...to mark the passing of Edd Cartier (and the nearly-done-ness of 2008). Of all the pulp magazine artists of the 30s-50s, including such masters as Virgil Finlay and Kelly Freas, Cartier was my favourite, particularly his work in Unknown Worlds. Marvellous stuff. If I had known he was still alive, I suspect I would have written him a fan letter. Instead, I discovered the other day, from Locus, that he (and James Cawthorn, who was, with Mal Dean, the definitive Moorcock illustrator) had just died, and now I know that Mr Cartier was alive, it's too late.
...
Michael Dirda is a wonderful essayist, and his appreciation of Hope Mirrlees' novel Lud In the Mist is up at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=20755255&cds2Pid=22560. I loved the essay, because, I think, the qualities that Michael is talking about are the same ones that are in the book when I read it. (I've had people complain to me that they've read it on my recommendation and that it was boring, or pointless, and I'm sure the version of the book they read was. But the book that I love, and Michael Dirda, and Michael Swanwick loves, is described in Dirda's essay. You bring yourself to a book, after all; every book is collaborative.)
...
Today's mail brought a Wii, and a Wii fit: an evil white box that mocks me with its opinion of my distance from an ideal BMI and an unflattering opinion of my age. But it's cold and snowy outside, and I can't imagine anything else making me jog on the spot with apparent pleasure, and it should be a fine supplement to my trainer (who comes in a couple of times a week and makes me work much too hard to get back into shape).
And Maddy likes it.
...
Someone sent me a question asking if there would be any Coraline toys or figurines. It looks like a yes. I found a link to them here...
...and it only seems a bit strange, in my head, that there should be Coraline toys.
Watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special with the kids on Boxing Day. I liked it, but kept expecting it to turn a corner and for me to love it, which it, and I, never did. Possibly because the clanky high tech Cybermen have no hold on my heart in the way the silent bacofoil ones did and do, and possibly because of spoilery reasons having to do with never really buying the David Morrisey plot to begin with. Loved the moments of David Tennant-as-companion though, and that Miss Hartigan can come to my funeral in a red dress any time she wishes.
The sun is out. The sky is blue. It's still a couple of degrees below freezing. Bugger. Let's see. A couple of Christmas Day photos -- here's one of me and my small but significant daughter collection. Yes, I have Christmas morning bed-hair, and yes, I am wearing my Christmas Sweater with the black Christmas trees on it.
I've left the hunting-season collar on Cabal because sometimes he vanishes in the snow, and a flash of orange is useful.
For those of you who worry about the blog getting Coraline-the-movied-out, there's only thirty-six days to go until the film comes out in the US. Then there will probably be a week or two where I blog about how it's doing, and then it will recede into the background, as is the way of all things.
In the meantime, expect updates -- mostly because I'm really enjoying what henry and his team are doing to promote the film: http://www.youtube.com/coralinethemovie is the YouTube channel for all the Coraline mini-films released so far, where you can watch how things are made, built and knitted. (I was half-amused and half-appalled to see people on the imdb Coraline chat forum and on the Aint it cool talkback thingummy confidently explaining, as if they knew what they were talking about, that this was actually cunningly disguised to look like stop motion CGI, or that Henry Selick had used computers to do the inbetweening, or something, while occasionally people who had actually worked on Coraline would go "No, it was all done by hand," and were mostly ignored in the squalling democracy of the internet. What's nice about the little films is that you can see how it's done; and it's done by people making things and moving them, a little bit at a time.)
More stuff keeps showing up at http://www.coraline.com/ -- it occasionally doesn't load for me, or gets stuck, but refreshing it seems to take care of that.
I loved the posters available for download in the living room. This is one of them. Click on it to see it full size.
(I was amused by the people who equated sending a blogger a box with the '50s payola scandals, which seems rather to miss the point: there's no quid pro quo here, and, as far as I can tell, nothing you can do in order to get a box, apart from have a cool blog, nor anything you are obliged to do if you get a box, not even write about it.)
For those keeping track of the fifty boxes: I did not get one of those fifty boxes-for-bloggers. There are still 28 in the wild.
I got a one-off box-for-an-author.
It looks like this:
Like this in close-up.
It opens to reveal red-velvet padding...
Incidentally, photographed because they were also on the kitchen table* -- the US edition of the Steve Jones CORALINE: A Visual Companion arrived here a few days ago. It's lovely. Steve tells the history of the book, the history of the film, shows how it came to be, tells about the various other versions of Coraline -- the puppet ones, plays, the upcoming Stephin Merritt musical** and so on.
I also got the new UK edition of Coraline the book with the film tie-in cover, and I discovered that they seem to be seriously using the "Coraline looking at us poster" as the cover, with "An Adventure too Weird For Words" as the tagline.
