Scardiff Report

Morning all,

Back last night for the inaugural Scardiff event (http://scardiff.co.uk/) and wanted to post a quick report on the event itself from our perspective. I'm greatly indebted to both Theresa Derwin and Adrian Middleton at Fringeworks/Nightwatch for all their support over the weekend, even though unfortunately the book we had planned to launch didn't arrive in time!

But I was still there with a box of No Monsters Allowed, and really looking forward to a fine day. The might storm that was promised didn't arrive, thankfully, and the journeys both there and back were very smooth. It was fantastic to arrive at 10am and see a fair queue forming outside the door - always a good sign for any event, and I'd add that this was a great crowd, particularly bearing in mind this is a first event. There's undoubtedly an appetite for horror in Cardiff, and an even bigger event next year would be no surprise at all given this initial success.

Although I did spend most of my day behind my desk (as is often the case when you're bookselling...), I was on the opening panel of the day at 11am with Anthony DP Mann and Dominic Brunt. Both great guys, really friendly, and a panel that I really enjoyed. The subject was 'Tropes of Horror', looking at some of those favourite old staples of the genre - vampires, zombies and werewolves. And some very interesting points made, including a good point about Twilight (and I'm sure you can imagine the reaction when that particular subject came up...) and plenty besides. I was also greatly heartened to see the turnout for this - the room was damn near full, which for 11am at any convention is fine going.

This was followed by our launch slot, which was originally intended to be for Knightwatch's Seven Deadly Sins anthology X7 (although we did have a few pre-orders for this, which was heartening) and eventually became something of a shop window for No Monsters Allowed. It's great to have the chance to talk a bit about the process of the book coming together, although of course my speech was somewhat improvised on the spot!

Back to the desk, and it was great fun to see a host of fantastic cosplay throughout the day - there were zombies in abundance, as you may have expected, but also some rather more obscure outfits - particularly like the nurse from the Silent Hill game and movies, although those scenes did always somewhat creep me out...

But overall I want to tip my hat to the organisers - really well organised, very smooth, a large and enthusiastic crowd and a crammed dealers room are all testament to just how good a job the whole team did. Big thanks to Mike Allwood, Wayne Simmons, Iz McAuliffe and anyone else involved in the running that I didn't get the chance to meet and say hit to on the day.

Our next launch activity for No Monsters Allowed will be at Derby's Central Library next Monday, 4th November, where I'll be joined by the wonderful Adam Craig for readings and Q+A. You can check that out at http://www.derby.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/libraries/library-events/listen-while-you-lunch-with-writer-adam-craig-and-writer-alex-david/

Cheers!

Alex