Hello Mr. Gaiman!
I was just reading through your blog and wanted to mention something real quick. In mentioning the story about the Denmark granting legal recognition to worshipers of the Norse Gods, you make a joke about "human sacrifices". Now, I figure you're someone who knows better than to think people really are out trying to commit human sacrifices (even if they can't get a government permit for it *g*) but, well, given that not everyone is, would you be willing to maybe consider making a note that it really IS just a joke?
Unfortuantely, a lot of people seem to think that Heathens (what most worshipers of the Norse Gods call themselves - at least in the US), Pagans and other 'followers of nonstandard religions' really do engage in human sacrifice and other such nastiness when we don't. True, people in the old times did, but in trying to reconstruct the old Norse religion, we're not so much trying to copy or do everything exactly the way it was done in ancient times, but rather how it would have been done if the religion hadn't been surpressed a thousand years ago and instead had evolved naturally to modern times.
I hope this doesn't seem too silly or rude or anything, but there's a lot of misunderstandings, and I'd hate to see people come away with the idea that there are these nuts in Denmark wishing they could have included killing people in their government-approved rites, you know?
Thanks!!
Kriselda Jarnsaxa
[Oh, and just FYI, from what I understand, Iceland has officially recognized Asatru, which is the most popular of the Heathen faiths, so no one there has to worry about whether they get caught any more or not, though that is a great addition to the law.]
So yes, it was a joke.
Why doesn't MirrorMask have its own site?Whenever I've wondered about it,I either come here or imbd or Muppet Central. Be well.
I don't know. Probably because the filmmakers are too busy making it at this point to have thought of it, and I suspect that Hensons are waiting until the film is closer to being finished.
i'm surprised that you haven't mentioned this yet (or as far as i've noticed, you haven't) but there's an interview with you in the latest (november) issue of newtype USA, which i haven't read yet as i was surprised enough by it to run over to my PC and send in a comment forthwith.
I forgot.
It's not unusual for me to forget to post things like that. Luckily, people sometimes remind me.
I forgot to post this interview with DC Comics boss Paul Levitz from the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1080651,00.html (Interesting partly because Paul generally keeps a lower profile. It's nice to see his head above the parapet.)
Something else I forgot to mention -- next Saturday morning, I'll be babbling or burbling or something with Jonathan Ross on his Saturday Morning radio show. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ross/ for details or proof. And for sheer amusement value I recommend going to the rants page and listening to The Bad Impersonator, or, well anything really... And you can listen to the show live on the web, or replay it for the following week.
Dear Neil,
Just wanted to thank you for linking to my Playboy Decades work. I'm a big fan of yours, so it was quite a gratifying surprise to see my stuff linked to on your journal.
All the best.
Cheers,
Jason
You're very welcome. I thought the images were beautiful.
Your iSkin comments got a lot of iPod fanboys boxers in a bunch over at http://www.ipodlounge.com/ The comments sound more like you insulted their girlfriends or something.
FWIW: the bottoms of the skins (I have a blue one from Speck) *are* kludgy. When mine is plugged in (in the car) it's difficult to maneuver the dial on the iPod because the bottom flips up in the way. I may make my own... I'm desperate to lose the cold, clinical whiteness of it.
--Maureen
How bizarre. I mean, you can't use the inMotion speaker dock with the iSkin on, even if you peel it up; you can't get the Belkin Voice recorder on without pulling the iSkin mostly off the top. Anything like the iSkin you have to keep removing or partly removing in order to use it is a poor design job. Ah well. (For the record, I've found iPodLounge an incredibly helpful site over the last year.)
Anyway, my grumbling in public was a sensible thing to do, because you lot, between you, know everything, and this arrived:
Hullo Neil. Not really a question per se. I read on the Blog that you were having a mite of trouble with the iSkin exo for your new third generation iPod. I've been constantly shopping for the perfect sleeve since the third gens debuted. I just came across one that sounds and looks purty good and Macworld magazine gave it a four mouse (read star) rating in their review of it. It comes in six colours, including black. It sounds like it may suit your needs better than the current iSkin. Anyways, here's the URL, hope its of some help. PodSleevz http://www.radtech.us/podsleevz.html Respectfully, Ivory the lil white boi
Which looks just perfect, thank you. I've already ordered one, and will report back about it.
