My local butcher is closing down this week. He says meat prices are so high, his customers can't afford to pay what he'd need to charge to stay in profit. Beef has risen in price 3 times recently. Even traditionally cheap cuts like ox tails are now ridiculously expensive. Once he ordered beef on a Monday and by the time they delivered it on Thursday and invoiced, it cost him £200 more than Monday's quoted price. Last week he sold £1200 worth of meat, and made £146. That's not enough for him to cover the shop's expenses, let alone pay himself a wage. He says one of the local 'mini-marts' which sells meat (including halal) told him they are in the same situation.

 

Had a fantastic time at Levitation. Came back knackered because I don’t think I’ve done so much socialising in aeons.

There were minor travel woes getting there and back – rail replacement bus on the way there, broken down train blocking our route on the way back. However, once I got there, all was well. The hotel was about 3 mins walk from the Telford International Centre. When I went for an explore on the Thursday afternoon, I spotted a cinema only a further 6 or 7 minutes’ walk away. So that was my Thursday evening entertainment sorted – I’m pining for movies since the local multiplex closed. Went to see Nasty Little Letters.

Breakfast at my hotel was allegedly continental when I booked it, but there was bacon and beans, so I availed myself of that, and the bread warming machine. I hesitate to call it a toaster. It did the usual hotel thing of once through just warms the bread, twice through cremates it… Had a lovely breakfast chat with various fans which didn’t finish until about 10.30 when the hotel staff were hoovering around us!

In fact, I had lots of nice chats with old friends and with random fans I hadn’t met before, including prior to the Past Isn’t Straight panel, on the train on the way home, and in the Games Room when in search of the water cooler (the newsletter almost wasn’t kidding about it being down a long, dim corridor past the sign saying ‘Beware of the leopard’).

Food – I didn’t venture out to the restaurants or in search of Asda, and just stuck to the venue food. The chips were awesome! Hot food adequate but not much variety. If the vegans didn’t like chilli, they were stuffed.

LOVED the venue – spacious, airy, lots of little nooks with a few chairs and tables to sit and chat, as well as the main fan/food/bar area.

FRIDAY PANELS

·      Cats are real but dragons are hard (craft workshop) – I know now that (a) crocheting is fun but (b) it makes my eyes go funny if I wear my glasses!

·         Contemporary Pakistani Speculative Fiction – a streamed event. Great discussion of an academic study the panellists had done, which touched on things such as the Islamic attitudes to djinn. The moderator kindly emailed the reading list.

·         What happened to SF/F as a force for good?

·         Book launch – Dawn & Dave of the Dead by David Wake. Which I’d already read as David did a pre-launch at Armadacon.

·         The Past Isn’t Straight – and Neither is the Future.

·         Can We Walk Away from Injustice?

 

SATURDAY PANELS

·         Scientists in the Media Imagination – terrific fun.

·         Climate Friction: Solar Punk and Environment Justice – went for some recommendations because most of the climate fic I’ve read so far were all character portraits and no plot.

·         BSFA Awards

·         What is the appeal of Libraries for F/SF readers (I was on this panel – fun discussion).

·         Tade Thomson GOH interview

·         The Good, The Bad and the Buggy (tech glitches)

·         Invertebrates in Space! Again, I was on this panel, fun, informative and we continued in the bar until the Telford Centre kicked us out.

 SUNDAY PANELS

·         Art materials & techniques: picturing the future.

·         Business meeting/bid session. There will be a 2025 bid at Belfast. No location information yet. Useful Q&A from Belfast committee. Someone asked if there was a Supporting Rate and they realised it was not on their list. I signed up as Supporting.

George Hay Lecture: Battling Cancer in 2024. Fascinating.

·         Meta-fandom and Transformative works – went down a few rabbit holes, but was entertaining.

·         The Impact on Space Opera of Diverse Voices.

·         Doctor Who in Audio.

