On the 30th and 31st of May 2003 I'll be at Book Expo America in Los Angeles.
(Erroneous bit removed.)
I'm definitely doing a signing from 1:00pm-2:00pm on the 31st of May
Then from 4:30 - 5:15 on the 31st I'm going to talk, answer questions and as an experiment read THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS with slides of Dave Mckean's art. It's in Convention Room 406A or possibly Room 403A (unless they've moved it again -- we keep getting moved to bigger rooms, but I'm not sure which we're in right now). The way they put it in their promo is:
Saturday, May 31
4:30 pm � 5:15 pm From Comic Book Writer to New York Times Bestseller; Neil Gaiman and His Works| Room 406A
Neil Gaiman was one of the first authors of graphic novels to be taken seriously by the literary world. His Sandman graphic novels have sold in the millions. He�s spent the last seven years writing prose, including the New York Times bestselling novels AMERICAN GODS (winner of the Hugo Award 2002) and CORALINE (nominated for a 2003 BookSense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature). His upcoming works include the first new Sandman book in seven years, The Sandman: Endless Nights (DC Comics) and, with artist Dave McKean, a graphic novel for all ages, THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS (HarperCollins Children's Books). He will talk about his experiences as a writer for adult, YA and youth audiences, and will be reading the entirety of THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS, with a slide show. A Q&A will follow.
Admission: Free of Charge
But that Free of Charge only applies if you've already made it through the doors of the Book Expo, and that's not cheap (unless you're a member of the press). Then again, it looks really impressive.
(I'm not sure that I really like From Comic Book Writer to New York Times Bestseller -- it seems to imply some kind of evolution, like From Rags to Riches, or From the Cradle to the Grave. I mean, most of what I've been writing since September 2001 has been comics.)
....
At 11:00 am on 7 June 03 I'll be at the Printer's Row bookfair in Chicago, also reading THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS and other things, and answering questions... http://www.chicagotribune.com/extras/printersrow/. Genuinely free entry, and I'll be signing for an hour after the reading.
...
I never really liked Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the UK for most of my childhood, until I read this article about his secret plan to disappear and run away and hide, as revealed in the Guardian, in which we learn that...
Lord Donoughue recounts how the Labour leader planned to "slip away unseen in our plane, indicating to the air traffic controllers that he was going to London, but during the flight to divert to a small airfield in Bedfordshire. Wilson would then race away by car to some secret hideaway".
"He had an old road map on his lap," Lord Donoughue continues. "At dinner, Wilson further developed his escape plans with mentions of false trails, diversionary cars and planes, as well as more plans for fleeing in the invisible aeroplane. So many complications were introduced, so many bluffs and covers that I could not work out how or when I was supposed to travel back to London, if at all".
When Lord Donoughe put the escape plan - which he describes as "a pathetic fantasy in a major politician" - to Wilson's controversial political secretary Marcia Williams, she described it as "schoolboy behaviour". "You will be on the plane to London, like everybody else, including him," she said.
Even when early results suggested a strong showing for Labour, writes Lord Donoughue, "Wilson began to implement his strange escape plans".