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I had planned on talking about the recent store visit made by Kadir Nelson or about some of the great books I've just read. However, my husband's brother had a baby girl this morning (the first in 2 generations), and the inlaws are about to descend on us. So, if I have a chance I'll be back later. Otherwise, toodle-loo.

Oh, and it's my friend Topher's birthday, too. Happy Birthday Topher!

The last few days have mostly been spent proofreading -- first the CORALINE graphic novel...
(lovely art by P. Craig Russell. Here's a page with some rats on it)

...and then the second volume of Absolute Sandman. (I've done about 250 pages so far.) I fixed the Joshua Norton announcement declaring himself emperor, which was right in the script but had somehow been changed when it was lettered, and I also changed a word that I realised a few years ago did not mean what I thought it meant when I originally wrote that issue (no, I'm not telling you which word).

Author copies of Interworld and M is for Magic arrived today.

I've reeived my Mysterious Device From the Big Company, and am still in the stage of playing with things and making my mind up. I know it's brilliant in theory, not so sure about it in practice, yet.

I learned from a Variety article that Beowulf would be at the Venice film festival, but I asked and was told it probably wasn't going to happen. The New York Times correctly says that Beowulf will be in 3D where available.

Hi Neil, I have a recoloring question regarding Death in the (absolutely gorgeous) Absolute Sandman volume(s). In the original comics, Death had a vaguely "flesh tone" skin color (albeit very pale) in "The Sound of Her Wings," but appeared to have totally white skin for the rest of the series. In the Absolute volume, she now has a more clearly defined pinkish skin color (contrasting with Dream's white) not only in TSOHW but also in "Men of Good Fortune." So my (long-winded) question is: will this change be made to Death in her later appearances in subsequent volumes? And if so, why the change? Thank you! Jon Van Hoose

Death was meant to have pale skin, but not white, and that was how she was coloured in Sandmans 8 and 13. On her third appearance (in "Facade", Sandman 20, reprinted in Absolute Sandman Volume 1) Steve Oliff coloured her white, and it stuck that way for the rest of the series. I'm not really sure why the change. I used to get to approve things up to the point of colouring, but the production process back then meant I never got to see the coloured art until it was printed. (I was thrilled working on 1602 and Eternals to find that I could see -- and make little corrections -- on the actual colour.) And no, we won't recolour her.

Glad to see you doing the beekeeping thing. I've beenconsidering getting a hive for some time now and actually have theequipment (i.e. hat, veil, smoker, etc.). The only thing that worries me a bit is the stinging. I know that's a silly thing to worry about if one is going to keep bees, but still. Have you been stung yet at all, or does it worry you much while you work on the hives?

Currently we (me, the birdchick and her husband Bill, Lorraine and anyone else who helps out with bees) have a pool, and the first one of us to get stung gets $10 from each of the others. Over a month into beekeeping no-one's yet collected anything. I'm not sure that it worries me too much, actually -- bee stings are, I am informed, good for preventing arthritis, something I like the idea of not getting.

Neil -I don't know if anyone has pointed this out to you yet, but a friend of mine recently posted this e-bay auction:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230133612433

It's a tea set based around the Endless, complete with fish-covered Delirium teapot, bag of sand sugar bowl, Despair mirror coasters, heart/broken heart Desire creamer, and of course, tea cups in the shapes of two members of Death's floppy hat collection.Most importantly, of course, 100% of the sale is going directly to the CBLDF through MissionFish.

Just thought you'd like to know.-joe-

Good to know.