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Thursday, May 10th, 2012
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8:16 pm - FiftyFiftyMe films 25 - 32
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Or Avengers Assemble as it's called here in the UK.
I did think no-one would mix it up with The Avengers TV series until I mentioned we'd gone to see Avengers to my parents...
I really enjoyed this film. We watched Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor & Hulk (as we'd seen Incredible Hulk more recently) in the week before the film to get us into the mood and remind us of how the plots might lead into the Avengers. I don't think you had to do this to understand or enjoy the film, but it probably enhanced our enjoyment.
Thought it did a great job of showcasing all the characters, with some hilarious character moments while having enough of a plot and danger element to keep the action going at a rollicking pace. As mentioned elsewhere it also did a good job with the female characters.
We enjoyed it so much we didn't get too annoyed at queues making us late, me pulling my back laughing and being in pain for half the movie & Jay cracking a filling on a popcorn kernel!
The Cabin in the Woods
We actually went to see this the week before Avengers, so it was a bit of a Joss Whedon month!
We'd heard from friends this was good, but to enjoy it the most it was best not to get spoilered beforehand. We managed to avoid spoilers and enjoyed each twist as it came. A few of our friends who aren't really into horror wanted to know if they would be able to cope with this (being Joss Whedon fans) & I would describe it as a really ramped up Buffy episode.
Good one liners, characters and amusing moments in between going yuck at some of the gorier moments.
Alien
We we re-watching this in preparation for Prometheus, but after a few minutes it became clear that this was another classic film I thought I'd seen because I know what it's about, but it turns out I've never watched it. Everything I remembered that I thought from was from Alien was actually from Aliens.
I might have a slightly skewed view of the scene where the alien bursts out of the stomach as I saw the tap dancing alien sequence in Spaceballs far too many times as a teenager!
A little slow to start with but tense, claustrophobic and keeps you guessing. True classic.
Despicable Me
What can I say? A cute, sweet, amusing tale of orphans melting the heart of a villainous inventor. The minions do indeed steal every scene they're in though.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
I liked the previous Sherlock Holmes film, as long as I didn't associate it with the written Sherlock Holmes and just sat back to enjoy steampunk action/adventure. Which is how I also viewed this film. It's okay, mainly for RDJ having fun. It was a criminal waste of a character killing off Irene Adler and I don't think it was justified enough as a motive for Sherlock's actions and I did keep expecting her to pop up again.
Santo vs Blue Demon in Atlantis
Dastardly plots to take over the world and populate it with a new race of of people emulating Greek Gods. Two top masked Mexican wrestlers to the rescue...but Blue Demon is drugged and hypnotised to fight for evil. Lots of helicopter and sports car chases and sexy women who might double-cross you. Mad, mad lucha fun.
Misery
Another classic horror film I hadn't seen. Fabulous performance from Kathy Bates. Show how to maintain tension and fear in a small, isolated setting with a small cast.
Candyman
And Jay continues with trying to educate me in the films of Clive Barker... Liked the female lead character in this. Very interesting and creepy take on how urban legends are created.
Halfway through this post I accidentally hit the back button and swore a lot, so glad the refresh button restored what I'd written!
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| Sunday, May 6th, 2012
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4:43 pm - Latest books read
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I've been on a mini-YA binge the last few weeks:
 Polly and the Pirates, Volume 2: Mystery of the Dragonfish by Ted Naifeh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another fun adventure for Miss Polly Pringle and her alter-ego Captain Peg, Pirate Queen.
Polly has to get the old crew together to rescue the Emperor of the Americas, stop a dastardly plot and come up with a really good excuse why she keeps going missing from her boarding school.
 Doghead by Jill Marshall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Jack thinks his life is hard enough when he's trying to fit in at the local comprehensive (when his parents want him to go to Eton) and his Great Granny Dazzle (who was also his best friends) dies. Things get a lot worse when he starts to get rather hairier than he should be and two strange children Ozzy'n'Ice, Ice'n'Ozzy turn up on his doorstep.
