Hey, Neil!
You're coming to Rio de Janeiro for an event in July, yeah? Is there any chance you'll do signings anywhere other than Paraty? Tickets for your lecture sold out a couple hours after they became available; you have a bazillion fans here!
I don't think so; I was asked if I'd like to do a small, invitation-only event for perhaps a hundred people in Sao Paulo after the Flip Paraty festival, and I said no -- mostly because an event for a hundred people seemed like a good way to upset a few thousand people who wouldn't be able to be there (given what happened last time I signed in Brazil -- http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2001/05/american-gods-blog-post-57.html). I said I'd love to do a big enough event that many people would be made happy, but I don't think anyone wanted to do that. So unless something changes in the next two weeks -- and I promise I'll post it here if it does -- no, it'll just be the FLIP event. (And the Desert Island Books event -- I'm reading at that as well).
And a few people have written to ask about signings at FLIP and whether I'll be signing and suchlike, and the truth is I have no idea -- I'll find out and post here what I find.
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I've been a fan and supporter of the Guys Read website and project, which encourages young male humans to read books. I was pleased when I recently discovered that the UK has its own project - Boys into Books, which despite sounding like a ghastly attempt to transform our surplus young into reading matter, is a very sensible thing: http://www.sla.org.uk/boys-into-books-overview.php
They have a list of recommended books for boys at http://www.sla.org.uk/boys-into-books-11-14.pdf and tell us that:
From mid May until mid September 2007, state schools in England having at least 20 boys of this age group were able to order 20 titles from the list, which were delivered, ready jacketed, free of charge, and also two sets of three Boys into Books posters and 450 postcards.Which is the kind of thing that I wish would spread beyond the UK, and which should be revived every few years in the UK. So I thought I'd mention that here.
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With the help of the webgoblin, I recently upgraded my Panasonic W7 from Windows Vista to Windows XP, and it now runs like a dream. It's nice not to have to wait for words to appear once more.
Let's see... The Rogue Artists Ensemble have reworked their Mr Punch performance and will be bringing it back on the stage -- hope I can catch it this time. Lots of information up at http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=29261 -- although I suspect their previews are in July and not, as posted, in April.
Today I did the proofread on the back matter of Absolute Sandman Volume 4 (which will be out in November). The script in Absolute Sandman Volume 3 is for Sandman 50, which is (in my opinion) the least interesting Sandman script -- although Craig Russell's amazing pencils make up for it a bit. So to make up for it in Absolute Sandman Volume 4 we have the first script for The Kindly Ones and the last script of all, the one for Sandman 75, along with lots of pencils and breakdowns. (You can see a lot of the original pencils for the work that Bryan Talbot and John Ridgway did on Sandman 75, to Charles Vess' breakdowns.)
And I got a call from Vertigo editor-queen Karen Berger asking how I'd feel about another volume of Absolute Sandman, one with Endless Nights and Dream Hunters, and perhaps the Sandman Midnight Theatre story, and the story at the beginning of Dust Covers in it.... I'm not sure. I like that Sandman is one four volume book. Having said that, lots of you have written and asked about it, and Endless Nights and Mr Amano's lovely Dream Hunters are both out of print as hardbacks, and it would be nice to see that art that huge. I suppose I'd feel fine about it if we called it something other than Absolute Sandman Volume 5. Absolute Sandman Supplemental maybe?
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And for all the people doing the SFX hundred favourite authors meme, it's Samuel R Delany, not Delaney. Just saying...
And I tried to find the SFX list on the SFX site, and couldn't. But I found a terrific little Q&A with Paul Cornell on writing short stories at http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=author_interview_paul_cornell
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Oops. Nearly forgot -- over at the Subterranean Press website, you can win a UK Advanced Reading Copy of The Graveyard Book: http://www.thegraveyardbook.com/2008/06/win-an-advance-reading-copy-of-the-uk-edition-of-the-graveyard-book/
You write your own epitaph to win. And from the ones people have posted, I am extremely glad I am not judging.
Labels: absolute Sandman, Brazil, chipmunk in my drainpipe, guys read, you have no idea how much I hate the combination of this computer and windows Vista