As I’ve mentioned previously I’ll be at Bristolcon later this month – and over on their site this week they’ve posted the official programme. It looks great – an amazing line up of authors and panelists – and I thought I’d take a few minutes here to highlight what I’ll be doing:

10.00 – When Did Science Become The Bad Guy?

Science seems to have become unfashionable and is now suffering from funding cuts. When and how did science lose its cool?

With Dev Agarwal (Mod), Eugene Byrne, Simon Breeze, Tim Maughan, Raven Dane & Jonathan Wright

13.00 – Copyright or Wrong?

Until recent changes in the law, copyright in the UK was regarded as being decades out of date, struggling to keep up with advances in technology. It’s clear copyright law must change and adapt in order to survive the impact of technology and remain relevant to new media. Copying is easy, affordable and everybody does it – what options does the creator have to combat copyright infringement? Or is it time to offer everything for free?

With Jonathan Wright (Mod), Juliet E McKenna, Mike Shevdon, Tim Maughan, Raven Dane & Bob Neilson

18.00 – Sci-Fi Now!

Sliding doors, tricorders, communicators, space stations, and exploration of Mars. What have we achieved that was only science fiction fifty years ago? What happened to teleporters, jetpacks and flying cars? Will we ever get our base on the moon for our vacations? If so, when?

With Gareth L Powell (Mod), John Meaney, Eugene Byrne, Dev Agarwal, Paul McAuley & Tim Maughan

I’ll also be doing a reading from Paintwork at 10.50 – straight after the ‘When Did Science Become The Bad Guy?’ panel.

Hopefully see you there!

Apologies for being quiet over the last few weeks, but I have been kind of busy. I was off making my inaugural visit to the Great American Empire, and I can report on my return that our colonial cousins – despite poisoning themselves with excessive use of corn syrup – seem to be doing jolly well. In fact I was so taken with this new nation that I decided to get wed there, in the virtual reality gaming and entertainment construct known as ‘Las Vegas’, followed by an enjoyably relaxing honeymoon on the delightfully terraformed orbital spa ‘Hawaii’. It was quite splendid.

Anyway, having got back, cleaned the airliner grime from my frame, and started to recover from a severe case of desynchronosis – it’s clear I have a few bits of news to get you guys up to speed on. First off I’m very pleased to report that Paintwork is continuing to pick up glowing reviews:

“Havana Augmented is the third short story in Tim Maughan’s excellent Paintwork (2011), a collection that focuses on the meaning of artistry in a near-future cyberpunk landscape…(it) follows two streams of conflict. Paul and Kim battle with enormous robots which is, frankly, awesome. Mr. Maughan knows how to write an action sequence without letting it take over. The battles are short, streamlined, vicious and very, very fun…this is the crown jewel of an excellent collection. I’m a sucker for sports movies, especially when the game or match has some sort of Great Significance. Mr. Maughan tugs at my heartstrings with Havana Augmented – a giant robot smackdown with a country’s future on the line.” – Pornokitsch

“The title story Paintwork is an interesting examination of the lives and work of graffiti artists in the near future, trying to keep their art relevant in a world whose environments can become virtual with the blink of an eye. This is a Bristol story through and through, and Tim has done a great job of taking our landmarks and weaving them into a world that is very futuristic while remaining completely familiar to residents of the city…anyone who has an interest in urban art will draw much from this story. I loved Paintwork. All three stories show a writer with a real gift for accelerating the world we know into a believable future, with a deft local touch that adds an extra something for us Bristol folk…(it’s) a great read, that pinches a few ingredients from the SF greats and blends them with a unique flavour all of its own.” – Guide2Bristol

“Tim writes in a small subgenre that could loosely be called cyberpunk, but perhaps would be more accurately described as virtual reality fiction. He brings his near future VR fiction to life in a gritty and believable subculture, and he is very good at it…All three are excellent stories that transport the reader to the action…Tim’s work is a hidden gem. I’m very excited that a story I selected was nominated for the BSFA short fiction award, and I was excited to read this small collection. It is well worth your time.” – Rick Novy

As Rick mentions in that review, he was responsible for my first ever fiction sale, for which I am forever grateful. He’s got a book out himself at the moment – Neanderthal Swan Song – which I heartily recommend you go and check out.

