UK Games Expo 2010

I had a very enjoyable weekend up in Birmingham at the 2010 UK Games Expo. This was my first visit, and I was taken aback by the size and accomplishment of the event. As well as the expected traders, demo games and tournaments, there were no less than three Daleks, three different Doctors, stormtroopers and Darth Vadar, as well as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone!

In fact, Fighting Fantasy had a notable presence at the event. Not only was there an FF stand, hosted by Wizard Books, and the aforementioned Jackson and Livingstone, there were also fans, old and new, by the score, and me. And best of all, the cover of the programme was Emerson Tung's glorious painting of the Eye of the Storm from Stormslayer! That gave me a real buzz, I can tell you.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the talk on Saturday give by Steve and Ian about the history of Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy. It was very amusing and not only because of all the photos from the 70s. I even got an honourable mention and a round of applause - which was nice.

Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone and their stalker (at least that's how it appeared in some of the other photos).

The crowds waiting to meet Steve and Ian (the queue went out the door!) whilst Gav Thorpe and Alessio Cavatore sign too.

FF editor Nick Sidwell proudly displaying his wares.

His wares - the brand-spanking-new FF gamebooks!

I also caught up with Ralph Horsley (who I collaborated with a couple of times back in the day), chatted jungle maintenance and work avoidance tactics with Gav Thorpe, and met Alessio Cavatore who was there promoting his new board game Shuuro (which I heard a punter describe as 'Chesshammer').

Ralph Horsley surrounded by his phenomenal body of (vibrantly colourful) work.

Alessio demonstrates Shuuro.

So all that remains now is for me to thank all those who organised the weekend (Tony and his team), everyone who dropped by and said "Hi!" and let me deface their new books, and Nick Sidwell, the FF editor, who manned the stand all weekend, doing sterling work, and who scored me a pass for the event.

Gav Thorpe on tie-in fiction

As regular readers of this blog will know, I've been following the debate regarding tie-in fiction versus own-world creations for some time now.

However, today I read an interesting piece on this subject by Gav Thorpe, with the benefit of his experience as both a writer of tie-in fiction and the custodian of a franchise universe.

The point which I think he makes particularly well is at the end and concerns the snobbery many people have regarding the merits of tie-in fiction in general. But rather than spoil the surprise, you can read it for yourself here.

Writing is a lonely business... isn't it?

When people envisage the life of a writer they probably picture somebody scratching away in their notebook in a draughty garret somewhere, but most importantly, by themselves!

Well, I work in a garret of sorts (our loft conversion - but there is a draught!) and I tap away at my laptop rather than wear out nib pens on a daily basis, and, yes, I'm there by myself. I spend hours at a time immersed in my own thoughts (an interesting place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there) and then, when I've got something that I feel is worth showing to others, I send it to an editor.

From there on in, writing is anything but a solitary business, as Juliet McKenna explains over at the Solaris Books blog.

Another (vague) acquaintance of mine, Gav Thorpe (ex-Games Workshop games developer and now full-time freelance writer) also has this to say about why we choose to pursue such a (seemingly) lonely profession in the first place.

Enjoy.

Black Library TV

In case you (like me) are a fan of Games Workshop's Black Library publishing imprint, and in case you haven't come across this before, the Black Library has its own video channel now, which can be accessed through YouTube.

First up there's a joint interview with authors Mike Lee and Nathan Long.




And secondly, here's Gav Thorpe talking about his BL experiences.