FantasyCon 2014 round-up

Greetings Abaddonites!

You may have noticed that we've been a bit quiet recently, for that we can only apologise and offer up the humble excuse that we were gearing up for this year's FantasyCon (because someone had to lead our far more sensible colleagues over at Solaris Books astray).

To that end the last fortnight has consisted of a rigorous training routine that saw Team Abaddon arise at the crack of noon almost every day, to a packed schedule of vocal warm ups (we take our karaoke very seriously, thank you very much), pint carrying practise, disco stretches and panel wit-sharpening exercises.

There were rumours going around the office that Abaddon Dave may also have done some "Editorial-ing" during this period too, but we're not convinced.

But anyway, as the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand poorly written words, and a shakily taken mobile phone picture is about on par, but far less tedious to glance over. So without further ado a brief snap shot of what went down:

FRIDAY:

Team Abaddon arrive and head straight to the bar start to hand out copies of the exclusive Abaddon-zine The Afterblight Chronicle 

Karaoke time! Here we have the lovely BFA shortlisted Libby McGugan taking on the challenge.

SATURDAY:

L-R Adrian Tchaikovsky, Julie McKenna, David Moore, Fran Terminello, Clifford Beale

"I am the emergency moderator hologram. Please state the nature of your emergency moderation.": 

Abaddon Dave steps in to help moderate the popular Pen VS Sword panel on Saturday morning. Initially we were suspicious that this was a clear ploy to trick people into believing he's a lovely human-being, and not a tyrannical editorial overlord, hell-bent on world domination... 

Fran Terminiello and Clifford Beale

...until the action spilled out into the halls, steel-on-steel, and we realised he was just picking up tips...

Adrian Tchaikovsky

...and recruiting allies.

Next up was the Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets launch. Sadly due to the blinding sunshine this is the only picture we have that demonstrates that it was indeed attended by real, actual people and not terrifying dark shadow monsters. 

Here you can see the classic British pastime "The Queue" as some of you lovely people wait to allow a few of the contributors to scrawl all over the beautiful, pristine pages of the advanced copies we had available on the day *sob*.

SUNDAY:

After a brilliant Saturday night disco hosted by Marc Gascoigne and Guy Adams (don't worry we're not cruel enough to subject you to photos of us throwing any kind of shapes on the dance floor) we hope you'll excuse us skipping over the morning's activities with just a brief shout out to the fantastic editorial panel, and getting to the main event of the day... 

The British Fantasy Awards!

A full list of winners can be found here and we would like to offer our congratulations to all the winners and short-listed nominees. It was an incredible line-up this year and there was some fierce competition on all sides. But, we do of course want to make a special shout out to our colleague Jon Oliver for his win in the Best Anthology Award 2014!

And here he is in (blurry) action collecting it from the wonderful Paul Cornell. 

We could rave about the weekend to a length that would rival Alan Moore, so before that happens we will sign off with a huge thanks to chair Lee Harris and the wonderful Team of Red Cloaks who made the weekend possible. Thank you guys and see you next year!

Abaddon Wins "This Is Horror" Award 2011!

Wha-hey!

So, wotcher all. I'm not sure if you're aware of the sterling work that This Is Horror does, promoting and discussing the horror genre? If not, go and check out their site; it's crammed with interviews, reviews, features and all sorts of good stuff.

At any rate, they have recently launched a new award for the horror genre, the annual This Is Horror Award, which enjoyed an enormous response and looks set to become something pretty exciting in the years ahead.

And just to show what great taste they have, they have awarded us - Solaris Books and Abaddon Books, Rebellion's sister fiction imprints - their inaugural Publisher of the Year Award!

We're thrilled, naturally. Jon, our Editor-in-Chief, says, “What a lovely way to start the New Year! I’m so pleased that Abaddon and Solaris have made their mark on the horror genre, because horror has always been my first love, ever since I discovered Ramsey Campbell at the age of 11. It’s been a real pleasure to work with This is Horror over 2011 and to be recognised by Michael and the team in this way means a great deal to us.”

