This ain't it, either

Going along to the China Mieville thing at Kinokuniya at 7pm. Nearly got an F2F with him myself, to promote his wonderful, warped, ideas-heavy new urban fantasy, "Kraken". A publishing rep set up an appointment, then apologised and cancelled it again, explaining that the bloke was now arriving on a later flight and there wouldn't be time. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Kino appearance is being billed as a Sydney exclusive.

Folks I have chatted to in the past six months include competitive eater Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti (in the flesh), wrestler-turned-actor "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (on the phone) and "Resident Evil" videogame creator Shinji Mikami (via email). In what made for a fun single-page yarn, Bertoletti thrashed myself and a "RALPH" model at Slurpee-drinking and estimated what quantities of classic Aussie foodstuffs, eg. Vegemite sangers, he could consume. Austin was promoting decent straight-to-DVD actioner "The Stranger" and was an absolute gentleman, humble about his acting abilities and with the undiminished passion for rasslin' of a lifelong fan. That piece was heavily condensed to fit a panel, but hopefully the unedited version might see the light in DL's fanzine. My quizzing of Mikami-san on third-person shooter "Vanquish" will be printed in an upcoming issue of "Penthouse".

Tomorrow, I'm doing a phoner with expert on Japanese crime Jake Adelstein. It'll be the christening of my Sony ICD-UX200F recorder and, courtesy of BS ('cos you can't buy them here), Philips telephone pick-up mic. As a naturally shy guy, I can get quite nervous prior to interviews - irrespective of preparation - so it's probably for the good of my stress level that I'm not speaking to Mr Mieville as well. Shame, though.


Reading: "D&D" supplement "The Plane Above - Secrets Of The Astral Sea" (2010) by Rob Heinsoo et al