Category Archive for ‘appearances’ rss

Forthcoming Appearances

January 31st, 2012 • 11 Comments

That you may all mark out time in your calendars now, my preliminary schedule…

3rd-5th February – SFX Weekender, Prestatyn, Wales.  It’s been a real laugh the last two years, with a bigger and better venue this time around, and I understand some 4000 attendees expected, which I believe makes it the UKs biggest genre event by some margin.  I’ll be on a couple of panels:

3pm, Friday 3rd: Elf Preservation – without magic and monsters it’s not fantasy, is it?

4pm, Friday 3rd: Signing at the Forbidden Planet stand.

5pm, Friday 3rd: SF&F Just a Minute hosted by Paul Cornell and featuring the comic talents of me, Sarah Pinborough, China Mieville, and Toby Whithouse.  This should be a scream.  Of undiluted frustration and shame.

4pm, Saturday 4th: It’s not a story it’s a map – does fantasy place worldbuilding over character?

6th-9th April – Eastercon, Heathrow.  Looks as if I may be on a couple of panels related to the writing craft, but details as I have them.  I’ll certainly be haunting the bar if nothing else.

26th June – Middlesbrough Literary Festival for a reading and Q&A.

5th-7th October – Swedish Fantasy and Sci-Fi Convention, Stockholm, where I’ll be a guest of honour, would you believe.

2nd-4th November – GenreCon in Sydney, Australia.  This is a new event combining authors and enthusiasts from various genres.  It looks as though I’ll also be touring in Australia as part of this visit, but the exact details are very much up in the air.

More details as I have them….

 

ConFusion

January 24th, 2012 • 19 Comments

Back from Detroit, somewhat jet-lagged and with a cold, but had a brilliant time – can’t remember more fun at a convention, in fact.  Some highlights?

Doing a reading alongside Robin Hobb.

Being taught the correct coastguard method of sticking my ass out while shooting by Myke Cole.

Being mistaken for Admiral Akbar by John Scalzi.

Visiting Subterranean Press’s warehouse of awesome books, nerf guns and foam-rubber swords.

I accidentally shot Brent Weeks with an arrow.  Then he tried to kill me with a sword.  Then I tried to kill him with a dagger.  Then, while I plotted on how I would rob Pat Rothfuss’s manservant’s strongbox, he tried to pick my pocket.  Then we kissed.  And the whole thing was never mentioned again.  It all happened in a game of D&D, incidentally…

Meeting a whole load of hugely enthusiastic readers, bloggers and fans.

I even signed a few books.  And licked one.  And sat on panels and haunted the bar with far more articulate authors like Pat Rothfuss, Peter V. Brett, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Michelle Sagara West, Bradley Beaulieu, Douglas Hulick, Saladin Ahmed, Jim Hines, Cat Rambo, Merrie Haskell, Howard A Jones, Tobias Buckell and I daresay others I apologise for overlooking . . . it really was an incredible author attendance, and great to put faces to names that I have long been aware of, admired, envied, and dreamed of destroying.

Overall I was treated wonderfully well by the convention and by the guys from Subterranean Press, I had a blast.  Incidentally, Justin of Staffer’s Musings stood up for three hours in order to record the authorial D&D game, so an edited version may appear at some point, on the off chance that some of the readers of this blog can think of nothing more entertaining to do with their limited time on earth than watch some other folks roll dice…

EDIT: You can catch Myke Cole’s account of DMing the all-star authorial D&D game over here.  Brent Weeks gives his account of the playing experience over there.  It was quite the nostalgic laugh.  Unlikely as it may be, I look forward to the day that daring thief Darque Shadeaux enters the fray once more.  Or at least hides behind it at a safe distance…

Gone Fishing

January 18th, 2012 • 39 Comments

I’m off up to London and thence to Detroit City to participate in Epic Confusion, where activities will include an all-star authorial D&D session featuring:

Brent Weeks – Cleric

Scott Lynch – Gnome Illusionist

Elizabeth Bear – Ranger

Jim Hines – Fighter

Peter Brett – Monk

Pat Rothfuss – Wizard

Joe Abercrombie – Thief

And being Dungeon Mastered by Myke Cole and Saladin Ahmed.

