New Vlog Post: Meet the Mascots...

Wotcher all,

After some positive feedback on the FantasyCon vlogs, here is a vlog I dun in the office:



Enjoy.

David

What we did at Fantasycon 2010.

So, here's my Con report. Not quite as high-tech as David's 'vlogging', but then if you saw my grizzled visage it would melt your mind!

Friday afternoon, Ali (my good lady wife), David and I drove up to Nottingham, me taking a route I was convinced would only take about an hour and ten minutes from Oxford. It took three hours, but the witty banter and occasional musical interludes kept our spirits up and soon we were wafting into the luxurious splendour of the Britannia Hotel Nottingham in a cloud of literary excellence, wafted by the wings of a thousand muses.

We checked in and saw our boxes... sorry, rooms. But the convention is really about the guests and the events and this is the last year Fantasycon is in Nottingham, so enough moaning about the hotel.

Friday evening saw us at The Salutation Inn, Nottingham's premier pub for heavy metal, where Abaddon Books sponsored an evening of metal karaoke. The place was heaving and many attendees turned up to rock out with us. David Moore, desk-editor extraordinaire (or the Antipodean Anvil as we like to call him) lead proceedings, doing 4 numbers himself along with a goodly amount of moshing. But man of the night was Rio Youers, with his take on Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine. He was verily the metallist of metal and was rewarded with the promise of a bounty of Abaddon books. Much fun was had and it was particularly aces for the good lady wife and I to catch up with some old friends, and show off Ali's bump (she's in the family way you know?).

Then it was back to the hotel bar for some night caps and to hook up with such splendid folk as Simon Bestwick, Paul Meloy, Paul Finch, Rio again (who draped himself over me and told me why he should write for me, he's a bit forward that Rio (but, sadly, he doesn't dance amongst the sands)) and several other fine scribes and lovely fans. Then it was way past my bedtime so I said adieu.

Saturday afternoon saw us do a preview launch of The End of The Line, with a massive multi-signing. We rapidly sold out of every copy we brought along. Many thanks to our crew of writers and the fans who brought copies. It was great to sign for people and put names to new faces.

Then, later on, I was on a panel called 'How Not To Get Published' with Marc from Angry Robot, Jo from Gollancz and Stephen Jones, legendary anthologist. It was good fun with Jo reading some startling submission letters, and the rest of us relating various stories from the frontline. A few more audience questions would have been ace, but time was not on our side.

Then the rest of the convention involved hooking up with friends old and new, seeing a couple of readings by Paul Meloy and Chaz Brenchley. Saturday night was Ali's birthday so we took ourselves away from the convention for a quiet meal, which was very nice.

Overall, a splendid time was had by all. It was exhausting but fun, and over all too quickly.

Thanks once again to the organisers for a terrific Con. We shall see you all next year for the Brighton Bash.

Jonathan Oliver

Editor

Abaddon & Solaris FantasyCon Vlog III!

Okay, okay, that proper blogpost with text and pics still coming.

Here's the third video:

FantasyCon 2010 Blog Part II: More Vloggery

Righto. Will do a bloggy blog with pics and stuff in a bit. In the meantime, a second vlog:



Cheers,

David

FantasyCon 2010 Blog Part I: The Vlog!

Hola chaps,

Will be getting onto you with some quality typage (such as you have come to expect from us here at the Abaddon Books Blog) a little later in the day, but I decided to start with an exciting foray into Vlogging! Yes! We're totally twenty-first century here at Abaddon Towers.

Or I am. Jon's catching up.



Cheers,

David

Fantasycon 2010

Hello Ladies and Gents

Well, Fantasycon is nigh. And in attendance this year will be myself and my estimable colleague, David Moore. We have some things planned for this weekend which, if you're along for the Con, I think that you will enjoy very much.

Firstly, on Friday 17th from 8pm, David and I will be at The Salutation Inn, there to oversee a raucous evening of heavy metal karaoke, sponsored by Abaddon Books. The first 50 customers will get a free Abaddon zombie novel and there will be a prize for the best singer of the evening. This event isn't restricted to Fantasycon guests, so if you are in Nottingham and at a loose end, and loveth the metal, come join us.

Saturday, 1pm, Fantasycon, Britannia Hotel main bar - we will be launching the horror anthology edited by myself, The End of The Line, published by Solaris, our sister imprint. Not only will you be able to get this book two months before it hits the shop, you will also be able to get it for the discounted price of £5! Not only that, but many authors in the collection will be in attendance to deface your copy if you so wish.

Saturday, 4pm - I will be on a panel on what NOT to do when trying to get published. With me will be Marcus Gascoigne and Lee Harris from Angry Robot, Jo Fletcher from Gollancz, and editor extraordinaire Stephen Jones. Come along and hear us rant.

Other than that, David and I will both be there to talk to punters, authors and generally feel the vibes flowing from the industry.

If I see you in the bar, mine's a pint.

