I suppose I could always eBay the opportunity to title a Blog entry

In Washington DC there's a TV show about SF and Fantasy called Fast Forward, and one of its interviewers -- often Tom Schaad -- interviews me each time I go to Washington, more or less. The last time I was in Washington was for the National Book Festival in early October, so I still have the sinister Hallowe'en beard in the interview. And I look (and sound -- the "err" quotient is a dead giveaway) rather tired and as if I've just that day driven a few hundred miles to be there, found a parking space and walked in to the interview (which is, oddly enough, the case) but I look as if I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I talk about this blog, and about M. John Harrison's Light, and 1602, and "A Short Film About John Bolton", and MirrorMask, and why I write children's books and lots of other things. Watch it at http://www.fast-forward.tv/.

http://www.sequentialtart.com/tarttastes_0305.shtml is a link to a page where some of the Sequential Tarts say nice things about stuff I've written. I'm not sure whether to be embarrassed about linking to it or not. (Probably not.) Hurrah for the tarts.

Dear Neil,
I am a high school student senior doing a term paper on the status of comic books as legitimate literature, and I would be ever so greatful if you would express to me your thoughts on graphic literature's impact on western culture and conventional literary thought. How do you, as a comic book writer, feel comic books are regarded by the conventional literary community? How do you feel comic books should be regarded? Any information you can give me will be invaluable to my research.
Many thanks,
Ally P.

Ally, go and use Google. I've given lots and lots of interviews over the years, many of which you can find on the web, about just those subjects. Also check The Dreaming website at www.holycow.com/dreaming, where many of those interviews have been extracted and archived. Good luck with your term paper.


Hello Mr. Gaiman,

I am Officer Mark Kearney of the Waynesboro Police Department in Waynesboro, Virginia. I am writing to invite you to the 2nd Annual Book 'Em literacy event. Book 'Em takes place on October 22 and 23, 2005 right here in Waynesboro. Book 'Em is a unique book event in that we are probably the only Police Department in the entire world hosting a book fair where the goal is to highlight the connection between illiteracy/poor reading skills and crime rates.

Our website is www.bookemfoundation.org. I encourage you to take a look at the site to get an idea what we are doing. We'd love to have you attend, if your schedule permits.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about Book 'Em or what we are trying to do,

Take care,

Mark

Hullo Mark, it's unlikely that I'd be able to come -- I'll either still be on the Anansi Boys book tour, or I'll be exhausted at home recovering from the Anansi Boys book tour for a few days before heading out to New Orleans for the book festival to accept the LOUISIANA YOUNG READERS' CHOICE AWARD for Coraline. (I'd link to the entry on Coraline winning the state award at http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/ but I can't figure out how to link to individual posts there.) But I wanted to post this publically because I thought that Book 'Em looked like a Really Good Thing (and I will happily send along some signed books for the auction).

At the Publishers' Lunch I attended last week, Joel Klein mentioned that the people who build private prisons in the US use third grade (that's about age eight for the non-Americans) illiteracy levels as their key to how many people are going to be in prison in ten, fifteen years, and how many prison cells they're going to need to build.

Which is one of the reasons I go and click each day at http://www.theliteracysite.com.

...

Following the ridiculous success of last year's tomato crop, I'll be going to http://www.heirloomtomatoes.bizland.com/ to get another variety pack. (And I'll remember I was not impressed by the White Wonders, and how much I loved the Green Zebras, and plant accordingly.)


And lastly (because I have to go and write)...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4535020492

The ANANSI BOYS eBay auction is now live. This is your chance to have a Cruise Ship named after you, or after someone you love. It's not an especially interesting cruise ship, and it doesn't transform into a giant killer robot or get shipwrecked or anything. It's a bog-standard Caribbean Cruise Ship. But if you've always wanted to have a ship in a book named after you, or plan to impress someone by casually handing them a copy of Anansi Boys, knowing it has a ship in named after them, which is more than they do (hmm. Probably a bad idea that, actually. In a worst case scenario you'd get a restraining order taken out against you and I'd be sued for invasion of privacy or something. Okay, new rule, the person it's named after has to approve of their name being used) -- or if you've just always wanted to be allowed to name a ship in someone else's book, then now is your chance.

And you'll be supporting the First Amendment.