Neil: It amazes me that a writer should be so clueless on the complexity of human realtionships! But then maybe that's why you write Fantasy Fiction , making relatioships the way you DREAM them to be and not based on reality! Your remark about Charles Admas evil ex-wife was really uncalled for! I'm not saying the woman wasn't a raging bitch on wheels but maybe he lead her down that road to bitch dom! I've been reading the fuss over Paul McCathy tapes yelling at his dead wife Mary and a friend of my said she couldn't beleieve her ex-Beattle could be so cruel. And I thought the man wasn't a saint, so he yelled at her, it just proves they were married! If you live with someone you're going to have conflict! I often wonder if you have your wife locked up in the turret of your house like Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, you never mention the woman in your blog! And if you two decide to part ways she has every right to half of what you have because without her you m ay not have been the successful writer you are now! I'm not a bitter woman but a person wise enough to know where human hearts are involved all kind of evil things can happen! Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion. Truly- Ms. Wright
Sorry if I upset you by describing Charles Addams' second wife as "evil". While I agree that relationships are complicated and that Mr Addams was probably a far from ideal husband, when you get to the point in the biography where she's taken out the $100,000 life insurance policy on him and then gets him to write a suicide note she's dictated, I think "evil" seems a fairly apt sort of word.
(Then again, the New York Times review of the book only goes as far as describing her as "diabolical" and "the one woman he might reasonably have wanted to murder".)
Still, I've not yet finished the book. She may redeem herself by the end.
And this one was too important to ignore,
Dear Neil -Do goats figure prominently (or even in a minor role) in any of your works? I have read some of your novels but can't claim encyclopedic knowledge. I am trying to compile a list of goat-related science ficton/fantasy works and right now coming up a bit short. In fact, it totals exactly ONE title at the moment.Any help would be appreciated.
N. in Virginia on behalf of Princess Grace of BaaBaaDoo Farm
What about Stardust -- a book (and a film) with two goats in it? One that is transformed into a man, and one a man transformed into a goat.
There's goat in chapter two of Anansi Boys, of course. But it's curried.
So there we go. You now have another two and a bit goats.
There's also a high rise goat in this Charles Addams cartoon, of course...
http://www.charlesaddams.com/gallery02.html