Bristolcon 2016 Report

I should have written this sooner, but the jetlag and the lack of sleep made it a bit difficult. Bristolcon is the first book/literature related convention I’ve been to, also the first time I traveled alone to unfamiliar territory in many years. It was the best convention I’ve been to, in terms of positive energy, super friendly folk, great authors and cozy atmosphere. In fact I can’t think of anything even close to the amazing overall experience -and I have been to a lot of different conventions/gatherings, many of them nerdy events.

There were interesting panels, but I went to only one and cause the airline lost my luggage and I have been busy chasing it down, I sadly missed the panel about Grimdark ladies where Anna Smith-Spark was a participant. However, I am not much of a panel person and I prefer sitting at the bar and talking to people. Sitting down for an hour and being quiet doesn’t agree with my hyperactive mind and talkative character. Therefore I don’t have much to report about the panels, it’s so not my thing. I am not sure if I can do panels even if I become a published author some day, I’d much rather sit at the bar and chat with the folk till I drop.

I was happy beyond words to finally meet some of my Facebook friends, even got to meet a bookish blogger friend, Sarah from Brainfluff blog, we chatted for quite a bit not realizing we actually were regular visitors to each other’s blogs. What a small world! It has been great to meet GR Matthwes, To Munro, JP Ashman, Luke Scull, Julia Kitvaira, James Latimer, Mhairi Simpson, RB Watkinson, Ben Galley, Andy Remic and many other awesome people whose names I can’t recall or didn’t catch. I talked to so many people my head is still spinning.

I was extra happy to finally meet Mark Lawrence and Agnes Meszaros (She runs That Thorn Guy and is behind all kinds of awesomeness) -that was perhaps the best part of the convention for me as a huge fan of Mark’s work.

After the convention closed, we continued the party at the bar and everyone had blast. Both the convention and the afterparty were brilliant, you could hop from table to table, talk to complete strangers and geek out about books, have drinks with the Facebook friends you got to meet in person. It was the complete opposite of the horribly exclusive convention scenes Kameron Hurley describes in a blog post. There were no closed wheels and whatnot, everyone was sweet and friendly.

Overall, it was awesome to meet the fellow fantasy fans, grimdark lovers and geek out about books nonstop till we all dropped. Not to mention I added even more books to my ever-growing TBR pile.

Here is a bunch of photos from the con and the afterparty: Bristolcon 2016 Photo stack

I am already looking forward to Bristolcon 2017!