Adult Residents of the Continental 48 States! You Can Be In A Real Full Cast AudioBook!

I'm in Chicago for ONE BOOK ONE CHICAGO.

The conversation last night with Audrey Niffenegger was as much fun as I had hoped. Audrey is one of my favourite people, and we don't get to see each other very often, so even grabbing an hour to talk on a stage was golden. (We met on stage in Sydney, five years ago. I think we're next seeing each other on a stage in Edinburgh in August.)

(This is Audrey in the Library Green Room. It was very green.)

Some great photos of the event over at Valya's page - http://www.vdlupescu.com/journal/2011/04/one-book-one-chicago/

People filled the hall, then the overflow room, then were turned away. (I'm sorry.)

This morning I spoke to some teens about Neverwhere. This evening at 7 I do a reading and a talk and a Q&A at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, University of Chicago, 5850 S. Woodlawn Avenue. No signing (I pre-signed 1100 books yesterday) but I hope a bit more of a chance to say hello to people than I had yesterday. It's a much bigger space than yesterday, seating over a thousand people, so the chances of you not seeing me if you come are slim.

Then up early tomorrow to New York to do the Columbia University talk with Paul Levitz. And to see my wife (insert happy author face here).

So the big news is...

(and this will make you sad if you are a) Under 21, b) Not a continental US resident, c) you have taken a vow of silence or d) you are getting married on May the 15th)

Harper Collins are doing a contest for someone to win a part in the Full Cast Audio of American Gods. Here's a sample of it.



All is explained over at http://neilgaiman.bookperk.com.

I did a video explaining the simple version of the rules. Basically, you upload an audio file audition. People vote. Harper Collins judge the 20 most popular auditions. The winner is flown to New York and records a part in the Full Cast Audio that's currently being recorded. No, I don't know which part -- we'll wind up tailoring that to the person who wins.

I'm really sorry if you're under 21, not in the continental US, under a vow of silence etc.

You never know, if this works, they could do an international one.

Or I could make a really cool announcement about something to do with Audiobooks that I can't talk about yet.

Anyway, if you are interested, make sure you read the Official Rules, which contains the thing you're meant to read and lots of other information.

...

I'm about five workouts or less away from the end of the audiobook of Bleak House (read by Hugh Dickson). Am now wondering what to listen to next. I want something big, chunky and unabridged. All suggestions gratefully received.

Right. Must run and read stuff.

Labels: American Gods Full Cast Audio Competition Thingummy, audrey niffenegger, chicago, I am sorry if you have taken a vow of silence but hope it is helping, one book one chicago

One book (Neverwhere) one city (Chicago)

I'm in Chicago right now on my way to go and see Gene Wolfe for lunch, and then over to the Harold Washington Library to presign a few thousand books.

Tonight Audrey Niffenegger and I are in conversation at the library. It starts at 6 pm. Details at WHERE'S NEIL.

Tomorrow I talk and do a reading Solo at 7 pm at Rockefeller Chapel. University of Chicago. Do come, if you are in the area.

The day after that - Thursday - I'm in New York doing a talk with Paul Levitz, former publisher of DC Comics. Details at Where's Neil and in the last blog post, and I'd link to them here but I am blogging on my phone.

I can't even link to the photo of me, Suranne Jones and Matt Smith on the Doctor Who set that the BBC just released. But I will. You know I will.

Postscript. Hah! I figured out how to do it from the phone. Someone asked if I had shrunk and I had to explain that, no, the camera is tipped to one side for dramatic effect.

Labels: bigger on the inside, chicago, my kind of town, phoneblogging

the view from the ice storm

I was home for a day or so but now I am at another airport about to fly all night, and I would rather be home, or rather be in Boston with my wife. But at least I am not driving home in the ice-storm that started as we approached the airport, like my poor assistant is. There's always that.

I'm heading to the UK, where I will do a day of interviews about my Doctor Who episode, and then go and see a sick friend, and then hide out and write for a few days.

In case anyone missed it, Terry Jones is adapting GOOD OMENS into a 4 part television series. Details at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/monty-python-writer-adapt-neil-168792

This is a good thing, and why Terry Pratchett and I were drinking champagne last Septemberish.

