Journal

Friday, June 20, 2003

sundries

Hi Neil,

You mentioned piracy and senator hatch so I thought you might find this story at Wired interesting.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59305,00.html

Alan


Yup. I'd been following it over at http://amish.blogmosis.com/archives/012511.html#012511 and was waiting for something like the Wired article. Which is why I was content to leave it at "Twit", really. A world in which it's legal in the US for software that's improperly licensed or in violation of copyright to destroy the computer it's on is a world in which there would simply be too many lawsuits from inside the US and outside the US from, for example, the families of people who died because a bored night-porter in a hospital downloaded an unlicenced song which then destroyed the hospital computer...

A walking tour of Chicago, IL. I know I've seen something about this in a past journal entry...or somewhere on your page, pertaining to the validity of this, but can't remember the details and I can't seem to find the entry.

Did you really write it?

I ask because I recently aquired a copy of Snow glass apples, on e-bay, from a publisher in IL. who asked if I had it. I asked for details, they replied that it is a small booklet, by you, that they published exclusively.
Garcia Publishing Services.

So...as always, I am interested in all of your work...is this really yours?
-Corina


The book is called "A Walking Tour of the Shambles" and I am proud to say that not only did I write it, but I wrote it with Gene Wolfe.

Here's a description of it, from the Garcia Publishing Services website: http://members.aol.com/garpub4/Shambles.html

The book itself has spawned a website, the very wonderful Preserve Us From The House of Clocks at http://www.preserveusfromthehouseofclocks.com/ and a rich vein of strange and marvellous reports from the Shambles is on the House of Clocks Guest Book, at http://www.preserveusfromthehouseofclocks.com/guestbook.html.

In addition to which:

dear mr. gaiman,

erin abbamondi again. the girl from jersey doing the letter writing project on you and gene wolfe.
the project grades came back the other day
and i thought you'd be pleased to know i got an A+
and my english teacher has developed quite a liking for you.

hope all is well.
thanks for the inspiration.

sincerely,
erin.


Oh good. Congratulations on the A+.

Hi Neil,


1. You mentioned that the MirrorMask screening and panel will be on Friday, July 18th in the afternoon. Is this set in stone? Or is this flexible and subject to change, as the somewhat vague "...in the afternoon" would suggest? You've got Henson people there though, so probably not. Still, could you maybe, er, keep Saturday in mind..? ;-)

2. Years ago (it seems), Dave was compiling a DVD of his short film work. Do you know if he managed to get that out of the way before filming for MirrorMask began? If not, I'm afraid it might get pushed to the side and that I may have to go another whole year telling students and fellow faculty about his unbelievable results with film, while only being able to show them stills (not to mention the fact that I can't WAIT to see what a Dave McKean-designed DVD interface looks like).


Thank you for your time and words,
-Jeremy Schulz


You're very welcome.

It's set in stone, I'm afraid -- a 90 minute panel starting at about 4:30 on Friday Afternoon, with me, Dave, Lisa Henson and Mike Polis (from Hensons) on it. Film clips will be shown. Anecdotes will be anecdoted. Things will be learned.

I don't think Dave had finished his DVD thingie before he started MirrorMask. But it may actually make it easier for him to release it commercially, and thus more likely that he'll get it finished. I know that I want a copy for a start.

Incidentally, the cost of Labyrinth was more like $45 million than the $20 million I suggested the other day.


Mr Gaiman:

Do you think JK Rowling is getting a bit carried away with all the security, etc, over the details of the next Harry Potter novel? As a writer yourself, would you go as far as she has in trying to keep all the details under wraps? Online reviews are being taken down due to threat of legal action, etc.

Thank you very much for your time

Steve in Manitoba


I've not seen anything about online reviews being taken down -- but I found the judge's agreement in the Toronto hearing to stop Canadian newspapers printing reviews, based on the copy sold to the woman in Montreal slightly puzzling: as the defence pointed out, they hadn't signed confidentiality agreements. The end-user of a book, having legitimately bought it, is free to do whatever she wants with it, I would have thought, including review it, or talk about it.

I'm not sure that a $100 million suit against the Daily News is going to have any legs either: I imagine that you'd have to prove actual harm caused, and it's going to be hard to prove that the bestselling book of the year sold fewer copies because of the Daily News printing something about it. But it may persuade other newspapers not to say anything until pub date next time.

The secrecy thing... well, put it this way. It certainly works. I'd suggested to Joe Quesada last week that it was probably time to lift the 1602 embargo, because retailers were complaining that they didn't know enough to order it. He pointed out that, while that might be true, the orders for 1602 #1 were already coming in about 70% higher than the bestselling Marvel title for the month.

(Over the next week I think it's a fair bet that the 1602 veil will be lifted somewhat, mind you.)

(I'm writing the last three episodes right now, which is maddening. Several huge climactic sequences, and lots of information to reveal on the way. And I have to fit it all into the final 66 pages, so I'm being very good and figuring out exactly what goes where. Which isn't how I'd write it as one 66 page sequence either -- the fact that these are 3 monthly comics changes the shape of things.)

Hello Neil,
Cal again. As an employee of Waldenbooks, I would request further evenhandedness in your listings. Personally, I usually find both Borders and B&N a miserable experience but at least we own Borders. So here is the Borders link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1401200893 etc

I know it seems silly since Amazon runs it for us, but I get tired of B&N being mentioned and Borders not. And of course, you may feel you've posted enough links. If I lived closer, and didn't work for Waldenbooks, I would go to Tattered Cover when the comic book store couldn't take care of me.
cal


Well, okay. I put it up. It looks just like an Amazon.com link to me, though. Back when Borders had its own website I was always scrupulous about including them in the list of online booksellers. And if I do a New York signing for WOLVES IN THE WALLS it's going to be at the new Borders which replaced the World Trade Centre one -- I signed a the World Trade Centre Borders on the American Gods tour, and it's not there any more, obviously, so I want to go back to the new one. (And they'll happily stay open till everyone's got a signature: there won't be a repeat of the New York Barnes and Noble Coraline signing, where they threw the last 400 people out.)