Stephen Aryan

World’s Strongest Man 2014 – Heat 1

Spoilers for this first heat. Don’t say I didn’t give you fair warning.

So it’s the one time of the year where I talk about sport. It’s time for the World’s Strongest Man 2014. This first heat was very interesting. Mike Burke is so new to the sport, and despite only appearing three times, he has now made it through to the final in two of those. Normally his age would be a factor, as he is approaching 40, but as he said himself in an interview in this heat, he doesn’t t have the ten years of damage to his body that the other guys have. He’s a huge man, standing 6’6″, which normally means he’s not going to be very good at some events, and yet he excelled at the log lift. He went head to head with Terry Hollands and he looked comfortable, despite the weird apparatus and the weight.

Terry showed everyone once again why he is the master at pulling huge trucks as he smashed the competition, and even threw away the rope towards the end. The heat in America is no doubt affecting them all, but given that it was filmed earlier in the year than normal ( think around March time instead of around August), and last year in China it was so hot the sweat was pouring off them, it might not sap the competitors too badly. I know the show always likes to go to exotic and amazing locations, but I sometimes wonder how the competitors would manage it in a very temperature climate, or even a cold one like Iceland.

I had two strong favourites in this heat, Burke and Hollands, and I’m glad to say both of them went through. The big American performed extremely well in some events and quite good in others, but he is a great all rounder and a solid athlete. He’s similar to Brian Shaw in that regards, who looks relatively slender compared to some of the competition and Burke seems cut from the same cloth. A very talented guy who was in the top 5 last year and his goal is to get on the podium this year. I know the winner was announced online months ago, but I’ve managed to avoid all spoilers for the final. So at this point I think Burke might actually do it and get third or maybe 4th place and go one better than last year.

Hollands played it fairly carefully again in this heat. He pushed himself in some events, had a couple of annoying slips that he was obviously irritated about, but they didn’t stop his momentum. Once again the incredible Englishman proved why he has made it into his 9th World’s Strongest Man final. He is one of the best in the world. Win or lose, he is one of the ten strongest men in the world, which is an amazing legacy.

A good first heat, but no huge surprises. The other heats are where it’s going to get really interesting as I’m not sure who else from England will get into the final. There are a lot of young and determined strongmen coming into the sport. The competition is only going to get even harder in the next few heats.

It was the year of……

Coming up on the end of 2014 is making reflect about the last twelve months. It’s certainly been an interesting year with big highs and lows, but I’ll focus on the good for the most. Back in February (which seems like decades ago on one hand) I announced my book deal with Orbit. Since then I’ve been working really hard on editing book 1 and that’s nearly done now. Nearly. I’ve one final round of proof-checking to come and then it is out of my hands.

The hard work by myself, and other people, has gone on for years now, which sounds weird to say but it’s true. It was back in May 2013 that I announced I had an agent, in the form of the incredible Juliet Mushens from The Agency Group. For years getting an agent felt like the impossible mountain I’d never climb, but eventually I managed it by being picked off a slush pile. Also I didn’t realise how important and beneficial it is to have an agent. A champion who believes in you and will fight your corner.

Looking back over the last year I can say the hard work actually began after getting an agent. I also didn’t realise that until I started doing it. First I was working with Juliet to get the book ready to submit to publishers, which took about a year, and then I started all over again with my publisher, Orbit, several times.

As well as editing Battlemage (book 1), this year I’ve spent a good portion of it writing book 2. The title of book 2 will be confirmed soon. We have a proposed title for book 2, and book 3 in fact, but they need to get the nod from the right people, so I can’t mention it yet. When I’ve had time, I’ve also been plotting and makes notes on book 3 which I started writing in November. However, that’s now on hold as my first round of edits have come back on book 2. Learning how to juggle different projects is definitely an important skill to master, and it is one that I’m still working on. It takes me a bit of time to get my brain out of one creative head space and get it back into another. It helps that the books are connected and set in the same world, but there is still an adjustment period. Mine is definitely not a traditional trilogy so that has created its own challenges that I am trying to learn from for the future.

