Mostly MirrorMask

Had a good two days -- starting to get the hang of this. Seen some movies, and am starting to feel like people should be paying royalties to Rod Serling for reusing old Twilight Zone plots. So far my festival highlight is KUNG FU HUSTLE, which was an utter enjoyment from first to last. Also enjoyed THE JACKET until the final couple of seconds when it all went sacharine, and enjoyed HARD CANDY, although I'd expected a few more twists.

Showed MirrorMask to an audience of highschoolers this morning. They were our first ever audience (of people who had nothing to do with the film professionally) and I held my breath until I found out how it had gone down and what they thought of it.

Hey Neil,I'm sure you'll get tons of emails about this but just in case you hadn't, the MirrorMask website has gotten a full makeover and now has content! And pictures! And a really spiffy wallpaper. http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mirrormask/main.htmlEnjoy Sundance! Don't freeze to death :)~Karyn-Noelle

Oh good. (I'm on an unbelievably slow dial-up and can't check to see if it has a current trailer up, or if it still has the old one, but I'm delighted that they've got the site up at last.)

There. It loaded. I'm afraid they've still got the original trailer up. I'm astonished it ever crept out as anything more than a teaser done by Sony for Comic-con (which is what is was). Dave hated it. I disliked it, and was really upset that Dave's name wasn't on it. I've not met anyone at Hensons who admits to liking it. And it doesn't really give you any sort of taste or feel for the film...

Ah well. There will be a new trailer up in the next few days. And in the meantime there's lots of scrummy stuff on the website.

I am a big fan of your Sandman series. I am also a huge fan of all Jim Henson related works like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. I am very excited to learn that you are involved with them in creating Mirrormask. I am assuming you wrote the screenplay, but are you involved otherwise? I am saddened to see from the teaser that a lot of the visuals are computer generated. My love for the Jim Henson company comes from thier amazing puppetry and the feeling these works of art convey. It seems that making computer generated "puppets" takes away from that feeling. Actual puppetry is what sets the Jim Henson works apart from all others. Puppetry is a completly different art form and I think it is misleading in the teaser to say that Mirrormask is from the creators of Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, if it is not going to be making extensive use of real puppetry. I'm sure in all accounts you don't really have much say in these matters. But I'm curious about your views on this. Making such puppets and creatures is a dream of mine. I hope this dream must not die.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Brooner

I turned this one over to Lisa Henson to answer, mostly because a) Dave and I had nothing to do with the old trailer, and b) the impression I got from Lisa Henson, Jerry Juhl and other Hensons people I've talked to was that Jim Henson was always pushing the envelope in what you could do. And that he would have liked what we were doing.

(At the Sundance panel on animation the other day Lisa showed a short test from something called, I think, Water Warriors, with a dancing frog and worm in it, both cgi characters being "puppeted" which was amazing -- and just as much puppetry as anything made of cloth or foam. But those techniques weren't used on MirrorMask.)

This was Lisa's answer.


Dear Neil,

Some of our fans do sometimes get upset whenever we do anything
new, particularly if it is not Muppets. When my father was alive, he
was perplexed by this, as the only thing he was ever really
interested in was the next thing on the horizon, the thing that was
slightly technically impossible and perhaps commercially unwelcome.
He began by upsetting "real" puppet fans around the world with
puppets that didn't follow in any of the existing puppetry
traditions, in a field where virtually every puppeteer began as an
apprentice or acolyte of a master traditional puppeteer. (We are still
trying to make it up to those people with the work of the Jim Henson
Foundation!)

Many of the old Henson techniques which one might pine for
nostalgically, like the radio controlled puppets of EMMETT OTTER or
the intricate animatronics of DARK CRYSTAL were at the time of those
productions completely new and innovative. There is a first time for
everything. In the eighties, Jim Henson was on a quest for several
new techniques which were on the horizon. He spent a lot of time
working on interactive projects that couldn't be realized
technologically until a couple of years after his death. He wanted to
make 3D movies. The most important project he envisioned was the
computer puppetry, which involved using puppeteers to "animate"
computer models of characters. I went with him on his initial
meetings with John Whitney and PDI and others to talk about how this
might be achieved. Actually, he successfully made the interface work
for the Waldo character in the Muppetvision 3D movie, and what we are
doing now in computer animated puppetry is just a more complete
version of that concept. If he lived, we would have made the
advancements faster and might have been making full CG programs like
our FRANCES show as early as ten years ago.

