Want to hear me reading Norse Myths in Public? (London and New York)

I'm doing two events for NORSE MYTHOLOGY. I'll read from the book, be interviewed, take audience questions, sign a lot of books.

The first event to go on sale is at New York's Town Hall on February 9th. http://thetownhall.org/event/neilgaiman is the link. Tickets are not cheap, but each ticket price includes a copy of the book. It will be hosted, and I will be interviewed by, NPR's Ophira Eisenberg (whom I last met a few years ago on Ask Me Another on the radio, when she made me answer questions on and even sing Gilbert & Sullivan on the air).

(The photograph is of me and a tree by Beowulf Sheehan.)


The second is the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank on February 15th. It's going to be just as much fun. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/119851-neil-gaiman-norse-mythology-2017

(And at 2:30 that afternoon Chris Riddell will be doing an event in the same place. Come to both events! https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/119612-childrens-laureate-chris-riddell-friends-2017)

...

And while I've got you here, the BBC RADIO 4 adaptation of Stardust is wonderful! I've been listening to it over and over for the last couple of weeks, and smiling in delight at the performances and the clever way the adaption has been done. It will be broadcast in two parts, on the 17th and 18th of December. You can listen to it all over the world after that, for a month.  The episodes will go up here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xs1fd/episodes/guide

And a huge congratulations to the winners and runners up of the Stardust art competition: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1wFrP0b6KZh9CVnSG9BLTwg/stardust-drawing-competition-winners
You can see the whole gallery of delightful submissions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fqwzs/p04k98kc

Labels: Norse Mythology, Stardust

On Dedications & Radio Plays

I finished the last of the last of the read-throughs of Norse Mythology this morning. I caught one paragraph that had somehow duplicated itself, fixed a couple of clunky sentences, and changed the word stone to iron somewhere I had thought one thing and typed another. I checked over the glossary

And then there was one last thing.

Dedicating books is an odd process, combining whim and whimsy and debts owed and gods to be placated. Mostly you ponder who would be made happiest by having this book dedicated to them, and what the most appropriate person would be for the book you have written.

But sometimes you do not have to ponder. Sometimes it's nice and obvious.

I've dedicated Norse Mythology to someone who wasn't even around a couple of days ago, and is now here, and whom I haven't yet met and held and hugged and sung songs to (but I will, soon). My first grandchild, Everett, born to my oldest son Michael and his wife Courtney (Courtney obviously did all the hard work) about 48 hours ago.

I get a grandson. Holly and Maddy and Ash get a nephew (and Ash gets someone to play with as he grows up). I am a proud and happy grandfather.

Norse Mythology is Everett's book.



...

This is a photograph of the cast - almost all of them, there are some secrets and surprises - of the two part BBC Radio Four adaptation of STARDUST that's coming out in December. (Here's the cast list: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1CJhmxQCq99GBn26FLh7qnk/stardust-whos-who)

The BBC is holding a competition for original STARDUST art for UK residents -- details at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4m9W7cDHhnCDrBlBrkmL2YW/competition-draw-neil-gaimans-stardust-for-radio-4

You will not need to be a UK resident to listen to it, however. You can listen to it anywhere in the whole wide world, via the magic of the Internet, or the BBC iPlayer app, for a month after it broadcasts.

That's not the only Radio Four adaptation of one of my stories happening this year, though. There's also the (smaller) cast of How the Marquis Got His Coat Back:

and yes, I'm in there. I got to be in the room, acting with Bernard Cribbins and Adrian Lester and Paterson Joseph and Don Warrington and everyone and IT WAS AMAZING.

How the Marquis Got His Coat Back will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in early November (I think).

...

You can get registered to vote in the US via text messages: https://www.hello.vote/ has the details. Get registered. Vote. Your vote actually matters. Vote.

Labels: Everett Gaiman, grandfather me, how the marquis got his coat back, Radio four, Stardust

It's Ash's first birthday, a bare chin is revealed... (and so are the next three Robert McGinnis covers)

It was Ash's birthday on the 16th of September, and his mother and I went back to the place he was born to celebrate and to get away from cellphones and the world.

He's a delight and I've never loved him more. His favourite books are Goodnight Moon and a book called Chu's Day (I've never been prouder). His eyes really are that blue.

I'm now off writing, and I won't see them for another ten days. I'm loving the writing, loving the exercising and the quiet and the words, and missing them both, especially Ash, I miss singing to him, miss waking up early and going off and reading with him or walking with him (he can nearly walk). Miss feeding him.

Today I shaved off my beard. I also got a FedEx package containing a proof "Advance Reading Copy" of NORSE MYTHOLOGY (it'll be published on the 7th of February) and an early reading copy of Colleen Doran's beautiful graphic novel adaptation of TROLL BRIDGE (out on October 18th).