Truth to tell, I don't like the "Too Weird For Words" line -- it's like someone went "Uhh... I have no idea what this is or how to describe it," and, combined with the poster picture, makes me suspect that the UK film people are worried about telling people that it's a beautiful, funny, sometimes scary little movie. Personally, I think you should sell things for what they are, because that way the people who do like them will find them. If you try to give the impression that it's a ... well, something else (from the poster and tag line, a cute silent movie about a little girl who lives in a house?) you'll miss the people out there who would have liked it, and the people who go wanting the thing they think you're selling will be puzzled and disappointed.
But the film doesn't come out until May in the UK, so there's still plenty of time to hope they change it, I guess.
I'm hearing wonderful things from people about the imaginative ways Laika/Focus are promoting it in the US right now, including trains that go past posters that appear to move -- real life animation, which turns the subway walls into a giant flip-book. (And look! A storefront in New York that seems to have become a Coraline world.)
I'm digressing. Below, you will see the Coraline that wasn't in the box. She was a gift a couple of years ago from Henry and his team -- a painted model.
This is the one that was in the box. See the lines on her face? That's where you can replace eyes, mouths and so on. At the beginning of the film-making process Henry wanted to keep the lines, but was outvoted, so they were digitally erased.
She has the cat in her satchel and they are both fully articulated.
*Also on the kitchen table in this shot, the edge of a few copies of the George Walker Writer's Prayer print I found while looking for something else, artist's proofs which I'm going to send over to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to auction.
And while I think of it, this is a small reminder that, for late presents, or for What To Do With Holiday Gift Money things, the CBLDF shop at http://www.cbldf.com/ is filled with wonderful signed goodies, including books and posters and suchlike, along with memberships, and fragrances, and even t-shirts.
As I type this my house is filled with a film crew who keep making rooms into very similar rooms that are actually film sets, as chairs and rugs and tables and lamps move around, and corridors fill with cameras and crew and monitors and teleprompters and such. I've done an Alfred Hitchcock Presents style monologue about buttons, been interviewed about the origins of Coraline, and been filmed walking in the snow with the dog. The dog turns out to be an excellent actor. One more interview to go tonight...
Some of it is going to be on the Coraline website, and it will be used for other things too.
I saw Coraline last night with Henry Selick, and an invited audience of family, friends and acquaintances. I'd never seen anything from the last half hour, and I hadn't seen any more than clips in 3D before now. It was lovely, and, once it got going, really creepy. I have visions of terrified parents having their hands squeezed by solicitous children who will have to remind them that it's only a movie.
Also, I have now stopped being jealous of the people getting Coraline boxes, because Henry brought me a Coraline of my own. An original puppet, from the movie, in orange pajamas, with a cat in her satchel.
People say to me, Neil, you have extremely unlikely hair. Why is this?
And I say, probably it is genetic. Here is a photo of my great aunt Bertha, my grandfather, grandmother, and great aunt Dora, in 1920. Note the strangeness of the hair. My grandmother may or may not have strange hair, although she definitely has a strange hat. (You may disapprove of the cigarettes if you wish. I do not know why my grandmother is holding a cigarette -- I don't think she ever smoked. Perhaps it is my grandfather's.)
(I started a family tree at Geni.com, and invited various family members to it, and the most amazing pictures have been coming out of the woodwork. Or at least, out of my Aunt Janet's box of old photographs.)
Hi Neil,
Just wanted to let you know that the keycode "OTHERWORLD" can be used to access all of the video content thus far on the Coraline website, at least to my knowledge. You might want to post this so other people don't have to bother with the passwords (which are very cool, but somewhat cumbersome). Thanks Neil, - Peter
That's very useful -- thanks. And there are several new videos up there as well. (I am excited. I get to see the finished film in a week.)
This from Andrew Burday:
Regarding the Australian Simpsons parody case: the judge doesn't appear to be confused about the existence of fictional characters. He's saying that a depiction of Bart Simpson is a depiction of a person as opposed to a depiction of a dog or a space alien. He is quoted as saying that the crime would be more serious "if the persons were real".
What's really frightening is the motivation the judge gives to the law in his interpretation. In the USA, the usual motivation given for suppressing child porn is to protect actual children who may be involved in producing it. Apparently that is also a motivation for the Australian law, but it obviously can't apply in this case -- again, the judge contrasts this case to one involving real children. However, the judge goes beyond that to claim that the government has a legitimate interest in suppressing material that could "fuel demand for material that does involve the abuse of children."
The scary thing about that is that almost any expression that concerns child porn without condemning it could be read as "fueling demand". (Really, so could condemnations, in that they create forbidden fruit.) This email and your blog post could be said to fuel demand for child porn by criticizing some laws against it. You and I could be prosecuted as child pornographers merely for having spoken out against this attempt to criminalize it. On this understanding of the law, the law legitimately can suppress its own opposition. So much for any democratic process.
(I have tried to keep this short, but to forestall one obvious objection: suppose you had included a link to the Simpsons parody so that readers could see for themselves what was being suppressed, or suppose that a linguistic description can count as a "depiction" under Australian law. Then your post and my email would include depictions.)
