Steampunk Doncaster

Sorry this photo's a little fuzzy, but I grabbed it on a whim at Steampunk Doncaster as Jonathan Green was about to start reading from his latest Pax Britannia novel, Time's Arrow.  The novel, featuring dapper daredevil Ulysses Quicksilver (a James Bond-meets-Oscar Wilde kind of hero) sounds like an absolute delight, but it may take me a while to get to it, partly because of my already huge TBR pile, but mostly because it's number 8 in a series I know I'm going to want to savour! 

Jonathan was a great speaker, as was Meg Kingston, whose novel Chrystal Heart is now gracing my Kindle (if you're in the UK, grab it quickly at a bargain £2.99 as it will be back up to full price soon).  The heroine is a 188-year-old cyborg vampire, the cover features a hat almost as delicious as Meg's own, and I can't wait to crack the virtual spine on this one.

I can't get over the excitement of having a Steampunk festival on our doorstep, and it was lovely to meet one of the organisers, Craig Hallam, in the flesh at long last (some time ago I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of his debut novel Greaveburn which I had the pleasure of discussing with Sheila North on local radio show 'Book It').  I notice Greaveburn is currently retailing on Kindle at a whole £1.02, and definitely worth the price, although the paperback's prettier! 

My major purchase of the day was of a rather less literary bent.  This morning I was lamenting the lack of a pair of Victorian style ankle boots to wear to a fancy dress party.  (I used to have a fabulous pair from Clarks but I wore them to shreds).  Buying shoes was the last thing on my mind when I set out today, but then I spotted the Alternative Footwear stand and that was it... I now have the most perfect pair of black boots.  So all in all, a successful day! 


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