Here is a photograph of all these things at once. (Well, not the act of shaving.)

...

So, this is a very book-covery day,  because I'm going to do something fun.

For the last few months, I've been showing people I've been talking to or talking about books with or just wind up sitting next to on a plane the Robert E. McGinnis covers for Stardust, Neverwhere and Anansi Boys.

This is because I am so proud of them, and the work Todd Klein did with the lettering and the design for the books.

The American Gods cover (it already came out) is, in my head, a 1968 SF cover. (I wrote about it here: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2016/07/robert-e-mcginnis-and-secret-of-new.html. Todd Klein shows all the design work that led to it on his blog http://kleinletters.com/Blog/title-and-cover-design-for-neil-gaimans-american-gods/.)

Would you like to see the next three?

Really?

You don't have to see them. You can wait until you are in some little Indie Bookshop over the next few months, and be surprised...

I love them. The Stardust cover is an early 70s book, and is funny, like the covers I delighted in for books like William Goldman's The Princess Bride -- the lettering style was inspired by the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Line, and  the whole is intended to be sort of heartwarming.

Anansi Boys is done as a late 50s or early 60s paperback – one of those goofy comedies, with an illustration of a scene from the first chapter. (Also glad to finally get Mr Nancy on the cover of his book.) I think this one is Robert E McGinnis's masterpiece, and Todd's as well. 

 Neverwhere – when Robert McGinnis sent over this haunting cover I sent it over to Todd Klein and told him that I thought it was a 1970s gothic romance cover. He looked at the kind of covers I'd suggested, told me that they often have elegant and swirly titles and heavily serifed type, and he produced something as beautiful and haunting as the cover had been.

Ready...?

Oh, hell. Here you go. And I've just gone to Amazon to find out the publication dates so will put the links in...

(And I checked Indiebound and the books are now up there too, so Indiebound links as well.)

Anansi Boys (http://bit.ly/AnansiPulp) comes out on October 25th...  (I loved this one so much I bought the painting from Mr McGinnis.)

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062564337

Neverwhere (http://bit.ly/NeverwherePulp) is published on November 29th. I love the rats in the shadows...

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062476371

Stardust (http://bit.ly/StardustPulp) is the next one to come out -- it will be out in just six days from now on September 27th...

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062564344

Labels: anansi boys, Ash, beards, birthdays, colleen doran, Neverwhere, Norse Mythology, Robert E McGinnis, Stardust, Todd Klein, Troll Bridge

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

The Guest Blogger Reviews Sweeney...

I read this...

I was interested to hear your take on "Sweeney Todd," because I also loved it and thought it was brilliantly done. My thirteen-years-old-in-four-days daughter is begging me to take her to see it, so I have to ask: how did Maddy like it? I'm hesitant to take my daughter due to the graphic nature of the film, and while she thinks I'm being overprotective, I think I'm simply being considerate of her sometimes oversensitive nature. So, I'd love to hear Maddy's opinion on the film!

and sent it on to Miss Madeleine, who replied....

Why hello there blog readers! This is Maddy. I would like to say that I, being thirteen-and-four-months-years-old, enjoyed Sweeney Todd a lot! If you're almost thirteen I don't think it should be too bad. In my opinion it was a little bit icky, but I just turned away or covered my eyes at those parts. They might have made my stomach lurch a little bit, but I mean it's not enough to give me nightmares or anything. If your daughter really wants to see it then I think it would be a mighty fine idea! Have a nice day. :)


and an informative PS on the post from this morning,

Hi Neil,

Regarding the woman who was offended by Stardust: I work in a Barnes & Noble and can say that it is not categorized under Young Readers (which has a sign indicating a recommended age range up through 12). It is only available in the Teen Fiction and SciFi/Fantasy sections.

Also, when I was 12, I think I was starting to read Stephen King.

That was my assumption. (The first bit anyway, about the placement in the bookstores. The bit about what people read at 12 -- I'd just point at what I said this morning. I don't think it's about age, at that age. I think it's about who you are and what you're ready for in your fiction. Some 12 year olds are ready for Stephen King, some aren't. Maddy discovered King on her own age 12 and loved him. I gave Holly Carrie when she was an 11 or 12 year old Goosebumps fan and scared her off horror for life.)

Labels: Maddy, Stardust, Sweeney Todd

"I'm the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and you can't catch me..."

I took the family to see Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd last night, which I absolutely loved (even down to a couple of grace notes, the St Dunstan's market and the Bell Court street sign -- in the earliest versions of the Penny Dreadful, Sweeney's shop was part of St Dunstan's Church and Mrs Lovett's was around the corner, in Bell Yard). I even loved Johnny Depp's early-Bowie-when-he-was-still-doing-Anthony-Newley singing style. (At least until, on the way out, I found myself trying to imagine a blood-spattered Sweeney Todd singing "The Laughing Gnome" as he waited for customers, and was unable to explain to anyone else why this was funny.) I think it just edged out Ed Wood as my favourite Tim Burton movie.

