Journal

Friday, May 07, 2004

The Rudiments of Wisdom

A quick post from a me who read Anansi Boys for three and a half hours today, the whole of the book so far, over the phone, and discovered a) it does actually seem to be a book, and b) my editor likes it. Her editorial suggestions consisted of suggesting that I finish it, which frankly is the best editorial suggestion anyone can make.

My gut suspicion at this point -- half way through it, I hope -- is that people who liked American Gods, but didn't like Stardust or Neverwhere probably won't like it, while people who liked Neverwhere but didn't care for American Gods will like it a great deal. (People who liked Neverwhere and American Gods are on their own.) I don't think it will be one of the books that wins awards, but it may be one of those things that some people love more than anything. I could be wrong about all of this, mind you. I set out to write a Thorne Smith novel, and I have no idea how close I'll actually come. My editor, Jennifer, laughed at the funny bits, and that felt good.

My throat is a bit raw (probably from having read for 210 minutes) so I shall get an early night, and not answer any of the many waiting questions, or post any of the many waiting comments. Instead, I shall simply put in a plug for http://beautifulstuff.org/ -- without which I would never have known that I could watch Krazy Kat cartoons at the Library of Congress "Origins of Animation" site -- http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/oahtml/animatTitles01.html; read an hilarious account of what happened in Barnes and Noble a couple of months ago when Anton Chekov did a book signing, a hundred years after his death -- http://improveverywhere.csbl.net/chekov/; look at Heath Robinson's Uncle Lubin illustrations -- http://bugpowder.com/andy/k.robinson.heath_lubin.html; or spend much too much time learning from Tim Hunkin how to, for example, tell whether a piece of cutlery is real silver or not -- http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/pages/fakes.htm : http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/ is the most delightful website for inquisitive and tricky 12 year olds of pretty much any age (my inner 12 year old wants very much to go and put an unpeeled onion in the microwave to see if it will glow).

...

Quick plug for this ebay auction, because it's for a good cause (and ends soon). (And it's not just the signed and drawn on Coraline proof. It's the Vogelein too.)