Jim Henson used the same performers to manipulate all of his
characters in every puppetry medium, and we follow that same
philosophy. The puppeteer is where the magic of puppetry rests, not
in the style of the model or technology. When Frank Oz puppeteered
Yoda, he brought a magic to the character that would not have
happened if he were performed by his builders (as other shops would
have done).

Finally, is it misleading to say that MIRRORMASK is from the creators
of Dark Crystal and LABYRINTH? Absolutely (it's marketing staff
stuff). It is from the creators of SANDMAN and MR PUNCH and WOLVES IN
THE WALLS. We will be seeing a new trailer shortly and hopefully the
Jim Henson Company's involvement will be properly seen by the public
as having promoted and showcased the unique art and talent of Dave
McKean as the visionary director that he is.

Lisa

Quick one

There's an article on Mirrormask (and interview with Dave McKean) at http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2533756. (sorry about that)

(Edit done from the street in Sundance, following a slightly baffling Adobe brunch. And I am, I have learned once again, completely crap at recognising celebrities.)

From Sundance

Lots of people wrote to tell me there's a live action Beowulf film being made already -- it's at http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/ . I honestly don't see it as a problem. Our film won't be that one (which looks really cool). It's a big playing field. And other people wrote to ask if we were doing the whole story, and we are: as far as Roger and I were concerned, the last act of Beowulf, an old king at the end of the Age of Heroes, was the key to the whole story.

After posting last night went down to the Layer Cake party to chat to Matthew Vaughn, which was pleasantly odd (the party, not Matthew, who was refreshingly normal). It took until this afternoon before I found Dave McKean on Main Street, immediately following which I found myself being interviewed on the street by The Electric Playground (http://www.elecplay.com/). Which reminds me that at SPACE, there's a tiny interview with me and Dave McKean about MirrorMask up: http://www.spacecast.com/ -- with a couple of actual clips from the film.

Have not seen any films yet. Have, however, eaten sushi.

And I'm out of time and on a dial-up link, so I shall simply point the people who wrote wondering about the safety of Minis to http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=5294, which someone helpfully sent me.

An astonishingly professional post for once with barely any bats in it

Let's see...

yes, I'm at Sundance. No, I've not done anything exciting yet -- just sat in my hotel room and worked. Not sure when Dave McKean will turn up tonight, or what kind of shape he'll be in when he does.

Lots of messages asking me about the rumours of a BEOWULF movie that have hit the web, and the story in today's Variety. So...

In 1998 Roger Avary asked me to cowrite a script for Beowulf for him to direct. We went off to Mexico together and wrote it as a sort of Dark Ages Trainspotting, filled with mead and blood and madness, and we went all the way from the beginning of the poem, with Beowulf as a hero battling Grendel, to the end, with Beowulf as an old man fighting a dragon. Robert Zemeckis really liked the script, and his production company, Imagemovers, bought it, for Roger to direct. (Imagemovers had a deal with Dreamworks at the time.)

Dreamworks, for whatever reasons, didn't want to make it, and -- eventually -- the rights to the script reverted back to me and Roger.

Roger went off and made Rules of Attraction. Last year he decided he wanted to make Beowulf as his next film. He started putting it together...

Meanwhile Bob Zemeckis couldn't get our Beowulf movie out of his head. After the motion capture experience of Polar Express, he wanted to take the techniques on a bit, and make a film intended for adults with them. He and Steve Bing approached us about the script....

And, after a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing over the last month, Bob Zemeckis will be making a film of Beowulf, from our script. Roger and I are signed on to do any rewrites necessary (I suspect that some things that were easy to write for live action would be impossible or extremely costly to do as motion capture. But then, things that would have been impossible to do as live action may be easy as motion capture, so overall it should work out.)

(No, it won't look or feel anything like Polar Express. When Bob Zemeckis told us the art style he had in mind our reaction was "Well, of course.")

Roger and I are also executive producers on the film, and from what I've heard so far we're expected to work, it's not just a courtesy title.

