GenreCon – Peter M. Ball

Works in Progress

Some Process Notes on the GenreCon Program

We’re aiming to get the full GenreCon program out by the end of the month, which means the first few weeks of August are dominated by putting panels together and then pulling them apart and putting new things in their place. It’s the most exciting part of the gig in many ways, which means it takes very little to flip the switch and transform that excitement into anxiety. I have spent the last week taking changes in my plans very poorly and being more irritable than normal. Part of it is because I made a mistake. We were aiming for major program announcements in the middle of August, which is a perfectly sensible date based upon the timeline for print production, but does mean we’re going to spend two weeks trying to confirm speakers when a sizable portion are in Helsinki for Worldcon or hitting Brisbane for the annual Romance Writers of Australia conference. The vast majority of people will

PeterMBall 09/08/2017

Madcap Adventures and Distracting Hijinx

PSA: How to Contact Peter About GenreCon

I spent today back in the QWC offices, annoying friends on Twitter by vague-tweeting about the behind-the-scenes GenreCon stuff that was coming together. I also spent today fielding a bunch of queries about the conference…some via official channels, and some via Facebook, personal email, and in-person queries. So, futile as it may be, I am going to strap on my grumpy pants and put this out there as a reminder: if you have queries about this year’s GenreCon, your best bet is emailing the shared GenreCon email address used by the whole ninja team (who are doing a lot more of the work this year) or my work email if you’re wanting to talk to me specifically. I’ll admit the lines between writing-Peter and GenreCon-Peter are frequently blurred, but they do exist. GenreCon is a gig I do that requires a lot of putting aside me and working to advance the careers of other writers, so I rarely rationally and calmly when people

PeterMBall 20/01/2017

Conspicuous Acts of Cultural Consumption

10 Days to Genrecon, and I’d Like to Ask a Favour…

AT SOME POINT IN THE NEXT TEN DAYS, I’M GOING TO LEAVE THE IRON ON I know this is happening ’cause we’re on the official countdown until GenreCon is a thing, and experience says I will leave the iron on at some point. I have run five previous cons in my life, and I’m currently five for five when it comes to leaving scalding hot household appliances running for long periods of time. Twice now, it’s been for a period of four or more days. Twice now, I’ve had to go out and drop fifty bucks on an iron in the weeks after the convention. This is a thing that happens, is what I’m saying. In the days leading up to a convention, I am…distracted. Doing things. Organising flights and hotel rooms for guests. Talking to the caterers. Putting together program briefings. Staring at the budget spreadsheet, looking at the magical number. And, since you’ve read this far, I want to

PeterMBall 20/10/2015

News & Upcoming Events

Two Announcements and Some Miscellany

ANNOUNCEMENT ONE: FROST I’m a few days behind on this one, but I have a new book out in the world and it is a sexy, sexy beast. I mean, take a look. It’s book two of the Flotsam trilogy, which kicked off with the release of Exile a few moths back, and will end with the release of Crusade next year. It contains demons, occult hit men, and a bloodthirsty Valkryie. It brings Ragnarok to the Gold Coast and engages in a moderate amount of property damage. It’s available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and direct from the fine folks at Apocalypse Ink. ANNOUNCEMENT TWO: GENRECON Meanwhile, over at the day job, we got to announce this badboy: We’re officially strapping in for a third GenreCon and I am fuckin’ psyched. We’re currently doing my favourite bit – finalizing the guest list so I can start deploying names when I come back to work in January – but even with half our guest

PeterMBall 09/12/2014

Madcap Adventures and Distracting Hijinx

GenreCon 2013: The Aftermath

So I’ve been organising a con for the last few months, and now it’s over. GenreCon 2013 has been laid to rest, the attendees have all departed and flown back to their home cities, and my twitter feed is filled with people either thanking me for putting the con on or congratulating me on its success. Which means my life returns, more or less, to what passes for normal around these parts. A least until October 24th, when I fly to the UK to attend World Fantasy and get to experience the whole con thing from the attendee’s side. The internet is slowly starting to fill with people posting con reports. Some of the ones that have crossed my path are here, here, and here. This is my report, which isn’t really a report, ’cause when you convene a conference, you don’t really get to see much. Perhaps a more accurate thing to say is this is a series of

