posted by Neil
Today is my daughter Maddy's birthday. She was seven when I started this blog. She's about to turn sixteen. We went out this morning (well, technically yesterday morning) together looking for a car for her - she's spent the last month on the internet, hunting for cars in the price range I've given her than she wouldn't be ashamed to be seen driving. And she found one, and we test-drove it, and now she's going to be a girl with a car, and I feel just a bit older, because my youngest child is driving.I wish she'd come and guest-blog some more, but she says she's self-conscious, as she meets strangers who tell her how much they like it when she blogs, and she would hate to disappoint them. She's the funniest person I know, has the sweetest disposition and the sunniest smile, and I love being with her, whether we're going around the world together having adventures or just watching The Big Bang Theory.
HAPPY SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY, MADDY GAIMAN
I'm flying to the UK on Sunday for the Doctor Who table read on Tuesday. This morning I was sent the producers' "this is what we can afford" edited draft of my Doctor Who script. I'll do a polish on that. And then we're pretty much done. I think. I hope. I pray.
(Seeing a few people have asked, writing a Babylon 5 episode was much simpler: I think it was two drafts. But it was all existing sets and basically no special effects. My Doctor Who episode is Bigger in every way, inside and outside: I've asked them for the impossible, and they've knocked themselves out to give it to me, and when they can't they've managed to somehow give me the very improbable.)
...
Neil,
I am preparing to have about 12 super reluctant Jr High boys listen to a CD of the Graveyard Book, as they follow along in their books. I haven't been able to find any lesson plans on this book. Will you please take a minute to tell us a little about the background of this book, and maybe some additional graveyard ideas you left out. We are pretty excited to get started.
Thanks, Dianne the Librarian
I asked Elyse Marshall from Harper Childrens, and she said:
Here is a link to our reading guide: http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/ReadingGuides/0060530928.pdf It has excellent discussion questions and extension activities – perfectly suitable for teachers. The guide was written by a middle school teacher with this audience in mind, actually.
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 7/23/2010
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, bigger on the inside, anansi boys, amanda palmer, dog photograph, Add a tag
posted by Neil
A few years ago, the BBC World Service did an adaptation of my novel Anansi Boys. I’m a big fan of radio drama, and a huge admirer of the director who did it, but things went a bit wrong. The biggest thing that went wrong went wrong right at the beginning, when the World Service, coping as best they could with budget cutbacks and less broadcasting time for drama, decided it would have to be an hour-long adaptation. And bad things happen when novels get cut down to an hour. So despite a really terrific cast and production and as solid a script as could be in the circumstances, I was not happy. It felt like one of those Readers' Digest condensed books.I decided to do Anansi Boys as a TV series, and to the script myself. And no sooner had I decided to do that, when I got a call from a Hollywood Producer.
“I was on tour with [a star who shall be anonymous for now],” he said. “And I bought the paperback of Anansi Boys in an airport to read on the plane. We started reading bits of it to each other for the rest of the tour. Can we make this into a movie? Will you write the script?”
I normally say no to adapting my own stuff into film. But I wanted an Anansi Boys adaptation I could be proud of, and the radio adaption had left me wanting to go "No, this is what I meant". So I said yes.
And I set time aside to work on it. I was going to start in late March 2009.
At the beginning of March 2009, my always-healthy father died unexpectedly, of a heart attack, during a business meeting.
Oddly enough, Anansi Boys begins with Fat Charlie Nancy’s father dying of an unexpected heart attack, which sets the events of the story into motion, although his heart attack is embarrassing and funny. My dad's wasn't really either.
And for about a year, I’d open Final Draft (my scriptwriting program). I’d open the Anansi Boys script. I’d look at the three or four pages that I'd done for a bit. Write a sentence, or delete one. Then I’d close Final Draft and do something else. Write a short story. Work on a book. Blog. Anything, really. I just didn't write the Anansi Boys screenplay.
Which carried on until March this year. I went out to LA for the Oscars, as CORALINE had been nominated for Best Animated Picture. I’d even written an interview with her, animated by Travis Knight, that was shown during the Oscar ceremonies, which is, I'm pretty sure, so far the single thing I’ve written that has been seen by the most people. The Oscar ceremonies fell on the anniversary of my dad’s death. It was a very strange, sad day – made peculiarly worse because I knew I should have been enjoying it, and I wasn't.
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 2/9/2010
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: birthdays, blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, Add a tag
posted by Neil
Now we are nine.
I keep doing things I think are temporary and then most definitely aren't. I don't really know how much longer this blog has to go -- enough time to tend it and keep it growing and flourishing the way I know I should is harder and harder to find -- but when I started I never expected it to last nine years.
To celebrate, http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/9th_Blogiversary is the page where you can post your own photo of you doing something with a nine in it.
