Where To Find Me at Edge-Lit 10

Only three days to go until the tenth Edge-Lit Derby, “an event which celebrates the best in Horror, Thriller, Fantasy and Science-Fiction writing”. It looks like it’s going to be a fantastic day, with tons of stuff on, but just to keep things easy I thought I’d write a quick summary of the most me-centric events that are going to be taking place that day helpfully illustrated with the cover images of my most relevant book you can buy.

To Infinity And Beyond - The Rise of Modern SF

1pm, The Box

Alongside writers Mark Morris, Tom Toner, Robert Shearman, and chaired by Peter Ray Allison, we’ll be having a real state-of-the-nation chat about the science fiction genre, from indie fiction to the big franchises.

Robert Shearman is an accomplished short story writer and critic who also just so happens to have written one of the best Doctor Who episodes (and one of the best Big Finish audios) ever. Tom Toner has written for Black Library and is also the author of the post-human sci-fi epic the Amaranthine Spectrum. And then there’s Mark Morris, who’s written a massive stack of Doctor Who novelizations, movie tie-ins and other adaptations as well as a wealth of his own science fiction and horror.

And finally there’s me, the author of the Star Trek Lower Decks Crew Handbook, the official Doctor Who joke book, and my own planet-of-the-week novella series, Fermi’s Progress.

Honestly? This topic is so broad it could go literally anywhere (and in science fiction “anywhere” covers a lot) so I’m as curious to see how this one turns out as you are.

Who Killed NanoSessionMo?

4pm, The Meeting Room

I’ve written about this here already, and again earlier this week to cover our take on “AI”. But just in case this is your first time here: I’m going to get as many people together as I can to spend an hour conceiving of and intricately plotting a novel. Then we’re going to spend the last half hour of the session actually writing the thing.

I’ve done this once before in only 75 minutes – you can read the output of that here. That time the goal was to create a fairly linear science fiction quest narrative.

This time we’re upping the ante by writing a whodunit.

Oh, and just in case that’s too easy, only the person who writes the final chapter of the book is going to know who actually did the deed.

Bring a pen and a pad of paper you don’t want to hold onto, or ideally, a laptop (I don’t want to have to retype anymore than necessary).

My favourite indie e-book shop Scarlet Ferret will stock whatever we come up with, although they will be giving the book away for free (presumably to stop us fighting over the enormous amounts of royalty money it would otherwise bring in).

There is every possibility that this will go hilariously wrong, so you want to be in the room to see it happen.

The Big Edge-Lit SF Movie Quiz with Chris Farnell

6pm, The Bar

This month also sees the publication of The Ultimate Sci-Fi Movie Quiz Book, for which I have written over 1,000 science fiction movie related questions ranging from the sort of question you can reliably give to your relative who’s only seen one Star Wars movie, all the way to something that will stump the uber nerd who always keeps correcting your use of the word “Frankenstein.”

And I have handpicked the ones that I believe will provide the most satisfying difficulty curve for “A Room of Sci-Fi Fans Who Also Happen To Have Had A Couple of Drinks”.

In science fiction, as in life, the right answers most often only yield more questions. Which is my way of saying the winners will be receiving copies of the book.

See you there! Or generally floating around the Quad trying to choose between which panels and workshops to visit when I’m not actually in them! I think it’s going to be a good weekend.

Buy Your Tickets for Edge-Lit (and also find links to book your slots on the workshops there) at this website.

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