Somehow it’s the last day of August and it feels like an ending. September always feels like kicking on into Autumn for sure, but it’s also time to close the chapter on all the things we’ve been working on this year that culminated in the latest Glasgow edition of the World Science Fiction Convention this month.
Who’s we, you ask?
Well in this case…
We is the wonderful people of the Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle, of which I’ve been a member for three decades. They’ve never been less than inspirational in all that time, encouraging my writing from whim, to hobby, to passion, to profession. And this year with their endless enthusiasm and energy made the production of our Worldcon anthology, GALLUS, the perfect way to celebrate Glaswegian genre fiction with the visiting world.
We is also the wider Scottish writing community. Not least the members of the brilliantly welcoming and supportive Edinburgh Science Fiction and Fantasy group, as well as all the Scottish writers who submitted stories to Nova Scotia vol 2. And we is also Andrew J Wilson and Luna Press’s Francesca Barbini who pulled off an absolute power of work to make this a book I’m unbelievably proud of.
Both of those anthologies had amazing launch events and sold out by the Saturday of Worldcon. I suspect that both having covers by the incredible Jenni Coutts might have had something to do with that.
We is very much too the incredible, richly interconnected genre network that exists in Scotland now. The publishers like Luna Press, Shoreline of Infinity, SF Caledonia, Guardbridge Books; the organisers of festivals, like Cymera‘s amazing Ann Landman; the academics from Glasgow University’s Centre for the Fantastic, Dundee University and further afield; the booksellers, of whose number D at Waterstones deserves extra special mention for their unfailing support of local talent; and lastly the fan community who are unfailingly there at launches and panels, support everything we all do and by organising conventions give us the platform to show off our talents.
We is every one of the Worldcon organisers and volunteers (oh my god but the work those people have put in over the years to make the event as special as it ended up being!). And for the purposes of this piece, I particularly want to shout out to the programming team for providing a track dedicated to Scottish creativity. It was a personal privilege to represent the community on a few of those events, from the Introduction to Scottish SFF on the Thursday lunchtime all the way to the end of show.
And lest sound like a thistle-tinted Scotfest, we is also the writing and publishing community the length of the UK. The fans and authors and artists and publishers, small and large, who are my loving genre family that I cherish having the opportunity to hang out with and talk books and stories several times a year. (Special shout out to Ian and Helen of NewCon Press for, well everything, but especially for kindly offering to sell Gallus in the dealers’ hall).
And we is everyone attended Worldcon from near and far, and brought such a fizzingly positive energy to the event. I had so many great discussions, met so many wonderful people, that I really feel blessed to have had this opportunity on my doorstep. Among my favourite moments were a surprise appearance from my friends Michał and Krystyna who took the time to introduce me to the newest addition to their family while we played with Lego, and right at the dwindling death of the Monday afternoon, meeting the wonderful Croatian trio, Antonija, Vesna and Igor of Mora FM, and getting to talk about Scottish SFFH on their excellent podcast.
So, I guess I want to say thank you to all of the above. For their work and friendship and making Worldcon about the best it could possibly have been. Certainly the best I’ve ever been to.
On Thursday, GSFWC held one last GALLUS fling, a public friends and family launch at Waterstones. Excellent readings were performed by PS Livingstone and Hal Duncan, nonesense was talked, tablet was consumed, books were sold and scribbled on. There were a lot of happy faces in the room.
And that’s why we – all of us – do this right? For the love of it? To make each other happy? That’s what community means.
So, onto the next thing. I’m sure I was writing a novel. Wonder what happened to that?
ayeahmur 