Lund, London and a Little Japan

Last night I introduced Stardust to the Swedes and did a Q&A after. Today I was interviewed by the Swedish press, then did a book-signing, and then I was given the "Finn the Giant" Award. In the crypt of the Cathedral at Lund. Beautiful live music was played, the legend of Finn the Giant was retold, and I was made the second person, following the unfollowable Terry Gilliam in 2005, to be honoured with the award.

In addition to a scroll, and flowers, I was given an amazing piece of art as my Award -- a portrait of me as a Saint, of sorts, all framed and ready to hang.

And then I left in the rain for the airport, happy to have met so many nice people and wishing I could stay longer in Lund.

....

Right. Here are the details of the upcoming Hay Festival London event...

Tuesday 2 October, 6pm

Neil Gaiman in conversation with Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian
The Criterion, Piccadilly
Book signing following the event.


The film of Stardust premieres in London on Wednesday 3 October. We have a pair of tickets to the premiere: all ticket-holders to the Hay Festival event at The Criterion will be entered into a draw and the winner announced at the book signing.
Tickets £5
Book at http://www.hayfestival.com/ or on 0870 990 1299.

Probably worth mentioning that the Criterion seats 600 people, which is slightly less than the last event in London, a year ago, so if you want to be sure that you can come, get tickets early.

This just came in from Japan...


Dear Neil


I am a Japanese fan who is dying to see Japanese release of Star Dust, coming this October. This is not exactly a question, but do you know about the special menues are available at Pascal Caffet and Shiseido Parlour (Both are famous sweets shops in Japan) in Yokohama Takashimaya while the department store is having photograph exhibition of Star Dust? Those menues are Star Dust Sweets Set (Pascal Caffet) and Star Dust Parfait (Shiseido Parlour).

http://www.takashimaya.co.jp/yokohama/new3/index.html

Anyone who eats the menu will get a chance to win a pair of tickets of Star Dust. As your fan, I am wondering if I should take two hour trip to Yokohama to try both menues. (^^)

Kominami Mie

Hullo. Only if you like parfait and sweets, I would have thought. (I loved the website you linked to -- I'd not seen the Japanese Stardust poster before, and it makes me strangely happy that it has the Ghosts on it.)

Also, from it I learned that there's a whole Japanese Stardust website at:

http://www.stardustmovie.jp/top.html

In addition to which, late this afternoon I was told that...

On Friday, the 21st of September, at 6:30 pm in Japan, I will be doing a signing, at

Kadokawa Shoten

2-13-3 Fujimi,

Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo

102-8177

Japan

(This is my publisher's office, by the way, not a bookshop. They were kind enough to agree to let me do a signing because I told them that people had been writing in to my blog from Japan and asking when I'd sign their books. So if you're in Japan, please come...)

...


Hi Neil

I thought you and your readers might like to know that the Mitch Benn podcast featuring an interview with you is now online - http://www.mitchbenn.com/podcasts/

Lena

Oh good. (I am now slightly less travel-weary than when I did the interview with Mitch, for those who worry about that sort of thing.)

...

Jonathan Ross's In Search of Steve Ditko documentary is broadcast in the UK this Sunday, on BBC4, and you can read what Jonathan has to say about it at http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2169000,00.html

Labels: Ditko, In London, Japan, Jonathan Ross, Lund Fantastic Film Festival, Tokyo signing, What on earth is this mystery about something happening in the crypt?

Lund

Actually, the plane wasn't to Stockholm. It was, rather counter-intuitively, to Copenhagen. Where we were driven over an enormous bridge to Sweden, and were deposited in Lund.

Which is an astonishingly pretty University town, filled with green spaces and pretty buildings. There's a John Bauer exhition in the Museum I'm going to try to get to if I get any time tomorrow that isn't interviews or signings...

(Here's a Bauer painting. I was going to put up a Kittelson picture as well , because Norwegians know what trolls look like too, but I couldn't see any of the ones I wanted in a quick scan of the web and I'm standing in a hotel lobby typing...[Edit: as many people have pointed out, that's because it's Kittelsen])

The Stardust signing and Q&A tonight is sold out, but the signing tomorrow at the Lund Town Hall at 2:30 is open to anyone, and I suspect that the mysterious event in the crypt of the Cathedral at 4:30 is likewise....

...

For those of you who are wondering (as I was) how and what my dog is doing, the Birdchick has posted some information about herself, the bees, giant puffball mushrooms, and my dog (who can be seen both investigating puffballs and being sympathetic as Sharon gets her First Bee Sting over at)

http://www.birdchick.com/2007/09/favorite-moment-of-beekeeping-thus-far.html

http://www.birdchick.com/2007/09/brrrrrr.html

http://www.birdchick.com/2007/09/hello-bee-sting-goodbye-dignity.html

which are the sort of things that I'd be posting if I wasn't on tour. Sigh.

Labels: birdchick, John Bauer, Lund Fantastic Film Festival, Theodor Kittelsen, What on earth is this mystery about something happening in the crypt?