After a hiatus, HumberSFF descends on Hull again on November 10th. It’s (another) one of the reasons I’ve been quieter than usual. The regional meet up for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror lovers has become a bit of a thing now.
I started organising Humber SFF after being inspired by other Social meetups. Locally there are some excellent bookish events thanks to Head In a Book. Crime Fiction is well looked after by Nick Quantrill and Hull Noir. The mighty Women in Words cover so many different aspects of female authors’ work its always a good event regardless of your prefered reading fix.
But Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror has less of a platform despite the many in the region who enjoy and create worlds within its many subgenres. The genre is statisically very popular with younger readers who then explore the rest of the bookshelves available to them. (Yes, SFF claims dystopian futures be they politically or environmentally caused.) With all that in mind I feel that it’s important to keep Hull, East Yorkshire and the Humber area on the genre fiction map.
Like all the previous events, HumberSFF 5 has its own theme. With three completely different styles, there is something for everyone.
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- This November will see RJ Barker, whose Wounded Kingdom series has been published by Orbit. The series has been nominated for numerous Fantasy awards.
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- On the heels of his Roman Time Travel series, Daniel Godfrey’s Synapse Sequence was launched this summer to high praise from The Guardian, offering readers fast paced near future crime novel. It’s Daniel’s second visit to HumberSFF
- Ren Warom’s Escapology and the sequel Virology follow an addicted top class hacker, with the world’s worst luck and an assassin who wants out. Cyberp̶u̶n̶k̶ weird at its very best.
A paragraph isn’t enough for any of these authors! Putting them all in the same room is bound to be …i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶? e̶n̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶e̶n̶i̶n̶g̶? Entertaining!
Inspired by similar antics in London, Birmingham, Sheffield and York, these socials have made the industry accessible to the local area in ways that it hasn’t been before. That was one of the prime reasons HumberSFF started. These informal gatherings are about celebrating books with others who love speculative fiction in all its formats, but it also serves to offer a door into the publishing industry as a whole. Editors, authors, artists, game developers, both established and aspiring, get to mix. Traditional published? Indie? Self? It doesn’t matter how many genre books you read, or which comics you adore. The socials are free and open to anyone.
Unlike the other socials though, HumberSFF was always designed to be a movable feast (albeit without the hog-roast*) HumberSFF 5 is at Hull Waterstones on Nov 10th. I know not all roads lead to Hull, and the Humber region is huge. So I am always on the look-out for a cosy place that will suit both the authors willing to travel to our corner and our guests.
Come and join us, make new friends, discover new books learn new things, but do make sure you have somewhere to sit and reserve your seat. FOR FREE!
There’s even cake and, if I get them sorted, an amazing selection of novels to be won in our free raffle.
* Working on that one.