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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/what-i-plan-to-do-this-week.html posted by Neil
Write. Walk the dog. (Seen here being walked by me half an hour ago. I was not wearing special protective warm clothing. It was remarkable.) Not go onto the internet except occasionally to email people things they are waiting for. Sleep.
 
Posted via email from Neil's posterous
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/in-which-i-test-posterous.html posted by Neil
 I'm testing http://posterous.com out, as a way of posting to Blogger from my phone, using email. So this is a test posting... I'm attaching the "mass market" paperback cover for Fragile Things, which will be released in the US in February. It shows someone who looks like me with jam, or dreams, or ideas, squidging out of a book and all over him. I finished a short story - technically, I suppose, a novelette, as it's 10,000 words - that I've been working on for much of the year. For most of that time, even through to the end of the first draft, a couple of weeks ago, I was convinced it was never going to work, would be a stunted, crippled little thing that was doomed to disappoint me. I knew it was missing something. What that something was occurred to me last week, exhausted after a yoga session in Boston, as my mind blanked, and later I wrote two short paragraphs in my notebook. Those paragraphs percolated and began to breathe, and I put them in and the story shifted, subtly, around them. The second draft took wing, and I found I was clear enough in my mind about what the story was that taking out things that weren't part of the story and putting in things that were was now easy, and the more I did it the better the story got, and now I'm happier with it than I've been with anything I've written for well over a year. It's called "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains..." and it is not exactly a happy story. Right... Dear Neil, Patrick Rothfuss is making the world a better place in a very tangible way with his charity run Worldbuilders 2009. (http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2009/12/worldbuilders-2009.html) My sphere of influence in this world is rather small, but you could, just by mentioning it in your blog, raise a lot of awareness and thus help a Very Good Cause. It would mean a lot to me, and no doubt a helluva lot more to Pat and the people that receive Heifer's help. Many thanks and much love, a fan of Wonderful People,
Gaetan Verhegge Consider it plugged enthusiastically. I sent Patrick a signed copy of the incredibly beautiful STARDUST Advanced Reader's Copy when he did this last year, and it got to him a little late, so he has that along with many other amazing and beautiful books to give to people who donate. Check it out. Hi Neil, Congrats! You have received three 2009 Goodreads Choice Award nominations: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? in the Graphic Novel category Blueberry Girl in the Picture Book category Crazy Hair in the Picture Book category Blog, tweet, spread the word. Encourage all your fans on Goodreads to vote! Best, Jessica Consider it spread. Hmm. Okay. I'll email this in, now. Not sure how I can do the blogger labels, though. Let's see if it works. Posted via email from Neil's posterous
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/chilly-and-statuesque.html posted by Neil
Ah, I think, for a blog post I really need more than " Coraline has just garnered ten Annie Award Nominations, more than any other animated film". ( Variety) (Congratulations to Henry Selick, to Travis Knight, Dawn French, Shane Prigmore, Shannon Tindle, Bruno Coulais, Christopher Appelhans, Tadahiro Uesugi, Chris Butler, and the whole Laika and Focus crew.) But I am feeling extraordinarily blank. The weather just got cold, and dog-walking tonight was less fun than it should have been; I wore gloves, and solitary crystalline flecks of snow spun into the light of my flashlight-beam and vanished again into the dark. I took Maddy and her friend Anna-Rose to violin tonight, and yesterday I carried the beautiful E. H. Shepard ink-drawing I got myself to celebrate the award in to the framers to be framed. I'm concerned that we should have insulated the beehives by now.
...
Dear Neil,
If you could choose a quote - either by you or another author - to be inscribed on the wall of a public library children's area, what would it be?
Thanks!
LynnI'm not sure I'd put a quote up, if it was me, and I had a library wall to deface. I think I'd just remind people of the power of stories, of why they exist in the first place. I'd put up the four words that anyone telling a story wants to hear. The ones that show that it's working, and that pages will be turned: "...and then what happened?"
...
Oh. I nearly forgot. The short film I made, Statuesque, starring Bill Nighy, Amanda Palmer not to mention Becca Darling and Liam McKean, will be broadcast in the UK on Sky 1 at 10:00pm on Christmas Day.(There are eleven films altogether, and they'll go out every night starting on Dec the 21st, and ending on the 31st.)
 Master Liam McKean can currently be seen in Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Miss Amanda Palmer is probably fast asleep at home in Boston.
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/amazing-audio-things-and-pictures-no.html posted by Neil
For those of you who missed it, here's the NPR "Open Mike" piece I did on audiobooks... You can listen to it here, or download it, or email it... And here, at closer to full length, are the interviews I did with Martin Jarvis and David Sedaris. If you enjoyed the piece, they are filled with wonderful bits that didn't make it in. And the Martin Jarvis interview is practically a masterclass in how to approach doing Audiobooks.
(The strangest moment for me in the Martin Jarvis interview is when he talks about remembering the voices of teachers, and names John Branston and Dick Glynne Jones. I went to Whitgift School in Croydon, which Martin had also attended twenty years before me, and I was taught by both of them. I was in John Branston's production of Julius Caesar at the Fairfield Halls -- and was taught O-level English by Dick Glynne Jones. As he said their names, I thought "He can't be talking about the same people..." but of course, he was.) There's a sort of interview with me, and a gallery of snapshots, over at http://www.lomography.com/magazine/lomoamigos/2009/11/30/neil-gaiman-shoots-with-the-lc-a-plus. I love the low-tech magic of the camera, and the wonderful hodgepodge nature of the shots, particularly the ones that are a mixture of art and documentary, such as the moment when a collapsing shelf deposited the contents of a make-up bag into a toilet, Amanda's doomed attempts to make friends with sheep, or a photo that should not have come out (given the amount of available light) of my goddaughters watching the DVD of Coraline with their 3D specs on...
