Firstly, we are very sad to announce that Lyn McConchie and Mary Victoria are no longer able to attend due to unforseen events. We were so pleased when they said yes to being invited guests of the convention and they will be missed.

However (look away, Lyn and Mary!), we have so much for you to do and see that you should really start sleeping all day and night to prepare. If you haven’t already, take a look at our mintox program, and see more details of the Academic Stream and the WriterStream.

Thursday night is free, and you’ll be able to bring your friends to sample the Swancon experience. The hilariously geeky BRENT! will launch the convention with some end-of-week LOLs, followed by a debate over the assertion that “We are Living in a Computer Simulation”. Then join Eric Ripper, SF fan and Leader of the Opposition, who will be launching the Future Imperfect Art Show. There will also be gaming and various panels, plus the Hyatt bar will be open for business if you just want to catch up with everyone.

Before the convention opens, you are invited to Meet Our Guests over lunch at Mai’s Vietnamese Restaurant East Perth. Places are limited, but there’s still some seats available if you get in quick!

If there’s one thing that fans love most of all, it’s Having Opinions. If that describes you, make sure you get your votes in for the Tin Duck and Ditmar Awards. There will be printed ballots available at the door so you can vote once you arrive. Check the links for eligibility criteria. Then join us for cocktails at the Orbit | Gollancz Natcon Fifty Awards Ceremony, for the presentation of these awards and more!

Saturday night is Masquerade night! Airbrush Tattoos WA are trading in the Dealer Room all weekend. They specialise in full colour and glow in the dark, waterproof airbrush tattoos small and large! They are also available for full costume tattooing – if you want something a little special for the Masquerade or any other program item, you are welcome to book ahead by email to make your appointment.

Lastly: Swancon only survives on the kindness of volunteers. If you have a strong attention to detail and a few hours to spare over the convention weekend we would love to hear from you.

Children over 12 will need to purchase their membership and must have a parent or guardian on the premises at all time.

Children under 12 may attend for free, and must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at all times. We’d like them to pre-register so that we can have name-tags waiting for them on arrival (they will need to be wearing a discreetly-labelled name-tag during the con).

Could you please email Fe with the names of your children and a parent/guardian contact mobile number (for someone who will be at the con), for their name-tags. Could you also include their ages and which days they will be attending (this will not appear on their name-tag, but will assist our planning).

The draft Swancon Thirty Six | Natcon Fifty program is now online. While we are making every effort to make sure all details are correct, we cannot guarantee that items won’t change. We also have plenty of space for last minute program ideas, so if the mood strikes and you want to organise something, we’ll help provide you with space to do it.

Contact us any time in the lead-up to the convention, or speak to a committee member once you arrive.

View the full program, or see each day individually: Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday

Image from here

Here’s what we have in store for you:

Thursday 21 April, Hyatt Regency Perth.

4:00pm
Registration Desk opens
Come along from 4 o’clock onwards to register, have a drink or a bite to eat, and catch up with other Swancon members.

7:00pm
Opening Ceremony
Meet our guests of honour and find out everything you need to know.

7:30pm
Gaming Room Opens
Watch table top gaming demonstrations or start your own games.

Welcome To Your First Convention
Meet other new members and find out what to expect and how to get the most from your convention experience.

8:00pm
Future Imperfect Art Show
Launch and Cocktail Party

Great Debate
We Are a Computer Simulation

8:30pm
Writer/Editor/Reader Relationship
With Ellen Datlow, Jonathan Strahan

Lost in Translation
Fan Expectations vs Cinematic Outcomes in the Depiction of Literary Works on Screen

Future Australia
Imagining How Lives Will be Lived Downunder as we Progress through the Millenium

9:30
SF Bookclub: Windup Girl
Come together and socially critique this year’s “Book of the Year”, Paolo Bacigalupi’s Hugo & Nebula Awards winner The Windup Girl. This open, but moderated, discussion will discuss both the literary merits as well as the details of the post-peak world depicted.

Cranking up the Cliché
We’ll attempt to conceptualise the most cliche-ridden genre film of all time. Tune your thinking cap to “obvious” and contribute your ideas to what we hope will be the most “by the numbers” film project in the history of hypothetical cinema!

Taking You on the Ride
Writing Adventure fiction

10:30
Grant’s Chat Show
Grant Watson and Swancon Guests

The Future: An Anime Perspective

Paranormal Romance

Firstly, we’re happy to have Tehani Wessely back. She’s re-joined our committee and we couldn’t be happier.

We are also pleased to have Stefen Brazil and Robin Pen working on our general program. They’re getting the band back together and they’re on a mission from … well, they’re on a mission from Alisa.

And because we didn’t tire her out enough at Worldcon, Helen Merrick is back to run Future Imperfect: the academic program. See the details about her call for papers here.

Glenda Larke: multi-award nominated fantasy novellist of three trilogy series, currently writing the Stormlord Trilogy.
Jonathan Strahan: co-founder of Eidolon, editor of over 40 books, and recent winner of the 2010 World Fantasy Award for Best Professional Achievement for editing anthologies and magazines.
Juliet Marillier: once opera singer and music teacher and now multi-award winning novelis combining historical fiction, folkloric fantasy, romance and family drama.
Bevan McGuiness: geophysist working as a chemistry teacher and fantasy writer of the Triumvirate Trilogy.
Lyn McConchie: celebrating her 20th year since her first professional sale, to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, Lyn is author of more than a dozen books including collaborations with Andre Norton.
Nicole Murphy: new urban fantasy novellist of the Secret Ones Trilogy.

