The 2008 BookCrossing Anniversary Convention started last night.  Or it did for me, at least.  Other BookCrossers have been travelling the country, travelling the world, attending pre-Convention meets and taking a trip on the London Eye yesterday afternoon.  But from 7.00pm, we all converged on Imperial College for an evening of ‘Canapes and Criminals’.

No luck with the raffles so far.  Our crime novel team didn’t manage to find all it’s characters and author first.  But it was great to catch up with some of the BookCrossers from the London meets, and meet some of the people who are participating in the Lessons to Learn bookring.  Futurecat was there too, as part of a contingent who are promoting the Convention in New Zealand next year – I wonder if I’ll be able to attend?

And there were books, books in goody bags, books as prizes, whole tables covered in books.  I’ve only picked up five so far, which is very restrained of me!  Still, there are two days of the Conference remaining…

Today there are author talks and bookswaps and a writing workshop.  The programme starts at Imperial College at 8.30 (very early for a Saturday morning!) so I better get going.

It’s an early morning after a late night. I feel like I haven’t much slept at all. I’ll write this, and then I’ll need to make myself some coffee. I only really drink coffee when I’m tired.

It was a wonderful bookish night, which started at the Legend Press launch of Heading South, by Luke Bitmead and Catherine Roberts.

Although they wrote the book the book together, Luke and Catherine never actually met face-to-face. They met online, and worked on the novel over the phone and internet, before Luke passed away last year. So last night was an emotional occasion, but also a wonderful tribute to Luke and his writing. There were speeches and platters of finger food, piles of books and a fantastic reading from Catherine.

And now I’ve got a shiny new copy of Heading South, sitting next to my computer and I can’t wait to read it… but if I’m going to be productive at all today, I should instead head into the kitchen and start making some coffee.