Roger's a little downcast about not directing Beowulf, though, so I've just agreed to go somewhere odd and write another film (a remake of a film I love, but wouldn't mind updating) with Roger for him to direct. (If I say "in my copious spare time", can we all agree that it should be read as if someone had actually invented the sarcasm mark as a unit of punctuation, and that "in my copious spare time" can be assumed to be inside sarcasm marks?)

And that's all about that.

....

Inquiring minds want to know.What did you do with that bat? You didn't hurt the poor little thing? Bat are really very lovely creatures. They're great for the ecosystem.So fate was given to that bat?Just asking.Sincerely - Yoga Gal

I put him out the back door and watched him fly away. I hope he found somewhere warm to go back to sleep.

Hi Neil--I don't know if you'll remember me, but you kindly visited my library in Salt Lake City (in celebration of its grand opening) a couple years ago. I believe you called it the coolest library in the world, or something to that effect (which made us all giggle and try very hard not to look smug.) Think luv sacs...

Anyway, I wanted to first post an answer to your Sundance sold-out-Mirrormask-showing problem. Even though screenings are sold out, it's still possible to get tickets, if you have the time...
>From the Sundance "Insider's Scoop" FAQ:"The film I want to see is sold out-what now?
Hmmm. . . where do we start?!? If you really want to see a film, stop by one of our box offices to check ticket availability. If there are no tickets available, you can still head over to a theatre and join the Wait List line. What's the Wait List?If tickets at the Box Office are sold out, try the theatres. One hour before each screening, numbered Wait List cards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis (up to two cards per person). Thirty minutes before screening time, tickets are sold based on card number order. Every year, hundreds of people see films on Wait List tickets. The larger the theatre, the more likely it is you'll get in. Wait List tickets are cash only. If you don't get in, your money is refunded on the spot." >
From http://festival.sundance.org/2005/?=insider&28 Best Julie teen librarian etc., Salt Lake City Public Library

Thanks Julie. (Of course I remember that signing. You were the Buffy fan.)

Hi Neil--You recently wrote of reading "the new Library of America H.P. Lovecraft collection". I couldn't find a reference to it on their site or at Amazon. Can you provide any additional info about the book?Thanks for all the stories, the blog, the support of the CBLDF, and for good manners. Have fun in Sundance! Geoff Scott

It's definitely up on Amazon (here's the link), although it wasn't yet up at the LOA.org site.

Bats and Cats

You know that the world is getting a little surreal when the oddest thing you did all day was catch a bat using a shrimping net and a tennis racket (the tennis racket was used to cover off the top of the net, you'll be relieved to hear, and not, as I erroneously assumed when my assistant Lorraine brought it up from the basement, to whap the little fellow around the room), and as you go to bed, having found yet another cat-murdered roll of toilet paper in the middle of the office floor, you realise that you don't actually know where the cats are getting the nightly fresh toilet paper rolls from. It's as if there's some secret stash of toilet paper known only to the cats...

Thought for today:

I used to love having a video recorder. If I was going to be out, and there was something I wanted to watch, I would simply tape it to watch later. That I almost never actually watched the program I had taped did not matter. I'd taped it, and so didn't feel like I'd missed it.

Now, many years later, I have a DVR TIVO thing. It's wonderful. It automatically records things that I think I might one day want to watch, while also, just to be helpful, recording things it thinks I might want to watch but I don't. And then � and this is the good bit � I don't watch any of them. But I no longer have the vague feeling that I'm missing out on things. Tivo: it's watching TV so I don't have to...

Sundance Etiquette

Hello Neil,I hope you enjoy Sundance. We attended in 2003 and had an amazing time. So much to see, ah, eye candy.I plan on attending the Sarasota Film Festival and have a quick question on etiquette. Would it offend to bring a book for you and Dave to sign? Thanks for your time, Yvette

There's probably a post I should write about Sundance and Sarasota... so no, Dave and I wouldn't be offended if you brought a book to sign, and ask politely at an appropriate moment. Depending on the number-of-people-who-want-things-signed-at-any-one-time to where-we-have-to-be-next ratio, we'll happily sign whatever you've got.

