FantasyCon 2012Forget the Olympics! Britain’s Big Event of 2012 is, of course, FantasyCon 2012, which is being held in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex, over September 27-30. Membership is fast approaching the 400 mark, so if you haven’t joined up yet, then please do so now. All you have to do is go to the How to Join page on the website, submit the form with your details and then pay via the PayPal buttons. Alternately, you can print out the form and mail it with a check to the address given. A limited number of Saturday-Only memberships are also now available.

After the huge success of last year’s event, the convention is returning to the Royal Albion Hotel on the seafront, where rooms are now selling out fast. For those who require a little more luxury, then they also have a limited number of rooms available at the nearby Queens Hotel. Booking information for both hotels can be found on the website at: Booking Information.

Events kick off on the Thursday evening with a Meet and Greet Party at 7:00 pm, and during the following three days more than fifteen publishers – both mass-market and small press – are launching over forty new books, including titles by a number of Guests of Honor. Other special events include the Mass Signing on Friday evening, The Big Solaris Book Give-Away on Saturday afternoon, the Gollancz-sponsored FantasyCon Disco on Saturday night, and the World Fantasy Convention 2013-sponsored Dead Dog Party after the Awards Banquet on the Sunday afternoon. Most of these events will be offering refreshments and, as anyone who has attended previous FantasyCons will certainly assert, the wine is certain to flow like … er, wine.

Details of the preliminary Film Program, as always ably organised by Martin Roberts have been posted. Over the Friday and Saturday evenings movies, short films and trailers based on the work of Neil Gaiman, Robin Hardy, Paul Kane, Joe R. Lansdale, Johnny Mains, Tim Pratt, Manly Wade Wellman, Gavin Williams and many others, along with several live introductions and Q&As, and with possibly even a surprise guest or two will be shown.

The highlight of every FantasyCon is the presentation of The British Fantasy Society’s prestigious British Fantasy Awards on Sunday afternoon. Preceded by a sit-down FantasyCon Banquet (http://www.fantasycon2012.org/banquet.php) in the Regency Lounge, with its stunning seaviews of Brighton Pier and the beach, this gala event forms a glittering climax to the weekend’s events. If you would like to reserve a table (seating 10 people), then please contact [email protected]. For details of this year’s British Fantasy Award Nominees, please go to: Award Nominees

The Author Guests of Honour are legendary Texas “Mojo Story Writer” Joe R. Lansdale, broadcaster and novelist Muriel Gray and New York Times best-selling fantasy author Brent Weeks.

Special Editor Guest is Mary Danby, famous for her work on The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories and other anthology titles, while the Special Media Guests are Sherlock and Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss and Robin Hardy, the writer and director of the original The Wicker Man and the recent follow-up, The Wicker Tree.

The Master of Ceremonies is proud Welshman and another New York Times best-selling writer, Tim Lebbon.

They are also currently putting together the Programming for the convention, along with a series of specialist Masterclasses throughout the Saturday and various Entertainments during the evenings. If you are still interested in doing a Reading from your own work, then register here.

If this is your first convention or you are just a bit shy, then you can contact [email protected], who will look after you.

The Dealers’ Room is currently sold out.

The good people behind the convention look forward to seeing you all again in Brighton at the end of next month!

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