Supanova and Me

I don't normally go to Supanova. There are only so many "pop culture expos" you can go to in a year. I've been attending Armageddon with my friend and workmate Jasna and her son Chris, because it's generally cheap and has guest speakers I want to hear. Peter David was there a couple of years ago, the author of those lovely novels about King Arthur coming back and running for Mayor of New York, then becoming President of the US and having a whole lot of fantastical adventures while he's about it. He also did some Trek novels, but that's not why he was invited either - he's gone into graphic novels! There are actors as well and last year we went to hear Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, though the poor sods had to compete with a very noisy event going on in another corner of the hall. They managed well, I should say. They must have had to put up with a lot of weird stuff in the course of attending conventions.

This year, though, I'm also going to Supanova, because my publishers at Random House asked if I'd like to come along and promote Wolfborn. There will also be the delightful Michael Pryor, who wrote those gorgeous steampunk novels I've reviewed on these pages and Marianne De Pierres, who is actually on the con's guest list, but will presumably pop over to the table at the dealer's room as well. I'll be there from Saturday afternoon, after coming from my mother's place, and spend all day Sunday as well, except I'm going to the one-man Lord Of The Rings at the Comedy Festival late Sunday afternoon, so will have to leave by about three.

Anyone want to come and get their copy of Wolfborn signed? Better still, buy one, for a family member or friend if you have your own? :-) Plenty to see and do, even once you've been to the Random House table.

There are going to be some fabulous writers and actors there - more writers, in fact, than at Armageddon - though I'm not sure if I'll get to see any of them except Marianne, because the Random House bunch will probably just get me a dealers' room pass. That's fine. I have Swancon only a week later and there will be plenty to see and do there - and, yes, my book to promote and Fantastic Planet will be bringing copies, so I don't have to lug them myself.

And then off to the one-man Lord of The Rings!

DYMOCK’S BOOK-SIGNING AT SOUTHLAND

I organised this months ago, with Alice, the lovely lady who arranged the mass-event for Ford Street. It could have gone better than just a few copies, given that it was Christmas and a teen paranormal book and I was in costume – but it was still a nice day.

I arrived very early and parked my stuff in the back room. Alice told me that, as I’d explained why I couldn’t get any books from the publisher (they’d run out – gloat!) her boss had kindly agreed to let me have the needed copies for my launch for 25% discount.

Last night, I sat up late, watching a guilty-pleasure DVD and sewing myself a new kaftan to use for today and my launch. I embroidered it just a little around the neck, as it was already getting late, but I thought it would be nice to wear a costume. Alice said that was fine – they’d had another writer come dressed as a dog! I experimented with wearing a cloak and a veil and ended up just putting a silver cord around my head. That worked okay. I wore my silver Cyndi Smith wolf’s-head brooch – a gorgeous piece of jewellery which I commissioned her at Aussiecon, as a birthday gift to myself.

In the end, I gave away a lot more bookmarks – including Crime Time bookmarks – than I sold books, but never mind. I talked with people, I was friendly and perhaps they will come back for a copy. I signed quite a few for the shop – they had bought an embarrassingly large number of copies – and asked if they might put some in the paranormal. YA is good, but paranormal teen is also good – even better. So you cover two places and have two chances to sell..

Best of all today, I got to meet Romy of Lost In Stories blog (here we are in a photo) and her delightful parents, who took the trouble to come and support me. Romy offered to take some bookmarks (signed, of course) to use for a give-away on her web site and I also gave her several Crime Time bookmarks. It will work well there. It has occurred to me that, apart from Tina and Dylan, I’m fairly sure that most of my regular readers are older than Romy’s – and Dylan is my student, Tina found me through Romy. So when I do my next bit – a “cast Wolfborn the movie” competition, I might ask Romy if she’d like to run it on her site as well.

That’s for later. Meanwhile, it was fun to meet her – thanks for coming, Romy!