Today I have been to Exeter. Partly that was because I wanted to do some shopping, but mainly it was to see Pat Cadigan who was a Guest of Honor at what must be one of the world’s smallest SF conventions. Microcon is put on by the Exeter University Science Fiction Society (XSF), and it is attended primarily by XFS members. There were a few older fans there (hi Christina!), but I think they were all past XFS members. Total membership was something in the region of 30.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Exeter, as I have probably said before, is built on a hill. The university appears to build on a hill on top of that hill. I now know why Exeter kept beating us at sports when I was in college. It was nothing to do with their having sports scholarships, you have to be super fit just to study there. Pat and I had a provisional plan to go shopping together in the afternoon, but having seen the terrain she’d have to negotiate I quickly let her off that obligation.

I arrived just in time for lunch, and after some difficulty finding the room (it wasn’t listed on the map and there were no signs for the con – all the students knew where it was, after all) I hooked up with Pat. Along the way I discovered that there was a wargaming convention in the same building. It was larger than Microcon, and it was 100% male. University games clubs have obviously gone downhill rapidly since my student days. Anyway, Pat and I went and found the bar and sat there eating chips and drinking beer. The students had gone off somewhere else, and probably somewhere a lot healthier.

There was only one track of programming, and Pat wasn’t actually due up until tomorrow, but I have work to do this weekend and anywhere there are no trains tomorrow due to engineering works, so I wasn’t planning to hang around for long. I did, however, want to listen to the young person doing her PhD on feminist science fiction. This is a good thing. The world still needs new feminist science fiction critics, because there’s still a battle going on. It was a good panel, and I did some PR for WisCon and ICFA.

Having enjoyed that panel I then hung around to have coffee and re-acquainted myself with Colin Harvey who was another one of the guests. After that it was off shopping. My feet are now very sore, but I feel very virtuous after all that hiking up and down hills.

Thank you, XFS, for an interesting few hours. You should publicize that thing more. Other people might like to attend.