I saw a bunch of press about whether there is or isn't a Sandman TV series: as far as I know, nobody has actually optioned SANDMAN as a TV series from DC Comics, who own it. Eric Kripke (of Supernatural fame) pitched his approach to DC and to me last year, and we liked it and we liked him, but it didn't feel quite right at that point, so we passed.

I think that this year the people at DC Comics (and me) will talk to a lot of people who want to make a Sandman TV series, and if we find the perfect person with the perfect way of treating the material, it'll happen. And otherwise it won't.

(Which reminds me: Matt Cheney is still blogging his way through Sandman. He's just reached A Game of You.)

NEVERWHERE is Chicago's One Book. There are a lot of wonderful Neverwhere related events, including two talks from me, a play reading, and a tour of Chicago Below. Details at http://www.chipublib.org/eventsprog/programs/oboc/11s_neverwhere/oboc_11s_greeting.php. I can't do the link as this is from my phone.

And I just saw the finished version of my Doctor Who episode. I was happy -- there were moments and even scenes I missed, but that's always the way. Mostly I was just impressed by the performances, direction and music. And effects. They spent money on this one and it shows.

Labels: chicago, sandman tv, terry jones, Terry Pratchett

What I did to celebrate National Library Week (part two) (and other stuff)

One Book One Twitter starts tomorrow. Here's a Guardian Article about it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/04/one-book-one-twitter-book-club

Tell people about it. If you're on Twitter, follow @1b1t2010, and bust out your copy of American Gods. Remember that http://frowl.org/gods is an excellent round up or starting place for American Gods gods and geography. And remember that, as with any of these city-wide book clubs, there are no rules. One Book One Twitter starts tomorrow but you can start reading whenever you like, jump in and out of conversations as you wish.

I'll try and respond to questions. I may try and do occasional "Okay, I'll answer all the #1b#t questions that come in starting now..."

And the Locus Award nominations are in for 2010: http://www.locusmag.com/News/2010/04/locus-awards-finalists.html

....

...I'm in Cologne, right now as I type this.

So, in the blog before last, I went to Indianapolis and got the Kurt Vonnegut Jr prize for Literature. Then I got up very early and flew to Chicago.

There was a convention going on in Chicago, C2E2, and I'd been asked to do the first Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Evening With Neil Gaiman since the end of the Last Angel Tour a decade ago.

And I did. It was a strange, long day -- people had paid up to $250 for tickets (they were the "dream tickets" that the CBLDF sold, and those people also got a signing), and there were about 1600 people in the audience altogether.

I had to sign a few thousand things for the CBLDF, the coolest of which were the "In Reilig Oran" prints that Tony Harris painted. I did a bunch of TV interviews (looking a bit more tired and frayed than normal) on subjects ranging from Freedom of Speech to Online Privacy.

Choose Privacy Week Video from 20K Films on Vimeo.

And then it began:

Jim Lee introduced me.

I read stories. I read poems. We had an intermission. I answered questions. I read some more. I said goodnight, over an hour after it was meant to have ended. It was good, and although it had a long way to go before it was smooth, it had raised many tens of thousands of dollars for the CBLDF. And that was good.

Here's Cat Mihos, who helped me, blogging about it; and here's Valya Lupescu blogging about it all.

Did I mention that the CBLDF has a spiffy New Website? http://cbldf.org/

Or that I have to get back to Chicago in the next month or so in order to catch this: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/85389/neil-gaimans-neverwhere-at-lifeline-theatre-and-other-fantasy-and-science-fiction-stage-adaptations?

Up too early again, and I flew to Minneapolis where Cat and I were met by Lorraine and two dogs, and she drove us to Stillwater.

...........

Now I'm in Antwerp. Still juggling email and bloggage and such as best I can -- luckily, I'm writing the thing I'm currently writing in a notebook, so it really isn't dependent on wireless or computers. The writing process looks a lot like this:

This is me in Berlin a few days ago, writing during a little downtime. Not really sure what's happening with the hair.

...

I loved the Stillwater talk, from the High School Auditorium. It was broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio in its entirety (except for the audience Q&A afterwards), and can be heard by clicking on the widget on that page, or on this one. It was funded by the state of Minnesota Taxpayers, from a sales tax.