Dear Neil,
My girlfriends sister and her young daughter were over for a visit this last weekend and our place being the den of two adults has little to keep a three year old girl interested. After playing with my girlfriend's old musty stuffed animal cat for a bit, the girl was looking rather bored. "Well" I thought to myself "I do have that book by Neil Gaiman 'The wolves in the walls' it is meant to be a kids book after all." Though I had bought it for myself of course under the guise of buying a gift for some nonexistant sibling. Well to make a long story somewhat shorter the girl loved the book, and has taken to carrying it around with her (however you may mention to Dave Mckean that some of his illustrations confused her a bit). Well the problem and the source of my writing is that that she is convinced that the book will/has been made into a movie, and that of course we all need to see said movie soon. I attempted to explain to the girl that their was no movie, however my words hardly stood up against her three year old logic that all books have movies to go along with them. So at last to my question. I wonder if you couldnt go ahead and make this book into a movie to save me a bit of trouble.
Thanks for listening,
Dylan
www.geocities.com/paranoidartist
Well, I wasn't planning on it, but I'll see what I can do.
Dear Neil:
Russel T. Davies has suggested that the first season of new Doctor Who episodes will include 13 episodes at 45 minutes apiece. Any chance you would write an episode if asked?
Michael Tax
If I have time, certainly. (It took five years to find time to write a Babylon 5 episode, of course...)
Having just read 'Coraline' I was wondering, having you ever heard of, or read Lucy Lane Clifford's 'The New Mother' 1882? I'm hoping to write a book about fairy tales and would be very interested to know.
Thanks!
Selene
x
One reason lots of FAQs simply don't get answered is that the answer is already on the journal somewhere -- it's always worthwhile, if you have a question you think may have been answered somewhere before, like how to get published, or what I think of National Novel Writing Month, or something like that, to search for a few relevant words on the site.
The Search tool is the magnifying glass on the left.
A quick search for Lucy Clifford gave me three mentions on the journal. One of them is http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal_archives/2002_06_01_archive.asp#85202123, and I'll leave it to you to find the others...
Yea i want to know whats gonna be done with Medieval Spawn (yes I know he is dead) but don't just let him sit there and do nothing. At least let Mcfarlane have the rights to make a few more figures out of him. you are hurting the fans here.
Er, the judgement in the legal case gave me co-copyright in Medieval Spawn and Cogliostro (and confirmed my copyright interest in Angela). It didn't take away Todd McFarlane's copyright interest in either character. Todd has the rights to do a Medeival Spawn toy any time he wants; he just has to give me 50% of what he makes from it. ( There were weird reports that the reason Todd couldn't do his Image Tenth Anniversary story is that I was somehow stopping him from using the characters he wanted. Again, a nonsense: Todd's co-copyright-holder on the characters. I can't stop him from doing anything he wants with them. Nor would I want to.)
Todd's currently appealing the jury verdict to the 7th Circuit court of appeal. I thought it would be simpler for everyone if I waited until the appeal was done and the jury decision was confirmed before licensing out Medieval Spawn toys, statues, games, comics, novelty condoms, or whatever.
I'm not sure how I'm "hurting the fans" by not doing anything until then. But I can assure you that when the jury decision is confirmed I will happily license out Medieval Spawn to anyone who wants to use him for anything at all, astonishingly cheaply. And of course Todd will get his 50%.
...
And Teresa Nielsen Hayden explains everything you ever wanted to know about girls and guns over at Making Light. Meanwhile Iain Banks just did a book in which he drove around Scotland tasting, and learning about, single malts. (He talks about it here.) Bastard. Wish I'd thought of doing a book like that.