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Today felt like a ghost day. It was warm enough that there was something that might have been a fine rain and might have been mist, and it hung over the snow, and it made the world unreal.



I wandered out with a camera and a dog to try and shoot the mist-world, and mostly I failed, because the camera was too good at compensating for the mistiness

Below is the barn. It was falling down when we moved here in August 1992. It's even older than the house -- probably about 150 years old. After fifteen years it's really falling down -- it's dangerous, and I'm probably going to have to bite the bullet and get it taken down this year. Sigh.

And Princess the cat has moved into a tree. She's up the tree right now.

I'd go out with a ladder and rescue her, except that she keeps coming down to eat and zooming back up her tree again. I'll leave finding her in the photo below as a task for the sharp-eyed. And yes, I know I need to do an update on all the cats, and I shall...

Hi Neil,

I live in the sunny UK, and am very much looking forward to EasterCon this year - my first convention, so approaching it with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation!

Any chance that you might be persuaded to fit in a preview reading of The Graveyard Book....? Not sure I can wait more than six months for a hint of it!! Perhaps it could clash with one of the bondage sessions, I wasn't intending to go to them! :-)

Cheers,

Sarah

I'm definitely doing a reading at Eastercon (and will be doing stuff every day of Eastercon, for those people who wanted to know what day I'd be there) although from checking the schedule, it looks like it's a Wolves in the Walls reading (following the Make Your Own Pig Puppet program item). The current version of the schedule is at http://www.orbital2008.org/programme.html. On Sunday afternoon I've got a 90 minute Guest of Honour spot to fill, and will probably do a reading as part of that, and really, I want to find out what some bits of The Graveyard Book sound like when you read them out loud. So I think it's extremely likely.

Hi Neil,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs.shtml

Record: Sailing By - BBC Concert Orchestra

Book: Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series

Luxury: Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Alex

That's terrific. The castaway is West End Star Michael Ball (who I saw in Sondheim's Passion). (I wish that Desert Island Discs was something you could hear on demand.)

Interesting reading the comments over at Boing Boing (two recent threads here and here) -- my favourite was the one from the person who was convinced that, because there was a busy Barnes and Noble near him, reading for pleasure had never been more popular.

Here's an article on the statistics of books that I recommend to anyone interested in book-buying, reading, fiction-reading and suchlike topics -- http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-21-reading_N.htm.

Lots of you wrote to point out the article in this month's WIRED about Free...

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=1

...

And finally, I pinched this from the birdchick blog -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/28/wbird128.xml -- a strange version of Mowgli syndrome.

Russian care workers have rescued a seven-year-old “bird-boy” who can
communicate only by “chirping” after his mother raised him in a virtual aviary,
it has been reported.

Authorities say the neglected child was found
living in a tiny two-room apartment surrounded by cages containing dozens of
birds, bird feed and droppings.

Rochom was found wandering naked in
the Cambodian jungle in 2007
The so-called “bird-boy” does not understand any
human language and communicates instead by chirping and flapping his arms.

It's perfect Autumn weather out there. Crisp and cool and sunny and wonderful. Perfect walking in the woods weather. Well, that's what the dog thinks, and who am I to argue?



At night, the tree below catches and strangles any living creatures that get close enough, but even it looks practically normal on a day like today.


The greenery in the background is buckthorn, which we're trying to eliminate as an invasive species. We're right now accumulating an enormous pile of the stuff to burn, which you can see below and in the topmost picture...

The burning won't be on November the 5th this year, because that's the Beowulf premiere...
...


I just read your 30-second scary story and thought it was a lot of fun. You're right: it was scary.
Is there any possibility that you will be publishing the 90-second REALLY scary version anywhere?

So I looked and it's up at

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/2007/10/27/_ten_tales_of_terror.html

but do me a favour. Don't read it now. Wait until it's dark, then click on the link and listen to it...

I wish you could read or hear the original, longer version. But I kept cutting it and cutting it to get it down to 30 seconds, and didn't save as I went. I guess I could write a new version, but then I'd be expanding, if you see what I mean. (And there were people who handed in 70 second stories!) (Shakes head ruefully.)

The title is theirs, incidentally. And the editor has trimmed pauses or sped it slightly, to lose four seconds. (I think if I were doing a show like this I'd suggest people write minute-long stories, if only to allow for the pauses. If you're telling a scary story, it's the pauses that make the listeners do all the work, allowing them to build up the picture in the silence, and scare themselves.)

...

A couple of people have written to ask if I have to stop writing completely when the writer's strike starts. Nope. As a WGAe member I have to stop writing any film or TV, and can't discuss future work or option anything new with film or TV companies -- per http://www.wga.org/contract_07/StrikeRules.pdf The basic principle behind these Rules is very simple: you (and your agent or other representative on your behalf) may not pitch to or negotiate with a struck company, and you may not provide writing services, sell or option literary material to a struck company.

But I'll keep writing things that aren't film or TV...