Convention Diary Good Friday 14th April 2017 – Artists And Publishers Receptions

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A common science fiction convention event is a wine and conversation meeting with publishers who get to promote their newest titles, often with the authors present to talk about, read from and sell copies of their new books too. This year the convention invited its many artists and book-sellers to promote their work the same way, so the artists reception immediately preceded the promotion by Gollancz Press. Both events were lovely, informal and relaxed affairs with no hard sell. Gollancz are aiming to have a big open day event in London later this year which I hope to be free to attend. I filled in a form that entitles me to more detail closer to the event. The last organized event of the night was a concert by eclectic punk-folk musicians Painted Ocean, which was very good, and deserved a much bigger audience than it got. Any musicians taking their name from a line in Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner poem are cool by me. I had drinks with friends old and new way into the early hour before catching the bus back to my hostel, passing many drunks arguing and on the brink of fighting in the city centre, reminding me how many people were behaving over the holiday weekend. Arthur Chappell