Afternoon all,
I did mean to blog again yesterday, honest, but you know how convention are... you get talking to a few people and before you know it it's 2:30 in the morning and you really should be getting to bed. So to summarise yesterday and the very early stages of this morning...
A very good young adult fiction panel, which is an area that really interests me on the whole. General summary was that the quality of ya fiction had gone up, and the differences between adult and young adult were less than they ever have been. Also fascinating to hear that publishers are often seeking to get things under the YA bracket, because it makes them easier to sell and the genre distinctions are much less marked.
Following that it was a WordPunk podcast with Del Lakin-Smith, Simon Gilmartin, Paul Cornell and Tom Hunter. As is often the case e-books and e-readers were a hot topic. I can't see that i't something I'll ever go for - I love the book as a physical object far too much to ever desert it for a reader - but it's interesting to see the advances being made, including illustrated and animated e-books for the IPad. While I say I wouldn't ever have a kindle or anything like that, there's no point in burying my head in the sand about it - a lot of people prefer them, as it makes it easier for them to read on the move and so on, which is all good. The key thing is that people are reading, it often just seems that authors and occassionally publishers haven't quite figured out where they fit just yet.
That was all my panels for the day, so then it was to the bar for drinks before heading out to dinner. Good to catch up with some more old acquaintances as well as meeting quite a few new friends as well. Dinner was out at Mem-saab, a great Indian restaurant which was about a million miles from the conventiion but worth the trip. After that it was back to the hotel bar to talk gaming, movies, events, books and more in great company throughout. I also wound up playing three games of pool on a wonky table that had 6 reds and 8 yellows, which certainly made the matches more interesting...
Sunday morning came around too soon as always, and after a heart breakfast it was on to a poetry reading with Cardinal Cox, Susan Sinclair and Donna Scott. It's been a while since I've been to a poetry reading, but it was an entertaining mix of the comedic and quirky. It worked well in the Nook cafe bar as a space too.
Right, that brings us about up to date - full report to follow tomorrow...
Cheers!
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