Marie O’Regan

I’m finally surfacing after this year’s FantasyCon (Paul’s and my first as Organisers), and I can honestly say that we had a great time - even though I didn’t get to see one single panel or interview, as I spent the whole weekend running around. I even had to miss Paul interviewing Dave McKean, which I’d really wanted to see. Numbers were down very slightly on last year, but I suppose given the current financial climate that’s hardly surprising. Everyone I’ve spoken to seems to have had a great time, and the only blot on the weekend for me was the appearance of one or more light-fingered folk making off with things that didn’t belong to them.
Dave McKean, James Barclay and Christopher Golden were great Guests of Honour - and Christopher Fowler was, as always, a delight - and made a very entertaining MC for the proceedings.Paul launched his novel, Arrowhead, from Abaddon Books, something he was both excited and nervous about - he’s spent a large part of the last year researching, writing and editing that novel, so it’s a bit weird to actually see it in the flesh, so to speak

Paul and I stepped down from the BFS and FCON committees at the AGM on Sunday morning, something I found a real wrench. Work and the BFS/FCON combined, though, have made for an  insanely busy year - and that’s not fair on the kids, so it was time to take a step back and let someone else move the Society forward. Paul and I (along with the rest of the Committee) have worked really hard to try and raise the BFS profile during our time - and I look forward to seeing how it progresses under the Chairship of Guy Adams. He and Peter Coleborn are also co-chairing next year’s FantasyCon, at which I’ll actually get to sit in the bar and chat to friends, and see panels and interviews next year

Away from the BFS it’s been a hectic summer, as usual. Various work projects have been moving forward for both of us (some joint, some separate), and now we can concentrate more on those. Joe moved home now his placement year in Lincoln has ended, and Peter graduated University. I had to go down to London on my own to that one, as Paul was teaching that day, and I got very choked up watching my boy go and receive his degree. It seems like yesterday he and Joe were little blond tots, full of mischief - and now they dwarf me, and are bright, funny, interesting blokes who like to tease Mum. Time flies.

In July we travelled to London for the BFS Awards Showcase, which was a fun afternoon and evening in the BFS’ usual venue, Ye Olde Cock Tavern on Fleet Street; in August we went to York for an Open Night there, and managed to win the quiz by some fluke (result of lots of watching DVDs of TV I’d missed when it first came out, as part of Paul’s quest to bring me up to date with those. Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Dead Zone, loads more…); then in September we were back in London for the September Open Night. We also went to Pinewood this summer, to meet Bob Keen - great fun, and a really lovely bloke. We managed to catch the X Files movie at the cinema, and were disappointed. It was a standard thriller with surgical experimentation thrown in, but it really wasn’t an X File. I wanted to see something along the lines of the classic episodes, with characters like Tooms…nothing like that. We also went to see The Dark Knight, and that was fantastic. Roll on the next Batman movie.

Post FCON I actually got to spend a whole day reading, which seemed almost sinful Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (which I’m reviewing for Dreamwatch) - Paul nabbed it the second it was in the house, so I had to wrest it from him for a day He’s now reading it while our daughter Jen is hopping impatiently in the background. I have to say, once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down - I thought it was wonderful: funny, sad, clever…and quirky. Buy it as soon as it comes out, you won’t regret it.

Paul and I were delighted when an invitation to a private screening of Neil Gaiman’s new film, Stardust, arrived a couple of weeks ago, especially when the timing coincided with a weekend we were in London for the BFS Open Night on 1st June.

So off we trotted last Sunday to Paramount Pictures in London, looking forward to what we hoped was a good film (I read the novel ages ago, and was a bit muzzy on some details, plus I wanted to see how it had turned out). A very nervous Neil introduced it briefly; as an almost complete version of the film. Some of the music wasn’t finished yet, but there was place holder music on the soundtrack (recognisable bits from Dracula, Edward Scissorhands, and the end tune was the entirely appropriate Starman by David Bowie, which I love anyway), and what we were to see wasn’t too far off the final cut.
It’s an excellent film. The lead characters, Tristan and Yvaine (played by Charlie Cox and Claire Danes) were touching, and funny, and….honest. That’s the best way I can think to describe them, they were totally believable and utterly likeable. And the rest of the cast were just as good. Robert De Niro was very funny as Captain Shakespeare, as was his crew, headed by Dexter Fletcher; Ricky Gervais had a brief but very funny spot as Ferdy the Fence, and Michelle Pfeiffer made a great evil witch. Top notch. It opens over here in October, and we’ll definitely be taking my daughter, Jen, she’ll love it.