Puzzled as to why we had to drive many miles to see it in the only screen showing it outside of the Twin Cities, and sad that the room we saw it in was mostly empty.

Dear Neil,

I wonder how you feel about both Beowulf & Stardust being among the top 10 most P2P traded movies of the year?

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/12/YE_best_of_p2p

Are you glad that they're popular, or do you wish people would actually pay for them?

Thanks!

Laura

I'm simply glad that they're popular.

I suspect that in a few years you'll be able legitimately to download a film the same day it goes on general release, and go to cinemas for an experience you'll not be able to get elsewhere (Beowulf is a much better film in 3D, and, interestingly, did 40% of its first week business on 700 3D screens. The 3D thing is not something you can experience from a pirated download, not yet,) and one day the people who made the film (including the writers) will be properly compensated for it. Because mostly the solution to piracy seems to be providing the pirated thing yourself...


My 12-year old daughter chose Stardust for a school book report. We purchased it in paperback at Barnes and Noble. From the packaging, it looked like an appropriate fantasy story for her age and her 6th grade teacher approved it. We were very offended to find that it had an explicit sex scene and the word "fuck" in it. The marketing of this book was misleading. Were you intending to mislead children into reading it? Why would you do this?

Nope, not trying to mislead anyone, and I'm sorry you were offended.

Stardust was written and published as an adult novel. In 2000 it was awarded the Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award given to adult books that young adults enjoy. Because of this, and because of the demand from schools, Harper Collins decided to bring out a Young Adult edition of the book as well. That would be the "Stardust Movie Tie In Teen Edition" up on Amazon these days.

While I'm sure there are many twelve year-olds who would qualify as Young Adults and who can happily read books intended for and marketed for teenagers, just as obviously many of them wouldn't and can't, and if you feel yours doesn't I'm sure you're right. I'm not as convinced as you are that the sex scene is "explicit", although the word fuck is definitely there, printed in very small letters. But Stardust is definitely not one of my children's books, like Coraline or Interworld, or (when I finish it) The Graveyard Book. It's an adult book, with, in the US, a Young Adult edition as well.

...

The first real online community I encountered was the Compuserve Comics forum in late 1988 or early 1989, more or less the week it started in the UK. I'd messed around on bulletin boards and such before, but from 1989 until around 1995, the Compuserve Comics forum was the place to be, and a lot of that had to do with the reassuring and wise presence of Paul Grant, who went under the online name of Zeus (because he was huge and bearded, not because he wore a toga and flung lightning bolts). John Ostrander mourns Paul's passing, and a lot of old-time Compuserve people come out of the electronic woodwork to join him.

Labels: Compuserve, Downloading things, Stardust, Sweeney Todd, Young Adults, Zeus mourned

"Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations."

Several hundred people wrote to let me know about Terry Pratchett being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers.

Yes, it's very upsetting and no, it's not a good thing. Also, and most importantly, as Terry points out, twice now, he's not dead yet (although you mightn't know it from the reaction on the web), and he has a few more books in him besides.

It's not time for wakes, or for mourning, or for "Terry Pratchett -- An Appreciation and Remembrance" or any of that stuff, not now and probably not for a long time. He's still here, he's still writing. He's not done yet.

Right.

And if you're still upset, well, it's a good time to remind people that there are charitable organisations that can be supported, and things that can be bought the profits of which go to completely different charities (Good Omens scents for example).

...

The sore throat thing seems to have subsided to the point where I finally have a more or less functioning head back. (A good thing, as I can start writing again, rather more successfully.) On the down side I think someone crept in during the night and filled up my lungs with thick glue. (A bad thing.)

Sometimes making stuff up feels a lot like Coyote* running across the empty space between one rocky pinnacle and the next, and as long as you keep moving you're fine. When you stop and look down, it's suddenly all too apparent that there's absolutely nothing underneath and that you're keeping in the air by a peculiar effort of will.

And then a good day comes, and you start running through the air once again, and, if you're smart, you resolutely don't look down.

...

It's nice to see the Stardust film turning up on end of the year Best Of lists.

It's out in the US on DVD in a few days, and has been quietly doing really well around the world for the last several months (it's now made nearly as much in the UK as it did in the US, which I guess says something about the difference in marketing in each country).

...

I've had a few people ask how they should support the striking writers. I'm glad I can now point them somewhere which offers suggestions -- http://www.fans4writers.com/participate.shtml.

And Jason and Maui's engagement has made Boing Boing.



* Wile E, or the American Indian one who created the world.

