Escape Hatch 012: Strange Weather in the U.K.
November 16, 2017
Strange Weather is Coming to the U.K.
I'll be touching down at Heathrow in about 24 hours to begin the U.K./Ireland tour for Strange Weather. The official release date is November 7th, but I'm doing a few events before then where early release copies will be available. (Strange Weather is already available in the British Isles in eBook format and as an audiobook download)
I'm headed over with the wind at my back. I had news yesterday that Strange Weather has jumped onto The New York Times bestseller list, where it will debut at #9... alongside my father and brother, who are at #4 with Sleeping Beauties. I'm aglow. What an amazing thing. Thanks so much to everyone here in the U.S. who went out and bought a copy the week of release.
First U.K. stop? Foyle's in London, where I'll be celebrating this year's Gollanczfest with some of the greatest writers in horror, fantasy, and SF.
Saturday - 10 AM • The Phoenix: CREATIVE WRITING MASTER CLASS Joanne Harris (Chocolat) and I will do our best to offer a few helpful suggestions for aspiring writers.
Saturday - 11:40 AM • The Phoenix: SPEED ADVICE. I'll be one of over a dozen writers you can meet and sit with to talk about your own writing; you get twenty minutes with the writer of your choice before you have to move on. It's a little like speed dating except no one gets kissed and all we talk about is the business of make-believe.
Saturday - 1PM - Foyle's: SIGNING. Here's where I prove I can spell my own name, again and again and AGAIN, for your sadistic pleasure.
Saturday - 5:20PM - Foyle's: MONSTER MASH. I'll be there with Joanne Harris, Kristen Ciccarelli, and Jon Wallace, presumably for a very brief discussion, in which we all agree the alien in John Carpenter's The Thing mops the floor with all other monsters. Right??? I mean, is there really any debate?
Saturday - 6PM - Foyle's: SIGNING. Because it's so nice we gotta do it twice!
Sunday - 1PM - Foyle's: HOW IT ALL BEGAN. For this one, I'll be sitting down with Joanne, Alastair Reynolds, Elizabeth May, and Kristen Ciccarelli to unfold our secret origin stories, and maybe offer some ideas about how you might begin your own professional adventure in the arts.
Sunday - 4PM - Foyle's: SIGNING. If there is, in fact, anyone left to sign for.
Gollanczfest will be followed by a quick whirl across England (sorry, Scotland and other points North and West -- next time!), and will conclude with my first ever visit to Ireland.
I won't elaborate on the events listed on the tour card... what you see is what you get. The afternoon events are signings only; the evening stops will offer a reading, a Q&A, and then the book scribbling session.
Don't let me be lonely -- come on out and say hello.
This has to be a shorter than usual issue of Escape Hatch -- your faithful correspondent has to trip out the door and get on his way. But I didn't want to go without mentioning Behind You, a cheerfully chilly book of single panel horror stories, created by Brian Coldrick, the genius behind the brilliantly creepy Behind You tumblr. I'm a devoted follower of Brian and leapt at the chance to introduce his first book, which is available now as absolutely lovely hardcover from IDW. If, like me, you're already missing Halloween, check this one out... it'll keep you glowing like a pumpkin.
Be well, folks, and see you out there on the road.