24 Aug 2009

My visit to Edinburgh

Author: Barry | Filed under: Children's Books, Events, Invisible Fiends

I popped down to Edinburgh on Saturday, and had a quick browse around the book festival.  I didn’t really have time to catch any events, but I did manage to meet Keith Gray, wave at Malorie Blackman in what could have been perceived as a mildly sinister fashion, and mistake Michael Morpurgo for the guy who played Lewis in Morse.

With Fiona approaching critical mass, I wasn’t sure if I should leave her on her own, in case she selfishly decided to give birth when I wasn’t looking.  Evidently my constant asking of  “are you feeling OK?” was beginning to get on her nerves, and she insisted I go.

The main reason for going wasn’t to wave enthusiastically in Malorie Blackman’s direction – although that was almost worth the trip in itself.  I actually made the 3 hour drive to meet up with the lovely Geraldine, PR supremo from HarperCollins.  The equally lovely Kathryn and Lindsey from Fraser Ross Associates (my agent) were there, too, and a splendid afternoon was spent discussing all the ways HarperCollins and I will be working to promote Invisible Fiends next year.

Lots of interesting and exciting suggestions were put forward, and it’ll be great to see everything start to happen over the next few months.  It looks like I’ll be doing a LOT of school touring next year, as well as doing events at some of the major book festivals.

If you’re a pupil interested in getting me in to your school for a visit, pass this website address on to a teacher at your school, and we’ll see what can be sorted out.

There was also talk of a possible three-way event at next year’s Edinburgh festival, featuring me and two of the biggest names in children’s horror.  Nothing has been confirmed yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

While I was down there, I was also reminded of how much I love Edinburgh.  I only spent a few hours there on Saturday, but I’m already planning making a return journey with the family (including Little Miss/Mr Due-Any-Day) to take in more of the city.

While at the festival bookshop, I picked up a copy of Alexander Gordon Smith’s Furnace: Lockdown which I’ve heard a whole heap of good things about.  It’s now in my reading pile and I’ll post a review when I’ve had a chance to read it.

All in all it was a very good day.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Children's Books, Events, Invisible Fiends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “My visit to Edinburgh”

  1. Chae Strathie Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    Hi Barry – I was talking to Kathryn on Sunday (she’s my agent too) and she said it was a shame we’d narrowly missed each other as she would have introduced us. We could have said “hello”, shaken hands, compared paper-cut scars – all that crazy introduction stuff! Give me a shout if you’re back in the Edinburgh neck of the woods (I’m in Fife) and I’ll shout you a beer – or shout at a beer, depending on how many I’ve had.
    Good luck with Invisible Fiends – sounds magic.
    Cheers
    Chae

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