Saturday saw the first Futura event at the Lighthouse in Wolverhampton. The venue is housed within the old Chubb lock factory and is gorgeous. It’s a triangular shaped building with a bright, glass roofed courtyard. I should have taken pictures, but umm, didn’t.
As it’s both Futura’s first year and Alex Davis’ first West Mids event it was quiet, but the audience was more than happy to join in discussions leading to panels that were pretty interactive. I was invited as a speaker. Some of you may have seen me on panels in the past but always in the role of moderator, it was lovely to be an actual proper panelist for the first time. I had great fun chatting with my fellow panelists and other attendees about whether SF is main stream, the life of a small publisher and where SF ends as a genre.
The event was well run, although next year the venue might want to invest in extra staff at the coffee shop to keep things moving more briskly.
I hope I will be invited back next year as i’d certainly love to do it again, if not i’ll pop it in my diary for a visit anyway.
Next up for us is Edge.Lit in Derby, where Fox Spirit will be launching Noir Carnival with wine, cake and badges. We will have the editor and a couple of Noir Carnival writers in attendance as well as many of the other skulk members who will be happy to sign things. I will have a few copies of the various books with me and in partnership with CyberWitch we will be making the ebooks available on site, on the day too. The launch will take place at lunch time and there will be wine and cake provided so please drop in and see us!