Sunday night was interesting. Went to a Thai pub in Belsize Park with my friend the Brad, but it closed early because people of breeding and sense go to bed Sunday nights, that they might join the civilized world at a decent hour the next day.

Needless to say, we went wandering for another pub, and ended up at a sleazy kebabery at 12:30am, eating meat of questionable origin, surrounded by other drunks with nowhere else to go, listening to an aged and inebriated Elvis impersonator play bad Johnny Cash songs while I waited for the launch of my first fantasy novel the next day while my wife and newborn daughter had dinner half a world away.

It’s times like this, you tend to reflect on your life’s path, and how it can bring you to unexpected places.

But morning came, as it always done, and the sun banished the drunken demons back to the Core for another day. I scoured myself, put on dark glasses, and headed out for the Harper Collins UK/Voyager offices in Hammersmith. After a great many e-mails and phone calls, I was eager to finally meet the lovely and talented Emma Coode (an acquiring editor with very good taste), who was celebrating her 25th birthday (give or take), and the equally charming Alice Moss, who has set up most of the promotion during my visit across the pond.

I made it to the HCUK offices, walked in the front door, and was stunned.

As you can see, they readied the office for my visit by filling the gigantic bookshelf in the building lobby with copies of The Painted Man. It was heart-stopping. I’m sure the security people at reception were wondering just who the nutter staring at the display in glee was.

I went up to the Voyager office, and had a glass of champagne put in one hand, and a pen in the other. Most of the staff (and some of their friends and family) had read the book, and everyone wanted a signed copy. They all apologized as if I were being put upon, but I was so gratified by the attention and the sheer number of people who had read and enjoyed my work that I could have signed all day and into the night.

After a lovely lunch at the Gate, I went back to the Voyager offices to sign more books for giveaways and the like, and then headed to Picadilly Circus to stalk bookstores. The Waterstones flagship store had ordered a whopping 20 copies, but they had not arrived yet. It was frustrating, but how could I complain when they had ordered so many? I then went down the street to the historic Hatchard’s Books, where I signed the shelf stock, and had a great talk with the clerk, who marked the copies with “signed” ribbons as an added incentive to shoppers.

Went back to Camden Town and further stalked myself on the internet. My Amazon UK sales rank went from 104,308 this time last week to 1,176 today. I have no idea how many books you have to sell to make that jump, but I was pretty stoked to see it. I am also up to an even dozen reviews, with half of them 5 out of 5 stars, and the worst of them still pretty good.

Tomorrow is my first video interview. I’ll let you know how it goes.