Too many things to think about right now.  It’s only two and a half months till I’m going to London to attend the 2013 World Fantasy Convention. I know the time’s going to fly by between now and then, and one thing I have to do is find an economical hotel solution.

While I’ll be in Brighton from Oct 30 till November 4 staying at the convention hotel, I haven’t settled on where I’ll be staying from Oct 24 (when I arrive) through to Oct 30, when I expect to head down to Brighton. The plan is to travel to Brighton with Ellen Klages and Gary Wolfe, and definitely to see other friends who’ll be in town (Garth, Sean etc), but where to stay? Any recommendations for reasonable London accommodation?

Panels. If you have ever attended a science fiction or fantasy convention you’ll be familiar with them. In an ideal world a panel is a discussion that lasts for 45 minutes to an hour during which a group of informed people circle around a topic of interest nominated by the convention programming committee.

Some panels, of course, are less than ideal. Some run too long; some suffer from lack of organisation or chemistry. Sometimes panellists don’t always gel or interact in an ideal manner. And there are other issues. Who should or should not be on a panel? What are good topics? Should panels have moderators? How long should a panel be? Should the list of panellists be gender-balanced? All of these are interesting and worthy of discussion, but they’re not what I’m interested in here.

Continue reading On “Year in Review” panels and me…. →