The Library of Birmingham and the End of the Road

The last stop on my busy long weekend, after the YLG conference and BristolCon, was back in Birmingham, where they have a fantastic new library, known in the children's book world as 'McIntyre's Hatbox'...



It's an amazing building, and when I was there on Monday, it was packed with people. Since this is Half Term week the library has been running a Young Readers Festival, which was why I'd been invited along to talk about me life 'n' works. I was expecting an audience of teenagers, but of course teenagers come with younger brothers and sisters and parents who happened to be passing saw something was going on and brought their children in, so I ended up with quite a lot of tiny listeners. It seemed to go all right, though: I talked about Mortal Engines, Goblins, Murderous Maths and Horrible Histories, and mentioned Oliver and the Seawigs too.  Then some book signing, and back on the train to Devon.

Photos by @LibraryofBham

It's been a very busy month, what with one event and another, so I've decided that I won't be going to the World Fantasy Convention which is happening this week in Brighton. It's a pity, since I signed up for it years ago when it was first announced, but I need some time at home, and I'm writing for a younger audience nowadays, who probably won't be much in evidence at WFC. Still, if you are there, I hope you have a wonderful time. Look out for Anderida Books in the dealers' room - they may have some signed editions of my stuff, and lots of other goodies too.

Also, Solaris Books will be launching their new anthology The End of the Road, a collection of weird and wonderful short stories linked by the theme of roads. One of them is my own effort, We Know Where We're Goin, a coming-of-age story set in a ramshackle society devoted to the building of a long, straight road. It also has a wonderful, black-and-white cover...









0 comments:

Post a Comment