The Religion of Dolphins...

I slept for the better part of 13 hours last night, and now feel remarkably human compared to any other point in the last ten days. Actually-rested is good. Maddy and I cancelled one leg of Maddy's Spring Break Adventure, although we still plan to go off tomorrow for a couple of days in the sun for the second leg.

Picked up my copy of New Scientist over breakfast this morning (which, along with Fortean Times, is my favourite publication) and found myself puzzling over an article that began

That a complex mind is required for religion may explain why faith is unique to humans.

Which left me amazed and potentially delighted that journalists at New Scientist had succeeded in interspecies communication to the point of being certain that dolphins and whales have no belief in things deeper than themselves, that ants do not imagine a supreme colony at the centre of everything, and that my cats only believe in what they can see, smell, hunt and rub up against (except for Pod, of course, who when much younger would react in horror, with full fur-up, to invisible things), and that there are no Buddhist Pigs, Monkeys or whatever-the-hell Sandy was.

If you've already answered this and I've somehow missed it, please accept my apologies for being boring and repetive. However, I read your blog daily and don't remember it being addressed.

Why oh why is it impossible to find a copy of Blueberry Girl?

Our local independent got ONE copy in and it came damaged. Their distributor says it will be 3 weeks until they can send more. Our brick and mortar Barnes & Noble took our order and then e-mailed us back that they cannot fill it. Amazon says the book's shipping time is 2-3 weeks.

I finally found a copy at Powell's which claims it will ship in 1-3 days, but I imagine other folks are running into this problem. Normally, I'd just have my independent order it and wait, but I have a tiny girl's 4 week birthday to celebrate.

Thanks for any light you can shed!

-KNK

I spoke to Elise Howard, my editor at HarperChildrens, who apologises to everyone who found Blueberry Girl hard to get. The demand for the book caught everyone slightly by surprise (it came in at #3 on the New York Times list on its first week out), and all-colour books take longer to reprint than simple black and white printing books, so even though they knew well in advance of publication that they had underprinted, they still had to wait for the books to be printed and come in. 

(They overprint colour covers, as they take longer, which is why The Graveyard Books out there have stick-on Newbery Medals, not pre-printed ones).

Harpers speeded up the reprint process though, and they got reprints in today and have already shipped them out to Amazon and elsewhere, and have a third printing due in on the 30th. Amazon have it up right now as ready to ship (along with some very baffled reviews).

Books of Wonder have copies of Blueberry Girl for sale signed by Charles Vess (they would have been signed by both of us, but that didn't happen for obvious reasons).

Neil,
First, my condolences on the passing of your father. Having lost my mother about four years ago, I uderstand your loss. Sorry you won't be in San Diego in July. Loed your appearance on the Colbert Report. The main reason for this post has nothing to do with your work. I am currently rereading the Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. As I'm reading the book, I am not hear Alan Arkin as the voice of Schemdrick the Magician as he did in the movie, Yesterday, I realized I was hearing you as Schemdrick. Just thought you'd like to know.
Eduard

And in my head, Schmendrick sounds a lot like Peter S. Beagle. Which reminds me: There is a new Peter Beagle short story collection out. I've twittered about it, but forgot to mention it on the blog. Peter is one of those writers who just seems to be getting better and better, and his short stories are delights. Here's the link to buy a copy, get it personalised etc.

...

I had promised HarperChildrens that if The Graveyard Book made five weeks back at #1 on the NYT list, I would get them all cupcakes. It was there for 6 weeks, and last week they were seriously cupcaked. This week it dropped to #2, which means I don't have to come up with something Better Than Cupcakes for a while.

Labels: Better than cupcakes, Blueberry Girl, Peter S Beagle

misc. stuff

Several people wrote from Brazil to point out that you can watch the whole half hour Globo interview (in English, with Portuguese subtitles) at,

http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Noticias/0,,GIM853222-7823-AS+FANTASIAS+DE+NEIL+GAIMAN,00.html

No question, just a comment. I saw the Jornal da Globo newscast and thought that you looked like the young, homeless lovechild of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Or maybe the facial hair just threw me off. It's like the extra hair that you cut off your head had to go somewhere. Sorry for heckling, but I promise it's affectionate in a strange, you-don't-even-know-me way.

Not a problem. But... homeless?

I wanted to let you know about a cosplay group that costumed as Sandman characters, and it looks pretty cool!

http://www.cosplay.com/shoot/117524/

Thanks,
Mel

I wouldn't normally post it, but you're right, it looks so cool...

...

Peter S. Beagle wrote a wonderful travel book called I See By My Outfit, back in about 1963.

Now, forty-something years on...

Red Eft Gallery presents.

I See By My Outfit - The Book, The Music, The Experience!

Special live music show for two nights only! On July 18th & 19th, PETER S.
BEAGLE and His Band of Merry Men ( aka PHIL SIGUNICK ) will be performing
together in public for the first time in 44 years. Doors open at 7 pm for
ticketed guests.