How cool is that?  Alright, so it’s not exactly cool as most of the world’s population would define the term.  But I still reckon it’s pretty cool, if you know what I mean.  I’ve even broken my dice out of cold storage.  The feel of those cool plastic edges in my palm, like an old warrior unearthing his old broadsword from his war-chest, preparing to enter battle one last time against insurmountable odds …  Well, alright, not much like that at all.

See you next week.

Epic Confusion – Detroit

January 4th, 2012 • 9 Comments

I am off to Detroit in a couple of weeks for Epic Confusion, January 20th-22nd, and it promises to be a doozy for fans of recent epic fantasy, or authors of it too for that matter.  First of all, I’ll be there – which is the defining moment of awesome for any convention, of course – as a guest of the wonderful and handsome Subterranean Press along with Robin Hobb, Peter Brett, and Brent Weeks.  Some guy called Patrick Rothfuss will be guest of honour – I know, the name means nothing to me, it’s not as though he made no. 2 on the UK hardcover bestseller list a few brief weeks after I made no. 3, or anything, those type of things don’t stick in my mind – and Jim Hines will be toastmaster, and there will be a whole host of other authors in attendance, including but not limited to the likes of Scott Lynch, whose first book totally wasn’t published at the same time as mine to far greater acclaim, John Scalzi, Myke Cole, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, and so on.  Holy Cow that’s a lot of great authors.  And me.

Usually at conventions I’m lucky to find a single panel to which I might contribute, but the board this year is jam-packed with the epically fantastic.  My own preliminary schedule:

7pm, Friday Salon E     I, Suck  -  Jim Hines   Patrick Rothfuss  John Scalzi  Scott Lynch  Joe Abercrombie

8pm, Friday Salon E     Opening Ceremonies

1pm, Saturday     Boardroom   Reading  -  Joe Abercrombie   Robin Hobb  (we’ll both be reading for 10 or 15 minutes then taking questions)

2pm, Saturday     Salon G    Trilogy: The Base Unit of Fantasy  -  Joe Abercrombie   Bradley Beaulieu    Saladin Ahmed    Michelle Sagara West

5pm, Saturday     Salon E    Mass Autograph Session  -  EVERYONE

8pm, Saturday     Denison 3/4 (Un)Necessary Anachronism  -  Merrie Haskell    Patrick Rothfuss    Violette Malan    Joe Abercrombie   Brent Weeks

1pm, Sunday Salon G     Horses and Swords and Castles, Oh My!  -  Myke Cole   Patrick Rothfuss    Joe Abercrombie   Peter V. Brett    Bradley Beaulieu

I know.  Great lineups, huh?
As usual, anyone who wants any/all of my books signed can feel free to track me down either at the mass autograph session or really at pretty much any other time I’m not actively involved with the programme.  I daresay I will generally be found haunting the bar.  Hope to see you there…

Fantasycon

September 26th, 2011 • 15 Comments

Any lovers of fantasy fiction looking for something to do this weekend?  You could take a trip down to Fantasycon in sunny Brighton, where Guests of Honour will include John Ajvide Lindqvist, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Paolini, the great Brian Aldiss, and also that lovely Joe Abercrombie, all MCd by Sarah Pinborough, and with a veritable galaxy of other significant genre figures in attendance.

I’ll be around, probably haunting the bar mostly, from Friday afternoon through til Sunday afternoon, but specifically:

Friday 5-6pm: Welcome to Fantasycon Party

Friday 8-9.30pm, Russell Room: Mass Signing

Saturday 10-11am, Russell Room: Trends in Fantasy Fiction Panel

Saturday 8-9pm, Russell Room: Guest of Honour Interview by James Barclay

Sunday 1pm: Banquet and British Fantasy Awards where I will, as it happens, be presenting the award for Best Collection.

I shall look forward to maybe seeing some of you there…

SciFiNow FantasyCon Interview

July 4th, 2011 • 2 Comments

Few.  That’s a bit of a mouthful.  But it does describe the situation, for SciFiNow are conducting interviews with the Guests of Honour at this year’s FantasyCon, and this week they’re talking to none other than me.  We talk about leading lights, exploding careers, moral ambiguity, the wild west and so on.

Incidentally, FantasyCon 2011 is being held in Brighton, September 30th – October 2nd.  More details on the schedule as and when I have it, but it would appear that I’ll be being interviewed on stage by fellow Gollancz British Fantasy Writer and jolly good friend of mine James Barclay, as well as doing a bit of reading and answering some questions, should there be an audience to ask any…

FantasyCon 2011

May 16th, 2011 • 8 Comments

Hot off the press!

