on Stardust and Chu and 5 books, three of which are already written

Had a magical handful of days at home, the high point of which was having Paul Cornell and his wife Caroline out to be introduced to the beehives. (Caroline got stung, standing near one of the hives, from a wandering bee who was caught in her hair, but nothing else odd happened.) 


It's berry time, and I've picked blueberries and whitecurrants by the handful, and every night I'd count fireflies as I walked the dogs.


Now I'm in San Francisco for Amanda's art opening. I'm writing this in the hotel cafe, and then I will go back to the script I'm writing. More news of which may be floating around later tonight.


I just signed a book deal with Harper Collins Childrens books, for five books. (I am telling you this here because it is being reported as news.)

One book I've mentioned here already a few times is Chu's Day, illustrated by Adam Rex, is a book for very small children. Here's a picture from it. (Click on it to see it larger. There is a snail in the picture. Can you spot him?) Chu is over on the right and he has his back to us (you can't see him in the version on my blog - click and you will). It'll be published on January the 8th 2013. And there will be another Chu book (already written), and Fortunately, the Milk (already written), and the next Odd novel (started and plotted) and a mysterious book that I think I know what it is (not even started, won't be for quite a while, and I think I know the setting but not the story)...


None of these books is the novel that has the working title of Lettie Hempstock's Ocean, which should be out in 2013 some time, although contracts aren't signed. That's a novel for adults and is lurching further toward the end of its second draft every day. (mostly I'm just listening to comments from friends who have read it, and fixing things, or thinking about them and letting them stay the same...)


(I came up with a brilliant new title for it today. I told Amanda the brilliant new title. She agreed it was brilliant. It bounced off the tongue. I started a delighted letter to my agent and my editors...I wrote the new title in the email. Then I looked at it. I shook my head. I called Amanda over. She read the email. "It doesn't look very good, written down, does it?" she said. That was what I'd been afraid of. It really didn't. I will keep pondering.)



Hi,

Does the new edition of Stardust include the original illustrations by Charles Vess? I know Neil mentioned that a full color front piece by Vess will be used. And that chapter headings, presumably in black and white will also be included.

I find it odd that nowhere on the web can I find this information. Also, it has not been 13 years since Stardust has seen a hardcover edition. I have in my hands an edition published by Vertigo in 2007. It measures nearly 8 X 12, and includes the Vess illustrations, these illustrations are considered so integral to the text that Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess are listed as co-authors on the cover.

I believe this needs to be addressed as it appears that Neil considers his text-block with a few illustrations to be the official version of Stardust. And the version with the original Vess illustrations to be a hybrid, unofficial variant of Stardust. In other words, Neil claims sole authorship of the official version of Stardust.

Thanks,

Lawrence Carlin


The illustrations that Charles Vess did for the original DC Comics version of Stardust are so integral to the text that that version of the book isn't actually even called Stardust. It's called Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' Stardust, because when we asked DC if they could try and make sure they mentioned our names when they talked about it they said they were worried they might forget, so we put our names in the title instead. That edition has almost 200 full colour illustrations by Charles, and some slight textual differences (sometimes where text had to be trimmed to fit, sometimes where Charles had drawn something slightly different to what I'd written, and I'd then change the words to fit).


I don't consider any version to be the "official version of Stardust". I'm not even sure what an official version would be. 


And yes, the DC Comics version had a brief second hardcover edition in 2007.


Contractually, the prose-only edition of Stardust has had to be unillustrated until now, and I'm delighted that DC Comics gave their permission to have Charles do the two illustrations and the chapter heading for the new edition. I couldn't imagine even asking any other artist to do it.

Charles was saying on Facebook that he now has a bunch more pictures, done over the years since our Stardust was first published that he'd love to see published: perhaps we can persuade DC Comics to do a new, Deluxe Edition of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' Stardust. I'd love that.


The above is a (click to embiggen) beautiful fairy market painting Charles did for the endpapers of the 2007 edition, because the proportions of the oversized hardback meant that details and characters were lost from the double page spread of the fairy market inside the book...