The last time we did something like this, the day I had 666,666 followers on Twitter, it became http://www.neilgaiman.com/extras/6by6/mosaic01.jpg, and then it became this extraordinary The Garden of Earthly Delights at http://www.uslot.com/neilballoons/ (You will need Silverlight to view this last one properly. I mention this because, for reasons on which I have never been entirely clear, people who will happily download and install all manner of other software, apps and plug-ins will lurch into righteous 'But it needs Silverlight -- how can you DO this to me?,' mode without warning.)
Above is Maddy Gaiman, occasional contributor to this blog, wishing it a Happy Birthday.
Above is Maddy Gaiman, occasional contributor to this blog, wishing it a Happy Birthday.
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 7/3/2009
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: balloons, Todd Klein, blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, why Chip Kidd ought to have his own chat show, Add a tag
posted by Neil
I went to Los Angeles, had a sort of a working holiday, came home, and am writing. Working out a lot with the trainer, got a new trampoline. The cherry tree is covered in cherries, and the wild raspberries (red and black) are out in the woods, and I find them when I walk the dog. Nights here are filled with fireflies. Steve Brust came over for dinner tonight and brought his puppy, and we talked about stories and writing until late. It's a good world.
That's about it for excitement at this end. Lots of people have written in asking stuff about me and Amanda, and I don't really know how to answer them. Either they're really nice and pleased for us and encouraging and don't need answering, or they're the kind of things that leave me deeply puzzled, and to which the only responses are "Isn't that a bit personal?" or "Probably none of your business I'm afraid," or even "Why would you write things like that?"
Hello Neil,
Why don't you blog more often?
Just a death wish I guess. Your blog is a wonderful thing to read.
I have a rare case of skin cancer and your blog cheer me up!
Mostly because I have less to say right now, I think. Or at least, I hate repeating myself. The blog's eight years old, and over one million three hundred thousand words long. That's a lot of things. People write me lots of questions still, but so often they're questions that have already been answered on the blog, usually at some length -- the kind of things that make me think that I should spend time I could spend writing again (say) how you get an agent in, instead, organising things and getting a really useful FAQ up and running, or just a way of finding things, particularly advice on writing.
Obviously, I'm sorry you have a rare case of skin cancer, and I would be just as sorry if it was a common sort of skin cancer. So here, to cheer you up and fulfill your dying wish: a blog, and a link to an interview http://www.wmagazine.com/w/blogs/editorsblog/2009/06/29/neil-gaiman-on.htm and also to an amazing Daily Telegraph piece in which a bunch of writers and artists suggest books for younger readers http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5720639/Summer-Reading-for-Children-Adventures-to-enchanting-worlds.html.
Todd Klein, letterer extraordinaire has the fourth in his series of prints out. The art is by J. H. Williams III, and you can see it here.
Back in November I was interviewed by Chip Kidd at the 92nd St Y. (I talked about it on the blog at the time.) The whole talk, with Karen Berger's introduction and all, is up now on YouTube, and is embedded here for your pleasure. It's an hour and a half.
And finally, there are now more than 666,666 people following me on Twitter. So we had a party. It's still ongoing, the party, over at http://bit/ly/666party and to join in all you have to do is upload a photgraph of you and a Balloon. And once 600 people showed up at the party, the webgoblin made this: a mosaic.
Labels: blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, balloons, why Chip Kidd ought to have his own chat show, Todd Klein
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 4/7/2009
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, what happens when you just take the last seven questions to come in and answer them, Add a tag
posted by Neil
I think it's time to see what's in the mailbox. I think I'll just grab the last half dozen or so messages that came in and answer, rather than pick them out and select, and see what happens:I am running under XP Professional SP3. I have three internal drives and two external USB drives. Occasionally the drive letters of one of the internal drives and one of the external drives are exchanged. I have unable to determine the cause. Can you help?
I'm afraid not.
Hello
My question is in regards to the upcoming book tour. At the signing sessions will I be able to bring my Sandman book to get signed? or is it only the new book that Neil will be signing?
Thank you for your time Darrell Moher.
When I do book signing tours you're normally welcome to bring anything along to be signed, but I don't think I'm doing a signing tour currently.
Hi Neil,
Kind of a circuitous question, but here we go. Recently, I came across a character in a book whose name was Grace-of-God Milacar, who in turn made me think of your assortment of Witchfinder Army recruits with similar hyphenated religious names. Then I found out that there was a 17th century English economist named Nicholas Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barbon, apparently the son of one Praise-God Barbon. I was wondering if Mr. Barbon was an inspiration for the names in Good Omens? Or did you have a different source?
~Kathryn
There were lots of great Puritan names like that. I don't think any specific one was our inspiration. A quick google showed a bunch of them at http://gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/England-Medieval/Puritan.htm (Here's Nicholas "Damned" Barbon's Wikipedia entry.)
