There is a science fiction convention on the 25th-26th July in the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow. The guest is Iain M Banks.

On Thursday night (9th) at The Cask and Still the committee will be selling memberships and this will be one of your last chances to save yourself a £5 drinking voucher by signing up in advance.
After July 17th there are no more advanced memberships.
You can visit the website http://www.satellite2.org.uk/

Now that weekend is also the River Festival so the Crowne Plaza is definitely the best place to be that weekend as there will be loads of fantastic things going on in addition to out brilliant convention.

And if that's not enough just imagine how you'll feel when everyone else is celebrating 40 years since Apollo 11 landed on the moon and you're doing nothing.

Come on. It's going to be brilliant.

Calling all satellite_2 members.

Just to let you all know, the Crowne Plaza have agreed to extend the special hotel rate period to Thursday the 3rd of June. So get on the phone and get it sorted out now. Think how much beer you can buy with the money you save. :-)

A recap on the deal:-
For the weekend of the convention the rate will be £90 per room per night B&B (for single or double occupancy). I think you'll agree this is an incredible rate for a 4 star hotel in the height of Summer.

Booking Instructions
1 Phone 0870 443 1691. This is the hotel reception.
2 Ask them to put you through to in-house booking.
3 Ask for a booking for your desired dates and say it's for Satellite 2.
4 You'll need to give them your credit card number.
5 Do not let them put you through to central booking as they have no details of the convention on their computer.

Dear Satellite 2 members (and future members),

This is a financial advice notice from your treasurer. The Crowne Plaza have given us the following room rate. For the weekend of the convention the rate will be £90 per room per night B&B (for single or double occupancy). I think you'll agree this is an incredible rate for a 4 star hotel in the height of Summer. However this rate is only available until the 27th of May. After that date the rate will no longer be available. So you need to book as soon as possible to benefit from our special rate.

Booking Instructions

1 Phone 0870 443 1691. This is the hotel reception.

2 Ask them to put you through to in-house booking.

3 Ask for a booking for your desired dates and say it's for Satellite 2.

4 You'll need to give them your credit card number.

5 Do not let them put you through to central booking as they have no details of the convention on their computer.

Sorry to everyone who has read this about a million times, but I'm trying to reach as many people as possible.

Here is the best and easiest way to book the Crowne Plaza for satellite_2.

1 Phone 0870 443 1691. This is the hotel reception.

2 Ask them to put you through to in-house booking.

3 Ask for a booking for your desired dates and say it's for Satellite 2.

4 You'll need to give them your credit card number.

5 Do not let them put you through to central booking as they have no details of the convention on their computer.

We have just heard that Iain M Banks will be reading from his new book "Transition" at Satellite 2. This book won't be released till September 3rd, so hear it first at the convention.

http://www.satellite2.org.uk

I have also just heard that the Glasgow River Festival is the same weekend. As the Crowne Plaza is right on the river, you'll be in the best place to see the event.

http://www2.seeglasgow.com/diary/event.asp?Eventid=1749

PS I have posted this in several places today, all with a spelling mistake. I am a numpty and should really try and work through my to do list when I'm actually awake.

On Saturday morning I got up at 4am to fly to Luton. I had a doze on the plane and Al picked me up at the airport. We went straight to the fishmarket and got our convention/bookstall set up. I was primarily there to promote satellite_2 and albacon and I had taken some books from the cupboard to sell to offset the cost. And it's also a good way to start conversations with people.

The fishmarket is a large open L-shaped space. After the opening ceremony the decision to turn the seating round was taken as the acoustics were utterly terrible. (Flashback to 1995 and Intersection). The sound problems were made worse by guests waving mics about instead of holding them close to their mouths. I made sure that I was sitting close to the front of any program item I went to so I could at least partially lip-read.

I attended a panel on Is "New Space Opera" just "Old Space Opera" in fresh clothes? I think the consensus of the panel was that space opera is great, either new, old or "widescreen baroque." A sentiment I agree with. Al and I manned our stall, handed out leaflets and book marks, made new friends, met old friends, had weird conversations, and sold a few books. Our book stall was a marble fish slab which kept our books nice and cool. Many of the other vendors were small press publishers or self-published authors. There was no jewelery stalls, so I didn't spend too much money.I stuck up posters in the toilets and they may still be there.