Writing is usually done in isolation, although I know of several authors who write in public places, even so it’s a solitary thing most of the time. Meeting other writers, talking to them and hearing their stories about their struggles, bumps in the road and just generally hearing their experiences has proven to be very helpful. Some of my friends are a few steps further down the road which has been great. It’s prepared me for some of what’s happened in the last year and that I’m not the first person to be faced with various problems and therefore mine are also not insurmountable.

Over the last year in particular I’ve made great friends with some fantastic writers which has given me a real sense of community. There are a lot more challenges ahead, but I am excited, nervous and anxious about what’s to come, which I think is a healthy approach. Roll on 2015.

CBO – The Relaunch

Last month, Scott, my co-host, and I did a soft relaunch of our podcast, Comic Book Outsiders, for a third time. We’ve been going for over seven years now, and this is more of a refresh than a total relaunch. We’ve got a new theme tune, which is more relaxed and chilled out than previous intros, to reflect our approach, but we’re still going to be producing similar content, just on a more regular basis.

As well as doing CBO once a month, we’re also going to add a new podcast to the network. As soon as I can say more about this I will. I think it’s something different, and quite new, which is increasingly difficult to find with podcasts these days. When we started there were not that many around, and we had to explain to people what a podcast was! Technology moves so quickly it’s hard to believe. I’ve seen 2 year old children swiping tablet screens and knowing how to turn them on and off.

Anyway, back on podcasting. Also on our network, I co-host Bags of Action, a monthly podcast about action movies, where Pete Rogers and I cackle as we dissect modern and classic action films. We’ve just completed a three part Salute to Swayze, and are now moving into a trilogy dedicated to Arnie. We always have fun recording it. This was the initial requirement Scott and I had, and that if it ever stopped being fun and started to feel like a job we’d stop doing it. We came close a couple of times over the seven years, which is why our output and schedule varied at times .

Since we started Comic Book Outsiders our plan has always been to highlight hidden gems and spotlight comics, books, films and TV shows that deserve more attention. Over the years we’ve spoken to some amazing comic book artists and writers, novelists, film directors and people whose work cross several mediums. This is absolutely the best thing about doing the podcast. Talking to amazing people who are out there creating amazing content.

Our approach remains the same, as we both have quite eclectic tastes, and my comic reading horizons have definitely broadened over the last fifteen years. We do enjoy mainstream media and will discuss it, like some of the best films but I’m constantly challenging myself and Scott to step outside our comfort zones.

In the first episode of our relaunch, we had a Challenge Scott section, a semi-regular slot where I pitch Scott three comic books and try to get him interested enough to pick up at least one of them. Further down the line we then discuss the comic book. Last episode I pitched Letter 44 from Oni Press, The Fuse from Image comics, and Southern Bastards from Image comics. In the end Scott went with SB, because it sounded the furthest out of his comfort zone and the story intrigued him. I think it will be a really interesting discussion which we’ll be having as part of the January episode. So if you want to get involved, have read any of the three mentioned, and have an opinion on SB, then get in touch.

Trilogy Power Up

I’m very happy to announce that Bragelonne has picked up the French rights to all three books in the Battlemage trilogy. It’s an amazing feeling to get picked up by one publisher, but to know people will be reading your books in other countries around the world is kind of mind boggling, but so exciting. I can’t wait to see the French version of the covers and see how they interpret the characters.

So now that’s France, Germany, Russian (for book 1 so far) and of course the UK and USA with Orbit, my publisher.

I’ve also seen a sneaky version of the cover of Battlemage, book 1, but it’s not quite ready yet to show anyone as it needs some fiddling. But it’s not far away, so watch this place in the next few months.

I still need to get that world map so I can colour in countries I’ve conquered with the book.