Labels: Charles Vess, Chu's Day, Contract stuff, Mystery News I Am Not At Liberty To Talk About, posting real actual bits of news without going off on any kind of interesting tangents, Stardust

Clarity in Stardust Editions and Amanda becomes canvas

Right. I've investigated a little further. There are, as I said in the last post, two editions of the upcoming hardback of Stardust. The regular one (there will be many thousands of copies of this edition printed, and I hope it will stay in print for a very long time) will have this beautiful two-colour Charles Vess illustration as the frontispiece:

The signed limited (that is to say, there will only be a limited number of them, and each of them will be signed by me on a limitation page) deluxe edition will have this beautiful full-colour Charles Vess illustration as its frontispiece:

There's also a beautiful Charles Vess chapter heading at the start of every chapter in each of the books.

I'm slightly nervous, as right now the deluxe signed limited super-expensive edition is outselling the regular gift edition on Amazon, and I'm wondering whether anyone's actually keeping track of how many orders for the limited are coming in, and stopping orders when it reaches as many as they are going to make. The plan as of this morning was that there will only be a thousand of the signed edition, but that might change, and I may grit my teeth, flex my pen, and sign more. I don't want people who have already ordered it to be disappointed.

...

The Guardian this morning previewed Amanda's new video.

A few weeks ago, in London, Amanda got an email from filmmaker Jim Batt, with the video he'd been making for her song Want It Back. We watched it with our friend (and host, for we were staying in her spare room) artist Judith Clute. When it finished, Judith and I made Amanda show it to us again, and then again. We laughed and gasped in the same places each time. I love stop motion, and I love imagination, and I love that it’s a rock video that’s fresh and imaginative. I was impressed too by the way Amanda uses herself as a canvas. I sent it to Henry Selick, who knows from Stop Motion, and he loved it, and wanted to know how Amanda had had the patience and stamina to stay there for three days as it was done - he had known a rock star who had nearly killed the animator who tried to make him into a stop motion video. Her reply to both of us, when I enquired, was "yoga + meditating + ego + extreme desire for an awesome video = patience".

Probably the years she spent as a human statue helped as well.

 I'll put the video up here. I'm putting it up because I think it's marvellous. Do not watch it if you are at work, or you have people around who will give you funny looks if naked bodies turn up on your screen. (Also, do not watch it if you're hoping for erotica. It's not that, either.)

Labels: Charles Vess, Henry Selick, Jim Batt, limited editions, My brilliant albeit naked wife, Stardust

Tesla Coils, A Stardust Cover, A Sinister Photograph of Beautiful Women, and a small and unfortunate murder.

I'm home, after ten days in New York and Boston and Cape Cod. I've left Maddy behind in New York, where she is doing an internship before going off to college. Then I left Amanda behind in Boston, where she  is packing before she goes to France and Italy to do interviews about her new album before she flies to San Francisco for her art show and Kickstarter-backer concert.

It's a beautiful night. I'm told it was evilly hot while I was away, but it's glorious now, a night filled with fireflies, somewhat spoiled by Lola dashing off into the darkness while walking through a cornfield, and returning in triumph with a young raccoon she had just caught and killed.

Barnes and Noble have once more started to sell the Sandman graphic novels (along with the other DC Comics graphic novels they'd stopped selling) in their brick and mortar stores, so I am happy to link to them once again. I doubt either boycott actually did anything, but mine made me feel marginally empowered. Anyway, they are selling copies of STORIES, the anthology I edited with Al Sarrantonio, in hardback, for $2.99. (It contains my story "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains", and many other wonderful stories by wonderful authors, and it won the Shirley Jackson award and the Locus award for Best Anthology.) I'm not sure how long they'll be selling them at that price.

Here's the video (via the Open Spark project "Your Music Played By Lightning") of the 8in8 song Nikola Tesla, words by yours truly, played on enormous Tesla Coils. It is impossible to describe the glorious nerdy rush of pride I felt looking at (and listening to) this.

Here's a fan-made-video of the song with lots of cardboard in it, and fewer giant electronic zaps...

There were many wonderful things on the kitchen table waiting for me, but my favourite was the mock-up of the new edition of Stardust.