Jack's story interweaves with the strange events surrounding his Great Granddad's death in Egypt in the 1920's.
This is an enjoyable enough read, with some wonderfully surreal moments thanks to the appearance of several Egyptian Gods, but the initial posh kid versus local kids theme seemed a little tired.
 Small Minded Giants by Oisin McGann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The world has entered an ice age like never before, very little remains of the human race and those still alive live in domed cities. Teenage boxer Soloman Wheat knows something is wrong when his father disappears, leaving him a gun and a note to trust no-one. Meanwhile his friend Cleo is more bothered about where her next hit of stem is coming from and getting her band the end of year gig at school, than the mysterious accidents happening to the machine that sustains them all.
Both are plunged into the underworld of their restrictive environment, and have to face the dangerous Clockworkers to survive.
This is a fairly fast paced thriller with some pretty violent scenes, but enough characterisation to make you root for the unlikely teenage heroes.
I have a soft spot for post-apocalyptic domed cities and the setting of this one adds to the grim, gritty and tense atmosphere of the novel.
 No Such Thing As Dragons by Philip Reeve
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The title and cover image give you a good clue as to what this book will be about, but that doesn't matter as it's all about the journey. Literally as it's a fairy tale quest book aimed at a younger audience.
Well written, with engaging characters, lots of action and a good sense of place.
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| Saturday, April 21st, 2012
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4:09 pm - BFS Reviews Round-up
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The latest reviews I've written for The British Fantasy Society:
DIARY OF A WITCHCRAFT SHOP by Trevor Jones and Liz Williams (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) mevennen)
"On the whole, this is a fascinating glimpse into someone else’s world." Read full review.
THE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION edited by Charlaine Harris
"One to buy if you’re pining for the next Sookie Stackhouse novel, or as a gift for a loved one who is." Read full review.
GIRL GENIUS, OMNIBUS VOLUME 1: AGATHA AWAKENS by Phil & Kaja Foglio
"Overall, Girl Genius is a fun, fast paced story, now presented in a lovely hardback omnibus edition, demonstrating why the series has won several Hugo Awards." Read the full review.
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| Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
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3:43 pm - Alt Fiction 2012
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Alt Fiction 2012 went by in a bit of a blur for me. This year it moved to Phoenix Square in Leicester, so nice and local for us, and we'd worked with one of the organisers Adele Wearing to ensure there was a comics panel and guests.
Jay can't stay away from sitting behind tables at cons...
We made a last minute decision to have a dealers table in order to sell the new paperback edition of The Girly Comic Book Vol.1 and as somewhere for other comics guests to sell their books. In fact the dealers room was a late edition to the event, which is why it was very quiet & not ideally located next to the open door of the workshop room. I know Adele already has plans for a bigger and better dealers room next year. Having said that we did sell some Girly books and get to have a chat with Terry Martin from House of Murky Depths and the group from Doghorn Publishing.
I replace my ears with the Terror Scribes Anthology & The Girly Comic Book 1 (photo courtesy of Jim Worrad)
It was very exciting to see the Terror Scribes Anthology from Doghorn, which Jay & I both have stories in. If you fancy buying a copy you can get it from Lulu and read some extracts from the book on their blogs (get a 33% discount if you buy straight from the blog).
I spent most of the day on our stall with a few forays into the Phoenix cafe, apart form appearing on the Genre TV Panel (thanks to Will & Jenny for looking after the stall during that) and the Comics Panel.
TV Panel (photo courtesy of Paul Kane)
Genre TV Panel with Steve Volk (mod), Mark Morris, Adam Christopher, me & Alasdair Stuart was interesting in terms of industry insight from Steve and some ideas about the future from Alasdair. Steve was trying to ensure the panel didn't become a what's your favourite TV show panel. Most of the panel centred on discussions of the possible pros/cons and future of TV production. Steve informed us of some very strange industry terms like "crunchy" drama and the general reluctance to take a chance on genre in the British industry. Unfortunately, as a fan instead of an industry bod I felt there was little I could contribute to some questions.
