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not a weekend for the ladies
Some of my regular readers might remember my tangle with SFX magazine last year over its one-off special horror edition, which barely mentioned the existence of women in its pages, and its poor response. Things must have changed, eh? One year on the magazine just ran its multi-media conference, the Weekender 2, an event promising to offer ‘the ultimate sci-fi experience, packed with activities for fans’. I noticed a comment on Facebook today from one of the guests who wondered about the dearth of female guests. I looked at the list: 37 guests, only 4 of them are women. However, I spotted something else. Two of the female guests are…
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flashback to Greece
Yesterday’s post with its emphasis on sunshine reminded me that this time last year I was in Greece as part of the first World Conference of Screenwriters. I was running the conference blog and social media, and it was a wonderful, if exhausting, few days in Athens. The above picture is of the Parthenon at dusk on the opening evening of the conference. It’s one of the cluster of ancient buildings that make up the Acropolis – which is perched on a flat-topped outcrop 150 meters above Athens. Our international group of screenwriters and Guilds representatives was extremely fortunate to get a private tour of the Acropolis just as twilight…
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finding direction
I’m off to Dublin today for the Give Me Direction screenwriting conference. On Saturday the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild is having its AGM, and I’ll be attending that as well. It’s Thursday, so here is my weekly pico-prose: In the Tube, crushed, Lin watches the Bronté Waterfall on the vid-strip, hears splash and spray via her earbuds, and inside, space clears. Brevity is the soul of those pressed for time.
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children's book conference
The children and young adult fiction markets are awash in speculative fiction writers, which is wonderful. Adults often read this fiction, sometimes because they come to it via their children, and often because young adult fiction is damn good. Irish fans should therefore be interested in the Children’s Books Ireland conference, which takes place from 16-17 May in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. The theme this year is Challenge and Change in Children’s Books, and there is a big range of Irish and international writers at this year’s event. On the home front, Ireland is well represented by the talents of Celine Kiernan (The Poison Throne), Andrew Whitson and…
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get some direction, quick
Before I inflict my weekly tiny piece of prose upon the web I’ll mention a couple of items that might be of interest to some of my readers. First off while perusing the films appearing in the forthcoming Spanish and Latin American Film Season at the IFI in Dublin I noticed that on Monday May 11th it’s showing a Mexican science fiction film called Sleep Dealer. We don’t often get opportunities to see sf films from other countries in Ireland, and it looks like it will be at least entertaining. Also, I’ve posted an entry over on the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild’s Blog about a new screenwriting conference, called…