 MONDAY PANELS

·         Detectives in Fantasy & Science Fiction. Neat, but reinforced the notion that stuff gets forgotten so quickly. A question was asked about science fiction detectives (as opposed to the fantasy ones discussed) and I was thinking Alien Nation and another audience member said Star Cops, but the panellists didn’t mention those and couldn’t think of many others.

·         GOH Dr Srinarahari talks about Indian SF – pre-recorded talk. Tech issues at the start before they got it up and running. Interesting, but not what I expected, as it was less about Indian SF and more about SF becoming a pervasive force in modern culture as a whole.

I have, after many years hiatus, got back into writing Strontium Dog fanfic again. God, I'd forgotten how much fun it is! And I've now wasted hours of my life re-reading all the graphic novels. And I've ordered a copy of the Strontium Dog RPG.

I've posted all the old fic from Dogbreath on AO3. The new stuff is:

Sins of the Father - an AU where Johnny's mum did the sensible thing and divorced Nelson B. Kreelman. A re-telling of the events in Portrait of a Mutant and Blood Moon. Johnny still has a crappy childhood (because fascist dystopia), but it is differently crappy. 
archiveofourown.org/works/45665944/chapters/114916129

Allegiance - how Johnny met his first partner, Sniffer Martinez. 
archiveofourown.org/works/45523687/chapters/114547216

True Romance - not entirely new but I re-did the captions and "special effects" and uploaded this "photo romance" spoof done with action figures, which appeared in Dogbreath 12. 
archiveofourown.org/works/46534099/chapters/117176938

 I was at Bristolcon last weekend, which was more fun than I expected. The programme was largely fantasy items and publishing items, so I initially didn't think I'd go to much, given that I'm largely a science fiction geek. And I also knew that several people I usually chat to wouldn't be there.

However, I was down to volunteer and also to moderate a panel on War Never Changes and had been emailing the participants beforehand. Thus on the morning I got the opportunity to meet JP Corwyn, who was one of the panellists and is blind. I offered to be the volunteer to guide JP to the Opening Ceremony and to the first panel of the day. We hit it off and I stayed as his volunteer all morning. JP was a gent and insisted that we go things that I was interested in too.

I went to:
Opening Ceremony
Reading by Anna Smith Spark
There Were No Elves at Helm's Deep
Worldbuilding Tips and Tricks - this was great. 
The Economics of Fantasy - had a lot of actual history discussed, so was much more interesting than I was expecting.
Book launch/signing
GoH interview - Liz Williams. Hugely entertaining. 
Reading by Cavan Scott
And of course the War Never Changes panel. Which went brilliantly. Dom Murray was incredibly nervous because it was his first ever panel, and refused to believe he was doing fine. 

The only downside of Bristolcon is the bar gets INCREDIBLY NOISY so for people with damaged hearing (me) and age-related hearing loss (me) it is almost impossible to hold a conversation. I should have nabbed a committee member and asked if there was an option to use the Dealers Room or Art show for chatting after those had been dismantled. 

Belated witterings about Eastercon 2022 (Reclamation).

It was wonderful. Seeing people I hadn't seen for 2 years, chatting, running to and from panels.
It was exhausting. Seeing people I hadn't seen for 2 years, chatting, running to and from panels. :-)

The 30 mins gap between panels was awesome.
I went to Mary Robinette Kowal and Tasha Suri's GoH interviews and they were both fabulous.
The 3 hour queue to check into the hotel was horrendous. (They did give us a 25% discount on that night's room rate as an apology).

The bit I was dreading the most was the coach journeys to and from Heathrow. But the coaches were not at all crowded and the terrible traffic the media was predicting never materialised.

The cheap con food was never available in the real ale bar when I went looking for it. So I survived on their sandwich meal deals and eating the nice, but expensive, hotel bar food. And grazing on the free chocolate eggs left out by one of the bid sessions.