I am honoured to be among the Guests of Honour at this year’s FantasyCon to be held in Brighton, England, September 30th – October 2nd this year.  Other GoHs are Gwyneth Jones, Peter Atkins, John Ajvide Lindqvist, and sci-fi heavyweight Brian Aldiss, with Sarah Pinborough serving as Mistress of Ceremonies.  Other attending authors within the fantasy arena include the likes of James Barclay, Tom Lloyd, MD Lachlan, Steven Erikson, Juliet McKenna (who I still haven’t forgiven for nearly twisting my arm off at BristolCon) and oh so many more.

The British Fantasy society is traditionally quite horror orientated, so it’s very nice to be involved.  No information yet on what precisely I’ll be doing but, if previous con experience is to be believed, it’ll be along the lines of some panels, an interview and Q&A and – oh, I don’t know – a load of talking shite in a bar.

Look forward to seeing some of you there, maybe…

Job Done

February 11th, 2011 • 18 Comments

With Edinburgh and Glasgow visited yesterday, my whirlwind tour of the UK is now finished.  My thanks to my publicist Jon for his organisational skills and staunch support throughout, and my thanks to all of you who turned out to the fifteen or so events.  Those who didn’t manage to make it (Boo, hiss) we left a trail of signed stock behind us, at Forbidden Planets in Bristol and London, at Toppings in Bath, and at Waterstones in Southampton, Reading, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Reviews of The Heroes continue to emerge, and in some unexpected places.  You don’t see a lot of fantasy covered in Britain’s most popular tabloid and home of dodgy puns, The Sun, but lo and behold a review of The Heroes by Peter Thornton there today complete with a photo of me needing a shave under the headline, “War story is razor sharp”:

“I’m a big fan of the author’s straightforward, darkly humorous epics of gristle and sinew and his ability to make even the most shady characters seem halfway likable … Don’t miss it our you deserve to be gutted like a stuck pig, your entrails left to feed the crows.”

Too true.  Further printed goodness comes from Lev Grossman in Time Magazine in the US, where The Heroes is on their short list of things to do this month:

“It’s a magnificent, richly entertaining account of a single three-day battle — complete with balletic Kurosawan violence — that leaves behind no heroes, only survivors.”

Talking of Kurosawa, I’m over at Orbit’s blog this week, talking about some of the filmic influences for the Heroes, which is, after all, a kind of a fantasy war story, inspired as much by film as it is by literature and all that.

Back home, massive email backlog.  In the past I’ve tried generally to respond to email where possible, these days I’m getting more and more of it, especially around release time, and it is getting harder and harder to keep up and still maintain any forward progress on the various other stuff I have to deal with.  Like, you know, the writing and all that.  So apologies, again, if your email goes unanswered,  Rest assured I appreciate all encouragement and gnash my teeth furiously at all criticism, regardless of whether I respond or not…

Have. Some.

February 8th, 2011 • 28 Comments

So, I’m extremely pleased – if not to say insufferably smug – to announce that The Heroes made the Sunday Times bestseller list last week for hardcover fiction, in 3rd place with some 4,100 copies sold, well above Clive Cussler and just behind Scandinavian wunderkind Jo Nesbo and the ubiquitous James Patterson.  This is indeed serious commercial company.  My editor tells me I am the first UK genre fantasy author to make the list since the passing of the much-loved David Gemmell (although that obviously means ignoring certain heavily fantastical authors such as JK Rowling, Philip Pullman and Terry Pratchett for various complex and largely spurious reasons).

Now, I must admit, there are some mitigating factors here.  Late January is far from boom time in the publishing business, so you need less sales to get high up the list than you might at other times of year.  In the weeks before Christmas I wouldn’t have got a sniff of tenth place with those sales.  Also, the first week includes presales, so this is partly the result of careful strategy, advertising, and advance discounting, as well of course of a loyal readership keen to get their hands on my latest.  But provisional figures for this week have come through now, and they put The Heroes in fifth.  That’s not presales, that’s honest to goodness folks in bookshops buying it.  And in any case, third is third.  I’m a Sunday Times bestseller, and even if my next book is remaindered by the cartload and I end up on skid row, you can never take that away from me!