Labels: Philippines, sore throat, Stardust, writers' strike

Leftovers mostly

A closing of tabs sort of blogpost, this --

There are free preview tickets for Stardust in the UK at http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/screen/article2590223.ece

I have no idea what this is: http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/29076/Enpocket-and-Paramount-find-love

At the Stardust afterparty I ran into someone who looked exactly like Mark Millar did the last time I saw him, only this gentleman was about, oh, 17 years older. He writes about the fun he had at http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?showtopic=73753&st=0

You'll have seen this -- Play-Doh bunnies invade New York -- already. But if you haven't, you should...
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/play-doh/sony-bravia-ad-showcases-mick-keef-and-a-tsunami-of-bunnies-306942.php?autoplay=true

Meanwhile, Stephin Merritt sings a nursery rhyme for Volvo as only he can, all gloomy and strange and odd:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/45600-stephin-merritt-the-wheels-on-the-car-volvo-ad , with an Stephin Merritt original song for Volvo "I'm in a Lonely Way" just released through iTunes, according to http://www.houseoftomorrow.com/

Over at http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/category/comics-in-context/ Peter Sanderson is now four essays in to his dissection of The Eternals. I think my favourite moments of these essays (as an author) are the bits where I read something Peter says and think "I didn't expect anyone ever to notice that." My second-favourite bits are the moments where I go, "Oh. I never thought of that. Bugger."

This is a piece of journalism I'd heard about years ago and wanted to read, and just found online. It's Gay Talese's Frank Sinatra Has a Cold. http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1003-OCT_SINATRA_rev_

...

Oh, and a word from our sponsor: my short story collection Fragile Things is now out in paperback, with an Olive-and-dayglo-Orange-coloured cover.

(And on Amazon, I just noticed the Audiofile review of the Fragile Things audiobook I'd never seen before, which I am posting here because I'm much nervous about my reading than I am about my writing, and a review like this one made me grin.

Master storyteller Neil Gaiman begins this collection by introducing many of the stories, his introduction proving to be a story in its own right. Gaiman's performance aptitude matches his writing ability, as each tale resonates with subtlety and insight. Every character, no matter how brief his or her appearance, receives impeccable attention vocally and textually. And every word of narrative shines. Listeners new to Gaiman will be surprised by the variety of literary genres in this collection, from fairy tales to crime to romance and even science fiction. Gaiman steps nimbly through each, offering a shadow of meaning here, a barely perceptible nuance there, a punch of anger or a featherbed of sweetness where needed, leading his audience through 10 hours of the best listening of the year. R.L.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

There.)

Labels: a review that says nice things about an audiobook I read, Eternals, Stardust, Stephin Merritt, tabs

mist in the morning

What do you think of Chengdu? asked the president of Science Fiction World as we came in from the airport yesterday.

I can't see very much of it through the mist, I said, which was probably the wrong answer.

It's a big city, and it feels like a big city. It looked amazing last night as we walked through it in the rain, all neon reflected in wet pavements. I just got up and looked out of my window. The mist is back, yellow in the morning light, and the world looks like a science fiction film...

Last night I met my translator for today's talk. Saw my fellow authors (David Brin and family, Nancy Kress, Robert J. Sawyer and wife and others) we were fed (I was warned that the food here would be too spicy, but it was all great) and then went to the bookworm meeting.

Today I give a speech about The Nature of Fantasy.

...

Dear Neil, Rather than go through the whole thing again, I'd just like to direct you to Empire Magazine's rant about Beowulf: http://www.empireonline.com/empireblog/Post.asp?id=20

Notably, that people outside the US can't watch the trailer. Not the best PR in the world!

Ian

For some reason probably having mostly to do with being in China, most blogs don't come up on my computer and that's one that doesn't, so I can't see the rant. But as far as I know the Beowulf "red band trailer" is exactly the same as the European Trailer that's already been out for weeks.

Hi Neil,

Not so much a question but I thought you might be interested/could pimp it out far better than I ever could. I've just set up a group on Flickr for Sandman related body modification after getting one myself ('sometimes, when you fall, you fly.' from Fear of Falling, on my inner arm to be precise - my first tattoo too.) and what better way to get photos of all the wonderful mods inspired by Sandman together in one place?You can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sandman_bodyart/

rejoicing under the name 'green mouse icecream'. It's open to all submissions. I'll only step in if it's unrelated/spam.

Cheers! Meg.

Consider it, er, pimped.

Took my wife to see Stardust on opening weekend. She liked it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done by all, especially the character actor bits which added so much depth. On to the question, which I have never seen answered elsewhere: Stardust cost $70 million, and you projected it would gross $100 million worldwide. I know Hollywood regularly performs voodoo accounting, wherein they claim with a straight face that every movie ever made has lost money (except Titanic, which barely broke even), but what's the real story? How much of that $100 million goes to the studio and how much stays with the theaters? Does it vary substantially, and if so, based on what factors? Different regions of the world, different theater chains, different studios, what's the scoop?

