Yesterday was Edge.Lit two and although I missed it last year I have enough experience of Alex Davis’s events that Fox Spirit booked a launch in full confidence that this was the right kind of event for us to bring the Carnival to.
There were some twenty five or more of the skulk in attendance on the day and in addition to being a fantastic event as can be expected from Alex, it was also incredible for me on a personal level to see so many of the writers and people involved in Fox Spirit (including our tireless copy editor Daz) in one place and to meet some of them face to face for the first time as well as catching up with old friends. I could not wish to work with a more fun, passionate and inspiring bunch of people.
So enough of me being all proud den mother, and onto the shennanigans as the Prof would say.
We had the lunch time launch time spot and we had brought Spacewitch in on it with us, so for around 50 minutes Fox Spirit and Spacewitch had control of the horizontal and the vertical in Cinema One. A fact we abused roundly. Things kicked off with a very sensible powerpoint from Del Lakin-Smith about what Spacewitch is trying to achieve. It’s a fantastic concept, the idea of enhancing the experience without interrupting the book. Here are the books, the core stories and here is the world we built around them, the DVD extras if you will for you to return to afterwards to extend the experience, or explore while you contemplate getting the book. The whole site will be a semi organic living thing, full of hidden treasures and opportunities for exploration. It’s a portal for storytelling not just books and it’s going to grow!
But enough of that. K.A Laity ‘Noir Carnival’s’ editor ushered him of stage to allow the carnival to begin, drawing the audience in and creating a fantastic fun mood. We then had short readings by James Bennett and Chloe Yates who did a marvellous job, before I finally allowed everyone to head up on stage with us for wine and cupcakes by the talented MutherFudger which went down a storm.
I’m not sure it’s usual to mention the book so little at a launch but the cover image was up and that and the readings spoke for themselves I think. At any rate everyone seemed to have a fun time, the atmosphere was great and we sold a respectable number of books. Huge thanks and well done to everyone involved with a special mention to the redshirts and Quad staff who silently make things work on the day.
Other than that I spent the day talking, enjoying the sunshine and eating in fantastic company. All in all I’m not sure it could have been much more perfect.