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Dublin Worldcon schedule
My schedule of events for Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon, the 77th World Science Fiction Convention, which is taking place from 15-19 August 2019 in the CCD, Dublin.
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Hallowe'en Sessions Round-up
I’m back from my London sojourn, and it ended up being a busy period. I attended the opening and closing nights of The Hallowe’en Sessions, but I also turned up at the theatre every evening to say hello to the people who supported the play. It was fantastic that so many friends and colleagues of the ensemble came for one of the performances. The audience packed into the Leicester Square Theatre for the final night, and fired questions at the writers for the Q&A afterwards. We took the seats the actors had vacated for that bit, and considering what had gone on in the play it was somewhat unsettling to…
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Halloween in London
I’m off to London today, and tomorrow I’ll be attending the première performance of The Hallowe’en Sessions in the Leicester Square Theatre. It’s a rather surreal experience to type those words. The effect of writing is often only felt many months (or years) after you have gestated and laboured over an idea. Due to the passage of time these projects can become rather abstract, especially as you continue to work on other stories. Then, whosh, it manifests suddenly as a concrete form, and you come to the work as fresh as everyone else (except with way more nervousness). Tickets have been selling well, and the closing night performance, and Hallowe’en…
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Hallowe'en Sessions update
I’m back from FrightFest in London, my annual pilgrimage to sample the best (and sometimes, the worst) of horror cinema being made in the world today. While there I was lucky to meet up with most of my co-conspirators for The Hallowe’en Sessions: writers Kim Newman, Paul McAuley, Anne Billson, writer/director Sean Hogan, and producer Josh Saco. Alas, I didn’t get to see Stephen Volk on this trip. It turns out there will be a horror festival going on in London at the end of October, and The Hallowe’en Sessions is being folded into this wonderful mix. It’s called The 13th Hour Horror Festival, and here’s the brochure for it,…
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The Hallowe'en Sessions
I’m delighted to announce that I’ve written part of an anthology play called The Hallowe’en Sessions, which will have a run in the Leicester Square Theatre, London, from 29 October – 3 November, 2012. Here’s the blurb: A group of mental patients gather for a therapy session to each recount the terrifying events that caused them to lose their minds. But is their mysterious therapist all she appears to be, and will her course of treatment prove to be kill or cure? Cigarette Burns and an award-winning team of horror/fantasy creators join forces to bring you a nightmarish evening filled with primal screams. Writers Kim Newman (Anno Dracula, Moriarty –…
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dynamic trio
I utterly failed to post images last week, as I promised, so I’m endeavouring to do better this week. This dynamic trio is Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Hawk Girl, and was a small splurge on my part while I was in Dublin last week. I was smitten with the expression on Hawk Girl’s face in particular. There is also a Harley Quinn in this set, but alas she sold out first (no surprise). I was up in Dublin last week for the 2011 ZeBBie Awards Ceremony, the annual awards voted upon by the members of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild. It’s an event that honours Irish writers of radio,…
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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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Autumn
I spotted this fine fellow on my way into the woods to walk my dog this morning. It’s a good example of Coprinus comatus, also known as the shaggy ink cap or the lawyer’s wig, among others. I usually refer to it as the shaggy ink cap (or, as I misspoke this morning upon my return – the shaggy inkwell). This mushroom erupted and flourished in the mere 48 hours since my last visit to this location, or else I was singularly unobservant during my previous trip. Change can occur in a day or two, if you notice. It was the first thing I spotted on this occasion, and I…
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sun in the sky you know how I feel
I’ve been getting a constant stream of birthday greetings from people via Facebook and Twitter today, and it’s lovely. Thank you all! People might grumble about social media, but it has its good uses too. I’m just about recovered from my two-week trip with back-to-back convention in the UK. World Horror Convention was probably the highlight because it was a well-run convention, and I met loads of new people at the event since the horror/dark fantasy crowd aren’t well represented at the likes of Eastercon (which focuses more on SF and Fantasy). It’s pretty much confirmed that I’ll have to start attending Fantasy Con in England, and I’ve already joined…
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dear Alexandra
This blog post began as a reply to a comment made by horror writer and screenwriter, Alexandra Sokoloff, on my last blog entry, but got too long. It’s probably best if you read that first before continuing with this entry. I’ll wait. Back? Great. Here’s what my couple of lines morphed into: Dear Alexandra, Thank you for your note, and I appreciate your kind comments. I’m currently reading your novel The Price, as I’m engaged in a drive to read as much horror by women as possible before World Horror Convention. That means getting books from a lot of different sources, especially since women’s horror isn’t easy to come by…