It might be nice to have a couple of panels looking at TV, one with an industry slant and one with a fan slant in future?
We all look surprisingly serious there...
Comics Panel with Jay (mod), Mark Chadbourn, Emma Vieceli, Paul Cornell & I was fun. We talked about the first comic we remember or made us go wow, the comics we wish we owned/still owned, what we would recommend people go out and buy right now and what comic we would save if Galactus was attacking the Earth, before opening up for questions.
Jay & Mark
Mark had by far the best and scariest story of his first comics, as they were inherited from a criminally insane distant relative... we all thought he was joking to start with!
I took props along...the first comic that convinced me comics were for me...
There was lots of love on the panel for comics like Strangers in Paradise, Fables, The Unwritten, Scott Pilgrim and the comics app ComiXology. As part of the questions we discovered that about a third of the audience weren't comics readers and several con reports/twitter have reported people trying out comics afterwards, which is fabulous. Emma got lots of people talking to her and buying her books after the panel too.
Photos courtesy of Jim Worrad
We then collapsed in the bar for a bit before heading out for curry with members of The Speculators (the local speculative fiction writing group we're in), plus Emma & Andrew and Terror Scribe Richard Farren Barber. There was great food and much discussion late into the night. We had been planning on heading to the Ramada Bar after, but never made it back into town.
Sunday was a bit more laid back as there was no dealers room so we didn't have to worry about the stall. I dropped Jay, Emma & Andrew off before making my way into work (yes, voluntary work appearance on behalf of Alt Fiction). We hold the Sue Townsend literary archive at the David Wilson Library, University of Leicester and I offered to show the original, handwritten Adrian Mole manuscript to those taking part in the Literary Cycle Ride organised by Leicester Cycle City and Alt Fiction.
The group of hardy cyclists appeared and seemed very interested in the manuscript, that Adrian started out in a play as Nigel and other literary facts.
Paul Cornell Reading
Then I headed back to the Phoenix, lunched and listened to Paul Cornell reading from his upcoming novel: London Falling. Urban crime/supernatural good stuff, coming out in December.
The rest of the event wound down as I got progressively more tired and incomprehensible and accidentally implied that I was too busy and important to make it to any of Graham Joyce's events (Sorry Graham! I would have loved to come to your panels if I hadn't been at work).
Obligatory swag photo.
The Speculators were some of the last people to leave the Phoneix Cafe around 4pm after a weekend full of genre loveliness.
Thanks to Adele & everyone who contributed to the weekend. Wish I had had the chance to speak to more people, hopefully at FantasyCon 2012 instead!
current mood:  cheerful
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| Monday, April 9th, 2012
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2:58 pm - Latest fiftyfiftyme films
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Films 16 - 24 for the fiftyfiftyme challenge: The Hunger Games, The Awakening, Chronicle, Lethal Weapon, The Mindscape of Alan Moore, Fitzcarraldo, Due Date, Tales from Earthsea & Big Momma's House 2!
The Hunger Games
Having recently read the books I was interested to see how they were adapted to film. I thought the film was pretty good, characterisation was pretty accurate and good sets etc, though I did spent most of it cataloguing what they had included or missed out from the books. Think I'll enjoy it when I get to see it again on DVD.
Was a little surprised at Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, as I'd pictured the character as older and more dishevelled, but after the first few seconds he worked well.
( Lots more films under the cut... )
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| Friday, April 6th, 2012
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8:20 am - Drawn from Distress to Recovery
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| Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
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7:25 pm - Paperback of The Girly Comic Book Vol.1
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As the deluxe, limited, hardback version of The Girly Comic Book Vol.1 sold out a while ago and we decided it was about time we published a paperback edition.
You know we published this lovely hardback book...Well, you can't have it. The store done sold right outta that puppy!
