movies

Everyone, it is our absolute delight here at Octocon Towers to announce to you The  First National Irish Science Fiction Film Awards!

The film festival, organised by the amazing director and guest  John Vaughan and also known as The Golden Blasters, is a celebration of some of the finest films that the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres have to offer! This year, we'll be announcing one film per week for the short film category, leading up to Octocon, when the films will be shown and the audience will vote to decide the winner.

Our judges this year include Octocon '09 Guest of Honour Mike Carey and writer, artist and film-maker Maura McHugh.

The first film in our list of nominees (and oh my, is it a good list this year!) is a film called Manifest Destiny from the USA (running time 3 minutes).

We asked Mr. Vaughan for a quick tease of the film.

"The title is a clever play on America's policy of expansion in the 19th century, and at three minutes long, it is downright disturbing."

We'll be announcing the next in our line up sometime next week, so keep your eye on the twitter feed and subscribe to the RSS!

We can't wait to see what you all think come October! All of the films have been chosen for their amazingness, so we're sure it'll be a blast! :)

In the second of our interviews with Octocon guests, we talk to the beautiful and charming writer of The Quantum Prophecy. We ask him about his many days of conventioneering, how technology has affected the craft of writing, and we find out why he gives such long answers!

Octocon: Mr. Carroll, thank you for joining us today. You've been coming to Octocon for a few years now... Has the time spent at panels and talking to other authors at cons changed how you write over the years?

Michael Carroll: I'm pretty sure it has, but I don't think I could point to many specific incidents. At least, none that have directly influenced my writing. I've picked up more from reading the works of fellow guests. I try to read at least one book by each guest with whom I'll be sharing a panel (just in case they ask!) even when said guests don't write in the genres I'd normally read. In fact, that's possibly one of the most important lessons about writing: don't just read the genres in which you write - you'll learn a lot more by reading outside your preferred genre.

I can certainly point to some specific incidents that have show me how to behave at convention. Or, rather, how not to behave... For example: Public readings should be kept short - five or six pages at most! One sure way to turn off potential readers is to bore the pants off them at a reading. There was a certain incident - a very long time ago, and not at a convention - in which an author spectacularly failed to entertain a roomful of people by reading from one of her books for a solid hour. I can remember nothing about the book, but I'll never forget how bored I was.

In the first of our looks inside of our wonderful guests' minds, we talk to Robert Curley and find out his origins, his loves and, most importantly, his plans for Octocon!

Octocon: Thanks for joining us, Mr. Curley. You're one of Ireland's most well-known comics patrons. Where does your love for the medium come from?