Reporting in...

Hi Guys,

First of all, I know it's been far too long since I posted, but things have been c-razy busy. The events side of things have really been picking up, with plenty of things going on for Alt.Fiction as well as a few of my own ventures, and I'm also currently teaching two nights a week.

First thing to report on is last night's event with Iain M Banks - we had a great night at Leicester Phoenix Square, who were tremendously helpful both in the lead in to the event as well as on the night. We had a great crowd over over 100 people, Iain was tremendously entertaining (as always) and the whole thing had a great atmosphere and vibe about it. I arrived bright and early at 4pm, where I caught up unplanned with my old friend and colleague Damien Walter and planned with Adele of Un:Bound. Then it was on to business about 5:30, getting the Alt.Fiction table set up and checking in at Screen 1, which was a great room for the event. Iain arrived about 6pm, and no sooner had I said hello and bought a drink than he was off for a host of interviews with a number of different organisations, so you can expect to see plenty of coverage of the evening locally! Waterstones Market Street were selling our books, and they arrived shortly afterwards to get set up - they did well on the night for sales, which is always nice to see.

Iain's talk began at 7 and covered a wide range of bases, including the old question of how the 'M' in Iain M Banks originated, the roots of the idea for the Culture, favourite authors and reads and a whole host of other questions. There was also a short reading from Surface Detail, featuring a host of semi-unpronouncable names, which made the whole thing great fun.

From there, it was on to the signing session, and Iain was great with the audiences, chatting away and posing for a host of photos while signing away - and yes, the signature does include the M! We managed to wrap up about 9, at which point I had time to stop for a quick drink with Iain, Damien, Graham Joyce (who popped down for the evening) and some of the Leicester Speculators group. Unfortunately I had to slope off relatively early for my train, but overall it was a fantastic night and an event that I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

In other news, I was lucky enough to have two pieces in the Derby Evening Telegraph yesterday - one was a full interview about the success of the writing courses at QUAD, which is at http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Course-Quad-aims-turn-budding-writers-published-authors/article-3622522-detail/article.html, while there was also a piece on the upcoming Eat Your Words event at http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Book-lovers-eat-words-author-event/article-3622552-detail/article.html

Anyway, that's all for now - there's still plenty of marketing to be done!

Thanks a lot

Alex