Diary Friday 3rd April 2026 – The Beginning Of The Convention.
- arthurpeterchappell
- Apr 14
- 2 min read
Waking in my hotel room, cluttered in clothing due to the lack of drawers provided by a 4 star hotel (see https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186402-d211158-r1055734018-Hilton_Birmingham_Metropole-Birmingham_West_Midlands_) I got myself dressed and ready for what proved to be a mildly disappointing hotel breakfast, with watery scrambled eggs and lukewarm sausages. At least there was black pudding, which seemed to come and go over the next four mornings.
2pm – Opening Ceremony A straight forward introduction to the convention by the committee, and the guests of honour with promises of the joys ahead of us. This was also where we got to see a list of the names of famous genre folk and fans from previous conventions known to have died since the last Eastercon in Belfast in 2025. The organizers got to speak at the Eastercon opening and closing ceremonies and members of both conventions interacted, chatted freely and had free access to some events and rooms used by the other group. HaruhiCon said how welcome they felt and what little I saw of their rooms and costuming was amazing. I hope we get future opportunities to interact with them and other convention promoters too.
Link – HaruchiCon https://haruhicon.co.uk/page/about-haruhicon
3pm Demystifying Publishing Contracts Francesca Barbini A talk through the bewildering looking warren of clauses and sections of a standard author-publisher contract by a leading publisher. One area that can trip authors up is that of international and translated work rights, where careful reading can help make sure that we don’t lose income generated abroad.
Evening Meal The hotel bar meals were nice but expensive. The convention had secured a group of food trucks selling street foods that were cheaper, so I decided to eat from those. There were three trucks, though one, serving Crepes and puddings might not have appealed to me had it even been open during my visit. I settled on the Greek kebab option, which was limited to just a chicken or vegan option. I chose the meat dish, which was very nice.
Poetry Open-Mic Sandra Bond & Chris Morgan A lovely opportunity for poets to read/perform our work. Sandra & Chris timed things well in that all the participating poets got to read two pieces each in the 45 minute slot we had. The quality of work on display was consistently high.
I have added one of the poems I performed here. The Attack Of The 50 Foot Nun. https://arthurpeterchappell.wixsite.com/homepage/post/poem-the-attack-of-the-fifty-foot-nun
Photos taken by me.
Arthur Chappell
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