Meeting Guilermo del Toro at Forbidden Planet London

From left to right: Sharon, Gav, Liz (with book) Mark behind Liz, then Ana in white coat, Gordon far behind, then Matt and right infront, MG.

WE GOT TO MEET GUILERMO DEL TORO - HOLY SMOKES, BATMAN!

And then in other news, WE GOT TO MEET HIM.

Ahem.

We turned up to FP in pouring rain. John had to give us directions how to find the queue to the back of the store, which is where the signing would be taking place....huh? It was pouring with rain - it was rubbish. We huddled with around fifteen other people and slowly the rain wore off. First Matt from http://www.teenlibrarian.co.uk/ appeared and we got to chat for ages about cool books and manga. Next to magically appear was Ana from http://www.thebooksmugglers.com/ shortly followed by Gav from nextread.co.uk, Alexander Gordon Smith, author of Furnace and The Inventors http:/to /www.alexandergordonsmith.com/, MG Harris who is the author of The Joshua Files and also Sharon of http://darkfictionreview.wordpress.com/ .

We formed quite the posse, much to the chagrin of everone else in the long queue but to be fair - once things got moving, it happened incredibly quickly and no one could say they waited very long.

I got my manuscript copy of The Strain signed, along with Adam from The Wertzones' proof. Mark got our hardback copy of The Strain signed AND then Guilermo (first name basis, baby!) chose to sign our limited edition cards which we got when we attended the premiere to Pan's Labyrinth all those years ago. Gav got my autograph book signed.

GDT was amazing - sweet, charming, and very personable, shaking every single person's hand and thanking us for turning up. I mean, REALLY? Like it was some form of hardship.

Kaz Mahoney appeared as we were leaving. Then we all strolled down to Wahaca for lunch where we ate ourselves to a standstill, talking signings, books, authors - it was amazing. It was lovely. Not to mention the food which was, as always absolutely scrummy and decidedly well priced.

I am so grateful to have met Alexander Gordon Smith face to face for the first time - we email-chat loads and meeting Gordon face to face was amazing. Funny, erudite and genuinely a cool guy - plus, he wore a Flash Gordon shirt. How cool is that? Plus, he had the chance to hand over a copy of Furnace to GDT. Who accepted it gratefully and with a kind smile.

MG Harris is one of my literary heroes. Or is that heroine? Her books, The Joshua Files are my go-to books to read when I'm feeling a bit blegh. They are crammed full of action and adventure and the pace is just fantastically insane. I am so looking forward to books 3 and 4 you have no idea.

And so, without further ado - some more pictures from today.

Part of the queue outside Forbidden Planet


MG Harris, author of The Joshua Files

Mark and I doing our best not to break out into some kind of chorus line dancing episode which would have been truly embarrassing.

Alexander Gordon Smith - Gordon to all - with a copy of Furnace:Lockdown.

And then, when we left Wahaca, we met with these artfully dressed charity collectors. We gave them money and got to take a photo of them. I admit it, I have no shame.

Thanks to Forbidden Planet, Danie Ware and John (one day I'll learn his name) for arranging this awesome signing. It was a blast.