Jay models the new paperback The Girly Comic Book Vol.1.... New! Thinner! Shinier! Cheaper! (And that's just Jay...)
Once we have checked through this proof copy then we will make the paperback version available to buy via Lulu.
The Girly Comic Book Vol.1. Background = sold out, limited ed hardback. Foreground = new paperback version.Cover by Des Taylor.
As with the hardback, contributors will be able to buy copies at cost, we just have to work out how to organise that.
We are hoping to have a few copies with us at the Alt Fiction Festival, and we will certainly be bringing copies along to Caption.
Thanks to Jay for all the production work on getting the book ready to publish via Lulu.
We are also working on The Girly Comic Book Vol.2, which will collect together the cream of issues 10-21 of The Girly Comic, plus some extras from the website and The Knicker Draw. We will be contacting creators asking for new biogs soon.
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| Monday, April 2nd, 2012
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6:56 pm - March/April Writing Update
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Very happy that the three short stories I have written this year have all been accepted for publication:
Above: The fabulous cover image for the Terror Scribes Anthology by vuzel on deviantart
My story Light Fingers will be appearing in the Terror Scribes Anthology, edited by Adam Lowe & Chris Kelso and coming out from Doghorn Publishing in May. There may be some early copies on show at Alt Fiction in a few weeks.
My story Lone and Level Sands will be appearing in Alt-Zombie edited by Peter Mark May, coming from Hersham Horror in June.
Ten Terrors (anthology series) edited by Stuart Hughes Stumar Press will be publishing a series of horror anthologies starting with volume one in Winter 2012. Each volume will contain ten short stories by established and emerging writers in the horror genre. Volume one will contain short stories by Graham Joyce and Mark Morris. The other eight authors in the table of contents will be confirmed soon. Volume two (2013) will feature Tim Lebbon and nine other authors.
Hopefully my story Lords of the Dance will appear in one of the first two volumes mentioned above.
Now I need to get on with writing new stories!
current mood: chipper
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| Sunday, April 1st, 2012
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4:29 pm - The Steel Seraglio by Mike, Linda & Louise Carey
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 The Steel Seraglio by Mike Carey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When a zealot decides to take over the city of Bessa he orders the death of the sultan, and all the sultan's wives and children. However, being a pragmatist he decides to send the sultan's concubines as a gift to a neighbouring nation. This is how over three hundred women and children comes to be in the middle of the desert, when the conqueror realises that they harbour the last remaining heir to the throne and orders them all to be executed.
What happens next is the tale of how the women survive and their journey from their origins as a seraglio of silk to becoming a seraglio of steel.
The Careys took inspiration from the settings and structure of The Arabian Nights to weave together and embroider tales upon tales, just as the women of the story learn to weave, embroider and tell tales to survive. The book tells the story of the city of women from many different viewpoints, but they are all held together by the strong narrative voice of Rem.
The characters are all given their own story and motivations, making them believable and interesting. From Rem the librarian who would give her life to save her scrolls and cries tears of ink, to Zuleika the warrior who chooses a life as a concubine for her own reasons, to Gursoon the wise who has always used her skills to bring peace within and beyond the palace walls and Anwar Das, camel thief, bandit, charmer and master of deception.
The rise and fall of the women of Bessa will sweep you along in an exciting, emotional and complex journey.
