters of the genre old and new are arriving in London as we speak and you’ll be bumping into the likes of George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Robert Jackson Bennett and Mark Lawrence, not to mention most of the JFB stable, all over the place.
There’s only one problem with all this, and that’s that four or five days is simply not enough time to fit in everyone who’s coming to the con, and I know that I’m going to be spending the whole weekend repeating, ‘Hello! I had no idea you were coming! We must catch up—’ whilst knowing that the Keeper of my Diary (aka Nicola) has already said, ‘You have no more appointments left.’ So it looks like I’ll have to squish all my mad socialising into a few hours in the bar after the parties and the dinners and the awards ceremonies . . .
Still, I’m not complaining. The World SF Convention comes to Britain every decade or so, and it’s always a tremendous event – and even though my diary is full, I know that I’ll have caught up with lots of old friends, made some new ones, collected a pile of books I’m desperate to read and have added a whole lot of new authors to my ‘Must Publish One Day’ list’ – and that’s what it’s all about. Hope to see you there – and don’t be shy about saying hello!
Jo