If you go and see one fantasy film this year, make it Stardust. You won’t regret it.

I really do have to be more organised about posting here, the days just seem to rush by lately.

Things seem to have got even more hectic since I last posted - Paul and I got married at the end of March, it seemed like we’d been planning it for ages but would never get there. Okay, so it was a bit nippy seeing as it was only March, but the rain held off and 60 of our family and closest friends came to help us celebrate. It was a perfect day (even if my sons do think I turned into the antichrist briefly before leaving home for the hotel), and it was lovely to see everyone. You can see pictures from the wedding and the World Horror Convention 2007, which was held in Toronto, over on Paul’s site, should you so wish. Well, where else would two horror authors go on honeymoon?

WHC was a blast, brilliantly organised by Amanda Foubister, Stephen Jones and Mandy Slater. By the end of it they were exhausted and poor Steve had lost his voice. I was glad that Paul and I flew out early, the day after the wedding, as it gave us a few days to ourselves to do the touristy thing first, shopping, sight-seeing…we even had a day at Niagara Falls, where it was a beautiful sunny day - once the Con started there was too much to see and do to venture out much.

We got to meet Pete Atkins and his lovely wife Dana, which made Paul’s week as he’s a complete Hellraiser nut (which everyone must know by now, surely) and had been in touch with Pete about his Hellraiser book previously. We also got to meet Nancy Kilpatrick and her partner, Hugues LeBlanc, both lovely people who will hopefully be at FantasyCon this September, and a lot of friends from the UK: Chris Teague, Stuart Young, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough, Mark Morris, Steve and Mandy, Mike Marshall Smith with his wife Paula and son Nate, Pete and Nicky Crowther, Ramsey and Jenny Campbell…it was like FantasyCon all over again

And then it was back to the UK and work, and normal life resumes. Good to be home, though At the moment we’re both trying to finish fiction pieces we’re working on in between other things. There are some articles coming up in various places (Hub, Writing Magazine), I’ve been lucky enough to interview Betsy Palmer and Mike Carey, both really lovely people and with a lot of interesting things to say (details of where and when soon), plus reviews and the tutoring work. And…oh yes, life. That was it Somewhere in that lot I try and find time to spend with the kids and sorting out the house and the inevitable mess that teenagers bring.

We were delighted to get an invitation to a private screening of Stardust last Sunday, but that was so good it deserves its own post…

Haven’t had a chance to post for a while - life suddenly went through one of those manic phases that doesn’t actually see you achieving as much as you think you should given the amount of activity involved - although I have to say a large part of the activity was family-related, hence the slow results workwise. Youngest (daughter), Jen, has been adjusting to the new, very large, world of secondary school, only a year after finding her perfect (very small) primary school when we moved from London to Derbyshire - and although she likes it there, I think the sheer size of the place is what she’s finding hard to adjust to. Next one up (youngest son), David, has just restarted sixth form in the same school as Jen after having to take the best part of a year out due to illness, so has had to make new friends and redo everything to do with settling in that he did last year, when we moved. And the oldest two boys (twins), Peter and Joe, have now started their second year at University, so the house is quieter than it’s been for a while. Funny how I hate the silence for a few days when they’ve all gone back to their various schools, and have to have music on until I’ve got used to it again. Still, not long till the Christmas holidays (good grief - where’s the year gone?).

On Friday 13th (when else) - Paul, Simon Clark and I ran a Horror Day event, which went very well. Simon did his Write For Life talk, full of anecdotes and advice on being a professional author, and Paul and I did a workshop on Elements of Horror Fiction. In the evening we did readings, followed by a Q and A session, which rapidly developed into swapping of personal odd experiences, both ours and those of the audience members. Good fun, and would love to do it again. Alex Davis, of Derby Alt Fiction fame, helped us set the event up.

