Category: Conventions
- Darren Nash - January 23rd, 2009
Following on from Ken MacLeod‘s excellent showing on last year’s awards shortlists, we’re delighted to announce that 2009 has begun in similar fashion. We’ve just received news that his dark, near-future SF thriller, The Night Sessions, has been shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Novel!
Many congratulations to Ken and thanks to those who nominated The Night Sessions. The award will be presented over the Easter weekend at LX, the 60th National Science Fiction Convention, in Bradford. In the meantime, may I urge you to vote early and vote often!
by Darren Nash • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Awards, Conventions, News, Orbit UK
- Darren Turpin - August 13th, 2008
The eleventh annual MeCon convention takes place at Queen’s University Student Union in the city of Belfast from the 29th-31st August this year, and the Guest of Honour will be Orbit’s very own Charles Stross.
Charles will be taking part in a variety of events and readings over the course of the weekend, details of which can be found on the MeCon website.
MeCon’s other guests this year include authors Michael Carroll, Ian McDonald and C.E. Murphy, plus comics artists Paul J Holden and John McCrea.
by Darren Turpin • Post a Comment • Posted in: Conventions, Orbit UK
- Alex Lencicki - July 29th, 2008
- A new usage for the word “harpooning” (Thanks Lilith!)
- Big frakkin’ bags are a big frakkin’ hit.
- No matter how innocent the intent, grown men with giant Curious George dolls should not offer free hugs on Kid’s Day. (Ew dude, seriously).
- Everybody is duly excited about The Watchmen and Twilight (I know, right?)
- The Orcs Are Coming!
- 140,000 people is a whole lot of eyeballs, but so are roughly 800 exhibitors – if your marketing isn’t focused, those eyes will glaze right over it (thankfully, we had Orcs).
- You would be amazed by the number of 5 dollar action figures you do not want that are out there.
- The coolest stuff was tucked away in the small press and artist alley.
- The first person to start selling baby onesies at Comicon will make a fortune. (Seriously, I spent a day looking for something for my son and couldn’t find anything smaller than a toddler size, and I was not alone).
- Lamest costume: All those Dark Knight Jokers with un-smeared makup (the smeared makeup was the whole point guys!)
- Coolest costume: the little girl in the pink dress, pink shirt, and pink Vader helmet – you rule!
All in all, we had a great time at the show. Lilith Saintcrow rocked the Eye on the Present panel, which should be online eventually. We had a limited giveaway of Orcs galleys which were snatched up by fans in minutes. Kevin J. Anderson chatted with us about The Ashes of Worlds (vid to come) And our friends at Yen Press threw a great rooftop party complete with fireworks.
by Alex Lencicki • 1 Comment • Posted in: Contents, Conventions, Orbit US
- Darren Turpin - July 29th, 2008
Canberra’s fifth annual Conflux convention takes place later this year, over the weekend of Friday October 3rd – Monday October 6th, at The Marque, Canberra, Australia.
Ahead of the main event, Conflux is staging a Virtual Minicon this coming weekend, August 2nd – August 3rd.
Participation is easy: simply sign up for the Conflux Forums and then log in at the appropriate time, depending on the author(s) you’d like to chat to via the forums and bearing in mind the relevant time-difference between your own timezone and Canberra’s (GMT +10) of course.
A number of Orbit authors are taking part in the online activities over the course of the weekend, with time-slots as follows (again, these are Canberra-time…)
Saturday August 2
12.00 p.m. – Glenda Larke
7.00 p.m. – Karen Miller
Sunday August 3
11.00 a.m. – Sean Williams
12.00 p.m. – Kevin J Anderson
5.00 p.m. – Marianne de Pierres
Visit the Virtual Minicon page of the Conflux website for more information.
by Darren Turpin • Post a Comment • Posted in: Conventions, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Alex Lencicki - July 21st, 2008
Well, not beyond really, but Lilith Saintcrow will be at Comicon in San Diego! She’ll be on the “Looking at Our World: Eye on the Present” panel along with Kelley Armstrong, L. A. Banks, Kate Brallier, Marjorie M. Liu, C. E. Murphy, Justine Musk, and moderator Samantha Sommersby ( Room 3). That’s a veritable who’s who of urban fantasy stars, so if you’re a fan this is a can’t miss event.
And stop by the Orbit booth to get your books signed and to pick up a sweet Orcs pin, which will likely be handed to you by a bedraggled looking guy with a few days’ old beard (me). You can also get some great stuff from our friends at Grand Central Publishing, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Yen Press. For a complete listing of HBGUSA events at Comicon, including panels with Stephenie Meyer, Jacqueline Carey, Brad Meltzer, Method Man and more, download our event schedule here.
If you can’t make it to Comicon, you can still catch up with Lilith at her sparklingly redesigned site, www.lilithsaintcrow.com – and stay tuned for a free, never before seen serialized novel coming very soon.
by Alex Lencicki • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, Conventions, Orbit US
- Alex Lencicki - May 23rd, 2008
If you’re going to Wiscon, look out for Orbit author Pamela Freeman. She’ll be there talking about her new book, Blood Ties, and reading from her academic work (If you get a chance to chat, be sure to ask her about her thoughts on science in fantasy fiction.)
