The launch of Agog! Ripping Reads took place amidst a cocktail party in the middle of the whacking great Australian National Museum, Canberra. There was a stage set up with Jack Dann on it, a podium and a bunch of chairs. I made an arrangement of Agogs on a little table beside the podium. Way way way up the far end of the cavern was the bar with the free booze.

Jack got up on stage, turned the mike on and tried to entice folks away from the free plonk and down to where the authors were. He was having a moderate amount of success… when Jim Frenkel, guest editor from Tor books, walked past. He noticed Jack, had no clue what was going on but decided this was a good time to talk to Jack about his recent trip to New Zealand. Within seconds the two of them were telling sheep-shagging jokes into the microphone. This had the effect of drawing a larger audience to my launch.

Jim Frenkel and Jack Dann disassemble the ANZUS treaty

There were a lot of folks watching the launch bit but the space was so huge that it seemed a bit empty up the non-free-booze end. And there was another more serious problem — the day before the con started the museum decreed that I would not be able to sell books at my book launch. Why? Who knows. The museum was shut to the general public so I can’t see why anyone would give a shit… Anyway, Jack was allowed to launch Agog! Ripping Reads but I couldn’t sell books. Whatever. I’ve given up on emotional responses to the vagaries of small press publishing. I told Jack to do his best.

Jack called the authors present to come up on stage. And they did. And so did another author who was not one of the authors in the book. He stood in the middle of the bunch of them beaming merrily. I had not planned to be an onstage participant in the launch but I wanted a photo of Jack, the authors and the book for Locus, so I stepped up and explained to Author X that he wasn’t in my book so would he mind stepping off the stage. He blamed Simon Brown. Simon, apparently, told him that all authors in Christendom were being called up onto the stage.

Agog! authors at Conflux:
(back) Jason Nahrung, Simon Brown, Jack Dann, Cat Sparks, Dirk Flinthart
(front) Deb Biancotti, Sue Isle, Anna Tambour, Cory Daniells, Kim Westwood

Anyway, Jack didn’t do his usual schtick routine this time round. He said a lot of serious, heavy stuff about how good my books were and how this one is extra good.

Then everyone clapped and went to scrounge a free drink.

(more Conflux photos at Cat Sparks’ Gallery…)