Guests of Honour

Paul Cornell is a writer of SF and fantasy prose, comics and television scripts. He’s written three episodes of the new Doctor Who, and Captain Britain and MI-13 and Dark X-Men for Marvel Comics. His BBC3 pilot, Pulse, for a medical horror series, should be shown in 2010. His novels are Something More and British Summertime.

For more details about Mr. Cornell click here.

Joe Abercrombie is the author of several critically acclaimed fantasy novels. He first became famous for The First Law trilogy, comprising The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. He also also produced a standalone novel set in the same world: Best Served Cold. Another standalone book, The Heroes, is due in 2011. In 2008 Joe was a finalist for the prestigious John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He is published by Gollancz in the UK, and by Pyr in the USA. He lives in Bath with his wife, Lou, and his daughters Grace and Eve.

For more details about Mr. Abercrombie click here.

Also Attending

Alastair Reynolds is one of Britain’s best-selling science fiction writers. Currently signed to a million-pound contract by Gollancz, he thrills readers with his complex tales of the far future. Reynolds’ Chasm City won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel in 2001. He has also won a Seiun Award in Japan, and been three times nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. His latest novel is Terminal World. He lives in South Wales, and was a Guest of Honour at the first ever BristolCon in 2009.

Colin Harvey lives in Keynsham, and is a writer, reviewer and blogger. He is the editor of Future Bristol, published in 2009, and of Killers, long-listed for the British Fantasy Award, and short-listed for the Black Quill Award. His fifth novel, Winter Song, published by Angry Robot Books, was launched at BristolCon ‘09.

Juliet E McKenna has always been fascinated by myth and history, other worlds and other peoples. This ultimately led to her studying Greek and Roman history and literature at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, as well as to a lifetime love of SF and fantasy fiction. She is the author of the acclaimed Tales of Einarinn series, translated into more than a dozen languages, as well as the highly praised The Aldabreshin Compass sequence. Her current project, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, is a trilogy exploring divided states, personal conflict and the rights and responsibilities of power, beginning with Irons in the Fire and continuing with Blood in the Water. She is one of the leading lights of The Write Fantastic, a UK authors’ initiative promoting the breadth and depth of current fantasy fiction, and reviews online and for Interzone and Albedo One. Living in Oxfordshire, England with her sons and husband, she fits in her writing around her family and vice versa.

John Meaney is the author of To Hold Infinity, the Nulapeiron Sequence (Paradox, Context, Resolution) and Absorption, vol.1 of the Ragnarok trilogy, all hard SF novels. He also wrote the dark fantasy/Gothic SF novels Bone Song and Dark Blood, and (as Thomas Blackthorne) the violent, near-future thriller and political satire Edge. His short fiction has been reprinted in several year’s best anthologies.

Meaney has a degree in physics and computer science, holds a black belt in shotokan karate, and works out fanatically. Before writing full time, he enjoyed a long career in IT, and taught business analysis and software engineering around the world. A trained hypnotist, he likes dark chocolate and adores cats. He lives in a Welsh valley.

Eugene Byrne is a novelist and journalist resident in Bristol. His books include Back in the USSA, co-written with his old schoolfriend Kim Newman, ThiGMOO, Things Unborn and a biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in comic form, drawn by Bristol artist Simon Gurr. In 2008, Eugene and Simon produced The Bristol Story, a 200-page graphic history of Bristol; over 100,000 copies were printed and given away free. This year Eugene and Simon brought out a graphic biography of Charles Darwin for the Darwin 200 celebrations.

Eugene has written a guidebook to Bristol’s Arnos Vale Cemetery, which is full of all the city’s leading dead Victorians and he says you really ought to visit it. He lives in quietly-desperate suburban respectability with his wife and two children, does all his own ironing and drives a Skoda.

Simon Gurr is an illustrator and comic artist whose professional comics debut was in 2000AD (the first strip to be drawn entirely with vector graphics). Since then he has collaborated extensively with author Eugene Byrne, producing web and print comics together including graphic biographies of Charles Darwin and I K Brunel. He is also the artist/author of a comic serial adaptation of The Day Of The Triffids.

His illustration work appears most often in books and magazines and includes SF and Fantasy subjects. He was the only illustrator to appear in every issue of roleplaying magazine Arcane, providing artwork for the popular Encounters series.

Kim Lakin-Smith is a science fiction and dark fantasy author whose work focuses on urban dystopias, history and folklore, steam/gaspunk, and the notion of the outsider. Her debut novel, Tourniquet (Immanion Press) was published in 2007 and the novellas Black Sunday and Cyber Circus will be published by Newcon Press later this year. Her short stories have appeared in Interzone, Black Static, Celebration – the BSFA’s 50th birthday anthology, Myth-Understandings and others. Kim’s story, “Johnny and Emmie-Lou Get Married” is a shortlist nominee for the BSFA short story award 2009.

Stephanie Burgis is a novelist and short story writer. Her Regency fantasy trilogy for 10- to 15-year-olds, The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, begins with Book One, A Most Improper Magick, due to be published in the UK and US in the summer of 2010. She has also sold nearly thirty short stories to adult science fiction and fantasy magazines and anthologies, including Strange Horizons, Black Static, and Future Bristol. To find out more, please visit her website.

