Archive for Out and About
Send us a photo of you in B&N and Win!
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See the display in the photo? Angry Robot displays are in Barnes and Noble stores across the USA. This one was taken in a B&N store in Springfield, New Jersey.
What we’d like you to do is to take a photograph of you, holding one of our books, standing next to one of our displays in a Barnes and Noble*. The display should be clearly in shot with you. It’s probably a good idea to get permission from the store before you start taking snaps, though.
Send your photo to us at: INCOMING @ ANGRYROBOTBOOKS.COM
We’ll blog some of our favourite photos (so by entering you’re giving us permission to use the photo in this way). And one lucky winner will receive some random Angry Robot stuff from the Angry Robot Cupboard of Win. We’ll get one of our authors to choose the outright winner, so we don’t get the blame. The prizes won’t be books this time around, though – they’ll be something… else.
Competition closes midnight Saturday 4th September (that’s midnight, wherever you are). No purchase necessary to enter (though we’d obviously like you to).
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*Thinking about it a little more logically, it might be easier to get someone else to take a photo of you, standing next to the display. If either Mr Fantastic or Elastic Man happen to be reading this, you can obviously make your own arrangements.
In the USA? Win some Angry Robot goodies!
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This will be our last blog entry of the day – we think you deserve a rest.
Today (as you will have gathered by now) we launched in the US and Canada. Our books are being carried by many bookshops (chains and independents), but in Barnes and Noble for the next three months our titles will be presented in freestanding Angry Robot displays.
Which is cool.
We’d quite like to see these displays, but we’re thousands of miles away. {sad face} So, we’d like to see some photos of them! {happy face}
What we’d like you to do is to take a photograph of you, holding one of our books, standing next to one of our displays in a Barnes and Noble. It’s probably a good idea to get permission from the store before you start taking snaps, though.
Send your photo to us at: INCOMING @ ANGRYROBOTBOOKS.COM
We’ll blog some of our favourite photos (so by entering you’re giving us permission to use the photo in this way). And one lucky winner will receive some random Angry Robot stuff from the Angry Robot Cupboard of Win. We’ll get one of our authors to choose the outright winner, so we don’t get the blame.
Competition closes midnight Saturday 4th September. No purchase necessary to enter (though we’d obviously like you to).
Meet Dan Abnett next week!
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If you’re in the London area (or can travel to it) next Wednesday (25th August), it’s well worth popping into Belgravia, where I will be interviewing multi-million-selling novelist, comic-writer and screenwriter, Dan Abnett for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA).
Dan is a great speaker, and with over 20 years’ experience in the business, he’s always fascinating to listen to.
So, whether you’re a fan of his comic work, his Black Library novels, his TV tie-ins, or his new, original fiction, pop along. It’s free to come along, and you don’t have to be a member of the BSFA to attend. What larks!
I have plenty of interesting questions lined up for him, but if there’s something you’re dying to ask Dan, put it in the comments section, here – the interview will be recorded, and podcast, later.
Venue:
Upstairs Room
The Antelope Tavern
22, Eaton Terrace
Belgravia
London
SW1W 8EZ
Nearest Tube: Sloane Square (District/Circle)
All welcome! (No entry fee or tickets. Non-members welcome.)
Interview will commence at 7.00 pm, but the room is open from 6.00 (and fans in the downstairs bar from 5).
There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.
Lauren’s interview at the BSFA (podcast)
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If you missed the (extremely well-attended) British Science Fiction Association get-together last week, with special guest Lauren Beukes, you can listen to it here.
This month, the special guest is Dan Abnett – well worth attending (August 25th, London). I’ll be interviewing Dan about his writing career – his comics, his novels, his screenwriting. And Dan is always worth listening to.
Venue details here. It’s free, and you don’t have to be a member!
Beukes rocks the BSFA
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A fine time was had by all in London last night, when an unusually packed BSFA meet played host to the one and only Lauren Beukes.
Following a day spent shopping, sightseeing and discussing top secret projects with a Certain Big Movie Producer, I’d thought I’d perhaps worn Lauren out. But faced with an attentive crowd hanging on her every word, Lauren rose to the occasion. Following a reading from Zoo City, Lauren was interviewed by blogger Jonathan McAlmont, and then took questions from the floor on Moxyland, Zoo City, future projects, 
the future of South Africa, all the usual stuff. As well as BSFA regulars, Lauren had attracted a fair number of South African ex-pats, one of whom even arrived bearing a genuine cuddly Moxy! The heavily illustrated Del Lakin-Smith had kindly brought his podcast mic to capture the whole thing, so all being well you’ll be able to hear it all as an online download in a few days.
Tonight it’s the turn of Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue to host Ms B. It all starts at 6pm, but do get there early – the word is that those limited edition copies of Zoo City won’t hang around for long.
Meanwhile, the massive interest in Zoo City in Lauren’s native South Africa has produced another interview, this time in the form of a podcast with the (South African) Times. Well worth ten minutes of your time.
And may we just remind you all, cannibal penguin FTW!
Lauren Beukes and Angry Robot are in London later this month
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A brief reminder – Lauren Beukes (author of the fantastic, critically-acclaimed Moxyland) is making a rare visit to the UK this month from her native South Africa, and we’ve lined up three events where you can meet her, and get your books signed.
Not only that, to celebrate her visit we’ve teamed up with Forbidden Planet to bring you an Angry Robot first – a limited edition hardcover of her forthcoming novel, Zoo City. It’s already attracted a lot of attention, and for very good reason!
You can order a copy of Zoo City from Forbidden Planet, here. Better still, come along to her signing. There are just 100 copies being sold through Forbidden Planet, so you’re going to have to get one soon to avoid disappointment! This is a very limited limited edition.
