Mushens Entertainment goes to FantasyCon 2022
Last weekend, Juliet, Liza, and Kiya all headed to Heathrow to attend FantasyCon, an annual convention organised by the British Fantasy Society. This year’s event took place over two days, and included fascinating panels, author workshops, signings, and - of course - karaoke!
There was an abundance of interesting panels to choose from, with topics ranging from “Fantasy worldbuilding- how language, food and culture influence place (and vice versa)” to “Fighting to the death: blood war and espionage in SFF” and “Writing Older Characters – What happens when the chosen one grows up”. We tried to attend as many panels as we could - no mean feat when there were so many brilliant ones to choose from - and it was great to catch Stephen Aryan and Peter Newman on “Mashing up genres in Fantasy,” moderated by our very own Juliet Mushens, who is also President of the British Fantasy Society.
Many of the panels featured Mushens Entertainment authors, with a crowd favourite being “Love, Sex, Magic: Romance and Relationships in SFF,” moderated by Juliet. She was joined by Zen Cho, Juliet McKenna, and Mushens Entertainment authors L.R. Lam, Saara El-Arifi, and Jen Williams, for a delightfully fun and interesting discussion about relationships, friendships, and sex scenes in science fiction/fantasy writing.
One of the highlights of the weekend was catching up with our authors Stephen Aryan, Peter Newman, Saara El-Arifi, L.R. Lam, Jane Hennigan, and Jen Williams at the #TeamMushens dinner, where we were also joined by fantasy author Zen Cho. Everyone then headed to karaoke - a famed FantasyCon tradition – and celebrated the winners of the British Fantasy Awards, announced that evening.
Lots of FantasyCon attendees are aspiring authors, and so we were delighted to take part in a panel about Finding an Agent - Juliet was joined by Ed Wilson from Johnson & Alcock, and the panel was moderated by Kiya. There were lots of interesting questions from the audience, and we covered topics such as writing a cover letter, our tips for editing, and writing a synopsis. We always love talking to aspiring authors about what agents do and how they can get their materials in the best shape possible for submission. If you missed the panel and would like to hear more about our advice for aspiring writers, head over to our blog, which is full of helpful information for writers looking to find an agent!
Liza commented: “It was my first FantasyCon ever - I really enjoyed the wonderful panels, and how nice all the attendees were. I look forward to going next year (and hopefully doing karaoke next time)!”
If you are interested in joining the British Fantasy Society, you can find more information about membership on their website.