BristolCon is delighted to add John Meaney to the guest list for 2010. John has won the Independent Publishers’ Book of the Year (SF/Fantasy category), was first choice in the Daily Telegraph Books of the Year (SF/Fantasy category), and three-times shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award. You can find more about him on our Guests page, and on his website.

Paul Cornell’s stint on Action Comics has now started, and he has just announced a very special guest star in issue #894 (out in October, not long before BristolCon). That guest star is a young goth girl who wears a signature ankh pendant. Yes, that’s Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. It seems clear from the conversation on Twitter that Paul and Neil have discussed this, and Neil is clearly very happy about it. Paul mentions in this interview that Neil will be looking over the scripts. More information from Paul here.

This year’s BristolCon has a very special guest: not a writer or artist, but a wizard of special effects. Mike Tucker is a veteran of many BBC productions, including Doctor Who and Red Dwarf. He now runs his own company, The Model Unit, based at the famous Ealing film studios. More details about Mike and our many other fabulous guest are available here.

Our list of attending writers continues to swell. We are delighted to welcome Wiltshire-based writer, Sarah Singleton, who has published 6 young adult novels with Simon & Schuster. Her first adult novel, The Crow Maiden, has recently been released by Wildside Press. More information about Sarah and our many other guests is available on our Guest page.

Well, Joe might not have won the David Gemmell Legend Award, but the cover of Best Served Cold won the David Gemmell Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover. Our congratulations to Didier Graffet (who drew the sword), Dave Senior (who drew the map) and Laura Brett (the Art Director at Gollancz). And of course to Joe by association. Details here.

Well, Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold didn’t win the David Gemmell Award. Our congratulations to Graham McNeill.

However, Joe is up for yet another prize. Best Served Cold has been nominated for the Best Novel category of the British Fantasy Awards. The opposition does include Stephen King, but we are crossing our fingers that we’ll have an excuse to get out the champagne for Joe at BristolCon.

While we were at the Bristol Comics Expo we met a number of lovely people, some with local connections. We thought we’d introduce them to you.

Helen Lord, creator of the critically acclaimed Here Comes Everyone comic series, grew up in Bristol.

Hi-Ex is a comic convention in Inverness.

Alpha Gods is a striking independent comic created by a team that spans the UK, Argentina and Uruguay.

Critter Creator is weird and a lot of fun.

David Johnson is a science fiction writer based in Devizes.

Another good-looking independent comic: The Dark by Chris Lynch.

Thought Bubble is a comics festival in Leeds.

And finally, Velica, which has a very impressive web site.

We are delighted to announce that this year’s BristolCon will include a short set by Wiltshire-based singer-songwriter, Talis Kimberley. Long time members of UK fandom will know Talis well. For the rest of you, please check out her web site.

If you are reading this in the UK you can now see the pilot for Paul Cornell’s Pulse on the BBC web site. Warning: if you are going to watch it, don’t read the comments first, they contain spoilers.

The BBC publicity machine is swinging into gear for Pulse with the pilot episode only a week away. As a result, Paul Cornell has been blogging for the Beeb. The Claire Foy podcast he links to also includes discussion of this weekend’s Pratchett spectacular on Sky: Going Postal.