Someone wrote to ask if they should say hello if they saw me (or Dave McKean) on the street or at a screening at Sundance, or if we'd be upset if they did. Of course say hello. We're unlikely to bite and just as unlikely to be rude. On the other hand, please do not try and pitch either of us your latest script or idea for a film or a novel or comic: we're the wrong people for that, promise.

I've also started getting the pleading e-mails from people who want MirrorMask tickets for Sundance, and think I can help. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do at this point. All the screenings are sold out. They were, so I'm told, some of the fastest-selling tickets of the Festival, and all the spares that Hensons had have been assigned. Having said that, while I don't know what the procedure at Sundance is for returns/no-shows/people-who-were-plus-ones-who-turn-up-on-their-own, it's always a good bet that even a sold-out screening isn't going to be completely sold-out.

It's Chris from The Beguiling. We've just put the first four auctions from Dave Sim's Tsunami Relief project up online at http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbeguiling. If you could find a moment to mention it on your journal, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Absolutely. A lovely Dave Sim cover, an equally as lovely Jeff Smith cover. I'm donating a framed Simon Bisley Batman painting to the auction, one that Simon gave me many years ago, to convince DC that he really could paint Batman, for a project that never happened called The Night Circus; and I wanted to donate something else -- perhaps an original manuscript or something. I need to have a good rummage in the basement, I suspect.

...

Nice article on Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields at CNN.com, with a very odd photograph. http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/19/
music.magnetic.fields.ap/index.html



(In reality, of course, Stephin Merritt is not actually enormously tall, nor is Claudia Gonson doll-sized.)

Gubbins and such

Spent the day mostly in bed reading C. S. Lewis's lovely "English Literature in the 16th Century", which is an excellent book to read if you're sick, and looking at the new Library of America H.P. Lovecraft collection -- I was fascinated by how much more disturbing and subtle the stories are in the original Lovecraft texts, shorn of the August Derleth exclamations and tendency to suddenly go into italics for the final half a sentence...!

...

There. Wrote that last night, then, rather to my surprise, fell asleep before finishing the post. Trying very hard to get over this fluey whatever-it-is before I have to leave for Sundance.

Very aware that there are too many open windows with things I meant to post, too many interesting/useful/heartfelt FAQ messages I meant to put up and answer. I'll try and get a start on them anyway.

I promised a friend I'd point people to this World Wildlife Fund site -- they're trying to preserve the Endangered Species Act, which is, I think, a sensible thing to do.

Enjoyed Chris Priest's Guardian review of a book on Rats (not an Endangered Species) filled with lines like "If you are in New York while you are reading this sentence," Sullivan says, "or even in any other major city... then you are in proximity to two or more rats having sex." In a major city, I suspect the same may be true of people, of course.

Interesting interviews with Los Bros Hernandez at the Onion: http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=4103. (It's weird for me to think that it's a decade since I interviewed them for The Comics Journal in a Hollywood hotel, an interview that began with me and Los Bros having lunch and watching the rather public final death-throes of the Paula Yates-Bob Geldof marriage.)

Interview with Terry Gilliam over at The Independent. http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=601883.

Lots of people writing in to ask about "lurghi/lurgi/lurgie", all of them convinced that it's a word that's only used in their family. I knew it was a word the Goons used, and it looks like it originated with them as well: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dre1.htm for information.

Somehow I thought the US Government would be able to tell the difference between real academic qualifications, and the kind you buy from online places that send you Spam. It appears I was utterly wrong:

Agencies tasked with defending America from terrorism were among the top employers of workers with phony diplomas identified by the GAO. The Department of Defense employs 257 of them. Transportation has 17. Justice has 13; Homeland Security, 12; Treasury, eight.
The GAO also found that two diploma mills alone have received a total of nearly $170,000 in payments from a dozen federal agencies for tuition for 64 employees. [...] as a serial fake-diploma shopper, Callahan is one of the worst offenders among the senior officials identified from the eight federal agencies the GAO surveyed. At least 28 senior-level employees had degrees from diploma mills, the GAO found, while cautioning that �this number is believed to be an understatement.�

