Yesterday I was in Bristol for the official launch of Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion at Forbidden Planet. The folks in the store did us proud. They provided a really lovely display of books, and kindly had us sign all of their stock, which was a great experience for the various first-time writers who are in the book.

Thanks also to Andy Bigwood who provided some fine airship-related art for the display. And to the various steampunk fans from Bristol who turned up in full costume and made the day extra-special.

Various photos of the event have made their way online. Inevitably I am doing something embarrassing in all of them. Here are a few.

From left to right the various contributors are: Myfanwy Rodman, Steve Blake, Jonathan L. Howard, Pete Sutton, me (obscuring Ken Shinn & Ian Millsted), Roz Clarke, John Hawkes-Reed, Deborah Walker, Piotr Åšwietlik, Andy Bigwood. Only Christine Morgan (lives in Seattle) and Scott Lewis (at a friend’s wedding) were unable to attend.

Here’s another with a better view of Ken and part of Ian.

Finally here we are busily signing a huge pile of books. There’s a great view of Ian in this one. Also a great view of my back. All you authors who complain about wrist injuries from signings? Mostly you get seats. The wrist pain is nothing to the lower back problems.

I don’t know how many books we sold on the day yet, but I do know that a lot of the stock will be going to London, and from there some of it will be going to other FP stores around the country. All of the FP stock has been defaced, so if you want a copy that doesn’t have my scrawl in it you’ll need to get it from Tangent or from the piranhas.