Guacamole-headed thoughts...

I remain utterly mush-headed, but should have completely recovered in time for the UK tour and to do it all over again.

Just a quick post about http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95790778, which is a really lovely review and link to an All Things Considered piece on me, beekeeping, Doctor Who, and (mostly) The Graveyard Book. (And while I was looking, I ran into this Stephin Merritt interview and songs too: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94926812)

There's a Graveyard Book review in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Although aimed primarily at younger readers, "The Graveyard Book" has enough heft to keep adults thoroughly engaged. The model for the story is, of course, "The Jungle Books," but Gaiman pays homage to Ray Bradbury, with perhaps a salute to Charles Addams tossed in for good measure. Bod's coming of age has its moments of wonder, terror and tenderness, and Gaiman hits exactly the right notes every time.

and one in the Washington Post which concludes,

Like a bite of dark Halloween chocolate, this novel proves rich, bittersweet and very satisfying.

Barnes and Noble have pulled out an interview I did with them a few years ago, when Anansi Boys was published. It contains some pretty decent answers to some frequently asked questions.

There's a terrific account of a journey to the Coraline studios at http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/28623270.html

Brad Meltzer in the White House. And Lincoln. And me.

I think I'm starting to get rather fond of The Middleman. (There are a bunch of them on the Tivo, and they're playing in the background as I've been working this evening.) The vampire glove puppets made me go "I wish I'd thought of that." (I did a demonic serial-killing glove puppet a long time ago, reprinted in the Golden-Wagner-Bissette Prince of Stories. But vampire glove puppets...)

I have a ridiculous question - inquiring minds! - based on your point today about using Montblanc's "dried-blood-coloured Bordeaux" to sign your way across the US. Is it in any sense possible to take a bottle of fountain pen ink through security?!? I am imagining you do not check luggage, but how are you able to get away with this miracle of fluid-possession? Inky toiletries bag?!? I suppose it must be OK if the bottle holds less than 2 oz. of fluid...

I loved The Graveyard Book - it reminds me, too, I must reread Kipling, my childhood favorite was "Puck of Pook's Hill" which is a most magical book also!

best wishes,
Jenny Davidson

It's not a ridiculous question at all. You can put ink bottles in the clear quart bag for liquids (as long as it's less than 100ml). Or you can put bottles of ink in your shoulder bag and forget to put them into the clear quart bag, and discover that nobody ever seems to notice them, probably because the shapes don't look like bottles when they go through x-ray machines. (Sometimes you may have to explain to security people at airports what ink is and why it's in heavy glass bottles.) You can also carry ink cartridges.

I cheated on the last tour, though, and handed the ink bottle to Elyse Marshall, from Harper Collins and she always produced it when I needed it.

Have you seen this website? Wow.

http://www.suck.uk.com/product.php?rangeID=103&rangeNew=1

Check out the Cat Playhouses. And the Terrorist Tea Pot.

Stephanie.

That is the best Terrorist Tea Pot I've ever seen.

Hi Neil,

Just thought you might be interested in the Graveyard Book pumpkin my girlfriend and I made. We modeled it after the book cover and included our very own ghoul gate. It took a while but was definitely worth it. I put up the pictures on my blog, here:

http://decaffeinating.blogspot.com/2008/10/graveyard-pumpkin.html

Happy early Halloween and I hope you like the pumpkin! And thanks so much for writing The Graveyard Book in the first place.

Brent

And that is the best Graveyard Book pumpkin I've seen.

Labels: book reviews, ink, pumpkins which don't look like me, teapots, x-rays

bad blogger. no liver stories.

I am a dreadful blogger right now.

This is because

a) I'm writing.

I just reread the pep talk I wrote for National Novel Writing Month, for authors who were at that point three-quarters of the way through the book when you just have to keep going, and it helped a bit. ("Hah!" I thought. "What do you know, foolish author-man?" But secretly I knew he had a point.)

