More on Stamps and Bookburning

Just a short follow-up on last night's post:

More UK media on the stamps: a really good article on the Fantasy Stamps (with stories) in The Times:

“She is so scary,” says Gaiman, examining the stamp. “But, of course, mermaids were always terrifying. With the exception of the Little Mermaid of the Hans Christian Andersen tradition, they would take your soul. And fairies were never things that people embraced — they were unknowable, dangerous, capricious. They could cause real trouble for you.”

Even if Gaiman were making all this up, you would be inclined to believe him. But all his stamp stories, which are published here for the first time, start with long-held British folk beliefs as their original source.

“I felt that, if I was going to do this, I had to get my mythology right,” he says. “Days of research went into the unicorn story and the history of the ‘unicorn horn’ in the Tower of London. Plus there is that relationship throughout Britain between geography and mythology, which is why I loved doing the giants story. When you’re walking on English hills, you may actually be walking on them.”

(And before anyone from the West Country grumbles, it was piskies not pixies in my original draft.)

There's also a delightfully dim blog over at the Telegraph from someone who read, but seemed to miss the point of, my Mab story. (And to have also failed to notice that a 500 year old tradition is, well, by now, a tradition.) (But for whatever it's worth, as the person blogging dimly is the Obituaries editor, I do love the Daily Telegraph Obituaries.)

And I noticed this morning Dave McKean grumbled that he didn't say the innocuous things the BBC attribute to him in this one.

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And these two follow up from the Wisconsin would-be librarybookburners who feel that the existence of Francesa Lia Block books threatens their health and safety...

Hi Neil,

Just wanted to thank you for bringing attention to the latest censorship situation at the West Bend Community Library. I'm not sure if you (and your readers) are aware, but the librarians in West Bend have been dealing with a similar issue for the last several months, regarding a request for the removal of some - for lack of a better way to put it - not-anti-gay material in the young adult section of the library. Two weeks ago, the issue was finally resolved in favor of library policies, leaving the challenged books in the young adult section of the library. (A very brief overview of the ordeal is here: http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/46772872.html ) A victory for sure, but this new challenge suggests that a pocket of the West Bend community is hell-bent on removing homosexual material from the public library - an action which would be a major loss for the community.

Thank you for bringing attention to the issue, for always being a voice against censorship, and for your continued support of librarians in situations like this (I know you know we adore you, but really, you're a hero).

- A Wisconsin librarian

and

Hello Neil, I recently read in your blog about the group of "Christians in Wisconsin" who are taking legal action for the right to burn a book (and payment for the "damages" it did to them).

Speaking as a Christian (and a Wisconsin resident), I am appalled that any Christian would assume they have the right to publicly deface/destroy another's ideas (in this case in the form of literature). Although throughout history all sorts of atrocities have been committed in the name of Christianity, I naively like to think we have learned from that past. There's also a part of me that imagines things like this only happen in some faraway land, but I guess they happen right in your backyard just the same.

Thank you for, in the very least, reminding your readers that there are "sane" Christians (if any of us humans really are sane at all), and not to let one group's actions speak for the whole. Just as the actions of Muslim terrorists should not allow us to judge any Muslim a terrorist, or genocide in Africa shouldn't lead us to deem Africans as savage.

Anyway... I digress. Thank you for bringing attention to this.

You're welcome. Right. Back to work.

Oh, and last night I saw the first firefly of the year last night. So you know, and in case you were wondering.

Labels: Fight for your right to bookburn, mythological stamps

Stamps, Bookburning and Depth of Field

Just a quick one to let everyone know (particularly people in the UK) that, as the Telegraph just reminded me, the Dave McKean mythical creature stamps go on sale on Tuesday the 16th. So they are on sale now.

If you go to

http://www.royalmail.com/creatures

It will take you to the page where you can learn about the stamps, the various things the royal mail has for sale (presentation packs, postcards etc) and where you can try to buy them. You may succeed. (I didn't, and have, grumpily, given up trying for the night.) The secret of putting in phone numbers it will recognise is at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/one-blustery-day-with-stamps.html

You can read the little stories (or sketches or vignettes) that I wrote to go with the stamps online for now at http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=32300676&mediaId=98700760

They are printed in the "presentation packet", very beautifully.

Here's the one that goes with the stamp above:

The native dragons of the British Isles, called wyrms, had poisonous breath and coiled snakelike around hills. They could not fly or breathe fire. They demanded oxen or maidens. They grew slowly, ate rarely and slept much.

Local species can be fragile: the new dragons, the firedrakes, came south with the Norsemen, crossed the stormy seas with the Saxons, accompanied the Crusaders back from the hot lands in the centre of the world. Nature can be cruel, and soon the wyrms were gone, their bones turned to stone.

