http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/news-flash-soapbox-special-darren-shan-on-age-branding-in-childrens-literature/
is Darren Shan telling it like it is, while Philip Pullman talks to the Telegraph over at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2074620/Philip-Pullman-leads-author-revolt-against-age-banding-for-children.html
(I got a crazy thrill seeing Alan Garner in the comments -- an author whose books work if you're nine and work if you're twelve, and work if you're seventeen, and work if you're forty: they just work in a different way each time.)
I talked about my love for Alan Garner's books in this recent Australian interview -- http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2260549.htm. It's a nice interview even though it begins with someone saying, "Neil Gaiman has been described as 'the father of the graphic novel'," which I complete in my head with "But only by people who know nothing about graphic novels and fatherhood, who don't know who Will Eisner was."
....
Hello there.
I just came across an old journal piece of yours (journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/06/harry-clarke-and-small-gift-from.asp) whilst searching for an article someone told me about on a discovery of two new Clarke drawings.
I've a rather large interest in the man, so much so that I feel cursed for not being born early enough to write my thesis on the man. Yoshitaka Amano at least appears as a silver lining.
I'd equally imagine I'm not the only Clarke fanatic in the art history community - and wonder if you mean to scan or otherwise make available the drawings you discovered?
I'd doubt any great insight into his work, any more than any other drawing of his might provide as to method, but it would be a treat for those of us who would pursue completion with fanaticism.
Which struck me as a very good idea, the putting them up on line. I had meant to get in touch with Clarke expert Nicola Gordon-Bowes when I was in Dublin last, but it never happened... So I got the Clarke drawings scanned.
You can read the whole of The Year's At The Spring at http://www.archive.org/details/yearsatspringant00waltrich.
This is the one that was face out when I bought it -- it's from the illustration facing page 74, If I Had a Broomstick. The finished version looks like this:
Above is the rough for the illustration on page 109 of The Year's at the Spring, showing the two mermaids (three in the finished version); and also sketches for the details on page 93 and 74.
Finished, the one on page 109 looks like this:
On the reverse of those two are these are sketches for two Clarke drawings I don't recognise -- the cottage on the left, the dancer, the bearded man and the clown on the right. (Click on them to see them larger.)
(No idea why they've uploaded blue.)
...
Dear Mr. Gaiman,
With the number of young writers who look to you for advice, I thought that they might be interested to hear about a creative writing program called "Shared Worlds" being offered this summer at Wofford College. My friend, writer Jeff VanderMeer is serving as assistant director. Jeff, along with writers Ekaterina Sedia, Tobias Buckell and a host of tabletop game designers and other creative types will lead high school students through a very "hands-on" experience in creating their own worlds, learning valuable creative writing lessons in the process. Here's a link, if you think your readers might be interested:
http://wofford.edu/newsroom/content.aspx?id=27822
Thanks,
Matt (a reader and fan).
Consider it plugged.
Talking about which, the Memorare For the Hugo sticker on the right of the page is for this story -- http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/gw01.htm -- and is there because Gene Wolfe has never, ever won the Hugo Award. And he should.
There's an English ceilidh band called Florida - http://www.zen21456.zen.co.uk/florida/ - who do a wonderful version of Danse Macabre. They have a clip of it on their website - http://www.zen21456.zen.co.uk/florida/samples.htm
That's terrific -- and a brilliant start...
Labels: age-banding, Danse Macabre, Harry Clarke