A book signing

Of all the many weird things that have happened to me, signing my own book must be amongst the weirdest. It was something that I had never expected. I never saw myself as the kind of author that sits behind a desk in Waterstones, fountain pen in hand, asking ‘who should I make it out to?’ Other bookstores are available.

You will know by now, however, or at least guessed that it has happened.

I was at Newcastle Startup Week presenting on Dynamo’s #CyberNorth and we had just broken for a break when I was approached by Connor. He is someone who is interested in Cyber. We had chatted on Twitter and even talked on the phone but had never met face to face and so it was nice to finally meet up.

Once we had said our hellos he pulled my book out from his bag and asked me to sign it.

The quote from Fabienne Marier, which I have used before came back to my mind, ‘By downplaying our achievements, we contribute to the issue that refrains us from celebrating in the first place: the culture of not enough.’

It was good to see a copy of my own work in someone else’s hand and so I borrowed a pen and obliged. I didn’t know what to write yet Connor and I have agreed to meet up shortly for a proper chat.

In the meantime this has spurred me on to publish my next book, Paradigms Lost, (and perhaps to rework the one that Connor had bought.) I have asked an artist to draw an original artwork for the cover and so it has taken another step forward.

Signing a copy of my book might have been an odd experience but some good has come from it. Not that I need much encouragement it has helped me to focus on what needs to be done to get my next book out into the wild.