In other – just as exciting – news I’ve got a couple of appearances coming up. First up is The Bristol Festival of Literature, where I’ll be taking apart in a panel looking at politics in sci-fi with the brilliant title “Should David Cameron read more Science Fiction?” It’s on Friday 21 October at Hamilton House in Stokes Croft at 6pm. Tickets are £5 and can be ordered here.

And then the very next day is Bristol’s own sci-fi and fantasy convention Bristolcon, where I’ve officially been announced as a guest. Not sure quite yet what I’ll be up to exactly there – more details as I get them – but with an impressive line-up of authors and artists I’m very honoured to have been invited. If you’re in the area it looks like an unmissable event, so come down and say hi.

Paintwork is out now – you can get Kindle versions from Amazon US and Amazon UK, and versions for all other popular e-readers (including iPad and Nook) at Smashwords.

Print versions are now available from Createspace or Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Last weekend saw the 17th London MCM Expo, with a record turn out of over 41,000 attendees as cosplayers, comic enthusiasts, videogamers, scifi fans and free huggers descended on the Excel Conference centre in London’s docklands.

For anime and manga fans the show is more like a giant dealer’s room than a full blown con, with only one anime themed panel over the two days, hosted by the UK’s three main distributors where they announced their upcoming releases for the year. You can check out the full details of their licenses elsewhere, but highlights included Beez Entertainment bagging fan hit Durarara!! and Manga UK’s announcement of Eden of the East.

As always, some of the best information comes to light with off the record chats with industry staff, including discussions I had with people about the recent news that US giant Funimation could well be sold off by it’s parent company Navarre. Specualtion was that a possible buyer could by a Japanese company, with Bandai, Aniplex or even manga publisher Kodansha being mentioned. Either way the vibe was that it was a positive step, rather than something that western anime fans should be panicking about.

Even more interesting – to me at least – was the result of my badgering people about the possibility of my current obsession Redline getting a US and UK release sooner rather than later. Now I’m sworn to secrecy over details, but I can tell you this: the film WILL be getting a western release, it could be this year, and some big players could be involved. I also found out that director Takeshi Koike and producer Katsuhito Ishii had checked out my review over at Anime News Network, and had liked what they had read – which is hardly surprising after I’d gushed all over the movie. But trust me, they deserve the praise.

So all in, London Expo is good day out. I got to meet up with some people I only usually chat to online, and grabbed a few bargains and new releases in the process. It might not be the in depth, anime orientated con that US fans get to visit on a regular basis, but I can heartily recommend UK fans drop by and check it out when they can, if only to get bundled about with the crowds and made to wonder whether the popularity of cosplaying as Yoko from Gurren Lagann is going to result in a spike in teenage pregnancies.

Photos supplied by Andrew Proom – check out his full set here.

I guess it must be pretty obvious by now that I’m not exactly what you’d call – if such a thing even exists – a ‘typical’ anime fan. I don’t refer to myself as an otaku. I hate J-Pop. Mainly due to being a 35 year-old heterosexual man, both Yaoi and Shojo anime holds no more interest for me than an episode of Ugly Betty or Gossip Girl. I don’t collect figures of little girls with their pantsu showing – although I do have a few Gundams, Labors and Totoros lying around the house. Fanservice at the very least bores me, and at worst makes me uncomfortable. I despise, rather than lust after, Asuka from Evangelion. And perhaps most shockingly, until this last weekend, I’d never been to an anime con before.

Not that I’m totally new to the con experience. Many, many years ago I used to go to comic and roleplaying shows, and the last time I was at Excel – the venue for London Expo – I was actually working on a stall running demos as part of my past career as a video games producer. But this was still the first anime-fan orientated event I’d been too, and it was hard to deny the feelings of being an outsider. A friend of mine had forewarned me that it felt a little like gatecrashing your little brother’s party, and despite not having any younger siblings within a few minutes of being there I understood exactly what he meant.