Good question, and I don't actually know. I'll try to find out as best I can and answer you here. I've always assumed that voodoo accounting would mean that nothing would ever make money anyway, no matter what you make. I remember learning in 1990, the first time we sold GOOD OMENS that "net points" on a film are nice things in theory but nothing you're ever likely to take to a bank.

Stardust seems to be doing fine currently -- it came out in another three territories last week, according to Box Office Mojo, and "picked up $4.8 million from five markets for a $9.1 million total. The fantasy feature added two more impressive starts in South Korea ($2.3 million from 176 screens) and the Ukraine (a top-ranked $577,317 from 75 screens), but looked awful in the United Arab Emirates ($102,840 from 19 screens). In Russia, it fell 40 percent for a $6 million total. " I wonder why the United Arab Emirates didn't like it. But hurrah for Ukranians and the South Koreans. So after 14 days, it's made $31 million, with most of the world to go.

...

Here's the view from my window. And my reflection. The yellow morning mist has gone though. I'll try and be quicker with the camera tomorrow.

Labels: Chengdu, Stardust, studio accountancy, tattoos

As Dr Johnson said...

I was meant to be on NPR's TALK OF THE NATION tomorrow. But their schedules have shifted and I'll be on the radio this afternoon -- Wednesday the 8th of August. I think that http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=5
is their website. I'll be on towards the end of the second hour (the hour that some stations don't get).

John Scalzi writes wisely, as usual, over at his blog about Stardust and how he thinks it'll do:
http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/2007/08/07/stardusts_chances.html
and I couldn't see anything there to disagree with.

I have no doubt at all that Stardust will do brilliantly around the world, rock out on DVD, and become one of those films that is beloved. But how it will do this weekend... ah, that's a mystery. I was fascinated by this article about success and failure -- and, more importantly, the perception of success and failure -- in movie box office:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/hollywood-where-ignoran_b_59464.html
(link via.)

I remember the first time I went to Hollywood, with Terry Pratchett, in 1992 I learned that you could frame any conversation about something you wanted to do in a plot that Hollywood Execs didn't understand or had a problem with if you referred to another movie that they'd seen. ("So why don't they...?" "Because they forget about it, um -- just like at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK." "Oh. Got it.") And it was useful for talking about the feel of things -- you simply positioned what you were talking about against or with other films.

By 1996, when I went back to Hollywood, something had changed. I remember naming a movie in one of those conversations -- talking about look and feel or about lighting or about something like that -- and having the Exec look at me as if I had something unpleasant on my shoe, and he said, simply, "But that film didn't make any money." He couldn't understand why I would even have brought it up.

...

Over on Charles Vess's blog you can see a photo of us at the end of the premiere, me in a tuxedo and him not, because he forgot his shirt studs.

The birdchick does a honey from our hives taste test over at http://www.birdchick.com/2007/08/go-see-stardust-and-little-about-our.html

Hi Neil, I was wondering if you knew what's up with Rich Horton's Fantasy: Best of the Year 2007 Edition. There are three authors touted prominently on the cover of the mass market paperback: you, Gene Wolfe, and Peter S. Beagle. Of the three of you, Beagle is the only one who actually has a story inside. What happened? Was there a story of yours that was supposed to be in it? And what about Gene Wolfe?

It was a screw-up - the publisher reused the names from the previous year, by accident. They wrote to me and apologised, and I told them that somewhere in my basement I have a handful of copies of the UK edition of THE SANDMAN BOOK OF DREAMS in paperback, which proudly lists Stephen King on the cover as having written a story, for reasons no-one was ever able to explain. That time we were lucky, and we caught it in time to pulp the print-run. But sometimes you can't.

Hi Mr G,
Can I download the clip of Maddy's interview of you? I want to hear it over and over again to boost myself. It's just inspiring to listen to a daughter interviewing her dad. It makes me want to write more too, just like you; and just like you, you write for the people important to you.
Thanks,

JPB

PS. Please say HI to Maddy for me. :)

Easy (well, easy after a quick Google anyway). It's at the Harper Collins Digital Media cafe -- http://harpercollins.iamplify.com/ -- and the direct link to the free download is http://harpercollins.iamplify.com/product_details.jsp?productId=807

As you'll ultimately be getting one of the Coraline puppets, I thought you might like to see how they're being made: http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/beginning-to-build-coraline/

That would be cool even if I wasn't getting one...

Wow. Hey! Why have you stopped putting a "stardust"/"stardust movie" label on posts that involve Stardust? (Of course the choice of labels is completely your prerogative, but it would make it a lot easier to find certain posts, and it seems like this would be an ideal time to make use of the label function - is there a particular reason you have stopped using the labels in this case?)

