By Stephen Jones, editor of Gollancz's Black Book bestsellers Necronomicon and The Complete Chronicles of Conan.
I was fortunate to be invited as a Guest to this year’s Alt.Fiction – Derby’s Festival of Horror, Fantasy and Sci-fi sponsored by Writing East Midlands.
Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell at the podcast. Photo: courtesy of Jenny Campbell.
After skipping last year, the one-day event had moved to a new venue, Derby’s purpose-built arts centre, the QUAD. Located in the city’s central Market Place and within easy reach of the numerous bars and restaurants in the immediate area, it was therefore unfortunate that the convention coincided with not only England’s first World Cup game, but also the annual Download Festival being held at nearby Donington Park.
Still, there was no denying the calibre of the professionals Alt.Fiction attracted: the other Guests included Britain’s finest living horror writer, Ramsey Campbell, author and comics writer Mike Carey, Doctor Who scriptwriters and authors Paul Cornell and Robert Shearman, with publisher/writer Peter Crowther as Master of Ceremonies. Other attendees included fellow Gollancz authors Mark Chadbourn, Graham Joyce and Sarah Pinborough, plus Chaz Brenchley, Tim Lebbon, Steven Erikson, Joel Lane, Juliet E. McKenna, Gary McMahon, Mark Morris, Nicholas Royle, Stephen Volk, Ian Watson, Ian Whates and Conrad Williams, amongst others.
You can always judge a convention by the quality of its delegate bag. In this case, it was a handy shoulder bag containing a couple of free paperbacks, various flyers and samplers, and an attractive programme book (although it was a shame that some of the pages were printed in the wrong order).
There was a brief opening ceremony presented by Peter Crowther, then things kicked off early for me, as Ramsey and I were scheduled for a 10am podcast, to be broadcast later on the Alt.Fiction site. We had quite an audience for our informal chat, which was ostensibly based around The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror but was actually far more wide-ranging. It probably doesn’t come as a shock to anybody who knows us that we could have gone on much longer than our allotted hour – but they were recording a number of other podcasts throughout the day to be archived, so we eventually had to stop talking!
It was probably a good thing, really, as for the next hour I was on a panel entitled ‘How to Get Published’ moderated by Pete, with genre agents John Jarrold and John Berlyne, Solaris Books/Abaddon Books editor Jenni Hill and Gollancz’s own publicity manager Jon Weir (who later admitted he was a panel virgin, but acquitted himself extremely well). Like all the panels held during the day, it was very well attended, and the attentive audience asked some interesting and pertinent questions.
No sooner had we finished dispensing advice to the attentive attendees than I was off to the dealers’ room to participate in a ‘Horror Signing’ with Ramsey Campbell and Conrad Williams. Although not huge, the room featured the British Fantasy Society, Black Static/Interzone magazines and small press imprint Murky Depths, along with a convention table groaning under the weight of books by most of the attending authors.
I signed steadily for the next hour – a mix of titles, including copies of the latest printing of Necronomicon – while chatting to fans and friends. In fact, I continued talking in the bar until 2pm, when I had to leave to take part in a panel entitled ‘Creating Fear – The Art of Horror Writing’, moderated by a nervous Gary McMahon and featuring some old pals – Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough and Conrad Williams. Suffice to say, given that line-up, it was a bit of a knockabout discussion, although I think we managed to get our various points across (disagreeing with your fellow panellist always helps!), although the audience seemed rather bemused by the bickering.
For the rest of the afternoon I was free! Although there were a number of interesting panels scheduled, including ‘Genre Books You Must Read’, ‘How Does Today’s SF Compare to the Classics’, ‘Dark Fantasy vs Horror – What’s the Difference?’, ‘Writing for BBC Books’, ‘Writing for Comics’, ‘Hack & Slash vs “Sparkly Vampires”’, ‘What is Alternative Fiction?’ and ‘TV Writing – The Trials and Tribulations’, along with various readings, signings and creative writing workshops, I elected to join the throng now filling the bar and, later, get some much-needed food inside me.
I was back at 7pm for the Auction, hosted by Ramsey Campbell and Peter Crowther. It was a shame that more people did not attend (they were either still in the bar, having dinner, watching the football or, even more pathetically, watching the new episode of Doctor Who live on TV), as some excellent items went for very reasonable prices. These included numerous signed books and proof copies, Stephen Volk’s original script for the BBC’s Ghostwatch signed by him and the director, a copy of my own Brighton Shock! signed by an incredible thirty-three (!) contributors, and a fabulously scarce and expensive limited edition Christmas story by Ramsey.
By now most of those who were staying were firmly entrenched in the bar, so there was a disappointingly small audience for the rare 35mm screening of Roger Corman’s The Haunted Palace and The Raven in the QUAD’s state-of-the-art cinema, which I introduced. Those who did stay (including me) were treated to an entertaining 1960s double-bill starring those titans of terror Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, Jr.
I finally made my bleary-eyed way back to my hotel around 1am, only to discover that the Alt.Fiction crowd and the Download music fans had formed a fellowship dedicated to drinking the bar dry. I decided it had been a long enough day and headed up to my room for a nice cup of tea and a soft bed.
Given the grey faces and hangovers that greeted me, imagine how smug I felt the following morning at breakfast…
