On Saturday 25 September we headed off from Maidstone in a people mover with Nik and Dan and headed for Birmingham NEC for Games Day UK the following day. The people mover was fine. We all fit in along with our bags. Traffic was interesting and I think it took us longer than expected but made it in good time in the end. We were checked into the Holiday Inn Express next to the NEC. That means it was a 25 minute walk or a 5 pound taxi trip. After arriving we went over to the NEC as Dan, Nik and Matthew had to do some presigning of books to make the signing the next day easier. Already there was Aaron Dembski-Bowden, James Swallow, Graham McNeil, Sandy Mitchell…I think that is all. Sorry if I left someone out. I took some photos of the presigning. James helped out with sorting books and we put little stickers on them ‘signed’ to more easily identify them. It was kind of fun and the place was huge. Everyone was setting up for the next day.
Photo of Matthew out the front of Games Day. He was very excited. His last attendance was in 2004.
Matthew at the front of Games Day UK 2010 NEC Birmingham
Photo of signings….
Dan, Nik, Matthew and Aaron signing Sabbatt Worlds anthology
Then we all went out to dinner at The Little Owl, which was next door to the hotel. Oh we had drinks first. I ate a lot and then I crashed. Matthew stayed out to 2.00am having a great catch up with the other writers. James had his own room for the night. I was very happy for Matthew as he doesn’t bat an eyelid when I go con partying and it was good to see him enjoy himself.
Next morning Matthew had to be up early to start the day. James and I got to sleep in and went over about 11.ooam. When we got there we were very overwhelmed. There were thousands of people doing stuff that we didn’t really understand. I’m a Dweebette, and a geek and a bit nerdy. Young James is a little cool boy with very little in the way of geek tendencies (very odd considering his upbringing) so he was like ‘err I didn’t know so many geeks existed in the world.” We couldn’t really tell what people were doing because there were queues and layers and layers of people around tables so we just went to where the authors were hanging out. Graham McNeil, Dan Abnett and Nik and others were signing books with huge lines waiting for their turn. There were lines to buy books– extraordinary.
Matthew and a few others were in another area. They had slightly smaller queues. James and I wandered around a bit wide eyed and amazed. I tweeted a bit and took photos and kept coming back to see Matthew.
Once some of the people cleared up we could see what was going on.
One of the many amazing diaramas at Games Day for minatures
Aaron the menial
Some costumes…
Top Grot
A new game apparently. Below is Matthew in front of a pile of banners. The banners are from different Games Workshop shops and the players have banners.
I’d like to put up more pictures but the uploader keeps falling over. It could be the wifi.
Overall Games Day was a wonderful event. I have never seen so many books sold, or seen authors sign for the whole day with just a break for lunch. It was amazing to me. Normal SF cons you don’t see that. The attention to the authors and the devotion to the books. I think I learned something.
Matthew with banners
A fan who brought everything Matthew had published with Black Library for signing
Matthew also took a shot of James and me reading our Black Library purchases. James had to have a copy of the Sabbatt Worlds anthology and I bought James Swallow’s Bloodlines, chap book. James also learned how popular Dan Abnett is. It was quite amazing to him. Dan cooked us dinner and stuff and you know he’s like the god of geeks, according to James. I am quite normal in comparison…hehe
I’ll see if the photo will load. Nope, not this time. Maybe I can come back later and add the orc and us.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 
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