Lauren will be signing Zoo City at the London Forbidden Planet Megastore from 6.00-7.00pm on Thursday July 29th. Come along and say “Hi” and pick up a copy of the book. I’ll also be there (Lee) despite my wife’s protestations (she doesn’t object to Lauren – the signing is halfway through our holiday, so I’ll be leaving our cottage in Wales to come along to the event). 
British Science Fiction Association
The night before Lauren’s signing at Forbidden Planet she will be the special guest at the July meeting of the British Science Fiction Association, where she will be reading from Zoo City, prior to an interview. There will be a Q&A session at the end, and you don’t have to be a member of the BSFA to attend. There may be one or two other Angry Robot authors there, too, as well as Marc Gascoigne – Angry Robot’s Publishing Director.
The reading / interview will be at the upstairs bar of:
The Antelope Tavern, 22 Eaton Terrace, Belgravia, London SW1W 8EZ (nearest tube station is Sloane Square on the District and Circle lines).
The reading will commence around 7.00pm, but people usually start gathering in the downstairs bar from 5.00pm onwards.
British Fantasy Society
Lauren will also be the guest at the first BFS Open Night of the year. Well, not Open Night so much as Open Afternoon. For those of you who might find it hard to get to central London on a weekday evening, Lauren’s BFS event is on Saturday 31st July from 1.00pm until 5.00pm at The George pub on The Strand, WC2R 1AP (nearest tube station: Temple). And again, you don’t have to be a member to attend, though you can join on the day if you wish.
So, those dates again:
Wednesday 28th July: BSFA meeting - 7.00pm onwards (but any time from 5.00 for general chit-chat and beerage)
Thursday 29th July: Forbidden Planet signing – 6.00pm until 7.00pm (see here for details)
Saturday 31st July: BFS meeting – 1.00pm until 5.00pm
Post-Alt.Fiction
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Well, what a marvellous event that was. Saturday’s Alt.Fiction festival was a hymn to the good and the great in genre writing. As previously mentioned, Angry Robot was very present there, with both Robot Overlords in attendance, along with seven of our authors.
It was a great opportunity to catch up with our authors, and with friends from all over the SF spectrum – both new and old – including Amanda Rutter (Floor to Ceiling Books), Adele Harrison and Vincent Holland-Keen (Un:Bound), Adam Christopher, John Berlyne, Paul Cornell, Gollancz’s Jon Weir, the BFS regulars - Martin, Jenny, Tim, Mark, Sarah, Rob – and, of course, Catherine Rogers (from Writing East Midlands) and her team, for putting together such a great event!*
If you didn’t manage to attend, you may be interested to know that many podcasts were recorded at the event, and many of the panels, too – these are to be broadcast from the Alt.Fiction website every week from next Monday. You may have missed the fun, but you can catch up with some of the many and varied opinions from the guests.
And as for next year? Well, we’re already looking forward to it – and it’ll go in our diaries as soon as the date is announced!
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* and many, many more of you, of course – namechecking everyone would be very time-consuming, and we have books to make! 
Meet Angry Robot at Alt.Fiction
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It’s no secret that we’re big fans of good genre events, and Derby’s Alt.Fiction is a very good genre event! Both Marco and I will be there, spouting our own brand of insanity on panels and podcasts, and quite a few of our authors will be around, too! Some attending as guests and panelists, some there just for fun!
Come along and say “Hi.”
Or even better, say “Hi – here’s a drink I just bought for you out of my own money.”
Here’s the low-down:
Alt.Fiction – Derby’s Festival of Horror, Fantasy and Sci-fi
Saturday 12th June, early until very late.
Derby’s festival for genre fiction is a one-day event focusing on science-fiction, fantasy and horror and features some of the top authors in the field such as Paul Cornell, Ramsey Campbell, Robert Shearman, Steven Erikson, Mike Carey and many others.
The day is made up of a number of different types of sessions, including author talks, Q&A sessions, discussion panels, readings and workshops. There will be plenty of opportunity to get books signed by attending authors, and many publishers have donated books so you can pick up some impressive freebies, as well! There will also be a number of editors and publishers in attendance, including Angry Robot Books, Gollancz, Solaris, Abaddon and BBC Books, while genre agents John Berlyne and John Jarrold will also be sharing their considerable experience.
For tickets and further information visit the website at www.altfiction.co.uk.
Dan Abnett on Babel Clash
Posted by: | CommentsBabel Clash is the lively daily blog for all fans of SF & F (and maybe a bit of WTF if we’re lucky) from the American Borders bookstore chain. Starting today, and for the next two weeks, Dan Abnett is going to be providing some insights into his world(s) – and also into some of the worlds that he writes tie-in fiction for, such as Dr Who and Warhammer.
Along the way he’s also promising some sneak info on his next novel, the hard military SF nove Embedded, and maybe some thoughts on the next Triumff novel, The Double Falsehood. So check it out today, and pop back every day for the next couple of weeks.
Mike Shevdon’s London
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Covent Garden - Mike Shevdon in the Apple Market courtesy of Mark Lewis photography
Over at his blog, Mike Shevdon continues his tour of the London of Sixty-One Nails. This time it’s the turn of Covent Garden.
Covent Garden is much older than people generally realise. The 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell commissioned Inigo Jones to redesign the square in the 17th century, giving it the delightful open plaza in front of St Paul’s church that you see today. The market itself, though, predates that considerably… In the 18th century it was a notorious red-light district, leading to the term flower-girl being used as a euphemism for a prostitute.
Read the rest of this fascinating account (along with the rest of the series, if you’ve missed it) over at Shevdon.com.