Jonathan Oliver

Editor

Twilight of Kerberos update

Hello All

"So, Jon," you say (well, at least in my head you do, just one of many voices!!!), "what's happening with the Twilight of Kerberos series? What can you tell me about my favourite sword and sorcery epic?"

Well, my friends, firstly you can feast your eyes on this marvelous review for Mike Wild's Twilight of Kerberos: Engines of The Apocalypse, the latest in the Kali Hooper series of books. What further reason do you need to jump into these fantasy books?

But, anyway, to news, as we have finally decided on how we're going to bring this series to a head.

Next year, 2011, will see the release of two more novels in this series, Twilight of Kerberos: The Trials of Trass Kathra, again by Mr Wild, in February, and Twilight of Kerberos: The Wrath of Kerberos, by some tired old hack called Oliver, in November. We will also be releasing the first in our omnibus editions, Twilight of Kerberos: The Shadowmage Trilogy by Matthew Sprange, which will feature a previously unseen novel (yes a whole book). Confirmation of the release date to come later.

But, as if the date wasn't apocalyptic enough, in 2012 we will be releasing the final Twilight of Kerberos novel, Children of the Pantheon, penned by Mike Wild. This will feature all of the main heroes seen in the series so far in an epic battle for the fate of the planet. Expect big things, I've already been chatting to Mike about this and it sounds very exciting indeed.

So yes, there you have it. The future laid out for you.

Back to editing with me.

Jonathan Oliver

Editor

Is "Scott Pilgrim" About You?

So, I went to see Scott Pilgrim the other day.

(Caveat: I have not read the comic, so I am profoundly unqualified to comment on whether or not it was true to the source. Was it? Comments below.)

And it was a blast. Full of nerd humour and references - very Ed Wright, in that respect - slickly done, visually cool. Very surreal and funny. High slacker-appeal both in terms of the characters (who are mostly slackers), the references and humour (very gen-X), the plot (which is, after all, all about time-wasting computer games), and the girl (who is basically a coffee-shop pin-up).

But the best thing about it, from my point of view, is how sweet and tremendously simple the premise is. The whole high-camp "defeat the evil exes" plot is a fairly straightforward allegory for dating a messed-up girl with a load of baggage.

I've been that guy. I've had that sinking feeling when an ex's name has cropped up on conversation and killed a mood dead, and thought, "wouldn't it be cool if there was a direct solution? If I could just kind of, I dunno, defeat the memory of this guy so it wouldn't keep having this effect on her?"

Basically, the film's totally about me.

So that got me thinking. Is Scott Pilgrim about you? Have any books or films been about you, recently? Have you read something, or seen something, and thought, "that's totally about me"? Why?

And if it's Monster, please don't tell me anything I might feel obliged to pass on to the appropriate authorities.

More Reviewspam...

Hey all,

Some online reviewery for you:

Mass Movement Magazine has posted this very brief review of Rebecca Levene's The Infernal Game: Ghost Dance. Jim Dodge Jr doesn't say a whole lot because he doesn't want to spoil the book for you, but he's clearly excited:

"Yes, I loved it!"

Jim Jr's also thrown up a nice little review of Scott Andrews's The Afterblight Chronicles: Children's Crusade. He feels "these characters have run their course," which is probably just as well as Crusade wraps up the storyline, but is still very complimentary. Cheers, Jim.

"With no lack of fighting and adventure, this book is an exciting read."

In a bit of an Abaddon frenzy, Mass Movement's Ian Glasper also offers us a review of Pat Kelleher's No Man's World: Black Hand Gang. Ian seems to feel that stories of soldiers mysteriously tranported to alien worlds should be more believable - and I'm sure Pat will take that on board - but nevertheless seems to have enjoyed himself.

"Told you it was going to be a wild ride, and it does belt along at a breathless pace, probably so you don’t have time to sit back and consider how daft it all is."

In the meantime, Emotionally Fourteen's Blake Harmer has also reviewed Black Hand Gang, and he properly loved it.

"A thoroughly enjoyable read [that] will keep you entertained if you like your sci-fi action stories."

Love the Metal? Love Abaddon Books!

Time to highlight one of our talented designers here at Abaddon, and to announce an event we'll be taking part in at FantasyCon in Nottingham on the 17th of this month...

Luke Preece, who's now set up his design blog over here: http://lukepreece.blogspot.com/, has created a poster to warn inform FantasyCon guests that our editors David Moore and Jon Oliver will be destroying your eardrums presiding over a metal karaoke night in a nearby pub on the Friday evening of FantasyCon, giving away free zombie novels to the singers, and a bigger prize for the singer deemed the Most Metal!

No idea how we'll judge that. Presumably this guy is pretty metal, as he's on the poster. How can we tell? Is it the had gestures? Is it the weird green stuff coming out of his mouth? Who can tell? Anyway FREE ZOMBIE BOOKS AND PRIZES, OKAY?


Luke Preece is also behind the gorey retro movie-poster look of the new Tomes of the Dead omnibus we've got coming out this November, just in time for your Xmas present-buying needs. Click for the full-size version!

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