I had an absolute blast at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and my only regret was that it was such a flying visit I didn’t get a chance to take in the atmosphere of the spectacle. Travelling all the way up to Scotland by train on the day of you event, and travelling back the following morning is not to be recommended.
My event was a sellout, and I was surprisingly nervous about the whole thing in a way that I’m not when I do school events. There was something about doing an event for people who had actually PAID to come and see me that cranked up the pressure on me (in my mind, at least), but it was a great crowd, and everyone was very complimentary about it afterwards and we sold a lot of books. It was a big moment in my career: a kind of stamp of endorsement that said, “Hey, you’re a writer and people want to hear what you have to say about you and your books.”
It was exciting to see the fourth book in the Changeling series – Changeling: Demon Games – on sale for the first time, and I read chapter three as part of my presentation. I’ve already had emails from readers who bought the book on the Sunday evening, and had finished it by Monday! And so far the comments have been very good (phew!).The next big festival that I’m at is Cheltenham in October.