Ignorance, madam. Pure ignorance. Or at least, ineptitude when it comes to labelling.

Labels: Coraline, honey, John Scalzi, labels, more Stardust mostly, one of those posts that covers lots of things I can't be bothered to label, radio, Stardust, Stardust movies

Addy-May's fun tales.

Greetings! Maddy here!

Today we went on location to film Hellboy 2 and it definitely was not as fun for me. The temperature was about 100° F and 38° C, meaning it was quite hot! I got a little tan on my arms though! Anyway, they were filming up on a hill and I wasn't allowed to go up there so I just had to sit down by myself and read my book, and occasionally people would tell me to move because I was in the camera shot. They are building a whole troll town in a quarry for the movie, and we got to go visit it today. The air felt really good down there because it was quite cold!! We had to wear hard-hats. Tee hee hee! Apparently where we were filming on location there were many ticks, and I was just wearing white flip-flops. Guillermo wanted me to wear socks so my feetsies wouldn't be exposed to the ticks. We went to costumes to see if they had any socks, and they did. Unfortunately it was a pair of men's long black socks. I think I might have looked a little funny walking around in pink shorts, black socks, and white flip-flops. Talk about embarrassing.

Dad would also like me to put this link up. It's a Stardust review. I am very excited about Stardust by the way! I am going to the premiere in Hollywood! Woot woot!!! A lot of people at my school have made up secret gestures for me to do if I happen to be on TV that will send secret messages to them. You're not allowed to know those secret gestures because they are secret. Did I mention that the secret gestures are secret?

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday so you should expect a post all about her her her! Go Holly.. go Holly ..it's your birthday...

Okay, well I want to get an early night tonight because I only got 4 hours of sleep last night! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!? Well, you should. It's true.

--Addy-May (That's Pig Latin.)

Labels: Embarrassing socks, hellboy, Stardust

Like Muenster, Or Swiss, Or Possibly Even Gouda

This is a message from your neighborhood Web Elf.  Neil's dropped a line from his mysterious whereabouts to say he's finished chapter two of The Graveyard Book, entitled "The Friend," and is now sinking his wee teeth into chapter three, "The Hounds of God."  (In the meantime, there's a snippet of video on YouTube where Neil talks about the origins of The Graveyard Book.)

There are some new Stardust stills over at Film Ick.

And here is a painting of Maddy.  Because, really, you can never have enough paintings of Maddy.

Regards,
The Official Web Elf

Labels: paintings of Maddy, posts where elves are definitely not holding the author for ransom in exchange for large sums of cheese, Stardust, The Graveyard Book

back to sleep, back to reality

Woke up this morning and realised the tour is done. Went back to sleep.

I really like this "went back to sleep" thing. I could get used to it.

Thanks to all who came to the signing yesterday. Sorry about the rain.

I just phoned the hotel to ask about when check out time was and they told me it was an hour ago but they hadn't wanted to bother me. I like my hotel...

Dear Neil,
We just thought you would like to know that on this evenings Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, your mate Mr Jonathan Woss was under the impression that his WIFE wrote Stardust..
Maybe you should correct him before all BBC viewers get the wrong impression....oh but the trailer looked very good.
Kind Regards,
Clair and Jim

But his wife did write Stardust, at least in its upcoming incarnation, and she wrote it very well. Over at Friends of English Magic she answers a lot of questions about the Stardust movie what she wrote. http://www.foem.org.uk/?p=161 for a lot of information straight from Jane Goldman.

The interview with Jane also contains fun bits like:

FoEM: I’ve been thinking about the various comparisons in the press (mainly from the preview audiences) that Stardust resembles The Princess Bride and The Pirates of the Carribean, who would win at a sword fight between Tristan Thorn, Inigo Montoya, and Captain Jack Sparrow if they were all up against each other?

Well, I’d have to say probably not Tristan. I can’t imagine him even wanting to get involved in a sword fight unless he really had to, for some reason he felt really passionate about.

Skill-wise, my money would probably be on Inigo, especially if Captain Jack had been drinking, but Jack seems to be one of those guys with luck on his side, so I imagine that perhaps a piece of heavy furniture might fall on Inigo at the last minute.

I wouldn’t like to see them fight, though. I’d hate any of them to get hurt. I like them all too much. Could they perhaps all wrestle each other instead? I’d definitely watch that.

Hey there,

I know you're a fan of Lemony Snicket and the 826 Valencia project. Would you mind pointing people to the 5th Annual Comedy Night fundraiser thingummy they're doing tomorrow night in San Francisco? (And I know his photo's not on the poster, but Daniel Handler is going to be there)

Details here: http://www.826valencia.org/comedy/

thanks,
squeaks

Consider it done.

