Shirt...

...and His Target Wait.

Naughty Asteroid were having a grand signing for the release of five new Target novelisations, four for new series episodes and one for a classic story that never got a novelisation. Attending would be the authors, Paul Cornell, Jenny Colgan, James Goss, and most excitingly both ex-new series showrunners, Russell T. Davies & Steven Moffat. Shirt knew that there were likely to be very long queues, despite the signing being limited to the promoted items only, but although he managed to leave work early, only managed to arrive 45 minutes prior to the start time. The queue was to the back door used by Naughty Asteroid for their more popular signings, and had already turned the corner that led to Shaftesbury Avenue and the large cinema. Worse still, it was around four people deep.

Shirt had promised to try and get Dufus copies of the books also, but things didn’t look very promising, even for Shirt to be able to meet them, as the signing was only supposed to be for an hour. Despite this, Shirt joined the queue, putting in his headphones to listen to audios via the Large Endings App.

At 6pm, the queue moved a short distance as the first attendees were let in through the small door. Around 10 minutes later, the queue moved enough for Shirt to be in the straight part of the queue along the road behind the store.

With the number of people queuing, and the fact that only three people were being let in at a time, the queue moved at a snail’s pace. All too soon it was the advertised finish time, and Shirt was only a third of the way to his goal. A member of staff came out and Shirt feared the worst as he walked along the queue, stopping every so often to pass on a message.

However, when he reached Shirt, his message turned out to be a positive one.

“With five authors we can’t go any faster. The rule is it’s one book per author, and no posed photos”, said the staff member, before adding, “but Russell’s insisting on taking selfies with everyone.” (The idea of getting books for Dufus was therefore a non-starter).

The queue continued moving slowly, and about an hour later, the staff member came out again to check the remaining length of the queue. Shirt again expected to be told to go home, but again this did not happen.

Finally at 8.30pm, Shirt was third in the queue, but the door stayed shut for a very long time, before finally it opened. Pessimist Shirt was expecting to be told, “Sorry, that’s it ! All the guests need to go”, but instead he was gestured into the store with the two fans in front.

Grabbing copies of the five books, Shirt was encouraged to hand his camera to one of the other members of staff.

“I’ll take a photo of you between Russell & Steven before you get your books signed”, said the staff member.

Shirt decided not to argue, moving behind the signing table and positioning himself between the two showrunners, where once they had signed the books in front of them, looked up for a brief photo.

Russell’s book – ‘Rose’ was pre-signed, but he added “To Shirt,” and a picture of a Dalek to the title page.

Next up was Steven Moffat, who signed ‘The Day of the Doctor’, then Paul Cornell who signed ‘Twice Upon a Time’. Next was Jenny Colgan, who was delighted when Shirt gave her his name, as it was the one that she had picked in the ‘fans’ names’ sweepstake. Shirt’s copy of ‘The Christmas Invasion’ signed, and he was moving on to James Goss.

“How long is it since we last met ?”, asked James, knowing that the answer was around twenty six hours, as Shirt had been at a signing that he had done the night before at Naughty Asteroid for ‘The Missy Chronicles’ (where Cavan Scott, Peter Anghelides and Richard Dinnick had also been signing). ‘City of Death’ signed with “We’ll never have Paris”, and Shirt was moving along to the final guest, Anthony Dry, who was responsible for the Andrew Skilleteresque artwork on the books. Anthony was frantically signing posters of the artwork from the book, as he had a train to catch. Shirt picked up one of the posters, and managed to get Anthony to sign two of the books also.

Holding his precious books at poster in his hand, Shirt made his way to the tills, being given an elastic band for the photo by a staff member who was keeping Sue ‘Mrs. Moffat’ Vertue company. Books paid for, and Shirt was making his way out back into the night, where after a brief stop for a burger, he wended his tired way home. It had been worth the long wait though.

[PL]