Moviegrrl has let me know about the proposed sale of a collection of rare, signed Harlan Ellison work.

Sounds like a great buy for a collector. Ellison has been a major influence on me, both in terms of writing and philosophy, since I read Deathbird Stories in the back of the car on a long holiday trip when I was 12 or so.

I had a great time at Thursday’s signing at Forbidden Planet in London (followed by a beer or three at the party to celebrate my good friend David Devereux’s new book, Eagle Rising). Lots of books signed, and I met lots of very interesting people – aspirant writers, bloggers, podcasters and readers.

A load (stew? drunk? what is the collective term?) of authors were present, some I know well, some I was meeting for the first time. Unlike the usual signing, FP took a chance this time and let everyone mingle and chat, which worked extremely well. When you’re stuck behind a table signing books, you only have chance for a few words, but here we could have proper conversations.

There’s a report – and more importantly pictures – at Liz and Mark’s excellent blog.

Hellboy cover

Cover by Duncan Fegredo and Dave Stewart. Details to follow

The brain is a strange and wonderful thing, and we know relatively little about it.

How to hack your brain.

And I should point out that the Incredible Shrinking Pain aligns very neatly with some Eastern spiritual teachings about how the mind can control the body’s responses.

* Two lattes at the writing cafe, thousand or so words.

* @nextread There’s another one coming I haven’t announced yet! I’ll send you the Jpeg when it’s available.

* @moviegrrl You know what? I’d read it!

* 24 ep1: good. If you absolutely, positively need a right wing nutjob, Jack’s your man.

Follow me on Twitter.

Pyr editor Lou Anders discusses “the New Fantasy” in the latest Agony Column podcast from Rick Kleffel. Here’s the direct link.

The New Fantasy is a catch-all title for a specific, grittier kind of fantasy by Joe Abercrombie, Tom Lloyd, Joel Shepherd, James Enge, Justina Robson, Matthew Sturges, Chris Roberson and yours truly, according to Lou. Listen to the podcast to get the full picture.

The edits on Destroyer of Worlds: Book Three of Kingdom of the Serpent for Gollancz and The Lord of Silence for Solaris have been completed. The books are both on course for their August 2009 publication dates.

Still waiting for the cover of the Solaris book by John Picacio. I’ll post it here as soon as I have a version.

Blimey, they’re busy this time of year.

The long Christmas silence ends (here at least – not so silent night round Stately Chadbourn Mansion over the last couple of weeks) and I emerge into my least favourite time of the year in sullen January mood. This year, however, I’m not going to skulk around the gloomy corners until the sun comes round again. No, definitely no skulking. Instead, I’m going to continue the festive party spirit with a few of my fellow authors…and anyone else who wishes to join us.

Along with Joe Abercrombie, Alex Bell, John Courtenay Grimwood, David Devereux, Tom Lloyd, Suzanne MacLeod and Steve Savile, I’ll be signing books and anything else you want to bring along at Forbidden Planet’s swish megastore at 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, between 5pm and 7pm on Thursday January 22nd.

If you’ve been to any Forbidden Planet signings before, this will be a slightly different state of affairs. We won’t be stuck behind a table. We’ll be roaming, as nature intended, in our natural habitat, so you can come up to chat, seek advice (good on directions and publishing, not so good on complex legal matters), swap anecdotes, moan, seek out insider information on top secret new projects and generally mingle, as well as getting us to ruin perfectly good books with our scrawl.

This is an experiment for Forbidden Planet, so let’s make it a good one. Otherwise, all authors will be back in their Plexiglass cases for future signings.

The nearest tubes are Holborn, Covent Garden, Tottenham Court Road and, oh, why not, Leicester Square. We might even go to the pub afterwards, though authors…alcohol…it’s not really likely is it?