How did your participation in World Con come about?

I’ve been familiar with the event for quite some time and, in fact, attended its 2014 edition, when it was held in London – and affectionately re-dubbed ‘Loncon’ for the occasion. Being the primary meeting point for writers and fans of speculative fiction literature of all stripes (though it has an ostensible primary focus on science-fiction), it’s an event that attracts me for obvious reasons. And knowing that this year’s edition was going to take place in Helsinki only made me more keen to participate this time around too.

One of the main criticisms of the event – during which the Hugos, the main industry awards for the genre, are awarded – was that it has been lacking an international focus in recent years, despite the ‘world’ in its title. Having it held in Helsinki meant a shift from a strictly Anglophone focus, and the promise of a more international swathe of participants and attendees, which made it feel like an extra-friendly proposition for a writer like me – hailing as I do from this small island!

After I discovered that a number of writers I’d known online would also be making it to the event – hence boosting its networking potential for me – I decided to pull up my boots and make a bit of an effort into organising the logistics of making my way up to Helsinki in August. The elephant in the room was, as ever, the funds. Thankfully, I received support from the Malta Arts Fund and I was off.

Did you choose the panels you were on or where they assigned?

The panels were assigned to me, contingent on my agreement to participate in them. As it happens, participation in the event was something of a cherry on the cake. I wrote to the organisers in the hope that they would provide me with a covering letter to aid my funding application, and after they read through my bio and publication history, they were intrigued enough to invite me to participate in the programme. This convinced me that yes, the team behind Helsinki’s bid to host Worldcon were serious about having a wide-enough swathe of international participants for their edition, as I’m certain that being from Malta made me unique from a lot of the other participants.

European Myth and History in Fantasy and Science Fiction – what is your special interest in the topic, and how does it influence your work?

I have a general interest in myths and fairy tales from all regions, and it continues to inform all of my work in some way or another. Whether it’s the Maltese folk tales that form the backbone of some key elements from my debut novel, Two, or the hodge-podge of mythological tropes that I’ve been liberally sprinkling while penning Mibdul, the six-issue comic book series I’m currently working on with illustrator Inez Kristina, they offer up a wellspring of characters, creatures and ideas that remain evergreen. However, I’m also very careful to not just use these elements as stock characters, and to try and understand what their original, ritualistic purpose used to be. I believe this lends more weight to one’s re-appropriation of them. And, in fact, this was one of the strands of the discussion during the panel.

Attending events like Worldcon is crucial to take your writing to the next level, career-wise

What feedback did you receive from that particular panel?

The general atmosphere of the panel was convivial and friendly, and there was something of a personal thrill in it for me since one of the participants was Hal Duncan – a Scottish writer of weird fiction whose work I’ve admired for quite some time. The discussion itself certainly brought to the fore how myths are far from flat tropes, and can have a real political currency that should be given full attention.

Was the audience’s approach what you expected, or different?

We prattled on for a bit too long, perhaps, so there was room for just one audience question. And, as luck would have it, that question was addressed to me. The audience member was wondering about whether the proximity to northern Africa – as evidenced, no less, by the Maltese language itself – is felt in Maltese storytelling. This gave me a chance to expand upon Malta’s ‘touch and go’ relationship with its north African heri­tage, and to talk a bit about how some traditional Maltese folk tales, however, still bear explicit references to characters and creatures from that region.

The other panel was titled Coping Strategies in Small Markets. In a global market, is the size of your local market still relevant?

This was, in fact, the first issue to be addressed during the panel. The short answer to your question would be... yes and no.

What has been your particular experience as a graphic novel and book writer in Malta?

Malta has proven to be a great ‘testing ground’ for me as a writer. However, attending events like Worldcon is crucial to take your writing to the next level, career-wise, given the obvious limitations of Malta’s size, which impacts publishing direct­ly for obvious reasons.

Did anything emerge from the panel that you might want to share with writers/readers here?

The one thing to emerge from both the panels and the Con itself is that Maltese writers should not cultivate an inferiority complex of any kind. A writer from Birmingham, Kentucky, will have the exact same barriers to entry as a Maltese writer, nowadays – though the challenge of translation into a world language remains an issue for writers who write only in Maltese, for example, (in which case, their situation is the same for pretty much anyone not writing in English, Spanish or French as a main language). Both readers and writers are keen to learn about the Maltese experience, and local writers would do well to take advantage of that.

Aside from your participation on the panels, how did you experience the Con?

While the panels are a good ballast to have – after all, being a participant does lend you some weight while you’re there – I strongly believe that the most significant experiences at the convention came about while I was simply sitting around and chatting with other writers over coffee, (overpriced) beer and other peri­shables. These candid discussions are really where the truly valuable career advice is dished out, and where potentially lifelong connections are formed.

What was your top Con moment?

Simply meeting and hanging out with great writers – a lot of whom I’d made friends with through Schlock magazine, which I’d co-founded back in 2008 – was certainly the best part of the overall experience for me. It felt as though this was a long-term pro­ject that had finally borne fruit. I had set up Schlock as an avenue for my friends and I – mostly Malta-based, speculative fiction writers – to ply our trade and become more established. And meeting writers whom we had interviewed for the online magazine, and whose work was also featured on Schlock, felt like the efforts of that project were truly vindicated.

Teodor Reljic’s participation in Worldcon 75 was supported by Arts Council Malta – Cultural Export Fund.