Thursday, September 27, 2012

GAMES DAY UK 2012

So, this happened.

And it was bloody great.

Let's start at the beginning. It is Sunday, the Day of Days, the dawn of Games Day UK 2012. Imagine, gentle reader, that you're standing in the foyer of the internationally famous and renowned* Hilton Metropole NEC after a boozy night and a great dinner with the BL staffers. Lo, The Writers begin to congregate. That's right, The Writers. Capital "T", capital "Writers". Up they shamble to join the walking bus over to the convention centre.

And who was first?

"HI DAN ABNETT"


Aaron? Really? First up? REALLY? I know I'm a clean living soul these days, up with the larks and fresh as a daisy dipped in prometheum, but I never thought ADB would be the first shambler to join me. Anyway, Aaron held forth while I took this photo of him in the hotel lobby, but he shut up when...


Get your hands off my woman, motherfether.

... Nik joined him. Then came...

Never ask the man on the right about bounty hunting. Or the arms trade.
 Unless you want to hear Seriously Amazing Stories.

... our favourite demented cherub, Mr Joshua Reynolds, closely followed by...

Mr Swallow was amazingly good humoured despite losing
 two fingers in a freak "sliding door" accident earlier that day. 

... Jim Swallow, who was in charge of the bus, because he and only he knew where the convention centre ACTUALLY WAS in relation to us and the internationally famous and renowned** Hilton Metropole NEC. Then it only remained for us all to await the arrival of...

ADB: "Keep laughing and Graham won't hurt us!"
GM: "That's what you think."

...Graham McNeill, because who does anything or goes anywhere on GamesDay without the Mighty McNeill himself? That's right... no one!

Only minutes later, rain drenched and weary, we arrived at the NEC. Ah, my brethren. My comrades, my Fellow Writers, those who stood with me in the rain at Scrotal Gate and the Field Of Shite...

Anyhoo, we donned wrist-bands - well, see, some of us donned wrist-bands, others rebelled (okay, that may have been me. I apologise to the guy on door duty who had to deal with my refusenik moment) - collected backpacks, and headed for signing tables.

There awaited a sight to behold!

First there was the Abnett Maze (or "Dan's Labyrinth" as Nik calls it) where all the lovely people gathered to meet me.

Amazement in the Maze.

Then there were all the lovely people that couldn't fit into the Abnett Maze, which we simply called 'The Queue'.
Sometimes a euphemism is only a euphemism.

I was glad to be sitting at the head of it, although I did stand at the tail for a minute or two, just for the hell of it. Yes, I stood in my own queue and asked who we were queueing for. And people told me, bless 'em.

Then they did a double take.

I am such a rascal.

A rascal, earlier.

I'm not going to claim that my hand got as tired signing stuff as other people's feet got shuffling about in the Maze, but I did kill three Sharpies. Count them... THREE!

I also wore out a bit of shoe leather getting up and down to have my picture taken with some of you lovely folks. There is mucho evidence of this on FaceBook and Twitter.

Some of the time I wasn't allowed to stand. Some of the time, I was forced to remain seated.

Regan and her raygun.

I was, of course, more than happy to stand for the Tanith when they turned up, first one at a time,


Then severally.


And, finally, en masse.


Best Tanith ink of the day goes to this dude:


The Commissar kept everyone in line.


And, just like in the books, the Blood Pact are never far away.

So imbued with Chaos, he literally turned 
the air around him red. Chaos... or photoshop.



So I'd like to thank you all, all of you, for coming along and making the day so memorable. I hope you had as good a time as I did. Til next winter...



*Yeah, maybe not that much, actually.

**The more I think about it, you know....






15 comments:

Will Wright said...

Zing Zang Zoom
Wish I could of been there.
I was able to get a friend to snag me the new HH codex but he forgot Pariah :(

Lets get that bad boy on the fast track ;)

Unknown said...

I was one of the lucky ones that made it through Dan's Labyrinth after lunch, and it made my Games Day! Thanx Dan!!!

TheSGC said...

A few things: you look like you've lost a lot of weight, and the first Tanith dude looked the coolest of them all (the rest looked like your run of the mill cosplayers, that dude looked legit)

Will Wright said...

I just finished Pariah after a 6hr marathon reading session.
You sir are a Genius

Not what I expected but everything that I hoped for.
You pulled an Empire Strikes Back and not a Weekend at Bernies 2.

I can see this be the best of all three trilogies,which makes sense since I do say you seem to become twice as good every book you write.

Before long you will write your Dyanetics and we will all worship in The House of Dan. :p

Sredni Vashtar said...

HI DAN ABNETT

Although I have returned to the U 'n' K I couldn't come Games Day this year because I am poor. Seriously poor. Like, I just ate my last slipper for breakfast. To be honest I'm so poor, I'd forgotten all about GD until I read this blog post :(

TheSGC said...

GIVE ME MOAR EISENHORN!!!!!
Just finished Pariah.
No words can encompass how I feel about it.
Typically, when I read a novel, I end up skipping some passages (I skim read sometimes subconsciously) but Pariah is one of two novels where I have been forced by stellar, stellar writing to read every single word that was written. The other is Know No Fear.
Awesome. Amazing. Stupendous. Exhilarating. All of those combined and you might start to approach Pariah.

Swede said...

HEY! Where's the hardcover Eisenhorn Omnibus that I'm trying to purchase? Seriously, this old paperback one is starting to show its wear.

azizibnsaud said...

Just finished Pariah. Absolutely blew my socks off, and well worth the wait. Thank you for writing it!

antdude said...

Sadly, those of us in the Colonies couldn't come to Games Day. But I did just finish 'Pariah' and really enjoyed it.

Now, how long before 'Penitent' comes out?




That long, eh? damn.

Anonymous said...

Sooooooo excited about Macragge's Honour! Mr Dan Abnett back to BL comics!

Theoretical: Its gona blow your socks off!
Practical: Invest in some cheap Primark under garments.

Tom

Unknown said...

Hey Dan, just wanted to say I was incredibly impressed with Pariah and cannot wait for Penitent. The second I read the first paragraph and realised it was written in the first-person Eisenhorn-style I was determined to finish it in one session and that's what I did. Congrats, and thanks for keeping up the good work.

Mark said...

Reading Pariah now and cannot put it down.

Thank you, Dan. Really.

Now when do we get to see Daniel Craig as Ibram Gaunt?

Duke_Leto said...

Dan - thanks for answering some of my (many) questions on your vlogs. You are such a tease!!!!!

Should receive my copy of Pariah any time now and have cleared my schedule to read it! However, I am a spoiler junkie and just could not resist reading various fora.

You really should check out the long essay by Nineswords found here:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?354153-Pariah/page4

Whether he/she is right or not, it is a very thought provoking piece and amazing that someone would take so much time to reflect their theories on a novel.

Anyway - what are you doing reading these messages! Get back to work :-)

Will Wright said...

Team Eisenhorn would have to be Orthopedic shoes no?
Great job on the Short stories like said cool intro for Pariah.

Anonymous said...

Mr Wright,

You are spot on with orthopaedic shoes!

Tom