In publishing, its seems, everything is loaded against the small operator. Last year we had that nasty business of the big Australian bookseller, Angus and Robertson, trying to bully small publishers into unfavourable contracts. Now it looks as though Amazon.com has come up with another way to tighten the thumbscrews.

Amazon is apparently trying to force independent Print-On-Demand-based publishers to use its BookSurge POD service. They are being told they that if they don't switch to BookSurge, the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages will be "turned off." If they refuse, they will be offered an alternative: they will be allowed to offer their books on Amazon under a plan whereby Amazon takes a 55% cut plus an annual registration fee and the sellers pay to send their books to Amazon's warehouses. If this kind of thing isn't tantamount to trying to establish a monopoly I don't know what is.

If this scheme goes ahead I will be boycotting Amazon and I'm sure many other people will, too. I have several friends who are published by small presses here or overseas, and those small presses in North America will go out of business if they refuse to co-operate with Amazon, their main outlet.

Read more at Writers Weekly or at Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. This, BTW, is an excellent site for getting the low-down on literary scams, schemes and pitfalls.

One last post on Swancon and then I must set it aside for another year. A terrible thought - what if I can’t be here next year? I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to have been able to cross the Nullarbor this time, so I won’t count on coming again. But there are other cons in other cities. In fact, there are plans for next year’s Natcon to be in Adelaide, which would be brilliant.

But Swancon was wonderful and my heart is still singing. Of course, I loved the Fantasy panels, including the one I mentioned in my Saturday post called “A Point of Difference: Standing out in Fantasy Fiction”, which involved Glenda Larke, Juliet Marillier, Bevan McGuiness and Karen Miller. There was another good one on Friday, called “Story Building” with Lee Battersby, Bevan McGuiness and Karen Miller. They were discussing the way they put their stories together and I was relieved to find that they are all “flimmerers” – they start with a beginning, probably an ending and possibly some bits in the middle – but they do not write strict outlines. Now I’ve been writing by this method for ten years and still can’t plot my way out of a paper bag. Listening to these guys I realised they have a gift that I missed out on. All of them can access the unconscious almost at will. That was a revelation to me! I caught Bevan McGuiness later and he agreed: this skill is an essential one for a fiction writer. He mentioned a book by Ayn Rand called “The Art of Fiction”. I googled for it and found a whole Wikipedia article on it here. Well worth reading, from the looks of it – but can this skill be learned? I’m not sure, but if I’m ever going to finish the never ending trilogy I’m going to have to try.

Glenda Larke gave a superb Guest of Honour Speech in which she drew together the many and varied threads of her life. She lives in Malaysia and when not writing fantasy, works as an ornithologist. Her blog (see link above left, under my picture) always makes interesting reading and her GoH talk was likewise engrossing. She gave an excellent writing workshop at the con –no extra charge! – which I also enjoyed very much. It was about “Mistakes Beginners Make” and I’ve made them all. Does that mean that maybe I’m not quite a beginner any more?

Space Opera, it seems, is back in fashion. I sat in on a panel given by Ken McLeod, the overseas Guest of Honour, with Karl Schroeder and Sean Williams. They began with a history of the sub-genre, which was a Good Thing for me, since I haven't read anything in this line for years. At one time, I quite enjoyed the works of Isaac Asimov and E.E. "Doc" Smith, but I quickly got sick of the sexist attitudes of the characters, which undoubtedly reflected those of the authors. Asimov, Smith and others of their ilk were men of their time, and we cannot blame them for that, but by the 1960s feminism was already burgeoning. While I had no desire to burn my bra or climb a corporate ladder, I was glad to get a breath of fresh air after the stultifying atmosphere of the fifties. And in the seventies I discovered Anne McCaffrey, so Asimov et al stayed on the bookshelf.

But the New Space Opera, they told us, is darker, meatier, grittier and much more accessible by women. In fact, Aussie author Marianne de Pierres writes it, and, I believe, does it well. I have only read Marianne's Parrish Plessis novels but I shall have to dip into her Dark Space and its sequels to find out if the New Space Opera is something I might grow to love.

One of the last panels was one of the best: In “Writing for Television: A Guide for New Writers”, Grant Watson facilitated a conversation between Rob Shearman, who wrote the Dr Who episode “Daleks” in the recent series, and Graeme Watson, also a script writer of note. It was very entertaining and informative.

