Cape Town Book Fair - Day 3

Well...Day 3 and for me the last day.

It's been an amazing, and exhausting, experience.
It was lovely to meet so many of our readers and fans and also to discover that the name Something Wicked has been reaching out beyond the obvious circles.

I joined up with the writing team behind the animated tv-series Pax Afrika, Lauren Beukes (author of Exhibitionist - Issue 3), Sarah Lotz and Sam Wilson again to do a talk on Sci-Fi, fantasy and horror to a bunch of school kids, which was wonderful and fun and inspiring.

Made a few more important contacts and hopefully secured the way for some viable alternative distribution channels.

Well that's all from us for now, catch us next at the Icon Games Convention in Joburg on the weekend of the 13th of July.
We'll put up more info soon.
Thanks again to all those who stopped us and said hi, we really do love meeting the fans, and an extra special thanks to the Reader's Den guys who have been flying our flag and gave us somewhere to sell stock at the expo.
Joe


PS Remember Reader's Den will be at the fair for one more day and you can still pick up your isues of Something Wicked at stand G16

Cape Town Book Fair - Day 2

Joe's Book Fair Diary - Day 2, 17 June 2007

My feet...oh god, my feet...

The day started out way too early as I crawled out of bed at 11am, still recovering from yesterday's ordeals - we of the freelancing fraternity don't do well with early mornings.
I rushed down to the Fair to make my 12pm discussion on Pratchett and was quite concerned when at 11:56 I still hadn't spotted my co-speaker, scriptwriter for Pax Afrika, Sam Wilson.
I looked around nervously, thinking that perhaps he had decided to sacrifice me to gods of bad speakers. I was just about to start looking for the nearest hole to exit through when I looked back up at the Science Fiction stand and noticed that he had mysteriously materialised at the stand - with him was Dr. Jesicca Tiffin, lecturer of English at UCT.

The talk went great, now that Sam and I were backed up by someone of real intelligence. We babbled our way through Pratchett's unique brand of comic-fantasy, parosy and post-mordernism, (don't ask me, I have no idea) and the crowd seemed genuiningly interested, with loads of vehement head-nodding as they agreed with everything we said. At one point I was almost mistaken for the man himself as some, not-too-clued-up reporter asked a fan which one of us was Pratchett.

The crowd looks on in disbelief as Sam, Jessica and I, Pratchett on about Terry

After the talk I once again forgot to mention to the large crowd that Something Wicked is for sale at the Reader's Stand and that we are giving away a signed Stephen King book. I decided to punish myself for my lack of foresight by standing outside the Reader's Den stand for the next 45 minutes handing out flyers while announcing the King news loudly - you're right, I have no shame.

After couple of hours of walking around the fair looking for publishers and/or printers to speak to I realised that all the publisher's stalls are simply shops and that there isn't actually anyone there who could answer questions.

With my feet about ready to detach themselves from my ankles and run away to soak themselves in a hot tub, I decided to come home for the day.

I now have ten minutes to get dressed and get back to the Fair for another Sci-Fi, Fantasy talk on Nix, Pullman and, (for some obscure reason) King. Wish me luck.
Check you later.

Greg Hamerton poses with the latest copy of Something Wicked and his new book, The Riddler's Gift

Cape Town Book Fair - Day 1

Joe's Book Fair Diary - Day 1, 16 June 2007

Well having just barely survived day 1 of the Cape Town Book Fair I returned home heart-warmed and overwhelmed at the day's events.

First up I was asked to join a discussion on Fantasy Literature, featuring brand new up-and-coming fantasy author Greg Hamerton, as well as winner of last years Short-Story comp, Sarah Lotz . It turned out to be a huge amount of fun and garnered us some new fans and some face-to-face contact with some of our old fans.

To all the readers who came by and said hello, thank you, it really means a lot to us when we meet the fans. Our job is very quiet and isolated, so these opportunities we have to interact with you guys are always great.

After having spent the day running around and accosting media representatives, chatting to writers, artists and readers we finished up at the official launch of Mamba #5.

Cartoonists Zapiro, Stephen Francis, Rico and others were on hand to congratulate Andy Mason on the fifth issue of his inspiring Mamba. Books were sold, cards were swapped and free booze was inbibed.

Some of the awesome South African Produced Comics, Mags and Graphic Novels featured at the Mamba Launch.

We were also thrilled to bump into Jesca Marisa, the phenomenal artist who illustrated Sarah Lotz 's winning story Perfect Man in Issue 1 . Jesca has also done the coer for Issue 4 of Something Wicked.

Our very own Vianne (left) discusses the finer points of promoting local art and literature to Issue 4 cover artist Jesca Marisa standing on the right. Notice the brand new copy of Something Wicked Issue 3 sticking out of her bag. Trying to look nonchalant is Damon Berry - reader of Evan Morris' The Breeding Season Podcast.

Tomorrow promises to be another insane day, and hopefully I'll see more of you.

I've been asked to join in on a Terry Pratchett discussion at 12 midday at the Science Fiction Stand (L6). After which I will be walking around meeting fans and trying to get new ones. Come on down, it's always great to meet you guys.
Cheers.

Oh So Cold...

Well Winter seems to be here for real.
We've all had temperatures drop like a stone in SA in the last week but, as South Africans, we always hold on to the belief that it's just a "cold snap" and that everything will be back to normal soon enough.
It's a strange quirk of South Africans, we never fully admit that it has gotten cold. Most of us will walk around freezing in T-shirts while refusing to deal with the onset of Winter. We spend weeks saying things like "it'll pass in a few days". We're the most unprepared nation when it comes to cold, though with temperatures dropping to -3 a couple of weeks ago things did get a little too cold.

Joburg Two Weeks Ago

It's not unique to us though, I've seen the Brits do it to, but in reverse. I've spent weeks in London with temperatures soaring into the upper 30's (centigrade) and the moment there is half-an-hour of rain the Brits are hanging their heads and going, "Well, that's it for Summer, another miserable year".

Well thank God the "cold snap" was partly over last week as I had to go up to Joburg for a commercial shoot - a night shoot.
Two nights in a petrol station working from 4pm til 6am. Now that wasn't fun.
Well... I say that wasn't fun but it actually was. As most of you know I am an insomniac so working through the night is no big deal for me, and though it was damn cold, (dropping to about 2 above zero), it is always so much fun to be on a set.

One of the highlights for me was having to drive a car with a camera mounted on the bonnet. I didn't have to go too far, just around the parking lot, but it was tremendously silly and fun.
On the left here is what I had to look through while driving. It was a little daunting but then I figured the Director and Crew wouldn't actually allow me to drive into a wall so I just drove and the second the 1stAD shouted "cut" I would hit the brakes.
Like I said before, it is a very silly job.


Check out what it looks like with the full gear mounted and the car moving.



So that was Wednesday and Thursday night last week.
Back in Cape Town now and it seems the beautiful weather vanished the second I landed, oh well, Winter it is...bring it on.