Swancon wrap

Today's the last day of what's amounted to five days of public holidays, and I've spent the majority of the time at Swancon, the Perth sci-fi and fantasy convention. This year, Swancon was also the national convention, so a good number of writers from over east made the trip to attend, allowing me to catch up with many of the people I met for the first time in Melbourne last September.

Inevitably, that meant that my highlights for the convention involved meeting people rather than attending panels, although I did manage to get along to the odd one or two. My Scenes From the Second Storey co-editor Amanda Pillar (and ever-cool partner Tom) were among those to make the journey over - aside from the time spent in my usual inane blathering, that also gave us a chance to talk about some upcoming projects. More news on that later, but if you were one of the writers to buttonhole her for news about it (and you know who you are!) expect something in the next month.

Alan Baxter was great value for the whole con, and his two-hour workshop on writing realistic fight scenes was an eye-opener (hint: they're nothing like the fights you see in movies). For anyone who didn't make it along, I'd recommend Al's e-book Write the Fight Right, which covers all the material in the workshop. Top knowledge.

It was also good to catch up with Paul Haines, whose latest collection, The Last Days of Kali Yuga, launched on Sunday and is packed with writing goodness (including the superb novella Wives and his entry in Scenes From the Second Storey, I've Seen the Man). You can order it now from Brimstone Press and I strongly suggest you do.

I spent a lot of time nattering with Russell Farr and Liz Grzyb from Ticonderoga Publications, and attended the 15th anniversary party for the imprint, which included the launch of More Scary Kisses (which uses a review quote by me on the cover, so you know it's quality!) and the vampire anthology Dead Red Heart. Signed a few copies of the latter and got to meet the unfeasibly talented duo of Angela Slatter and Lisa Hannett along the way. If they're not already on your radar, they should be...

A big thanks to Robert Hood, too, who gave me the benefit of his expertise in a field about which I'm writing something soon. My questions and concerns were answered, and we got to swap comics recommendations too, so wins all round!

Time for a quick shout-out to Daniel Russell and his partner Sherie, in town from the more rural parts of WA - great to see you, and I'm sure we'll be catching up sooner rather than later.

And I think that's it, except for the awards - a huge cheer for Kirstyn McDermott, who took out a Ditmar for her Scenes short story She Said (that's two big gongs for that tale, after her Australian Shadows win). And a smaller one for me - I landed the best WA Short Written Work, which was nice. Thanks to everyone who voted, and I promise never to use the term "award-winning author".

After that time, obviously.