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