Marie O’Regan

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.