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...