Thanks so much.
Dear Neil Gaiman,
Is "Odd and the Frost Giants" out of print? Because I wanted to put it on my Christmas wish list, and amazon.co.uk doesn't seem to be selling any more themselves; it just has links to other sellers.
Thank you for writing, I love your stories. Emily
P.S. I was one of the too many people who got "The Graveyard Book" signed at the National Book Festival in DC, and I wanted to thank you for drawing the headstone in my copy, because I got to show the picture too my kindergarten class even though the book is a bit too old for them. (They agreed that it is "cool.") I also read them "The Wolves in the Walls" and "The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish," which went over well, so I was wondering if "Crazy Hair" has been or is going to be published as a picture book.
Crazy Hair comes out late next year, in the US and the UK.
It looks like Odd and the Frost Giants is out of print, yes. That's part of the thing of it being a World Book Day book. Everyone did things for free so it could be a one pound book, but that only happens once.
Harpers should be publishing it in the US in 2009, and Bloomsbury will republish it in the UK eventually, although they may wait for me to write another Odd story first. (Odd in Jerusalem, perhaps. I'm pretty sure that he went there.)
Hello my name is Andrea bucy I have seen the movie stardust and I intend to read the book by you I was wondering if I could possible write a spinoff book that has some of the same characters and setting. But I wanted to get you permission first because if i were to get it published i don’t want someone coming after me cause i stole their ideas. I am prepared to offer you a deal if the book does sell i will offer you royalties of 60/40 50/50 or 40/60 i don’t write just for money but i realize that for some people like Jane Austen do and did go along in life and pay for many things by the money they make from their books. So i am asking you if we can maybe make a contract that says you have given me permission, only if you do give me permission, to use your ideas and work in my story and you will get credit for it.Pleas get back to me.
I'm not really sure where to start on this one. If you want to write fan fiction, you can. I don't mind. Sequels and prequels and meetings and pairings and what have you. You can put it up on the web. But you can't publish it commercially. You need to stay on the non-commercial side of the street, which means you can't sell it, not even if, like Jane Austen, you're in it for the big bucks. Otherwise bad things would happen, involving lawyers from publishers and lawyers from movie studios, and your week would be ruined. Trust me on this.
A basic CBLDF membership is $25. http://www.cbldf.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=44 and there are people who really would like them as gifts. Honest. You get a membership card and everything.
And seeing I'm now recommending gifts -- Todd Klein documents the end of the story of his Alex Ross print at http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=2295 (and it's fascinating watching how something goes from not quite right to really very right), and then tells you how to order it -- or the third printing of Alan Moore's print or the second printing of my print (all signed in dark green ink) at http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=2385.
Well, it is if you love the macabrely funny, or the funnily macabre...
...
Meanwhile in another part of the forest, I'm simultaneously more impressed, and sometimes more frustrated with the G1.
No blogger app, yet? Not a problem. According to blogger you just send a text -- no content specified -- to go@blogger.com and it'll send you a code to allow you to claim your blog... so that should be simple. Except that if you send a text message from the G1 to blogger you get a message back telling you that you haven't registered and to send a text message containing the text REGISTER to go@blogger.com. And if you send a text message containing the word REGISTER you get another message back telling you to send a message containing the word REGISTER... You do this a few more time, with no change.
So you give up and log in to Blogger using the G1's browser, and discover that the ability to upload photographs to Blogger has been disabled, and then you give up.
The voice recognition software doesn't always recognise that I've even said anything, and its choices, when it does think I've spoken, aren't just mishearings, they're positively perverse:
Me: Call Mike Gaiman.
Phone: (offers me a choice between) Dial 508 0972 Dial 508 9721 Dial 508 9720
Me: Call Dad Cell Phone: (offers a choice between) Call Hilary Bevan Jones at Work Call Hilary Bevan Jones at Home
...it's not even like there's a match up between the vowels, the consonants, or the number of syllables. Mysterious.
But the things that work work so well. I'm now using it as my bedside clock-alarm and GPS. It's a great phone. I cannot wait for a Slingbox app, or a RealPlayer app so I can use it to stream BBC Radio. The Sky Map app, which shows the night sky and stars and planets and constellations of where you're standing and what you're pointing at, using the GPS system and a compass so that the screen shows what you are seeing, only with stars and planets named and constellations drawn in, is magical...
... And finally, LEEDS UNITED: A musical video by Miss Amanda Palmer.
It's out in English, but this version of it is it in Italian. Because everything sounds better in Italian.
A few of you have written in asking if I'd done an Alan Moore and taken my name off the film, or if I'd had a falling out with the studio, as my name isn't mentioned in this trailer, just Henry Selick's -- and no, not at all. Nobody's name except Henry's is mentioned in the trailer, and that has more to do with Focus wanting to make sure that if they invoked The Nightmare Before Xmas, people wouldn't then assume this was a Tim Burton film, and go and see it -- or stay away -- based on that. (On the international poster -- above -- you won't find my name or Henry's.) I suppose it's a marketing decision.
