FantasyCon 2012 is pleased to announce that, as usual, we will be holding a series of Expert Masterclasses on Saturday, September 29. These events will run for approximately one hour each, and cost just £5:00 per person per session.

Among those taking part are Marc Aplin, Mark Gatiss, Will Hill, M.D. Lachlan, Will Francis, Gillian Redfearn and Tony Lee, and the topics covered include how to run a popular blog, how to construct a novel, how to write for TV, how to work with an editor, how to get an agent, how to write successfully for comics, and how to come up with a young adult novel.

Seating is limited to fifteen (15) people per session, so book now to avoid disappointment! All the details can be found on the FantasyCon 2012 website at www.fantasycon2012.org/masterclass.htm.

We will also be presenting a number of Entertainments throughout the convention. These range from the Poetry Event hosted by Allen Ashley, the FantasyCon Quiz with question masters Joe Abercrombie and Sarah Pinborough, and the always-popular Just a Minute chaired by Paul Cornell, to the Fabulous FantasyCon Raffle presided over by the dapper John L. Probert and Guy Adams, and FantasyCon’s Evening Emporium of Entertainment featuring everything from recitations by Reggie Oliver, a short play by Stephen Volk, and the see-it-to-believe-it Burlesque performed by Alessa Dark. And don’t forget that Gollancz will be hosting the FantasyCon Disco on Saturday night with deejays Guy Adams and Rio Youers spinning the hits! For full details of what’s on offer, go to www.fantasycon2012.org/entertainment.htm.

Regarding the Raffle, please remember that we need your help. We would be grateful if you could donate a prize (or, even better, prizes) to support the Fabulous FantasyCon Raffle. All donations – and we really do mean ALL! – are always welcome, and the presenters will do their best to name-check as many people and publishers as possible who have donated prizes in the time available. Please e-mail us on info [at} fantasycon2012 [dot] org if you have something to donate, and go to http://www.fantasycon2012.org/raffle.htm for more information.

And don’t forget that the grand finale of FantasyCon 2012 will be the Awards Banquet on the Sunday afternoon, at which the British Fantasy Society will announce the winners of this year’s prestigious British Fantasy Awards. Banquet tickets are selling fast, and places are extremely limited. All bookings must be received no later than 9 September 2012. All the information can be found at http://www.fantasycon2012.org/banquet.php, and publishers and individuals who wish to pre-reserve a table should e-mail banquet [at] fantasycon2012 [dot] org and supply a list of the ten people that they will have on their table. Each person should have a meal booked and paid for before the table reservation is made.

FantasyCon 2012 is being held at the Royal Albion Hotel in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex,  from 27 – 30 September 2012. We now have fewer than 60 memberships remaining, so if you haven’t joined up yet, then please do so now. All you have to do is go to the “How to Join” page on the website (www.fantasycon2012.org/join.php), submit the form with your details and then pay via the PayPal buttons. Alternately, you can print out the form and mail it with a cheque to the address given. A limited number of Saturday-Only memberships are also now available.

With Author Guests of Honour Joe R. Lansdale, Muriel Gray and Brent Weeks, Special Editor Guest Mary Danby, Special Media Guests Mark Gatiss and Robin Hardy, along with Master of Ceremonies Tim Lebbon, this is an event not to be missed!

With FantasyCon fast approaching there’s no time like the present to book your attendance at the event if you haven’t already done so. FantasyCon will take place from 27 – 30 September 2012 at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton, UK. A limited number of Saturday-only memberships are also now available.

Guests at the event will be: Joe R. Lansdale, Muriel Gray, Brent Weeks, Mary Danby, Mark Gatiss and Robin Hardy. Master of Ceremonies is Tim Lebbon.

There will be panel discussions, Q&As, book launches, readings and films, along with the British Fantasy Awards ceremony and the famed FantasyCon banquet and raffle.

Tickets are selling fast so book yours HERE

FantasyCon 2012 is delighted to announce the addition of two Special Media Guests to complement its already stellar line-up of Guests of Honour.

