The hotel that the New Yorker was putting me up in had the best view in the world, even if you were in the bath:
On Saturday, I went and had free ice cream with Daniel Handler (as announced on this blog). I would have liked to meet author Lemony Snicket, but unfortunately he was mysteriously detained and Mr Handler showed up as his representative.
The dodo skull was a present for Countess Cynthia Von Buhler, whose birthday it was. She's an illustrator and artist who also throws parties, and that night was her birthday party, and she had also decided to celebrate Amanda's and my engagement.
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 3/2/2010
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: poetry, Chinese edition, The Graveyard Book, Poland, White German Shepherd Dogs etc, I am really going to Russia, Add a tag
...
I don't have complete details yet on my travels in March. A lot of it's already up on Where's Neil
This one isn't, though:
http://www.nzfestival.nzpost.co.nz/writers-and-readers/once-upon-a-time
which is me and Margo Lanagan in conversation in Wellington on March 12th
I'll go from New Zealand to the Philippines:
Which reminds me.
Dear Mr. Gaiman,
I was most pleasantly surprised to find out that you're coming to the Philippines again.
As soon as I saw the poster announcing your visit, I immediately took the first opportunity to visit the nearest Fully Booked store. That 'visit' ended up just pissing me off, my apologies for the language.
See, I was informed by a salesman in Fully Booked that in order to get the opportunity to have my (a) book/s signed (I've collected your books over the years, but unfortunately, a number were destroyed by Ondoy, the storm that drowned Manila last year. Still, I consider us blessed that we're still alive.), I should purchase at least P2,000 worth of your books. I promptly retorted (poor guy, I didn't mean to be so blunt), "That sucks." To which he replied, "{gibberish, my mind was still reeling}... You can buy MORE thank P2,000, Ma'am." RIGHT. I'm a part-time instructor and a graduate student. That gives me a lot of leeway to spend for what I WANT.
This was last week, and honestly, I'm still pissed off by said requirement. However, I do understand it's a business. There are always expenses and what not such business/marketing considerations. I'm just about ready to resign myself to a 'next time.' The assumption is: I'd have a better-paying job next time, and I'm already done (or almost done) with graduate work. ;p
Still, I AM THANKFUL you come here. You're quite a popular author among Filipino readers (especially young Filipino readers {though I'm already 25, hehe}), and when you come here, inevitably, it promotes not only speculative fiction, or reading of such speculative fiction, but reading in general (which is a MIGHTY GOOD THING). I'm a big believer in reading, that's why I chose Reading Education as my major in graduate studies.
Last but not least, I AM VERY GRATEFUL that you come here because it makes us wee Filipino readers feel important. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that you'd actually come here. And yet you've already come here twice/thrice before! It's a wonderful feeling for us wee readers to be actively considered by an author of your calibre. So...long story short: For writing, for publishing your writing, for sharing your thoughts, and yourself...
THANK YOU.
Bem
I was a bit puzzled by this, as I'd heard originally that the signing
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 11/13/2008
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Coraline movie, Chinese edition, the power of comics, how to spell fuchsia, Add a tag
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.
Hi Neil,
My 4th grade class has created a quite splendid (if I do say so myself) mural of The Graveyard Book. I've a post with some images from it and their responses to the book here:
http://medinger.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/in-the-classroom-the-graveyard-book/
I loved the mural -- and even more than that, I loved the description of reading The Graveyard Book to a fourth grade audience. Thanks so much!
Hitmouse wrote in to say:
Ursula Vernon, writing on The Power of Comics: http://ursulav.livejournal.com/831148.html
She was at a reception for Ahmed Fadaam.
And it was an astonishingly powerful entry that I think everyone should read.
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/13/presence-author/ is a nice account of my day in Las Vegas last week. (That's meant to be a sketch of Death, by the way, not of the young lady in front of me.)
Hey Neil,
I wanted to let you know that a review and photos I took at the 92Y discussion with Chip Kidd are up at QuietColor.com
A Conversation With The Dream king:
http://quietcolor.com/qc/?p=1790
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...
Here's a DangDang.com link to Stardust. And here's an Amazon.cn link to some books by me. (Simplified Chinese). And here's a link to Coraline and American Gods in Complex Chinese characters (and another to books by me).
Does that help?
...
Nearly forgot: An interview with me about Coraline and the upcoming in February Coraline film from Wired online:
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 1/24/2007
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Walker, Sandman, fame, Ambidextrous Computing, Chinese edition, The War on Terror or Drugs or other abstract concepts, podcasts, The first post to mention the Mystery Aide, tidying the office, labels, Add a tag
I'm still proofreading and copyediting. Today I also tackled a small heap of fanmail, some of it going back an embarrassingly long time. Meanwhile Lorraine and the new Mystery Aide were recreating the downstairs office.
You would not believe the strange things that have been found during the haul-everything-out, move-all-the-furniture, move-it-all-back process. Things believed lost for years. Things I'd forgotten I'd ever been given. Amazing, strange things... (All of them currently in plastic tubs in the hall).