The new ones spread, alien and invasive, until the time came for them to lay their eggs. Dragons nest on golden treasure, but British gold was hard to find, and soon they slipped away, another species that came and flourished and dwindled once again. A handful of dragons hung on, half-starved in the Welsh wilderness, until time and the wet winters extinguished their fires. They went, like the wolf or the beaver; and they exit from the pages of history, pursued by a cave bear.

....

Meanwhile, I learned in the Guardian today that

... a group of Christians in Wisconsin has launched a legal claim demanding the right to publicly burn a copy of a book for teenagers which they deem to be "explicitly vulgar, racial [sic], and anti-Christian".

The offending book is Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-Bop, a young adult novel in which a boy, struggling with his homosexuality, is beaten up by a homophobic gang. The complaint, which according to the American Library Association also demands $120,000 (£72,000) in compensatory damages for being exposed to the book in a display at West Bend Community Memorial Library, was lodged by four men from the Christian Civil Liberties Union.

Their suit says that "the plaintiffs, all of whom are elderly, claim their mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the library," and that it contains derogatory language that could "put one's life in possible jeopardy, adults and children alike."

The sad thing is that these twerps are wasting the time and money of a town and its librarians with a nuisance suit. Well, that and giving sane Christians a bad name while doing their best to widdle all over the first amendment. You don't burn books. And, well, you don't sue for your right to burn a library book you don't like. (And that's not just because if you win, that means that people you don't like now have the right to burn your books.)

(I'm not just saying this because if their mental and emotional well-being was that damaged by the proximity of a Francesca Lia Block book, I'm just happy they didn't pick up and read the library's copy of American Gods; their eyes would have been fried and their lives put so far in jeopardy that their nearest and dearest would have been ordering caskets before the end of Chapter One.) (Other books it is good that they didn't read would include Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and the Reverend Jen's Live Nude Elf.)

Glad to see PEN America responding. (Pen deserves your support. You don't have to be an author or an essayist or editor or playwright or translator to join: you can get an associate membership: http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1048)

As I said on twitter, whatever side the "Christian Civil Liberties Union" is on, I'm now on the other one.

...

Finally, for those who would like to learn about taking better photographs while at the same time seeing pictures of my awesome dog, here's Kyle Cassidy to tell you about depth of field.

Labels: Fight for your right to bookburn, mythological stamps

One Blustery Day With Stamps

Good morning. It's a bright, blustery, suprisingly chilly day out there, the view from the kitchen window is filled with cold, fluffed-up orioles and hummingbirds and indigo buntings, and I have been disappointed in the quantity of asparagus that has grown since I attacked the overgrown asparagus crop and made asparagus soup on my return home, and so I had rhubarb and yogurt and honey for breakfast instead. (I have a Maddy fast asleep upstairs because you Do Not Wake Teenagers Up On Saturday Unless They Ask To Be Woken. And there is rhubarb on the stove for her which she will not eat.)

It's still spring out here, just: the daffodils are finshing, the tulips are joyous, there is blossom aplenty on the cherry and the apple trees, but the plum-blossom is pretty much over.

I am already banned from agreeing to do any more blurbs and introductions by my agent. But please, please, please do not ask me, because, like it used to say on the signs you would see in pubs warning you not to ask for a credit, a refusal often offends. Right now, I seem to be doing nothing but introductions I've already agreed to do, and they always take longer, and need more thought than it occurred to me they would when I agreed, although it seemed strangely appropriate that the introduction to Douglas Adams' So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish was both late and peculiarly melancholic.

...

I mentioned here before that Dave McKean painted some Royal Mail stamps based around the myths of the British Isles. They look like this:

(Actually, they don't, due to the following request from Norvic Philatelics.


On your journal page http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/one-blustery-day-with-stamps.html you are currently hotlinking to one of our images. I would ask you to stop doing it, host the image on your own site, and post a link to where you got it from.

I also tweeted you about this yesterday, but I suspect it got lost in the morass of your 1.5m followers.

Let me know on the email above when you've sorted the entry out please.

You can see them at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/06/more-on-stamps-and-bookburning.html


(The last one, of a Mab-like fairy, was originally going to be a banshee, but then someone realised that the first time someone got a letter telling them bad news, in an envelope with a banshee stamp on it, it would be seen as a Stamp of Ill-Omen.)

The Royal Mail asked me to do something to go along with them, and seeing that I get very requests from Royal organisations, I agreed: my job was to write VERY short stories, one for each stamp, for the presentation pack. And my self-assigned job while I did it was to try and make the stories, the images and the stamps peculiarly British -- why a fire-breathing Dragon rather than a good English Wyrm? And how do I get British with Unicorns?

