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April 29, 2007
Alt.Fiction 2007 - What I did
I had an excellent time at Alt.Fiction in Derby yesterday. Here's a run down on what I did (who I met deserves an entire post of its own).....
- Adam Nevill and Tim Lebbon - Making the Breakthrough. Both are Horror writers (although you're not allowed to call it Horror in the UK at the moment, it's Supernatural Thriller(!). Tim published his first novel in a small press and then after a few books got picked up by a large publisher in the US. Interesting thoughts on whether the small press route was a good idea for a writer (the answer is that it worked for him). Adam works as an editor as well as a writer and he said that good stories/novels really stood out in the slushpile, but they have to be really good. The advice was (as usual) write lots, get good. Interesting.
- Peter Hamilton and Tony Ballantyne - I'm a big fan of Peter Hamilton and I've read some of Tony Ballantyne's shorts in Interzone. Both did reading from upcoming books and then answered questions. Peter's was from his upcoming book set in his Commonwealth universe (which should please a lot of people). I asked Peter if he outlines his massive plots and he said that he can take up to six months getting ready to go, creating worlds, characters plots and so on. Peter also said that he revises in the morning what he wrote the day before, then writes in the afternoon, and nowadays does 9 to 5. Tony on the other hand writes one hour a day, fitting it around his day job (and his family). I asked him if it gets frustrating only having such a limited time, does he wish he could write faster? He said sometimes, although the limited time span means that he wastes no time, he has to write. Both were very interesting and entertaining
- John Berlyne, John Jarrold and Stephen Hunt - Classics of Science-Fiction - One of those panels with an arbitrary question, this time "What is a classic?". John Berlyne was looking for the DNA of a classic, John Jarrold strayed into a rant about WHSmiths (as usual) and Stephen Hunt provided some insightful comments. The best definition of a classic was provided by Harry Harrison, who was sitting in the front row launching witty comments, "A classic is a book you read when you are 12 years old." John Jarrold did say something that cheered me up immensely though, he said that now was the best time in SF in the UK for 20 years, that the likes of such diverse writers as Charles Stross, Justina Robson, Alistair Reynolds etc were making it a lot easier for him to sell SF to publishers.
- Tony Ballantyne, Characters In Science Fiction workshop - Tony is a teacher in his day job and so, as you'd expect, gave a good workshop. He's also a nice bloke, very friendly and witty. His workshop was about revealing character through characters. A cool little exercise for me to try and think about later. The problem with the workshop were logistical rather than Tony's fault: the area wasn't big enough, there were too many people and the time was too short. Shame. I'd like at some point to go on a long writing workshop, but not sure when (or where).
- Harry Harrison, Interview and Q+A (by Paul Tomlinson) - Now this was very cool. Harry Harrison is a SF legend. He was really funny and entertaining. He had loads of cool stories and anecdotes, including: the insanities of Hollywood, taking the piss out of Asimov in one of his books, moving from art to writing to make some money(!) and so on. When asked how he felt about Soylent Green no being part of modern culture he said (something like) "It would be fine if I'd made some money from the bastards." He also said that he didn't like the 2000AD version of Stainless Steel Rat too much, he liked the art (Carlos Ezquerra) but wanted less dialogue and more talking. I could have listened to his stories all day. Very, very cool.
- I tried to get on the Harry Harrison workshop, but it was full. I was really disappointed about that. Not impressed. Consequently I went to see Sean Wright, Andrew Hook, Chris Teague and Pete Crowther talk about The World of Small Presses. Quite interesting but I'd heard it all before really. However these guys are doing a great job and are definitely a way for writers to get a start. For anyone thinking of submitting to Postscripts magazine, Pete had a big rant about people not reading the magazine and submitting stories. He said it was rude. whilst Andrew said that he got submissions as random as children's story books!
- Mike Carey, Reading and Q+A - I hadn't heard of Mike Carey before, then I read his biog and realised that he's currently writing the X-Men comic. Wow. He read from his new (prose) book which sounded cool, the main character Felix Castor is a supernatural detective. It was interesting hearing him talk about the differences between comics and novels, he said that comics being more of a team effort meant that satisfaction came much later than when he finished writing the script, usually when he saw the finished product, whereas the day that he finished writing a novel was tremendous. He also resisted giving away the ending to the current X-Men arc! Interesting.
- Iain M Banks, Reading and Q+A - Banksie gave a wonderful performance. He read from his upcoming Culture novel (Matter) and answered questions. He was highly entertaining. I asked him if he had any advice for new writers and he said "Practice.Practice. Practice" and finish things. He also said that you should accept that novels are never perfect, that maybe poems can be perfect, but not novels. He also answered questions about University Challenge, the truth of his Whisky book and the political slant of the Culture novels. He had a great rant about people accepting Capitalism as the last word in economics, whereas no one excepts that we now everything about physics or chemistry or biology. Nice. He talked for a while about the TV and film adaptations of his books (one good, one rubbish) and mentioned that his new book (The Steep Approach To Garbadale) has been optioned, although he really wants his SF books made into a film ("come on Spielberg you bastard!"). Brilliant stuff and a great end to the day.