Photo: Daniel Hall

Sarah McIntyre and I had a great time last Friday at the North Cornwall Book Festival. It was a long drive, especially for my son, who had had a collision with a low-flying skateboard the previous day and looked as if he'd just gone six rounds with Jack Dempsey, but once we got to Endellion there was a warm welcome from chairman Patrick Gale and the rest of the team, and I finally got to meet Matt Haig (and learned that his wife's brother is none other than the great Dave Semple, who drew the excellent cover illustrations for my Goblins series).

Ever since Sarah and I started doing the Cakes in Space show we've been haunted by the knowledge that sooner or later we'd forget a major prop, and sure enough we did - the Nom-O-Tron somehow didn't make its way into the car. But Sue Harbour-Robertson, owner of the lovely house where the festival was held, came to our rescue, providing us with random vegetables and bits of electronic equipment, so the crisis was over almost before we'd had time to start panicking.

You can find Sarah's blog about it all here.

That was the last Cakes in Space event of the year, but we'll be dusting off our spacesuits again for various festivals and schools events next spring.

I'll be doing another West Country event soon; the ArmadaCon science fiction convention in Plymouth. The programme is starting to take shape over on their website, and I know that the guests will also include Doctor Who writer Andrew Cartmel. I'll be talking about my own work from Mortal Engines to Cakes in Space, and I'm also putting together a talk about some of the things which have influenced me over the years.

Unfortunately the North Cornwall gig meant that I couldn't make it to BristolCon this year, but I gather it was as good as ever, and next year's has already been announced, with Jaine Fenn and Jasper Fforde as guests of honour, so I will make sure I get there on September 26th 2015.