Saturday? Already?

Had a very pleasant time at the ORG last night: talked, and really enjoyed the Q&A part. It's nice to be patron of an organisation of smart people. http://www.openrightsgroup.org/ for details, and because they may post a recording of the talk.

Many tabs to close, so...

The French President is trying to ban a Sarkozy voodoo doll.

Jenni Miller interviews me for Premiere (mostly about Coraline).

The Kingsway Tunnels are for sale...

When I was in China, I was told by someone who had bought a new PC from an official company there that they were surprised that the operating system was not officially licensed from Microsoft. You could buy Windows operating system for a dollar in most DVD shops. Microsoft is now fighting back, but in a country with millions of computers but in which the majority of computers are running on illicit operating systems, they are being accused of "hacking" and "terrorism". Fascinating.

Tor.com plugs the Golden-Wagner-Bissette Prince of Stories book, and links to a competition to win a signed Dave Mckean poster.

The third of the Todd Klein prints (which will, I suspect, begin with C) (and will there really be 26 of them?) has been announced by Todd over at his blog. It's by an artist, this time, not a writer. Which one? Go and find out...

A nice little article on Henry Selick and the Coraline film.

The late Alan Coren mashes Hemingway and Milne.

...

Neil, I am on a mock Newbery panel at my library. We have a question. Is the Graveyard Book eligible, as Chapter 4 was published earlier?

I have absolutely no idea, and am neither a librarian nor a lawyer, but having googled the Newbery Award rules, it looks eligible to me.

[Edit to add -- that seems to be what other mock Newbery places have decided too.]
...

A lovely Guardian review of The Graveyard Book:

"...it's hard to think of a more delightful and scary place to spend 300 pages....Every page is crowded with invention, both funny and scary"

A just as lovely Times review of The Graveyard Book :

"This is one of the most original and touching children's books I've read all year, exquisitely illustrated by Chris Riddell. Gaiman's work is crafted and composed with care... it is a Hallowe'en treasure that will last long after your pumpkins have filled up with empty sweet wrappers."

...

Stephin Merritt interviewed in the Washington Post, and at length in (I think) The Columbus Despatch or rather, on their blog, in which we learn -- I've been working on a musical of the Neil Gaiman novel Coraline. And I'm one song away from finishing it. Or I was when we left on tour. One song away. But I'm still one song away, and I've got absolutely nothing done on it on this tour. And not for lack of trying. I just don't have any ideas.



And that's closed most things.

Labels: early reviews of The Graveyard Book, ORG and being a patron, tabs

tabclosing

"Well... I'm just saying that I thought your race were smarter than that. You'd think you'd've known that you can use the same mirrors you used to steal those children's souls... to reflect light back into your breeding pods. Like this..."

Which is less me trying to sound like David Tennant's Doctor than it is me puzzled that all around the webses, people aren't using the Guardian Hamlet photos to illustrate their own do-it-yourself Doctor Who story. (Some of them even have Patrick Stewart in.)

...

Congratulations to Todd Klein on, well, being Todd Klein, mostly, but also for his inkpot. (I wish mine had looked like this.)

These little people are wonderful (I forgot who sent it to me. Sorry.) (I also forgot who sent me this.)

Paul Levitz talks about his job, and about working in comics. (Read the sidebars as well.)

Someone has re-read all of Sandman and blogs about it.

The Delachaise was easily my favorite restaurant in New Orleans, but alas, that era is over.

I am reading this book really slowly. A chapter a month. Because when it's done, there won't be any classic period Roger Zelazny novels I haven't read. (Or any Roger Zelazny novels I haven't read. But still...) The manuscript was lost in his papers for over 30 years. And from what I have read so far it is classic wonderful Roger Zelazny all the way...

...

Probably the last Amanda Palmer singing "I Google You" on Youtube that I'll link to for a while... I like this one because the sound quality seems sharper, and because you get to hear her introduction.



Right. Back to work.

Labels: Doctor Who, i google you, New Orleans, tabs, zelazny

valentine...?

For today, I put "Harlequin Valentine" up at last FM for free. (The reading from Telling Tales, not the one from Fragile Things.) I'll keep it downloadable for a few more days.

...

It is time for the closing of tabs:

Cat Mihos sent me this LA Times tale of striking writers.

How do you pronounce writers' names? How do they pronounce them?

A cautionary tale about dealing with Hollywood studios, (Disney, in this case, bt it could be any of them) and a lesson that needs repeating over and again. There will be no net profit. Ever. A movie could have cost two million to make and grossed two hundred million and it will still never show a profit.

Why did someone send me a link to Barry the Beaver? Why is it in an open tab? Perhaps it is like the Hello Kitty Shoulder Massager.

A few people wrote in sceptically telling me that my pseudonymous technothriller has been leaked online.

as we learn,

Got this from a friend of mine and supposedly it's the leak of a draft or outline (or whatever they call it) of a nerd thriller by Neil Gaiman, written under the pen name 'Rian Sato', as he wanted to take this into a direction somewhat different from his other writing (kind of like the Stephen King - Richard Bachmann deal).

Some intern at Gaiman's agency (Writer's something, forgot the name friend told me) was tasked to read through the text again for any obviously British English diction conflicting with Rian Sato's assumed American persona (guess they were well stocked with coffee at the moment and nothing needed to be xeroxed), but instead nabbed the file, took it home and then bragged about it online on some messageboard. Of course nobody believed him, intern threw a fit, board responded "POST PROOF OR STFU" and then the dude really posted the file. When everybody started ridiculing him for the danger he put himself in and serious screw-up he committed, he got scared and pulled the file again while begging everyone not to share it, but...

...well, here it is.

Which is kind of funny in a dozen different that's-not-how-the-world-works ways, but mostly seems a rather sad and desperate attempt by someone to get their book read. ("Haha! You liked it when you thought it was by Neil Gaiman, but really it is by me!")

Mark Evanier offers some philosophical conundrums relating to Gaiman's Law of Typos.

...
Neil Gaiman – Harlequin Valentine

Labels: barry the beaver, no chocolate anywhere in this post, tabs

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