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| Friday, March 23rd, 2012
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2:31 pm - Comics: Beyond Batman, Bunty & The Beano
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Thanks to cartoonist Brick and organiser Five Leaves press we were asked to do a talk about comics at the States of Independence independent press day. We decided that we wanted to highlight the joys and diversity of independent comics, so our talk pitch was:
Comics: Beyond Batman, Bunty and The Beano Jay Eales and Selina Lock of Factor Fiction (award-nominated publishers of The Girly Comic) take you on a whistlestop tour of the small press comics scene, showing the diversity of the medium: Crime! Funny animals! Autobiographies! Teabag comics! The Queen Mum! A free comic for every attendee!It took several nights to gather together our rather large collection of indie comics and several hours to decide which ones to take along. Apologies to all those we couldn't cover! The free comics were courtesy of Karen Rubins & the V&A (Blood Magic) and Andy Luke ( Absence comic).Here's the final selection:  We were a little ambitious, as we only had 40 minutes but managed to cram a lot of comics into that time! We did start running out of time and resulted in Jay shouting the names of comics out. We introduced ourselves and the comics we had published and then showed examples of: Autobiography, Genre (SF&F, Crime etc), LGBT, Newspaper Comics, Mini-Comics, 24hr/Collaborative Comics and Just Plain Mad! cleanskies teabag comic got the biggest "aawwww" from the audience. We got a good audience of about 25-30 people and they all seemed to enjoy it. Several people came up to take a closer look at things, ask questions and thank us afterwards. The photos show the comics we took along in more detail, but leave a comment if you want more info on a particular title & we'll point you in the right direction. ( Click here to see pictures & list of webcomics... )
current mood: bouncy
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| Monday, March 19th, 2012
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7:53 pm - Lovely Weekend
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Thought it would be good to record some nice things that have happened lately.
This weekend:- Our talk on indie comics went down very well at the States of Independence event (will blog more about it later).
- Spent several hours talking books and films with friends (from the Speculators writing group) over tea, chai lattes and then curry.
- Found out we won two tickets to the Discover Festival (sf&f & horror con), saving mucho dosh!
- Made a nice Sunday lunch, including gammon in coke, for my parents for Mother's Day & spent the afternoon with them.
- Found out my short story "Lords of the Dance" has been accepted by Stumar Press for one of their upcoming horror anthologies.
current mood: thankful
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| Thursday, March 15th, 2012
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8:50 pm - Films and more films
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I've been a bit lax in updating my fiftyfiftyme film watching. So, here's films 9-15, including The Woman in Black and John Carter.
( Read more... )
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| Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
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8:28 pm - UnBound Hauntings Event
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Late Sunday afternoon Jay & I headed over to The Staff of Life pub in Mowsley, Leicestershire (which turned out to be about 15mins away from us) for the UnBound Video Editions Blog event: Hauntings.
We went to their previous event Zombies, which included interviews with authors of zombie novels and filming a mini zombie apocalypse. You can see the finished Zombies video, which includes a cameo from Jay.
Hauntings, as you may have guessed, involved authors reading brand new ghost stories, discussing the genre and a possible ghostly invasion.
The ceiling when you enter the pub
Ian Whates created a convincing faux factual account of several strange incidents occurring at an inn, all centred around a haunting piece of music.
Mark West read Fog on the Old Coast Road about a man and his young son, a beach, looming figures in the fog and an isolated stretch of road.
Mark reading his story.
Marie O'Regan treated us to a tale wound around a creepy child's crib.
Marie reading her story.
Paul Kane bought the genre bang up to date with some ghostly social networking.
Amanda Hemmingway rounded off the story telling with a dramatic rendition of a tale involving terrifying taxidermy.
The audience were quiet and spellbound throughout. While the candles, fire and ambience of the pub worked nicely to enhance the event. Though I think the mouth watering menu on the wall left some wishing the pub served food on a Sunday evening. Certainly the freshly baked bread and olives provided were very tasty.
The round table discussion of the authors' beliefs in the supernatural, their experiences of it, their favourite authors, novels, short stories and films was very interesting and amusing.
I was also pressed into service to do a bit of acting as Dr Ruth Evans, parapsychologist for the story that will wrap around the event. All the stories, discussion and acting will be seen on the UnBound blog once it is all edited together. It should certainly be amusing to see the finished video!
Congratulations to all the authors for their readings and I look forward to buying the NewCon Press anthology they will appear in. Well done to Adele, Vincent, Kat & the rest of the UnBound team for organising and filming the event.
