BristolCon

Bristolcon Fringe: March 2014 - Rosie Oliver

Our first reading for February was from Rosie Oliver, who is a regular attendee at BristolCon.

After gaining a maths degree from Oxford University, Rosie started her 30-plus years career in engineering. She is now what they call a systems engineer. As a child, she discovered the shelves of yellow hardback Gollancz science fiction books at her local library, and she was hooked. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing it. This led onto her doing an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. (Well, it is an ‘engineering solution’ to improving one’s writing!) Rosie has had several short stories published in various magazines and anthologies. Her series of novelettes about a self-learner robo-cat, simply called C.A.T., is e-published by TWB Press… mrrooowww! You are welcome to read her blog at rosieoliver.wordpress.com.

Rosie treated us to a short story, a fragment from a novel, and a preview of a new C.A.T. story. As she had to catch an early train home, we did her Q&A immediately after her reading.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: February 2014 - Q&A

Finally from the February meeting we have a Q&A session with our authors. Ken talks about his fledgling writing career. Jonathan explains to Cheryl who Johnny Vegas is. We discuss the current revival in the worship of the Aesir. And Snorri tells a joke about Finns, as Vikings are prone to do.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: February 2014 - Snorri Kristjansson

Our final reader for February came all the way from Iceland, via London where he now lives and works.

Snorri Kristjansson is a former actor and stand-up comic turned author whose debut novel, The Swords of Good Men, is attracting a lot of favorable attention. As the publisher's blurb says, it’s got a mad king determined to bring the White Christ to the masses, a mysterious and beautiful woman drawing the souls of dead warriors to her cause, a gentle blacksmith with dangerous blood and a young hero, who has a lot to learn about the cruelty of the world.

Snorri's performance includes the first ever public reading from Blood Will Follow, the second book in the Valhalla Saga, which is due for release this summer. As the books are about Vikings, a certain amount of drinking, murder, pillage and general mayhem is involved. Also beards, but no horns on helmets.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: February 2014 - Jonathan Pinnock

Our second reading for February was from local writer, Jonathan Pinnock, who was new to most of us but quickly established his geek cred by reading poetry in reverse Fibonacci format. He also knows far too much about what really happened in Bath at the end of the 19th Century.

Away from science fiction, Jonathan Pinnock runs a software company and writes mostly short fiction, much of which appears to win mainstream prizes of various sorts.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: February 2014 - Ken Shinn

With Scott Lewis having been called away to rescue people from the Somerset floods, Ken Shinn kindly stepped into the breach in our February event. He read from his story, "A Case of the Vapours" from Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion.

Ken Shinn was born in London in the later years of the 20th century. Since his childhood, he has regarded the world of speculative fiction with envious eyes, and slowly and surely he has laid his plans against it. Almost half a century later, following residences in Liverpool and Norwich and their respective SF communities, he is now resident in Bristol with his two cats, and is very pleased to be so. “Case Of The Vapours” is his first professionally-published fiction, and will not be his last. (He also owns his own top hat.)

Our apologies to Ken for some sound problems during the reading.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: January 2014 - Q&A

This is the Q&A session from the January 2014 BristolCon Fringe event. The guest readers are Désirée Fischer and Lou Morgan. The event is hosted by Cheryl Morgan. Topics covered include Dante, Milton, Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, and writing in a second language.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: January 2014 - Lou Morgan

This is the second reading from the January 2014 BristolCon Fringe reading. It features Lou Morgan who reads her story, "Her Heartbeat, An Echo", from the Jurassic Book of the Dead anthology. The event is hosted by Cheryl Morgan.

Lou Morgan lives in Bath with her husband and son (and the obligatory writer’s cat). Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies from PS Publishing, Solaris Books and Jurassic London – most recently, in Jurassic’s Egyptian mummy anthology, “The Book of the Dead”. Her first novel, “Blood and Feathers”, was published by Solaris Books in 2012 and was nominated for two British Fantasy Awards, being shortlisted in both the “Best Newcomer” and “Best Fantasy Novel” categories. The sequel, “Blood and Feathers: Rebellion” followed in the summer of 2013.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

Bristolcon Fringe: January 2014 - Désirée Fischer

This is the first reading from the January 2014 BristolCon Fringe reading. It features German writer, Désirée Fischer. The event is hosted by Cheryl Morgan.

Désirée Fischer is working for a well known Cult and Entertainment store by day and leading a not so very secret life as a writer by night. She grew up in Germany but always wanted to move to England, so she packed her suitcase as soon as she finished university and has never looked back.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

BristolCon Fringe: December 2013 - Kevlin Henney + Q&A

This is the third reading from the December 2013 BristolCon Fringe reading. It features a third flash fiction story from Kevlin Henney and a Q&A session with both Kevlin and Joanne Hall. The event is hosted by Cheryl Morgan.

The story that Kevlin reads is "Milk Teeth and Chocolate Eggs", which was first published in The Liminal.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.

BristolCon Fringe: December 2013 - Joanne Hall

This is the second reading from the November 2013 BristolCon Fringe reading. It features Joanne Hall who treated us to the first ever reading from her forthcoming novel, The Art of Forgetting: Nomad. The event is hosted by Cheryl Morgan.

Joanne Hall is the Chair of BristolCon. She has published four novels and one collection of short fiction, and has stories in many anthologies. She has also edited anthologies. The Art of Forgetting series is published by Kristell Ink. Nomad is the sequel to the first volume, Rider.

BristolCon Fringe is a monthly reading series produced by the BristolCon Foundation. For details of future events, see our website.