weakly entertaining

Home. Very very tired. The dog is glad to see me, but the house is otherwise empty, making me half-wish I'd taken the thousand dollars and no change fee to take tomorrow's plane instead, and spent more time with family over there (Maddy comes home in a few days).

Thanks to all of you who wrote in about last night's post...

This is just a quick one to say that you can see Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 most important books since 1983 at http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207349,00.html
and my list of ten of my favourite monsters since 1983 at http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207511,00.html. But you have to buy the magazine to see the photo they used of me in the end.

...

This is the third year of the Philippine Graphic/Fiction awards, sponsored by me and Fully Booked, and run by Fully Booked... and in addition to prose and comics, we've added a new category: short films.

Details at http://fullybookedonline.com/event_details.asp?eventid=20

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"Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations."

Several hundred people wrote to let me know about Terry Pratchett being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers.

Yes, it's very upsetting and no, it's not a good thing. Also, and most importantly, as Terry points out, twice now, he's not dead yet (although you mightn't know it from the reaction on the web), and he has a few more books in him besides.

It's not time for wakes, or for mourning, or for "Terry Pratchett -- An Appreciation and Remembrance" or any of that stuff, not now and probably not for a long time. He's still here, he's still writing. He's not done yet.

Right.

And if you're still upset, well, it's a good time to remind people that there are charitable organisations that can be supported, and things that can be bought the profits of which go to completely different charities (Good Omens scents for example).

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The sore throat thing seems to have subsided to the point where I finally have a more or less functioning head back. (A good thing, as I can start writing again, rather more successfully.) On the down side I think someone crept in during the night and filled up my lungs with thick glue. (A bad thing.)

Sometimes making stuff up feels a lot like Coyote* running across the empty space between one rocky pinnacle and the next, and as long as you keep moving you're fine. When you stop and look down, it's suddenly all too apparent that there's absolutely nothing underneath and that you're keeping in the air by a peculiar effort of will.

And then a good day comes, and you start running through the air once again, and, if you're smart, you resolutely don't look down.

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It's nice to see the Stardust film turning up on end of the year Best Of lists.

It's out in the US on DVD in a few days, and has been quietly doing really well around the world for the last several months (it's now made nearly as much in the UK as it did in the US, which I guess says something about the difference in marketing in each country).

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I've had a few people ask how they should support the striking writers. I'm glad I can now point them somewhere which offers suggestions -- http://www.fans4writers.com/participate.shtml.

And Jason and Maui's engagement has made Boing Boing.



* Wile E, or the American Indian one who created the world.

Gallivant's travels

It was fun.

(I'll do a slightly dessicated version here, because I'm in the lounge at Narita and don't have long before my plane boards now...)

I was brought in for the Ad Congress -- I gave a talk about the imagination and why it is a good thing, and then, on Saturday morning, did a reading of the complete first chapter of The Graveyard Book, an interview and a signing for about 200 people (it was only meant to be for the first 100 in the line -- some of whom started lining up at midnight -- but I added in about an extra 45 minutes signing at the end). Then to Manila -- on the way I read the finalists for the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, and was really impressed by the quality of the prose stories. Fully Booked runs the awards, and on Saturday morning I found myself sitting in Fully Booked while stacks of copies of Expeditions were put in front of me to sign. These were the two collections (prose and comics) of winners and runners-up from the first Award, last year. Many interviews followed, and a mass press conference. And then, in the afternoon, I had the odd experience of being a magician's assistant (for local magician Erik Mana) and awards presenter, in front of a large crowd (and despite the rain), and I announced the thing we're adding to the awards for next year (a short films category), and at one point I dragged Mike up on stage with me (when I was asked about being a children's author and having children), and I sort of promised I'd come back for the third round, and that I'd do a signing if I did...

(I loved the whole trip but it was made much more fun by having a son with me.)

Then dinner with the winners and judges from this year and last year's competition.

Back to the hotel, and up at 5.00am to leave Manila. And now I'm here.

Expect postings to decrease between here and Xmas. I have a book to finish, and I'm done gallivanting, I hope...

Thanks from the future...

Happy Thanksgiving -- an odd thing to be writing on the morning of the Friday after Thanksgiving, but time is different here in the Philippines, where it is already the future and they probably have flying cars and personal jetpacks.

So let's see...

First thing in the morning I gave a speech yesterday to about 3,500 people, who seemed to like it ("I haven't prepared anything," I said at the beginning. "So nothing can possibly go wrong." And then I burbled, hopefully helpfully. Later that afternoon another speaker learned he had the wrong powerpoint presentation on the CD he had brought, so didn't give his speech at all and flew back to England instead. Hah. Not-preparation wins again.) Then I did lots of press interviews. Then lunch, then I signed 1000 copies of the Beowulf script book that are going to be given to people on Saturday morning, and while signing the jet-lag started to hit. Then dinner. Then I was falling asleep between sentences, so fled to bed.

Mike is enjoying himself, I think. I love having him here.

I'm looking forward to the event on the 25th -- http://www.fullybookedonline.com/eventdtl.php?id=60 -- and while I'm not going to do a signing I'm going to pre-sign copies of the EXPEDITIONS books, with the prize winners from the last competition in it.

...

(A couple of people wrote to say they don't think that that PDFs are currently supported by the Kindle. The version I used supported them, although not terribly well -- it was one of the things I told them about, many of which they fixed -- so they may have pulled it until they get the bugs out.)

pretty vacant

In my quest to give you things to read while I'm off scribbling things, my old schoolfriend Geoff Notkin (you can find him not going to prison here and being taught by Will Eisner here) was recently seen hunting for meteorites on the Discovery Channel's Cash Or Treasures. He writes about it on his website at http://www.aerolite.org/cash-and-treasures.htm. (If you own a copy of Sandman:The Kindly Ones, you can see a photo in the back of Geoff -- and me, and Graham K Smith -- as punks in 1976.)

And for the readers in the Philippines (and there are a lot of you)... Kristin writes to say that We're organizing a two-day literary convention--the Read or Die Convention 2007--which will be held on February 3-4 2007 at the Hotel Intercon, Makati City. It's to promote reading, support for Filipino readers, and more public awareness of Filipino literature. The event is non-profit and all the proceeds will be donated to AHON Foundation, an organization which refurbishes public elementary school libraries. The event is supported by the National Book Development Board, the Department of Education and UNICEF.The convention website is here: http://read-or-die.org/rodcon/

and she adds

We'd also like to solicit donations from people who live abroad, if that's possible, in order to supplement the amount which will be donated to our beneficiary (and we hope that we can still earmark some funds left over--if there will be any leftover money--for other organizations which need it. We've just learned, for example, that Books For The Barrios (http://www.booksforthebarrios.com), a group based in America which organizes book drives for the benefit of our public school libraries is in danger of closing its operations due to lack of support. The vice-president got in touch with us via RodCon and asked us to help).

and something for you to look at (if you haven't seen it already)...

Have you seen this? Ron Mueck is this incredible artist who makes shockingly realistic sculptures of people. Either that, or he kills giants and embalms them. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2005/12/29/GA2005122900888_index_frames.htm?startat=1