A Grand Day Out

Posted by Colin Harvey Oct 11, 2009

Yesterday I attended my first ever in-store signing as part of the Angry Robot launch party. Travelled up on the 10 o’clock from Bristol, queued twice for ticket machines that weren’t working, and navigated my way through the building site that is Central London. (“It’s the ‘lympics, innit?” Is the response to any observation or complaint, such as the taking off-line of an entire Underground Line – yesterday it was the Victoria Line’s turn…)

I still managed to get there in time and tracked the event down into the basement, where the rest of the pack had gathered, together with Danie, the FP Event Manager and Nic, who does their on-line publicity.

Various people wandered in, and at some point Nic pointed a camera at me and barked lots of questions for which I was completely unprepared; I suspect there’ll be a distinct deer-in-the-headlights look in my eyes when it goes up online. Hopefully I’ll get better at it as time goes by. Dan Abnett, Andy Remic and I signed just about everything 'that didn't move (Danie, you will never know how close you came to the Pen of Doom when you stood still a moment too long!) and –before you could say “sign this”—it was over.

Off to the Angel with Juliet McKenna and the AR and FP teams, and then a dash across London to meet a friend for what may be the most expensive pint I’ve ever drunk. I’ll post a rant about the journey home on another occasion, since it threatens to obscure what was in all other ways a grand day out.

And now it’s back to work.