I had anticipated that my first ever Edge-Lit would be a universally terrifying event. Besides the usual people-related nervousness (horror people are lovely, social anxiety less so) there was also the fact that I would be launching my novella. In person. In front of people. Cue visions of a mountain of unsold books, Eric Carmen’s ‘All By Myself’ playing in the background.
Fortunately I had underestimated the friendly, cosy atmosphere – a multitude of familiar faces and some new ones, all equally lovely, crammed into a small space filled with likeminded people. I’d brought my husband along too, and while he was a stranger to most of the people there it wasn’t long before he’d been welcomed into the fold as well.
The launch itself went better than I could have hoped for. It was a shared launch, both for my novella and for Mark West’s excellent collection ‘Things We Leave Behind’, both published by Dark Minds Press. (A word about Dark Minds Press: they are superb to work with, take excellent care of their authors and I would recommend them to anyone in a heartbeat.) Mark and I each read from each other’s work, which was Mark’s idea and in my opinion a stroke of genius – it’s much easier and less nervewracking to read from someone else’s story, which you are enthusiastic about, than it is to try to ‘sell’ your own!
(l-r Mark West, Ross Warren, me)
We managed to sell all copies of both our books, which was obviously incredibly exciting. (Mark’s traditional post-con bloggage can be found here.)
Though there were some notable faces missing from the event (who I very much hope will be at Fantasycon, as they were missed!) it was a great day – the redshirts were on typically good form and everything ran like clockwork. I also got to see Joanne Harris, Alison Moore, Andrew Michael Hurley, Marie O’Regan and Catriona Ward talking about literary horror and the interplay between the two genres, which was a great panel – Joanne Harris in particular was persuasive and a joy to listen to.
As to the general classiness and excellency of the Dark Minds team – check out the special gift I got from Ross & Anthony. I’m glad my eternal love for Alex Krycek is so well known!
