If you’re in the West of Scotland over this weekend and you enjoy Science Fiction, you might enjoy spending a day or two at the Satellite 6 convention being held at the Crowne Plaza hotel. The guest of honour this year is the most excellent Paul McAuley, and it’ll be worth coming along to hear him talk alone, but you’ll also be able to catch me and several other members of the Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle taking part in events here and there.
On the Sunday morning, I’ll be moderating a panel on how writers balance day jobs against their creative life and, on the Saturday evening, I’ll be reading from something exclusive and new and absolutely unheard by human ears (probably, unless I change my mind again) as part of the special edition of Event Horizon, whose A-list line-up also includes Painted Ocean, Ken McLeod, Ruth EJ Booth, EM Faulds, Brian M Milton, Ian Whates and Dave Clements.
But the thing I’m looking forward to most about this convention is the launch of Cat Hellisen’s bewitching short story collection, Learning How To Drown. I was gifted the chance to read the collection before publication and, let me tell you, it has been a long, long time since I was so transported by such a uniquely skilled authorial voice and by stories steeped so deeply in strangeness. I loved this book. NewCon Press will be launching it on Saturday, but convention attendees should also take the opportunity on Friday evening of hearing Cat read one of her stories in a showcase of exciting upcoming work. The other readers are Cameron Johnston, reading from his debut fantasy novel, The Traitor God (which will be published by Angry Robot in June) and Hal Duncan who will be reading from his new Scruffians novella, The Land of Somewhere Safe (coming from NewCon Press later in the year).
As it happens, I’ve read all three of these books and they’re all fabulous. Can’t wait to hear them in the authors’ own words.
If you come along to the readings, or just to the con in general, mind and say hi.
ayeahmur 