So who’s going to Conflux 9?

One thing that the Internet has made so much easier is flattening the relationships between readers and authors. Twitter, in particular, helps well-known people of all kind interact with their fans. In fact, it makes it easy to see when celebrities are doe-eyed over other celebrities.

Once upon a time, the only real way to do that was a writers’ convention. Well, they still hold those – and I am going to my first multi-day one in just over a week! It is Conflux 9 and promises to be unforgettable. I got to volunteer to be on a panel on the first day called “Birth, life and death in speculative fiction”. Speculative Fiction is particularly good at exploring life transitions and what they may mean. I mean, its very purpose is to speculate…

For the rest of the con I will be attending workshops and panels and generally faffing around.

Remember to say hi!

 

Writing anywhere else

I got some writing done yesterday. At least an hour’s worth, though I wasn’t rushing things. The oddest thing was where: it was in a little suburban café I never normally visit. It was in the middle of an industrial area and it was just after I had dropped off my car for some work. I had thought ahead and brought my tablet with me.

You are probably aware I can struggle to write in my own home. When I first got serious about writing, which means when I did NaNoWriMo for the first time a few years ago, I used to write sitting on my bed at night. (I was temporarily living with my parents at the time, due to a separation. It was quite a while before my finances could support renting a flat again.) The netbook I had bought especially for writing helped.

I’ve updated my computing platform. I now have an Android tablet that is for writing on. Okay, I use it for other things, too, but it was originally purchased for writing. And being Android means it does Instant On like no netbook could ever do. This does help, though. It made it so much easier to write in the above-mentioned café. I just wish it would help me write at home more.

Maybe I need to do more writing sitting on my bed.