Last night I got to interview two of my favorite people: Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. This was at an event at The Lansdown co-sponsored by BristolCon, Bristol Festival of Literature, Small Stories and Wizard’s Tower. I don’t think I was at my best, thanks to a case of con crud, but people seemed to enjoy the interview. They also had some other great things to see and hear.

This was mainly down to the Small Stories folks. Nat and Sian worked very hard, producing goodies bags for the attendees, and even posters. They also arranged for two additional forms of entertainment. Firstly there was a live reading of part of one of the stories from The Time Traveler’s Almanac. The reader was a professional actor, who did a great job. Hopefully someone can supply me with his name. (Update: Aaron Anthony, I’m told.)

The other piece of entertainment the live creation of a painting by local artist, Luke Sleven. This was inspired by a variety of VanderMeer productions, including The Time Traveler’s Almanac and Last Drink Bird Head. Here is a slightly askew photo of it taken on my cell phone. Hopefully someone has a better picture.

In addition we had some fabulous squid cake, provided by Pat Hawkes-Reed.

Huge thanks to Nat, Sian, Pete Sutton and everyone else involved.

Tonight Jeff will be reading at Mr. B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath. I’d encourage you to go, but it is sold out.