Fear and Loathing in West Kirby

Just a quick note to say that I survived the brush with fame that was the Hadley Rille event in West Kirby - and although I'm now officially a celebrity I swear I haven't become even remotely big headed.

Truth be told, we had the relative bad luck to clash with the only nice weather of the week and - given that the beach was all of five minutes away - it's perhaps no surprise that the authors nearly outnumbered the audience. From my point of view that wasn't entirely a bad thing, since I'm crap at reading loudly and mainly went to say 'hi' to a few like minded folks anyway. On that note, a big thank you to fellow attendees Adrienne Odasso, Rob Haines and David Clements (listed, of course, in the order they arrived in the pub beforehand) for their company, further thanks to Adele Cosgrove-Bray for organising the whole thing, and a belated hello to late arrival Hazel Dixon, who I never actually got to speak to.

The two things I took away from the event were the general high quality of the readings, both in terms of material and presentation, and the fact that Hadley Rille are putting out some really nice books. I also learned a little about the Herschel and Planck space research missions, thanks to David Clements, who came armed with brochures regarding his day job - which is about nine million times more interesting-sounding than mine. All in all, a good day, and I look forward to next year's.

Hadley Rille Event, July 11th

Here's a bit of news that I've been sitting on for a while, until I was sure (or at least mostly sure) that I'd be able to make it.

On the 11th of next month I should, fingers crossed, be joining a half dozen other writers, as part of an event to publicise Hadley Rille Books - who published my Allotment in the Barren Worlds anthology last year. If you live anywhere near West Kirby, please come along and support us, ask questions, jeer, heckle, throw buns and generally hang out.

To the left is the official flyer. Feel free to earn my eternal gratitude by sticking it somewhere people will see it, like the CIA website, or on Big Ben.