Apologies for some blurred photos, I was trying to make do without the flash and obviously my hands were shaking from the ghostly stories...
current mood: mellow
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| Friday, March 9th, 2012
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9:19 pm - Miss Wildthyme & Friends Investigate
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 Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate by Stuart Douglas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A little yellow bottle of what seems to be perfume cause havoc across time and space in these lightly linked novellas.
*The Found World by Jim Smith
Featuring: Professor George Challenger (Explorer) and many others...
This story will appeal to classic literature fans who like a good crossover, as lots of familiar characters pop up all over the place. A well written, fun tale of intrigue involving undercover agents, Dracula and Scottish submarine bases.
* Elementary, My Dear Sheila by Cody Schell
Featuring: Señor 105 (Masked Wrestler)
Señor 105 stories tend to be mad and surreal and this one does not disappoint. It starts out as a gathering of 105's loose allies for a mysterious purposes, then morphs into a murder mystery and finally into a surreal journey to the centre of the earth type adventure.
* The Irredeemable Love by Nick Wallace
Featuring: The Manleigh Halt Irregulars (Detectives)
Probably the darkest of the tales on offer. The Manleigh Halt Irregulars (police officers/detectives whose police station is lost in time and erratically lands in different eras) find themselves looking into the death of a young boy at a country estate. It soon becomes obvious that a dark force has invaded the house and each of the Irregulars find themselves in precarious positions.
* The Shape of Things by Stuart Douglas
Featuring: Miss Iris Wildthyme and Panda (Forces of Nature)
Iris and Panda find themselves investigating several different cases, especially after Panda accidentally enlarges himself, including his brains and becomes a whizz at solving mysteries. All the while they have a a little perfume bottle in their possession which could cause them far more serious problems than Panda's increasing size. Also a few cameos from other famous detectives.
I did enjoy all the stories, but I think my reading of the collection was spoiled by trying to read it in short snatches on the bus. Several of the stories jump around in time/place or character perspective, which was not conducive to following/remembering some of the intricate plotting.
I think each novella would read much better if read in one or two sittings, and I would certainly recommend to any Iris/105/literary mash-up/Obverse Book fans out there.
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8:50 pm - Timeless by Gail Carriger
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 Timeless by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Alexia has to travel to Egypt to investigate the God-Breaker Plague, but when your entourage includes Lord Maccon , Prudence (the infant inconvenience aka Soul Stealer), the Tunstells, their actin troupe and Madame LeFloux, then chaos is bound to follow.
The last in the Parasol Protectorate series and Carriger once again gives us spades of intrigue, plenty of action, a wonderful steampunk influenced setting and great character development. Plus a wonderful streak of humour keeping it all fun, even when events in the book take a turn for the darkside. The book also provides a good sense of resolution to many of the plot threads from the whole series and how Alexia & Connall's lives will develop.
When I finished the book I immediately thought it would be great to follow the adventures of Prudence as an adult and low and behold that will be heppening http://gailcarriger.livejournal.com/1835... Yay!
Highly recommended to anyone who loves a good speculative Victorian romp.
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| Sunday, March 4th, 2012
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1:49 pm - 666 Charing Cross Road by Paul Magrs
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 666 Charing Cross Road by Paul Magrs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bookshop assistant Jack befriends an eccentric book critic Liza, and also meets a sexy new bloke Ricardo. While Liza's niece Shelley, unearths a strange effigy of a Scottish Bride at the museum she works, and falls for Daniel, the distant museum curator.
Liza's love of supernatural tales leads Jack puts her in touch with the proprietor of 666 Charing Cross Road, who starts sending Liza parcels of rare books. Things are going well until one of Liza's parcels contains a grimoire soaked in blood.
Daniel performs a ritual from the grimoire, brings forth an old evil and things start going down hill for them all after that...
Another spooky tale from Paul Magrs, told with his usual humour. We get drawn into the lives of these quirky characters just in time for them to experience the adventure of a lifetime. One involving vampires, mysterious bookshops, strange companions and a lot of danger.