Oops. About to lose wireless connection. I'll post this now and continue later. From Prague, I think. (But before I go, I've been pushed this a while ago, and its time is nearly up: it's the Kickstarter link for a film called The Rainbow Boy. They have $6000 to raise in 6 days to complete Principal Photography. They've already raised $9000.

The Rainbow Boy cast is composed entirely of Navajo people, many of whom had never acted before. It includes approximately 60 Navajo youth under the age of 25 as actors, extras, and crew members. The majority of the principle photography was completed in November of 2009, as was the editing of the promotional teaser/trailer.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/normanpatrickbrown/the-rainbow-boy-a-prophetic-navajo-story-about-hu is the link. You can pledge as little as $15.)

Labels: CBLDF, chicago, Kickstarter, Locus awards, One Book One Twitter

Useful Information. Plus added Creepy Doll...

I've been waiting for the new CBLDF website to go online, but it's not quite up yet, so I'm just going to cut and paste their press release.

The CBLDF Salutes Chicago With A World Class C2E2 Showing!

This weekend the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund lands in the windy city with an incredible array of events and exclusives for our supporters at the inaugural edition of C2E2! Join us for An Evening with Neil Gaiman, Signings with Tony Harris, exclusive new prints by Gaiman and Harris, and the launch of the CBLDF Exclusive Benefit BPAL fragrance Banned in Boston!

An Evening With Neil Gaiman

On Saturday, April 17, at 7PM Neil Gaiman will be giving his only reading in 2010 to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place! The last time Neil Gaiman performed theatrical readings was ten years ago on the "Last Angel Tour." On that tour, he crisscrossed the country, giving sold-out readings of stories and poems, both new material and beloved tales. That was ten years ago. In those ten years, Mr. Gaiman's published such books as American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He's made movies and operas. He even started keeping a blog. A generation has grown up who have not seen an evening with Neil Gaiman -- until now.

For One Night Only. Neil Gaiman. Only for the CBLDF, and only at C2E2!

Tickets for An Evening With Neil Gaiman are available at C2E2 Registration at McCormick Place on the 2nd Floor or the CBLDF booth 933, starting Friday. Admission is $20 for C2E2 Badge Holders and $35 for the General Public not attending the convention. For more information, please visit: http://c2e2.com/en/Events/Neil-Gaiman/

Exclusive Neil Gaiman/Tony Harris Print & Harris Signings!

To commemorate Neil Gaiman's triumphant return to Chicago, Tony Harris, the award-winning artist of STARMAN, EX MACHINA, and WAR HEROES has illustrated an all-new print based on the unpublished poem "In Reilig Oran," which Gaiman will premiere for the first time at "An Evening With Neil Gaiman!" Unsigned copies of this gorgeous full-color 11 x 20 print will be available for a $20 donation to CBLDF at C2E2.

Harris will also be appearing at the CBLDF booth (933) to sign copies of the print, and his graphic novels. Harris will also be creating one commissioned piece of original art per day. Harris appears at the CBLDF booth:

Friday - 4:00 to 6:00 PM
Saturday: 12:00 to 2:00 PM
Sunday: 12:00 to 2:00 PM

All New ECHO Print by Terry Moore Premieres in Chicago!

Terry Moore, the award winning creator of ECHO and Strangers in Paradise premieres a brand new print to benefit the Fund at C2E2. A beautiful 11 x 17 presentation of the original black and white line art from the cover of the upcoming Echo #22, this print is only available for donation to the CBLDF!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Releases Array of New CBLDF Benefit Fragrances!

The Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, creators of unique fragrances based on literary and artistic works, are coming to Chicago in force with a variety of new fragrances to benefit the work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at booth 951! New fragrances include BANNED IN BOSTON & the NEVERWHERE family of scents. Details include:

BANNED IN BOSTON

"Banned in Boston" was a phrase coined in the 19th century that was used to describe material, be it a motion picture, photograph, literary work, or other work of art, that contained objectionable or obscene content. Boston city officials and the Watch and Ward Society took their lead from the Comstock Law, which prohibited obscene materials from being distributed via the US Mail service, and formed their own strict censorship guidelines. Provocative or offensive material was prohibited from distribution or exhibition within Boston city limits.