The Royal Mail have just put the stamps (and the presentation pack, and the First Day Covers) on sale for pre-orders. Wherever you are in the world, you can order it from them directly: Lots of lovely Dave McKean art, some of it much bigger than stamp size.

This is the link to the presentation pack.

This is the link to the whole Mythical Creatures area of the website.

And on Twitter I learned from Leslie Turek that Royal Mail solution, if anyone asks, is to enter US phone # as follows: 01 0 617 1234567. (I assume that the 01 would be whatever your local country code would be if you are not in the US.)

The stamps are released on June 16th. I have no idea how limited the Presentation Packs will be, although the magic of Stamps is always collectability and limited numbers, so if you're on the fence, putting it off or anything, then you should probably order a set. (No, I do not get royalties or anything on them and neither does Dave. But it's worth mentioning here, because otherwise people will be coming up to me for the next few years complaining that they wanted them but that they were sold out.)

...

Another Stephin Merritt CORALINE The Musical interview, with my favourite quote at the very, very end.

Labels: blustery day, coraline the musical, introductions and refusals offending, mythological stamps

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Hello world.

I'm home. It's raining, as it's been raining for two days, which is a good thing as it's taking care of the remaining piles of snow or the shadowy places where paths are still covered with ice. Looked out of the window yesterday and realised the first snowdrop was out, which made me ridiculously, momentarily happy. Snowdrops were the first flowers I remember being able to identify - I learned about them age 3 or 4 from a book with a title like "A story a week" - and they come with the knowledge that it really is spring.

I'm scribbling away on a Secret Project right now. I don't want to talk about it because that might jinx it. But, at least until about 2.00am last night, when I knocked off and went to bed, it was going pretty well. There were a couple of places where I got frustrated with myself -- sometimes I love writing dialogue too much, and I would write scenes where people talk but nothing happens. And I know I have to write the Stuff Happens bits too.

Maddy and I had, after all the travelling and madness, one day of Spring Break Adventure. It was a really lovely day of it, too.

And I sat down last night and turned on the TV, to see myself talking back from the screen, as they were repeating last week's COLBERT REPORT, which is, I discovered, exactly the same feeling you get when you listen to voicemail and the first message is from you -- a sort of strange embarrassment.  

And on the subject of TV, I thought this ONION video was almost perfect (I would have made the airport official a suited bureaucrat, or even a tribunal of suited bureacrats, rather than the comic-opera type):

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

...

I have a question about journaling - offline. Do you maintain a print journal? Is it "I did this today," or more of an idea bank where you jot down thoughts throughout the day?

Add on, do you type your blog entries mainly spur of the moment, or do you outline them a little? Don't know that it matters, but I was curious.

I don't have a journal. I sometimes think the reason that this blog has lasted so much longer than I ever expected to be writing it is because it really is useful as a journal. If I need to find out when I was last in Sao Paolo, or something, I just search the website.

And if I had to outline before writing a blog entry, I'd never do it. It tends to be a warm-up exercise for my fingers before I start the real writing.

Hey Neil,

Your Chivalry read by Jane Curtin is available for a week or so at http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=9911210 from the folks at Selected Shorts.

Thought you might want to share.

Cheers!

Chris

Thank you!

It's been ages since I read "Chivalry" in front of an audience. I keep thinking that it might be nice to do another reading tour for the CBLDF (the last tour, which was meant to be the last one ever, was in 2000... long enough ago, that anyone who went because it was the Last one, probably wouldn't mind if it wasn't). (Look! A LAST ANGEL TOUR interview with me from back then.)

Thanks so much for piquing my interest in Amanda Palmer, I went to see her concert last night and she's absolutely splendid. She mentioned you and everyone cheered. Then she asked if you ever came to do your "author things" like book signings or conventions etc here in New Orleans. The crowd was silent, she shrugged it off and said that it was strange because this seemed like your type of city. So I got to thinking...how come you don't come here to do "author stuff"? I know you've been here before but Amanda is right it does seem like your type of city! We'd love to have you. Just curious.

Regards,
Jackie Monteilh

It is odd. I mean, I love New Orleans, and have twice come to New Orleans over the last 18 years for conventions, and many times just wandered down to see friends or walk graveyards and haunt old bookshops, but I've never done a book-signing there. Or a reading.

Hmm. Okay. If I do another CBLDF reading tour, I'll see if we can do a proper New Orleans stop.

ı wonder do you write accept stories from amateur writers and do you accept to complete their stories...

regards

I do not, I'm afraid.

Hello Neil,

I found this beautiful quote from you on www.goodreads.com, and I was wondering which one of your books/comic books it is from because the source was not cited. I'm just beginning to read through you canon, and I can't place it.

Thank you,
Meredith

Here is the quote: "When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. "It's all right" we whisper, "I'm here, I love you." and we lie: "I'll never leave you." For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad."