Everyone was being very good about masks. But two of the people I hung out with at the con tested positive for Covid when they got home. I tested negative.

 I've mostly gone back into lockdown again because the southwest is a Covid plague pit. And I have to trek to Scotland at the end of Nov to prevent my Mum from travelling down here. But I ventured out to go to the Bristolcon one day convention at the Hilton Doubletree. I'd offered to be a minion/gopher a while back, and more recently they'd asked me if I could work on the reg desk first thing, because the committee member who does Membership had a doctor appointment and wouldn't be able to get to the con until after the reg desk had opened.

I didn't go to the 'unofficial' Friday night events and 'bar con'. 

COVID VS THE CON
I arrived at 8am on the Saturday and there was a headless chicken feel to start with, as the Chairman had gone down with Covid. So there was a lot of folk running about saying "Where's the signage for the panel rooms?" and "Who has a key to X room?" because with 2 committee members missing, the logistics were crumbling a bit. Insert your own swan metaphor here.

Reg desk had been pared down to handing out badges, and programme schedule only. Covid meant no goodie bags, no souvenir booklet, etc. We also were not taking walk ins, so there was no cashbox, card reader or receipt books etc. And the dealers got sent to the Dealers Room to get their badges etc. So the reg desk queue moved REALLY fast. Everyone was very good at doing socially distanced queuing, and hovered out of the way until we waved them forward.

In fact, masks and social distancing was very much a Bristolcon thing. Apparently there were minions tasked with politely asking people to use masks or display their exemption lanyards... and they complained to the Committee that they were bored and had nothing to do!  Go Bristolcon membership! 

And one public spirited panelist turned up at Ops/Reg Desk in the afternoon to say that she was dropping out of being on her panel, because she was starting to lose her voice and didn't want to make people paranoid that she might have Covid. 

PANELS ETC
There wasn't actually a huge amount of panels I wanted to see at the con. There was a heavy fantasy bias this year. At least it seemed that way to me, given that I prefer SF to fantasy. I went to:
1. GoH interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky - a superb chat about space opera with Gareth Powell. Highlight of the con!
2. New Weird Britain - UK folklore and how it is being used in fantasy & horror.
3. Why is there no democracy in epic fantasy?
4. How well does science fiction predict the future?
5. For the Empire!  Are SF&F stories of fantasy or galactic empires tackling colonialism & exploitation?
6. A bit of the closing ceremony - it took 40 mins to get my food from the hotel bar, so I missed the start. 

I also meant to go to Anna Smith-Spark's GoH interview, but got chatting in the bar and list track of the time.  Ditto going round the Art Show (though I have looked at all the online art displays). I did, as usual spend far too much money in the Dealer Room. 

SOCIALISING
It was lovely to see various people in the flesh for the first time in 18 months to 2 years. There were lots of "what geeky stuff got/is getting you through the pandemic?" chats. 

I only stayed about half an hour after the Closing Ceremony finished, because I didn't want to spend an evening in a crowded bar, even if people were being good about masks. I struggle enough to hear what folk are saying in crowded bars when they are not muffled by a mask.

 The Confusion lack of understanding how efficient comms works continues...

I wanted to go to the Bid Session. So I pootled about, doing things like CHECKING MY EMAIL (this will be important later), then logged onto the site about 15 mins before the Bid was due to happen. Then jumped into the Bid as soon as it let me... and it buffered... and buffered... and I finally got into it after a couple of minutes after it had started...

Only to find a sign saying "we've moved to Zoom - check your email for the login". 

FFS. Don't put that info inside the session which is difficult to get to. Change the bloody title of the session! 

Checked email again. Yes there was now an email about the Zoom Bid. It had arrived at 10.50 for a session that started at 11.00. 

Again FFS.

When the bid had finished, I caught the second half of the Xenos in SF panel. Might go listen to the start of that if they recorded it.

The 2000AD panel buffered for 5 mins, but I finally got into it. 