I chatted to Henry today, and am really looking forward to seeing a finished film -- the last twenty minutes of the thing weren't done the last time I was sent anything. And it has music...
Incidentally, the Coraline Movie edition is now out, with an essay by me in the back, and another by Henry Selick...
I've started playing with the T-mobile G1. First reactions -- I like it, mostly. It feels good in your hand. It's reasonably intuitive. (Bizarrely, when it isn't intuitive and I've had to head into manual land, the phone's software and the PDF of the manual do not always agree with each other.) I've had fun making ring tones, creating galleries. The way that your contacts list is also your Gmail contacts is mostly terrific (although it won't let me create entries that have the same email address as someone already on the list).
The things I don't like about it so far seem huge and obvious: no Blogger app (when there's a LiveJournal app and several others) seems a huge omission, seeing it's from Google; it can't read or open PDF files yet; you can send it pictures and watch them as a slideshow, but you can't save them; the built in Gmail app can't do anywhere near the things that the gmail program on my N73 can do; the camera is about the same standard as the iPhone's, which is to say, a bit meh. I like having a real keyboard but wish it was a tiny bit bigger -- I find myself typing with fingernails. Battery life is fine unless you've got Wifi on.
More reactions after it's been on the road with me and been used for a bit.
...
Hi Neil,
I just had a quick question on the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book. I have the album already (and have listened to it countless times. It's beautiful).
I was going to go and order the book, but when I went to the site, I found that the book seems to only be in packages. I was wondering if there are any plans to sell the book alone, or whether I should buy one of the packages. The extra CD could make a nice gift.
Thanks, Nate
Let's see... the book is being designed right now, then it goes off to the printers. The people who bought the package version will get theirs first. Depending on where in the world it's printed, this could be a couple of months before anyone else. Then, when copies come in from the printer, they'll go on sale -- probably in the early Spring. I think.
Neil!
I'm re-reading American Gods, and I'm at the point where Shadow first meets Sam. At the diner, Shadow reads a newspaper story saying "local farmers wanted to hang dead crows around the town to frighten the others away; ornithologists said it wouldn't work, that the living crows would simply eat the dead ones. The locals were implacable. 'When they see the corpses of their friends,' said a spokesman, 'they'll know we don't want them here.'"
Neil, I don't have Time Enough for Love here at school, but wasn't there something very similar to that in that story? Was your dead crow story a little Heinlein homage?
And OMG - just realized that Sam's last name is Black Crow, and that story was about crows. Wow. Sneaky of you.
Chris
When I'm driving through small-town America I make a point of buying local papers in towns where I stop, and reading them, preferably in local coffee shops. I read that in a small town as I went, and thought "It belongs in my book". So I put it there.
Dear Mr Gaiman, I recently finished reading M is For Magic, and I have a question about the story Chivalry. Sir Galahad was considered the holiest of Arthur's knights; so, how coul he have obtained an apple from the garden of the Hespiredes? The Hespiredes were a part of greek mythology which was actually a religeon based on monotheism. So, how could he get something that his religeon said didn't exist? I am sorry to bother you with this question, but it has sparked my interest.
- a young and curious reader
He had to travel a long way.
I don't think that the existence of mythical things would have been a problem for a mythical early Christian, of whom Galaad would have been one, or even a huge problem for real early Christians: in The Golden Legend, which was the most popular book of stories about saints, collected in the thirteenth century, Saint Nicholas (the one who became Santa Claus) went up against the Goddess Diana.
Then again, Narnia, a most monotheistic world, had, in addition to a Leonine Son of God, more than its share of nymphs (just like the Hesperides) not to mention such gods as Bacchus and Silenus (and Santa Claus again) wandering around. So I would not worry about it, were I you.
I loved the link to the Sandman Death 20th Anniversary Bookends you put up. When should they be coming out and how much of a dent will they put on my wallet, please?
According to a quick Google, http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/9960.shtml says they came out in September, and they will cost a wallet-twinging $295. (Ouch.) There are only a thousand of them.
This one has almost nothing to do with you Neil, but since his website is still in the makings I thought you could perhaps forward this to him. I was very sad (like a child whose told there won't be a Christmas this year) to learn that Dave McKean's appearance this weekend in BuenosAires was canceled. In the event's blog they posted Dave's email in which he mentioned he couldn't make it because a date was changed (which sounds reasonable). But it remained unclear if it was the date of ANIMATE (the BuenosAires event) which was changed, or if it was one of Dave's previous engagements.
Dave McKean said...
