from darkest cornwall

Got to Cornwall about 4:30 am (I slept for an hour or so in the car, then read a script). Dropped off by car and driver at hotel. Glad to see someone up and about to check me in. Take my bags to front desk, tip driver handsomely. Driver drives away. Night-porter slowly establishes that I'm not actually staying in that hotel, but another several miles away, and that driver was a bit overenthusiastic in dropping me off at hotel. Also that you can't get a taxi in rural Cornwall at five in the morning so I am stuck there. I sit in the lobby and write Batman. Somehow, in my jet-lagged state, this all seems quite normal.

My cellphones do not work in this town, and they are out of charge to boot.

After three quarters of an hour the night porter turns up and takes me to a hotel room, magicked into existence just for me, and everything is suddenly wonderful. I sleep for six hours, have a long bath and then go down to see my friends who are having a joint 50th birthday.

I eat the best Cornish pasty I've ever had for breakfast, and wash it down with cider (the alcoholic sort that doesn't taste even faintly alcoholic, so be wary) and listen to the seagulls and am happy. Also run into several old friends, which is good.

Am now in the hotel office, as my room doesn't quite reach the internet.

...

I mentioned the Andre Norton case on this blog some time ago. The case is now resolved -- see Scrivener's Error. Can I point all of you who read this who are writers -- or who know writers -- or who may one day be a writer -- at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html.

I heard from Marcus at Blackwells that they're down to the last 60 seats for the Hallowe'en reading event...

Friday 31st October, 6.30pm
The Old Theatre, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE

Blackwell Charing Cross Road are very pleased to announce an exclusive London event with Neil Gaiman, to celebrate the launch of his fantastic new novel, The Graveyard Book.

Join us on the 31st October, Halloween, for a talk and signing at the Old Theatre, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE, starting at 6.30pm. As it's Halloween, dressing up is welcome (but not compulsory). There will be a prize for the best costume, as decided by us, and the winner will also get a chance to pose next to Neil for a photo. Make sure to wear something that lets you fit into a theatre seat, and is comfortable enough to deal with a long signing queue

Tickets are priced at £8 and £6 (concessions), and will entitle you to £2 off either edition of the book on the night. Tickets can be obtained by visiting Blackwell, 100 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JG, or by phone on 020 7292 5100 for posting to your address. We expect the phone lines to be very busy for the first couple of days, so do please bear with us!

Here's an interview from the LA Weekly, backstage in Santa Monica, and here is Pink is the New Blog at the same event (with added Blueberry Girl).

...

Lots of people have written in to ask about the Bela Fleck recording of the Danse Macabre that he did for The Graveyard Book.

(It was the musical piece that preceded Bill Hader's lovely "Vincent Price", for those of you who were at any of the readings.) It's on the audio book of The Graveyard Book --the one you'd buy at iTunes or on CD.

Some people asked about the cellist playing with him; others wanted to know if it would be available as a separate download. According to Mr Fleck:

The cellist is Ben Sollee, a great young player from Louisville.

There are no plans to do anything else with it at my end, because it's Bela's music and he recorded it, and if anyone's going to put it up for download or something I think it ought to be him, not me. Bela Fleck's website is http://www.belafleck.com/. (I love this blog. I sigh that it would be lovely to have a Danse Macabre on banjo, and the best banjo player in the known universe reads it, writes in to ask if I'd be interested, and then records it and it's even better than it was my head when I suggested it. I mean, honestly, how cool is that?)

Here's the magical audio widget, for any of you who would like to hear some of it...



...

Dear Mr.Gaiman:

I'd like to inform you that apparently you have killed (not only perhaps Amanda Palmer but also) the third installment of Phonogram:
http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?p=1652

But no bad news should be given without a good one. The Coraline movie official site is up!:
http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/coraline/

Best,
- Sam


Life has no obligation to be likely, does it? Or even convincing.

I like the Coraline website though. And am wondering what's going to happen over at http://www.theothercoraline.com/

...

And finally, a reminder from Anne K.G. Murphy:

In most states, the deadline to register to vote by mail has just
passed (see http://www.eac.gov/voter/docs/state-reg-deadlines.xls/attachment_download/file)
but it's yet to come in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware,
Idaho* (mail-in today!), Iowa*, Kansas, Maine*, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota*, Nebraska, Nevada (mail-in has passed but
you can still walk in and register), New Hampshire*, New Jersey, New
York (today!), North Carolina (mail-in today or at one-stop stations
until Nov 1), Oklahoma (mail-in today!), Oregon, South Dakota, Utah
(walk-in), Vermont, Washington (walk-in), West Virginia, Wisconsin*,
and Guam.

*in starred states you can also register on election day, if you miss
the mail-in deadline, which is also true for Montana and Wyoming,
whose mail-in deadline has passed. North Dakota does not have voter
registration, according to that reference, so I guess North Dakotans
just walk in and vote.

Please consider helping the votor registration effort with such a post
on your blog.

thanks!

--Anne

Labels: bela fleck, copyright, magical audio widget, pasties, travel, wills

American Gods Blog, Post 71

This morning brought the new Locus magazine, which is not the same as the online Locus, and had two reviews of American Gods, one by Gary Wolfe, which I enjoyed -- lot of very interesting points -- and one by Jonathan Strahan, which was pretty solid. Both were very positive.

I'm still very tempted to review the reviews, though.

The Writers Write website also has a review up, at
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun01/fansf.htm

....

My comment on hoping that they didn't dig out and print all the stuff Douglas Adams didn't want published while he was alive seems to have been an unfortunate foreshadowing of events to come. See this slashdot article and its referent.

I went browsing through my hard disk and found the last will I wrote -- which reminded me that I really need to write another will that reflects things like the country I currently live in and how many kids I have -- and checked what I'd written a decade ago on the subject of unfinished stuff etc.

At some point I'll need to figure out exactly what I want done with fragments, juvenilia, unpublished stuff, and so forth (when I do I'll codicil or amend this will). In the meantime on my death all computer back up tapes, disks, and hard disks are to be placed in a bank vault, along with any personal papers, letters, poems, and so forth; they aren't to be released for at least 50 years following my death, by which time I trust I'll be decently forgotten anyway. Anything recently completed should by assessed by my literary executors on its merits.

Which is more or less how I feel ten years on. Although I do need to get my finger out on assembling the material for Dreamhaven's "B-Sides and Rarities" book and the poetry collection. (Really, all I need is a week. Just a quiet week with nothing else to do. Maybe four days...?)

....

Still listening to American Gods the audio version. It's really good -- George Guidal manages an awesome array of voices, and is a magnificent reader. (I wish I could say that I''ve been listening with unmixed pride, but in fact a couple of times now I've pulled out a copy of the book and checked that a sentence was in fact that badly written, and have marked it to be fixed for the next edition.)

Labels: American Gods, American Gods Blog, audio books, B-Sides and Rarities, book reviews, Douglas Adams, Locus, wills