The effect was much like that of the RIAA's Parental Advisory tags: if something was Banned in Boston, it only served to pique interest and spike sales or attendance.

Obscene, lewd, lascivious, and decidedly objectionable. A filthy, post-coitus scent: sweaty and sweet, laced with laudanum, splashed with booze, and stained by tobacco.

(Please note: the Banned in Boston label is NSFW)

NEVERWHERE

ANESTHESIA
A scent that slips through the cracks: peppermint, lavender, bergamot, and mandrake.

MR. CROUP
Pompous and predatory: tonka bean, black musk, bourbon geranium, and crushed porcelain.

DOOR
Golden honey, nicotiana, blue chamomile, and cistus.

THE FLOATING MARKET
A cacophony of curious scents: copaiba balsam, petitgrain, citrus rind, sinicuichi accord, betel nut, wasabi root, coconut palm, and wattleseed layered atop innumerable strange herbs, spices, and woods.

HUNTER
Leonine amber, tanned hides, clove, and clary sage.

LAMIA
Deadly elegance: pale orchid, vanilla amber, black currant, white peach, champaca, coconut, Arabian myrrh, Burmese vetiver, and oude.

THE MARQUIS de CARABAS
A splash of bay rum, leather, dusty black wool, massoia bark, and opium residue.

NIGHT'S BRIDGE
Stone and darkness.

THE RAT SPEAKERS
A snuffling, brown scent: earthy patchouli, sage, russet sandalwood, grimy leather, fig leaf, and lemongrass.

MR. VANDEMAR
Dark and gangly, with a glint of razor-sharp stainless steel behind it: opopponax, costus, black pepper, black sandalwood, and polished metal.

THE VELVETS
Smooth inky musk, cathedral incense, ylang ylang, violet leaf, rose-infused amber, red sandalwood, and iris.

The Neverwhere scents are part of an ongoing not-for-profit project, and proceeds from the sales of all Neil-inspired perfumes go to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community.

Of all of those things, the most important is probably:

Tickets for An Evening With Neil Gaiman are available at C2E2 Registration at McCormick Place on the 2nd Floor or the CBLDF booth 933, starting Friday. Admission is $20 for C2E2 Badge Holders and $35 for the General Public not attending the convention. For more information, please visit:http://c2e2.com/en/Events/Neil-Gaiman/

Which is to say, all the tickets that could have been sold over the internet have been sold, a little over a thousand of them. There are still a few hundred left, but they are only available tomorrow and Saturday from C2E2 registration (you do NOT have to be going to the C2E2 convention for this) or from the CBLDF booth (you kind of do, as it is inside the convention).

And no, I don't see a penny from any of this: the reading or the print or the scents. It all goes to support the CBLDF, which is the organisation that supports freedom of speech in comics, and looks after creators, publishers, retailers and readers of comics in first amendment matters.

...

In other news, I'm heading off tonight to Indianapolis for a reading/talk/lecture/not a signing tomorrow (friday) (http://www.imcpl.org/mcfadden/), and when I leave Chicago I go to Stillwater, where I will be doing a reading and answering question and not signing... (http://www.clubbook.org/neil-gaiman.html). Both events are free, although seating will be first-come first served...


Am burning the Indelicates new album to CD to play in the car on the way to the airport. It's called SONGS FOR SWINGING LOVERS and is downloadable from http://corporaterecords.co.uk/artists/The+Indelicates/Songs+For+Swinging+Lovers/ on the pay-what-you-will basis that seems to be starting to feel like a movement. It seems like most of people I like who make music have fled their labels over the last year and have no intention of ever going back.

...

And, with the assistance of Hans the Woodsman, I've been having too much fun making art today: You just need a really creepy doll, a badger skull from the woods, a wooden prison, a lone bulb and some paint...








I am not yet entirely sure where we will put her or what we will do with her. Possibly I will simply place her wherever Jonathan Coulton will be staying the next time he's here.

Labels: CBLDF, chicago, creepy doll, indianapolis, stillwater, The Indelicates