The last couple of weekends I’ve been to two cons in a row: Fantasycon at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow, and the one-day Pictcon 2 at the Salutation Hotel in Perth. Fantasycon is just like a science fiction convention, but without the science, and somehow more relaxed. I went to a lot of panels and events – GoH interviews, book launches, the awards ceremony – and enjoyed it all. Pictcon, which describes itself as a ‘Scottish science fiction and fantasy convention about science fiction and fantasy in Scotland’, is naturally a much smaller affair but it packs a lot into...