Hi Neil,
Please post this, as I certainly do feel very bad letting people down:
I agreed to go to Animate in the summer and had to organize a military operation of friends and family to take care of our son Liam during the proposed week, as he is appearing as Gavroche in Les Miserables in London and has to be accompanied to and from the theatre each day he's on, and also be available on 12 hours notice every day in case another actor drops out. We managed this, so both Clare and I could make the trip to Buenos Aires, a city we've always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, the date was changed by the organizers, and so we had to re-arrange. More importantly, it became obvious that the festival was now colliding with a variety of previous commitments falling in the latter half of November, so I decided with great sadness to withdraw this year. I hate letting people down, and I was really looking forward to the trip (though not the 24 hours travelling each way, I admit!).
Hopefully there will be another event, an animation or film festival, that will allow me to visit the city in the future. Or maybe we'll just go for a holiday, and do a signing in a bookstore.
Thanks, Dave
(I think it's worth pointing out that ten-year old Liam McKean -- owner of the original Pig Puppet -- is in Les Miserables in London. If you happen to go and see it, check if he's in your performance. Get his autograph. Mention pigs. Make his day.) And that reminds me...
Hi Neil,
I thought you might like to let people know that Dave McKean is on the BBC4 programme "Picture Book" talking about his illustations for David Almond's 'The Savage' and how he was inspired by Comic Book's art. The programme is airing (again) at 19.10 on Saturday and 3.30 on Sunday, and is also currently available on the BBC i-player. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fhnb6/comingup
Thank you again for all the stories,
Marjorie
You're welcome.
Hi,
Just read that you completed "the Dying Earth story." Huh? Is there a new collection of Dying Earth stories coming out? Is it an homage to Jack Vance's work, or what?
Did a search for "dying earth" on your website and saw no other mention of it.
There. After a few days of mostly sleeping I'm alive again, although I feel a bit like someone took a glue gun to my lungs. I just threw a whole peeled lemon, a dried cayenne pepper from the garden, some honey and hot water in a blender, and drank it all down, and I think it helped.
Nothing exciting to report, or rather, I cannot remember any of the things I'd planned to write once I had a brain again.
On the other hand, Coraline.com (and theothercoraline.com ) have both got spookier, and have strange and marvellous little films up. With keys to access... one of which I found at http://www.despoiler.org/2008/11/17/my-funny-coraline/. (Yes, I suppose I could just have called Focus and asked, but how much fun would that have been? Also I'd feel guilty about posting the info here if I did.)
Hi Neil! I'm a huge fan with 2 quick questions.
Absolute Sandman Vol 1 appears to be sold out on Amazon and Chapters / Indigo with no mention of availability. Is there going to be another printing soon or should I be desperately searching bookstores for a copy before it's gone forever?
On a related note, are there any plans to release an AbsoluteAbsolute Sandman containing all 4 volumes, with any special content?
Thanks so much! Love your books, love your blog!
I checked, and when you wrote this Absolute Sandman #1 was indeed out of stock everywhere. But before I could write to people and ask, it was already back in print and back up on Amazon. (This is the link) (I notice it's now at full price, not 37% off, like the others, which may well mean that once they sell out of the first printings of Absolutes they'll stop discounting them. Which, if you're putting off buying them for the future, might make a difference.)
(And in the half hour between my checking it was there and now it's already gone Temporarily Out Of Stock at Amazon. I assume they didn't order enough to cope with back orders.)
There are definitely no plans to ever do one 2500 page book. (I feel guilty enough watching people carrying two of the Absolutes in signing lines: a 36 lb book would just be wrong.) However, I can assure you that the Sandman and Death bookends are heavy enough to cope with holding the Absolutes in place. (I'm using mine for other books, but they're definitely working bookends, not ornaments.)
I've finished the BATMAN half of the story (the actual cover of which can be seen, small, on the back cover of Previews). Now onto the DETECTIVE half, in which much will be explained. Now typing out the last of a short story. Last night was a late birthday dinner, during which Maddy pointed out that when she's 26 I'll be 60.
Much lemon-and-honey and chicken soup is being drunk. And The Graveyard Book (and the P. Craig Russell Coraline Graphic Novel) are on Kirkus's 2008 Year's Best list.
I am a longtime fan and have had the pleasure of meeting you on several occasions at various NYC reading and signings over the years. I had to skip the post discussion signing this time to cover another event (Conor Oberst at Terminal 5). Therefore, since I didn't get to say it in person... Thankyou, to you and Chip for an enlightening, entertaining, and inspirational evening!
If you have a chance I would love for you to take a look at my website www.maniacpumpkincarvers.com I carve really intricate, custom pumpkins each fall.
Thanks again, Marc Evan
Those are some remarkably carved pumpkins. (Even a pig!)
Thanks Marc. We get to see what Chip was wearing in those photos, which I think is important. Posterity needs to know. (There's a wonderful description of the event up at Tor.com -- http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=8526#more -- which reminds me that you can always remember how to spell fuchsia if you bear in mind that the flower was named after a German botanist named Fuchs.)
Have any of your books been translated into Chinese and if so, where can I get one for my son-in-law for for Christmas? I've searched the web with no luck and also checked in 2 bookstores in Hong Kong last week with no results. Thanks. He and my daughter are huge fans and have been at a couple of your book signings in the Twin Cities.