Actor, author and playwright Mark Gatiss is a quarter of the team who created the award-winning comedy/horror series The League of Gentlemen for the BBC. He also scripted the three-part Christmas portmanteau Crooked House and the 2010 TV movie of H.G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon, and he co-created the international hit TV series Sherlock with Steven Moffat.

As an actor, he has appeared in all the above shows, along with episodes of Being Human, Psychoville, Nighty Night, Clone, Jekyll, Funland, Dr. Terrible’s House of Horrible, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Wind in the Willows and Midsomer Murders.

Mark is also an author, and his books include the Lucifer Box trilogy, The Vesuvius Club, The Devil in Amber and Black Butterfly, four Doctor Who novels, along with a biography of Hollywood film director James Whale.

Robin Hardy is an author, playwright, film director and producer, best known for his 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man, starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee and Diane Cilento. Today, it is justifiably regarded as a classic of British cinema.

He followed it in 1986 with the Irish serial killer thriller The Fantasist, featuring Christopher Cazenove and Timothy Bottoms, and he co-scripted and produced the rarely-seen Forbidden Sun (aka Bulldance, 1989), a mystery based around ancient Cretan rituals starring Lauren Hutton and Cliff De Young.

His latest release is The Wicker Tree, which we will be screening at FantasyCon on the Friday evening, following a Q&A with Robin and screenwriter Stephen Volk. Neither a sequel nor a prequel, but inhabiting the same territory as the earlier film, it is based on the director’s novel, Cowboys for Christ.

Please note that Mark Gatiss and Robin Hardy will both be attending FantasyCon for a limited period only.

They join FantasyCon’s Author Guests of Honour, Joe R. Lansdale, Muriel Gray and Brent Weeks, Special Editor Guest Mary Danby, and Master of Ceremonies Tim Lebbon.

After the success of last year’s event, the convention is returning to the Royal Albion Hotel on the seafront in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex, over the weekend of 27 – 30 September 2012. For further information, including how to join, visit the website HERE

Mark Gatiss photo (c) Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Cutting Block Press proudly presents a charitable anthology, Horror For Good, edited by Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender and Robert S. Wilson. All revenues from the book, less direct costs for production, marketing and distribution, will be donated to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

Authors include: Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeff Strand, Ray Garton, Joe McKinney, Lisa Morton, Laird Barron, Gary McMahon, Monica O’Rourke and many others.

The book is now available in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon.

Stephen Jones is now seeking submissions for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 24. He will consider stories and novellas first published between January 2012 and December 2012 for the twenty-fourth annual edition of this multiple award-winning series, to be published by Robinson (UK) / Running Press (USA) in 2013.

Authors are asked to forward stories of exceptional quality published between these dates, whilst publishers are invited to send novels, collections, anthologies, magazines, art books, graphic adaptations, DVDs and anything else connected with the horror field which could be mentioned in the comprehensive overview of the year in horror. Publisher contact information will also be included in the list of useful addresses contained in the volume.

The deadline for receiving material is January 2013, and all material must be sent to the postal address provided in the guidelines detailed HERE.

Also, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 23 edited by Stephen Jones is now available for pre-order from Amazon. To be released in October 2012, it contains stories by Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Paul Kane, Joel Lane, Alison Littlewood, Mark Samuels, Peter Atkins, Thana Niveau, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Reggie Oliver, Steve Rasnic Tem, Joe R. Lansdale, Evangeline Walton and many others. The cover artwork is by Vincent Chong. Full details HERE

FantasyCon 2012 is pleased to announce author, broadcaster and columnist Muriel Gray as its third Author Guest of Honour. Best remembered as co-presenter of Channel 4’s seminal early 1980s music programme The Tube, alongside Jools Holland and Paula Yates, she began her writing career in 1995 with the best-selling horror novel The Trickster (shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award). It was followed by two more, Furnace (1996) and The Ancient (2000), which Stephen King described as “scary and unputdownable”. She has also contributed many short stories to anthologies and magazines, and written for comics.