The Academic stream, called “SF Histories”, was the most ambitious such program I’ve come across and some say it was the best and most thorough ever presented in Australia. Over twenty papers were read in just two days, in a kind of forced brain-feeding that left the head whirling. I only heard three or four of the papers, but Cathy Cupitt has blogged “notes on several papers from the Academic Stream and some other thinky panels” here while Dr Stephen Dedman, organiser of next year’s academic stream, has even put out “a very early call for papers - on SF, Fantasy, Horror, Slipstream, Futurism, Astronomy, Spaceflight, Forensics, Robotics, Exobiology...” here. I’d like to see Academic streams given due credibility both by fandom and academia. They are heading that way, it seems, for this year’s stream was supported by Curtin University and fans ran back and forth between the regular panels and activities and the academic stream.

The best part about cons is the happiness they generate. Being with like-minded people opens the heart and mind better than almost anything else. Suddenly, the world is heaven, and all one’s friends are angels. As well as enjoying the company of writers, editors, reviewers and publishers I already know, including Lee and Lyn Battersby, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Stephen Dedman, Sonia Helbig, Glenda Larke, Dave Luckett, Juliet Marillier, Karen Miller, Marianne de Pierres, Carol Ryles, Cat Sparkes, Helen Venn and Jessica Vivien, I also finally met others whom I’d only known by repute or via e-mail, including Trudi Canavan, Brendan Carson, Russell B. Farr, Edwina Harvey, Bevan McGuiness, Joel Shepherd, Sean Williams and Damien Warman. Damien, BTW, is the point person for next year’s projected Natcon in Adelaide. I hope I’ll be able to become involved in getting that up and running, for South Australia has never had a con. It should have, because lots of writers live there, including Fiona McIntosh and Sean Williams.

As a Swancon bonus, I got my grasping hands on two lovely new books to review. One is a historical YA novel called Escape by Sea, by L.S. Lawrence, who is really a specfic writer with the initials D.L. but I’m not allowed to mention the two names in the same context. It’s a rip roaring adventure story with a cliff hanger at the end of each chapter. The other book is a magnificent coffee-table tome by Pat McNamara, Michal DutRiewicz and Gary Turner. Entitled The Last Realm: Book One: Dragonscarpe. It is a visual treat with dragons, knights, wicked villains and fair maidens leaping from every page. Both are already available but my reviews won’t appear in The Specusphere until May.

OK, I promise not to mention Swancon again for a while. Well, not very much. Maybe a little bit, now and then, to remind you how good it is and how you all ought to come next year.

This time last year I was in Europe. I attended the Easter Eve service in a little country church in the Rhine Valley with my dear friend and cousin-by-marriage, Elfriede. A week later, I was back in England, catching up with Diana in London, and after that I met up with my Canadian e-cousin, Alison. We spent a wonderful weekend in the lovely medieval city of Winchester. The beauty and magnificence of that town’s famous cathedral will linger in my heart and mind forever, as will the delightful time spent in Alison’s company. That trip was one of the highlights of my life to date, giving me, as it did, opportunities to meet face-to-face with people I'd communicated with via the internet through our mutual interest in family history. This year at this time, my focus is on another of my passions - speculative fiction.

Alison and I chat regularly on Facebook, and yesterday I received a puzzled message from her. “Satima,” she asked, “what is a Swancon?” She had noted my excited posts to all and sundry, counting down the days to my favourite Easter activity. But living in Nova Scotia, how could she know that Swancon is the annual convention held by Perth’s speculative arts community since 1975? The black swan, you see, is Western Australia’s animal emblem, and the word convention is universally abbreviated to “con” by the communities that raise and support them. Hence “Swancon”.

A report on Swancon can only be like a report from one of the Blind Men in the Buddha’s parable of the elephant. You can feel the trunk, the ears, a leg or the tail, but never all four at once. In fact, Swancon is even worse, for as well as four streams of games, panels and talks running simultaneously, there is an art show and an auction/market. And although the attendees are all speculative arts enthusiasts, none has yet managed the art of even bi-location, let alone sesqui-location, so it just isn't possible to attend everything.