There hasn't been a hardback of the prose-only version Stardust in print in the US for about 13 years. I'm not sure why not. Jennifer Brehl, my editor at William Morrow, talked to me about what I wanted to see in a book. I told her I wanted it to look and feel like something from 90 years ago, like the books I treasured as a kid that I found in the school library (the ones I'd buy for a penny in the school library sales, and loved ever after). Bless her, she got it. She took all my blathering and went off and has started making it into a book. 

She's commissioned Charles Vess (with permission from DC Comics) to do a frontispiece, an illustration and chapter headings for the new book.

The cover will look a lot like this.

And Charles just sent me a finished, painted illustration for it:

It will be really beautiful. There's a regular edition and there will also be a signed limited very fancy and quite expensive edition (Amazon's is the only link for the fancy edition I can see so far).

Here's an Indiebound link to the regular edition. A Barnes and Noble link to the regular edition.

...

Something else that was waiting for me when I got home was an envelope of photos from Lomo. I love my LCA+. I love the strange greens it produces when I use Agfa films. I love having forgotten what photographs I took, and then the delight of seeing them and of finding out what happened.

This is my favourite photo from the envelope, I think because it's faintly sinister: artist Cassandra Long and (coincidentally but delightfully) Lomography's online chief, Alexandra Klasinski, at Amanda's Brooklyn end-of-Kickstarter celebration party.

And finally, a thank you to Dan Guy, Webgoblin of this parish, who has taken blogger and this template and made it do things it was never meant to do, which should actually allow you to share it places across the web, in the way that people today like to do. (If you want to share it somewhere else, drop him a line at http://neilgaiman.com/feedback/ and ask...)

Labels: 8in8, B and N, Cassandra Long, Charles Vess, lomography, Stardust, Tesla

Just Happiness

This is an animation of Charles Vess's art, turning Pencils into Paintings, with me saying the poem over it, to promote the book of INSTRUCTIONS we've done. And it is so beautiful. I am really proud of the job that the Harper's team did on this. I want to make everyone watch it.



For those having RSS problems, or who cannot see an embedded video here, the direct YouTube link is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRvqO1MjIs. You can also go to http://www.mousecircus.com/extras.aspx and click on it there. And there are other goodies on that page too.

Labels: Charles Vess, happy posts, Instructions

Your Instructions, should you choose to accept them...

When Blueberry Girl was published, and, much to our relief, people loved it, many of us had the same idea at the same time... my poem "Instructions", wouldn't that be rather wonderful illustrated by Charles?

I asked Charles what he thought, and he liked the idea, and Elise Howard, our editor, liked the idea too. We'd made, in Blueberry Girl, a picture book aimed not really at kids at all (although lots of kids seem to love it) but at mums and mothers to be, and daughters, and despite Borders initially refusing to stock or sell it, it had still made the NYT list, and, more importantly, it had made people happy. Could we do something like that aimed at everyone? And could we do it in less than the three years it took Charles to do Blueberry Girl?

I wasn't sure. I did know that the problem wasn't mine, though. It was Charles's. And Charles Vess is a remarkable man, and an amazing artist...

Over at http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/447 Charles tells the story of how he evolved the main character (boy? girl?) and shows the evolution of some pages from pencils to finished art.

There are more pictures up at Irene Gallo's blog, http://igallo.blogspot.com/2009/08/charles-vess-at-work-on-neil-gaimans.html.

And here's one posted by me...

The deep well you walk past leads to Winter's realm;

there is another land at the bottom of it.

If you turn around here, you can walk back, safely;

you will lose no face. I will think no less of you.

It won't be out until 2010 -- Charles is still drawing madly, and painting like a wild thing.

Labels: Blueberry Girl, Charles Vess, how books happen, Instructions

Mostly Amused

I have a really high tolerance level for twits. I really do. I know how easy it is to ask a stupid question. But, people...

I'm not actually going to post the letter that just came in that informed me that publishing Blueberry Girl and Crazy Hair was a cheap attempt to cash in on winning the Newbery Medal, because if it was me that had sent it, I don't think I'd want to be held up to ridicule, and I keep promising myself to use this power only for good.