Muriel joins FantasyCon’s other Author Guests of Honour, legendary Texas “Mojo Story Writer” Joe R. Lansdale and New York Times best-selling fantasy author Brent Weeks, Special Editor Guest Mary Danby, and Master of Ceremonies Tim Lebbon.

The British Fantasy Society has recently announced its list of Nominees for this year’s British Fantasy Awards, and you can now book your place at the Awards Banquet on the Sunday afternoon. This gala event is always the highlight of the convention, but please be aware that places are strictly limited so early booking is advised.

Programming for the convention is also now being put together. As always, there will be panels, talks and presentations on a wide variety of genre-related topics presented over the weekend. If you are interested in being considered for programming, then please register HERE.  And if you are interested in doing a Reading from your own work, then go HERE to register.

Publishers who wish to sponsor Launch/Signing Parties, have material included in the Delegate Bags or donate prizes to the Raffle should contact info [at] fantasycon2012 [dot] org. This is also the same e-mail to contact if you are interested in advertising in the Souvenir Book or Pocket Programme.

The Dealers’ Room is currently sold out, but if you want to be put on a waiting list, in case anybody drops out, then please contact dealers [at] fantasycon2012 [dot] org

After the huge success of last year’s event, the convention is returning to the Royal Albion Hotel on the seafront, where rooms are now selling out fast. For those who require a little more luxury, there are also a limited number of rooms available at the nearby Queens Hotel. Booking information for both hotels can be found on the website HERE

FantasyCon 2012 is being held in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex, from 27 – 30 September 2012. If you haven’t joined up yet, then please do so now as membership prices will be increased from 1 June 2012. All you have to do is go to the “How to Join” page on the website HERE, submit the form with your details and then pay via the PayPal buttons. Alternatively, you can print out the form and mail it with a cheque to the address given.

FantasyCon 2012 is delighted to announce that New York Times best-selling author Brent Weeks has been added to its exciting line-up of guests. Brent is the author of “The Night Angel Trilogy”, featuring master assassin Durzo Blint, who practices his fatal art in a world of dangerous politics, strange magics and sudden death. The first volume in the series, The Way of Shadows, was published in 2008 and was quickly followed by Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows.

Perfect Shadow is a prequel novella in the same series, while the first book in the author’s new “Lightbringer” series, The Black Prism, launched in August 2010. It will be followed by The Blinding Knife, which will be published by Orbit in time for this year’s FantasyCon, which is being held in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex, over the weekend of 27 – 30 September 2012.

Brent joins the other Author Guest of Honour, legendary Texas “Mojo Story Writer” Joe R. Lansdale, Special Editor Guest Mary Danby and Master of Ceremonies Tim Lebbon.

With memberships fast approaching 200, if you have not joined up yet, do so now! All you have to do is go to the “How to Join” page on the website HERE. Full details of the convention are available on the website HERE

The Horror For Good charitable anthology, edited by Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender and Robert S. Wilson, will be published by Cutting Block Press on 30 March 2012.

Appearing in the book will be stories by Jack Ketchum, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Garton, Lisa Morton, Jeff Strand, Shaun Hutson, Joe R. Lansdale, Laird Barron, Gary McMahon, Stephen Bacon, and many more.

This is a charitable anthology. All revenues, less direct costs for production, marketing and distribution (net profits of each purchase, estimated to be at least 10% to 15%) will be donated to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

In a deal finalised last month, DarkFuse has acquired the publishing imprint Morning Star Press from Larry Roberts.  Roberts will remain the editor-in-chief during and after the transition.

Morning Star Press was founded in 2008 by the genre publisher, Roberts. Morning Star has published many genre greats including Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, James A. Moore, Edward Lee, Weston Ochse and many others.

Full details of the acquisition HERE

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America have named Connie Willis (pictured) the recipient of the 2011 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. The award, given for “lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy,” will be presented at the 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in Arlington, VA, from 17 – 20 May 2012.

Full details HERE

Meanwhile, Rick Hautala and Joe R. Lansdale are to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Horror Writers Association in recognition of their work. The awards will be presented at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, UT, on 31 March 2012.

Full details HERE