Tomorrow is an anniversary of sorts.  Last year, about a month after the launch of Sixty-One Nails, I did a signing session at Waterstone’s Bookshop in Bedford and signed and sold every copy they had apart from the ones in the display window, which I signed for stock later.  It was a fun day – the Waterstone’s staff were brilliant and very supportive – and I met lots of new and interesting people, some of whom were kind enough to purchase my book.

Almost a year later, I am back at Waterstone’s on Saturday 27th November for another session and will be signing books from about 11am onwards until we run out of books or time.  If you are in or around Bedford on the day, please come and say Hi and if you already have a copy that you would like signed, feel free to bring it along and I will sign it for you.

Hope to see you there!

This Saturday 6th November I am heading to the South West for BristolCon in the fine company of Juliet E McKenna (Irons in the Fire, Blood in the Water, Banners in the Wind) where we will be doing a panel on the tricky business of getting published and we will both be doing readings – Juliet at 10:50 and me at 14:50.

Joe Abercrombie (The First Law series is one of my all-time favourites) will be there being interviewed by Clarke-award winning Cheryl Morgan (Salon Futura) – also there will be Colin Harvey (Winter Song, Damage Time), Paul Cornell (Dr Who and far too much else to mention), Kim Lakin-Smith (Tourniquet, Myth-understandings) and Alistair Reynolds (Revelation Space, Poseidon’s Children), to name but a few.  The full programme (organised by the wonderful MEG) can be downloaded here.

I’m really looking forward to the day and the chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones – if you’re within travelling distance from Bristol it’s definitely worth a day out.  If you do come along, please come and say Hi, I’m easy to spot and I don’t bite (mostly).

Hope to see you there.

As you may know, I spent the weekend at FantasyCon and had a fantastic time meeting fans, authors, publishers, editors and artists, gathered for the British Fantasy Awards and a lot more besides.

Firstly, many congratulations to Kari Sperring for winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer with her fantasy novel Living With Ghosts.  I sat and listened to Kari reading from the sequel to this at FantasyCon 2009 and I was immensely pleased when this well-deserved award was announced.  She is a rising star of Fantasy, a wonderful novelist and a very nice person too. Go buy her book.

Congratulations to all the award winners, there are too many to go into here, but the British Fantasy Society have helpfully updated their site with the full list of winners.

Adam Christopher and his 'signed' iPad

Meanwhile I was with Andy Remic and Colin Harvey at a joint signing session in the Dealer’s Room when Adam Christopher – friend, writer blogger and man of many talents – came up with his iPad and declared that he would love to get his books signed, but he had the digital versions.  This is the first time I’ve seen the digital version of The Road to Bedlam and I have to say, it looks gorgeous on the iPad.

Consequently, I am ashamed to tell you that there were a number of offers to engrave his pristine machine with various epithets using a sharp implement (it was far too shiny) but he resisted until I produced some stickers I had acquired for just this purpose.

Here’s a photo of Adam with his newly signed iPad, showing signatures from all three authors.  In the age of the eBook, will this be the future?  Will fans adorn their technology with custom labels in the way that travellers used to cover their suitcases with stickers from foreign places?

Has anyone else come up with a really good way of signing eBooks?  I would love to hear comments, ideas and stories on this subject.  We are on the cusp of the age of digital publishing – so what’s the best way of translating the signed copy into the virtual world?

Comments, please.