The con had the Jester of Northampton as a compere and M/C which was a super idea and he entertained everyone by walking about on those bouncy leg things and juggling and he did his act in the evening which was hilarious.

We listened to excepts of Paul Cornell's adaptation of Iain Banks' State of the Art for BBC Radio 4 which will be broadcast at 2.15pm on the 6th of March. Paul was pleased that Iain wanted to add his ship name "Innocent Bystanders" to the official list of ship names.

In the evening we had free wine at NewCon Press's launch of Subterfuge and then a BBQ in the courtyard. I spoke to some of the fishmarket staff. I really like the place. It's run by a lot of really young people, many of whom are volunteers. They have exhibitions and events as well as a collection of teeny independent shops, a bar selling veggie and non-veggie options. Al and I decided to go for a wee walk (and chips) before bedtime. Northampton at the weekend is terrifying. There were bus loads of police trying to keep the peace, blood on the streets and everyone was out to get plastered and into a fight. I was glad that the fishmarket had a tough looking security guard. He was needed.

The next day I attended the GoH talk with Iain Banks and ken MacLeod in conversation with John Clute. All three were introduced by the legendary Alan Moore who lives in Northampton and was stunned that an SF con had arrived in his town.

Al and I went to the panel quiz, "Just an SF-ing Minute" which was utterly hilarious. Paul Cornell was so cute as he got embarrassed about being caught in a repetition as he put his head in his hands and said that he couldn't look at anyone. Priceless. Iain Banks masterfully played the back game, failing to talk for more than 8 seconds on the subject of malt whisky, putting the audience into utter convulsions.

Things finished quite early as the fishmarket shut at 6pm. If I'd realised I wouldn't've booked a third night in the hotel as we could really have gone home. As usual we were all sorry when it was all over. And the PCBs set in quite early for me.

In all there were about 200 people there over the course of the weekend. At such an intimate con there was loads of audience participation and the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly. The guests were all incredibly clever and so witty and entertaining. I had a great time.

We currently have 10 adult, 2 child and one supporting members.

We've only been selling memberships for 24hours, so get your memberships while they are still at the unbelievable price of £30.

PS We might have a fire limit of about 250 members, so there's only 237 memberships left. Actually it's worse than that; counting Iain M. Banks we have only 235 left.

It's going to be awesome. Can I stay this excited for a year? Possibly.

We are now taking memberships for satellite_2 and the website will, from Monday evening, have membership forms on it.

Just a note about prices. Until after Orbital ie 24th March, the price of an adult membership will be just £30. After the 24th it will rise to £40. Kids' prices are £10, because we are doing things that kids will (hopefully)like, but we're not specifically having kids' program items. Cheques can be made payable to "Satellite2". If anyone would like to set up electronic payments then please contact me at dyllanne@yahoo.com and I'll send the account details.

Tomorrow evening at 6pm dalg and I will be going to see Iain M Banks and Ken MacLeod at aye_write. As Iain is our Guest of Honour at satellite_2 we may pluck up courage to have a chat or at risk of being uncool and having a fan face, we may not.
Hope to see some Trouts or other pals there.

It's Official. Satellite2 has Iain Banks as Guest of Honour.

It's on 25th and 26th July 2009 to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing.

So the programme will have a strong science fiction and science slant to it.

All program ideas and participants greatly accepted. There will be a small art room, so any artists willing to exhibit, get your space booked ASAP. Membership is currently as cheap as chips at £40 and we will be having a "£10 off" sale for Orbital.

Satellite 1's guest, Ken McLeod, will be doing a thing at Aye Write with his good friend Iain M. Banks on Sunday 9th March at 6pm. It only costs £7 or £6 for a concession.

Not rubbing it in, but dalg and I have got free tickets. Whoopee.

There will be a Science Fiction Convention called Satellite 2 (A sequel to the successful Satellite 1) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing on the 18&19th July 2009. Watch this space for progress and more details.