Yup. They're now pretty much all out in complex Chinese characters, and are in the process of coming out in simplified Chinese. Let me look...
Once again, Mr. G is hopping around the globe and it falls to me to post the latest Coraline treats from Focus Features.
Today, the Coraline 1-sheet arrives in theaters! But you do not need to dash out to see it, my dears, because I have the exclusive debut sneek peek right here!
* = Or, for those of you in parts of the world not celebrating Halloween, consider this an early All Saints Day present. And LJ commenters may post pictures of themselves as saints, photoshopped or costumed.
Tonight's event was lovely, and fairly small -- about 75 people, so the signing after was really pleasant and stress-free. A really interesting interview by Naomi Alderman, about comics and books and Jewishness and Will Eisner and such.
...
I think there are strange social conventions growing up about the nature of privacy. I'm sitting working quietly in the drawing room of my London hotel. Five feet behind me four Americans are talking and drinking coffee. They are rich and elderly, and are, at least according to their conversation, Republican bigwigs (or at least big donors and somehow influential), and are doing something that sounds perilously close to an early post-mortem on the upcoming election. I should be typing Batman, and keep finding myself listening to conversations about what one of them said to the Governor of New York ("I said to him, you govern like a Republican,"), Cindy McCain's successful stock dealing and medical history, a lot about why John McCain should have listened to them and gone with Joe Lieberman as vice presidential candidate, how the gentleman doing much of the talking's delay in selling (of all things) Marvel stock just lost him $160,000 in the stock market plunge... it's not the sort of conversation that I would expect people to be having in a public place -- or rather, if I put a conversation like this in a public place in a novel, I would pop the balloon of credibility for many of the readers. They seem convinced that they are unheard. It's like listening to someone being broken up with by a loved one over a cell-phone on a train. I wonder if the public space and the private space are just changing.
I was fascinated by the story of the lady who carved a Backwards B into her face, and claimed it had been done by a big bad black Obama supporter. Or at least, by one line in the report I read, "She was upset with the media for blowing this into a political firestorm." You know, the media gets an awful lot of stick, but I can't help thinking that it's not their fault (nor would the media reaction have been much changed if a black Obama supporter had claimed that a man in a KKK hood had carved a backwards J into her face). What on earth did she expect would happen? Ah well. The personal is political, and I suppose these days the lunatic is political too.
Dear Neil, I was wondering if you read your fan page on facebook, (because most people seem to think that you do) but I couldn't find an answer on your site.
Hi Neil, I attended your talk on piracy vs. obscurity on friday and I wanted to ask you a question but was too nervous and then spent the whole weekend wishing I had asked you. I was wondering, in relation to the case of Stephanie Meyer's partial draft of Midnight Sun getting posted on the internet before completion, how would you feel and how do you think you would react if something you were working on got posted online before you had completed it? Also thakyou for a very interesting talk, it made me look at the issue in a very different way from the way I did before. Suzanne
I'd feel astonishingly grumpy. World class grumpy. Grumpy beyond belief. Part of making art is that you don't want people to see it until it's done. Sometimes you don't even want them to know what it is until it's done.
When The Graveyard Book was finished in first draft, I got a strange message on the FAQ line from someone someone who'd got hold of a pirated version from within Harper Collins, complaining about a bit of it. It was, I discovered when I replied, from a false email address, and was actually useful, in that the person had misread something completely and realising how they'd misread it meant that I could fix something in Chapter 7 so no-one else would have that trouble. But it also left me resolved that the next time something goes into a publisher in first draft, it won't go beyond my publisher and my editor.
Hi Neil. Is "Dream Hunters," with Anano going to be in Volume 4 of Absolute Sandman? Or am I going to have four giant books with one little one next to them to have the complete Dream collection?
Originally the plan was for just the original four volumes of Absolute Sandman. Now there's talk of a fifth, which would have Dream Hunters and Endless Nights and possibly more in it, partly because of the requests that have been coming in here from people. I don't think DC Comics have made any decision yet.
Hi Neil,
on August 8, you wrote that you might have concrete information regarding the Hill House NEVERWHERE very soon. Has anything new come up since then?
Yrs Martin
A rescue plan was put together that would get the Hill House Neverwhere published within all our lifetimes. I believe right now we're still waiting for Pete Schneider to reply to the email. I hope he does soon.
...
When I was interviewed by MTV the other week, they asked what I thought of Louis Laterriere saying he'd like to make a 1602 movie, and I said I thought it would be a fun idea and I'd love to see it. That then, oddly, became a news story (Gaiman Says 1602 Movie a Good Idea). On the latest SPACE podcast, it's mentioned that I was interested in writing this... which, seeing it's all a game of hypotheticals, I don't really mind, but no, no-one's ever asked, and I don't think I'd have any interest in writing a 1602 movie. But you can hear me on the podcast interviewed in a bar about 1602...
