WHC 2010 - Post 2

So having headed to bed at about 2am and finally got to sleep around 4 I woke up two hours later and couldn't settle again. In the end I gave up and headed down for breakfast where I joined Wayne Simmons for fried food.
(Heather, Kelley & Rio)
I attended my only panel at ten and it was Look At Me a panel on self promotion with Heather Graham, Kelley Armstrong, Rio Youers, Sam Stone and Steve Savile. They kicked off with top tips, including Steve's comment that it really helps if you shower before coming down each morning, especially if you have been up till 4am drinking. Heather had a lot of really good sensible advice from experience, Kelley talked about things like authors getting together for a tour rather than leaving it to the publisher to sort, making it more fun and often more successful. Sam is a fan of facebook and the benefits and pitfalls were (Sam & Steve)
discussed. The internet more generally was discussed including the benefits of bloggers. Rio did a great job of keeping things moving and drawing everyone in, i;d have liked to have heard more of his views.
Some of the top tips from the panel were,and I am paraphrasing: try to catch up with friends and make a few new ones rather than networking every person in the building, it works better in the long run and is much more enjoyable. - Steve Savile (Neil & James)
Standing out is harder now but in the 80's authors used to buy pizza and doughnuts for the lorry drivers delivering their books. - Heather Graham
Respond to people when they contact you, admittedly harder if you get hundreds of emails every day but worth the effort if you possibly can. - Sam Stone
Give things away online, short stories can draw people to your characters and to your books and it's a great way of maintaining goodwill and awareness - Kelley Armstrong
Make the most of things, if no one turns up to the signing talk to the staff see if you can get them to love your book or feel guilty enough to push it after the day - Steve Savile

After that I said a 30 second hello to Book Chick City and dashed off to interview Dan Wells.
(Dan & the Headline Girls, not an 80's pop group)

Dan was lovely and had to tolerate me being horribly overtired and barely coherant as well as having to stop the interview so the hotel could hoover the room (I won't discuss the hotel here, but dear god) but was charming and interesting. The interview will be posted on our audio interviews in the next couple of days with it's own blog post so pop back for that.

(LeeAHarris all dressed up and on his way to a party)

I then went to hear Neil Gaiman interview James Herbert which was a relaxed and entertaining affair, I am sure others will blog extensively on this including Neil's gaff with Guy N Smith which I think everyone found funny. James was an interesting interviewee and i'm now reconsidering checking out some of the older books having only read the Magic Cottage and Ghosts of Sleath.

Lunch with Steve Savile, Yvonne Navarro and Weston Ochse in a pub round the corner. Delcious food, yummy strawberry cider and lovely people. Yay.
In the afternoon I met Suzanne McLeod and managed not to squee and Vincent Holland-Keen who later joined Catherine from Writing East Midlands/Alt Fiction and I for Ghostwatch, which Catherine and I giggled all the way through (sorry everyone).
Got to the Stanza poetry signing and got my book signed by a few of the poets, including Neil Gaiman and Gollancz's Jo Fletcher. (Mark Lachlan)
(Jenni, Andy Remic and Steve)

Had an Alt Fiction planning session over tapas with Catherine in the evening and met a few more of the guys involved in that. Then after the film it was back to the bar with Catherine, Jenni from Abaddon, Andy Remic and Steve.

Over the weekend I also go to meet the fabulous Joan de la Haye from Rebel e Publishing who publish Cat Connor's books so as that was exciting and yeah, I gloated because Cat still hasn't met her. Had some good chats with traders including the lovely lady we all know as Danacea from Forbidden Planet and the face behind the Atomic Fez, managed to only buy four books for me and one for the contest. I got to meet Lee Harris from Angry Robot and saw him looking very smart for the Stoker banquet and Sharon from DF Review and lots of other lovely people like Cath and her colleague from Titan books and Alisdair Stuart. If I didn't mention you by name come and mention yourself in the comments.

(Vincent who didn't get to see Ghostwatch in peace because Catherine and I had the giggles)

Completely amazing weekend and today I am happy and exhausted. Life is good.

I will do a round up of other people's posts in a few days so you don't miss anything.