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jemck at 10:49am on 06/04/2009
jemck at 10:49am on 06/04/2009Another gig, as so often with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
desperance (I'm thinking of getting tour t-shirts) and this time also with the estimable Ben Jeapes. Sarah Ash was unavailable due to recent family bereavement, and whereas usually Jessica Rydill would have been first off the subs bench, she and Sarah are sisters. Mark Chadbourn is currently staring down the barrel of a deadly deadline, so had to cry off. This is merely one reason why The Write Fantastic is a collective enterprise - when these things happen, as they invariably do, we still have a gig!
This time round, we were at Borders, Oxford. Who didn't exactly cover themselves with glory, unfortunately. We were in the basement floor - which is actually better than the main floor as last year. But there were no signs or anything directing potential audience down the escalator. And downstairs, when we arrived at about 15 mins early, we had to go and find folk to put out chairs and such. Last year everything was set up very well beforehand. So I have a nagging feeling we lost some audience because when we should have been ready to go, we were all still standing around a table waiting for set-up. And er, no apparent effort by the bookshop staff to, y'know, actually sell our books as part of the event. I shall be passing these thoughts on to the event organisers.
All that said, it was a very good gig. Again, a small audience but visibly keen and engaged with what we were saying, about reading and writing SF&F. It's always a pleasure to chat with Ben and Chaz and the audience had interesting observations and questions. We easily ran over our alloted time and could have gone on longer except we all had to go home and eat!
And next weekend it's Eastercon. In between times, I'm off to London today for a preview screening of a new film about literary life, 'The Agent', and I shall be in on Weds to sign stock for Forbidden Planet. Non-stop fun this authorial life!
Plus y'know, the laundry, the ironing, some housework, supervising senior son's GCSE revision. And writing.
desperance (I'm thinking of getting tour t-shirts) and this time also with the estimable Ben Jeapes. Sarah Ash was unavailable due to recent family bereavement, and whereas usually Jessica Rydill would have been first off the subs bench, she and Sarah are sisters. Mark Chadbourn is currently staring down the barrel of a deadly deadline, so had to cry off. This is merely one reason why The Write Fantastic is a collective enterprise - when these things happen, as they invariably do, we still have a gig! This time round, we were at Borders, Oxford. Who didn't exactly cover themselves with glory, unfortunately. We were in the basement floor - which is actually better than the main floor as last year. But there were no signs or anything directing potential audience down the escalator. And downstairs, when we arrived at about 15 mins early, we had to go and find folk to put out chairs and such. Last year everything was set up very well beforehand. So I have a nagging feeling we lost some audience because when we should have been ready to go, we were all still standing around a table waiting for set-up. And er, no apparent effort by the bookshop staff to, y'know, actually sell our books as part of the event. I shall be passing these thoughts on to the event organisers.
All that said, it was a very good gig. Again, a small audience but visibly keen and engaged with what we were saying, about reading and writing SF&F. It's always a pleasure to chat with Ben and Chaz and the audience had interesting observations and questions. We easily ran over our alloted time and could have gone on longer except we all had to go home and eat!
And next weekend it's Eastercon. In between times, I'm off to London today for a preview screening of a new film about literary life, 'The Agent', and I shall be in on Weds to sign stock for Forbidden Planet. Non-stop fun this authorial life!
Plus y'know, the laundry, the ironing, some housework, supervising senior son's GCSE revision. And writing.
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