OH WHAT A NIGHT...

Big-mob thanks to everyone who came to the party on Saturday night and made it such a biffo event. Our last guests tumbled out the door at gone 1am, after we'd finally exhausted all the bad 80s video clips we wanted to see, but before that we had hours of good fun, great conversation, laughing, drinking, and having the time of our lives.

Whilst there were a host of brilliant moments, I think my personal favourite would have to have been breaking the usually unflappable Chesh with an image of my Mum dreaming of a Lloyd Cole-Chris Isaak sandwich. Or was it learning that the mah-na-mah-na song was originally taken from a Swedish Porn movie? (Which lead to some very dodgy Kermit the Frog impersonations) Or listening to Cassie's shock at the kind of music us "old people" listen to? Or watching Mynxii trying to outblush Luscious (and being beaten comprehensively: next contender please!)

Too much fun. Next time it'll have to be a "Why, oh why?" party. As in "Why, oh why did Ministry cover a Bob Dylan song? Why, oh why did they do a dance remix of 'Reckless'? Why, oh why The Dickies record that version of 'Nights In White Satin'?"

I LOVE HER, SHE LOVES ME

Received an email from Callisto yesterday, asking whether we could write something for the Swancon convention booklet regarding the wedding, and due to the usual committee organisational skills, could she have it, like, ten minutes ago?

Luscious was at the gym so I sat down and rattled off a page about her and what she means to me. She came home half an hour later, and there was still time for her to write a page too, as long as she did it right now.

If you attend the con you'll read the results. All I'll say is that sometimes, when all you have time for are the simplest statements, the results can be powerful.

HANDYMAN

I put Connor's cot together today. The cot I've spent the last couple of weeks sanding and painting.

And it looks bloody awful.

But at least I did it myself, for my son. I will gladly admit to being crap when it comes to the handyman stuff, but sometimes there are things you have to do yourself, just so you can take a greater stake in your own universe. Connor's asleep in it now, for the first time, and even though the paintjob is patchy, and I scraped a bloody great line down one side putting it all together, and somehow the side doesn't come down the way it's supposed to, none of that matters, because I did it for him.

Besides, I can always touch it up after the con :)

SO MUCH TO DO, SO MUCH TO DOOOO.......

After tonight there are two sleeps until the convention starts. And all I have to do is: burn 20 CDs for wedding guests; print out the covers; put the CDs into cases and cut, fold, and insert the covers; sticky-tape safety pins to the back of 64 Prisoner badges; write the Prisoner panel; organise the clips for the panel; organise a DVD or laptop projector; write the questions for the Alternative History show; then write them onto A4 cards; buy/find/steal the props to go with them; pack my clothes; pack my writing gear; contact my best man and the suit hire shop and go out for my final fitting; buy socks for me and the boys for the wedding; shave (this is not a minor undertaking); pay the florist; give 250 flyers for the collection to the conbag stuffers; take Erin to her grandparents; pick up my suit; input the line-edits for over 20 of the collection stories and send the package to my editor... and that's the stuff I remember.

I do this every year- spend the week before the con running around like a blue-arsed fly so that by the time I actually get to the hotel I'm too shagged out to enjoy the first two days. You think I'd bloody learn...

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

The too-groovy-for-words Cat Sparks has shown me the cover art for the collection, and it's damn cool. All I need to do is get the rubber stamp from Prime, and it's set. I'll throw up a link to an image when I get back from Swancon, so you can all tell Cat how cool it is.