I'm home. This is an extremely good thing. (I have a daughter who missed me very much. And I her.)
On the down side, I got home and realised with a sort of sick thud that Sundance and Sarasota had completely eaten the last two weeks of January, which was meant to be novel-finishing time, and that I have to get the finished novel to my editor before she goes to the London Book Fair at the end of the month. I've also got to copy-edit the MirrorMask script book today, write the MirrorMask novella, and do several other things I've promised people. (And then there's the Beowulf movie.) Suddenly the air is filled with the little crunching crashing tinkling sounds of juggled deadlines hitting the floor and smashing into teeny tiny bits.
So I'll be posting a bit less while I try and get everything finished. Bear with me.
Meanwhile, a quick clear-out of open firefox tabs before I vanish.
...
For the curious, here are a bunch of MirrorMask reviews and mentions:
http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=11264&reviewer=128
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366780/usercomments
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/2005/01/twitch_intervie.html#more (an interview, not a review)
http://www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Sundance2005/Daily/
050127.html
http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=6472 and http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=6426
http://www.calgarysun.com/perl-bin/niveau2.cgi?
s=films&p=91857.html&a=1
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In the Bay Area, Rory Root's lovely COMIC RELIEF shop is moving. Details at http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/
comic_relief_finds_new_larger_home/
And if you get to them before they move, they've got a sale on. Go buy good comics.
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So far over 11,000 people have voted at http://scottmccloudvsabear.com. Scott is out in the lead, but not by much.
For months I've meant to post the link to Sushi Pillows at http://www.theoriginalsushipillow.com/pages/2/index.htm. (Mine just arrived -- I ordered one of each -- and they are very lovely. I'll report back when the sofa they're meant to go on finally turns up as well, and they come out of their bags.)
Scaryduck is going to be self-publishing some of the highlights of the Scaryduck blog and more. http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/2005/01/tales-of-mirth-and-woe.html. (Scaryduck is the kind of blog that you must not read while drinking liquids or they'll be nasally ejected and all over the screen and keyboard in no time.) (This is good self-publishing, and not the PublishAmerica kind.)
Which reminds me, Scary recently sent me a link to an animation of the Sinister Ducks' SINISTER DUCKS song: http://pip.rubberfeet.org/stuff/ducks.html
Coraline is a pick for the Young Adult Library Services Assoc. paperbacks for Young Adults this year. (Some very cool categories.)
This article on Bill Messner-Loebs was demoralising -- he's an excellent artist, a very good writer and an extremely nice man. He ought to be working, and he ought to be working in comics. If you're a publisher and reading this, get him to make you a graphic novel.
And finally -- I received a really amazing gift from Lisa Snellings yesterday: you can see a photo of it at http://slaughterhousestudios.blogspot.com/2005/01/itsy-bit-inside.html. It's beautiful. I think the thing I love best about Lisa's blog is not only the images of her art she puts up (and the current two-and-a-half-dimensional sculptures she's doing are astonishing) but that it's the kind of place where you get to find out whether puppets are particles or waves.