Hello, Mr. Gaiman. I picked up the most recent issue of my local alternative paper, and noticed the headline on the front page: "Sci-fi Geeks Battle Comics Dorks"
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-03-28/news/from-hell-s-heart-i-litigate-at-thee.php

as someone who is both a comics writer and a sci-fi/fantasy author, I thought you might be interested. I think you may also know Harlan Ellison (I'm not sure about the Fantagraphics guys). What surprises me is not that Gary Groth and Harlan Ellison can't settle their differences, but how the article seems to indicate that this is indicative of a larger feud between fans of comics and speculative fiction. If such a feud exists, I've never heard of it: I read both avidly, and all of my friends that are either speculative fiction fans or comics fans also read a little from the other group. Did I miss something?
David Lev

It's a rather odd article -- it seems like someone wrote a real, informative piece of journalism about the Groth-Ellison problem, and someone else decided to come in and rewrite it as a really-not-very-good wacky humour piece. No, I've never encountered or heard of such a feud. I think you have a specific problem between the Fantagraphics principals and Harlan, going back over twenty years, with over twenty years of bad blood, which have nothing to do with anything other than the people in question. (My own opinion? I think the whole thing is unfortunate. As a long time friend and fan of Harlan's and a long time fan and supporter of Fantagraphics and Kim and Gary I recused myself from the process when Fantagraphics applied for support from the CBLDF, which the CBLDF board eventually turned down, and I think rightly, as being outside its remit, because it wasn't comics but prose journalism that was being sued, and there are other organisations that help with that. For the most part I simply wish the energies being expended here were being expended on more positive things.)

Labels: Fantagraphics, Harlan Ellison, hotel, Jane Goldman, sleep, Stardust, whether there really is a mystery feud between geeks and wads like in the Onion article

trailer talk

A couple of people have written in to ask about the Stardust trailer, including someone who had seen footage from Stardust at San Diego and wrote to ask if the film would be more like the footage he saw or more like the trailer. (Answer: More like the footage, of course.) Somebody wrote asking if I dared explain why Tristran's hair gets longer in the trailer and then mysteriously shorter again at the end of the trailer. (Answer:....Er, do I really have to explain that scenes from a trailer aren't always in the order they appear in in the film?)

I like the trailer. I've been shown a lot of other trailers for Stardust in the last six months, and was astonished to see how much they varied and the impression they seemed to give, and I realised how close the recut trailers for The Shining and The Parent Trap and Mary Poppins were to the truth. Trailers and films only bear a tangential relationship to each other. (Take a look at the three links above if you doubt this.)

In November I saw, for example, one trailer for Stardust that gave the impression it was a film about three witches on their quest to become young again. I saw one trailer that didn't seem to be about anything, but still left you feeling like you'd seen (and not enjoyed) the whole movie, which wasn't any movie that had ever been made. There was even a trailer that gave the impression that this was a film all about Tristran's quest to discover the riddle of his birth, which he solved by becoming a sky-pirate.

The current trailer, the one you can see right now on yahoo movies, is aimed at people who have never heard of Stardust, and it gives you the set-up (he's going to cross the wall to bring back a fallen star for the girl he's in love with) and what happens next (the star is actually a girl) and a sense that After That Lots of Stuff Happens. That the trailer-makers constructed the trailer in question by assembling and juxtaposing footage from one place and putting it beside another (at one point a scene that you think you're seeing is made by splicing together two events almost twenty years apart), editorially creating dialogue (including actually changing words or putting different dialogue on scenes) and so on, is perfectly par for the course in trailer-building. That they went with the sword-fightingy bits and a lot of running around rather than the love story for the Stuff Happens is fair enough -- you only have two minutes, after all.

What I hope we'll get soon is some actual scenes over at http://www.stardustmovie.com/site.htm and that will give more of a sense of how the story feels and is actually edited.

(I should mention that there's a different, and slightly longer Stardust trailer, with more footage, including some of our ghostly princes, at http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/for anyone who wants to compare the two... It should pop up if you click http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/222/popup/index.php?cl=2200972)

...

There's a rabbit caper movie pledge up at http://www.pledgebank.com/aboysrabbitcaper All I can say is I'm sorry.

Labels: links to trailers recut for comedic effect, rabbits, Stardust, trailers

Trailer

The first trailer is now up at http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/stardust.html

I'm in Paris, it's much too late at night and I'm still doing email. Bugger.

Labels: Stardust

A Quick One

In a Polish airport right now, and they're going to board the plane to Hamburg soon, so no time to write about the deeply-tanned TV presenter yesterday who whipped out the tarot cards on air ("I see from the cards that you travel too much and you miss your family..."), or about the giant Warsaw signing, but just enough time to post that http://www.stardustmovie.com is now up with cool stuff on it. And that more stuff (including real trailer) should be up very soon indeed.