Peter's and Phil's last gig as a duo was all the way back in 1964, when they
opened for Tom Paxton at a club in Berkeley. Fans of Peter's classic travel
memoir, I See By My Outfit, will absolutely not want to miss this chance to
be there when Phil and Peter pick up their guitars and recapture the magic
that helped make their long-ago cross-country journey so extraordinary.
There are only 83 seats available for each night. Tickets are $20. If you
want to be there for this rare musical treat, make sure you get your
reservation in ASAP

http://www.conlanpress.com/beagle-concert.html for details...

there's an early review of The Graveyard Book at Rambles.net -- http://www.rambles.net/gaiman_grave08.html

a book about which Ms. Audrey Niffenegger said,

"It takes a graveyard to raise a child. The infant Bod (short for Nobody) escapes a grisly death and finds himself being raised by a graveyard full of lovely, irascible ghosts. Who knew dead people made such excellent parents? Bod has scads of adventures with ghouls and werewolves, but my favorite thing about this book was watching Bod grow up in his fine crumbly graveyard with his dead and living friends. The Graveyard Book is another surprising and terrific book from Neil Gaiman."

and Diana Wynne Jones said,

'This is, quite frankly, the best book Neil Gaiman has ever written. How he has managed to combine fascinating, friendly, frightening and fearsome in one fantasy I shall never know, but he has pulled it off magnificently - perfect for Halloween and any other time of the year.'

and Laurell K Hamilton said,

"The Graveyard Book is a fairy tale, peopled with ghosts, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and witches. It's a world where being dead doesn't make you less of a person, and the living can be more dangerous than the dead. After finishing The Graveyard Book, I had only one thought -- I hope there's more. I want to see more of the adventures of Nobody Owens, and there is no higher praise for a book."

and that's really enough blurbs for today.

Did I post this Reuters story about the Paraty festival?

If you're at San Diego Comic Con this year, and you want a chance at getting one of the signed prints Todd did with Alan Moore and with me, there's details over at Todd's Blog.

Dear Neil,
When your children were very young, did you get much writing done?
Best, Tony.

Lots and lots and lots. But I had to become nocturnal to make it happen...

...

And I enjoyed this interview with Salman Rushdie in the Guardian.

Does he agree there should be discrimination against Muslims? "I don't think there should be discrimination against anyone. Nor do I think Martin was advocating that. The point is this: I don't have to agree with what you or anybody says to defend their right to say it. To have Martin articulating a public fear in this rather knockabout way was justified. If we don't say what we think or articulate what is being generally thought, then we are self-censoring, which is wimpish.

"I thought the attack on Martin in the Guardian by Ronan Bennett... was out of order. To say he is racist because of that is wrong. I may not like the things you believe and, by the way, the fact that you believe them makes me think less of you as a person. I may despise you personally for what you believe, but I should be able to say it. Everybody needs to get thicker skins. There is this culture of offence, as though offending someone is the worst thing anyone can do. Again, there is an assumption that our first duty is to be respectful. But what would a respectful cartoon look like? Really boring! You wouldn't publish it. The nature of the form is irreverence and disrespect."

Labels: blurbs, early reviews of The Graveyard Book, Peter S Beagle, salman rushdie

Cat scans

Lots of people wrote to let us know that yesterday's mystery Russian alien was... a guitarfish (although there was healthy disagreement on exactly which kind).

Hi Neil,

I'm a big fan of your work, and I am a big fan of ampersands, so when I decided to get a tattoo of the latter, I wanted the one from the softcover editions of "Preludes & Nocturnes" and "Fables & Reflections". The only problem is, I don't know which font they're in. So, instead of feverishly searching (actually, I already did that), I decided to go right to the source. Do you know what font it's in?

While I didn't know, I figured Dave McKean would, so I asked him, and he said,

The answer to your blogger question about the ampersands:
Which PB editions? Since DC have released 57 versions, I'm not sure which one you mean. If you mean the recent SANDMAN LIBRARY editions, I have a copy of Fables... and this lovely scrolly fancy ampersand is set in MISSIONARY, a font available from Emigre designed by the brilliant Miles Newlyn (if memory serves me correctly). If you don't mean this edition, then can i recommend this empersand anyway, it's the best one.
...

Seeing the Village Voice has just leaked it, and a few of you have written to ask about it, yes, I will be a Guest at the PEN World Voices Festival at the end of April. I can't give you any other details right now, but the curious should go to http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1096 and sign up for the Festival mailing list for more information.

I just finished Peter Beagle's I See By My Outfit, a book I've wanted to read since I was a teenage Beagle boy and learned of its existence in the back of A Fine and Private Place, and I loved it. It's the true story of a two man road trip across America on motor scooters, and it's as much a journey across time now as it is across space: funny, heartwarming and wise. The kind of book you feel a better person for having read.

Too much fun is being had with Readerware (http://www.readerware.com/rwFeat.html) and a cuecat scanner, as books are brought up to the new library upstairs and scanned in or ISBNd or entered by hand before being put on the shelves. Mostly I wish, given the number of old books here, that someone had thought of ISBNs before 1966... And then I wish that the library upstairs was three times the size, as I don't think it's going to make the dent in the basement library that I hoped it was going to.

Labels: ampersands, library upstairs, PEN world voices festival, Peter S Beagle, Readerware, tattoos, typefaces, weird russian fish