I made the short (by Australian standards) drive to Canberra for Conflux 6 and stayed at the Marque Hotel, which was where the Con was being held.

Friday
I had my first "professional" engagement today at 10am, a workshop called Write The Fight Right. It was a 2 hour workshop where I talked about what really happens in a fight and what makes a written fight realistic and exciting to read. There was a good group of people that came along and took part, we did some basic martial arts exercises to explore the nature of footwork and range and how hard it is to hit someone that doesn't want to be hit. As always with these things the 2 hours passed in what felt like about 30 minutes and I didn't get to do half the things I wanted to. But I did get through the workshop notes and talked about a number of aspects involved in writing convincing fight scenes. Hopefully people went away with a better idea of how to write a fight scene that is both exciting to read and realistic. The beauty is that for people that don't know fighting a well written fight scene can be very refreshing and perhaps even a little bit shocking.

In the afternoon I went along to a workshop run by Gillian Polack where she talked about conspiracy theories. Being a historian, Gillian looks at historical fiction the same way I look at fights in fiction, ie, very critically. Her workshop was really interesting, breaking down how a good conspiracy theory takes strong historical events and ties them in with modern day events, which you then weave your fictional story around. There was also, of course, much talk of Dan Brown, the Da Vinci Code and how Brown may or may not be a good writer. (He's not, but he can spin a good conspiracy caper).

Saturday
I had the early kaffeeklatch thing, which was basically sitting around drinking coffee with a bunch of nice people that were kind enough to come and join me.

At lunchtime I was on a panel with Jack Dann, Richard Harland, Sean McMullen and Cat Sparks talking about our methods for setting the scene with writing, basically the tricks we use to convey a good sense of scene without bogging the reader down with detail or just info-dumping and distracting them from the story. I was honoured to share a panel with such august company, and very pleased that a lot of my writing methods seemed to resonate with theirs.

Another high point was the 19th century cajun bbq banquet in the evening, organised by Gillian Polack, which was bloody delicious.

Sunday
I was up at an ungodly hour. Well, I wasn't actually, it just felt like it. Then right off the bat at 10am I sat on a panel about publishing options in this brave new world. It was a really interesting panel. I found myself sitting next to Jim Minz, Senior Editor of Baen Books. Also on the panel were Chris Barnes, Felicity Dowker and a fellow that my fatigue addled brain refuses to remember. (I'm sorry if you're reading - it was a long weekend). Jim agreed with a lot of what I said about small and indie presses and then gave the Baen position on similar issues. Baen has always been something of a visionary publishing house when it comes to modern options and a changing world (DRM free ebook catalogue, anyone?).

After that was the thing that had me the most nervous during the whole con: the official launch of MageSign.

I've never had a book launch before and while I've done readings and panels and workshops and begun to get a bit used to how some of this whole thing works, the thought of a book launch had me very on edge. I'm happy to say that it couldn't have gone better. The ever wonderful Gillian Polack did a great job of telling people how great MageSign is and she delivered a truly cunning sales pitch by telling people that the book has the best one liner she's read in over two years. And she wouldn't tell people what that was. And no, I'm not going to tell you either. You'll have to read the book too.

I also had sterling support from the lovely Cat Sparks, who did a brilliant job of popping 'champagne' bottles and keeping everyone's glass full. Apparently, though, it wasn't real champagne, but I was still complimented on the quality of the booze on offer. Have I set a precedent? Another great turn was done by Bill Congreve, who did the selling business at the launch, while I sat and signed copies. I can't thank Gillian, Cat and Bill enough — truly wonderful friends. And I sold quite a few books, which is also fantastic. I was nervous, but it couldn't have gone better. Apparently even my reading was good.

After that I was on a whodunnit panel, playing the part of a Chinese submarine captain — ridiculous fun and a bloody good laugh. Then I got to go to the launch of Gillian's book, Life Through Cellophane, which I'm really looking forward to reading, and then came the launch of Paul Haines's collection of short stories, Slice Of Life, which I'm also really looking forward to reading, though with slight trepidation. His work was described to me as being "stories you can smell".

Oh yes, it was booklauncharama.

That evening we had the truly mental band Ninjaz With Attitude regale us with truly mental music, and that was followed by a 50th birthday party for artist extraordinaire Nick Stathopoulos.

What a strange day. What a good day.

Monday
I was on a panel about Twitter, blogging and all things internet promotion. It was interesting and lively and consisted of myself and Nicole Murphy (who has just sold a fantasy trilogy to Harper Collins). While there were only two of us on one side of the desk, the audience was very much informed and involved and we had a really interesting chat.

Before that, though, I went and listened in on a panel about editing anthologies. Given that I'm working on an anthology with Blade Red Press at the moment I was really interested to hear what people had to say and see what I could learn. On the panel were Bill Congreve, Cat Sparks, Alisa Krasnostein and Donna Hanson. Between them they have a wealth of experience with anthologies. I did learn a lot.

There were more panels I wanted to attend but I think I hit critical mass. After hanging out for a while in the dealer's room I said my goodbyes and made the drive home. It was atrocious weather: rain and fog for half the way. I think that sapped the last remaining energy I had.

I want to thank Karen Herkes and the Conflux committee for organising a blinder of an event, and I also want to thank them for giving me so many opportunities to be involved. It was great fun to mix with people that I have so much respect for — Gillian Polack, Cat Sparks, Rob Hood, Jack Dann, Paul Haines, Stuart Mayne, Chris Barnes, Mark McBride, Sean McMullen, Richard Harland, Jim Minz, Ian Nicholls, Nick Stathopoulos, Crisetta MacLeod … you know what, this list could go on for ages and I'd still miss people out. I'm sure I already have. You all know who you are and you all rock. It's truly inspiring to share time with you all.

Conflux 6 was exhausting but exhilarating, and superb for motivation.

This is an edited version of Alan Baxter's blog report, and is reprinted with the kind permission of the author.

Alan Baxter is the author of the dark fantasy thrillers RealmShift and MageSign.

Go to http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/ for more.