A terrific Locus interview with Ursula K LeGuin is extracted in Locus Online, at http://www.locusmag.com/2008/Issue10_LeGuin.html. “I think both science fiction and fantasy are now becoming part of the mainstream. I wanted them to be respected as part of the mainstream -- I didn't want genre snobbishness to prevail. But there is a difference between how you write science fiction and how you write a realistic novel and how you write a western, even if they always have miscegenated (as we used to say). I think it's improving the mainstream, but I'm not sure it's improving science fiction.”
So I got home yesterday at sunrise. Slept all day. Was up all night but not good for much. (This is what sunrise looks like when you get close to my house.)
Today I slept until early afternoon. Then got up and walked the dog. I got very used to using the camera as a diary while I was in China (as a back up for a notebook, and sometimes a substitute), so took the camera along on the walk.
G. K Chesterton observed that one of the best things about being away is that you get to see what you come back to with different eyes.
Found myself amazed by the size of my house, for example. There are a lot of people in China, and they live, on the whole, in much smaller places than mine. (Actually, that's probably true of most of the world: it takes a certain idiocy to want to live in an Addams Family House in the first place). But having, over the last month, met a number of families in which several generations lived in one apartment, spread over -- or squeezed into -- a couple of rooms, it seems really strange to have so much space.
I saw many vegetables growing, pumpkins even, while I was in China, where I also learned that pumpkin vine tips make a great stir-fry-vegetable (if you peel off the fuzzy stuff first). And was happy to see that I had a few pumpkins in my garden. Not many, but enough.
Was pleased to observe, on my walk, that the falling-down barn has not yet fallen down.
Astonished and delighted to see blackberries. I planted the one blackberry bush about five years ago, and people would always decide it was a weed and mow it or cut it. Finally, earlier this year, we put big metal rods up to persuade people not to mow over it, and now I'm home and, gosh, blackberries. Not as nice as the ones in my grandma's back garden, when I was a boy, mind.
Also a grape-trellis covered with grapes. Really yummy ones.
Lorraine tells me that Cabal was depressed while I was away, and he went off his food and moped. He's been extremely happy since I've been back. I have not the heart to tell him I'm going off on tour soon. (Maddy knows, but she assures me that as manager of the volleyball team she will probably not have time to really miss me. She is probably just telling me this to make me feel better.) (I just read that to her and she says, "Say 'PS Maddy will totally miss me', so they don't get any wrong ideas.")
A tree in front of my writing gazebo has been cut down, I notice. It was a sapling when the gazebo was built, but had grown and was cutting off the light.
Brightly coloured fungus on the side of trees. Tomorrow, when I walk, I may look for giant puffballs in the woods, but without enthusiasm, as they are my least favourite of the edible mushrooms. (Which reminds me -- when I was in China I was fed something called both Bamboo Pith and Bamboo Fungus, also known, less appetisingly, as the Stinkhorn. I googled and wound up learning all about the unexpected but, for ladies at least, gratifying qualities of the fresh stinkhorn. Dried and reconstituted with bamboo shoots, it would not have the same effect.)
And also, while I was gone, the remarkable Hans put in an electric fence. There have been more and more sightings of bears in this region, and we've been assured that an electric fence will keep bears out of the beehives, as long as the bears don't get to them in the first place. (Which is to say, if you have a beehive and a bear gets into it and then you put up an electric fence, the bear will cheerfully go through the fence to get to the honey.)
And because, not unreasonably, the last time I posted dog photos, many people asked for pictures of cats, and because I don't think Coconut (who was, long ago, Maddy's kitten) has ever been photographed in this blog, here are Princess (sitting) and Coconut, in the front hall, where the dog is not allowed to go.
I went to the Humane Society today and picked up their list of Things They Need, and gave it to Lorraine. She went out and bought bleach and cat food and peanut butter and so on, then went up to the Humane Society to drop the stuff off.
She returned much later carrying a cardboard box containing a calico kitten with whom she had fallen in love, and was last seen taking the kitten home to introduce to her Bengals. This is Princess glaring at the calico kitten...
And this is Lorraine's new kitten, puffed up and halloweeny in order to persuade everyone that she is in fact a very big cat indeed.
Nobody asked me to do it, but then, when Douglas asked me if I'd like to adapt Life, The Universe and Everything for radio I said no, and that was with Douglas alive and asking. (Dirk Maggs did it, and did an excellent job.) It seemed a thankless task.
I like Eoin very much, and wish him well with the book. He'll probably write a sixth Hitchhiker's book with more enthusiasm, and certainly faster, than Douglas would have done. But it won't be a Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's book.
For the record, if I don't get around to writing a sequel to something while I'm alive, I'd very much rather that nobody else does it once I'm dead. It should exist in your head or in Lucien's library, or in fanfic. But that's me, and not every author feels the same way.
