You know you’re finally back in the states when you deposit the last of your British money in the bank (watching it melt from the exchange rate), and over­come the last of your jet lag. I am back from vis­iting London to help launch the UK edi­tion of CONTROL POINT, and still buzzing from the expe­ri­ence. I first went to London around four years ago to tag along with Peter V. Brett as he launched the UK edi­tion of his hit novel, THE PAINTED MAN. That trip went a long way toward lighting a fire in my belly to go pro myself. Now, you know me, I’m never smug. So, let’s just say that to have finally accom­plished that, and to be going to London to pro­mote my own book, with Pete along with me, is … ahem … satisfying.

I did the things you’d expect: signed every copy in every book­store I could find, even

I know I’m sup­posed to be signing books … but … MUNCHKIN!

when said signing devolved into a spon­ta­neous game of Munchkin. The high­light of the trip was a panel/signing event at Blackwell’s Charing Cross, fea­turing myself and two of my favorite authors: Peter V. Brett and Joe Aber­crombie. I won’t bore you with a play-by-play. There are great reviews of the event posted here and here. Suf­fice to say that the turnout was the biggest Blackwell’s had seen to date, and the majority of us wound up at the Phoenix across the street, where friend­ships were forged that will endure across the long stretch of ocean that sep­a­rates us.

Spe­cial thanks go out to Marc Aplin and the staff of Fan­tasy Fac­tion for putting the event

The crowd for the Black­wells event was HUGE. Those little dots at the front? Myself, Peter V. Brett, Joe Aber­crombie as well as Marc Aplin and Paul Wiseall from Fan­tasy Faction.

together, to Marc Priestman for putting together the signing at Water­stones Milton Keynes and to all my peeps at Head­line (espe­cially John Wordsworth and Ben Willis) for making the trip pos­sible in the first place. The UK edi­tion of CONTROL POINT got the best launch any book could hope for, and my baby is now out in wilds of the UK, making its way.

Biggest bonus? Mark Lawrence, author of two of my fan­tasy favorites PRINCE OF THORNS and KING OF THORNS, came up from his home to go signing with us. It wasn’t cer­tain whether he was going to make it or not, and I count myself very lucky that I got to meet one of my favorite authors in person.

Peter V. Brett goes fanboy on Mark Lawrence. Can you blame him?

It wasn’t all busi­ness. I got to knock back a pint or two, catch up with old friends and tour the city, including a meeting with the London Coast­guard, to see how they do their mis­sion out on the river Thames.

But now it’s back to my reg­u­larly sched­uled life, and all the blues that come with having to deal with the day-in-day-out after being treated like a celebrity for the past week. For­tu­nately, I don’t have to deal with it long, as WorldCon is coming up in a week, and I can shrug off real life for a little while longer while I hang out with thou­sands of my fellow SF/F geeks.

I’ve just gotten some last minute changes on my schedule, and can now announce I’ll be on a mil­i­tary sci­ence fic­tion panel with another of my favorite authors, Jack Camp­bell, on Sunday, Sep­tember 2nd at 6:30PM. I’ll also be doing an auto­graphing at the SFWA table on Friday, Sep­tember 1st from 2-4PM, so if you have a copy of CONTROL POINT you want signed, I’ll be on hand to take care of it for you.

So, it’s back to the states and life as usual. Thanks again to everyone who made that amazing trip pos­sible, and for those of you who couldn’t make it, look me up at WorldCon next week!