Robocop (2014)

I didn’t go and see this film at the cinema as I had no desire to see yet another remake, so I waited for it to come out on DVD. The film isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, and as far as remakes go, it was much better than the abysmal Total Recall. Spoilers ahead by the way.

The story is the same as the original, more or less, but the focus of the story is quite different. Alex Murphy is still severely injured in the line of duty as a cop, rebuilt by OCP and put back on the streets as Robocop. In the 2014 film the world has not completely gone to hell in a hand basket, and Detroit is not as grimy and seedy as the 1987 version, but there is still lots of crime and disorder. In the remake OCP have been sending their robotic troops all over the world to police danger zones, including the Middle East where we see what happens when things go wrong via a reporter and her crew observing the action.

Almost every country, apart from the USA, has passed a law allowing robots to support the police and armed forces. Pointing out this gaping hole in American logic is part of Samuel L. Jackson’s role as Pat Novak, who does his thing, spouting off loudly and with great vigour. I think SLJ is a fantastic actor, and I like seeing him shout at someone on screen, but after a while it was a bit tiring in this film. As was having his character explain things, point out things the audience already know or can intuit. Part of his character’s role is a mockery and a mirror for the media, so him telling people him what to feel and think is very ironic and all of that, but it’s still him ranting a lot. Still tiring. Also the film ended on a total whimper which left me feeling totally flat and with no desire to ever see it again.

The main shift in the story away from the 1987 original is that it focuses more on Gary Oldman’s character, the robotics expert who is wrangling with serving the greater good versus keeping his masters at OCP happy. His robotic prosthetics have helped injured servicemen and women, as well as amputees regain their mobility, and even play the guitar in one scene intended to win over the audience to Oldman’s character. But OCP want more from him. They need to make more money and increase their profits. So much for the greater good and healing people. Capitalism is king.

In order to convince Americans that robots are safe, OCP need something that has a heart and emotions and is not just an unfeeling robot, which leads to Robocop and Alex Murphy. Jackie Earle Haley’s character continually mocks Alex calling him Tin Man, referencing the Wizard of Oz and his search for a heart. Har har har. It was nice to see his character get a comeuppance in the end, but again there was a lot of hitting the audience over the head with stuff, telling them what to feel. This is the bit where you should cry at the man playing the guitar. This is the bit where you’re supposed to dislike this character because he’s being mean to Murphy. There’s very little trust in the audience and a lot of leading the audience around by the nose.

The real moral quandary for Oldman’s character comes when Murphy is feeling too much, getting too emotional about his own murder, and he stops doing as he is told like a good robot. So he cuts into Murphy’s brain to stop him feeling and increases his meds to keep him calm and a sort of lifeless, in other words a robot. Murphy is made less emotional and when he’s in action shooting bad guys, he thinks he is in control and making decisions, but actually it’s his programming that has taken over. So he has the illusion of free will. As expected it all backfires at some point and Murphy becomes himself again and less of an emotional zombie. This was an interesting point to explore, but it started to feel more like the film had little to do with Murphy at all, and that his story was secondary to all of the other points I’ve mentioned.

Towards the end of the film the focus shifts back to Murphy and the inevitable happens. He regains control and gets a form of justice. While a direct remake would have been horrible and pointless, I don’t think that this version brought anything new to the franchise. The exploration of free will and identity could have been fascinating, in a totally different film, one not focused around a central figure that people expect to see in action shooting bad guys for the majority of the film.

It was definitely a mixed bag for me, almost two separate films in one. It’s not one I would watch again, whereas I would happily go back to the original as I cared about Murphy and his fate.

Star Trek Online

For many years I bought games consoles, stretching right back to the Master System from Sega, before the Megadrive, and happily spent countless hours racing through levels as Sonic and many other characters. I’ve not kept up and am a lapsed console gamer, having pretty much switched to PC for the last ten years or so. I’ve played a few games here and there on other people’s consoles, but once the Playstation 2 was on the wane and PS3 was on the horizon I pretty much hung up my gamepad for good. I still occasionally dip into the Wii for a bit of fun, but that’s about it. It was PC for me, mostly because I always had one of those in the house anyway.