Hello Neil,
This is almost a dangerous question to ask you, because it is about something John Byrne has said. But as a large proponent of libraries, I was curious as to your thoughts on something he recently stated regarding trade paperbacks in libraries: "Ever since I started writing for a living, I have found myself viewing libraries somewhat differently than once I did. I think we are all in agreement that libraries are A Good Thing -- but are they A Good Thing right across the board? When we have niche products like comics, is it really a good idea for them to be available in libraries?"
I don't think it's a dangerous question, and it has a remarkably easy and straighforward answer, which is, Yes, it's a very good idea for them to be in libraries.
Hello Neil,
First off, I hope this email finds you well.
I've planned to attend the Library of Congress book festival and just wanted to know if there are any general rules of etiquette for your signings.
Is there a book limit for signing?
Can a say a few words about how much I enjoy your work in person? I promise it won't last longer than 15 nervous seconds.
Most importantly, how early should I arrive before the likely rush of other frothing fans?
These questions constantly roll in my mind. I'd hate to add extra weariness to a likely hot, humid, noisy,(yet still awesome) festival.
Thanks for coming to the southeast!
Sincerely, Dan
The book limit will depend on how many people there are, and how many people I can get through in the time I've got. It'll be announced at the signing, but it won't be more than three books, and it may well be only one.
And of course you can talk to me. Most people seem to use the signing line as an opportunity to say thank you, and most authors are pleased to hear that they've made a difference, or just to be thanked. We like it if you say hello, honest.
How early you should get there? I don't know. Each time I've signed at the LoC Book Festival it's been different. According to the website this time it's:
Teens & Children Pavilion
11:45-12:15 pm (This is a short reading from The Graveyard Book, and a Q&A).
Book Signing
1-3 pm (and it'll probably go longer if they don't need the space, but may be cut off if they don't have anywhere to move it to, or have something else planned for me at 3.00pm).
We may wind up with people who would like to be at the reading/Q&A who skip it in order to be early in the signing line. But that's if the book festival has actually told people where to line up for the signing, which they may or may not do.
Last time people were in the signing line before dawn. I don't think that would work this time, as I'm not doing a morning signing. So we'll see.
Hey Neil, I would love to know what time the Columbia University reading is taking place on September 30th. I am very excited t go but don't know what time to arrive. Thanks.
I see in "Where's Neil" that you'll be doing a signing in New York City and Philadelphia. With New Jersey right in between, why not a stop here?
Because the people who aren't on the East Coast, some of whom are travelling hundreds of miles to get to the readings, would rise up as one person in their anger at the unfairness of it all, and destroy New Jersey in their rage. Which would be sad, because there are lots of bits of New Jersey that are actually quite nice.
When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she (allegedly) attempted to get books she didn't approve of out of the public library. This is scary. Are free speech organizations like the CBLDF and the First Amendment Project going to take this issue on?
What you fight is specifics: bad laws, bad arrests and the like. People trying to ban books and comics and people trying to stop other people selling or publishing or creating comics and books and suchlike.
You don't fight "alleged attempts to get books out of a public library" ten years ago. To "take this issue on" I suspect would consist, Father Ted-like, of people walking around Sarah Palin with placards saying "Down with This sort of Thing" and "Careful Now", which would probably not result in increased freedom of speech. Although it might be funny.
Hi Neil! This Andrew Drilon (I was the creator "Lines and Spaces", the Alex Niño tribute comic which won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Award last year). I've been making lots of short comics since then, under the banner title Kare-Kare Komiks, and they've gotten nice comments from people like Emma Bull and Warren Ellis, so I thought you might be interested:
Anyway, I'll be posting "Lines and Spaces" there tomorrow, for those who are planning to enter the contest this year (the deadline's at the end of the month), and I'm hoping you can help spread the word.
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK leads off the ABA Fall 2008 Children's Indie Next List. Looking at the rest of the list, it appears that if you want to target ages 4-8 then you're best bet is to have a naughty protagonist, especially if its an animal, whereas if you are writing for ages 9-12 then you should have "dragon" or "magician" in the title. Look for my new children's book, The Very Naughty Dragon Magician, this spring.
Mr. G emailed me this picture of himself on the plane late last night. I assume he intended it to be posted, since he's never sent me pictures of himself before. Maybe he heard that the commenters on the LJ feed doubted that he needs a haircut and is offering evidence to back his claim? His plane didn't take off until the wee hours of the morning; hopefully he was able to get some sleep.
A few people have written to ask how we are going to keep the Robo
...to mark the passing of Edd Cartier (and the nearly-done-ness of 2008). Of all the pulp magazine artists of the 30s-50s, including such masters as Virgil Finlay and Kelly Freas, Cartier was my favourite, particularly his work in Unknown Worlds. Marvellous stuff. If I had known he was still alive, I suspect I would have written him a fan letter. Instead, I discovered the other day, from Locus, that he (and James Cawthorn, who was, with Mal Dean, the definitive Moorcock illustrator) had just died, and now I know that Mr Cartier was alive, it's too late.
...and it only seems a bit strange, in my head, that there should be Coraline toys.