But look, whoever-you-are, http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2004/11/listening-to-unresolving.asp is a nearly five year old post. It's the one where I announced Blueberry Girl would be a book, and that Charles Vess had started work on it. November 2004. In http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2007/12/still-alive-not-song.html I post the cover art for Blueberry Girl. December 2007.

March 2009 was set as a publishing date for it well over a year ago, once the art was in.

Crazy Hair goes back even further. Dave agreed to do it in 2003. It was meant to have been out originally in 2005, but Dave fell behind, due to Mirrormask, and didn't deliver his final double page spread until January 2007. The weirdness of publishing schedules (and partly because The Dangerous Alphabet was in the publishing slot it would have taken) meant that it was scheduled in about Jan 2008 to come out in May 2009.

(Click on the picture to be able to see it at a reasonable size.)

To bring the Blueberry Girls out now means the books were printed overseas a while ago, and bound, and placed in containers on big ships.

You know, I'm normally so sanguine. But... being accused of rushing these two books out to cash in on the Newbery Medal, without access to time travel equipment or anything, just makes me want to bang my forehead gently against a tree for half an hour. Is it too much to ask people to think. 

Okay. I'm done.

My assistant Lorraine always complains that whenever she goes to gigs that I also go to, I get an Access All Areas laminated badge, and she gets a piece of paper or a sticker or something.  So yesterday, while I was signing books at DreamHaven and getting a haircut (from the awesome Wendy at Hair Police, making me look human since October 2000) , they made her a laminated badge.


Nobody else had a laminated badge. Just her. She can be seen displaying it below. You can see me and the haircut to the right. I do not know who the people with buttons for eyes are. They scare me.
 

Here they are again, patting my dog for luck this morning, before they left for Chicago (a city John Hodgman claims is mythical). What were they doing at my breakfast table? Why did I have to play the tambourine last night? Why is there a small Football made of meat in my fridge?

It was his first time off-leash since his operation. Happiest dog in the world.

Labels: Charles Vess, Dave McKean, Dog, dog photograph, facepalming forehead-bleeding, how long things take, Jonathan Coulton, lamination as an aid to enjoying the rocknroll experience, Paul'nStorm

bees and stuff

I'm home again. (There wasn't a blog entry for the last two days because the hotel in Helena, Montana, had such an intermittently dodgy internet connection -- it would sort of work during the day and then stop working at night, just about the point I'd think "Time to write a blog entry". So I'd sleep instead.)

The Moth event on Thursday night (http://www.themoth.org/) was wonderful and scary -- Pico Iyer, Jonathan Ames, Edgar Oliver, Laila Lalami, and a terrified me telling the last story of the night (about my day on Liverpool Street Station in Easter 1977). A quick google found a review up at http://wordriotpress.blogspot.com/2007/04/moth.html.

I've come away from the PEN World Voices event with a real respect and a great deal more understanding of what PEN is and does. http://www.pen.org/ is their website, and I commend it to you.

Then I went to Helena. Got in late on Friday night. Saturday morning, I talked -- first to librarians about the history of comics and comics censorship and the CBLDF and what it does, then about digital stuff (acknowledging myself to be a pixel-stained technopeasant wretch), then for a lunch I talked to librarians about writing and how I became someone who does that sort of thing, and then I talked to an audience of people from Montana mostly. I read to them, then I answered questions, then I signed books for many extremely nice people, and had to confess to most of them that I hadn't really seen much of Montana, what with being in a hotel talking all day. I have to go back -- what I saw was lovely.

While I was signing books in Montana, Charles Vess was in New York, going to a screening of Stardust.

He writes about it over on his blog...

Posh seats for, at most, 50 people. Filling those seats were several of the
movie’s stars (Robert DeNiro, Clare Danes, Charlie Cox), producers (Lorenzo
DeBonaventura, etc.) and many faces both recognizable and not. Matthew Vaughan , the director, introduced the film and the lights went down. Nervous couldn’t half describe how I was feeling at that moment. What if I found myself cringing at what had been done to “my” story. What if everyone started walking out? What if, what if…

And you can find out what he thought of what he saw at http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/153.