For a long time I’ve been playing RPGs and MMOs, or MMORPGs, to give them their full acronym. It started with Everquest, killing lots of rats, and it progressed to World of Warcraft until about four years ago. I’ve played it a little bit in the last few years, but the level of addiction for the game has definitely waned. I’ve tried other MMOs since, such as Star Wars, which was quite a lot of fun, but once you’ve got to the top level it became a grind for the next level of armour or weapons and I’m not interested in that kind of thing. Playing the game up to that point was great, racing around with a lightsaber, being a Jedi and trying to walk the line between being good and not embracing the Dark Side, while secretly having a close personal relationship with my apprentice. Ahem.

A couple of years ago I heard about Star Trek Online and was very excited. I’m a huge Trek fan. The Next Gen is my Star Trek. Picard and Riker are my Captain and Number One. Unfortunately a trusted friend started playing STO when it came out in 2010 and said it wasn’t very good at the time. It was disappointing, but I was also trying to have less distractions and spend more time writing. So, right or wrong, it was a good excuse not to get the game and find out for myself.

A few weeks ago I saw an advert online for a new expansion for STO which included extra content featuring the actors from Voyager lending their voices to their old characters. I was intrigued and so downloaded the free version of STO. Much to my delight I found the game was huge amounts of fun.

Nostalgia-wise and getting me in the head space of the game, there is so much there to enjoy. From walking around Star Fleet headquarters in San Francisco and looking up at the famous bridge, to walking the corridors of my own starship, to meeting characters from The Original Series, to the sound effects and voice overs from actors, including Leonard Nimoy for Pete’s sake. Leonard Nimoy! There is a lot of stuff packed in to create the right atmosphere and help you soak into the Trek universe.

The game itself has a lot of the usual features of an MMO, linear stories, PVP, PVE, but there is also a fairly complex crafting system. Well, technically there are two, one for gathering materials and making stuff. The second is connected to sending out your crew on missions to earn you skill points, but also specialisms in different areas such as diplomacy, or exploration, which in turn unlocks new missions and areas.

I’ve only been playing it for a couple of weeks so I’m still finding new stuff all the time, stumbling around a bit, but I’m gradually getting used to all of the controls. But I’d rather it was complex and it all made sense, than the game was too easy and the bar was set too low, which sounds like the way WoW has been going for years in my opinion. With STO you can just do all of the basics, carry out missions, get better kit and so on, but there’s a lot more going on.

The new content also looks really intriguing and bringing back some favourite actors and their characters from the Voyager universe into the game sounds great to me. There are some restrictions with playing the free version compared to those who pay a fee, but I don’t feel as if it’s had an impact on my gaming experience. I know where the boundaries lie and if I want to buy stuff with micro-transactions I can, but so far have not felt it was necessary. I can see myself getting many months of fun out of this before I even get anywhere near the higher level stuff, at which point the brand new expansion (which you have to pay for) may have come down in price and at that point I might be so invested I want to keep going and buy it.

MMOs have changed dramatically in the last ten years or so. At the start all of them had monthly fees and it’s only more recently that some have moved away from that model and still been able to keep going and develop new content.

Given that it is still a couple of years until the next Trek film, and there hasn’t been a Trek TV series since Enterprise, STO is a great way for a Star Trek fan to get their fix of phasers, blood wine and pointy eared Vulcans.

Sweet Tooth

There is a photo of me from when I was three years old stuffing my face with chocolate cake. I have huge brown eyes and curly hair. And before you ask, no, I’m not going to show you the photo, despite being told I look very cute. It was my birthday and my mum had made me an owl shaped cake. I must have been going through a owl thing at the time. It was delicious and I utterly loved it. My mum was brilliant at making creative cakes for birthdays and over the years I had all sorts, cowboy and Indian western style forts, trains, all kinds of stuff. She doesn’t bake as often now, and I don’t get them on my birthday anymore, but back then they were epic cakes.

