Happy Birthday, Jordan.
The Sunday evening of World Fantasy con -- November 3rd -- is going to be a lot of fun, musically speaking. At 7.00pm The Fabulous Lorraine's New Band, currently known as Folk Underground (currently rehearsing in my basement, as I type this), play at Minneapolis's First Avenue, at the Tim Malloys CD release party, and at about 9.00pm (I think) The Future Bible Heroes take to the stage at the Minneapolis Women's Club Theatre.
Lots of FAQ e-mails from people wanting to know about obtaining rights. So...
(Takes a deep breath...)
If you want to get the rights to do something with Sandman, from turning it into a stage play to making a short film or a computer game or even to making a CD of music inspired by it, you need to talk to DC Comics. They own or control the rights to everything I've done for them (except Mr Punch and Stardust). Write to Karen Berger at DC Comics, and she'll pass on your request to the correct place.
They'll probably say no to your request -- not because DC Comics takes pleasure in being bloodyminded, but because they don't control all of the rights: lots of them have been bought by Warner Brothers films along with the Sandman movie rights. If you propose a Sandman short film, for example, if the request goes to Warner Bros, they'll eventually say no.
(Generally speaking, if the film rights to a book have been sold that adds an extra layer of complication to things.)
If you want to find out about adapting a short story into a short film or turning something into a play or generally just establishing what the rights situation is on something of mine, then contact my literary agent, Merrilee Heifetz at Writer's House. Apart from DC and Sandman, no rights to any books or stories are held by any publishers so trying to find someone to talk to at Harper Collins or Headline or Workmans or Berkeley or wherever will not get you anywhere.
Sometimes the rights you're after will already be tied up by a film deal. It's not logical that a film that hasn't been made in Hollywood could stop you putting on a puppet play of something in New Zealand, but all too often, that's how it is, and there's nothing we can do about it.
If you're looking to buy movie rights on something of mine, then you'll want to talk to Jon Levin at CAA.
For more unusual rights requests you may want to talk to Erin Culley LaChapelle at CAA -- she tends to deal with unusual online requests, people who want to turn things into computer games, musical enquiries, and so on.