I don't think I'm going to see it until the beginning of June at a screening in the UK. By that point everything will be finished, and I'll see a completed print. Like Charles, I'm a bit nervous -- I last saw a test screening with lots of stuff not there and not finished, but Charles's blog entry and Harry Knowles's comments the other day on AICN are extremely reassuring. (The longer UK trailer for Stardust, with ghosts, is up at http://www.stardustmovie.com/intl/uk/).

Charles Vess is giving a lecture in New York on May 2nd at the Society of Illustrators, and signing the new hardcover of Stardust on May 4th -- details at http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/152.

I have worn my white bee suit today and gone and met the bees. The plumtrees are in blossom. And I have to make Maddy's dinner now.

Labels: bees, Charles Vess, librarians, Montana LIbrary Thingummy, Moth, PEN world voices festival, Stardust movies, weirdly normal labels

Will no-one help the widow's raccoon?

Let's see. Recently I've written an introduction to a book on The Twilight Zone, and am currently doing my editorial pass on the galleys of INTERWORLD, a young adult book that Michael Reaves and I wrote some years ago that we're currently bringing out of mothballs, dusting off and sending to meet the nice people.

I also got swept up in a small adventure that turned me into a giddy twelve-year-old comics fan, and about which I shall say nothing more until the time is right. And possibly not even then. It was all Jonathan Ross's fault, anyway.

And now the weather forecasters are predicting the mother of all winter storms for us in the midwest this weekend. Ten inches of snow. Freezing rain. An ice storm. Everyone is making contingency plans and buying several months' suppies of toilet paper, and I'm being English and am convinced it won't happen. Interesting weather almost never does, not when they say it will.

This just came in from Charles Vess, who wonders if any of you have any of the STARDUST art he's looking for...

From Charles Vess:

From June until September of this year I'll be mounting an exhibition
of my Stardust art at the the William King Regional Art Museum in their
premium exhibition space.

A LOT of people will be seeing the exhibition and I want to put my best
'face' forward. So I'm looking for various pieces of Stardust original
art that I've sold over the years and would like to borrow that art back
for this show. The names of the donors will be included in various
publications concerning the exhibit as well as being on the identifying
labels themselves.

In particular I'm looking for these full page illustrations:

(All page numbers refer to the trade paperback edition)


1. (page 46) The couple on the hill (with the Village of Wall in the background)
beside a tree looking up at the falling star.

2. (page 52) Tristran in his bowler hat entering the deep woods surrounded by
various fairy types.

3.Cover art to mini #2 with all of the Lords of Stormhold floating in
the air around the dark rocks of Stormhold.

4.(Pg #96 -97) The two pages of multiple panels with Tristran's first candle walk
between worlds.

5.(Pg #104)Tristran and Yvaine walking in the wood. She has a crutch.
6.Tris and Yvaine riding the unicorn through woods with gnarly
creatures in the fore ground.

7..(Pg #161) Small figures of Tris and Yvaine looking up as galleon passes
through golden clouds above them.

8. ( Pg #188)Tris passed out on ground w/ Yvaine sitting beside him. A dark
haired woman (his mother) stands above him. Red goblin creatures frolic
in the fore ground tree limbs.

9.( Pg #193)Tris in a sitting room w/ Victoria Foster surrounded by nick nacks
and green men. A cat sits on the rug beside him.

10.( Pg #205) Yvaine gives Tris the medallion. Dark haired Mom looks on. The air
around them is filled with all manner of people and beasties.

11. ( Pg #209) Looking down at the fair w/ the Village of Wall off to the left.
Very small figures of Tris and Yvaine walk off thru the field. In the
far distance the mountains of Stromhold rise w/ Flying Galleon beside them.

12. (Pg #213) Last piece in the book. Colored pencil on black paper. Yvaine
stands amidst dark stones and raises her arms towards her 'sisters' that
dance through the night time sky above her.

Here's my e-mail if you have any information on the location of these
pieces: charles@greenmanpress.com

Thanks!

Charles

...

The previous post drew a lot of responses -- most of them agreeing with me. A few articulately disagreeing, and I thought I'd post a couple of them....

