Yesterday I went to Nottinghamshire Pride, which took place in the Hockley and Lace Market areas of Nottingham:
My wife and I dropped by the stall run by the charity we both work for and helped out for a bit: she took charge of the ‘Hook A Duck’ activity, while I ended up taking photographs with the Official Work Camera (partly of one of our Fundraising Officers when she got dressed up as our cuddly house mascot, and then danced around the street). One thing we also commented on was the prevalence of alternative teenagers that always seem to crop up at Pride: you get a few in Nottingham city centre on any Saturday, but there seem to be literally hundreds on Pride day, dressed in a combination of black clothes and rainbow flags, normally with weird coloured hair. I don’t know where the majority go for the rest of the year. Do they have some sort of rota, sharing out the Market Square steps between them? Have most of them travelled in from other parts of Nottinghamshire? We may never know. Whatever the reason, it’s good to see the young folk carrying on the tradition of being A Bit Weird.
*leans back on rocking chair, puffs pipe contentedly*
After we’d done that I dropped into Nottingham Waterstones and was happy to see that DARK RUN is in their Top 30 top-selling paperbacks (I don’t know over what time period, and nor do I particularly care, to be honest!).
And in the final part of this particular pride-filled entry, I have been asked by New Writers UK to speak about DARK RUN and DARK SKY at their 11th annual book festival, which takes place this year in the County Hall in West Bridgford, Nottingham on Saturday October 24th. I’ll be talking at 2pm, and my publishers have indicated that they’re going to do their best to get some early copies of DARK SKY there! The official launch date for that is 5th November, so if you want to get your hands on it a couple of weeks before everyone else then make sure you come along! I’m very grateful to New Writers UK for this opportunity, and hope I can find something interesting to say…