FantasyCon is part of British Fantasy Society’s (BFS) calendar, and has been held since the 1970s; from 2007 it has taken place in the Britannia Hotel in Nottingham. This year FantasyCon is scheduled for the 18-20 September, once again in the Britannia Hotel.

FantasyCon is an event that celebrates the literature of fantasy and science fiction, with a series of talks, interviews and panel discussions. There will be also be an artshow, dealers’ room, and a film programme, to cater for all interests in the field. In addition to all of this, the British Fantasy Awards, the annual awards for fantasy, are to be presented at the FantasyCon Banquet on Saturday evening.

This year, the Guests of Honour are Jasper Fforde, top selling author of the Thursday Next book series; Brian Clemens, the man behind top TV shows such as show The Avengers and The Professionals; and American author Gail Z Martin. Holding all of this together is the Master of Ceremonies, the renowned British SF writer Ian Watson.

Along with our main guests the convention also attracts a large number of professional writers (including Ramsey Campbell, Juliet McKenna, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough, Guy Adams), artists (including Les Edwards, Edward Miller, Vincent Chong) and editors (Stephen Jones, Jo Fletcher, David Howe) amongst the readers and fans; and many of these will also be appearing on the discussion panels over the weekend.

Full details are available online at www.fantasycon.org.uk.

Source of message:

Peter Coleborn
Chairman,
FantasyCon 2009

Litarena Review Magazine is having an online book festival.

We’re discussing Hemingway, Nietzsche, F Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett, Edgar Allan Poe and all of the great writers in our festival. We’re also discussing new writers and their works and us and our work.

Come join us.

Source of message:

Patrick Mackeown
Editor
Litarena Review Magazine

Zimbabwean screenwriter and author, Julius Masimba Musodza was born in 1976 and attended Avondale Primary School in Harare, and St Mary Magdalene’s High School in Nyanga.

Some of his early work appeared in school magazines as well as in the young people’s newspaper, The New Generation.

After high school, Musodza majored in Screenwriting and Directing at the Vision Valley Film Video & Television Institute. He also studied with Edgar Langeveldt’s Nexus Talent Agency; the African Script Development Fund; the Zimbabwe International Film Festival and the Raindance Institute.

He sold his first screenplay in 2002 and is now working to put some of his own writing to screen as a producer/director.

In this interview, Masimba Musodza talks about his writing.

Read more …

Filmmaker and author, Michael Jodoin lives in South Central Kentucky.

His first book, Holy Hell was released from sonar4 publications in March 2009.

Jodoin’s work includes a screenplay adaptation of Holy Hell; a vampire story, Love Sucks; and a werewolf tale, The Wolf with the Red Rose.

In this interview, he talks about his concerns as a writer.

Read more …

In 2006, Christian Ward published The Grammarian and Other Poems (PDF) (Lily Press, 2006). This was followed by five more poetry chapbooks, among them, Goddess & Other Poems (PDF) (Scars Publications, 2007), The Sea (PDF) (Scars Publications, 2007) and Dark Matter Lullabies (Why Vandalism?, 2008).

His latest chapbook, Bone Transmissions was released from Maverick Duck Press in 2009.

His work has also been featured in journals that include Sage Trail, Grasslimb, Sein Und Werden, Envoi and The Emerson Review.

In this interview, Christian Ward talks about his writing.

Read more …