Mr. Gaiman-

If I may, a few comments about today’s posting about the appearance of the word “Scrotum” in the children’s book.

1. A few librarians in this NY Times article were quoted out of context from e-mails taken from LM_NET, a listserv for school librarians. In fact, LM_NET postings are subject to copyright and librarians were not contacted by the Times in response to their quotes.
2. All librarians are not tight-bunned, tight-assed “Shh-ing” maniacs. (I know, I am one—a librarian, that is, not tight-assed.)
3. Given the current climate of education in the US, you can’t blame a public (or private) school librarian for being incredibly sensitive to this issue. Unfortunately, we live in a period where it’s easier to throw away books and tell kids to “just google it” rather than keeping librarians on-staff. Each of us fights for our credibility and necessity every day. One conflict with a prominent community-member over (an admittedly) ridiculous matter such as this can end a career, as it’s easier to drop a staff member’s salary than fight a legal battle over censorship. While there are those of us who are willing to throw our chins out and fight, there are many battle-scarred vets of the library wars who have been cowed by the system and will quietly drop it rather than fight anymore. The public school librarian is fighting to keep of the endangered species list.

While I’ve been an ardent fan of yours, I could not let today’s journal slide without some commentary.

Yours,

Harry F. Coffill
Library Media Specialist
East Grand Rapids Middle School

I'm afraid that just because something is "copyright" it doesn't mean it can't be quoted. It can. It's called Fair Use. And I don't see why the Times would have to contact the people about their quotes -- if it's written down, that's all you'd have to show the fact-checker, if there is such a thing... Once you've said it, it's out there. (This blog is copyright me. Doesn't mean it doesn't get quoted, or that I'm consulted about it when it is. Here's an example of one time it happened. If you're going to say something in a semi-public forum, you're quotable, or misquotable, and that's just how it is.)

Hey Neil,

Speaking as a librarian, I happily bask in your general approbation.

Speaking as a librarian, I detest the idea of censorship, and the thought of choosing not to purchase a Newberry-winning book simply because of a single word.

Speaking as a librarian, I must also point out that the issue is, unfortunately, perhaps a bit more complicated than that, and that referring to those librarians who choose not to buy the book as "rogues" who've gone over to the dark side is likely to be an unfair oversimplification, at least in some cases.

Are there prudish librarians who have knee-jerk reactions to "bad language" and "inappropriate content?" Of course. We're only human, and therefore only flawed.

However, in many cases...using, as an example, the librarian cited as saying that SADLY, they will not be purchasing the book...it is likely NOT the librarian's own personal choice or even preference to exclude this book from their collection, but is the decision of the library director, library board, or school itself, based upon community outcry and patron pressure. In many cases of books being challenged, the challenge never goes as far as a banning. However, there are still cases in which otherwise excellent books are banned due to some small piece of "questionable" content. Don't forget, one of the most challenged and banned authors of all time is Judy Blume, the author of well-beloved, classic, but very frank (and therefore "dangerous"), children's and young adult books.

Librarians, as much as anyone and everyone else in this country, are subject to mob rule at times, and are always always subject to the workings of bureaucracy and politics. It's sad, but it's true.

...which I understand, but both of which emails leave me thinking that surely saying "It won the Newbery Medal. We order the books that do that. It's been the most respected guide to quality children's literature since 1922," would fend off most threats to a school librarian's job... wouldn't it?

Ah well. My next children's book, the one I'm currently writing, is very unlikely to have any rude words in it at all, but people I've read the first few pages to tend to look at me with a concerned sort of look and say "Is this really a children's book? I mean it's scary and then that stuff..." and I say yes, and I'm sorry but that's how the book goes and there's nothing I can do about it. Of course there is -- I could cut it out and write a book that wasn't as good. And I can hope that anyone who gets past the first couple of pages will find it very hard to put down. I can hope. But I'd understand any school librarian who was worried.

And I also got this from the "Higher Power of Lucky" post, which made me smile...

