Black Library Live & Sledge-Lit

Representation of my security personnel when I arrive for a public engagement.

Well that’s it for another year – all my public appearances are done and dusted for 2016.

Thank you to everyone who came to say hello at Black Library Live! and Sledge-Lit, or any of the other events that I’ve attended this year. As I’ve said before, being an author is a solitary business, so getting to speak to my readers in person is a really important part of my writing process (and mental health!)

Black Library Live!

There has been a hiatus of Black Library events for the past year, so it was a pleasure to be invited to the resumption of the Black Library Live event at Warhammer World. The organisers like to work us authors hard for the day – you can see my packed schedule here and a very busy day it was, but thoroughly enjoyable. I found the audio seminar particularly fun, a real step up from such presentations in the past with the presence of BL’s in-house audio producer Matthew Renshaw on hand to share out-takes and provide a brilliant insight into the words-to-audio process. I also appeared on Warhammer TV, for a half hour interview that starts at the 02.14 mark of their coverage for the day.

In case you missed it, it was announced at Black Library Live! that the Black Library Weekender will be returning in November 2017. Details are scarce at this point, so you’ll have to do the same as me and keep every weekend in November free until we find out more! And finally, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Horus Heresy Weekender in February – I shall be attending on the 5th.

Black Library Live audience, looking as beautiful as ever.

Sledge-Lit

Sledge-Lit is the festive sister to the Derby Quad’s Edge-Lit convention, and includes workshops, panels, and book launches for the science-fiction, fantasy and horror genres. It’s a lovely little convention aimed at both readers and writers, in a really intimate space at the Quad, which means you can get up-close-and-personal with the attending authors and publishers. If you are a local aspiring author, I would heartily recommend attending, especially if you’ve never attended an event like this before, as it’s very welcoming.

Yesterday I was on a panel entitled “I stand alone – Will fantasy ever stray away from the series?”. After being blindsided by a question of what each panelist’s favourite series and standalone book are (I don’t do favourites and went for memorable instead – Chronicles of an Age of darkness by Hugh Cook, and On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, respectively), a broad discussion ensued regarding the merits, both commercial and artistic of each approach. No world-shattering conclusions were drawn, other than a general admittance that readers (and therefore publishers and editors / agents) tend to prefer a narrative series than standalone books, but with the happy medium of a series that is made up of standalone novels (such as the Discworld books or David Gemmell’s Drenai saga). On a personal note, I simply don’t have the time lately to dedicate to reading a story that is going to take six volumes to finish – I can barely fit in a whole TV series these days!

Me and Mark Latham (always great to catch up with fellow authors at these events)

I said above that it’s a ‘little’ convention, but yesterday it was announced that the 2017 David Gemmell awards will be held at next year’s Edge-Lit, and along with Stephen Baxter and Joanne Harris confirmed as guests of honour, it looks like it will be the best Edge-Lit yet. I’ve had an idea percolating through my brain for my next writing workshop, so if I can find time to pitch it to the organisers, I’m hoping to deliver it at next year’s event. Tickets for the 15th July 2017 are available now.

As an aside, fellow wrestling fan Alex Davis, who arranges Edge-Lit in his role as Literature Officer at the Quad (and who arranged this year’s FantasyCon), provides some very reasonably priced services for writers. As well as copy-editing and proofreading, he can also give feedback on a particular piece of writing, or provide a mentoring service to those needing help navigating the world of publishing. You can find more details here: AD Services for Writers. I haven’t used Alex’s services personally, however he did a great job editing my stories for the Reality Bites, We Can Improve You, and Nice Day For A Picnic anthologies, and he is a really genuine guy who has a great deal of experience helping others with their writing. And no, I’m not on commission!

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