PeterMBall 16/10/2013

News & Upcoming Events

4 Things: GenreCon, Novella Diary, Upcoming Workshop, A Reminder

NEW GENRECON GUESTS Wait up, I’m going to deploy the banner, ’cause I *really* love our banner this year: We made some pretty big announcements over on the GenreCon site yesterday, all in the form of names being added to the conference guest list. I won’t belabour the point here, except to just post some names: John-freakin’-Connolly (best-selling Irish crime novelist who understands a thing or two about other genres); Kathryn-freakin’-Fox (best-selling Australian thriller writer who knocked the Da Vinci Code off a bunch of best-seller lists a few years back); John-freakin’-Birmingham (my family will know him for He Died With a Felafel in His Hand; everyone else should get to know his Weapons of Choice series which have been taking over bookshops over the last couple of years). Add those names to Chuck Wendig, Anne Gracie, Anita Heiss and Kate Cuthbert and I start to get really excited about programming this year’s conference. Now, if you’ll excuse me for a

PeterMBall 30/05/2013

News & Upcoming Events

GenreCon 2013 is live

So yesterday, at the day job, we announced this: I was going to post it here this morning and give you the spiel about the limited number of early bird tickets and the crazy discounted prices they represent, but since going on sale at 4:00 PM yesterday we’ve blown through about 70% of the early bird tickets in twelve hours. So instead the spiel is this: if you want to come to GenreCon for less than $200, go book now, ’cause I fully expect the early bird rate to be gone by the end of the day. We’ve already revealed the first two guests – Chuck Wendig and Anita Heiss – with the ever popular more to come still yet to be announced. It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be awesome. And I’m getting the impression I should be really happy we asked for the big auditorium in the state library, ’cause we’re now at the point it took

PeterMBall 06/02/2013

Madcap Adventures and Distracting Hijinx

GenreCon: The Aftermath

By the time you read this it will have been a little over a week since the inaugural AWM GenreCon ended. I’m going to specify this upfront, ’cause a portion of the content has been written before, during, and after the con, fitting into the little slices of time where I have sufficient brainpower to write. Some of these fragments made sense. Some of them did not. Such is the nature of running conventions. Point the First: GENRECON ROCKED I can scarcely believe I’m able to say this, since I spent so long fretting about the various ways that the conference could have gone wrong, but GenreCon proved to be a smashing success. Attendees were happy, guests were happy, my boss was really happy. We got a massive response rate to the pitching program (and a really high proportion of pitchers got asked to submit partials), the program was packed out, and for once I was at a con where

PeterMBall 12/11/2012

News & Upcoming Events

There is No Peter Here This Week

Sorry folks, I’m off to Sydney this week to run this piece of business: which promises to be wild and crazy and just a little exhausting, but also kinda time consuming. If you’re in Sydney over the weekend and interested in genre writing, come along and say hi. If you haven’t heard from me by this time next week, odds are I’ve either been torn apart by wild genre writers or my flight home from Sydney has been delayed.

PeterMBall 29/10/2012

News & Upcoming Events

Cool News from the Day Job

So yesterday we made a small announcement at my dayjob. It went a little something like this: Source: GenreCon News Blog The Australian Writer’s Marketplace is pleased to announce the launch of the first annual GenreCon, a convention for professional and aspiring writers of romance, mystery, science fiction, crime, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and more. One part party, one part professional development: GenreCon is the place to be if you’re an aspiring or established writer with a penchant for the types of fiction that get relegated to their own corner of the bookstore. Featuring international guests Joe Abercrombie (Author, The First Law Trilogy, Best Served Cold, The Heroes), Sarah Wendell (co-founder, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), and Ginger Clark (Literary Agent, Curtis Brown), with more guests being announced in the coming weeks. GenreCon is the place to be if you want to: Educate yourself about the publishing industry Learn what it takes to become a successful genre author Network with other writers who are passionate about genre fiction Meet editors, agents, publishers, and

PeterMBall 18/04/2012

Tag: GenreCon

Some Process Notes on the GenreCon Program

PSA: How to Contact Peter About GenreCon

10 Days to Genrecon, and I’d Like to Ask a Favour…

Two Announcements and Some Miscellany

GenreCon 2013: The Aftermath

4 Things: GenreCon, Novella Diary, Upcoming Workshop, A Reminder

GenreCon 2013 is live

GenreCon: The Aftermath

There is No Peter Here This Week

Cool News from the Day Job

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