Reviews are funny things.
Get a good one, go orbital. The world is your oyster, and you’re wondering just where you’re going to put that award. Then when you’ve climbed back down and remembered reality, your rational mind takes over and you realise that you’re still just you. The fact that someone loved it is fantastic, they understand it and they enjoyed it, and it’s all fine.
Reviews are funny things.
Get a bad one, and it’s like you’ve been punched. You go on your arse, all your breath knocked out of you and you wonder how to tell your agent you’ll never write again. Then when you’ve stood back up and remembered how to inhale, your rational mind takes over and you realise that you’re okay. Not everyone’s going to like the book, not everyone likes the same thing, it’s all fine.
In Ecko’s case, when you’ve written a book that’s that far outside the box, that has a confrontational lead character, then it’s going to provoke strong reaction. Some people are going to love it, others are going to hate it and find it offensive. And honestly, if they didn’t? Then Ecko wouldn’t be the character he is.
Reviews are funny things.
Too many good ones, and the bad ones keep you grounded. Too many bad ones, and the good ones stop you drinking meths.
Author Jaine Fenn once gave me a piece of wisdom I’ve never forgotten. When Jaine gets a bad review, her husband sits her down and feeds her tea and cake. When Jaine gets a good review, her husband sits her down and feeds her tea and cake…
Bless Jaine. Tea and cake, it seems, is a universal panacea.
Raymond E Feist tells a wonderful story about how, when ‘Magician’ was first released, he went round all of his local bookstores ensuring that they sold their copies, and therefore ordered more. I get the impression he’s told this tale more than once!
From an original idea by 
An almighty guest list included Christopher Priest, Philip Palmer, Adrian Tchaikovsky and a host of authors and artists and movers and shakers from across the genres – as well as some good news for the 
Guaranteed, the books department at FP is a little too warm for that many bodies – huge thanks to everybody for eating the cupcakes before they slumped under the heat. Many of us were popping out for a breather, but the fact that everybody came back is testimony to a wonderfully successful occasion.
And it leaves me with a question.
This month, two weekends in succession, we’ve had big events at the store – both times simultaneously with equally large and well-attended events at comic- and bookstores nearby. So the question is, with bookstores struggling to maintain life against the Amazonian onslaught, (not to mention Katie Price and her – erm – horse), has the very nature of the ‘signing’, the ‘promotional event’, become competitive?
Perhaps not so much in the UK – after all, we’re all mates. People go from one event to the other; we all wind up in the same pub and the bonds of community are as strong as ever. But moving forwards…
How does that saying go? I love it when a plan comes together?
Cheers for Titan Books who’re doing an absolutely storming job of getting his ass out there – initially at EasterCon, with samplers and badges and readings, oh my.
Apparently, Ecko samplers have also been seen out in the open at the London Book Fair this week – along with a whopping great poster up at the 
You know how it is – when you’re at a Con, you do kind-of concoct the blog post in your head as you’re going along. (Or maybe that’s just a side-effect of being behind a table in the Dealers’ Room?) Either way, this one was going to be all about The George Effect. How GRRM was an absolutely lovely man – and about the effect that having Game of Thrones on prime-time TV, and then at the Con itself, had opened the doors to a whole new range of fans… fantasy becoming mainstream, new credibility and community, we know how it goes…
Championed by the wondrously tea-making 
Rita’s absolutely right when she uses the word ‘inclusivity’ – this was an event that was all about the welcome. After the SFX Weekender, we were thinking about book conventions and how they’d have to adapt – and lo, here is EasterCon doing exactly that. The changes were obvious, even among the traders. More people, younger people, are attending and reading and and becoming involved.
I’ll talk about Ecko (you know I will!) but not here – this is the place for the ‘thank you’. This EasterCon was about the opening out of traditional social cliches and barriers…
Drop by the FP stall and grab one!
Ecko: Rising is a unique genre-bending fantasy–sci-fi epic following a savage, gleefully cynical anti-hero. After awakening in a dimension-jumping inn to find himself immersed in his own sardonic fantasy world, Ecko joins a misfit cast of characters and strives to conquer his deepest fears and save the world from extinction. Danie Ware says, “I’ve been writing fantasy since my twenties, and Ecko has been a new set of eyes with which to see the traditional genre. Working with Titan has been fantastic as they have really come on board with both the concept and the project, and have brought an original idea to life.”
Yes, I will be reading at 