Most, if not all children, have a sweet tooth. They love the delicious sugary, chocolatey flavours. The fizz of boiled sweets, the juicy tang of jelly sweets, the pop and crackle of sherbet and the crunch of mints and toffee. As a child I was a bit picky about my food but this has since changed and now as an adult I’ll eat almost anything. However, my love of sweet things did not fade and I still have a huge sweet tooth.

A few years ago, during my first job after graduating, I went on a business trip for work. Over dinner my boss at the time remarked on my sweet tooth and the yummy noises I was making over the dessert menu. In a very good natured way he said, ah, well it will change, over time you’ll start to prefer a nice pint of beer or glass of wine instead of something sweet. He was speaking from a place of experience and kindness. But he was also speaking about his own experience. That was his road, not mine.

As it happens I never acquired the taste for wine, and unless they’re side by side I can’t tell a good one bottle from a bad one. I do like real ale now and have done a few reviews on here of some favourites, but my sweet tooth is still there, large as anything.

When I was in high school I had no clue about a lot of things. It’s fair to say I still don’t. But whenever I mentioned that I wanted to be a writer at school I always received an indulgent smile from adults, because in the back of their minds they were thinking that writing isn’t a career. It’s a hobby, something to do in your spare time. What I needed to focus on was getting a real job, that would lead to a real career, something that would pay the bills, and so following their advice I studied business and computing at A-Level and then university.

But like my sweet tooth, the writing never went away. It was always there and I was always working on it. I was always writing, screenplays and comic scripts, TV episodes for competitions and novels. In some ways the need to write grew as other interests waned, because writing gives me something that nothing else can.

A number of my friends now have children and when I hear about their different interests and achievements, this is inevitably followed by comments such as, ‘oh he’ll be a scientist’, or ‘she’ll work with animals’. I sometimes do this myself but it’s a habit I’m trying to break. Some of the predictions may turn out to be true, perhaps coincidentally, but I think most will not simply because the road ahead is always unknown, even to ourselves, never mind anyone else. All sorts of unexpected events, good and bad, send each of us off in different directions, and now I try not to think of it in terms of being blown off course because the future isn’t written down anywhere and no one knows which path we’ll take.

October Status Update

For my 100th post I was trying to think of something special, but kept coming up blank, but this is kind of special for a number of reasons. So it will have to do.

Books

Battlemage – So, I’ve just finished the latest draft of book 1, Battlemage, and it has now gone off to the copy editor. This is someone who has not read the book before, so it is a fresh pair of eyes who can hopefully spot all the mistakes and errors, major and minor, that I can’t see because I’m still just too close to the story and characters. That will be coming back to me fairly soon.

Book 2
The first draft is done. I hit my deadline with a couple of days to spare, and I’m reasonably happy with it. Kind of. Well, there were a number of things I knew that I had to fix, and managed to get those done before I sent it off, but once I have some distance from it others will jump out at me. Right now I have my face pressed up against the trees, so all I can see is the bark, and not the shape of the forest, but I think I know what it looks like from far away, if you see what I mean. The other thing I’m realising now after writing two books in close succession is, there’s always what you intend the story to be and what it becomes. A theme has emerged that I didn’t realise was there, and perhaps it always was in the dark recesses of my subconscious, but only by writing it all down was I able to see it clearly. Or perhaps it simply developed during the process of writing the book. Either way, I’m happy with that newly revealed core and I like some of the unexpected twists that cropped up, surprising me along the way.

Book 3
So, back to page one and a blank page. Actually, it’s not terrifying me. I’ve started many books before and although this time I have a deadline it doesn’t feel different. I’m still writing on evenings and weekends after the day job and I do as much as I can when I’m not too tired.

