Unconfined Newsletter October 2025
Welcome to the second newsletter from Unconfined, the 2027 Eastercon - a spooky Halloween special!
This is the second of the logos for our convention – celebrating that Science Fiction and Fantasy have a long tradition of incorporating the dark, the horrific, and the scary.
What’s contained in this newsletter…
What’s been happening
Come say hello
Guest of Honour L R Lam – special offer
Guest of Honour P Djélí Clark – Ring Shout – new paperback edition
Come help us?
Spooky Merch!
Membership Rate Rise Coming Soon
Don’t forget about Iridescence
Teaser…
Newsletter Admin
What’s been happening
Since our last newsletter we have continued to build our team:
• Tommy Ferguson (me!) joining to head up communications.
• Sandra Battye is coming onboard as con ops lead.
For more details on the full team – check out our wonderful website – with details.
Come say hello!
We’re planning on showing up at a few conventions for the rest of 2025.
• Octocon – the Irish national SF Convention. Saturday 11th October 2025 – Maldron Hotel, Tallaght, Dublin, and online. (https://2025.octocon.com/) We are sharing a fan table and will have promo material available, and people to talk to.
• BristolCon 2025 – Saturday October 25th to Sunday October 26th 2025 – Hilton DoubleTree Hotel, Bristol. (https://bristolcon.org/) We will have flyers, advertising and other material available.
• Novacon 54 – 7th – 9th November 2025, The Palace Hotel, Buxton, Derbyshire. (https://novacon.uk/) We’ll have a dedicated fan table, and our co-chairs and a number of other committee members will also be there. Meet us and join up to the convention in person!
• SMOFcon 42 – 5th – 7th December – Dieselverkstaden, Stockholm, Sweden. (https://www.smofcon42.com/) A few of the committee will be there – with all the usual merch and advertising – a great opportunity to hobnob with the organising team.
Guest of Honour L R Lam – Emberclaw special offer
L. R. Lam’s novel EMBERCLAW is 99p on Kindle for the whole month of October - a bargain, given it’s only been out a couple of months and it’s still only available in hardback if you want a physical copy. It’s really good.
Guest of Honour P Djèlí Clark – Ring Shout new edition
P Djèlí Clark’s novel RING SHOUT will be re-released in paperback by Tor NightFire on October 14th – the perfect gift for Halloween! It’s a Southern Gothic, demonic, alternate history horror novel with a very current message about the evils of racism. Which tropes and themes does it share with KPop Demon Hunters? You’ll have to read it to find out.
Come help us?
We are still actively seeking volunteers! Conventions are run entirely by volunteers. At a convention, there are a huge number of things happening that are done by a person volunteering some of their time, but before the con, there are many things needing attention too.
In particular, we’re looking for people interested in creating content for our website and for Social Media. Can you take a good short video? Able to create a Tiktok? Know the ins and outs of setting up advertising on Insta or Tiktok? If so, we'd love to hear from you. We’re also looking for people who have experience in managing and moderating public-access discussion platforms, especially Discord.
Click here to fill in our volunteer form, or if you don’t want to fill in a form but want to talk about volunteering, or for anything else, mail volunteers@easterconglasgow.org and we’ll respond as soon as we can.
Spooky Merch!
A new addition to our wide range of merchandise – especially for Halloween. Get your spooky season vibe off to a great start with our seasonal t-shirt, available in a range of (dark!) colours and sizes from XS – 5XL. This is a limited edition run, so snap it up before the season ends!
Find this, and our full range of merchandise on our shop on our website. Our t-shirts are available in unisex, women’s and children’s cuts, in a wide range of colours and sizes from XS to at least 2XL. We also have hoodies, polo shirts, mugs, and tote bags.
Buying merchandise from us directly supports our convention. And the advertising when you wear or use it is good for us too, of course.
Membership Rate Rise Coming Soon.
Our next rate rise will take effect on the 1st December. We will send out more information in our next newsletter, but this is to let you know that if you want to get a membership to Unconfined at the best possible rate – now is the time to do it. You can join the convention here.
Don’t forget about Iridescence!
Unconfined is the 2027 Eastercon, but that doesn’t mean that you should forget about 2026. Iridescence is next year’s Eastercon, to be held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Birmingham (the Hilton at the National Exhibition Centre) between the 3rd and 6th of April 2026. Don’t forget to join.
Teaser…
We’ve got some fantastic ideas lined up as we head into Iridescence next Easter and beyond to get you excited about our convention! Watch out for the November newsletter for more details.
If you missed any of our previous newsletters and want to catch up, you can find them here.
Thanks for reading. Please forward this on to friends who might be interested in our convention. We’d love to see them there.
Thanks to…
España Sheriff, for both our wonderful logos and the Iridescence logo.
Newsletter Admin
When you join Unconfined, you choose to have sent to you all communications or essential updates only. We will send out each Progress Report (four in total before the convention) plus final details to all members. All other newsletters – around one a month – will be sent to those who have chosen to receive all communications.
If you are a member of the convention and wish to change how often you receive mail from us, please log into the registration system and update your choice.