Error querying database
I am TRYING to learn PHP & mySQL and one of the exercises in the book Im using is to create a form for users to fill in and to insert that into the DB. I have created the DB 'alien_abductions' along with tables. Here is the code I have. Problem: I am getting "Error querying database". Can someone see if I have something wrong in the script? Being new, I am not sure what I am missing.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Alien Abduction</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Your Abduction</h2>
<?php
$first_name = $_POST['firstname'];
$last_name = $_POST['lastname'];
$when_happened = $_POST['whenithappened'];
$how_long_gone = $_POST['howlongwereyougone'];
$howmany = $_POST['howmany'];
$description = $_POST['description'];
$whattheydid = $_POST['whattheydid'];
$fangspotted = $_POST['fangspotted'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$dbc = mysqli_connect('localhost','root','','up_and_running')
or die('Error connecting to MYSQL server');
$query = "INSERT INTO alien_abductions (firstname, last_name,
when_happened, howlongwereyougone," .
"howmany, description, whattheydid, fangspotted, email)" .
"VALUES ('$first_name', '$last_name', '$when_happened', '$how_long_gone', '$howmany', '$description', '$whattheydid', '$fangspotted', '$email')";
$result = mysqli_query($dbc, $query)
or die('Error querying database');
mysqli_close($dbc);
echo 'Thanks for your submission.<br />' . $first_name . '<br />';
echo 'You were abducted ' . $when_happened . '<br />';
echo ' and you were gone for '. $how_long_gone . '.<br />';
echo 'You describe them as: ' . $description . '.<br />';
echo 'You estimated the number of aliens as: ' . $howmany . '<br />';
echo 'You state that they ' . $whattheydid . '.<br />';
echo 'Was Fang spotted? ' . $fangspotted . '<br />';
echo 'We have your email address as ' . $email;
?>
</body>
</html>
Regards,
Mike