Tulsa June 28 and suchlike

Details for the reading/talking/signing in Tulsa on June 28th is now up at http://www.roadworkok.com/gaiman.htm

I'm presenting a screening of Beowulf and talking about that (and I have no doubt, everything else). And I'm kind of excited as I have never been to Oklahoma, and I will, I hope, get to look at Lafferty stuff while I am there...

...

Lots of people have been writing in asking me for my opinion on the proposed Orphan Copyright legislation.

Currently I'm reading http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/orphan-report.pdf and I won't have an opinion until I've finished reading it. Then I'll read everything else I can find (like this http://lessig.org/blog/2007/02/copyright_policy_orphan_works.html and the mountains of stuff up at http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185). And then I'll probably put something up here, or point to the sanest place on the web I've run across.

The only thing that most of the emails coming in on it right now have in common is the conviction that common people are being disenfranchised, and that if the legislation goes through you will now be forced to pay to register copyright on something in order to seek damages – which has, I'm afraid, always been the case. You own your copyright at the moment of creation, but, at least in the US, you still have to register it and pay the registration in order to pursue damages for copyright infringement.

(The Copyright office FAQs on this at http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#mywork are helpful and clear on it.)

[Edit to add: Hi Neil,

All the hoopla about orphan copyrights is just that -- hoopla. This post explains a lot:

http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html

I found it on Boing-Boing.

Best,

Jess

I hadn't linked to the hysterical post at http://mag.awn.com/?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605
because it was obviously hysterical and, even from the little I know about copyright, it was ill-informed. But it's nice to see it taken apart. And just as nice to see http://ursulav.livejournal.com/758643.html]

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Hey Neil,

I heard you were reading at Comic-Con New York. While that would be awesome, $500+ is very steep so keep us informed on other eastern US appearances, please!

There's a party/reception for VIPs (VIPs being defined here as "people who have bought $500 tickets") at which you get a gift bag, preferred seating and I sign stuff for you. But a ticket for the actual event itself is only $20, which is much cheaper -- plus $30 for a membership to the convention on Friday (or $45 for the whole weekend).

Here's the link to get tickets at the New York Comic-Con site.

I'm planning on reading Orange, and some of The Graveyard Book.

...


Dear Mr. Gaiman,

With all due respect, what on earth are you thinking!

You sir, are an Englishman. Nevermind that you have seen fit to galavant over to the colonies for an adventure or three, you seem to have been taken in by those New World types.

I refer sir, to the fact that you seem to have GIVEN UP TEA!! Have you, at some moment in this overlong winter, taken leave of your senses? Think it through man! The answer is not less tea but MORE!! I suggest Assam, or failing that a pint of gin.

Yours worriedly,

Spike,

Oxford.

ENGLAND (having a cuppa).

Obviously I'm still English. If I'd become American I would have stopped drinking coffee.

Why Introductions?

Good morning.

Well, I'm now into the second week of off-tea and eating-lots-of-fruit-and-veg-when-I-get-hungry. Drinking lots of water, and juicing things, and occasional herb teas. Weight is starting to drop. Concentration, which went completely out the window when I stopped drinking tea, is returning, and sleep patterns are changing.

The weather was wonderful two days ago, then it rained yesterday, and today I woke up and watched big white flakes of snow drifting past my window and thought, Oh bugger, and decided to stay in bed for days or weeks until the weather became more sensible, a thought that lasted until the dog needed to go out, two or even three minutes later.

Starting to plan out the coming year. I wrote a proposal for a personal, non-fiction book about travel and myth, and my publisher wants to do it, so now I'm figuring out all the whens and the hows, especially of the travel bits. And I'm deciding whether I'll blog from the road or stop while I'm travelling, leave the computer at home, and put the effort into writing in notebooks, or what.

It's ten days until the CBLDF reading and Q&A that I'm doing in New York at the comic-con. This just turned up in my email from http://www.cbldf.org/ and I thought I'd post it here as a reminder to anyone in the New York area...

Neil Gaiman Benefit Reading at NYCC
Tickets Available Now!

April 18: Experience the magic of Neil Gaiman at an exclusive reading to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Neil Gaiman, the renowned author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films will be presenting a live reading benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at the New York Comic-Con. The appearance, a paid ticketed reading event, will be called an "An Evening With Neil Gaiman" with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the First Amendment legal work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

General admission tickets to the reading are available for $20, while supplies last. Tickets for the VIP reception are strictly limited to 100 pieces, and will include access to meet Mr. Gaiman and receive two signatures, plus a gift bag of exclusive Neil Gaiman oriented items from CBLDF, and preferred seating at the reading. VIP reception tickets are available for $500.

Seating is limited and going fast. Reserve your General Admission or VIP Ticket now! __._,_.

In addition to which, Jeff Smith is also doing an event for the CBLDF. With an open bar...

Toast the arrival of Jeff Smith's new comic book epic RASL! Come meet Jeff Smith in person at his only New York City appearance of the season, enjoy an open bar, and get a takeaway bag of tons of exclusive RASL goodies. Only 100 general admission tickets and 26 VIP tickets are available so get your ticket now! Tickets are available now! Get the Full Details here!

And then there's the Hellboy 2 team...



Why can't we give you fanart at the signings in Australia?

(Boggles for a moment.) Of course you can give me art. Or anything you like, short of body parts. If it's too much for me to carry, I'll smile sweetly at the people hosting the events and get them to post it back to me. (So a month after I get home I get a box filled with cool things I'd forgotten.)

recently, on my latest hunt for more books, i bought myself a nice fat copy of fantasy short storys by Rudyard Kipling. That night i made my mug of cocoa and got comfy to read a couple, when turning the first few pages i happened upon a quick little 'hello and welcome to the book' by a certain mr N Gaiman. ok, so not really strange. Writers write intoroductions, nothing odd about that. but this is by no means an isolated incedent! it seems like ever since i started to read your books(become aware of you etc), you've been popping up in introductions everywhere. it appears to me that you do a fare share of them.

is doing an introduction something you enjoy and so you take most of the chances given to you? (you like sticking your 'neil was ere' mark on books)

or as an artist who works and has worked over several different medias do you simply get alot of offers?

what do you enjoy most about writing one?


ps. sorry if this question is slightly untimely now that you are unofficialy/officialy banned from taking any on!

Writing an introduction is really fun and pleasurable -- it's like introducing a really good friend at a party to a lot of people who don't know him or her, but you know they'd be friends if they met. You want to go "This is Mr Poe. He's written some wonderful poems and stories -- they're especially good if you read them aloud," or "This is Doctor Who. He built my internal landscape." Or "This is The Thirteen Clocks. If you feel sad you should read this book and it will probably make you feel better."

I get asked to write a lot more introductions than I say yes to, and they take up much more time than I imagine they will when I say yes, but there are very few that I regret having done. Really, I ought to try and make a place on this website that collects them. (Those not collected in Adventures In The Dream Trade, anyway.)