CrimeFest and Other Conventions by Debbie Bennett
I've blogged in the past about conferences and conventions. I've done a fair few over the years - from the early days of the Southampton (later Winchester ) Writers' Conference to the many years of attending and/or running British Fantasy Society conventions. I've been as a 'guest' to Sci-Fi Weekender , and I even once went to a Star Trek convention - purely for research , you understand? A couple of weeks ago, I went to CrimeFest - one of the annual crime festivals around the country. Harrogate is the other biggie and I'm sure there are more. When I first booked for CrimeFest, I was a little miffed to see that they really don't recognise indie writers at all; there's one small panel featuring indie writers and to be considered for this, you have to satisfy a long string of criteria. But conferences and conventions are not all the same. Winchester for example is very much about learning . There are talks and workshops about how to do stuff ...