The Cosy Compact PictCon

 

Noel Chidwick in his element

The 17th of October found me in the lovely city of Perth where I attended my first PictCon. This is only the second of Scotland's newest science fiction convention and it was a small and beautifully formed affair.

As the retired art director and co-founder of Shoreline of Infinity magazine I enjoyed relaxing and being one of the punters. However I couldn't resist my usual convention pastime of sketching the panel members and sharing the images with the allegedly retired editor in chief and other co-founder of Shoreline of Infinity Noel Chidwick, who can be seen here basking in his celebrity and flogging some books and magazines.

The Panels


It was a good old fashioned SF Con, with panel discussions throughout the day and an interview with Guest of Honour Neil Williamson, an old friend of Shoreline of Infinity as was the interviewer Ruth Booth.

With it being early days, PictCon is beautifully compact. We occupied one big room of the Salutation Hotel, with the delegates sitting cabaret style in the middle of the room with the panel table and PA at the front. The dealers and publishers had their tables along each side against the walls. Nobody missed anything and the atmosphere was cosy and convivial. It's a lovely wee convention if you'd like to dip your toe into that world and the next one is in the Salutation Perth again, on 23rd October 2027. There will be two guests of honour, the aforementioned Noel Chidwick and another colleague, Ann Landman, who runs the amazing Cymera Festival every summer in Edinburgh.

For more details about this year's PictCon, I have added my report in Scots Gàidhlig below. I'm becoming more fluent these days. The Grammar is definitely improving but the spelling might go amiss here and there. 

 

Am PictCon, Fèis Fhicsean-Saidheans

 

Noel Chidwick; pannal - Beth Faulds, Ken MacLeod, Bill Ray, Vincent Docherty; Neil Williamson; Ruth Booth; Fiona Moore; Ken MacLeod

An siathamh air deich dhraibh mi gu Pheart airson am PictCon ath-là.

Tha am PictCon fèis ùr. 'S seo an darna. 'S a' chiad a tha an uiridh.

Tha am fèis an leanabh aig Farah Mendelesohn. Bha i ag iarraidh an fhèis anns am bhaile aicese agus mar sin chuidich am muinntir Fhicsean-Saidheans na h-Alba i tè a' dèanamh.

Tha neachan-leantainn anns an Taigh-Òsta Salutation a' coinneachadh agus tha an fhèis ann aon seòmar mòr. 'S urrainn do dhuine leabhraichean a' ceannach air bhùird mun taobhan aig an seòmar agus ghabh mo charaid Noel bòrd sin.

Aig an agaidh tha bòrd don aoighean agus annam meadhan tha sèithearan do ceud 's a seasgad duine. Tha i fèis bheag.

Am bliadhna bha an t-aoigh urramach mo charaid Neil Williamson. Tha Neil air mòran sgeulachdan glè mhath sgriobhadh ach tha e neach-piàna math cuideach. Tha sinn an dòchas gu bidh e len còmhlan-roc againn a' cluich.

Bha am PictCon fèis beag snog. 

 

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