Terry Cooper is a full-time artist and illustrator, producing everything from graphic novels, movie storyboards, cartoon characters and company logos, to book and CD covers. He has illustrated for authors Steven Deighan, Garry Charles, Steve Lockley, Paul Finch, Barry J House, Steve Dean and Chris Lynch. In addition, he is a published novelist in his own right, with the book, ‘Kangazang!’ and is currently working on TV and movie scripts. If that wasn’t enough, he also provides voice-overs and narration for advertisements, films and cartoons. He is currently based in Cardiff, South Wales.

Adam Colston lives and works in Exeter in Devon. When not writing fiction, thinking about writing fiction, or procrastinating about writing fiction, he helps people with drug dependencies. Adam’s first published story, “An Empty Kind of Love,” appeared in Escape Velocity Magazine in 2008 and appeared in the BSFA short fiction award long list. In 2009 he won the Writers of the Future Contest, coming second in the third quarter. In 2010 he has fiction debuting in various venues including Orson Scott Card’s Inter-Galactic Medicine Show, Redstone Science Fiction and Writers of the Future Vol. 26.

Sarah Singleton is the award-winning author of six novels for young adults, including Century, The Amethyst Child, and most recently, The Island, all published by Simon & Schuster. She has written one novel for adults, The Crow Maiden (Wildside Press) as well as numerous short stories for magazines and anthologies. She lives in Wiltshire.

Bristol-born Talis Kimberley is returning to her home city to present her narrative, whimsical brand of music to Bristolcon’s discerning attendees. Talis is a storyteller. Her songs are full of tales, some true, some speculative. Whether inspired by literature, real life or the world of myth, her work always takes a quirky, sideways view of the world. She can sing you what Lady MacBeth said to Helen of Troy over a bottle of wine, or introduce you to the secret world of teabags. Here are references to Escher’s drawings, Oliver Postgate’s creations, celestial geometry, oh, and werewolves. Talis knows what type of car the Moon drives, why all self-respecting heroes need a back-up team, and what the selkie keeps in her suitcase. She drinks Redbush tea and looks taller than she actually is.

Mike Tucker is Director and Effects Supervisor of The Model Unit, a visual effects company based at Ealing Film Studios that specialises in miniature sequences for television and film.

Prior to founding his own company, Mike was an effects designer at the BBC Visual Effects Department. He was one of the principal effects crew for Red Dwarf series 1 – 7 and worked as an effects assistant on the final four series of the original Doctor Who.

Mike was awarded for a BAFTA for his work on the BBC’s Hiroshima documentary and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Dangerous Film’s Human Body – Pushing the Limits. He has recently been commissioned to write the History of the BBC Visual Effects Department with ex-BBC colleague Mat Irvine, which is due to be published by Aurum Press in November.

Andy Bigwood is an artist, draughtsman, bookbinder, cartographer and illustrator from West Wiltshire, UK, where he lives alone, only venturing out for disastrous foreign holidays and the occasional convention.

Trained in technical illustration, in Bath (shortly before the evolution of computer aided art), Andy has provided artwork, cartography and cover designs for a variety of Fantasy, Horror, and Science fiction novels including The Winter Hunt, Conflicts, The Push, Future Bristol, and maps for the Wraeththu trilogy; twice winning the British Science Fiction Association Award for best artwork with the book covers of ‘disLOCATIONS‘ (2007) and ‘Subterfuge‘(2008) .

Cheryl Morgan won a Hugo Award in 2004 for the online book review magazine, Emerald City, and another one in 2009 for her writing. She has been nominated for several other awards, including the Best Fan Writer and Best Web Site Hugos. She currently co-edits the web site, Science Fiction Awards Watch and writes the Cheryl’s Mewsings blog. Since January 2009 Cheryl has held the post of Non-Fiction Editor at Clarkesworld Magazine.

Gareth L Powell is a science fiction writer from the United Kingdom. Elastic Press published his first fiction collection in August 2008, and Pendragon Press are due to release his debut novel in April 2010. He’s a regular contributor to Interzone and its readers recently voted his story “Ack-Ack Macaque” as their favourite short story of 2007.

Joanne Hall lives in Bristol, England, with her partner. She enjoys writing fantasy, and has been lucky enough to have short stories accepted by From the Asylum, Quantum Muse, Art and Prose, and Afterburn SF, among others. She has also had her New Kingdom Trilogy published by Epress Online, and a short story featured in Colin Harvey’s Future Bristol anthology. In her spare time, Joanne enjoys listening to music and going to concerts and the cinema, when she can be coaxed out from behind her keyboard. Her personal website can be found at www.hierath.co.uk, and she’s always happy to hear from readers.

Nick Walters is the author of several BBC Doctor Who novels including the award-winning Reckless Engineering. He has also published various short stories and articles. He lives and works in Bristol.

Roz Clarke was born in Manchester and raised in London, and is now making her home in free-range and paint-splattered Bristol. She tossed aside a career in database development to take an MA in Creative Writing, which she attained in 2008. She is also a graduate of the Clarion West workshop, 2007. Her short story “Haunt-Type Experience” was published in Black Static #9 in February. She is currently tweaking a novel, quite mercilessly, and (still) looking for a fascinating day job.