I was wondering who contributed to the image of Robin Goodfellow in The Kindly Ones. Was it yours or the artist's? And what was the inspiration for him?
I've never seen a representation of him like that and I was intrigued
Charles Vess originally designed that version of Robin Goodfellow in Sandman #19, based on my script. ABSOLUTE SANDMAN Volume 1 has the original script and design work for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in it, and if you read that, all will be made clear.
Good Evening!
I am such a big fan (right, like you've never heard that before)! Imagine my surprise to see you walk into Amazing Thailand in Uptown on April 5 (I was with the large group in front of the window). I have to admit, I had to force myself to stay in my seat and not run all fan-girly up to you and ask for your autograph. At any rate, I just wanted to say that I love your work, especially the movie "Coraline". I am trying to convince my husband that it's the perfect name for a future baby girl. Hope you enjoyed your food as much as I did (it really is "amazing"). ~Mary
Thank you. I would probably have been very nice, if slightly taken aback, if you had run over and asked for me to scribble on something, and I am sure I would have scribbled very cheerfully. And yes, the food was lovely.
Many people, which includes my parents, are doubtful of my choice of career of being a writer and artist, for both comics and novels. Before you had the job you have now, how often (if at all) were people doubtful that you would become the successful writer you are today?
Max
I don't think it ever occurred to anyone that I would be the successful writer I am today, not even me. I'm not quite sure how it happened. I liked the idea of a world in which I could feed my family by making things up and writing them down, and even that seemed pretty unlikely for the first few years.
Neil:
I've noticed that since you've been accessing Twitter that you don't blog daily. I guess twittering is best for your friends and keeps them in touch with your daily life, but why should we humble fans suffer?
I didn't realise that humble fans were actually suffering. Sorry.
Um, the main reason I'm blogging less is that I was blogging less anyway. I've been blogging here for over eight years now, for a total of a bit over one and a quarter million words (per the stats) and I'm tending to blog less right now partly because I keep thinking "Well, I've already blogged about that..." and partly because the most fun project I'm doing right now is confidential and I can't talk about it yet, and mostly because there's just less time for everything right now - the volume of email's higher than it's ever been, the number of invitations to be places, requests to do things, all that, is just higher than it's ever been, and this year promoting the CORALINE movie, winning the Newbery (which also means that more people want me to do more things) and trying to have a personal life in which I do more than write and sleep means that there's even less time than there is normally.
My deal with myself is that I'll blog here until the day that blogging feels like work, and on that day I'll stop. We're not there yet, but we're closer than we've ever been, just because time is tighter than it's ever been.
(This blog entry is being written because I just woke up after three or four hours sleep, realised I was wide awake, and opened the computer to reply to some backlogged emails.)
Twitter's interesting and relatively new, and I'm fascinated right now by where it's going. It's definitely not blogging, but by the same token, I'm amused that three or four 140 character (um, that's about 25 words) twitter posts cause people to start asking how I find the time for all that twittering. It's also not a reliable communication tool: I can be offline for a day -- or even for a few hours -- and completely miss 1500 twitters from people directed at me.
Twitter's interesting and relatively new, and I'm fascinated right now by where it's going. It's definitely not blogging, but by the same token, I'm amused that three or four 140 character (um, that's about 25 words) twitter posts cause people to start asking how I find the time for all that twittering. It's also not a reliable communication tool: I can be offline for a day -- or even for a few hours -- and completely miss 1500 twitters from people directed at me.
...
A few links: The Onion reviews A Walking Tour of the Shambles.
Science fiction great Fred Pohl is blogging.
It looks like Coraline is being released in Australia in August now, not May (a bad thing), although it's no longer being called Coraline and the Secret Door (a good thing).
A glorious Blueberry Girl review at Newsarama.
And the Chinese Galaxy Award nominees have been announced.
Labels: blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, what happens when you just take the last seven questions to come in and answer them
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 2/19/2008
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, absent blogging, blogging about the blog in a strange mirror-like pattern that leads into infinity, absent blogging, Add a tag
You can see it full-size at http://nymag.com/arts/all/approvalmatrix/44206/
0 Comments on Not only (highbrow) But Also (brilliant) as of 1/1/1900
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Posted on 5/22/2007
Blog: not your mother's bookclub (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: made of awesome, boingled, plainjanes, cecilpalooza, minx, Add a tag
congrats to Miss Cecil Castellucci for being boingled -- of course, PLAIN JANES will be soon impossible to find due to superpopularity and influence of blogs, etc, and there will be much lamentation and gnashing of teeth, so get to your local bookstore NOW and snap a copy up!
... and then come to CECILPALOOZA on June 7th!
(ps. Yeah I KNOW I still haven't put up the winners for the hbironside contest. I KNOW. I feel bad about it. Soon, I swear.) Add a Comment