And I was saddened to discover the reason why British comics are in so parlous a state, at http://www.collinslibrary.com/blog/2005/01/american-invasion.html -- Britain's graphic narrative culture is now dwarfed by the US: they have no Crumb or Spiegelman, say, nor a Ware or a Clowes. I don't know of anything like a Fantagraphics there. (Weirdly enough, I thought that the UK was doing disproportionately well, until I read that entry, given that the US has no Alan Moore or Dave Gibbons, no Grant Morrison or Hunt Emerson, no Brian Bolland, no Dave McKean and no Leo Baxendale, no Bryan Talbot.... Given that Crumb lives in France these days, I daresay you could even stick me in on the UK list.) (And it's a really interesting blog, except for that nugget of dimness.)

Neil,I remember a while back you mentioned something about the some CBLDF perfume (proceeds go to CBLDF, not comic book flavoured perfume - though that would be cool). You said to let you know how it was if anyone bought it and well, I did. It is called Oisin and smells quite nice. Very light and clean. I quite enjoy it! Thanks for letting me know about it. I'm always glad to smell nice for a good cause.-Courtney in Arkansas

You're very welcome. There is something haunting about the smell of old comics, although I'm not sure that that smell of paper-and-time would be quite so appealing on a person.

Well you do certainly seem busy so I don't really know if you'll get the chance to reply. Unlike all good obsessive fans I will not claim to be your number one fan. I'm sure too many people will make announce and crown themselves "NUMBER ONE". Instead I would like to claim to be your "NUMBER TWO" fan. My question is simply this: I am having a hard time find your book called "Angels and Visitation" If you have any idea where I could find a copy either through mail or ordering online please let me know. As always I will be the next person in line to review your material.Signed your number TWO fan,aaron.

Angels and Visitations is currently back in print, because I wasn't comfortable with the eBay -book dealer prices being charged for the book. You can get it from DreamHaven, who are the publisher -- with the isbn number you may well be able to order it elsewhere, but I know that DreamHaven definitely have it. (Here's the search result -- they have sixth printings, a few first printings, and a very few of the signed-by-me-and-all-the-artists-limited-gold-edged-paper-in-the-slipcase edition left.)

And finally...

I'm sure it has already been brought to your attention, but a lovely webcast (if that is the right word for these things) of you reading excerpts from your novel at the National Book Festival at the Library of Congress website. As of today, it is the featured webcast. At anyrate, it was a very enjoyable watch for someone who was not present at the live event and made the interminable wait for a ride home more enjoyable. Website available at http://www.loc.gov.-Emily

It has, by several people, and I meant to post it before. (It's me, at the National Book Festival, reading some early chunks of Anansi Boys.) And there's Peter Straub and Neal Stephenson and a host of other excellent writers up there too... (and if they vanish from the front page, you can find them at http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/04/cybercasts/) (And as a note, it's strange to see me with a beard. It went after Fiddler's Green, and I've dropped about a stone in weight since then, through the patented Neil Gaiman "Don't Snack So Damn Much And Would It Kill You To Go For A Walk Occasionally?" Diet, which means there are all sorts of things I can now wear that I haven't worn for, oh, about five years...)

cough. glare. repeat.

Everyone else is now up and better, back at school or back at work, which is my cue finally to collapse with the lurghi and go to bed for the day. Death: The High Cost of Living script is done, and I'm very happy with it. I started typing the second half of Anansi Boys yesterday, and found myself wishing for a word processing program that would do for novels what Final Draft's scene navigator function does for scripts -- essentially, take all the scenes and bits and put them on moveable cards, so you can get an overview.

I thought this story was fascinating. I wonder if it'll get to the point where the US media doesn't cover things happening in the rest of the world, from fear of seeing nipples or hearing bad words. (Given some classical Greek traditions, I can't help feeling that Olympic viewers got off easy.)

Farah Mendlesohn is one of the smart academics and good critics. She just let me know that This year's project is an extensive survey on science fiction for children and YA from 1950-2005. I've opened a blog (TheInter-Galactic Playground: http://farah-sf.blogspot.com/) to record some of what I'm reading, but much more important is thequestionnaire. I really want to be able to reference my arguments to reader response -- so much of kid lit criticism is hot air, and sf barely exists in the criticism.