Hey there, Neil.
I illustrated "The Higher Power of Lucky" (although it didn't occur to me to provide a picture for the minor scrotum incident). Thanks for weighing in on the whole kerfuffle. Coincidentally, I read "Endless Nights" yesterday, absolutely loved it, and made some sketches this morning which I posted on my blog:
http://planetham.blogspot.com/
I'm also a Writers House client, so maybe I'll see you at some swanky cocktail reception sometime (if they even have such things).All the best,matt phelan

Well worth checking out Matt's cool artblog, if just for the masonic raccoon... And alas, while I have been a client of Writer's House for almost 20 years, I've never been to a swanky cocktail reception there yet (although they once threw a lovely bash with nibbly bits at the Franfurt bookfair for all my foreign publishers).

...

I get a lot of appeals for good causes in and I long ago sighed and decided that I can't post all of them. But this one has camels in it...

Not a question, so much as a request. There is an amazing thing going on in Kenya involving librarians, generosity, and of course, camels. The link is http://camelbookdrive.wordpress.com/ if you could post it for the fabulous readers of this blog. If you have already mentioned it, I apologize. It's been awhile since I've visited, although now I seem to have spent about 3 hours reading past posts. Damn.

Beth (librarian in training, who, for the record, is perfectly happy about the word scrotum in any book)

consider it posted. And I'll see if I can't put together a bunch of books for the camel library...

And finally, another article from Nerve's comics issue. This one's about the Gordon Lee case and the CBLDF. I've written about it here before -- I've been writing about it for years. But if you've missed it, or you thought it was over... http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/clark/gordonlee/

Labels: camel library, CBLDF, Charles Vess, Gordon Lee, interesting weather, Interworld, masonic raccoon pictures, opposing points of view, Scrota, Stardust

The best film of 2006 was...

Still deadlining. Have lost a bunch of weight now, hurrah. I've now got to that place where I'm comfortable with just not eating as much, while eating more veg, using grapefruit as a snack food, drinking more water, all that. Just trying to make up for a year spent eating on the road, really. (There are four tubs of jeans in my closet, each a different waist size. I'd reached the tub at the far end, and they were getting tight. Am now at the next one down from there. And one more size to go before I'm back at my proper BMI wossname. As I learned a couple of years ago, if I get to the jeans in the thinnest tub at the end, people point out that I'm looking gaunt. And this is probably the last post about weight because a) it's boring and b) if you mention losing weight in a blog post people start sending you emails telling you that you're contributing to the current epedemic of Anorexia and ruining the self-image of the young.)

Anyway, this post is about Pan's Labyrinth -- as seen and discussed in http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/09/sunday-morning-cinema.html -- and is to congratulate Guillermo on winning the Critics Prize.

Guillermo del Toro's gothic fantasy Pan's Labyrinth has been named the best film of 2006 by the National Society of Film Critics.

Guillermo is the executive producer on the DEATH movie, which appears to be beginning to possibly think about perhaps seeming to come back to life, maybe, so I'll congratulate him soon enough in person.

But it's nice to do it here.

And I know I meant to link to this Charles Vess blog post, showing the stages of the Stardust sculpture he's been working on, but I don't think I did. Lots of pictures... http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/98

Labels: Charles Vess, Death movie, grapefruit, Pan's Labyrinth, Stardust, thinning

An even quicker one

Just a heads up -- some time in the next couple of days the Stardust Movie site is going to go live. It's been up at www.stardustmovie.com for a while, but hasn't had any content until now.

I've just been sent a preview of the first round of content, and it's really fun -- there's a gallery of Charles Vess Stardust art, much of it previously unseen, there are video interviews with me about the origins of Stardust and about Charles Vess, and I answer the first five Stardust questions...

(The http://www.beowulfmovie.com/ site still only has the flames-and-cast-list-and-shield on it.)

While I'm being a rubbish blogger, let me point you to this Horn Book article on the use of Mary Sues in school fiction, this Stewart Lee article on humour, a wonderful Ursula LeGuin article about fantasy from the New Statesman, Jane Espenson's blog filled with terrific writing tips, and, in case you missed it, an article about a recent case of human hibernation. Also Terry Jones on the sums of war. Oh, and a Good Omens Lexicon.

And I forgot to mention here that Sir Ian McKellen will be doing the narration for the Stardust film.

Labels: Charles Vess, Stardust