A first draft (hopefully one which survives contact with the enemy) of the BristolCon programme has gone online. Here’s what I am up to.

9:50 (Room 2) – the usual welcome to the con thing that I do for Room 2 because we have not yet managed to clone Jo.

12:00 (Room 2) – SF&F On the Margins – The pros and cons of small press, indie and self-publishing for writers have been well explored over the past decade, but what benefits, if any, does the increased ease of access to publishing hold for readers and for the culture of speculative fiction? What exciting projects or changes in SF&F have come about through these marginal routes to market? With Sammy Smith (M), Joanne Hall, Cheryl Morgan, Adrian Faulkner, Jason Whittle.

I’m looking forward to this one. I may bring along one or two small press books to wave at people, including this one which I got in the post today:

https://twitter.com/CherylMorgan/status/781109063874703360

I’ll also be talking about a brand new Wizard’s Tower venture which for now is known only as the Sekrit Projekt.

17:00 (Room 1) – It Takes A Village – From first draft to a table in Waterstones (we wish!) there can be a lot of people involved in producing a book. With representatives from all along the production line, we follow the journey of a book as it passes from one pair of hands to another, taking a close look at the roles of everyone involved and their working relationships. With Cheryl Morgan (M), Sammy Smith, Roz Clarke, Edward Cox, Nick Hembery.

Clearly Sammy and I are doing the publisher double-act this year. I shall mainly be moderating, but I’ll also wave books about and sing the praises of people like Ben Baldwin and Sophie E. Tallis who make my books look pretty.

Talking of books, when I am not in the bar (I’m sure that I must owe Ken MacLeod a drink or two from somewhere) I shall be in the Dealers’ Room because I will have stuff. I’m sharing a table with Pete Sutton, and on it you will be able to find the following.

Shadow Histories of the River Kingdom — the new Juliet E. McKenna book which we are putting the finishing touches to at the moment. Juliet will be at the con and I’m sure she’ll be happy to sign copies.

Something else from Wizard’s Tower that I’ll be telling you about later this week.

The existing Wizard’s Tower books: Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion, Winter Song and Damage Time.

And if all goes according to plan, Fantastically Horny, the anthology that Pete and his colleagues at Far Horizons are producing, and which contains my story, “Camelot Girls Gone Wild”. I shall be rather schizophrenic, being both author and publisher.

Which reminds me, there’s the open mic reading event on Friday night. I should think of something for that, though I doubt that I can better last year.

It is going to be a busy weekend.