If you felt inclined to steer your blog readers to the questionnaire site (Questionnaire at: http://sfquestions.blogspot.com/) I would be incredibly grateful. It would hugely increase the volume of response. Comics *do* count in this survey.

The bibliophiles among you will want to head over to the Clarion Benefit Auction at http://www.msu.edu/~clarion/auction/auctionpreview.html, where many wonderful books are listed, for a very good cause. Hill House have generously donated some of the limited editions (and some of the Incredibly Limited Editions that I've not even seen yet) that they've done of my stuff. [Note the bidding starts on Jan 28th.]

Zoinks! Jinkies! Jeepers!

You know, all those years I spent as a kid watching Scooby Doo, I never once thought "This is probably how adults really behave". I was, of course, wrong. This CNN story about the haunting of a castle estate in Austria...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/01/16/austria.ghost.ap/index.html

tells us that

The 42-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was convicted on nuisance charges after she allegedly spent weeks masquerading as a ghost and making mysterious noises, Austrian television reported.

Police captured the woman on videotape after the jittery owner, who employed the suspect's husband, begged authorities in the alpine province of South Tyrol to solve the mystery.

Traditionally, of course, the authorities are meant simply to laugh at the castle's owner, who is then supposed to offer the job to a gang of pesky kids.

(Thanks to all of you who sent me the link.)

...

Dear Neil,I told my husband that a deer crashed into the side of your Mini, but the car was not damaged at all. He was quite astonished that this was possible. I have wanted a Mini for some time and consider this story as yet another block of evidence that Minis are as safe as I believe. My husband however is still skeptical and wants to know if the deer died. I'm sorry if this question is in bad taste, but he really wants to know. Valery

I don't know what happened to the deer. It was night in the dark woods out by my writing cabin, and I looked around, but it had gone, leaving only the wing-mirror twisted up, and, oddly, what can only be described as a "deer print" on the side of the car, to tell me I'd not imagined it. It wasn't until I inspected it the following day, that I realised that it hadn't done any other damage (and the wing mirror simply twisted back into position.)

And this was the message after yours, Valerie. You may want to show it to your husband:

On the durability of Mini Coopers. I'm a volunteer fire-fighter in the Santa Cruz, CA, area. We had a mini drive off the two-lane highway and hit a telephone pole head on. It went through the pole, and into a 3-4' dia redwood tree. The tree stopped the car for good.The car was totalled, but no glass was broken, and the driver had a bruise on his arm. Very impressive for a 45mph or so impact. The car's front end was demolished, but otherwise was intact. The pole's bottom tore out the underside of the fuel tank, which caused a fire, but I forgive a car that. It's rare to go through something like a telephone pole in the first place. They tend to do pretty nasty things to cars... Enjoy the Mini, drive safely, and hope it serves you well,
Aaron

...

Those of you who were at Fiddler's Green may remember hearing me read a short story called SUNBIRD, which I wrote to be my daughter Holly's 18th birthday present and finished when she was 19 and a half (on my May 2003 European Tour I remember hearing the proverb "The knifemaker's children eat with wooden forks" but I no longer remember which country I was in when I heard it).

I've given it to McSweeneys, for an anthology of children's fiction they will be putting out to raise money for http://www.826nyc.org/ which should be published in the autumn of 2005.

I was just sent this news item from Newsday, that says that "... Cynthia Nixon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell, Justin Theroux, Kristen Johnston, Bob Balaban, Martha Plimpton, Parker Posey - shake well and mix for an evening called "How I Learned to Read." Add a dash of host Eric Bogosian. These worthies will deal with some never-before-heard stories for children from contemporary authors including Jonathan Safran Foer, Nick Hornby, Neil Gaiman, and George Saunders, with one or two classics from Mark Twain, Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl. It happens Jan. 24 at Tonic, 107 Norfolk St., with sensibly priced tickets. A nonprofit tutoring center called 826NYC will benefit. The group helps students from ages 6-18 develop writing skills and use English as a second language. Call 212-477-8150.

..which sounds extremely cool. If anyone goes, let me know how it went and what they read.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1389496,00.html is an article by Jon Ronson about Day-glo, which I found fascinating. I suspect G. K. Chesterton would have enjoyed the paradox at the heart of the article. (Did I mention how much I enjoyed The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ronson's latest book? No?)

