Through the years we have hosted several speaker events with published authors and publishing industry professionals, to hear them speak about their work and areas of expertise, and glean some insights into different pathways into publishing, skills worth developing, and genres worth exploring.
Past Events
October 2016
Peter Newman
The author of The Vagrant trilogy shared his insights about writing full time, how to approach writing a character who can’t speak, and the necessary variability in an author’s skillset.
April 2017
Den Patrick
The author of The Erebus & Ashen Torment sequences came to talk to us about his varied career, which at the time included teaching creative writing and writing novels, and to reminisce about founding the Super Relaxed Fantasy Club on the staircase of a Waterstones some years prior.
January 2018
Jen Williams
The author of the Copper Promise and The Winnowing Flame trilogies—and co-founder of Super Relaxed Fantasy Club alongside Den Patrick—shared her writing journey with us, and even brought us some author copies of her then-latest book, The Bitter Twins.
August 2019
Christopher Priest
The author of The Prestige and Airside talked to us about his long career, his favourite notebooks, and how to find inspiration for otherworldly stories in everyday life.
February 2021 (online)
Social Media for Writers
Author, blogger, and podcaster Morgan Hazelwood joined us virtually to give us a crash course on how authors can leverage social media, particularly for writers in the early stages of their career.
March 2021 (online)
Writing LGBTQ Characters
Our first virtual panel event! We invited a stellar line-up of British writers—with Juliet Kemp, James Bennett, Tasha Suri, CL Clark, and Lali Hewitson (from The Portal Bookshop)—to discuss how to best approach writing LGBTQ characters in science fiction & fantasy, and how including queer perspectives can help make our speculative worlds more well-rounded.
April 2021 (online)
Dan Abnett
The prolific comic writer and novelist shared his wisdom on all things writing with us, from how to get new ideas and not get overhelmed, to how to stay productive across multiple projects, while giving us a little behind-the-scenes look at his process.
May 2021 (online)
Writing Media Tie-Ins
Authors Elsa Sjunneson, Mike Brooks, Alex White, Una McCormack and Mur Lafferty shared their experiences writing novelisations and audio dramas on famous IPs like Marvel comics, Star Trek and Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Warhammer 40k, and gave us some advice on how to approach that world.
June 2021 (online)
Solarpunk Day: Reading and Writing Solarpunk
Spearheaded by our very own Ana Sun, this two-part panel on hopeful science fiction was divided into an hour where we heard from a panel of scientists, activists, and experts on ways we can explore and utilise climate science, as well as aspirational projects and concepts we can look to for inspiration, followed by a panel of SF writers, anthologists, and translators who gave us tips on how to take that knowledge and form it into good fiction.
Featuring Commando Jugendstil, Devine Lu Linvega, and Professor Thorunn Helgason, as well as Vida Cruz-Borja, Phoebe Wagner, Sarena Ulibarri, Fabio Fernandes, and Francesco Verso.
July 2021 (online)
Literary Scams and How to Spot Them, with Writer Beware
We were joined by Richard C. White of Writer Beware who told us about the many different scams that prey on aspiring authors, how to stay alert and vigilant when receiving invitations that don’t look right, and what to do when we spot a new predatory operation.
November 2022
Pitching to Agents with John Baker
For our first in-person event since lockdown, we were joined by SFF agent John Baker of Bell Lomax Moreton, who gave us advice on how to put together a query packet and reach out to agents once our manuscripts are ready, and even workshopped some pitches with us.
August 2024 (online)
Speculative Poetry Workshop with Brandon O’Brien
Seattle Worldcon’s Poet Laureate Brandon O’Brien joined us virtually for an introductory workshop on writing speculative poetry, where many of our members tried their hand at writing a poem for the first time.
During the various lockdowns, we also held a Short Story Reading Club, where we read short speculative fiction and discussed it in a book-club setting, and were the first platform for the virtual ideas-generation workshops by our member Maria, now operating independently as A Space to Write.
We are always open to speaker event and workshop suggestions. If you are a member, please reach out to one of the organisers via Discord; if you are an author, agent, editor, or publisher and would like to come speak to us, please use our contact form here.