So this is just a quick post to keep you all up to date. It's been a busy September, the programme for Fantasycon is drafted, term has started again for scouts, but not yet for Allen's University, I had a birthday and life has been up and down.
Well that's the short version.
The slightly longer version, but not too long as nobody needs that, the draft programme for #Fantasycon2018 is up on the website. Probably our participants are fed up of emails from us, making changes or asking for specific areas of involvement, but they have been wonderful at responding. There are bound to be a few tweaks and changes, but hopefully that sets out the shape of the event to come. I mean it's not everything, most of the feelings people have around Fantasycon is around the people you will see. The list of participants will be going up shortly and will link to their bios, so you know who you are hearing from, but of course there are lots of people going that are not on that list. I love seeing all the tweets about people attending and looking forward to it. Now the programme is up there is likely to be a few people blogging about what programme items they are in. We have a variety of wonderful people taking part in talks, panels, launches and workshops. The majority of programme topics have been suggested by the participants or inspired by their bio details and I would love to listen to those panels, I mean if I have a chance. We have tried really hard to reflect the diversity of our wonderful community and I am really looking forward to the panel called Fantastic Inspiration, looking at where the panelists get their inspiration. Issues of gender are never simple, but we aim to ensure that there are at least as many women on panels as men across the event as it is not always possible to balance gender across individual panels, which is not to say that we exclude non binary genders, just that this is difficult to reflect in a statistical approach. We aim to include everyone who wants to be, but we appreciate this is an area that can always do with further though and improvement.
We still have lots to do for Fantasycon, updating the website, mailing our attendees, ensuring launches, dealers & moderators have all the information we need as well as asking nicely for charity raffle prizes (feel free to take this as a hint if you can help at all).
On a personal note, my health has been up and down, my fatigue has massively improved with new medication, but new pain in my knee set me back some and gave me a week on crutches.
I volunteer for a scout group and the young people are a constant source of smiles. A couple of the scouts came with me to a local animal sanctuary for a morning to volunteer. Cleaning out cages for pigeons, hedgehogs, a hen and some squirrels might not be everyone's idea of fun, but it was great and something we will do again in the spring and perhaps get some of the others along as well. Volunteering puts back into the community and statistics show that people who volunteer get into the habit of it which can last for a lifetime, so getting the young people involved now, potentially sets them up in a pattern which may stay with them. That means the small difference I make now could multiply for years to come and that's an amazing feeling. #SkillsForLife
Allen is still doing multiple paid jobs and I worry that he is doing too much, I think me not being is a steady job puts him under extra pressure and means we have to think about who does what in our projects and where I can help.
#Lavecon... I know teasers... no real update on this, but just to say we haven't forgotten about it, after the end of October we will be looking at getting the information together so we can release tickets over the winter. If you are interested in being a volunteer for 2019 do drop us an email, we probably wont get back to you straight away, but we do appreciate your interest and will send you the volunteering form as soon as we have it together.
As you can see I am trying to post on the blog at least once a week, I have a massive list of articles I want to put together, which means I inevitably ignore the list and just write about what is on my head at any given moment...
Ah well, better get back to it...
What have you been up to this month?