They went to the stars

There are lots of articles about Rory Root from all across comics... Here's Tom Spurgeon, and Brian Hibbs and this is a lovely tribute and an excellent round-up.

He was such a good guy. The world of comics is better for him having been here.

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So there's news articles that say that Steven Moffat is taking over Doctor Who, and other articles saying that Russell T Davies is leaving and then there's lots of emails arriving today saying things like,

'Lo Neil,
As a great fan of Doctor Who, I've been dancing around the room after hearing that Steven Moffat is taking over as Chief Writer and Executive Producer of the series in 2009. Russell T Davies has done a brilliant job bringing the series back to life, but now that he's decided to leave I can't think of anyone better to take over than Mr. Moffat.

Anyway- my real question is whether or not we'll finally see a Neil Gaiman DW episode? We're all quietly hoping the idea came up during your dinner back in March in Bar Shu... I know you're a very busy person, but it would be the perfect combination for so many fans!
Rachel

I think it's great news -- what Russell Davies did over the last few years was remarkable: as a writer and as a show-runner he brought Doctor Who back, sure-footed and smart and with a heart. (And even the few mis-steps were easily forgiveable. Maddy and I agreed that there were bits of plot in "The Doctor's Daughter" that necessitated not just suspension of one's disbelief but the surgical extraction of said disbelief before dangling it over a vat of bubbling acid in the hopes that it would shut up. We loved "The Unicorn and the Wasp" though).

I'm really excited about Steven Moffat taking over -- always assuming that it's not just a publicity stunt on his part to try and get "Blink" a Hugo, as a countermeasure to Mr Cornell's car-crash-to-get-the-sympathy-vote.

And it was a terrific dinner: they do fantastic dry-fried green beans at Bar Shu (it doesn't sound like it would be fantastic from the menu, but it is).


Hi Neil!

I wanted to let you know about an experiment of mine and I think your fans might be interested in! You may have heard about 1000 Journals (www.1000journals.com), the traveling journal project where people around the world passed around journals and notebooks and drew/wrote about their thoughts about anything! Well they've continued the project at www.1001journals.com! I have started three notebooks that will (hopefully) eventually be filled by your fans around the world with drawings, poems, random thoughts, etc about your work. I was wondering if you could put a word out to people and let them know about this experiment so we can start sending them around to fans everywhere! They can create an account at www.1001journals.com and sign up for Journals #2932, 2933, 2934. It's currently capped at 10 people per journal but I can increase the signup capacity once the cap is reached! I think this would be super fun!

Thanks

Katherine

It's posted. Good luck.

Neil,

I was reading your blog about the Tasmanian tiger a bit ago and found it very interesting. Today, while perusing the BBC news site (I like seeing many sides of an issue) I found this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7408840.stm

I thought you would find it interesting.

Thanks,

Lily

I'm fascinated by this one. I really want to see a Thylacine in the flesh...

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Renee French is posting a drawing a day at http://reneefrench.blogspot.com/


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Why have I never posted this here? The peculiar genius of John Hodgman tells the truth about Hobos...

sunday morning

This just came in from my friend in Tasmania Dianna Graf (Clockwork Beehive is Dianna and Mark's company. Just in case you were wondering.)

Ooh.

I just got a message saying that tickets to your event in Hobart have completely sold out.

That was fast!

Could you perhaps mention this on your blog?

So many more people were planning to come. There are people flying in from other states and everything.

If enough people who missed out on tickets contact Ellison Hawker Bookshop quickly enough, they may be able to find you a bigger venue.

xx

Dianna

Consider it posted. I'd hate for someone to have go all the way to Tasmania for nothing (although if you did, you'd still be in Tasmania, which is pretty cool by itself. There's the museum, not to mention the extremely slim chance of seeing a thylacine...)

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I normally avoid linking to favourite author surveys because it could skew them, but I don't think anything will affect the Tolkien and Pratchett lead over at SFX, and the results, as a snapshot of what people read and like, are fascinating.

http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=vote_for_your_favourite_sf

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When I read this book review's headline -- Nick Johnstone's Amy Amy Amy is the first assessment of the troubled rise of a remarkable talent, says Nick Johnstone I thought that The Guardian had taken book reviewing into new places by allowing the author (of an Amy Winehouse bio) to review his book himself, so lines like

He is scrupulous about acknowledging his sources as he goes along in the text, which contributes to an impression of the book being a compendium of other people's cuttings, rather than the product of his own legwork.

were as much confessional as they were descriptive. (I can't imagine I would have been as honest about my Duran Duran biography-from-cuttings.) I was enormously impressed with this new trend in reviewing, and really disappointed when I got to the bottom of the review and read "David Sinclair is the author of Wannabe: The Spice Girls Revisited (Omnibus)" and realised it was just another Guardian typo.
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A few weeks ago I was interviewed about the Ramayana by animator and film-maker Ravi Swami for the British Library. It's up as a podcast now on their site as part of the upcoming Ramayana exhibit:

http://www.bl.uk/ramayana

I can't wait to see the exhibition.
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And, for those of you who were wondering, there's a little film of a thylacine on YouTube. Possibly the last thylacine, filmed in 1933. Look at that jaw open...