Dates upcoming

Just a few announcements, folks:

The Write Fantastic (well, some of us) will be in Birmingham in a fortnight's time: Friday at the Brum SF Group meeting in the Britannia Hotel, Saturday at the BFS Open Night at the Cornerhouse. If that's not enough detail, ( here's more: )

And then some others of us will be at FantasyCon in Nottingham the following weekend (21st-23rd). This is the point where the cool kids post their schedules, but I have no idea of mine, only that I'll be around. And I think we'll be doing a surreptitious launch of disLOCATIONS, as we couldn't get an official one. Seek us in the bar, basically.

And on my own account, the evening before that (Thursday 20th) I'll be helping to announce the Lit & Phil crime-story awards, assuming the other judges and I have not come to blows or other mayhem over the final decision; and this is early warning, Sunday Dec 2nd, I'll be reading at the Blue Room here in Newcastle. I couldn't swear to it, but I might be the first bloke ever to read there twice; it used to be women-only, but then I was invited to participate in their first men's event, some years ago now (was that the evening I chatted to David Almond about his upcoming first children's book, 'Skellig'? I think it might have been. That long ago...). These days it's fairly mixed, tho' still with a female bias; they scatter the men among the women now, rather than hiving us off to a ghetto night of our own. Whatever. It's still a privilege to be asked.

A (fairly predictable) meme result...

Your Score: Exalted Litter Guard

Chances of becoming someone's kittylitter: 10%

Congrats! Assuming you didn't lie AT ALL while taking this test, you'll probably be put in charge of guarding the litter box against saboteurs, and you might even get some of that Special Tuna in your bowl every-so-often! Life'll be good for you in the Cat's Republic of Meow! (It's also very possible that you're already working for the cats, and helping them begin their bid for the takeover of Earth...)

(If you like learning stuff, check out A Brief History of House Cats at smithsonianmagazine.com!)

Link: The When the Cats Take Over Test written by rrr99 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Another review

Having set myself out to blog all reviews I notice, good or otherwise, it would ill behove me to omit this one: This man can bloomin' write! A deliciously poetic blend of the magical and mythical set in a city of two halves (with thanks to durham_rambler, who spotted it first).