For me, the most exciting bit is that they gave Dave McKean a camera to play with. I can't wait to see what he did.
I've grabbed a few more shots from their gallery. Here's the Queen of Sheep herself...  Maddy's friend Claire, at San Diego airport...  And here's Ivy McCloud (almost invisible, far right) and my goddaughters and their friend... ... I was reading the book "Coraline". I finished then told my parents about it. I was wondering if this book has any religouiseness to it. I tried, but only found what you've writen so i'm hoping you can tell. Just curioseI don't think so. Although I think people bring religious points of view to books, and read them from those perspectives. You sounded good on NPR this morning, so good you need your own radio show.If I sound good, it's because Maeve McGoran, my producer, and Barry Gordemer, the editor, did such a sterling job. Finding the time to make this, to do the interviews and put it all together, took months. I'd love to do more radio, for NPR or for Radio Four in the UK, but I think it will always be little one-off projects. But I loved doing it.
...
Here's one that contains a Graveyard Book spoiler:
Dear Mr. Gaiman:
How is Silas erasing Scarlett’s memory of events preceding justified in The Graveyard Book? When the reason given isn’t satisfactory, and is it?, doesn’t it become the Problem of Scarlett? You know what I mean. I've just about read the Problem of Susan from Fragile Things which was so brave of you to write or, rather, re-write.
I thought it was so god-like of Silas to do what he did at the same time so unnatural of him to. It meant a reasonably strong character like her couldn't stare reality in its face bravely and overcome it which is what fairy-tales are about, be it children's, YA's, or adult's.
Your Sandman fan,
Ahimaz.
Silas did what he did because he thought it was for the best. Whether it was the wisest thing he could have done, in the circumstances, remains to be seen.
.... Hi Neil,
I live in Naperville, IL, and I just heard about your appearance in February for the Naperville Reads program. No one around town seems to have a whole lot of information about the events so far though. I was wondering if you had more information about what you'll be doing here, and if any of the events will be open to the public? Thanks!I don't know yet. When I get a schedule, I'll put it here, and at Where's Neil. Hi,
Before I book flights I was wondering if you could let us know if you're doing a signing at the NZ talk, or if you plan on doing a signing elsewhere in Wellington that weekend? I'd hate to have to get back on the plane only to discover later that I'd missed out on a signing op at Arty Bees Books by mere hours...
And your Captcha anti-spam thing just asked me to write down "$2-mil manistee". I thought you should know.
MikeI think there's a signing or two involved, but it'll be organised by the Festival (tickets to the main event at http://www.nzfestival.nzpost.co.nz/writers-and-readers/town-hall-talk-neil-gaiman (The signings normally follow the events.) I plan to go to Amanda's gig, and will probably sign afterwards to keep her company. Hi, Neil! Are going to sign any books at UCLA on February 4th, 2010? If so,before or after the discussion? Or do can we buy signed books?I don't believe there are signings at the UCSB or the UCLA talks. I know I've been asked to sign sheets to stick in books (or perhaps to presign books), so there will definitely be something available. Hi Neil,
Don't know if anyone's pointed it out to you, but the postscript at the end of your article in The Writer's and Artist's Year Book has the films of Beowulf and Stardust being released in 1987!
Ooops!
Regards,
MarkYup. And the wonderful Chris Riddell is Paul Riddell in the text as well. Ah well. Mysterious goofs happen.
...
Finally, a message from Beth at Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs:
Would you please put up a little plug for the current Vampire sets and tees? I'd like people's winter money to go to a good cause, and we're getting to our cutoff date on orders that we can get out to people in time for Christmas. The perfume plus tarot card sets are at:
http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/vampiretarot.html
And the tees are at:
http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/vampiretarot-bptp.html
The Snow, Glass, Apples locket is at:
http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/neilgaiman.html
We still have a few sets of Sunbird left:
http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/sunbird.htmlI'm happy to plug them here. They'll make great gifts. The Sunbird scent is amazing, comes with a chapbook, and is almost gone. The proceeds from the scents and tee shirts go to the CBLDF. The proceeds from the lockets and medallion go to Alzheimer's Research.
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/bit-sad-but-it-ends-with-toast.html posted by Neil
I went to Boston and spent Thanksgiving with Amanda and her family. It was wonderful. I spent any spare moments reading comics for a book I am guest editing next year. ( This is a photo of us on the pavement outside her house.)
Now I'm home. Typing a blog entry, listening to TV Smith's Live CD.
...
The saddest moment of the trip was lunchtime today, and a call from Roz Kaveney to let me know that our friend Rob Holdstock had died, of an e.coli infection. He was only 61. When I stumbled into the world of SF and Fantasy, over 25 years ago, as a young journalist, Rob, already a successful and award-winning author, was absolutely friendly, welcoming and encouraging. A big, affable man, with a knack for putting people at their ease, he was always one of the Good Things about the British SF world. His book Mythago Wood was one of my favourite novels of the 1980s. I saw him less and less since I've lived in the US; like too many UK friends, I'd see him mostly at publishing parties and book launches. He died too early. My condolences to Sarah, his partner.
...
Big congratulations to Henry Selick, to all at Laika and to Focus for the Coraline Film, which won the Children's Feature Film award at the BAFTAs last night ( http://www.bafta.org/awards/childrens).
...
...
The Green Goddess restaurant in New Orleans gets reviewed in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Note that they do not tell you that if you oh-so-casually ask for the Meze of Destruction, they will make a fuss of you and bring you Something Nice, for this is something you would only learn here.
... And finally, over at http://twitpic.com/rhg4t, @heydeletethat does portraits of me and Amanda. On Toast. I mean, that's art on Toast.
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