For the second year running, Fantasycon – one of the UK’s biggest genre events – returned to Brighton, so the Orbit UK team descended on the south coast one gloriously sunny late September weekend for some fun, fantasy-fuelled revelry. In other words: panels, signings and catching up with friends and colleagues from the publishing world (the fact that this last activity always seemed to happen in the bar was completely coincidental, we assure you).

There was a sizeable crowd of Orbit authors at Fantasycon this year: Brent Weeks stopped by to conclude his hugely successful UK tour, while Kate Griffin, Benedict Jacka, Francis Knight, Mike Carey and Philip Palmer were all involved in the weekend’s programme. Tim Lebbon took on the responsiblity of Master of Ceremonies, and did a superb job – as did all the volunteers who helped out.

Here are some photos from our Fantasycon 2012!

Mike Carey (far left) and Brent Weeks (centre) take part in the ‘Culture Shock’ panel

Brent being interviewed by Alasdair Stuart, in which he talked in detail about how he got published and his approach to writing

On the Friday Kate Griffin read from her upcoming urban fantasy novel STRAY SOULS [UK | US | ANZ]

Benedict Jacka (second left) and Brent (second right) take part in the ‘Fantasy Fiction: Keeping it Real’ panel

Brent rounded off the Saturday evening with a reading from his New York Times bestseller THE BLINDING KNIFE [UK | US | ANZ]