Podcasting
A while ago, Scott, my co-host, and I decided to take a step back from podcasting. We’d become too entrenched and were almost producing it just for the sake of doing it. Some of the fun had fallen away, so we stopped podcasting for a while. Also when things started to move on my side with the novels, we didn’t think it would be appropriate for us to continue doing the popular The Book Club podcast, where we reviewed SFF books and sometimes spoke to the authors, like China Miéville and Lauren Beukes.

Then we realised we missed the discussion and debate and just talking to each other at length. So we came back to it with new ideas and a new podcast, Bags of Action, which I now co-host with Pete Rogers. Very recently Scott and I have decided to change things with our main geek genre podcast, Comic Book Outsiders. Despite the name, we don’t just talk about comics. It’s more a platform to discuss all things within the genre, comics, books, TV, film, tech, and any other cool stuff that catches our eye. We’ll be announcing something in about the next month or so about what we’re doing, so watch this space as I’ll put the info on here as well. We’ve definitely rediscovered the fun and the uniqueness of the medium. It’s changed a lot in the seven years since we started in July 2007.

Comics
The Flux train moved ever forward, just very slowly. More great pages are coming in from the artist, Maysam Barza, and my co-writer Pete and I are busy rejigging the script to issue 1 to make it more in keeping with the location and native dialogue. We’ve had some great feedback from members of the Comics Experience forum and are now trying to make things clearer on the page. We’re also speaking to a couple of letterers to see how they would bring the story to life as neither Pete or I are professional letterers. I thought book publishing was slow, but sometimes comics really does take the biscuit.

The Outsider

During one of the panels at Fantasycon Joanne Harris spoke about being an outsider and how, despite appearances at the time, it helps the individual in the long run rather than hurting them.

She then spoke about her own experiences of not being one of the popular children at school, not being with the ‘in crowd’ and being one of the oddball kids who didn’t seem to fit in. She believes (and I agree with her) that those children who are popular, those who glide along in the middle of a crowd through school without ever being challenged or bullied or just put-upon, are less prepared for the challenges of the real world when it comes knocking on their door. Because they’ve never faced adversity and had to improvise and overcome it. Because they’ve never been alone and left with only their wits. Because they’ve never faced mental hardships. Standing alone in the shallows and facing the waves is a lot easier when you’ve done it before.

I was never very good at sports at school. I wasn’t lazy and I wasn’t overweight. I just wasn’t that good and didn’t excel at any of them. I tried all sorts of sports over the years and I did enjoy some of them, indoor rock climbing and badminton, to the point where I pursued both outside of school for fun. I swam for a local club and even played rugby for a few years, and there was fun there, and friendship, and camaraderie, but eventually I stopped playing and don’t miss it. Every week I’d come home from rugby with a fresh bruise, cut or scrape, and I certainly don’t miss those.

I was never on any of the school sports teams and I never really enjoyed football. As far back as middle school I remember sitting on a bench and reading at lunch time, beside the massive green playing field, while others chased a football in the sun. Even further back in primary school I remember asking teachers awkward questions and then getting annoyed with them, because they didn’t have the answers. I don’t think I was just endlessly asking why a hundred times over and over. I’ve always been genuinely curious about lots of areas and my disappointment stemmed from the realisation that they, as teachers and adults, didn’t have all the answers. That definitely left a mark on me.

After that I was told off for miming hymns (back when we had religious assemblies in public schools) because it didn’t make sense to me. Others just sang along happily, never asking why we had to sing those songs or what they really meant or who we were praising. Even now I am often baffled why some people just go along with something and never ask why, never question authority, never want to scratch the surface. They vote for the person who seems the nicest and never dig beneath the bold statements. This is particularly on my mind as here in the UK we have a general election next year.

