BootsnAll Travel Network



The Con Report

Five thousand of the planet’s brightest and most creative people converged at the Glasgow Armadillo which docked at ‘Earth’s Busiest Space Port’ for five days and all I have is hazy memories ;}
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Picture ©Frank Wu, reproduced with generous permission

There was just too much going on; with up to fifteen sessions running in parallel as well as the art show, sometimes you just had to go shopping. The highlight was without a doubt casually bumping into talented people. Like the short guy who sidled up to the smoker’s table in the Hilton ballroom foyer outside the German SFCD party (one of the best, even if they didn’t have German beer. They had plenty of Apfelschnaps and—whisper it—Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters instead). He was there for a quick ciggie and ended up chatting for half an hour. His name? Ian Watson. Or the bloke standing next to me at a table in the dealer’s room, looking at second hand books who casually remarked “Oh, I’ve designed a few covers for those.” Danny Flynn has designed covers for the Robert Heinlein novels ‘The Puppet Masters’ and ‘I will fear no Evil’ (an image I have never forgotten) as well as novels by Isaac Asimov, A.C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl. Or the artist who sat next to me on the carpet next to an ashtray in the corridor on the Hilton party floor after smokers had been evicted from the foyer. He opened a bag and pulled out some of the most remarkable fountain drawings I have ever seen. “I draw comics”, he said. Or the nice lady sitting at my table in the cafeteria: look out for the book she’s written with Eric Flint. Then there was the fan busy embroidering his T-shirt which featured original artwork and autographs from decades of cons, each carefully stitched over. Among the many names listed was Ray Bradbury. Truly an illustrated man. I could go on, but these are some of the hazy memories I have left that I will treasure.
Klingon couple.jpg‘The Port Authority’ Dateline: Sunday 14:00):
“I’ve just seen a Klingon in a kilt. You don’t see that very often. Not even in Glasgow.”

From a hard-core veteran:
‘Oh, and then the Dead Dog party. In the bar. We’d been told that over the five days we’d consumed three full weeks production from the brewery, including their entire stock of some lines. See, we’re used to drinking the hotel dry, but we think this is the first time we’ve been able to drink the brewery dry.’
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For those who want to know what you have missed, there is an (ever growing) Con WIKI.
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Sue Mason, fan artist and all-round catwoman cradling her HUGO. We all got to cuddle it!

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