We went to Derby on Thursday night to see our friends, Chaz Brenchley and Gail Nina Anderson, together with Sean O’Brien, read ghost stories at The Old Dolphin Inn, which is supposedly haunted. It was a fun night, very atmospheric, good company, good food. Nice to see another friend there, Sarah Pinborough, hadn’t seen her since FantasyCon. Chaz is doing it all over again at Christmas in Newcastle, details on his site soon, no doubt. We’ll have to see if we can escape the Christmas preparations long enough to go…

We got home on Friday evening, having spent a day wandering Derby (very nice place, lots of cool shopping including a Forbidden Planet, hence the wander), then early on Saturday morning it was off to London to attend Chillerfest, part of MCM Expo. Lots of anime fans dressed as very weird characters wandering around, some carrying placards offering free hugs (?), and loads of tables selling all things genre - figures, cards, books, DVDs… we were lucky enough to interview Christa Campbell, one of the stars of Momentum Pictures’ new movie, 2001 Maniacs, starring Robert Englund and directed by Tim Sullivan. She spent the weekend at the Gorezone/Momentum table, signing copies of Gorezone, which ran a feature on the film in the latest episode, alongside cast interviews. Also there were actors from Stargate, CSI, 4400, as well as legends Christopher Lee and Tom Savini.

I read an article on the BBC website about Saw III today, apparently people have been fainting at viewings of the film. See here for details. Can’t wait to see it…

And over on Neil Gaiman’s journal, some very sage advice for anyone who’s a writer/artist… As Neil says, please read and feel free to pass the information on.

Oh, and we’ve decided to take in World Horror Con, in Toronto, as part of our honeymoon next March. Can’t wait …

Currently reading Lisey’s Story, by Stephen King. Loving it. Before that it was The Secret of Crickley Hall, by James Herbert. One of his best, I think.

I’m just about recovering from a really great weekend at FantasyCon - but one that was, as usual, hellaciously short on sleep. This was a good thing, though

Paul and I got there around eleven am on Friday morning, and immediately started helping Jen and Pat set up, aided by Debbie and Vicky when they arrived. Various FCON regulars and even a couple of FCON virgins who’d arrived early also helped with things like stuffing goodie bags, for which we are all eternally grateful.

The weekend from there rapidly became a whirl of catching up with friends and making new ones, attending panels and interviews, and generally drinking and eating too much. You’d think we’d learn, wouldn’t you…

A highlight of the weekend, for myself and Paul, was meeting Clive Barker - we’ve both been massive fans ever since the Books of Blood hit the shelves. I was delighted to find him to be such a nice person, and very funny and entertaining on the panels/interview that he did. He was nice enough to sign a few books we brought along - my first edition paperbacks of the Books of Blood, and my copy of Visions of Heaven and Hell. Paul bought some of his favourite Barker books along too, and Clive signed them all. (We didn’t just land them on him, I hasten to add, we did ask him beforehand if he’d mind). He even drew some pictures in them for us, which was great of him. Neil Gaiman, too, happily signed the books we’d brought along (and again, we’d asked him first if that was okay).

The speeches at the Banquet and Awards Ceremony were fantastic - especially one by Clive on why we shouldn’t use the term genre fiction. You can see the full transcript of it on Clive’s site here.

The Con turned out really well - we had somewhere in the region of 400-450 attendees, all of whom seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, with the exception of the bar shutting too early on Friday night (2am). We soon sorted THAT out. The bar’s a very important part of things, and no one wants to be sent to bed early, we were all enjoying chatting and unwinding. I’ve heard a lot of very positive comments, and we’ve already started planning next year’s. Strewth! For the record, it’s back at the same hotel, The Britannia, Nottingham, on the weekend of 21st - 23rd September, 2007. Expect some announcements about Guests etc soon.

