Irish Times
You may or may not know I was in Ireland last week. If you
did then it’s only thanks to the sterling efforts of the GW/Waterstones staff
over there and the good folk at BL, as I completely forgot to mention it here.
Shame on me. Double shame, as it was a great little tour, and so well attended
that I was shocked a couple of times at how many folk were there.
The first event was at Waterstones in Dawson Street, which
was, unusually for me, an evening do. This involved me doing a reading from The
Chapter’s Due – which seemed to go down well – followed by a Q&A session.
As usual, this took a little bit of chivvying along, as there’s always that
awkward silence for a moment when you ask the assembled fans, ‘Okay, who has a
question?’ But once things got going, they were in full, Irish flow, and we had
a great back and forth going before I went on to sign lots of books. So many in
fact, that we were late to the pub, where I hung out with the manager of the
store and some folk from the event. We had a great night, even though my throat
was still killing me with residual tonsillitis, and finished it off with some
chicken kebab formed from poultry made of razors.
Next day I headed to GW Liffey St, and signed more books and
chatted to some of the folk who’d come along to Waterstones the previous
evening. I did take my camera over to Ireland, but it lay, forgotten in my bag, so
here’s a pic of me with Robb Dunphy at the GW store there, courtesy of Robb and
his camera phone. Enjoy the Look of Destiny…
At GW Liffey Street, as photographed through a butter-smeared lens...
Then, after a journey northwards to Belfast, we stopped off
in another Waterstones before heading to GW Belfast. And that’s where I got a
real shock. The queue was around the gaming tables, out the door, past the shop
window and out the shopping centre itself. For the next two and a bit hours, I
signed, chatted and hung out with the Belfast fans, and it was a blast. I’ve
never had such a warm welcome as I received there, so thanks to everyone for
turning up and bringing you books. We had great chats and after one fan said
something I misheard, it flipped a switch in my head that gave me an idea of
such mind-melting awesomeness that I’ve already tagged it for the finale for
the next arc of Ultramarines novels.
So thanks to Graham, Trevor, Robb and everyone who came along to the events for making it a great trip. See you again soon.
Alt.Fiction
To make up for forgetting to mention that I was off to
Ireland, here’s some word that I’m off to AltFiction at the Derby Quad this
weekend. If you’re a fan of SF, horror or fantasy, you want to get yourself
along to this, as it promises to be a great day out judging by the calibre of
the other authors. You can find the full programme of events here, but if
you’re anywhere near the Mac Suite come along to the podcast recording I’ll be
doing with Gav Thorpe, Simon Guerrier and James Goss, where we’ll be talking
all things to do with Tie-in Fiction. I’ll be floating about for a good part of
the day, chatting and seeing what nifty bits and pieces I can spend money on.
Hopefully see you there.
The Chapter’s Due hits
I wanted to share this review for The Chapter’s Due, as it
gave me a warm feeling inside when I read it. Yeah…this gal (as I now see...) gets it.
New Projects
As the astute among you will remember, I handed in God King
a few weeks back. I’m now a quarter of the way through another novel, though I
can’t really say what this one is, who it’s for and when it’s out. Which is all
very mysterious, I know, but I wanted you to know I wasn’t slacking and just
swanning about doing nothing. Don’t worry, as soon as I can reveal the true,
cosmic horror of this latest blasphemous tome, I’ll let you know.
Julius Antigonus
A little while ago I was sent a couple of pictures of a
sculpt done by John Papoulakos, who’d done this bust of a 4th Company Space
Marine. When I looked at it I thought the guy looked a bit beaten up, perhaps a
prime candidate for a Dreadnought sarcophagus. Then I read the e-mail more
thoroughly and realised that was exactly what he was. Here’s a few pics of
Julius Antigonus, and you never know…he might pop up in a future Ultramarines
story.
Pretty impressive, huh? If you want to see more of John’s work, head over to Papoulakos Art
to check out more of his amazing stuff.
TV Watching
Watched the finale of 24 the other day and can rest easy
now, satisfied with the sense of closure it gave me and guiltily enjoying
Jack’s kill-crazy rampage across New York. Just got the last Fringe to watch
tonight – which looks like it could be the best thing. Ever. And Lie to Me
starts tomorrow, so life is good.
Reading
Just finished China Miéville’s novel, Kraken, which was a
fantastic read, with page-turning goodness that kept me from early nights on
several occasions. It’s dark urban fantasy weird fiction that reads like Clive
Barker with a bigger thesaurus. There’s action and madness aplenty, and to me
that was one of the book’s shortcomings. It sounds churlish to criticize a book
for having too much imaginative things happening, but they overwhelmed the
plot and characters. Every corner of London had something magical happening in it, so much so
that it seemed outrageous that no-one could see it. Like I said, that’s a ‘My
wallet is too small for all my £50 notes and my diamond shoes are too tight’
criticism, so if you fancy a romp around London with some crazy characters and
some wild imagination let loose, this is definitely the book for you. And Wati…he
has to be the best character I’ve read in a long time.
New signings
I should have some more news soon about some
signings I’ll
be doing over the next couple of months, so keep coming back for more
news on
that.