Snowdrops

My trip home was derailed (well, deplaned, but that seems to mean "getting off the plane" rather than the plane trip home turning into a little expedition to hades) by an extreme snowfall in Minneapolis. So the trip home took 36 hours and left me a bit out of sorts. Still, this was waiting for me when I finally got home -- snowdrops in the snow. A small perfect thing.


There's a reason why I made the magical flower in Stardust a snowdrop, after all.

My First Snowdrop resolutions -- I need to get back into shape (eat sensibly; find a new trainer; go for longer, more energetic walks with dog; do some nice stretchy yoga even). This last trip left me aching all over, and I've moved up a tub in jeans sizes (long term readers of this blog may remember that there are five tubs of jeans of different sizes in my closet. If ever I have to wear the ones in the tub at the far right -- mostly bought by accident or in fits of optimism -- I'll know I've got some kind of eating disorder or wasting disease, and when I only fit into the ones at the far left I know I've been not-moving for too long. And I've moved one tub to the left). It's time to slim down a little, but mostly it's just time to get fit again after a very, very long winter.

...

I sent Newly-Stoker-Award-Winning Author Joe Hill The Graveyard Book when I finished it, because he has small sons, and I was hoping he would read to them.

(He did. They liked it. He said, "It's a great one for reading aloud. You should really hear me call for help in NightGaunt sometime," and then when I said I would like to, he e-mailed me a sound file. I was impressed.)

And he talks about the book a little on his blog -- http://joehillfiction.com/?p=163 in terms that I would use as a blurb if I hadn't said nice things about Heart Shaped Box, and would fear accusations of log-rolling.

I'm really pleased he liked it. I'm pleased anyone likes it.
...

My assistant Lorraine just passed this on from the conference organisers in Melbourne --


Hi Lorraine,

It's good to see all the details of Neil's trip up on the website -
now I can finally believe it's happening! I wonder if you could
arrange for there to be a link to the conference website
http://www.iceaustralia.com/cbca2008/ on the Sunday date when Neil's
keynote is open to the general public so that people will find it easy to book.

Thanks, Sian

So there's the link, and we'll put another up at WHERE'S NEIL. Come and see me talk. Come and see Shaun Tan, who is nominated for a Hugo for The Arrival, a book I tend to force people to read. (This is a link to pages from The Arrival and an essay about it on Shaun's site.)

If I hadn't been on the road I would have remembered to post something about pre-selling tickets at MIT to the first Julie Schwartz Memorial Lecture, but it looks like the pre-sold tickets are now sold, and it's now going to be tickets on the day for people in the Boston area.

05.23.08 | 7-10 PM | Kresge Auditorium

Julius Schwartz Memorial Lecture: Neil Gaiman

New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter and comics luminary Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Beowulf, Stardust) is scheduled to present the first Julius Schwartz Lecture in Kresge Auditorium at 7PM on May 23rd, 2008. Doors will open at 6PM.

Pre-Ticket Sales will occur on March 31st and April 1st in Lobby 10 from 9AM until 4PM. Tickets are $8 apiece, no limit. CASH ONLY, GENERAL ADMISSION, NO RESERVATIONS. Tickets will also be available at the door the evening of the event

Untitled Post. Well, practically.

Today I was interviewed about the mysterious device.

...

If you're in the UK on Tuesday the 25th of September, and you want to hear Ms Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, in conversation... then you should be at the Bloomsbury Theatre
15 Gordon Street
London WC1
at 7.00pm.
Everyone who's anyone will be there. I'll be there. Actually, I'll be up on the stage, being the other half of the conversation. (The half that says, "Now, Susanna, tell us...")
Put it in your diaries.

...

Hey, Neil,

I saw Stardust today and loved it (as did my mom, whom I dragged with me), but I came out with a few questions.

1) The new ending: did that come from you, or was it an invention of Jane's and Matthew's?

Er... bit of both. I suggested some events for the scene in the witch's lair, which were the kinds of things I'd assumed that we needed as far back as the first time I did a treatment for Stardust. But Matthew and Jane had reached a lot of the same places that I had because they were the sort of things you'd do in a film. (You need Septimus and the witches and Tristran and Yvaine in the same place, for example.) The happier ending was Matthew's. I'd suggested that he shoot the other one too, but really I don't think it would have worked with the film he made.

2) I don't know was a "sequencer" does, but I noticed in the credits that one J.J. Connolly was credited with being it. Would that be the same J.J. Connolly who wrote Layer Cake?

It would indeed.

3) Was Matthew Vaughn consciously intending the shots of Captain Shakespeare while during Septimus' attack on the ship to echo the shots of Buffalo Bill dancing in the mirror in The Silence of the Lambs, or was the similarity coincidental?

I think it's coincidental. Or, perhaps, imaginary.

4) Are there plans to publish the screenplay? (Or will it be included in the visual companion coming out in September?)

It's in the Visual Companion. Which was published in paperback on July the 10th, according to Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Stardust-Visual-Companion-Stephen-Jones/dp/1845764226

5) Speaking of which: any insight on why the visual companion and the soundtrack aren't being released for another month, rather than concurrently with the film?

The Companion's been out for a while now, at least in paperback. It's a beautiful book. The hardback is listed on Amazon as not being out for a few weeks, though.

I noticed that the Stardust score is already on iTunes, not sure why it won't be out for another few weeks on CD though. (Deepdiscount has it as 28 August, Amazon as September 11th.)

...

no question. just wanted to share:

http://viralvinyl.com/IGv11qd.mov

i did this to learn After Effects for my Masters Course at Central Saint Martins.

Cool!

Dr Jon in Australia sent me this:

Hi, Neil.

You've prolly been flooded with this link already, but in case you haven't:

Death drops scythe, adopts 'softer' look

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/death-drops-scythe-adopts-softer-look/2007/08/13/1186857383958.html

"A small religious group that worships the grim reaper and is fighting for government recognition unveiled a softer image of their Death Saint today: a woman with a porcelain face, brown, shoulder-length hair and long thin fingers."

Quite interesting, especially in light of the "adoption" of the Endless Death as a Deity-Of-Choice by some in the neopagan movement.

...

and then there's

hi neil!

maybe not all that necessary for you, but at least it's a clever idea. just wanted to pass along the link in case you hadn't seen it yet.

http://www.riteintherain.com/ Rite in the Rain Notebooks: All-Weather Writing Paper

=^.^= canton ...

You never know... I can imagine needing one of those, even though I tend to feel that spelling it "write" would have increased my desire to use their notebooks.

...

Current travel plans now have me going from Chengdu to Beijing for the Beijing International Book Fair which means I'll be in Beijing during the Hugo Awards (sigh). And I'll now be in Japan about three weeks after that. I'll put details up here as I get them of any signings or events or anything.