Posted on June 7, 2009 - by MG

MG and the Twitter posse at the Guillermo del Toro signing

Twitter posse at Forbidden Planet: left to right Gavin from NextRead, Sharon from Dark Fiction Review, Matt from Teen Librarian, Liz from My Favourite Books, Ana from The Book Smugglers and YA author Alexander Gordon Smith.

My turn to tell this oft-told story…a bunch of Twitter-aquainted folk got together to collectively fangirl/boy the superstar Mexican movie director, Guillermo del Toro of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy fame. His new book, part 1 of a vampire thriller series title ‘The Strain’, was launched and we just HAD to have a signed copy.

Did I mention that Guillermo is from Mexico, like me? I thought he might like to read The Joshua Files: Invisible City, what with it being a high-octane adventure set in Mexico lindo y querido (that’s a quote from a very popular song – about dear, lovely Mexico). Fellow children’s author Alexander Gordon Smith, one of the posse, thought Guillermo might enjoy his young-adult horror series Furnace: Lockdown.

Here’s a photo of Gordon and I and the books we prepared to sign over to Senor del Toro. (In fact he’s probably grand enough to refer to as Don Guillermo.)

YA authors Alexander Gordon Smith and MG Harris

It had nothing to do with fantasies that, as Gordon puts it on his blog, Don Guillermo might “read it on the plane home and think ‘I’m going to make Furnace into a film”. (or indeed Joshua Files). Of course not!

Anyway, we had such a good time chatting in the queue, manfully manned by Liz and Mark from My Favourite Books, that we couldn’t bear to part, so we reconvened at a West End Mexican restaurant, Wahaca for burritos, tacos and enchiladas.

I had a wonderful time meeting everyone and we really must do it again.

Finally, here’s a photo of the dude himself.

Guillermo del Toro signs 'The Strain'

You can read other accounts of this fun day out at the other bloggers sites.

Liz from My Favourite Books on meeting Guillermo del Toro

Alexander Gordon Smith on meeting Guillermo del Toro

Sharon from Dark Fiction Review on meeting Guillermo del Toro (which includes a nicely grabbed shot of me shaking hands with my fellow and most distinguished paisano, Don Guillermo).

See also Teen Librarian, The Book Smugglers and Nextread.