Yesterday I went along to Alt.Fiction, Derby's festival of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Essentially it's a small genre convention, though unusual (as far as I'm aware) in lasting only a single day; and surely rare (perhaps unique) in being organised by a local council. This was the third year of the event, and my second time attending; it seemed smaller than last year (certainly there were fewer book vendors, if that's anything to go by), but I still had a good time (and managed to buy more books than I intended, as per usual).

Even though I'm not a writer myself, I do tend to find myself interested in panels on subjects like publishing, and yesterday was no exception. Plenty of wise words from people like jjarrold, emphasising particularly the importance of remembering that publishing is a business and writing is a career. The key message to would-be authors seems to be: don't have too romantic a view of the writer's life, but also stay true as far as you can to your vision of what you want to write, within the realities of the commercial marketplace. Sounds a complicated balancing act!

Most entertaining anecdote of the day was desperance's tale of the time he met Quentin Tarantino (last year's was Tony Ballantyne recounting a dream in which he was choosing between two packets of fish fingers, one costing 10p more than the other). Besides panels and anecdotes, another fun part of conventions is getting the chance to see authors in person; yesterday was the first time I'd seen Charles Stross speak, and he proved to be an entertaining and charismatic presence (as genre authors tend to be, in my experience). I really ought to get around to reading one of his books (and, since one was given away in the Alt.Fiction goodie bag, I have no excuse).

One of the issues that comes up around Alt.Fiction is whether the even should expand to cover more than one day. Funding (or lack of it) may make this a moot point; but I think it's good to have a single-day convention. I suppose the main downside is that panels will inevitably have to take a broad-brush approach, given the shortage of time and space; but I think it's more valuable to have an alternative for people who might have thought about going to a convention, but don't want (or can't afford) to stay overnight somewhere.

So, here's to many more successful years for Alt.Fiction! Next on my personal convention calendar is Fantasycon in September. One year, I keep promising myself, I will make the effort to go to Eastercon...

Dispossession by Chaz Brenchley (1996)

One of the reasons I decided to include books by my LiveJournal friends in my reading for the 50 Book Challenge was that they coincided with some books I had meant to read for quite a while. I was thinking especially of this one by desperance, which I bought eight years ago and is actually my first Brenchley novel (though I have also thoroughly enjoyed his short fiction). Another reason for choosing to blog about books by my LJ friends is that I was pretty confident I'd enjoy them unreservedly; and now that decision may come back to bite me, because I like the beginning of Dispossession more than I like the ending.

And the beginning is very good indeed. Jonty Marks is a solicitor who wakes up in a hospital bed having been in a car crash, but with no memory of the event -- or of the previous three months. What's more, in that period, he apparently left his girlfriend and met and married another woman, who is now a complete stranger to him. And Jonty, who prides himself on his honesty, now seems to be working for a major local criminal.

I love this sort of mystery (yes, I'm the kind of person who enjoys all the plot twists in programmes like Lost), and the situation only gets stranger as Jonty looks further into it. Couple that with the enthusiasm for language evident in Brenchley's prose, and Dispossession was shaping up to be a treat. And then Brenchley drops in an angel, an angel named Luke: not a 'friend' of Jonty's -- Luke isn't that kind of being -- but someone he can go to for sanctuary. Brenchley treats Luke's existence in a very matter-of-fact way: Jonty's wife knows about him, and nothing feels contrived about the way he's introduced. I had to smile at such a delightfully casual use of the imagination.

As I said, a great start to the book as far as I'm concerned. But I don't think the rest quite matches it. Essentially, I found the solution to the mystery less interesting than the mystery itself (which may be why I've written so much much more here about the latter). But I'll still be investigating Chaz Brenchley's other novels.