Lots of Authors at Forbidden Planet
Friday, May 21, 2010
Oh, Forbidden Planet: consistently bringing us excellent signing events, and consistently making questionable decisions about how to organize those events.
Last night FP delivered a veritable bouquet of authorial delight, with Chris Claremont attracting the comic book crowd upstairs and three authors - Adam Nevill, Mark Charan Newton, and China Miéville signing away downstairs.
Rather than set up a queue for the authors, however, the FP powers that be instead pinned name tags to the guests of honor and set them loose to mingle with their fans. Their many, many fans. The intention was, presumably, to create the atmosphere of a low-key cocktail party.
The result was low-level chaos.
At right, a blurry shot of the scrum.
The audience being made up largely of lovely and patient people, queues formed almost instantly. Because there was no real direction to the event, however, the queues for each author wound in and out of each other in hideously gordian formations, increasing the overall confusion. Fortunately, tempers remained neutral and there seemed to be little queue-jumping. Also fortunate: FP had the foresight to turn the air conditioner on and provide plates of cookies. With proper air circulation and sugar one can face out any situation, provided, of course, that one is not diabetic.
And the authors were, of course, wonderful. All three were delighted to chat away with their fans, and there was much laughter and emphatic gesturing (always a sign of a good party). Adam Nevill, it turns out, is very tall. Very tall indeed. Mark Charan Newton is still adorably unbelieving of his good fortune at being An Author, and we all shared a giddy fan moment, geeking out about China Miéville. Who, bless the man, has not yet taken out a restraining order against us, and signed a postcard of a squid with all the appearance of good humor.
After the signing we adjourned to the Phoenix Artists' Club, so recently the site of our own literary debaucheries, and shared a pint with the authors and a number of bloggers. A good time was had by all.
It's also worth mentioning that the Tor publicity team were, once again, as amiable, knowledgeable and competent as we've come to expect. They know how to put on a good show!