Last thing I’d like to do is say my thank yous. Thank you to Debbie, Vicky, Pat and Jenny, who worked so hard all year on FCON - and thank you to everyone who helped out or took part in panels over the weekend, you were great. And lastly, thank you to the Guests of Honour for being everything a Guest of Honour should be - erudite, entertaining, and as committed as everyone else to having a damn good time. Thank you Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Raymond Feist, Ramsey Campbell, and Juliet E. MCKenna.

We (Paul and I) had the slightly weird experience on Thursday of travelling to Derby to be interviewed for Radio 2 about FantasyCon. Joining us in the interview were Mark Chadbourn, whose latest book is Jack of Ravens, and Juliet E McKenna, whose latest book is Eastern Tide. We got there, were installed in a studio and much genre chat ensued - great fun if slightly surreal. It’ll be interesting to see how much - if any - of what we said actually makes it into the eight minute slot allocated on Friday 22nd September, sometime between 10pm and midnight. I’ll have to get one of the kids to tape it, as we’ll be at FantasyCon by then.

FantasyCon grows ever closer, there are now 5 days to go, and things are getting even more hectic! Jen’s running around like a headless chicken, and doing a great job of getting everything together that needs to be brought along - such as members’ copies of Cinema Macabre and BFS: A Celebration, and the much anticipated FantasyCon booklet that has original, exclusive cover art by Clive Barker. We’re very grateful to Clive for allowing us to use this, and there’s also an interview with Clive and the other GOH inside the booklet. It’s going to be a good one

There are some interesting possibilities on the writing front, but they’re a bit too nebulous to talk about at the minute, so more shortly…. must go, have to wrest Paul’s new toy away from him (digicam). Honestly, some men shouldn’t be allowed gadgets…

So here it is, my own little corner of blogdom. Not sure how much I have to say, really, but I wanted to start keeping a journal, and in this day and age it might as well be an online one

It’s been a busy week, but a good one. I went to London on Friday 2nd with my fiance, Paul Kane, for the British Fantasy Society Open Night. They’re always fun, and this one was no exception - attendees included Steve Jones, Mike Marshall Smith, Tony Richards, Lavie Tidhar, Chris Fowler, Mark Samuels, Bob Covington, Dave Bezzina, Alec Worley, Alex Davis…loads more. It’s always a good night, and I don’t get to see these guys often enough.

It’s good to get a chance to catch up with friends from the writing side of my world that I only see every few months, but it’s also great as it gives me a chance to stay with one of my very best friends that I’ve known since I was nineteen, and catch up with my son Peter, who lives in London, my parents, and my oldest friends. I don’t see any of them anywhere near enough since I moved to Chesterfield from London last summer, but it does make for some great weekends when we get a chance to get away and relax.

This Friday we were at the launch of Christopher Fowler’s new book, Ten Second Staircase. A lovely guy, and a great writer. If you haven’t checked his stuff out before, why not? Ended up in the pub, no surprise there, before travelling homeward to Chesterfield with Paul, accompanied by Graham Joyce on his way back to Leicester. Very funny guy, and a great writer. And we get to catch up with everyone all over again in a few weeks, at FantasyCon, on 22nd September. For those who don’t know (shame on you), FantasyCon is the annual convention of the BFS, and this year it’s taking place at the Britannia Hotel, Nottingham, over the weekend of 22nd to 24th September. Full details can be seen at www.fantasycon.org.uk. Guests of Honour: Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Raymond Feist, Ramsey Campbell and Juliet E McKenna. Go and have a look at the site, and book a place. Trust me, it’s fun!

In the run up to FantasyCon, life becomes even more hectic than normal (just ask Jen and the rest of the FCON committee), so other news is a bit sparse at the moment. I’m very happy that Steve Upham, editor of Estronomicon, over at Screaming Dreams is going to bring out my novella, Mirror Mere, as an e-book, but want to finish a couple of other projects I have on the go at the moment, and get on with a website I’m designing. What a life

Currently reading: The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

Last film seen: Saw II. Very pleasantly (?!) surprised by this one. It’s not often, to my mind, that sequels live up to the original. Aside from a couple of very miinor gripes, this one did.