Wednesday 16 September 2009

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.

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