The Walker event with me and Dave McKean is up on the web -- http://channel.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=3651
I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with the UK Director of Public Prosecutions, but I do, vigorously. http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1997397,00.html
Do I have to ask you a question? (I only asked so I could comply with the bold "YOUR QUESTION" above this field.)
I just wanted to show you some pictures (not of me, though you probably get some like that - ick, poor you) but of a doll version of Dream that I commissioned last fall. The artist has finished him, and people have been telling me I should show you. Donn, the artist, said it was all right if I did. He sculpted the doll himself and painted it, and a friend of his does the clothes. Donn took the photos. So here you go:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/misanthropicbliss/progress/dream_stand.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/misanthropicbliss/progress/dream_sit.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/misanthropicbliss/progress/dream_stand_clothes.jpg Not bad, eh? :)Take care.- Ceiridwen
That's marvelous. No, you don't have to ask a question (although you're more likely to get a reply if you do). And while nobody ever sends photos of themselves, they do send links to their art, and to things they've made, all of which I look at and a very few of which I post here. This one, for example, I thought was amazing:
Just in case you don't know already...Abi Sutherland, a Making Light regular, is donating a gorgeous specially bound edition of 'The Dream Hunters' to the Mike Ford Auction and Extravaganza at Boskone next month. http://evilrooster.com/items/2007/01/the_dream_hunte.html
Hi Neil,
I suspect you've been bombarded with this one, but in case you haven't this might be another reason why you need a mac http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html
Regards,
Guy
Actually, I think the Mac to PC ratio in the house is now significantly more Macs than PCs. I'm the last PC holdout in the family, and I'm as likely as not to be found using the office iMacs -- more likely for some things. If only they'd make a Macbook that weighed next to nothing, I'd probably grit my teeth and go and find somewhere that would translate all my old WordPerfect 4.2 files into a current more Mac-friendly format, and go over to Mac laptops.
I tend to write on baby laptops that don't weigh much (this is what I've been using for the last couple of years). Sooner or later I'll pick up a new lightweight Macbook and decide I wouldn't mind carrying it through a hundred airports. But they need to make it first...
And the program looks terrific.
You are going to go back through the blog and label all the old entries aren't you? You know...in your spare time...for the sake of completeness.
Lynn
PS: Come on...ya know you want to!
Well, yes. I do want to... I'm not sure where I'd find the time, though. But I promise I'll keep labelling the new ones.
Do you enjoy fame? Reading your journal, I almost feel sorry for you as you describe a press junket, with the continual interviews and sore writing arm. But this is what writers strive for, isn't it? Huge adoring readerships, exotic locales for book signings, bestseller lists. Does fame have an effect on your writing?I saw you read when I was in college in Madison, and was inspired by this floppy-haired Brit with a sense of humor; you looked exactly as a writer ought to look. It gave me some hope that being a writer could be good. I loved Neverwhere, and I adore your effervescent prose, which seems effortless and light as a feather, but like any souffle, I suspect it's actually quite difficult to get it so. And as a separate note, having grown up in Wisconsin, thanks for the descriptions. Your bit about the House on the Rock was perfect. Cheers,-Jessie
Do I enjoy fame? No, not much. I quite like finding myself in interesting places, but I like being at home more. I like having readers, and I like meeting readers, I love reading aloud and I like that I don't have to get up early in the morning and go and do a job I don't enjoy. Making stuff up is still great except when it's not. But I'm never entirely comfortable with the rest of it. It's still weird that I live in a world in which more people know me than I know.
But mostly I don't think about it.
Hi Neil, in fact it’s not a question but a little feedback from one of your Chinese readers. I posted it on neilgaimanboard.com, and some kind people told me you don’t read that board. So I check the fqa and find here to say what I’d say. I hope it weren’t too rude, and I’m sorry if I interrupted you.
American Gods the simplified Chinese version has burst out on December, 2006. My friends and I all read and fell for it. WOW. And the translator treated your baby well. I think the Chinese version is precise and beautiful. It was said Good Omens has been on the way. So, be prepared for the rush of loving words from Chinese dreamers. ^^
...
Best wishes.
Yours,
Carmina
Which I'm mainly posting because normally people write to tell me that the translation in their part of the world is sort of disappointing, and it's lovely to hear about one that people are happy with.
and finally, a few people -- all enthusiastic fans of the site and the podcast -- wrote to let me know about this...
Afternoon Sir!
Not a question as such, more of a heads up. I love genre fiction - always have done. There is a 'podcast' I have been listening to for a while now and most recently they did a 2 part show about your goodself. It's hosted by 2 geordies who have a real passion for anything good - hence you and your work being featured! They have such a relaxed structure to the show, it's like listening to a Ronnie Corbett joke when they're in full flow!
Please give it a listen and let them know how they're doing - it'd mean a lot to them to get some feedback. The show can be found through itunes or at www.starshipsofa.com .
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I know you are busy.
Have a great week,
Alastair Webster
Liverpool.