I don’t recall any specific incidents of being bullied at school, but I’m sure I was to some degree like most people. I had an ordinary family background, I looked pretty much like everyone else and I did fairly well, but didn’t excel in most subjects. There wasn’t anything particularly weird about me, so that blunted any number of weapons bullies could use before they even had a chance. My name was a little odd so that was one weapon. I think I was an outsider not because of any external factors, but because of the inquisitive nature within. Children are usually very curious, so it wasn’t just my inquisitiveness that made me an outsider, but it’s definitely a part of it.

I was (and still am) never satisfied with an answer that doesn’t make sense on some fundamental level, whether that’s scientific, moral or just plain old common sense. The Green Cross Code told us to look both ways before crossing the street. That made sense because cars came from both directions. Stubbornly looking only in one direction would just get you run over. So there was nothing to be achieved by rejecting that rule.

Most mornings in middle school before class we had a religious service, which was often a Bible story followed by hymns. One morning we had the story of the Good Samaritan. The following morning, a different teacher took the assembly, and he started to tell us the story of the Good Samaritan. Someone, probably not me although I’d like to believe it was, put their hand up and said ‘Sir, Ms Marr told us that story yesterday.’ His reply was one that came from a place of anger. He basically told us that we would listen to it again and this time learn the lesson because it couldn’t have sunk it overnight. So the seeds were planted for my problem with authority. After a while I would excuse myself from the assemblies and leave the hall when there was a religious service. In the corridor outside the two Muslim lads in the school and I would then chat or sometimes play cards, usually Top Trumps, until it was over.

As we grow older and become adults, as the world becomes more complex and less black and white, do we stop being curious and stop asking questions because it’s easier?

I’m still very curious and I’m still asking questions. I still get agitated and annoyed by a lot of things, major and minor, that other people don’t. They don’t see what the problem is. They don’t see why I’m making a fuss, whereas I can’t see why they’re not upset.

Is it fear of standing out and being noticed again that keeps some people quiet? There’s an old saying in Japanese that roughly translates as ‘that nail that sticks out gets hammered down’. Is it the old fear from childhood of being an outsider that makes people ‘go with the flow’ and just follow orders? Do they want to belong so badly and be part of something that they ignore the other voices? Or are they quiet from neglect?

My Fantasycon 2014 Experience

I’m back from my first Fantasycon in York which started out on Friday with some Austin Powers style car parking. I was staying at a very central Bed and Breakfast, which was lovely, and the owners kindly gave me a parking permit for the weekend. Brilliant, I thought. I could leave my car all weekend, and not have to worry about trying to move it or pay for parking. The only problem was the space was on the main road, squeezed between a car, a tree and a conveniently placed post. So while dodging traffic and waiting for the lights to change and the road to be clear, I tried several times to get into the space. Finally, I managed to reverse in, nearly ran someone over on the pavement and then preceded to reverse back and forth about twenty times until I wasn’t on the road and no wheels were touching the pavement section. I’ve seen people get tickets for less in the past from enthusiastic traffic wardens.

Thankfully the weekend picked up after that as I met up at the pub for lunch with a fairly healthy contingent of TeamMushens, fellow authors who also have the same agent as me, Juliet Mushens. The posse included Niel Bushnell, Andrew Reid, Peter Newman, Den Patrick, Jen Williams, Richard Kellum and the Grand Dame herself was also there. Being a writer can be a fairly lonely job, as it usually involves a lot of sitting quietly in a room by yourself, staring at a screen and listening to the voices in your head. Getting to meet up with fellow writers who understand all of the challenges, the angst, the editing, the self-loathing, the rewrites, is actually a very rewarding experience. Meeting up with fellow TeamMushens people is a privilege as they’re all remarkable and very talented people. All of us write in the the SFF genre space, but despite common interests and hobbies we couldn’t be more different, which I find fascinating.

Finding and connecting with your tribe is much easier now than it was in my youth, thanks mostly to the internet, but it is still not the same as meeting up in person. Unfortunately I don’t get to see this group of friends more than once or twice a year as we’re all spread out across the UK, so it’s always a genuine pleasure to see them and spend time together.