It's from Hellblazer #27, "Hold Me". Collected in DC Comics' Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days collection.

...

Pictures of the Dave McKean Mythical Creatures UK postage stamps have hit the web:

Keep an eye on the Royal Mail Future Stamps website for info. The stamps will also come in a presentation pack, with VERY short stories by me on the pack, one for each order of creatures. And yes, you will be able to buy them from outside the UK.

...

For any of your fans trying to find a first printing of Blueberry Girl, you may want to suggest they try the comic shops. I live in LA and went to four major book stores last week looking for BG. Three stores hadn't even ordered it and didn't know what I was talking about until they looked it up in their computers. Then I went to Meltdown Comics in Hollywood on Sunday and they had a stack of the books (yes, that's where I purchased mine). I also just got back from a trip to Comics Factory in Pasadena (it's Friday, March 20th) and they also had some first printings on the shelf. By the way, it's a terrific book, Neil. Charles Vess did a stellar job with the artwork and your words... well, they made my soul smile, as usual.

Great suggestion. (Yes! Support your local comic shop!)

Neil,

You have a point about the New Scientist article. Hasn't animal superstition been proven to exist for quite a while? http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/

One can of course argue the difference between faith and superstition, but surely the very fact that it is arguable suggests that you'd start from the assumption they CAN have religion rather than the opposite.

-MK

My point exactly. (Well, my point was they seemed to be taking an awful lot for granted.)

Dear Mr. Gaiman,

I saw your recent appearance on the Colbert Report, and it was absolutely brilliant. Made my week. Would you marry me?

I don't think so, but thank you for asking.

...

Audible just dropped me a line to say that The Graveyard Book has just reached the semifinals in their Audiobook Tournament: Here's the link. (If you're an Audible listener and you think it should beat Vince Flynn's Extreme Measures, now is your chance to vote.)

And finally (as a small reward if you've made it this far down) Over at the MCCtheatre website you can learn about the Stephin Merritt original CORALINE musical which debuts this May in New York. Tickets are not cheap. However, if you use the code CLNG when you buy tickets, they drop to $39 each. The code will work until the 12th of April.

Okay. Back to work.

Labels: kafka, mythological stamps, New Orleans, snowdrops

from Las Vegas

Just did a lovely signing -- only about fifty people altogether, which meant that I got to talk to everyone and draw in their books, admire their tattoos and so forth. Really pleasant.



Thank you for all who voted. Consider me retired now from the Hottest Daddy Blogger and Blogitzer categories.

A fun cartoon of Michael Chabon and me at http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/06/comic-book-literature-unmasked-festival/. I like how sleepy I look and how wide-awake he looks. (It makes me a bit sad that I leave Las Vegas and then Michael arrives, and we miss each other this trip. He's one of the world's best people to chat to.)

An interview with me at The Scottish Book Trust: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/

My friend-the-Emmy-award-winning-writer Michael Reaves talks about how much he hates me on his blog. But I'm linking to the whole blog, and not just that entry (it's called "Why I Hate Neil Gaiman" and is easy to find) because it's all fascinating: Michael is battling Parkinson's Disease, and talks about that, and about other things. http://waretheblog.blogspot.com/

...and here's a tidbit that may help unravel some of why I was in China in September. I don't know if that's a final title (probably not) and the second two books are probably going to be solidly based in this blog (on the theory that of the 1,212,333 words I've written since it began, some of them might be of interest to the world. I think one may be partly about writing) and in case people were wondering, it doesn't mean I'll now write three non-fiction books; it'll probably be a non-fiction, then an adult novel, then an all-ages book, then another non-fiction book...

And more on the subject from MTV: http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/11/06/neil-gaimans-tells-of-his-adventures-in-china-with-a-monkey-on-his-back/

...

Michael Crichton is dead. I read and liked some of his books (mostly the pre-1980s ones), some of his movies, and the first season of ER; I don't have any real anecdotes or insight -- we chatted a few years ago at a Harper Collins party, I liked him and oh my god the man was tall. He towered above a room of authors as if we were children. Over at the Guardian Maxim Jakubowski pens a much better appreciation than that, although I knew what he meant when he said,

we once shared a lift in the Random House building in New York some 15 years ago, and I was too dumbstruck by his sheer height to even introduce myself as he had to bend over at 90 degrees to fit his frame into the elevator.

...

The Dave McKean "Mythical Creatures" stamps are slated for June of next year according to the Royal Mail website. (I wrote short-short-stories to accompany them.)

...

If you're in the UK you can listen to me reading on the audible.co.uk podcast (but not if you're not).

And Keplers video- interviewed me (while I signed books) and are giving away a Headstone...

Labels: Michael Chabon, Michael Crichton, Michael Reaves, monkey and me, mythological stamps