My favorite beer? And one of my favorite authors? In my city? dies

Yay! Now of course I need to decide which book of yours to buy there; is it bad I've only ever read your stuff from the library, and never given you any of my hard earned cash?

If it was a British or Irish library, I'd get kickbacks via Public Lending Right; alas, PLR isn't fully international so I don't get a bent penny from Australian (or American) library loans.

If it helps you make your mind up, I get a lot more money from each hardcover sale than from anything else -- about 4x to 5x what I get from a paperback.

No book signings in Melbourne book shops? :(

Are you doing anything in Melbourne outside the con? Not all of us are free to do the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con thing.

Comment #3 makes me happy that I've bought every Stross book I could find in hardback. Although I have to admit I started to buy hardbacks only once I realised I had over 6000 paperbacks and nowhere to store them.

It's possible I'll be signing in Melbourne at one of the big chain bookshops -- Orbit are trying to sort something out.

I'll update the blog entry when I know something.

Argh! I live in Sydney West but I'll be working past 5:00. All the best though and I hope you enjoy your visit. Maybe you can sign some books at Infintas for us to purchase at some soonish date? I'll drop by there this weekend in hopes that you can.

Will the panels be recorded; so us non atendees can watch?

Excellent. Now I know which days to buy tickets for! I can only afford two days worth of con, so Sunday and Monday it will be.

Cheers, Charlie, and good luck getting over the jet lag!

Justin: I'll be there for at least an hour. (And I'm sure if you buy a book beforehand and leave it behind the counter, the staff will be happy to get me to sign it for you. OK?)

How many books are appropriate to bring along to a signing? I've got to root around a bit, Charlie, but I know I have at least three on hand...

Mark: general rule I enforce at signings is: if there's a queue, I'll sign up to three books -- then you go to the back of the queue and wait your turn again. If there's no queue, I'll sign until my hand falls off. That way, everybody gets a fair slot. OK?

Any possibility you'll be in Perth, Western Australia?

It appears not - unless I'm misinformed, he's flying home after AussieCon.

And though we will be travelling on to Perth, I suspect we're no substitute.

Not doing Perth, alas. (Wanted to do Au Contraire -- the NZ national SF con -- as well, but the piggy bank expired after coughing blood over Sydney and Melbourne.)

Charlie, you've been well informed if someone suggested Redoak to you. Great beer (and food) and very close to the Galaxy. Probably 400 metres apart. If you're keen, or Usain Bolt, you might be able to run it in 45 seconds. Hopefully I can get along. I'll definitely get to the Galaxy.

    A friend and I discussed the advisability of using hardbacks to construct shelving for the PBs – or p'rhaps the other way 'round. About all we came up with was that the Onggyrsvryq: Rnegu qrpbybtl could serve no finer purpose than to emulate its original timber for this use (angle grinder is optional).

Only time I've seen books work as shelves was (unfortunately) where an art school decided to core their library out to make some decorative posts. The weight bearing member was the pipe down the center of each now ruined book.

Sigh. My favorite space saver, though is here. When I get the money, I definitely want a library that's built along the lines of this apartment.

That's underlined, but no URL.

Oops. I seem to be having a bad day on URLs:

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/worlds-green-homes/

Hope to be there!

I was going to try and drop off books for signing at Infinitas but this morning I managed to wrangle some time-in-lieu. Woot! Will see you there.

Hope you are enjoying the weather - it is a STUNNING day in Sydney today - 20 degrees, blue skys - pretty much what Sydney winter is meant to be like, as opposed to what we have had for most of this winter.

Ohh I hope those are recorded as well, they sound well interesting.

I wasn't in Sydney today -- took the train up to Katoomba to see the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains. (Been there before, but that was on a coach tour four years ago with insufficient wandering-around-and-gaping time. This was better, if a wee bit chilly, being a kilometre higher up than Sydney.)

Damn volcanoes.

-Nothing of substance to add. Just bitching about not being able to go to WorldCon and Charlie not being able to come to Au Contraire.

Was very nice to meet you and get to hear you chat and read. (I was the one wearing the suit at the front, having come straight from work).

I'm hoping you enjoy the rest of your visit.

It was great to see you in person tonight! As a Modesty Blaise fan, I was excited by the vague hint that you dropped about a certain project towards the end. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out!

Modesty Blaise project!!? :-D [noises of scampering and ears pricking up]

Not really germane to the post, but saw this about the Buzzer and thought it might be a job for the Laundry.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/UVB-76

I see Joe Bageant ("Deer hunting with Jesus, dispatches from America's class war") is going to be in that part of the world also. Perhaps some good lefty synergy?

Thanks for signing my books at Galaxy 2nite. Even the purple bimbo from hell dustjacket number. Guessing your average author has little say in the matter. Thought I was picking up Planet Stories except no bubble helmet or BEM. Hope 2 make it 2 the Bleak City for a couple of days for Aussiecon 4. Cheers.

Thanks for signing my books and putting up with my snap-happy photography. I hope at least some of the photos come out well; not using the flash means there'll be a lot of movement blurring.

I'll drop you a line when the photos go up on my blog.

p.s. What's the name of the winged, tentacled green monster?

Cthulhu

in his cuddly form

Aka Fluffy.

Incidentally, I read the "new comments" preview, saw "Cthulhu", and thought "I wonder if Fluffy is in Oz right now?" I take it this means he is. If so, tell him Harold (fron Satellite 2) says hello.

'Boozy Britain' grapples with bottle. Don't infect the Australians!

Hey, the Aussies are the only nation we British think out-drink us.

(Though Wikipedia seems to indicate that it is actually the Irish who drink more than we do, and it's Americans who die from it more. Australia, however, is the country that sells us the most wine, and their advertising over here is the beer+barbie brand.)

The photos from the Galaxy signing are up:

http://hapalochlaena.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/stross-miller-elliott/

That was Me.

You do not seem to be consuming any brains.