I watched the recording of the 80s pop lyrics vs Warhammer 40K quiz. One of the contestants had terrible tech issues, but everyone seemed to be having fun. 

I couldn't get into What's Not Being Published, but my second choice of Love & Gunships was a great discussion. 

The Fanfic lecture was really good and had no tech issues. 

Was a total wipe out. 

The only thing I saw was the last 2 minutes of the Opening Ceremony. Because they didn't get me a username until it had started, and it took me a while to realise that the links in the email were invisible (white on white background), and not just missing.

I got into the Opening Ceremony on my third attenmpt.

After that, nothing worked. Panels just buffered endlessly.

So I spent the evening on the phone to a friend, chatting gaming and SF with him instead. 

FICTION

1. Alliance Rising by C.J. Cherryh & Jane Fancher (science fiction).
2. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (science fiction). I felt the need to re-read this after reading the new ‘prequel’, Alliance Rising. It is still a great book, but it is very noticeable now that the tech is paper printouts and paper ID documents instead of reading stuff on a screen.
3. The Farm by Joanne Ramos (science fiction).
4. Damnificados by J.J. Amaworo Wilson (mainstream/magical realism). This is lovely. Funny, poignant, political and with touches of magical realism now and then. It was an impulse buy at an Eastercon, and I’m so glad I did. The author doesn’t seem to have written any other novels, which is a shame.
5. Four Days to Veracruz by Owen West (thriller).
6. The Bear & the Serpent by Adrian Tchaikovsky (fantasy). Vol 2 of Echoes of the Fall.
7. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky (science fiction). Loved this.
8. Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky (science fiction). Curiously unengaging. Possibly a combination of the narrative structure and the fact the hero spends most of the book trying to avoid getting involved in anything?
9. Hidden Sun by Jaine Fenn (science fantasy). Vol 1 of the Shadowlands Duology.
10. Broken Shadows by Jaine Fenn (science fantasy). Vol 2 of the Shadowlands Duology. I’d like to read more in this setting.
11. The Last by Hanna Jameson (science fiction). The blurb on the book makes it sound like it is a serial killer picking off victims one by one. It is really not that at all! Nice portrait of people over-reacting and going a bit weird at the end of the world.
12. Special Purposes: First Strike Weapon by Gavin G. Smith (horror). The Soviet Union starts the zombie apocalypse in the 80s. Fun when its character stuff and a bit of action. Gets dull when it is page after page of zombie-killing.
13. Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells (science fiction). Confluence vol 1. Interesting in bits, nice ideas, but heroine too much of a Mary-Sue in other bits, and does that REALLY annoying romance trope of having the hero and heroine almost become a couple, then stop that story arc dead in the water so the author can spend the whole of the NEXT volume doing the will-they-won’t-they thing all over again. So I’m not going to read the next one!
14. Song of the Night by Zoe Burgess (fantasy/romance).
15. Rosewater by Tade Thompson (science fiction).
16. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (fantasy). Broken Earth vol 1. Reading too much sub-D&D, comparable to Tolkien at his most ripped-off, lost heirs to the kingdom, put me off fantasy for decades. It is books like this one which are proving to me that fantasy is actually worth reading. Lovely writing, interesting characters, doing stuff with timelines and narrative which I can’t mention for fear of spoilers. I finished it and immediately ordered the 2nd volume from the library. Then the library shut due to Covid-19, so I couldn’t pick it up! Oh noes!
17. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (fantasy). Broken Earth vol 2. Since I couldn’t get the library copy, I bought the second volume!
18. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (fantasy). Broken Earth vol 3.
19. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (science fiction). The Expanse volume 1. Re-read this in preparation for running some one-offs of The Expanse RPG.
20. Caliban’s War by by James S.A. Corey (science fiction). The Expanse volume 2. Ditto.
