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It was beautiful, today. I took the dogs into the depths of the woods and found myself, at one point, half-expecting to see an old Victorian style London lamppost, there in the snow. Always Winter, and never Christmas I thought, looking at the frozen creek...

And then I started wondering whether I should find a real lamppost and install it down there. Not sure if I will or not. It may be an amazingly silly idea. And it would be a lot of work. And almost nobody would ever see it...

I'm talking myself into it, aren't I?

....


March 6th 2009 was a hard day.

(I talk about it in this journal here http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/03/day.html and http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/03/another-day.html.)

I was in a taxi heading for the Blueberry Girl signing when I learned that my father had died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack. I went to Union Square in a stunned sort of a daze and walked around, spoke to my sister, my children... then I phoned Amanda, who was in a van in Perth, Australia. That I called her immediately told me a lot about how I felt about her, and that she offered to cancel the rest of her tour and come and be with me told me a lot about how she felt about me.

I said no, just as I said no to the people who asked me to cancel the signing. I did the signing with Charles Vess for well over a thousand people, and nine hours later, we were done, and Beth Hommel, Amanda's assistant, was waiting with three gifts for me.

And I mention this to give context to http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/2340743748/map-of-tasmania-a-short-history: Amanda talks about that day, and what she did, and why, and she posts a photograph of me that Beth took, when she gave me the gifts. It was the only smile I remember that long day, when smiles were hard to find.

And that photograph, which I'd never seen before today, brought it all back...

...

Over at Kitty's Neverwear site, she has her own way of pricing the limited edition prints. Which is, as the numbers get low, she raises the price. She's sold over half of the print run of the Jim Lee "100 Words" print - Jim illustrated a poem of mine, beautifully. She's going to raise the price to $50 each, but it's Xmas, so she's holding off until December 27th. If you buy one before then, the price is still $38.

Read all about it - http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com/2010/12/jim-leeneil-gaiman-print-run-halfway.html

Kitty's got some wonderful stuff planned for next year. This year's tee shirts are up at http://neverwear.net/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1, prints at http://neverwear.net/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4 and you can explore the rest of the site yourself. Big happy healthy chunks of everything you buy there goes to the CBLDF, and the rest goes to feeding Kitty's cats.

Labels: amanda palmer, cat mihos, dog photograph, Jim Lee, Making Lantern Waste in Your Own Back Woods

Xmas Roundup With Some Good Links and a photo of an author in it

How the hell did it get to be December the 18th? Ohhh. All the links I meant to post. Arghh.

For a start, I want to repost this little true thing I wrote, from last year's Independent: it's about being an eight year old Jewish kid who really wanted a Christmas tree...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/neil-gaiman-hanukkah-with-bells-on-1203307.html

I wanted to tell you that you can still get the signed prints of "Before You Read This" I did with Todd Klein -- it's a poem I wrote that Todd lettered -- at Todd's website (along with Todd's other unique signed prints -- collaborations with Alex Ross, Alan Moore and J.H. Williams). http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=6525. (If you're hesitating, order: they're really cheap, and the second printing will be gone soon.)

Also, for signed things and rare stuff, you can Do Good while last minute shopping by heading over to the CBLDF shop website. Here's the page with stuff related to me on it.)

I just got my author's copies of "A Hundred Words To Talk of Death", the poem I wrote that Jim Lee illustrated and Todd Klein lettered. (Someone wrote to me on Twitter pointing out that it is two syllables short, and unable to figure out why. I will leave that as a problem for you to solve.) It's beautiful -- the same size and quality as the print of "The Day The Saucers Came". It's glorious. (Thinks: I can take a photo to show people.)

I didn't used to think of Jim Lee as a glorious and subtle pencil artist, but he really is, and this is wonderful. (You can order them from here, and read about Kitty's adventures in shipping them out over at http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com/, with bonus pictures right now of my Very Late Guy Fawkes Part of last month.)

Here is a photo of an author who needs a shave holding a print of "One Hundred Words" poem.

Kitty herself is heading off on tour with Lady Gaga early next year, and Maddy is going to see them in Chicago (where, about eight years ago, I first met Kitty, on the road with Tori) (Who will be interviewed tonight on ABC -- Tori that is, not Kitty or Maddy).

Amanda and I have been having something that isn't quite an argument about Lady Gaga for a few weeks. We have really rubbish arguments, because they normally resolve into the discovery that we weren't arguing at all, just saying the same thing from two different points of view. Amanda posted a ukulele video-song-blog she'd written late last night from her Boston flat when she was probably meant to be practising her New Year's Eve Tchaikovsky, and I discovered that our latest argument wasn't an argument and we were talking about the same things again. It's art. You make it.

I don't think I will ever write songs and post them on YouTube instead of blogging. I'm in awe of someone who can. It's a good song, too, not just a funny and wise end-of-an-argument, even if she has to stop and scroll down at the last verse.




Also, she said "aluminium".

And finally, in keeping with the not-exactly-Christmassy-but-sort-of theme of this blog...

Labels: amanda palmer, Jewish Christmas things, Jim Lee, lady gaga, photo of me holding something, Tim Minchin, Todd Klein

Does Anyone Else have Something Further To Add?

Good morning. I cannot stay long as deadlines are happening.

Cat Mihos, in association with the CBLDF, has made the most beautiful print of Jim Lee's glorious pencil-art to accompany my poem "100 Words". It'll be limited to 750 numbered prints, and is lettered by Todd Klein. (Click on it in order to actually see it at readable size.) She decided that the first 24 hours it was on sale at her neverwear.net site, it would be $35, going up to $45 the following day. I linked to it on Twitter and... crashed the site. (Or possibly, crashed the shopping cart. I'm not sure. Different reports from people who couldn't get in.)

So Cat is extending the sale (at http://www.neverwear.net/store/) until the end of Monday, when she gets home from her trip out here, to apologise to people who had problems, and to allow people to get to it. You can read all about it (and see lots of Cat's candid snaps, including one of me in a 20 foot long Tom Baker style Doctor Who scarf I was sent by a reader who knits and likes Doctor Who and thought I needed one) over at http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com

And on the subject of photos, KImberly Butler is out at the house right now to shoot photos of me, with her daughter Caitlin as a camera assistant. She is a remarkable photographer (http://www.kimberlybutler.com is her website). She's here because I am the Honorary Chair of National Library Week next year (details at this ALA website).

She's taking pictures of me to find one that could be used as a poster for National Library Week, and for press releases. Here are a few of the photos from yesterday, raw from her camera. I put up a selection at http://twitpic.com/photos/neilhimself. Here are four of my favourites. One of them is not of me.

(Strangest twitter comment this morning was from the person who told me off for surgically trimming my dog's ears. Someone who, I assume, has never encountered a German Shepherd or has any idea what their ears do. His ears are fine -- he just sticks them up when he's interested or listening. )



During the shoot Lorraine brought me tea. I got happy. Kimberly kept shooting.



Princess the cat and deformed bunnies (and a two-headed teddy). Probably will not be a National Library Week poster. (Click to see it full-size.)

Does anyone else have something further to add?

I go. Maddy's violin recital, a short story and an introduction are waiting. Zoom.

Labels: Four Photos, Jim Lee, Kimberly Butler, Princess, R. A. Lafferty, Todd Klein, zoom