...

Neil: Just found out that you can purchase tickets for the Mirrormask screening at the Sarasota Film Festival (assuming I'm reading the webpage correctly) You can buy them online at: http://www.sarasotafilmfest.com/
Mirrormask and a break from the horrible cold; sounds good to me! Sax in Ohio

...

Dear Neil,January's "Empire" film magazine says that you and Dave McKean are doing the film of "Signal to Noise". Is it going ahead then? All I can find under "Search" is an old entry suggesting Dave was hoping to do it in 2003.I'd have expected to hear it mentioned at neilgaiman.com first, but then again "Empire" obviously take an interest in you as they've had several items on MirrorMask.Anyway, if it's happening I'm sure you'll tell us all about it in good time. Hope the current endeavours are going well,Kirsten

Dave certainly wants it to be his next film, and there are several entities who would like to finance it, but we've not yet even written the script. Not sure why Empire would be announcing it. (Dave did a screen test, a couple of years ago, under the auspices of the British Film Council, to see whether some of his odder ideas, like filming with multiple cameras, would work, and I think he was overall, happy with the effects.)

Neil, Over a year ago I remember you mentioning on your blog that DC/Vertigo was working on a Death trade collecting both mini-series. I'm wondering whatever happened to that? Will it ever see the light of day (perhaps it's being held off until the movie is released?), or has Vertigo let it slip into that dreaded area known as "forgotten projects"? Thanks, Greg

They decided not to do it for now -- I think mostly because they worried it would cut into sales of the Death: The High Cost of Living and The Time of Your Life paperbacks.

my best friend is betting me twenty bucks you won't post this

She's right. I won't.

Dear mr. Gaiman, I know you probably won't reply to this, but I have to ask anyways (the inner comic book geek in me says "why not?")That project you're now working on for Marvel, is it IN continuity? As in, will it be set in the current time frame of the Marvel Universe or will it be an out of continuity thing (ex. 1602) and can you give ANY hints on the artist or characters you'll be dealing with?Like I said, I had to ask. thanks a lot, flick

It'll be in continuity and present day, yes. Beyond that, you'll have to wait until it's announced, I'm afraid.

I got a question for you, how do you become friends with what you've written? Perfectionism is hard to overcome, well for me anyway, and I always see the flaws, the clumsyness and that sort of thing. Even when people who I trust in having an as objective opinion as possible say that they like it I don't trust them. Not because I lack self-confidence, there are things I've written that I genuinly love, it's just...When you see the flaws in something it's hard to love it, if it's your own work. I'm fine with it in other peoples work. So, am I making sense? Do you have this problem? And is there anything I can do to make it go away?

Well, it's hard to be a fan of your own work (I'm not a fan of my writing). You'll always see how far it was from what you had in mind when you sat down to write. (The only thing that seems to fix that is time. But time still won't make you a fan of what you've written, and when it does -- when you find yourself laughing at a joke you've forgotten that you wrote a long time ago -- it normally just makes you worry that you used to have it but you probably don't any more.)

If people you trust say they like it, they probably like it, but that doesn't make you respect them any the more or like the story. (It's one reason that editors buying stories is so important for beginning writers. Anyone can say they like it, but sending a cheque and then printing the story -- that's love.)

Also, once it's written, the writer is just one more person with an opinion about the work. It's certainly an informed opinion, but that doesn't make your opinion more right than anyone else's, I'm afraid, whether they like it or they don't.

It's best make art and not to worry. I'll take the satisfaction of having built something that did what I hoped it would do over being in love with my own voice any day. It's safer. Make good art that says sort of what you set out to say and then, when it's good enough for jazz, go on to the next thing.

