Journal

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

In which I make a slow start on the mailbox...

The lost journal and its owner (from yesterday) have been reunited.


Let's see.... Hill House Press now has a website: http://hillhousepublishers.com/. Hill House Press is Pete Schneider and Pete Atkins, and these are the gentlemen who have been driving themselves slowly mad by going through several drafts of American Gods at the same time to try and put together the definitive draft for the most gorgeous edition of the book ever. Then we roll up our sleeves and try to figure out what the definitive text of Neverwhere is going to be. (At least the text ofStardust will remain exactly the same.)

Dear Mister Gaiman,

This may be a stupid question, but please forgive my ignorance. I'm getting ready to attempt writing my first novel, but there's some research I'd like to do, and I'm not exactly sure if it'd be legal to use the source material. The only objects of my research are The Bible and The Divine Comedy. I'll take libertires, of course. I don't think there'd be a problem with using The Bible; but, you see, I'd very much like to use the description of Hell from The Divine Comedy (whilst applying my own spin on it, of course). The reason I question this is because I'm not sure whether it would be a violation of intellectual property. Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry to bother you with such a rudimentary question. Even if you delete this without even reading it, that takes time, and for your time, I thank you.

Robert Lee Emigh III


It's not such a stupid question. The simplest of answers is if it was published before 1923 it's public domain, and Dante wrote his Divine Comedy a very long time before 1923.

I'm sorry if this is already addressed somewhere and I missed it. In Charlotte you read the Crazy Hair poem. Is that text available somewhere? My wife and I thought it was terribly funny and my son would probably enjoy it.
I'm glad your feeling slightly better. I wish we could have waited through the line to see you personally but there wasn't enough time.
thanks.
-shad collins


Crazy Hair should be out as a book, late in 2004 or early in 2005. Depends a lot how long it takes Dave McKean to do the illustrations...

Hi Neil,

looking at the journal I was delighted to see your reply to Midge K. Manlapig that he could use some of your work as a set text. This is mainly because i've just become an adult education Creative Writing tutor and I wondered if it would also be alright for me to use your wonderful short story 'Chivalry' from 'Smoke And Mirrors' (which I of course recommend they all read)?

Hope you feel better soon,

Phil


Sure.

I could swear there was a section with all the foreign covers of your works..where did it go? Oh, and ...any chance you can post a picture of the Croatian cover of american gods? heh

Angie


I think the foreign covers migrated over to the pages of the books in question. For the American Gods in Croatian cover, here's the Croatian American Gods page.
Click on veca slika and it should pop up a window with the cover in it for you.

Hi Neil,
First many thanks for the Charlotte reading and signing, it was great. During the Q&A session in answering a question, you mentioned a follow up stroy to "American Gods" about Shadow being a bouncer. Could you refresh my memory as to witch collection you said that was in/for? Thanks so much and good to hear you're feeling much better!
Shannon


It's called THE MONARCH OF THE GLEN, which will be (or has been, depending on where you live) published in LEGENDS II, edited by Robert Silverberg. (Here's a review.)

These just arrived in a clump. And I suspect it might be wisest to post them all:

My class wrote letters to you will recieve them soon.We want to know what address we can send it to you? Yours truly,
Sarah Szabdkai

dear mr gaiman i liked your book coraline alot. our teacher read it to us in our class.i would like to know if the the the wolves in the walls include coraline in it

your fan kimbelry desaulniers

My class wrote letters to you.You will recive them soon but do you have an address we can send the letters to you?
When you get the letters look in each letter for two similes and/or two metaphors.

Alex Age 11

can you write another book that is kkind of like coraline?

hello mr. gaiman!!!!! how are you? im fine. i really liked your book coraline. i hope i will get tu read the book wolves on the walls. well something like that!!

carol-ann!!!-xxx-ooo-

Hi, my name is Karyann Dziedzic. I am a student from Golden Valley school in Val D'or Quebec. My class wrote letters to you. You might get them soon oh!! and also my teacher read your book Coraline to the class it was sooooo scary and very intresting. Please write back to me!!

Hi! Me and my class have been writing you leters. In the second paragraph there is sopose to be two similei or metafor. We send them to you because we read your book "Coraline". Its supper!

Karyann Dziedzic Age:10 Grade 5


The best address for your teacher to send your letters to is DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis -- 912 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408

Coraline isn't in "The Wolves in the Walls", I'm afraid.

I will write another book a bit like Coraline only very different, after I write my next book for grown-ups.

And I shall keep an eye out for similes and metaphors.

I was surfing around the net and ended up on the Douglas Adams page, where they were touting a documentary, for which you served as narrator.

Is this fairly new or kind of old? Did you have anything to do with it other than the narration?

Just curious, as this is something I would definitely want to get (especiall having recently watched all the bonus material on the HHGTTG DVD).


Let's see. Here's a review of the film at: http://greenmanreview.com/film_douglasadams.html. The film was made by Joel Greengrass and Rick Mueller, and my main function was kibbitzing on the script and then recording the narration.

I don't know if you know this or not but November is National Novel Writing Month, durring which hundreds of people all over the world will be working towards the goal of writing a 50,000 word (or 175 page) novel in 30 days. I was wondering if you would be partaking in this slaphappy experiment?

The Nanowrimo website is at http://nanowrimo.org/index.php.

Thanks,
Keith



I won't, no -- I won't get to work on my own novel until around the 20th of November, and I think it will take me rather longer than a month to write. But a lot of readers of this journal took part in NANOWRIMO last year, many of them successfully, and I'm sure the same will be true this year.

And a final one:

A few years back I saw you do a reading at the Bottom Line in NYC before a Magnetic Fields show and I enjoyed both the show and the atmosphere of the venue. But apparently the Bottom Line is in danger of being closed for good due to money owed to NYU for rent. There is more info on the website:

http://www.bottomlinecabaret.com/

and also a petition has been formed on this site:

http://www.savethebottomline.com/

I'd hate to see such a place be gone for good. It was at that show that I first was introduced to the Magnetic Fields (I payed for the ticket to see you do your reading) and first saw you in person. For those experiences alone I'd like to see them stay around.

I didn't see a PayPal account of anything for donations, so I'm not sure what else can be done to support aside from going to shows and signing the petition.

-Aaron


I loved doing the Bottom Line gig with the Magnetic Fields, and was thrilled to be on the same stage that Lou Reed was on when he recorded "Live: Take Not Prisoners". I hope that it survives...