In any case, it’s a testament to the skills of the folks at my publisher, who have all come together across editorial, publicity, marketing and sales to give the book the best possible chance.  And of course a testament to the impeccable taste of you lot, the book buying public.  Congratulations also to fellow Gollancz author Ben Aaronovitch, who’s got in on the list at number 8.  Quite the performance for a fantasy imprint, huh?

The main body of the tour is now over, and it was a great experience.  Not one truly duff event out of the thirteen or so, and believe me, I’ve done some duff events before.  The highlight of the daytime signings was probably Waterstones Guildford, with some 50 or 60 people.  The best of the evening events the Manchester Deansgate one, where they had upwards of 70.  My thanks to all the bookshop staff who promoted and helped out at all the events, though.  You can see some photos over on the Gollancz facebook page.  Still the Scottish leg to come, with Edinburgh and Glasgow on Thursday.  I hope perhaps to see some of you there.

Ooooh, Tour, Interview

January 12th, 2011 • 65 Comments

Look what I got in the mail…

It’s only Joe Abercrombie’s latest UK Hardcover, The Heroes!  Look at it’s blood-red debossed foil gleam like a sea of blood beneath a gibbous moon.  But you’ve got to see the full wraparound to really get the impact:

Holy cow, that is a good-looking book and I don’t care who knows it.  And the design team haven’t stopped on the outside either, take a look at this:

Are you telling me the book has coloured end sheets, like some kind of frakking collector’s edition?  Yes.  Yes, I am telling you that.  There’s my finger, pointing it out.  And my knee, in fact, but you can safely ignore that.

Would you like one of these, signed by me?  Ha, ha, no forget I asked.  OF COURSE you’d like one.  Well, in that case, you can catch me on UK tour, starting a mere couple of weeks away.  To recap the dates:

Thursday 27th January 2011 – London

6-7pm – Signing

Forbidden Planet

179 Shaftesbury Avenue

London

Friday 28th January – Guildford & Bath

12noon – Signing

Waterstones

High Street

Guildford

7.45pm – Talk and signing

In conversation with David Bradley, editor of SFX magazine

Topping Bookshop

The Paragon

Bath

Saturday 29th January – Bristol

1-2pm – Book signing

Forbidden Planet

Clifton Heights

Triangle W

Bristol

Monday 31st January – Southampton & Reading

12.30pm – Signing 

Waterstone’s Southampton Above Bar 

69 Above Bar 

Southampton 

6.30pm – Talk and Signing 

Waterstone’s Reading Broad Street 

89a Broad Street 

Reading 

Tuesday 1st February – Birmingham & Nottingham 

12.30pm – Signing 

Waterstone’s Birmingham High Street 

24-26 High Street 

Birmingham 

7pm – Talk and signing 

Waterstone’s Nottingham 

1/5 Bridlesmith Gate 

Nottingham 

Wednesday 2nd February – Liverpool & Manchester 

12.30pm – Signing 

Waterstone’s Liverpool One 

12 College Lane 

Liverpool 

6.30pm – Talk and Signing 

Waterstone’s Manchester Deansgate 

91 Deansgate 

Manchester 

Thursday 3rd February – Leeds & Newcastle 

12.30pm – Signing 

Waterstone’s Leeds 

93-97 Albion Street 

Leeds 

 6.30pm – Talk and signingWaterstone’s Newcastle Emerson Chambers 

Emerson Chambers 

Blackett Street 

Newcastle 

Saturday 5th February – SFX Weekender, Pontins, Camber Sands

Exact itinerary to be announced, but will probably include one or two panel appearances, plus a one hour slot with Q&A and reading.

Thursday 10th February – Edinburgh & Glasgow 

12.30pm – Signing 

Waterstone’s Edinburgh West End 

128 Princes Street 

Edinburgh 

6.30pm – Talk and signing 

Waterstone’s Glasgow Sauchiehall Street 

153- 157 Sauchiehall Street 

Glasgow

Yes, indeedy, come one come all.  And I’ll sign pretty much anything you want to bring, as long as it was written by me, although proofs may be a slight issue, especially handfuls of them.  My publishers don’t like it, don’t you know.  Some of those evening events, I should point out, are ticketed, costing somewhere between £3-£6, but with that cost typically redeemable against the cost of the book, should you choose to buy one.  For further details of the waterstones events, or to get tickets, by all means check out their website.  There may also be an Irish event or two following the Scottish ones, we’re still waiting for confirmation on that.

And finally, there’s an interview with yours truly up at fantasy faction.  Enjoy responsibly.