21. Scatterstones by Fiona Lane (science fantasy). Set in Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu Mythos universe.
22. Breathe My Shadow by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). A Wraeththu Mythos novel.
23. Blood, The Phoenix & A Rose by Storm Constantine. A Wraeththu Mythos novel.
24. Citizen Andri by Philippa Sidle (science fiction). Spaceforce Vol 3. Philippa complains that she’s had her title ‘Spaceforce’ gazumped by Donald Trump and now by the Netflix TV series, so she’ll have to re-brand the series.
25. The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan (fantasy). Vol 3 of the Memoirs of Lady Trent.
26. In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan (fantasy). Vol 4 of the Memoirs of Lady Trent.
27. Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan (fantasy). Vol 5 of the Memoirs of Lady Trent.
28. Updraft by Fran Wilde (YA fantasy). Bone Universe Vol 1. Someone recommended this to me, but I almost gave up on it. Mainly because it does ‘Boot Camp’ TWICE in one fekking book. First the heroine is training to fly and be a trader’s apprentice, then, just when I’m going ‘Thank Grud that’s over, hopefully we’ll get to the plot now’, she gets sent off to start training to be in the ‘police/priesthood’.
29. Love Beyond Body, Space & Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-fi Anthology ed. by Hope Nicholson.
30. Starters by Lissa Price (YA science fiction/dystopia).
31. The War of the Worlds:The Anglo-Martian War of 1895 by Mike Brunton. A spoof military history book from Osprey.
32. American War by Omar El Akkad (science fiction).
33. People of the Canyons by Kathleen O’Neal Gear & W. Michael Gear (prehistorical).
34. Abandoned by W. Michael Gear (science fiction). Donovan vol 2.
35. Pariah by W. Michael Gear (science fiction). Donovan vol 3.
36. Act of Grace by Anna Krien (mainstream).
37. Dead Bad Things by Gary McMahon (horror/crime).
38. The Exile Waiting by Vonda McIntyre (science fiction). It’s been reprinted, with a short story set in the same universe.
39. Daughter of Kura by Debra Austin (prehistorical).
40. The Last Wave by Rick Vancey (YA science fiction). Vol 3 in the Fifth Wave series.
41. One of Us by Craig Dilouie (science fiction).
42. The Eagle & the Raven by Pauline Gedge (historical). Another book I recall being fantastic when I first read it, but on a re-read is just okay.
43. Stasi 77 by David Young (crime).
44. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang (historical).
45. The Sentinel by Lee Child & Andrew Child (thriller). Jack Reacher vol 25
46. The Survivors by Kate Furnival (thriller). Was on the recommended shelf in the library. Set in a displaced persons camp in the aftermath of WW2. I’ll probably see if the library has her other books.
47. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths (crime). Enjoyed it but it is a sequel to another book I probably should have read first!
48. The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey (YA science fiction). First in a series.
49. Dune by Frank Herbert (science fiction). Re-read it after enjoying playing the quickstart version of the Dune RPG. Still enjoyable, but I’d forgotten (or not noticed) all the problematic bits, like Jessica being purchased as a sex slave for the Duke, and all the gay and bisexual characters are eeeeeevil. I wonder how they are going to deal with that in the new movie?
50. All That’s Dead by Stuart MacBride (crime).

NON-FICTION

1. Complete Guide to Acrylics by Lorena Kloosterboer.
2. Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind by Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen.
3. A Concise History of Sunnis & Shi’is by John McHugo.
4. The Price of Altruism: George Price & the Search for the Origins of Kindness by Oren Harman.
5. Insatiable: The Rise & Rise of the Greedocracy by Stuart Sim.
6. British Battle Tanks: Post-War Tanks 1946-2016 by Simon Dunstan.
7. Grimoire Dehara: Kaimana by Storm Constantine.
8. The Horse: A Biography of Our Noble Companion by Wendy Williams.
9. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge.
10. Sisters in Arms: Female Warriors from Antiquity to the New Millennium by Julie Wheelwright.
11. The Happy Brain by Dean Burnett (neuroscience). Why isn’t some of this stuff common knowledge?

GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. The Terrible Elizabeth Dunn Against the Devils in Suits by Arabson.
2. The Nightly News by Jonathon Hickman
3. A Shadow Within: Evil in Fantasy & Science Fiction by Francesca T. Barbini (ed.)
4. Six Days: The Incredible Story of D-Day’s Lost Chapter by Robert Venditti, Kevin Maurer & Andrea Mutti.
5. Unnatural Selections by Gary Larson. Okay this isn’t exactly a graphic novel, but this is the best section to put it in…
6. Cows of Our Planet by Gary Larson.
7. The Far Side Gallery 3 by Gary Larson.
8. The Prehistory of the Far Side by Gary Larson.
9. Orphans 1: The Beginning by Recchioni & Mammucari (military science fiction). THIS is how you do Boot Camp – skip over it and then flashback to any bits of it which turn out to be relevant.
10. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Eisinger, Scott, Becker.
11. You Brought Me the Ocean by Sanchez & Marsh.
12. Love the Lion by Brremaud & Bertolucci
13. Orphans 2: Lies by Recchioni & Mammucari (military science fiction).
14. Orphans 3: Truth by Recchioni & Mammucari (military science fiction).
15. Orphans 4: Winners & Losers by Recchioni & Mammucari (military science fiction). Not sure if this is the end of the series, or if there will be another.
16. Snowpiercer Vol 3: Terminus by Bocquet & Rochette. Didn’t realise it was Vol 3, but it is a stand-alone story.

BOOKS I DIDN’T FINISH

1. Edges by Linda Nagata (science fiction). Inverted Frontier volume 1. I was fooled into buying this by that “volume 1”. It isn’t – it’s a sequel to another series. So it is written as if you know who these characters are (I didn’t), what their backstory and relationship is (I didn’t), and therefore care about it and them (I most certainly didn’t). So do I want to spend several hours reading about smug, irritating guy? Or find out if his relationship with famous but personality-free woman will rekindle on this dangerous mission? Nope, I don’t.
2. Invisible Ecologies by Rachel Armstrong (science fantasy). Nice writing, neat ideas. But the poetry chapters did nothing for me. And the prose chapters were all character portraits with very little actual plot. I wanted something with a bit more drive and grab for my lockdown reading.
3. Future Perfect by Katrina Mountfort (YA science fiction). Dystopian society where everyone has to be Body Perfect, must only be interested in shallow celebrity culture, and sex is banned. Started okay, but it lost me when the heroine – who has banged on about how no-one is allowed outside the city dome and how much she’d like to know what it is like out there – get sent outside with hunky romantic interest and hardly reacts at all to the experience because the landscape isn’t pretty. This is not the author being ironic or doing character development.
4. Metrophage by Richard Kadrey (cyberpunk). I kept this, so I obviously liked it back in the 80s when I originally read it. This time round I just didn’t care about anything that was happening or who it was happening to.
5. Wolf Wind by Jane Wade Scarlet (western). Plodding and with characters displaying sudden changes of opinion for no reason. One minute a person is saying “we must be kind to this poor boy” and the next they hate him.

RPG BOOKS READ IN 2020

Your Best Game Ever by Monty Cook
Kids on Bikes
Bite Marks
Hack the Planet
Scum & Villainy
Judge Dredd & the Worlds of 2000AD
Cortex Prime
Ghost Ops
Tribe 8 (re-read to run a campaign for the Tue group)
Paleomythic
Liminal
Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk
Alien
Legacy: Life Among the Ruins
Worlds of Legacy: Primal Pathways – worldbook for Legacy RPG
Cortex Prime – the very, very late kickstarter finally turned up
Mythic D6
Terra Oblivion - worldbook for Mythic D6 RPG
The Company - only just started reading this one.