The rest of Friday was taken up with running from one panel to the next, including one about Awards and their value to a writer. I also sat on a panel about podcasting which seemed to go fairly well. After that I went to one of the bars in the hotel where karaoke had been set up. Niel and I grabbed a quick fast food dinner on the hoof, then raced back to watch some of our fellow writers own the microphone. Andrew’s duet with Juliet was a highlight as well as her solo later on. Sadly I’d wandered off to the other bar so didn’t see Pete Newman fulfil his side of a bet, but I hear it went very well. After a few more drinks and some Cards Against Humanity where Jen Williams won, I called it a night.

Saturday began with a panel about Page to Screen where people including one of the Guests of Honour, Toby Whithouse, spoke about pitching, adaptations, working in TV and film. One interesting thing Toby mentioned was that he used to be an actor and now whenever he writes anything, he always give every character a full name, first and last. This is to avoid what often happens such as Policeman3 or Thug2. It also ties in nicely to something I mentioned on the podcast panel. One question from the audience was to name our favourite podcast, and mine is The Tobolowsky Files (also on iTunes), where character actor Stephen Tobolowsky talks about life, love and the entertainment business and he has a theory that you can tell the value of a part by the name of the character. A job title is low on the totem pole, like Judge, then you get titles and numbers Doctor3, then it goes up to just a single name and right up to a part with both names. The name convention indicates the number of lines and how important the part will be. Toby was very aware of this having been an actor for years, so he wanted to ensure that every actor who had a part in any of his shows would have two names so it looked better on their CV. He also tried to ensure that if they had even one line that it was a joke, so that it mattered.

The panel that followed, The Reign of the Geek, was very interesting and as with many situations, it’s while I’m thinking about it later that it affects me. It was something Joanne Harris said about being an outsider that really struck a chord with me, and I’ll come back to it in another post soon once I’ve found the right words.

Jen Williams and I then attended a panel with Charlaine Harris in conversation and it was fantastic. She’s a fascinating woman and had a lot of wisdom to share about her experiences with writing novels and seeing her work adapted for television.

I find going to several panels in a row can be exhausting, so after that I took a bit of a break and left the hotel, had some lunch in a quiet place, then came back for a panel on Grimdark, and how it has evolved from a joke to an actual label people have started using for a particular type of fantasy novel.

After more panels I found time to sit and chat to some old friends who had come to their first Fantasycon. Then there was the brilliant and funny live edition of Tea and Jeopardy, with Emma Newman and Pete Newman in costume as her surly and dodgy butler, Latimer. He stayed in character throughout and was very funny indeed!

After a quick curry with Niel and James Oswald I caught up with some other people from TeamMushens including Laura Lam, Syd Moore and lots of other friends I don’t get to see very often. I went to the very well attended Super Relaxed Fantasy Club where there were four readings and James Barclay interviewed Simon Spanton.

I must mention that the army of volunteer redcoats did a great job of coordinating everything at the convention and it wouldn’t have run as smoothly without them giving up their time.

By the time I got down to the party on Saturday night it was in full swing and it had been a long day. Somehow I managed to stay awake and was sat chatting to people when they closed the bar and turned on the lights indicating that the party was officially over.

I had to head back home first thing on Sunday morning so I said goodbye to everyone that night and I felt quite sad at the thought of not seeing them again until next year. We’ll talk online via social media and email each other, but it’s not the same. So I’ve found myself looking ahead to conventions next year already and wondering when I’ll run into them.

Fantasycon2014 was a lot of fun, for the social side as much as the panels. It was also exhausting but thankfully I didn’t have too far to travel compared to some. York is a fantastic city and for those who had time to spare they explored some of the remarkable sites, went on a Ghost Walk, popped into the famous Betty’s tea room, explored the cathedral and wandered around the Shambles.

So for now, it’s back to the writing and the editing on book 2, and I’m looking forward to attending at least a couple of conventions next year and the build up to the launch of book 1, Battlemage.