Book Case

I've been looking at Neal Asher's posts about bookcases. I think the clue is in the title. We have just been updating our dining/living room from the 1930's to the noughties which meant all the bookcases are gone for now and books consigned to boxes in the loft.

However I do have a small bookcase in the bedroom and have collected the various piles of books and stacked them thus

Apologies to Mr Asher. None of your books on display. About 90% of my books are in the loft and I didn't want to wake  Alice up.

You may have noticed the cricket bat in shot. Well the thing is I have been left to my own devices tonight and thought I would try to amalgamate a feature called crap fantasy covers from Speculative Horizons with real life. To this end I have been waving willow about in the living room with my most fearsome scowl and cack footedness trying to figure out how this guy is not going to get killed.

 

His hands are the wrong way round on the sword/cricket bat, his feet are in the wrong place (not to the pitch of the ball) Fuck me this is where Kevin Peterson got the switch hit idea.

Which brings me to my final thought

This is the picture I have in the office just to remind me of The Preposterous Bollox of the Situation

Bidet Card

Forbidden Planet mini-con

I went along to the signing that David Deveraux and danacea , Danie Ware of Forbidden Planet, organised/set up for the release of his new book Eagle Rising. 

I don’t normally go for these kind of things after being to one years back when FP was by centre point, where you sort of shuffled along in a queue with your 2 items and go them signed dribbled out your star struck question and got moved along. Not fun.

This was billed as a signing with a difference; there were to be many authors and they would be milling about talking signing etc the list was thus:

Joe Abercrombie 
Alex Bell 
Mark Chadbourn 
David Devereux
Jaine Fenn
Jon Courtenay Grimwood 
Tom Lloyd
Suzanne McLeod
Steve Savile 
James Swallow

I’ve seen a lot of chat in the blogoverse about this, primarily because I have been looking at the author’s sites and from that side of the event people seem to be happy. 

Two of the authors I read and like enough that I would go to see anyway, four are on my must buy list and the remainder I think I’ll read them now because they were there recommended as it were by the other authors present.

It’s actually a damn clever piece of marketing and I hope it catches on.

I’m on the punter side of the table here and wanted to share my thoughts on the evening.

This day out was actually my birthday present to myself, so without a twinge of conscience I stuck some cash in my wallet knocked of work early and caught the train to London. I used to live in London and it’s always a bit strange going back but at least I still knew my way round. Right? Wrong. They moved forbidden planet since I was last there; so I decide I’m going to rest my weary legs and have a pint of the black stuff. Duly refreshed I make my way down to Shaftsbury avenue.

I sort of aimlessly wondered until I saw a milling crowd and made my way over. Hurray I’d got there, now what am I going to do? As it turns out I’m going to shuffle over to a table and say something inane to Jon Courtney Grimwood who was a very nice man by not looking at me like I was an idiot and chatting to me. It got slightly easier once I figured that all of us there were meeting people for the first time and it was probably harder for the authors as they know next to nothing about those approaching them. (who’s that psycho?)

Then I went and had a chat with Joe Abercrombie (probably always going to be called Joe Applecrumble from now on) who was there with the ArchPoohBah of Hype ,Simon Spanton. Joe kindly wrote out a line from ‘Before they are Hanged’ in the front cover of the copy I took with me. If I’d known his writing was that illegible I would just have got a doctor to write out any old blah!! Once past the prepped anecdote/story I had in my head and I just started talking like a normal person the whole conversation became more natural. I’m starting to relax now.

Next up I go and speak to Mark ‘Zane Lowe’ Cadbourn. 

Now that I am slightly more relaxed I seem to be able to ask more coherent questions. He's researching a series of books based around Dr Dee which sound great. And he's done a Hellboy story. After a little while David of GeekSyndicate interrupted to interview Mark for their podcast.

By now i'm a bit fan boyed out so think to myself I'll just look around on the tables; the next thing I know is that someone is giving me the hard sell. A lady is waving her arm and pointing at a book saying "buy this, you'll like it" After some chat it turns out that it is Jaine Fenn selling me a copy of her first novel Principles of Angels. To be fair to Jaine it was her publishers fault, telling her to jump up and down and sell the book. She should have said I'll write them, you sell them. I'm now 80% through this book and it does not disappoint. 

Here are some  Photos not mine but from Danie Ware on Flickr

Handily there is a pile of David Deveraux books near so I scoop one up and go and have this signed by the man before a big pile of books is placed in front of him ready for his signature.

Fortunately when I turn round and start to wonder what I will do next I spot Robert Rankin. One of my all time favorite authors. So full of enthusiasm I approach the great man and introduce myself and to my eternal horror call him Ian. Ground, open up, now, really. Fortunately he was not too perturbed by this. I, however, slink off in disgrace.

Trying now to work on a damage limitation strategy I approcah Suzanne McLeod. I've not read any of her stuff but did look her up on the internet. So I safely manage to talk about her books which are Urban Fantasy. So I'm back on safe ground, talking vampires and Simon Green. She notices I have a Jon Courtney Grimwood book in my hand and suddenly she is fan girl telling me that she's also bought some and had them signed as he is one of her all time heroes. It's just so nice that the authors are as big a fans as us readers.