I'm still in Chapter Seven. Yesterday was very talky. Today stuff may happen.

b) I'm writing. So when I find interesting links, or people send me things to post, I go, "Yes, I should post that" and then forget to.

and of course the main reason I'm a dreadful blogger is that,

c) I'm writing.

When I'm not writing the novel I feel guilty. And even though blogworthy things turn up (I could write about the thaw right now, and the sunshine and the bees; three days ago a really funny entry on what to do when your assistant hands you twenty pounds of whole and uncut cow liver for your dog that she was given at the local meat packing plant didn't get written, and yesterday I composed an entire thing in my head I didn't write down about Why The People in Torchwood Season One Are All Too Stupid To Live -- including the astonishingly puzzling incident where someone in 1941 has written something down on paper with black ink (a medium that will last legibly for centuries if kept out of the sun), and, unaccountably worried that ink on paper will fade and become unreadable in time, first she takes a prototype Polaroid photo of it, and then writes some of it in blood and puts it in a coffee can in a damp cellar, because these media will still be readable seventy years later. Why she didn't make a model of it out of chocolate as well, I will never know.)

Oh, and despite having predicted that Blink would get the Hugo for best Dramatic wossname, this blog is now officially supporting Paul Cornell's Family of Blood/Human Nature two-parter for a Hugo. This is, obviously, because I have been gotten to.

Bugger. This was just meant to be a wave, and now I've started writing.

I'll answer a question. Just one. Then to work.

Good morning, Neil!

Since you've used fountain pens for so long, I was wondering if you could recommend a good fountain pen ink.

I just got my first fountain pen last night. I mentioned to a friend that I write all my rough drafts longhand because it's the best way to shut up my internal editor, but that I wanted to get a fountain pen so I could stop throwing so much plastic into landfills by burning through so many disposable pens. He disappeared into a back room of his house for a few minutes, and when he came back he handed me a fountain pen, complete with converter.

So, now I have the pen, but I need to get some ink. And I want to make sure that I get a good quality bottled ink -- preferrably something that won't smear since I prefer to write in spiral-bound notebooks, usually curled up on the couch with the notebook on my lap.

Based on what you just posted about the Noodler Polar Black, I probably won't be getting it. (I live in the South anyway, so I don't really have to worry about ink freezing.) What type of ink do you normally use or would recommend for a fountain pen neophyte like myself?

Thanks much!

Andi

In all fairness, I should say I got a note from someone who uses the Noodler Polar Blue to say that they hadn't had any smudging trouble with it.

There used to be a lot of information about ink (including what everything looked like) up at http://www.inksampler.com/
but alas, most of that has gone. Still, this is the internet, and there are people out there writing well and exhaustively about fountain pen ink and showing off their favourites.

Find a colour you like, and an ink you like. Try a few out. Parker's Quink is an old dependable. Private Reserve have some lovely colours (I like their Black Cherry and their Copper Burst). Waterman inks are always pretty good. Bottle design is also useful to consider -- Mont Blanc (I don't like their pens, and the ink isn't up to much but I love the bottle design) and Levenger have great bottles that allow for easy filling even when the level in the bottle is low.

Never use India inks, drafting inks or drawing inks inside a fountain pen. You will gum up the insides and worse. But if you're interested, there are places on the web that will tell you, for example, how to make your own ink to ancient recipes...

...

And finally, thank you to Dan Goodsell, who noticed his Mr Toast toy in the video of Maddy at Comic-Con, and sent her oodles of Mr Toast stuff. Hurrah for Mr Toast.

Labels: Blogging, dr who, Hugo Awards, ink, Maddy Gaiman TV, the internet is for livers, toast, torchwood

Solid ink

It's cold here.


How cold is it?

It's so cold that when I went to refill my pen yesterday I discovered that the ink had gone solid. (It's dried out, I thought irrationally, before I realised, it's ice) and it took me half an hour to defrost it on a radiator.

It's so cold that when people (or large dogs) come inside from the outside, they radiate cold across the room. It's like opening a fridge door.

On the other hand, as of yesterday, the book is being written again, and this makes me happy.

Labels: cold [the extreme kind], ink, The Graveyard Book