This Saturday’s annual Alt.Fiction event in Derby was a fantastic example of just how vibrant and lively the UK genre scene currently is. A panel-packed day offered readings from some of the UK’s top genre talent – including Orbit’s very own Charles Stross, Mike Carey, Philip Palmer (who has posted his own Alt.Fiction write-up) and Brian Ruckley (who has likewise posted his impressions of the day) – as well as discussion sessions and workshops on a variety of writing and publishing-related topics.

Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, the Alt.Fiction attendees were treated to pearls of wisdom and moments of entertainment from the Orbit contingent:

Brian Ruckley took part in a panel on World-Building with Chaz Brenchley, Juliet McKenna and Sarah Ash which gave lots of tips to the inspiring fantasy novelists in the audience and a really interesting ‘behind the scenes’ look for anyone who ever wondered how their favourite novels actually get written.

Philip Palmer joined Michael Marshall Smith and Graham Joyce to discuss the discipline of script writing, as opposed to prose writing; talking about how the two forms differ and how dealing with Hollywood can be something of a life-changing – and idea-changing – experience…

Charles Stross read some very funny passages from Halting State as well as giving us an advance read of his new novel, Saturn’s Children, out this July. He also spoke about the state of SF today and his late-era Heinlein inspirations.

Mike Carey gave us a teaser of his new Felix Castor book, Thicker Than Water, due out in early 2009, which made me want to run back to the office and beg the editor for the manuscript!

In the book-launch panel, Philip Palmer read from his debut Debatable Space, introducing the room to legendary space pirate / buccaneer / terrorist / freedom fighter and hip-hop blues guitarist Flanagan in the process, whilst Brian Ruckley read an intriguing sneak-preview passage from Bloodheir [available from early June 2008], the follow-up to his extremely well-received debut novel Winterbirth.

And in an earlier panel session, on the topic of ‘Writing and the Internet’; Orbit’s Darren Turpin handled the moderating duties and introduced fellow panelists Simon Spurrier and Lee Harris to an attentive and politely heckle-free audience of writers, publishers and fans. The panellists chatted about the various online promotional activities they’ve been involved in, the distribution of free fiction via the Internet, and the concept of the WWW being not the world’s largest advertising hoarding (as many marketeers and content-providers still make the mistake of assuming) but the world’s largest conversation [major head-nods to Seth Godin et. al. – DT]

The whole day was unanimously hailed as a great success by all the participants and a huge shout of thanks goes out to organiser Alex Davis and his entire team of volunteers from Derby Council, who crewed the book stall, cloak room and bar with unfailing energy and friendly enthusiasm throughout the day.

Amid rumours of a weekend event next year, we’re already looking forward to a return visit to Derby for Alt.Fiction IV next year. For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to make it to this one, though, we’re going to be posting some videos later this week. Do be sure to check them out!