British Fantasy Con 09 - Prelude

Works outing this weekend as Sam, two and I go off the Nottingham for the British Fantasy Convention. Sam will not actually be attending any events but will be sort of lurking, his only stated aims is that he wants to buy William Heaney a pint and win something in the bloody raffle.
We all feel the same about the raffle. It is so immensely long that everyone should win something just for sitting through it.
I will be enjoying Nottingham and meeting up with some familiar faces and Two will probably be reverting to some insane proto-two that lives only on cigarette smoke, beer and cheerfully drunken carousing.
So this weekend the shop is shut. Malcolm will be left to fend for him self on the cold hard streets and low will be doing whatever things low does to pass his time. Some of our customers have reacted badly. Passionate Spinster said that we were throwing her weekend plans quite awry and Not So Strange Brian had a momentary release into his Strange Brian state until he remembered that he didn’t spend his entire weekends with us any more.
To book matters I’m currently reading ‘The Collector of Worlds’ by Iliya Troyanov a novel based on the life of Sir Richard Burton- the subject is fascinating but the novel less so. These half-breed books, of fact and fiction (Faction?) when the author tries to embrace both historical scholarship and the immediacy of fiction, don’t really work for me. I’m with Tim O’Brien on this (writer of the excellent novel ‘The things they carried’ based on experiences of the Viet Nam war) a writer does not have to rely on the facts to create a truthful novel.
Or is this just because I have problems with the concept of honesty as an ultimate virtue it is so often presented as? Honesty too often says something unkind and excuses itself with a whiny “ .. but I’m only being honest!”
Bah moved on from books again with surprising speed didn’t I! I love books. I live books but I seem to have developed a phobia about talking about them. So does anyone out there wants to tell me about a book? I welcome all comments and will even give a prize of Learn French with Edgar Allen Poe for the most interesting/funny /prize worthy. Just add a comment to the blog and you have entered.
In the meantime have a fab weekend and I’ll let you know how Fantasy Con went when I’m back.

Two is off again today. He is entirely recovered from his birthday and has finally stopped celebrating. As a birthday present I took him to the London Aquarium and forcibly stopped him from trying to steal a Sting Ray –little tyke! He sure does like him some flat fish.

Sam and I have had a jolly day in his absence.This morning We broke Sam’s usual silence in the shop rule to play some CD of the radio show I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue which reduced both of us to giggling hysterics and left low cold.

Later on the post man dropped off a parcel for me which piqued Sam’s curiosity to such an extent that he ‘ forgot’ it was addressed to me and open it. It is a start to play the Ukulele set, with a rather beautiful wooden blue ukulele on which even as we speak Sam with his hugely irritating talent for musical instruments is picking out Hey Jude. When /if I get it back it will take me months to get to that level.

But to bookish business, low is reading a T S Eliot collection but not the bits about cats. That terrible smell is now in the romance section and working its way through Barbara Cartland . Two is lost in the world of DC comics and I am reading The Postman Always Rings Twice and a Dylan Thomas collection- interesting to compare and contrast . Malcolm is not reading but does seem to be trying to eat the local paper.