How to use this Page

Add a Comment

I've spent the last three days in Naperville, Il. (and sometimes, I have been told, in Aurora Il.), near Chicago, where I was the guest author for NAPERVILLE READS. On the first night I arrived and signed 3,000 books for Anderson's Books, who are hosting this. (It took 3 hours and 10 minutes, with people helping stack up books and put them away). Then from school-starting time in the morning until late at night I got to talk to elementary schools, to middle schools, to high schools, to universities, to adults and to "families". Becky from Anderson's says I spoke in front of, and answered questions from, 8,000 people altogether (which is why we decided early on not to even think about signings). I did readings from (or of) Crazy Hair, The Wolves In the Walls, Instructions, The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, Coraline, Odd and the Frost Giants, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens, Stardust, Anansi Boys and American Gods.

And today it is all done and I am utterly and entirely pooped, trashed and tired on a cellular sort of level ("My me hurts" as I tweeted somewhere near the start of the process). I still have to fly home. I couldn't have done it or survived it without Elyse Marshall from Harper Collins, who flew in to make sure it worked. (And who was called late last night by the airline to let her know her plane back was already cancelled due to Weather in New York, so is not sure when, if ever, she will be getting home.) I want to thank all at Anderson's, the staff and principals of the various establishments of education I turned up at, and everybody who came to hear me read and talk, who braved wild microphones and asked questions anyway.

Now, I get lunch with Gene Wolfe, as my reward. I've known Gene and Rosemary Wolfe for 27 years. I dedicated Stardust to them.

Add a Comment

Display Comments Add a Comment

1. Go for a run. 

2. Rent a movie.

3. Build a card tower.

4. Write stuff down backwards and then read it in a mirror.

5. Buy a trampoline.  

6. Jump on it.

7. Crank up some tunes.

8. Try to lick your elbow.

9. Read a good book.

10. Clean up your room.

11. Start a blog.

12. Watch people’s fails on YouTube,

13. Prank call a friend.

14. Find a wall and see how high you can get your hand by jumping.

15. Wet your hair and style it.

16. Start a new instrument.

17. Find a job.

18. Put iodine on any open cuts.  Being bored will seem pretty good after this.

19. Go for a walk and comment on people to your self.

20. Learn how to cook something tasty.

21. Write a story.

22. Take a hot shower.

23. See how far you can get a paper airplane to fly.

24. Wikipedia Race (google it).

25.  Think of something else to do when bored and comment it for others to read.

Add a Comment

1. Go for a run. 

2. Rent a movie.

3. Build a card tower.

4. Write stuff down backwards and then read it in a mirror.

5. Buy a trampoline.  

6. Jump on it.

7. Crank up some tunes.

8. Try to lick your elbow.

9. Read a good book.

10. Clean up your room.

11. Start a blog.

12. Watch people’s fails on YouTube,

13. Prank call a friend.

14. Find a wall and see how high you can get your hand by jumping.

15. Wet your hair and style it.

16. Start a new instrument.

17. Find a job.

18. Put iodine on any open cuts.  Being bored will seem pretty good after this.

19. Go for a walk and comment on people to your self.

20. Learn how to cook something tasty.

21. Write a story.

22. Take a hot shower.

23. See how far you can get a paper airplane to fly.

24. Wikipedia Race (google it).

25.  Think of something else to do when bored and comment it for others to read.

Add a Comment

Having a very odd day. In an end-of-tour slightly dazed state, flew to the UK, where I have four days of stuff to do. So far I've done half of my list for Day One -- Saw Holly (oldest daughter) and watched Amanda Palmer perform "I Google You" not on YouTube. In order to do the latter, I found myself agreeing to read the liner notes on the back of Who Killed Amanda Palmer as an on-stage introduction (which was fun), and then being yanked onto a stage to do backing vocals and what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-here-I-think-I've-turned-into-Davy-Jones tambourine on "Oasis" (which was... unlikely).

Problems with cell phones complicated by a just-received email from my assistant pointing out my phone charger is still at home.

Soon I get in car and head into deepest Cornwall for a birthday. Then straight back to London for a day of meetings and interviews. Then I fly home to the US and collapse, completely and utterly.

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Holy toledo things have been busy lately!

Lots of work and lots of family stuff has made it a wee bit difficult to get around to posting on the ol' illustration blog. Add all of that to the fact that I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping and you've got a recipe for disaster more annoying than a weekend long marathon of Ben Affleck movies.

Anyway, hopefully I'm entering a bit of a downspell and hopefully that'll mean throwing something up on here more often.

Hopefully.

I don't like making promises, so we'll just stick with hopefully.

Anyway, my wife has been snapping some pictures of me early in the morning and we think that we've discovered the reason I'm not getting any sleep.

The stupid cats seem to think my head is their bed.

(Don't give me any guff on the black and white stripped quilt. I've had it since I was a kid, it's ugly as sin, it needs to be thrown away, I've heard it all from my wife more than once. I'll tell you the same thing I tell her...it's not going anywhere. That's right, I'm a thirty year old Linus. Deal with it.)

Steve~

Add a Comment

I was able to get a little work done on the above monster piece over the last couple days, though it required me to get little to no sleep in order to do it.

Sleep is a luxury anyway, right?

Right?

Or, wait, no...I'm thinking of an expensive car.

Silly me.

Steve~

Add a Comment

I’ve been enjoying the Blatant Berry Blog. John Berry’s most recent post Personal Politics & The ALA is a short discussion of his view on why he thinks it’s okay for a membership organization to occasionally weigh in on political matters that don’t always seem directly relevant to the general topic of the organization. I am also a person who “mixes up” the personal and political and, like Berry, agree that the line that other people see clearly has not always seemed so clear to me.

Update: Rory has rewritten his earlier post which he took down about dealing with political issues while being on ALA Council. Many of his observations mirror my own.

ala, johnberry, politics

Display Comments Add a Comment