Dana Fredsti in Conversation!

At the Social last weekend, Dana Fredsti read from both Plague Town and Plague World (both available from Titan Books, folks!) and also did a Q&A session with Peter Ray Allison. Pete not only recorded the session but was also kind enough to share it with us. There’s some background noise from the bar downstairs, but otherwise, this is a brilliant session with both Dana and Pete – we hope you enjoy it as much as we did on the night!

Soundcloud – Dana Fredsti at SFSF Social #2

Astronauts’ Wives and Zombies in a Pub! – SFSF Social #2

Well, that was an absolute blast. Last night saw our second Sheffield-based event on the emergent Northern Circuit, held this time at the Old Queen’s Head pub since Eten Cafe stays closed on Sundays. For a wet Sunday night, the turnout was excellent – the pub’s upstairs room was almost packed out.

And with good reason too – our guests more than matched the occasion. BSFA Award-winner Ian Sales kicked off proceedings with a pair of readings; first from the upcoming final volume in the Apollo Quartet, All That Outer Space Allows (you can get the first three here and we wholeheartedly recommend you do!), and then from A Prospect of War, the first volume of his equally epic space opera trilogy (again, coming this year from Tickety Boo Press, in time for EdgeLit).

Ian Sales reads from All That Outer Space Allows

In the Q&A session that followed, Ian talked about the depth of research needed for this fourth part of the Apollo Quartet, how it was easier to find out technical details of the Apollo program itself than small social details like what products and advertisements would have been in magazines, and how he had to reconstruct the journeys of the astronauts’ wives from details like where their husbands were stationed.

Dana Fredsti, in the Q&A with Pete Allison

Then, after the obligatory pause to enable refills, Pete Allison introduced Dana Fredsti – swordfighter, novelist, and zombie aficionado, and author of the Ashley Parker series of books, which are available from Titan Books. Dana read from Plague Town and then, with Pete on additional dialogue duties, from Plague World – a segment in which a pair of visitors to Sheffield go to a pub and get attacked by zombies…! And the OQH got immortalised in the process! Thorough flesh-ripping fun, which got enthusiastic applause. Pete chaired a quick Q&A session, in which Dana revealed her absolute hatred for outlining. The Q&A was recorded for posterity – when the clips go live online we’ll link to them here!

 

Covetous bibliophiles assemble!

Obviously, there were books to give away too – including two sets of Dana’s trilogy and two sets of Ian’s Apollo Quartet Trilogy-so-far. Just look at that lovely spread of wordy goodness! 😀 – and with all prizes disbursed, the downstairs bar called – once again, it was brilliant to see people stopping back and chatting afterwards. Many thanks to both Ian and Dana, to Titan Books, the excellent Old Queen’s Head, the BFS and BSFA for their support – and to everybody who came to enjoy themselves!

The York Pubmeet returns in May – May 9th to be precise – with (provisionally) KT Davies, Mark Morris, and Lee Harris as guests. SFSF will be representin’ there, and we’ll be passing out more details nearer the time as well as possibly offering transport (convoy!). The Social, meanwhile, will be back – hopefully – in June.