To top it off, they've also given one of Solaris's books, Gary McMahon's The Concrete Grove, the Novel of the Year Award. Abaddon fans will recognise Gary as the author of the unsettling Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts. We're massively chuffed for Gary; this is an amazing book, and the start of what's promising (having just finished the copy-edit on Silent Voices myself) to be an extraordinary series.

Gary says, “I’m delighted to have my book named as Novel of the Year. The Concrete Grove is a very personal novel and it’s gratifying to receive any kind of recognition for my work.”

So we're just popping open the champers in our office, here, and will pop up a photo of the certificate. Huge congratulations to Angry Robot, the runner-up Publisher of the Year, to BC Furtney, whose Scarla was the  runner-up Novel of the Year, and to all the other winners and runners-up.

Cracking.

The Arthur C Clarke Awards!

Hey yo,

So I went to the Arthur C. Clarke Award in Picadilly last night. We weren't in the running - this time - but we'd been invited, so it'd be rude not to accept.

And a good time was had by all. The ceremony was short and sweet, which is nice. Lauren Beukes' Zoo City won, which I think was richly deserved. And I wandered over to the after-party at the Picadilly Institute right after, where some kind of drinks were enjoyed and I caught up with people, or as it may be, met people I had previously only spoken to on the interweb.

Pictures were a hard ask, in the darkness of the bar, and I wasn't sure I was allowed pictures of the ceremony (I got in quite late and couldn't ask), so you've just got a couple here.


The venue was the Apollo Cinema at Picadilly. It was interesting actually sitting in a cinema for an awards ceremony. Felt a little odd.


Here's proof I was at Picadilly. 'Cause, you know, there's no way I could have just pulled this shot off the net or something.


The remarkable Dave Monteith of Geek Syndicate fame, interviewing the equally remarkable Tom Hunter, the compere of the award, for the podcast.


Believe it or not, this is Lauren. I did say it was dark.


Our own Scott Andrews, who had discovered it was a free bar shortly before this shot.

So, good time had by all. Congratulations to Lauren on her award!

David

Empire of Salt up for the Bram Stoker!

Hi all,

This is properly cool. Like, "Holy f***ing c**p this is cool!" cool.

Weston Ochse's redneck-zombie-filled opus, the extraordinary Empire of Salt, has made it onto the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel!

If you're not sure what that is, the Preliminary Ballot is essentially the long-list. Members of the Horror Writers' Association vote on the preliminaries to produce the shortlist, from which the eventual winner will be selected. Making it onto the shortlist means that Ochse goes to the awards ceremony to sit, fingers and toes crossed, and see if he'll be recognised with the most prestigious award in horror writing.

And it's not a long long-list either. The final ballot will, if I recall correctly, consist of five books; the preliminary ballot only has eleven. This is essentially the HWA's recognition that Empire is one of the eleven best horror novels of 2010.

Hell of an achievement, even if it doesn't go any further. And, you know, it might. You can even help; do you know anyone in the HWA? Bother them! Leave copies of Empire lying around significantly when they come to visit. Frequently remind them of how cool a book it is. Mention how, maybe, you'd like to bear Weston's child, if the option were there. That sort of thing.

So, anyway, awesome news. Well done, Weston. We're dead chuffed for you.

Cheers,

David

Gemmell Award: Vote Now!

Hi all,

As I'm sure I mentioned, Mike Wild's Twilight of Kerberos: The Crucible of the Dragon God (cover by Mark Harrison) and Matthew Sprange's Twilight of Kerberos: Night's Haunting (cover by Greg Staples) have both been longlisted for the David Gemmell Award, in both the Legend (for best heroic fantasy) and Ravenheart (for best cover art) categories.

Current voting is for the short-list, to be published in April, and ends on March 31st; there will be another round of voting, the details for which will be given when the shortlist comes out.

The Gemmell Award is relatively new - this will be the second award - but already well supported and quite widely recognised, and winning either category will be a great coup for the author or cover artist (and for us). So be sure and jump on the website, sign up and get your votes in!

Cheers,

David