Only a Couple of Days to Go!

I’m trying to be all mature and professional about Novacon but my exuberance keeps getting the better of me. Fortunately Beloved is acting as the voice of reason, reminding me to pack practical stuff and pointing out that being the Last Woman (Barely) Standing in the bar at 5am is not only not required of the Guest of Honour, but is actually rather a bad idea.

I have a provisional schedule, although there may be more to come:

The Opening Ceremony is at 7pm on Friday, and I’ll be at that, obviously.

That’s followed by Steve Green’s Quiz Night which I’m mildly apprehensive about, as I’m not sure what’s involed. Fun, I suspect.

Then, a double Book Launch – both mine! This is the official launch event for both Downside Girls and Queen of Nowhere (although in the latter case it’s more of an exclusive pre-launch party, given the book isn’t officially out until January). There will be a reading, booze and hacker-snax.

If I’m still conscious I may stay on for the panel on conspiracies. I like playing with the idea of conspiracies, although I doubt many real ones exist; I reckon most are just misinterpreted collisions of happenstance and cock-up.

On Saturday I may be on a panel discussing Book Covers at 1.30pm.

My Guest of Honour Interview, with Pauline Morgan, is at 3pm.

On 3pm on Sunday I’ll be taking part in a panel on Short Stories.

The Nova Awards will be at 5pm.

And finally, I got to choose the cuisine at the final event of the con, from 7pm, which the organisers describe as ‘a more sophisticated kind of dead dog party’. We will be having curry. And beer. (So not overly sophisticated, then.)

The rest of the time, I’m most likely to be found in the bar, though a bit of research on the hotel reveals that the restaurant serves cocktails. Mine’s raspberry mojito.