Labels: Stardust, Television interviewers with really peculiar interviewing habits and tans

Mystery Russian Leaks

I'm in Poland.

Lots of you have written in this morning to let me know that there's a Stardust sort-of-trailer up on a Russian site.

I just looked at it -- it's not an actual trailer, and it seems to be a bunch of shots cobbled together from unfinished CGI footage and has some Pirates of the Caribbean music on it, and I'm not sure who did it or for what, and it honestly isn't something I'd feel good about linking to and saying "This is a Stardust Trailer". So I won't. It should take you a second or two to find it with a google if you go looking for it. It's possible this might encourage Paramount to bring the real trailer out a week or two earlier than they were going to, but I believe the trailer will be out in the next three weeks anyway.

Labels: leaks, Stardust

"I am the emperor, and I want dumplings"

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer extraordinaire, is interviewed about Transformers over at http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_11409.html, and they ask him about Stardust. His answers are informative and interesting,

Q: I’d like to go into Stardust for a second if you don’t mind.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: Okay, sure.

Q: I heard that they’re test screening out in Pasadena and it had very, very high test scores.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: It did, which I was surprised by actually.

Q: How has it been going on that as well?

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: Exceedingly well. It’s a weird thing to say. I don’t think everybody’s going to love the movie because it’s not a movie that’s designed to be that and yet when we went and tested it, they really flipped for it so it caught me off guard. It was a movie where I expected to have a larger portion of the audience go ‘well, that’s sort of out there. I’m not sure it’s for us.’ And what happened was that we delivered I think the romance so spectacularly well – Matthew (Vaughn) did such a good job with it – that it caught a segment of the audience in that I wasn’t expecting.

Q: I’ve heard an anecdote along those lines saying that the studio was afraid to call it a fairy tale similar to like a Princess Bride and that Matthew really wants to call it but that it’s sort of being discouraged.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: That’s not true. We all have the same fear which is when you use the word fairy tale… It’s interesting. We learned this from the focus groups. When we asked them to describe the movie to us and then they would give us a description and then we’d say to them, ‘What do you think if we describe it as a fairytale?,’ they’d say ‘NOOOOO!’ like that and we’d go, ‘Whoa! Okay, alright! We’re not going to call it that!’ It was really sort of an interesting thing. Because it’s not a movie that fits into any simple genre -- it is an adventure movie, it is a romance, it is a fantasy, it is Neil Gaiman’s bizarre world view -- there’s going to be some struggle for us to find the way to voice this thing, so we’re really going to need you guys to help us actually. (Laughs) It’s true. We’re going to be a very print-driven movie.

I've known Lorenzo for a decade now, since he ran Warner Brothers, and he is a very wise man. Although I probably think my worldview is more normal than he does....

Hi Neil,

This isn't a question, but some information: At dinner on Friday evening, my friend's mother was telling us a that a man in Wal-Mart told her the Russians are stealing our bee technology, which would be the reason for all the vanishing bees (re: the article in your journal for 3/5/07). He seemed pretty sure of it, so I figured I'd pass along the warning just in case. Watch out for all those new bees in your garden.

Sincerely,
Stephanie H.

It could be Russians with apian transporter beams stealing our bees, I suppose. ("Locked onto the hive co-ordinates, tovarisch." "Good. Bring them in.") God knows, if we don't listen to friends' mothers telling us what men in Wal-Mart said, we'll never learn anything...

My own theory about the disappearing bees is that some bright bee in each of the now-empty hives said, "'ere, why are we eating this appalling corn syrup muck out of container tankers when we've spent all year making lovely honey? Why are we being driven around the country on the back of trucks? Why do we put up with this? We're bees for god's sake. We can fly. Let's go somewhere else." And then the rest of the bees went "She's got a point, you know," and then they went elsewhere.

Is there any plans to do an unabridged production of Neverwhere? Your stories
have always been best when read aloud, they lend to such wonderful story telling.
I'd read most of your books once, and recently listened to Anasi Boys,
and Stardust. I felt like a kid again, telling and listening to stories around
the camp fires with my friends when reading out loud was the fashion. Thanks for your good works. ~Chad

Yup. I recorded it already. The existence of the extremely abridged version of Neverwhere with the astoundingly truncated ending has always irked me, despite the Brian Eno music and the really solid Gary Bakewell reading, but the license for it has now expired, and I am happy to say that it will vanish from the world.

The new version will be out later this year, probably in the Autumn. I actually recorded it from the "author's preferred text" version, so it's the longest version of the text. I loved recording the audiobook, and doing all the voices, and found myself remembering how much I liked all those people, and wanting to write The Seven Sisters all over again.

Labels: bees, Ferdinand I Karl Leopold Joseph Franz Marchlin Emperor of Austria King of Hungary and Bohemia, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Neverwhere audio, Stardust