JG at the SFX Weekender 3

In case you've been snowed in or were without the Internet for the past few days, like me*, then you may not know that this past weekend somewhere in the region of 6,000 SF and Fantasy fans invaded Prestatyn Sands holiday camp** to celebrate their love of all things genre - from movie screenings and celebrity appearances, to author panels and young ladies wearing stilts (and not much else).

A packed pub for the Abaddon/Solaris Fun (or should that be 'Pun'?) Hour

If I had to sum up my 67 hours in Prestatyn in one word it would have to be 'Awesome'***. Alternatively I could write screeds about all the wonderful people I met, new fans and old friends, all the bizarre and totally unreal things I witnessed****, and all the debates embarked upon. But the next Pax Britannia book won't write itself and, having spoken to a number of fans over the course of the weekend, I know that there are a lot of people already desperate to get their hands on Time's Arrow Part 2*****.

The 'How do you put the punk into steampunk?' panel

So instead I'll just say a massive thank you to Dave Bradley, Rich Edwards, Jordan Farley, Dave Golder, Nick Setchfield and the rest of the SFX team for a fantastic event; to Jon Oliver, David Moore, Keith Richardson, Pye Parr and James Newton for doing such a good job of selling my Pax Britannia books; to my fellow steampunk panelists; and to everyone who stopped me to say hello over the course of the weekend. Hopefully we can do it all again next year.

Yours Truly signing with Guy 'I never thought I'd be Craig Charles's back dancer' Haley on the Abaddon/Solaris stand

In the mean time, here's my Top Ten list of things I didn't know before the SFX Weekender 3, but which I do know now.

1) If you're a big name you don't have to queue in the freezing cold. (My name was big enough to qualify. Which was nice.)

2) Darth Vader won't serve Rose Tyler alcohol without photo ID.

3) Some of the recently refurbished chalets at Pontin's come with interesting internal water features.

4) When the Zombiepocalypse****** comes, lock yourself in the loo.

5) Lavie Tidhar is so steampunk he [blank] cogs.*******

6) Designers address people as 'Dude'.

7) Being Human appeals to BBC 3's Twilight crowd, allegedly.

8) Craig Charles finished filming the new series of Red Dwarf at 7.00pm on Saturday evening.

9) Brian Blessed is a fully trained cosmonaut.

10) Apparently, I am the King of Steampunk.

* Nightmare!

** Or, as author Simon Bestwick put it, "the housing estate from Mordor."

*** Although 'Flooded' came a close second.

**** Which are totally normal for the SFX Weekender, of course.

***** A.k.a Black Swan.

****** Copyright and Trademark Jonathan Green, 2012!

******* You can work this one out for yourself. After all children read this blog, you know.