Neil Gaiman's Journal

It's been a sort of "interview at eleven" kind of week. Every day Lorraine-my-assistant would tell me about a call at eleven a.m. she'd set up for me, some interviews, some conference calls. Today was a conference call with Dave McKean and some Hensons people and some Columbia people about "Mirror Mask" (and how Dave and I need to do the final polish of the script ASAP, and they need to go out to actresses to play Helena's mother and the Light and Dark Queens). Then there was an interview about the history of the graphic novel, the conference call about Endless Nights, the one about the European Tour (except for Germany). Tonight I got back and Lorraine said "You're being interviewed tomorrow at eleven by Gene Simmons. It's for Gene Simmons' TONGUE, a new magazine." Definitely the most unlikely one this week.

Let's see... Several e-mails from Gothic.net asking me to tell you all that you can now read the fiction and lots of the content of gothic.net for free, and that you should check it out. Holli-the-bookslut-intern reminds me to let people know there's a new issue of bookslut up.

My iPod came back from Apple with a note saying that they'd reinstalled the firmware and it worked now. And it does. The mail brought the reissue of Handsome by Kilburn and the High Roads and the latest issue of Uncut with the Bowie covers CD attached to the cover. Hearing the covers made me realise how much a part of me most of those original songs are.

Hey Neil,

I see mentioned on your site that an American Gods audio CD was supposed to be out at some point, but I can't find it anywhere. Just wondering if it is dead or delayed or ?

Thanks


Last I heard, they were looking at releasing it as an MP3 CD as soon as enough people could play MP3 CDs, as they felt that not enough people would buy it to make a 20-plus CD package cost effective.



would you be the Crowley that posted in the guest book at www.preserveusfromthehouseofclocks.com on 2-11-03?

Not me. I'm really impressed by the guestbook at the House of Clocks -- some marvellous entries, but they aren't mine.

Hi!
This is for those of us who really, really like your work but usually just search through your journal for anything new on that Dave Mckean guy. If you could tell everyone that www.colonymedia.co.uk has all the recent updates on him it would be...nice? Um...anyway...Cheers. /Daniel, Sweden

You know, I've been meaning to post that for ages. Thanks for reminding me.

Dear Neil,

I wanted to say that I love your stuff. American Gods was one of the best books I've read. It totally changed the way that I look at things, especially roadside attractions. But change in a good way, so thanks.

I also was hoping you could put an end to a discussion a friend and I have been having. We're trying to discern the difference between a short story, a vignette, a novella, and novelette. We assume there's a difference otherwise why would there be different words? We're not sure what the difference is. Length, perhaps?

Thanks, Keith

According to Locus Online: Story Lengths: Novella/novelette/short story
These three terms for works of fiction shorter than a novel, though somewhat interchangeable in general parlance, have acquired specific definitions both in genre publishing and as distinct awards categories.
Novella: 17,500 - 40,000 words (roughly, 50-100 pages of a book)
Novelette: 7,500 - 17,500 words (roughly, 20-50 pages of a book)
Short story: up to 7,500 words (20 pages or fewer of a book)
These are not rigoursly adhered to, with some awards using a broader "short fiction" category, or combining "novella/novelette".

A vignette is a sketch (it comes from the french for vine -- a decorative border running up a page) or a little moment, but something that doesn't add up to a story.
...

Trying to put together a screening of "A Short Film About John Bolton" in LA for the end of March to benefit the CBLDF. I feel a bit guilty at the idea of dragging people out and making them pay real money for a half hour film, so trying to decide if there's something else we could show as well, or if I should just get up and read something or answer questions or extemporise a saga or something. Hmmm... maybe Dave McKean would let us show "The Week Before" or "Neon".