It seems to me that attendees fall into categories, and I shall attempt to delineate them for you: the Flavell system of sorting con-goers. First, there are the Readers, many of whom aspire to write - I count myself in this category. Then there are the Academics: people who are studying for masters or doctoral degrees or who are involved in lecturing or the archiving of speculative materials. Next, we have the Gamers, who can discuss World of Warcraft (or whatever game constitutes their particular addiction) in minute detail and aim to thrash the pants off anyone else addicted to the same pastime. There are also the Professionals – writers, publishers, artists and retailers, who, as well as loving the speculative arts, obviously have an interest in promoting their wares. And the biggest category of all is made up of the Fans, who just love attending cons for their own sake. Many of them are not only widely read, but can also discuss movies, TV shows, comics and the history of the speculative genres in considerable depth. However, it is apparent that fellowship is their main reason for attending cons. Many fans seldom go to talks or panels, but hang out in the foyer or one of the other open spaces, catching up on gossip and discussing the latest trends in things speculative.

There is considerable overlap among these divisions – most attendees would fit into more than one of them. The true Fans, however, can be identified by their almost universal proclivity for black clothes. (At least this has been true of every con I’ve attended, so if it isn’t universally so, blame my ignorance for the sweeping statement.) One almost starts to think that black clothing is compulsory, for in the foyer and the panel rooms one is surrounded by a veritable sea of black garments, with hardly a flash of colour in sight. I learnt after my first con to wear at least one black article so as not to look too eccentric.

Fans are the wonderful, hard-working people who make up the committees, do the fundraising and organizing and oversee the smooth running of the event. And it takes some doing. Fans form teams that vie with each other for the privilege of organising the next-but-one convention: that’s how long it takes to pull all the elements together. I dips me lid to these guys. This year’s event was organised by Anna Hepworth, Elaine Walker, Linda Deegan, Grant Watson, Dave Cake and a strong support crew. They deserve medals, every last one of them. Planning for next year’s event, to be held from 9-13 April 2009, is in the hard-working hands of PRK and his team. They already have Guests of Honour lined up and are busy planning fundraising events for the coming year.

Next time, I’ll give you more on the panels I attended and the other activities available to con-goers, but that’s enough for one lesson. Class dismissed:-)

I'll continue with Swancon later, but this deserves a post of its own! At the New Zealand Natcon, which, like Swancon, ran over Easter, Juliet Marillier's book Cybele's Secret was voted "Best YA Novel" in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Yay - go Cybele: go Juliet!

Well, maybe not really sad. Kind of happy sad. It was a wonderful con and there is so much to blog I don't know where to start. I think maybe I need a night's sleep first. Suffice it to say that I've been going to Swancon since 2003 or thereabouts and this was the best one yet. Perhaps that's at least in part because I know more people now. The con-going community is like one huge extended family, with some cousins you know well and feel at ease with, others you like but aren't too sure of and still others who are friends you just don't know yet. This year I caught up with loads of old friends and colleagues and made some new acquaintances. Some of those I already "knew" from Facebook and the blog round and some were introduced to me at the con. Tomorrow I'll look up all their blogs or web pages and make links.

You'll be glad to know the two panels I was involved with went OK, and I emerged unscathed. One was entitled "Girl Meets Boy: Romance in Fantasy". I felt really honoured to be on the dais with Glenda Larke and Juliet Marillier, to say nothing of fellow fan Ju Landeesse who is a much more experienced con-goer than I. Glenda Larke has a photo of this panel up on her blog. (See link up left, under my photo.) Juliet is holding forth (very knowledgeably, I might add) and I look like a stunned mullett, probably at the realisation of actually being up on a panel beside her. Juliet chaired this panel very skilfully, I thought. It can be hard to keep panels on track as some enthusiasts from the audience tend to get excited and throw in comments with wild abandon, sometimes to the point of being quite disruptive. Not on this panel, though: everyone was very well-behaved:-) We each nominated our favourite romances in Fantasy, and there was a surprising degree of agreement. We three older women loved Jacqueline Carey and Guy Gavriel Kay, although Ju, perhaps because she is younger and has different tastes, selected works by Anne Bishop, Louise McMaster Bujold and Scott Westerfield as her faves.

The other panel I was on was called "Critiquing: how much is too much" and here again Juliet was a great chair. The other panellists were Lee Battersby, Robert Hoge and Cat Sparks. I forgot to get anyone to take pix of that one, darnit. Just be assured we were all confident, well prepared and extremely knowledgeable. Well, the others were, anyway:-) We all agreed, I think, that crit groups can be useful provided the members all have the same aims (it's no good putting occasional writers in with intending professionals) and are willing and able to critique each other's work in an open-minded and open-hearted manner. Everyone, it seemed, had some experience of being in groups that just weren't working for them, and we all agreed that it's best to move on when that happens.

I'll come back tomorrow with lots of links and a bit about the panels and talks I liked best. But right now I really must go to bed!