Happy and wise, in our giant hologram. Also, I am a coffee.

Yesterday was sort of washed out post-drive. But I slept last night, and am getting ready to get some real work done today.

Hey Neil,

You wouldn't know when exactly the Coraline movie is releasing in Australia, would you? Is the Feb 6th release date worldwide?

Thanks, Patrick.

I don't, I'm afraid. I know it won't get to the UK until the beginning of May, as we're trying to work my schedule so I can be there for the UK launch.

(And that reminds me -- one for the people in Portland:

Neil,

I just thought that the Portlanders interested in going to see the Coraline premiere should know that the tickets go on sale on January 28th at 12:00pm. They're sold through the NW Film Center at the Portland Art Museum. Evidently there will be signs. No idea what the price will be, but hopefully they won't be $250. Thanks, and hope to see you there.

Jason

Here's a link with information on phones and box office times. It looks like the tickets will be $50 each.

You will see me there. And there has been talk of Miss Maddy interviewing people on the red carpet.)

...

 I thought it was strange that Lisa Snellings, who had once turned me into a Rat, had now turned me into a poppet-pretending-to-be-me (The original is for auction at http://tinyurl.com/npoppet and the regular edition at http://tinyurl.com/8jbdc9). But that was last night. I did not know what strange was. This morning I woke up and found I was now a peanut butter coffee.

You are a peanut butter coffee.

A second hand English book shop/café in Bandung (West Java, Indonesia) named a beverage after you. Here's a link to my blog about the drink http://esduren.multiply.com/journal/item/322 and to a photo album that captures that moment http://esduren.multiply.com/photos/album/128

Wish you a great weekend!
Greetings from Bandung,
Tita

Honestly Tita, having read your review, I just wish I tasted better. Still, I am now a java from Java, and must not complain.

I just commissioned an original sculpture from Lisa Snellings. The Last one I commissioned from her was for my stairwell nook, and it can be seen in this video...

.

That time I told her the size I wanted and how much I could pay and left the rest to her. This time I told her I would like something happy and wise (and how much I would pay). And I left the rest to her. It's the best way to deal with good artists.

Nothing much else. My friend Michael Dirda now has a reading room at the Washington Post. It seems to be a combination of book forum, book group and review-place, with Michael at the centre like a wise spider dispensing wisdom and informed, honest opinions. (Also, it means you can browse Dirda's reviews, all in one place.)

...

We are living in a Giant Hologram, according to New Scientist.

Stacey's bookshop in San Francisco is closing.

 The piano scores that appeared above Schroeder's toy piano in Peanuts meant something.

And finally (a word mysteriously missing from the blog's word cloud), every day brings in three or four very much like this:

Dear Mr. Gaiman,

I'm an English/Art student from Germany doing a talk about one of your works. I'm not contacting you in terms of thesis or term papers. All I dare to ask whether you would answer some general questions concerning Popular American Literature. We are doing a seminar looking at this kind of Literature, started with the dime novels and your work "The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes" will be the last to discuss. Instead of just presenting it, asking general questions and discussing your work, I thought it would be great add something like an interview with the author.
My Literature Professor told me that you, as an author, probably wouldn't do such thing, however, I'm kindly asking you anyway. If this seems rude to you, I apologize.

Sincerely,
Angelika Pilz

I'm really sorry. The reason I have a blanket "I won't do your homework for you, please pretend that I am dead" rule, is that if I spent the time needed answering questions, I would never get any writing done. You've got one and a quarter million words of me burbling away on this blog, and many, many interviews out there already. Research it.

...

Right. Breakfast and put pills into dog and then work.

Labels: Happy and wise, In which it is discovered that I have been transformed into a cup of coffee, lisa snellings, Michael Dirda, Planet of the Poppets

At the turning of the year...

...to mark the passing of Edd Cartier (and the nearly-done-ness of 2008). Of all the pulp magazine artists of the 30s-50s, including such masters as Virgil Finlay and Kelly Freas, Cartier was my favourite, particularly his work in Unknown Worlds. Marvellous stuff. If I had known he was still alive, I suspect I would have written him a fan letter. Instead, I discovered the other day, from Locus, that he (and James Cawthorn, who was, with Mal Dean, the definitive Moorcock illustrator) had just died, and now I know that Mr Cartier was alive, it's too late.

...

Michael Dirda is a wonderful essayist, and his appreciation of Hope Mirrlees' novel Lud In the Mist is up at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=20755255&cds2Pid=22560. I loved the essay, because, I think, the qualities that Michael is talking about are the same ones that are in the book when I read it. (I've had people complain to me that they've read it on my recommendation and that it was boring, or pointless, and I'm sure the version of the book they read was. But the book that I love, and Michael Dirda, and Michael Swanwick loves, is described in Dirda's essay. You bring yourself to a book, after all; every book is collaborative.)

...

Today's mail brought a Wii, and a Wii fit: an evil white box that mocks me with its opinion of my distance from an ideal BMI and an unflattering opinion of my age. But it's cold and snowy outside, and I can't imagine anything else making me jog on the spot with apparent pleasure, and it should be a fine supplement to my trainer (who comes in a couple of times a week and makes me work much too hard to get back into shape).

And Maddy likes it.

...

Someone sent me a question asking if there would be any Coraline toys or figurines.  It looks like  a yes. I found a link to them here...

...and it only seems a bit strange, in my head, that there should be Coraline toys.

Labels: Coraline movie, Edd Cartier, exercise, Lud-in-the-mist, Michael Dirda