Are you going to be anywhere near the city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire this coming Sunday the 16th of May?

Would you like to see me, Ali Sparkes, Tommy Donbavand and Mark Robson make utter fools of ourselves before one of us is eaten by a monster?

Click here for the website of the Lincoln Book Festival, where you can download a full brochure of all the events.

Click here for the Bishop Greaves Theatre Box Office, where you can book tickets.

Three quick pics from yesterday’s four talks at Range High and Formby High in Formby, near Liverpool.

What a great day. A huge thank you to everyone I met and spoke to for the lovely warm welcome they gave me…

…But special thanks have to go to the man on the left here:

Tony of Pritchard’s is an independent bookselling legend and a true champion of young people’s literature. It was a real pleasure to come back to Formby for events with him again. I’m already looking forward to next time. 😀

As anyone familiar with Tim, Defender of the Earth will know, I’m a MASSIVE fan of giant monsters. Imagine my delight this week when I discovered this site full of beautiful haiku about Godzilla and other classic kaiju.

Warren Ellis (on whose wonderful swear-filled blog I found the link) was particularly taken with this one:

But my current favourite is this:

While I’m linking to stuff, here’s my page on a new site called Author Hotline. There’s a whole bunch of other authors on there too – including my fellow Trapped By Monsters victims Andy Briggs, Mark Robson and Joe Craig – all answering questions such as ‘What were you like at school?’ ‘What strange habits do you have?’ and ‘What’s your favourite food?’ Take a look.

…OK, here’s that clip I promised of me talking about and reading from Crawlers last Friday evening at The Hackney Horror Show. My camera’s mic is tiny and the theatre is huge, so you may want to turn this up a bit. ;D

Sam Enthoven at The Hackney Horror Show, 23rd April 2010 from Sam Enthoven on Vimeo.

A giant monster thank you to Samurai Booksellers Simon and Tim of The Big Green Bookshop and Mark of Waterstone’s, awesome fellow authors William Hussey and Steve Feasey, and everyone we met and spoke to.

Some pics from those events I was telling you about on Fri and Sat…

Here’s William Hussey (author of the excellent Witchfinder: Dawn of the Demontide) putting the Jedi Mind Trick whammy on the first audience at Mossbourne Community Academy:

Here’s one of me attempting to mesmerize everyone with my demonic shiny eyes:

And here, from the evening show at the theatre of Stoke Newington School is Steve Feasey (author of the splendid Changeling series) gouging straight into the guts of the matter at The Hackney Horror Show.

From Saturday’s Waterstone’s signing, here’s this:

Maybe I’m still new to this ‘being published’ caper but the sheer delight at seeing stuff like the above doesn’t seem to be wearing off so far – as you can easily see from the expressions on the faces of William Hussey and I here.

Steve and Bill are wonderful to work with and both days were an absolute blast. I have some video from the Hackney Horror Show that I’m attempting (in my usual hamfisted way) to put together for you now. Stay tuned.

Very excited as I get ready for… this!

As well as the theatre event in the evening (and an impromptu appearance from yours truly at Stoke Newington School‘s assembly in the morning!) the three of us – that’s Steve Feasey, William Hussey and I – are doing two sessions at Mossbourne Community Academy. It’ll be my second visit to Mossbourne: last time was great fun, so I’m very happy to be coming back. 😀

Then on Saturday William Hussey and m’self are off to Waterstone’s in Colchester. We’ll be there from about half past two, signing books and chatting to whoever comes along.

If you, reading this, can make it to either of these events, then by all means please do. I’ll be very pleased to eat – I mean, meet you!

Check out this stunning piece of Black Tat-inspired art by Kestrel, 13, of Chandler, Arizona:

Isn’t it gorgeous?

When people use my stories as a jumping off point to create special new things of their own, that makes me very happy. If The Black Tattoo or Tim, Defender of the Earth have inspired you, then please follow those links to those books’ Reader Art pages: I’d be honoured and thrilled if you would share your work with me.

As to Crawlers art, it’s early days yet. But tentacles crossed. 😀

Two more quick things while I’m here.

First: here’s a link to a piece I wrote last week for the website of SFX magazine listing my current Top Ten Favourite Horror Books and Films.

Second: BEWARE of The Hackney Horror Show, a triple bill of chills from authors William Hussey, Steve Feasey and, er, me. It’s on Friday April 23rd and it’s FREE. Click here for all the details!

Friday’s launch party for Crawlers at The Big Green Bookshop was absolutely awesome. Here are a couple of pics (and a video-!) to give you an idea of what it was like.

First up, here’s the BGB Crawlers Wall…!

Seeing that many copies in one place put a massive cheesy grin on my face that basically lasted for the entire evening. But having a lovely turnout of mates and family and other kindly well-wishers helped make the party really special. 😀

Here’s a YouTube clip of the official launching ceremony, and the reading I did from the opening scene of the book.

An especially massive thank you to Big Green Booksellers Simon and Tim and Mark for their wonderful hospitality at their brilliant shop. I’ll enjoy the memory of this party as long as I live. HEE HEE HEE HEE!

Excuse me. Yes, you, reading this: Hello! I have a question. Will you be anywhere near the awesome independent booksellers The Big Green Bookshop this Friday 9th April from around 7.30pm?

If so, would you like to come to the launch party for Crawlers??

I don’t know how many people read this blog, and how many of those are anywhere in the area, but if you do and you are then consider this your invitation! No need to RSVP, but if you feel the urge and you’re on Facebook there’s a Crawlers Launch FB event page here. If you can’t make it no worries, I’ll probably post some pics from the night here on the News Page next week. But if by any chance you can get there, it would be great to meet you!

Meanwhile over on Trapped By Monsters a brand new and unusual collaborative story experiment has just begun. Prepare yourself, gentle reader, for The Unspeakable Horror! Episode 1 (by me!) is now live here.