Team Titan at Nine Worlds

Team Titan had an awesome time hanging out at Nine Worlds convention in London this weekend! Here are just some of our highlights from the wonderful Geekfest…

Cath Trechman, senior editor (@CathTrech)

– Our own Danie Ware being told off for swearing TWICE during her panel – she’s trouble that lady…

– Sharing drinks and fish finger sandwiches with the lovely Marc Turner, author of the brilliant epic fantasy When Heavens Fall.

– The knitted gun – I didn’t know I wanted one till I saw it. Now I definitely need one. 

– All the costumes – all of them! But especially the knitted gun.

– Being reminded of the plot of Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr during the childhood influences panel – many of my childhood nightmares stemmed from that book and I had forgotten I’d even read it!

– The sneaky McDonald's I may have had – I blame Cara ;)

Miranda Jewess, editor (@MirandaJewess)

• – Forcing Paul Cornell to show Cara pictures of his delightful ginger-haired child. He then drew a crowd signing copies of his books at the Forbidden Planet table.
• – Bar time with Richard from SFX, bonding (in very hushed tones) over the fact that we both think that Star Wars has a terrible script.
• – Spotting A Darker Shade of Magic in pride of place at the Forbidden Planet stand.
• – Having tea with Dan Godfrey, author of New Pompeii (forthcoming from Titan Books, August 2016).

 

Cara Fielder, press & marketing assistant (@TheTattooedBook)

• – Teaching Miranda Zombie Dice (releasing the inner geek) in the games room.
• – Meeting the super awesome book blogging machine that is Mieneke van der Salm.
• – Listening to the ‘Food in Comics’ panel trying to keep the content PG for children in the room.
• – The look of joy when I brought Danie tea on Sunday morning.
• – The constant fighting, teaming up and turning on each other on the ‘TV vs Books vs Comics vs Games’ panel.
• – All the incredible costumes, especially the Ghostbuster and Stay Puft.
• – The terrified girl on the McDonalds toilet door (also the only photo I took, go Cara!)
• – Listening to Adam Christopher and the panel choose their top 5 Doctor Who stories to save (and which to gladly bin).
• – All the dirty sugar of McDonald’s!
• – Meeting so many people I’ve never met before!

 

Ella Chappell, editorial assistant (@EllaJChappell)

• – Being invited to play a game of Avalon within ten minutes of arriving, and learning that everything I thought I knew about Avalon was wrong.
• – Discovering lots of cool new writers – and adding their books to the dangerously wobbly tower of books that is my mental to-read pile.
• – Having my first ever ‘filet-o-fish’ at McDonald’s. A perfectly round and smooth bun. A perfectly square patty o’ fish. So far from what nature intended.
• – Finally meeting Adam Christopher in real life, and getting myself a proper Doctor Who education during his Doctor Who panel.
• – The mysterious stag sculpture in the equally mysterious hotel water feature.
• – Convention goodies – including an enormous Gollancz Sheri S Tepper anthology.
• – Running into an old classmate I haven’t seen in seven years – you never know who you will see at a Geekfest!
• – Thinking about the future of SF in ‘The stars my destination’ panel – multiverse, quantum biology and beyond.

 

Natalie Laverick, editor (@Natalie Laverick)

• – Arriving bright and early at a convention on Sunday morning without a hangover. There is a first time for everything!
• – The Battle Royale of a panel that was ‘TV vs Books vs Comics vs Games: FIGHT!’ for: the sheer audacity of the authors (they write books, for their job!) defending TV, games or comics; the very serious discussion about which medium best equips you for a zombie apocalypse (you won’t be able to play your Xbox but at least you can throw it!); Alan Moore vs. Netflix; and Peter Newman’s triumphant win for Team Books!
• – So many games, so little time, but lots of fodder for the office board game club (next week: Werewolf! Every office needs an atmosphere of mistrust and outright dishonesty, it’s just good business).
• – Feeling simultaneously despairing and inspired about the future thanks to the fascinating authors of ‘The stars my destination’ panel, who also recommended some great reads (The Country of Ice Cream Star went straight in my shopping basket as I listened, so living in the future’s not all bad).
• – Catching up with Adam Christopher after his epic trip to the West Coast and San Diego Comic-Con, and learning which 5 24 episodes of Doctor Who I must remember to save from a burning building should the situation arise.

 

Lydia Gittins, press officer (@lydiagittins)

• – Standing in awe of all the amazing cosplayers (particularly those still looking FLAWLESS on Sunday morning).
• – Meeting IRL the lovely Adam Christopher (both of us desperately trying to work out how we had managed so many near-misses at other cons, book launches and general publishing shin-digs over the last couple of years) and hearing about his envy-inducing US tour.
• – The now traditional round of Titan fish finger sandwiches, for which we were joined by fantastic author Marc Turner and globe-trotting editor-at-large Mr Lee Harris.
• – Sharing niche fandoms with Alasdair Stuart (who was surely dazzled rather than dazed by Fairuza Balk trivia knowledge).
• – Watching Nate Crowley (aka Regular Frog) attempting to read the entirety of his twitter epic ‘Daniel Barker’s Birthday’ story.
• – Being introduced by the gorgeous and talented Liz de Jager to superstar blogger Juniper Jenni, who it turns out is not a walking Matilda sketch really.
• – Watching author-superstar Danie Ware’s Grease-worthy transformation from ‘hardest-working-person-in-genre’ behind the FP stand to night goddess on the Saturday evening.
• – …And of course making a host of new friends to look out for next year – by which time I should hopefully have recovered from this year’s…

 

See you at Geekfest 2016!
Team Titan