Pamela’s Wiscon Schedule (check the site for up-to-date details.)
Saturday, 10:00-11:15 A.M: Reading from Blood Ties.
Sunday, 11:30 P.M. to 12:45 A.M. Imagination as Resistance, panel.
Monday, 10:00-11:15 A.M: Kings. What a Good Idea: Monarchy in Epic Fantasy Fiction.
by Alex Lencicki • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, Conventions, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - April 29th, 2008
This Saturday’s annual Alt.Fiction event in Derby was a fantastic example of just how vibrant and lively the UK genre scene currently is. A panel-packed day offered readings from some of the UK’s top genre talent – including Orbit’s very own Charles Stross, Mike Carey, Philip Palmer (who has posted his own Alt.Fiction write-up) and Brian Ruckley (who has likewise posted his impressions of the day) – as well as discussion sessions and workshops on a variety of writing and publishing-related topics.
Read the rest of this entry »
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, Conventions, Orbit UK, Signings and Events
- Darren Turpin - April 23rd, 2008
This Saturday, April 26th, the cream of the UK genre fiction crop will be heading to Derby’s Assembly Rooms for the third annual Alt.Fiction Festival.
Alt.Fiction is a one-day convention that brings together sf/f/h authors, readers and publishers for a series of panel sessions, workshops, readings and more. Think Eastercon or Fantasycon, condensed into a single day and organised to within an inch of its life by Alex Davis and his team of willing and enthusiastic volunteers from Derby City Council, and you’ll get the picture.
This year, several Orbit authors will be in attendance, including Mike Carey, Philip Palmer, Brian Ruckley and Charles Stross. The four of them will be appearing on various panels and reading sessions throughout the day; you can see which ones by checking out the schedule of events.
And yes, that is yours truly on a panel at 12.00 on the topic of ‘Writing and the Internet’, alongside Simon Spurrier and Hub Magazine editor Lee Harris. Hecklers welcome!
Tickets for Alt.Fiction are on-sale now at a very reasonable £20 from the Derby Assembly Rooms website.
by Darren Turpin • Post a Comment • Posted in: Conventions, Orbit UK, Signings and Events
- Darren Nash - April 2nd, 2008
Further to Bella’s post, below, on the 2008 Eastercon, I thought it worth mentioning that Eastercon returns to the Radisson Edwardian at Heathrow (amusingly nicknamed the “Radisson Non-Euclidean” by convention wags), in two years time. Even more exciting for us at Orbit Towers is that the convention committee have shown the great good taste to invite Mike Carey as one of their Guests of Honour.
First Charles Stross, now Mike Carey – they can hold Eastercons at Heathrow every year, as far as we’re concerned!
by Darren Nash • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, Conventions, News, Orbit UK
- Bella Pagan - March 28th, 2008
Back refreshed after some post-Easter holiday, I thought I’d give a little round-up of the weekend’s Eastercon excitements. These didn’t include the weather (a most distracting hail storm during Darren’s Very Important Panel), or getting lost in the hotel’s Shining-esque corridors and missing breakfast, so I’ll spare you that.
So, over the Easter weekend, two key highlights in the science fiction calendar took place. One of these was Orbital, the British national science fiction convention (otherwise known as Eastercon), We were very excited as our Ken MacLeod was on not one, but two shortlists for BSFA awards, up for both best novel with The Execution Channel and best short fiction with Lighting Out, in the anthology disLOCATIONS from Newcon Press. Many congratulations to Ken for winning in the short fiction category, and to Gollancz’s Ian McDonald, who took away the best novel award for the much-admired Brasyl.
I also have to make special mention of Charles Stross, who was guest of honour at Orbital, alongside Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, and China Mieville. Charlie wasn’t just guest of honour but, in an astonishing tribute to the genre, had actually managed to clone himself in order to take part in a myriad of panel discussions. Amongst others, I attended Writing the Near Future, on why it might be harder to predict 50 years in the future than 500. Charlie was as fascinating as ever, and managed to pause briefly for breath before his next panel on the Appeal of Lovecraft. His clones were no doubt equally knowledgeable in an in-depth discussion of Accelerando, and in a panel on how to be a full time novelist to name just a few. On the other side of the fence, Orbit’s Darren Nash told a packed room (yep, people were actually standing at the back) what an editor Actually Does. I found this particularly pertinent, and obviously made copious notes(!). The panel was split between editors of novels and short fiction, so covered some interesting differences in how the two forms might be edited.
But the Eastercon activities didn’t end there … the other highlight of the weekend was Swancon on the other side of the globe – the annual West Australian Science Fiction Convention and forum for the Ditmar awards. We are delighted to say that Sean Williams picked up yet another well-deserved Ditmar for best novel, for the fabulous Saturn Returns. Australia’s Dark Fiction zine HorrorScope has the full listings. Ken MacLeod also attended the convention as a guest of honour so, although much in demand, had to miss out on the British event. Sure, it would have been great to travel to Australia to help Ken and Sean out, but the Orbital invites came through first … Maybe next time!
by Bella Pagan • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, Conventions, Orbit UK