London Expo isn’t purely an anime and manga based event – it also covers ‘genre TV’, comics and video games, but it was clear from just glancing at the hour long queues outside that London’s teenage otaku massive was out in force. Adorned in Naruto headbands and Haruhi wigs, and fueled by Pocky and anxious hormones, they had made their way to Docklands – London’s already decaying shrine to 1980′s capitalism, served by the world’s most rickety futuristic train system – searching for a side order of social acceptance along with their discounted manga. And before they even entered it was clear they were going to find it; there was already a buzz in the air, teenage-geek awkwardness giving way to unbridled enthusiasm as they nervously grasped their ‘free hugs’ signs and shouted out character names to make it clear that they recognised each others cosplay outfits.

As I stood outside the entrance, watching the milling crowds and smoking one last cigarette before I entered, my friend’s comments became even clearer in my mind, and I understood fully what he was getting at. I am old. Many of the kids here had been probably been coming to Docklands for years, and the already dated looking monuments to a now forgotten economic-futurism that towered around us must seem like ancient structures to them. I, on the other hand, can actually remember when all of this was fields. Well, patches of green and some pretty run down looking docks at least. But despite the gulf between my age and that of the majority of the attendees, I still didn’t feel completely alienated. Even though our tastes in anime may very well be out of sync, there was no denying I could feel a certain bond with them – at the very least, I could recognise my own past teen awkwardness, and feel slightly more then a little envy for their innocent enthusiasm.

Skipping the sweaty queues courtesy of a press pass, the main hall was slightly smaller than I’d expected, and suitably crowded. Fighting against the masses to get around didn’t take the edge off the enjoyment – it might not be Akihabara, but it’s hard for any anime fan to not enjoying nosing around stalls full of manga, DVDs, toys, phone pendants, Ghibli plushies and Gundam kits. Despite this I nearly came away empty handed, until I stumbled across the Ilex stall and not just Helen McCarthy’s new book The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga but also the author herself. Helen is one of the few writers on anime to deserve the title of ‘legend’, having written some of the most exhaustive reference books on the subject, and it was great to be able to spend some time chatting to her in person after previously only via the ‘net. She’s not just knowledgeable but charming with it, and made me determined to finally make it to some of upcoming her screenings at the Barbican – details of which she let slip to me, but for now I am sworn to secrecy.

Reading reports of US anime cons always leaves me envious of one thing above all – discussion panels. The idea of being able to interact with other anime bloggers and even to see and hear Japanese creators talking about their work is extremely exciting to me, but sadly was one area where London Expo was lacking. Despite the apparent interests of the majority of the crowd, there was only one anime related panel on the day I attended – an appearance from Masahiko Minami and Masahiro Andō of Studio Bones.

On paper seeing these two speak was an exciting prospect, and my main motivation for getting to Expo, but the reality was slightly disappointing. Marred by sound problems and running behind schedule the panel lasted just 20 minutes, and was focused entirely on promoting the extremely delayed UK release of Ando’s movie Sword of the Stranger – despite promises that there would be footage from their work on the upcoming Halo Legends project. In fact, the highlight of the panel for me was when a member of the audience asked a question about the as yet unreleased in the UK Eureka 7 movie, only for Minami-san to respond with “Have you seen it yet?” The questioner’s response of “no comment” met with much laughter from the Japanese guests as well as the floor, thankfully. At least they recognise the situation UK anime fans are in, and have got a sense of humour about it.

With the panel finished, that was nothing more to do than to have one last wander round, grab some noodles and then head back into town to start the long trip home. Despite my early reservations I had a good time, and more importantly perhaps was able to see others having an even better one. At some point I was going to call this post ‘Fear and Loathing in Docklands’, but that’s not only too much of a cliche these days, it’s also not fair. ‘Fear and Respect’ might have been more apt. I might be too old and miserable to be in their gang, but the UK anime teenage massive has my support. They should enjoy it while they can, and more power to them. Now where did I put my hair-gel and that Naruto headband?