Swancon Thirty Six | Natcon Fifty is going to be awesome mintox. The only question is, will you be there?

The programming is not childcare, a guardian will be required to be in attendance with all children in the program.

Please fill out this online form. If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can send your responses to Fe here.

How many children do you have in each of the following age groups?
(Age during the con. If your child is on the border, include them once, in the most appropriate age group… )
0-3?
3-6?
6-9?
9-12?
12-15? (I don’t anticipate we’ll be programming specifically for this age group, but some items may interest them as well, so it would be helpful to have an idea of numbers.)

Will they be attending all of the Con?

Will they be attending only some of the Con?

If so, when are they likely to attend? (I realise it may be too early to say with any assurance, but if you could give us some idea, that will help us plan when to run items:-) Sunday is intended to be Family Day.)

What ideas would your children enjoy at the con?

What program items might you be able to assist with? (There is no compulsion to run programming… but guardians will be required to be in the room, so if you’re going to be there _anyway_, you might like to run something for half an hour? Read a favourite book, tell stories, run a craft… what else can _you_ think of?:-) )

The Norma K. Hemming Award marks excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability:

• in the form of science fiction and fantasy or related artwork or media.
• produced either in Australia or by Australian citizens.
• first published, released or presented in the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is given.

The Australian Science Fiction Foundation (ASFF) launched this major new award at Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne on 2–6 September 2010.

The Award will not necessarily be given annually, and a selection will only be made if there is a work that meets an appropriate standard of excellence.

Dr Toby Burrows (Scholars Centre, University of Western Australia) has published an edition of Norma Hemming’s collected writings called Dwellers in Silence – Stories and Plays by Norma Hemming. It is available for purchase online from Lulu.

Download the rules and entry form here.

With just over six months to go, there’s plenty of time to read Paolo Bagicalupi’s Hugo and Nebulla winning novel The Windup Girl and participate in the SF Book Club discussion panel at Swancon.

Present your Swancon member’s card at Planet Books or Fantastic Planet and receive a 10% discount on your copy.

Director Sean Byrne and lead actress Robin McLeavy are coming to town for a special Talking Pictures Q&A Screening at Luna Leederville on Nov 3 (6.30pm).

BRENT (Xavier Samuel) has never recovered from the night of the car crash that killed his father; the crash that he was responsible for.

His only solace is his loving girlfriend HOLLY (Victoria Thaine).

But there’s another girl who yearns to comfort Brent, the quietest girl in school LOLA (Robin McLeavy), and when he turns down her invitation to the prom he enters a nightmare beyond imagining.

Hours before the dance, Brent is abducted and taken to Lola’s home by her demented DADDY (John Brumpton) who’s determined to make his princess’ dream come true.

Now imprisoned in Lola’s home Brent discovers that her feelings for him aren’t the only thing she’s been keeping a secret, and that he must summon every ounce of will he possesses if he is to survive and prevent Lola and her father from extending her revenge to those he loves most.

THE LOVED ONES is a vivid, sexy, rollercoaster that takes the conventions of horror and runs them off the rails.

For the chance to win a double pass to the Q&A and screening, email us and say something nice. Quickly now!

To help make it easy for you, there are lots of ways you can contribute:

• Comment and join the discussion on the programming post
• Tweet us @natcon50 (use #natcon50 to allow others to follow the discussion).
• Email our fearless leader at girlie.jones@gmail.com.
• Come to the first of a series of real-life meetings next Tuesday 12 October, at 7pm at the Mighty Quinn on Wanneroo Rd, Tuart Hill. We’ll be holding a few meetings in different locations over the next few months so don’t worry if that location’s not convenient for you.
• Register with our online sign-up form.

Need more encouragement? Share your ideas with us by this Friday, you’ll go into the draw to win double passes to the premiere of Let Me In at Event Cinemas Innaloo, Monday 11 October, 6.30pm

Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl from Kick-Ass) stars as Abby, a mysterious 12-year old girl, who moves next door to Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Road).

Owen is a social outcast who is viciously bullied at school and in his loneliness, forms a profound bond with his new neighbour. Owen can’t help noticing that Abby is like no one he has ever met before. As a string of grisly murders occupy the town, Owen has to confront the reality that this seemingly innocent girl is really a savage vampire.

Let Me In, a haunting and provocative thriller written and directed by filmmaker Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and produced by legendary British horror brand Hammer Films, is based on the best-selling Swedish novel Lat den RatteKomma(Let The Right One In) by John AjvideLindqvist, and the highly-acclaimed film of the same name.

We’re collecting a list of programming and other elements of the con that worked (or didn’t) and suggestions and feedback from people for what would or wouldn’t work for Swancon. If you came and chatted to us or threw an idea or suggestion our way, please follow it up with an email. They were all worth following up on and we don’t want to forget any of them.

Thanks again.

PS A pdf of PR1 is available here if you missed it!