If you're a fan of Magrs' Brenda & Effie books then you'll also love this, and start seeing connections between the characters.
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| Thursday, March 1st, 2012
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7:05 pm - Writing Update & Reflection
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Due to a very annoying virus I didn't do much writing for most of February. However, I managed to pull it round in the last week:- Light Fingers (3993 words) submitted to the Terror Scribes Anthology.
Having now written three short stories in three months It seems appropriate to reflect on some of the things I need to work on in my writing:- Endings - I always struggle to come up with endings. One of the reasons I have lots of half-finished stories from previous writing attempts.
- I will hate the story halfway through. The initial idea is enough for me to get started and to halfway or so. Then I decide the whole thing is crap and there's massive resistance to writing any more. I just need to accept this and push through it.
- Formatting - I get a bit confused about where to indent and where not to. Initially I wasn't indenting at all (apart from speech) and breaking things into chunks as I would a work report. Then I started indenting too much!
- Contractions - I use them far too much outside of speech & feedback suggests it's not a good idea.
- Commas - not using them enough!
- Mannered/formal writing style - think this comes from working in academia. I suspect a better style will only evolve by writing, writing and some more writing.
- Titles - I am awful at coming up with them. I've been driving Jay round the bend with that problem...
Think that's enough to be concentrating on to start with!
Next targets:- Write a novella pitch by 15th March.
- Write another short story by the end of March.
current mood:  artistic
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| Sunday, February 26th, 2012
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8:19 pm - Latest book review
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| Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
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6:17 pm - Alt Fiction
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I appear to be on some panels at Alt Fiction )14-15th April, Leicester) this year:
I will be on the Genre TV Panel as a fan representative at 2pm Saturday with Adam Christopher, Alasdair Stuart, Mark Morris & Stephen Volk
I will be on the Comics Panel as writer/editor/ at 4pm Saturday with Jay Eales, Mark Chadbourn, Paul Cornell & Emma Vieceli
current mood: excited
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| Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
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7:54 pm - A Weekend in Wales
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We went to stay in Caerphilly at the weekend, as we've never been to that area, in celebration of my birthday.
Due to some unforeseen traffic issues getting out of our street we didn't arrive until later afternoon. We were too tired to do much so just mooched across the car park to Lidl to buy supplies and a notebook, because I had forgotten to take one and had typically had a story idea while driving into Wales. Went for a pub dinner and then flaked out in the room and watched The Inbetweeners film.
Saturday was my birthday so first order of the day was opening cards and prezzies:
Then we decided to get the train into Cardiff, as it was cheap and easier than driving. We were hoping to meet up with a friend but alas he couldn't make it. It was chucking it down with rain when we arrived so we had to duck into the nearest suitable shop... it happened to be a charity book shop and then a indoor market with a book stall and then another bookshop (and obligatory visit to local FP). So, you know we just had to buy some books...
Had lunch at a Malaysian restaurant where we had a mince pancake dish for starter, which was tasty. I then ordered something I though I'd never tried but it turned out to be a green curry (my default Thai dish!). Oh well it was nice.
I had thought we might go look around Cardiff Castle but at £11 each I didn't want to pay that much and then be too tired to actually walk around it. We headed back to Caerphilly and had a wander around. Very impressive castle ruins and a surprise statue of Tommy Cooper (who was born there).
Another evening of being too tired to move meant snacks in the room followed by episodes of The Almighty Johnsons - a NZ show about Norse Gods being reincarnated. A bit quirky and very enjoyable.
Sunday I felt I had a bit more energy again so we ventured into Cardiff Bay for a walk around and lunch before heading home. We seem to have a knack for finding American Diners to eat in when away (so far in Liverpool, Dublin (x2), Brighton, Cardiff...)
Some lovely architecture, interesting melding of styles and some nice statues in Cardiff Bay. No TARDIS or men walking around in long military coats (and we also managed to avoid Ianto's shrine!).
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