Do you have any news about sf or fantasy in Scotland?
#PictCon will be sending out a newsletter at the end of the month and if you have an event you want to advertise, or news of a book coming out etc please let us know.
Email to: PictCon@PictCon.
#PictCon October 17 2026, Perth 🏴
pictcon.com
Did books written in the near future UK in the late 19teens and 20s feature an independent Ireland? I was fascinated by how many near future UK books from the last 20 years feature Indy Scotland as a sign of the future.
#booksky
#PictCon
Yay, Lisa Tuttle is talking about how Windhaven is in many ways a very Scottish landscape. #PictCon
Lisa Tuttle, who built the windscreen of Storms of Windhaven, is on the panel. #PictCon
Building landscapes at #PictCon - is Robinson Crusoe the first novel to describe space and time?
Listening to a group of editors and writers discuss how to build an anthology. Francesca Barbini is comparing this to sushi. #PictCon
I was on the cryptozoology panel so no live posts from me #PictCon
Argh, forgot my phone upstairs so no live posts from the cryptid panel, sorry.
#PictCon
Near earth space which we continue to treat as empty is no longer actually so.
In a more general sense, all areas called empty should be examined with suspicion.
#PictCon
Questions from @hfnuala.bsky.social about our friends from larger adjacent country seeing Scotland as empty space and we as SF fans seeing Space as empty space. #PictCon
Discussing the advantages of Iceland as a fantasy spaceport - includes Iceland being protected by witchcraft. #PictCon
Adam Oyebanji says science fiction writers need to spot the dangers of technology because that's where plot comes from.
#PictCon
Ken McLeod references #XKCD about why spaceship submarines do not work what-if.xkcd.com/138/ #PictCon
Interestingly, Scotland being empty ish is useful when considering turning us from a space engineering site to a space launch site.
#PictCon
'our friends in the south' positively stroke city levels of indirect addressing.
(Not complaining, enjoying it.)
#PictCon
"The moment you allow AI to write a sentence for you, you lose your voice."
Francesca Barbini @lunapress.bsky.social nailing it in her guest of honour interview with @megintransition.bsky.social.
#pictcon
Shout out to The Needfire, 21st century Scottish gothic fantasy, at #PictCon
The pun of the Advance Information Sheet in publishing, the AI sheet, when Francesca Barbini pronounces "i" long...
#PictCon
Francesca Barbini of @lunapress.bsky.social being interviewed by Meg MacDonald at
#PictCon - touching on her PhD in author-care.
Have you read My Friend Mr Leakey? First book by J.B.S Haldane I ever read. #PictCon
But nodoctor gets to have a Scottish accent.... #PictCon
The Doctor is disproportionately Scottish. (Vince Doherty)
#PictCon
At #PictCon on Scottish science-fiction- someone FINALLY mentioned Margaret Elphinstone. #TheIncomer #ASparrowsFlight
Mention by Ricardo Pinto of Scotland as a 'wet desert' but he didn't mention my enemy the deer.
Our supposed beautiful natural landscape is a product of human action.
#PictCon
New Scottish euphemism dropped.
'larger adjacent countries'
(Presumably on the theory that you should never name your opponent.)
#PictCon
Nice to get a rare 'brother of the more famous sister' for JBS Haldane.
His sister, Naomi Mitchison, wrote fiction and I guess it lasts more easily than non fiction.
#PictCon
Do non Scottish folk know we claim Mary Shelley?
She lived in Dundee part of 1812 and 1813.
#PictCon
I am at #PictCon in Perth listening to a discussion on writing speculative fiction #SF #SFF in Scotland.
