When I set out for FantasyCon, I told myself I wouldn't buy any books. After all, my to-read pile already looks like the leaning tower of Pisa and – more importantly – my good lady wife has forbidden any more books entering the house as she fears Scott Towers may soon start to sink under the weight of them all. There's a very real chance she'll make me sleep in the shed if she catches me sneaking any more tomes through the front door.
Not quite sure how I'm going to explain this lot…
In my defence, a few were freebies. Mark Hodder's A Red Sun Also Rises and Liesel Schwarz's A Conspiracy of Alchemists were both given to me at the Del Ray launch. Similarly, Catherine Fisher's Incarceron was tucked in my smart-red FantasyCon goodie pack (Handy as I wanted to read it anyway).
It was only a matter of time before I picked up Guy Adam's Sherlock Holmes adventure The Army of Dr Moreau and the same can be said for Kim Newman's Dracula Cha Cha Cha.
Party Pieces was too good an opportunity to miss – a limited run collection of Mary Danby's horror fiction. Mary was the editor of The Armada Ghost Books, a favourite of mine as a kid so it was a thrill to meet the good lady (plus editor Johnny Mains would have never forgiven me if I hadn't bought a copy).
And there there's Ash, the chunky new chiller from James Herbert. I'm not usually a one for autographs but I couldn't resist getting a book signed by the man who gave me so many nightmares as a teenager.
So there we are. It should be alright. I mean, the shed is quite warm this time of year, isn't it?
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