This poor website's had quite a buffeting in the last 24 hours, what with the launch of All Hallows Read (the
allhallowsread.com website is run off
neilgaiman.com). Sorry if you've had trouble. The Webgoblin has upgraded everything, and it should be working again by now.
I just came back from Radio K.N.O.W. in St Paul, where I recorded a segment for NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED - they've started the Back Seat Book Club for kids, and picked
The Graveyard Book as their lead title.
Here's their article on the Book Club. More questions are still coming in, so I promised I'd answer some next week at their site.
I also recorded a couple of little things in the studio there for the introductions I've been doing to the
Neil Gaiman Presents line at Audible.com.
This is something I'm really excited about. Don Katz at Audible.com knows how much I love audio books, and offered me the chance to have my own record label at Audible, getting books I loved and wanted to hear that had never been audiobooks made as audiobooks and out into the world, with the best readers I could find, using Audible's ACX platform. (The idea of ACX is that there are a lot more books out there than there are audiobooks, so ACX is a way of introducing authors and rights-holders to actor/performer/readers and producers/directors. It's very simple and sensible, and should, I hope, result in a lot more audiobooks out there in the world.)
It's been a year in the planning and now the first five books are out, with a lot more at various stages in the production process.
The first round of audiobooks consists of:
LAND OF LAUGHS by Jonathan Carroll read by Edoardo Ballerini.
YOU MUST GO AND WIN written and read by Alina Simone
PAVANE by Keith Roberts, read by Steven Crossley
LIGHT by M. John Harrison, read by Julian Elfer
THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK by Steven Sherrill, read by Holter Graham
Which is to say, one beautiful work of magical realism about the dangers of having a favourite book, a collection of really funny essays about travel and Russia and being a musician, a collection of stories that become a moving alternate history, a strange and glorious space opera and a work of contemporary americana with a minotaur in it.
You could say "Why aren't these books all the same kind of thing?" and I would say "Because I like lots of different things. And so might you."
Coming up in the next round we will have Ellen Kushner reading SWORDSPOINT and John Hodgman reading Robert Sheckley's hilarious pre-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy galactic travel fantasia DIMENSION OF MIRACLES. And lots, lots more...
I recorded introductions to each book, worked with Audible to acquire the rights, worked with the authors (when they were alive) to choose the readers. I'm ridiculously proud of the whole thing. (There's a lady at Audible.com named Christina Harcar who has done all the heavy lifting and I am very grateful to her, to everyone involved at Audible, and particularly to Don Katz for indulging my madness.)
If you've never tried Audible, it's amazingly easy - you can use your Amazon ID and passwor
Me: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . .
Fuse #8: Hey! Wakey wakey! How was
Kidlit Drink Night?
Me: . . . . zzzzzzzzz . . . wha . . . what?
Fuse #8: Don't pull the sleepy librarian bit on me. You have a job to do. Report!
Me: Dude, I'm exhausted. I was with these awesome Queens librarians and they were talking all this stuff about Eleanore of Aquitaine and, man, I just couldn't keep up. I'm bushed.
Fuse #8: Uh-huh. Yours is such a hard life. Poor baby. You see this? This is the world's smallest violin playing a sad sad song for you. Details! Now!
Me: Can I do it tomorrow? I'm just so tuckered . . . .
Fuse #8: Tomorrow, huh? Is that the same tomorrow when you'll finally write another review of a book? When was the last one you wrote after all? Saturday? Am I imagining things or does your banner say you'll do one every day?
Me: I can't change the banner. It's on my friend Don's site...
Fuse #8: Puh-leeze. Like you've tried to take it down.
Me: Geez, can't a girl get some rest? I've been incredibly busy this week . . .
Fuse #8: Busy having lunches with Roaring Brook Press and socializing with your buddies, you mean. Oh yeah. You're swamped.
Me: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . .
Fuse #8: WAKE UP! Can you promise to get this info out tomorrow?
Me: Um... (so very sleepy) .... do I have to? I'm seeing
Spiderman 3 tonight and I don't know if I'll have time....
Fuse #8: (glowers)
Me: Okay, okay! All right! Tomorrow, I promise. Full details. Aquitaine and all. Cross my heart.
Fuse #8: Damn straight you will. A review wouldn't hurt either.
Me: (under breath) Doggone, bossy blog.
The fuse #8 blog also bosses me.
Fuse#8: Click on my link on your toolbar.
Me: I should work first.
Fuse#8: No! Read me first.
Me: (taps fingers) OK. But tomorrow you have to wait until later in the day.
Love your blog. I'm expecting Fuse #8 withdrawal when I'm on vacation in a few weeks.
We were at Rice to Riches for another hour!!! This is going to be a very sucky day at work. All in the name of fun!
Oh man, I missed all the fun! I can't wait to hear all about it tomorrow!
(AND I missed out on rice pudding, too!)
:-(
This was the cleaned up version. You should hear the language my blog uses when no one's around.
I too missed the rice pudding, maybe for the very first time. This is because Manhattan librarians are inherantly lamer than Queens librarians. True fact.
yeah, we missed you at the rice pudding place. of course, by that time poor eleanor had fallen to the wayside in favor of more... sugary topics.