By this time the event is winding down and people are leaving. Did I come all the way to London, on my birthday outing no less, to go home and not drink beer with these worthies? No I did not. So shamelessly I invite myself along to the drinks at the Phoenix Bar.

Well needless to say there was drinking and merryment. Alex Bell let me try on her famous hat, I met bloggers Adam Whitehead and Graeme Flory who I believe was killed in a most grusome manner in Eagle Rising. 

Tom Lloyd and his other half were lovely. Many a talking crap conversation happened.

It's quite late by now and I've had quite a few when are you coming home calls by now so I chance my arm and ask Robert Rankin how he's getting home. Robert lives down Brighton way, as do I. 

The end of my fan boy day is me and Robert catching a cab to Victoria, having a coffee and travelling back on the train together. I might have mentioned that Robert is one of my all time favourites, one reason is that nearly every book he has written has been set somewhere I have lived. What a fantastic journey.

The only fly in the ointment is that I lost my camera. I have linked pictures in this blog but it's not the same. I even had a photo taken specifically to make Elena spit with envy, me and Joe Applecrumble. 

I think it was the best fortieth birthday present.

I think David Deveraux is a genius for suggesting this format and may he and others keep coming up with ways to include the readers. Thanks

Google this name

Kevin W. Reardon

I found this story via Hal Duncan's blog.

http://notesfromthegeekshow.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-not-to-be-writer.html#comments

The whole thing beggars belief.

Two Things

Primus

We found out there was going o be an addition to the family.

So one evening we were sitting down having a meal discussing how we were going to approach this pregnancy with regards to finding out the sex of the baby etc. 

We decided we would, as the thought being, we already have loads of stuff for a girl and if we needed stuff for a boy it would be good to know before hand.

This was when G decided to let me know she wanted another girl and a boy. 

Well I’m thinking ‘have this one and I can probably talk her out of three’

Her next comment was that her ideal scenario is twins, one of each.

She went for a scan, on her birthday no less, and, wait for it….TWINS

Now it’s early days yet but we have two heart beats from two separate eggs, we can just hope they are both viable.

Just be careful of what you wish for!! 

Secundus

Today I am forty years old. 

If you didn’t know, the seventh of January is the worst day of the year to have a birthday. 

I’ve had forty of the damn things and I should know. Combined presents, too partied out and general lethargy. 

Having said that I enjoy it and I’m going to make sure everyone else does and wo betide you if you don't.

Fathers and Daughters

I have been left alone with my daughter (3.6666) and a billion instructions from my other half. Clean teeth, make sure she goes for a wee before bed, don't let axe wielding strangers in, no excursions to Everest without oxygen etc.

I'm sure mothers think that the father of their child is an irresponsible idiot and can't look after their child. Of course this is true since they would not have been attracted to such a boring old git in the first place. Which brings me back to daughters.

The best thing about having a daughter is the freedom you have after their mother has tried to change you. Every man has his inner child which, let's face it, isn't inner at all; thus faced with a daughter, and I imagine with a son, you can give this free reign and feel no restraint, as your daughter loves you and your behavior for that inner child.

I have to go now as I've just spotted a couple of Bengal tigers in the garden; me and Alice are off to go and pull thier tails to see if that's fun.

Iron Angel by Alan Campbell

I’ve never reviewed anything before and will try to do this without giving the story away.

The beginning of the novel was quite a surprise when the action starts off where Scar Night ends. I say surprise, as I think Scar Night could well have stood on it’s own as a novel. The apocalyptic ending had me thinking “Where is he going from here?”

Well you get a whole lot more in Iron Angel. The world introduced in Scar Night is expanded as Campbell populates the story with characters that need the space. The visions of Menoa’s hell remind me of Brian Lumley’s Wampyri in his Necroscope series; the shape-shifting horror, the helplessness of the victims and the downright superior nastiness of the villains. 

Things that were hinted at in Scar Night are brought to the fore in the opening section, but not too much so that you don’t spend the rest of the book anticipating some character dropping hints to help you build the picture.

There are new characters that suitably aren’t quite what they seem; I think my favourite was John Anchor, he reminded me of a child with a garden hose. And there are enough old characters to keep you feeling at home.

The story is a lot larger than in Scar Night; it’s as if having introduced us to the world Campbell can now start telling the story he had in mind. 

The body count is truly stupendous, in fact most of the characters, if not already dead, soon will be or were a little while ago.

The only bug bear I had in the whole thing is that it got too large; in that I mean I wanted to hear a bit more about the protagonists and a little less of the arc. Still, it’s only a minor gripe.

Towards the end of the book I was reminded of the themes that tend to run through Donaldson’s books regarding power/corruption/innocence.

It’s a different book to Scar Night but it moves the Codex along. You don’t get the same helping that you got first time round and Campbell expands on hooks hinted at in the first volume and introduces a depth of thought not previously present. I think you can say this is not ‘ye old middle book syndrome’

He also leaves you with enough to be guessing where he will take you in the third volume.

I for one will be buying it as soon as I can get my grubby little hands on it.