Hi. I came upon a book called Adventures in the Dream Trade in an online auction here in the Philippines. The book (#689) went for Php8000 ($143)and was bought by another user quickly, before I even got to think about where to get the money. Sob. I understand that there were only 2000 copies printed but I still have to ask this question. Are there any plans for a mass market edition of the book? I mean, I'd still go out of my way to find ANOTHER copy (if I stumble upon one, that is), but it'd be nice to see it on a bookstore shelf beside your other books.Jeeu Christopher GonzalesQuezon City, Philippines

Adventures in the Dream Trade has been out in paperback for a while. You can get it from Amazon or from DreamHaven Books' http://www.neilgaiman.net/ site (I just checked their Just-In site and learned many things, including what the Olson Books "Neil Gaiman" book cover looks like -- it's a sweet photo of me in about 1993, which compares amusingly with the exhausted me of a year ago on the cover of Joe McCabe's lovely book of interviews) and probably from other places as well.

Actually, the paperback edition is rather better than the hardback, from an authorial point of view -- it had an excellent copy-editing going over by Davey and Chip. Which reminds me:

Hello. I have a question about the Fiddler's Green convention. I was unable to attend after paying for my membership and was told that I would be receiving the souvenir booklet via mail, however, I've yet to receive said booklet and none of my emails to the Fiddler's Green website seem to be answered. Is there any way you could help in this quasi-crisis? Adam

I've been assured that the Fiddler's Green people are getting out the souvenir books as soon as they can (most of them got back from the con to find Life waiting for them, and are still trying to catch up). Anyway, I've relayed your concerns.

I think you'll be extremely happy with the Book when it arrives -- it's quite an amazing piece of work.

...

And, finally, a word from our ten-year-old sponsor:

Hello everyone, it is your friendly neighborhood Maddy speaking. I'd just like to say a few words. My dad is a weirdo peirdo shmeirdo, My dad is a weirdo peirdo SPLAT! Thank you very much... now you can carry on with your day. P.S. Remember Dad is a weirdo, but Maddy is the best! P.P.S. La la la, sing with me!! Hmm hmm hmm, hum with me!! Dum de dum, dum de dum with me!! P.P.P.S. Thank you very much and now back to that one weird guy.

Memo to self: suggest to Maddy that she get her own blog. (Maddy also titled today's post.)

From the House of Soup

I'm the next-to-last-person standing in a house of people with something viral that probably isn't flu but might as well be, and which makes everyone who gets it miserable. Thank heavens for a sensible country doctor who wanders over in the evening and is reassuring. Judging from Maddy (the first to get sick) it only seems to be a 48 hour thing, anyway.

Last night's long and interesting post was eaten by a Nortons Update, at the precise moment where I learned that closing a window that tells you that Nortons has updated your computer and made it warm and fuzzy and safe and wants to restart it now has the same effect as clicking on okay. Ah well, you live and you learn and you curse computers.

I've forgotten most of what I wrote -- I talked about the deer that ran out into the road and crashed into the side of my Mini the other night, causing a grand total of no damage at all and leaving me with a newfound respect for the solidity of Minis; about how this blog is coming up for its fifth year of existence on February 9th 2005 and how or whether to celebrate it; I said that yesterday I'd finished the third draft of the DEATH: The High Cost of Living script, and would today be printing it out and scribbling on it before doing any final changes and sending it off to New Line; I mentioned that the mysterious and remarkable Roger Avary thing was getting even more mysterious and remarkable; and I drew everyone's attention to the Chicago Tribune article by Rob Elder about Jessa and Bookslut. Also I mentioned that anyone who enjoyed Teresa's infodump on agents might want to go and look at the http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006006.html#006006 where Teresa says

Contemplating this universe of bad advice makes me feel at once curmudgeonly and appalled. It makes me want to put out a book called The Oppressively Real Guide to Writing and Publishing. Sample chapter titles:

Why You Shouldn�t Write.
A Taxonomy of People Who Are Out To Get You.
Myths and Legends of the Author Tribe.
Ever Wonder Why They Call It Submission?
Things That Won�t Happen.
Some Mistakes We Have Seen.
Recurrent Episodes in the Life of the Writer.
You Can Still Escape.

She must write this book. The world needs it.

I seem to remember finishing by pointing people to Lisa Snellings' (she of the Neil Rat and the Poe Rat) lovely spanking new website journal.

And somewhere in there I talked about the temperature (minus 9F, minus 23C).

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i normally wouldn't want to bother you with this but because you just "finished" a book, and therefore probably have more free time, i was wondering if you could maybe look at the questions submitted at mousecircus.com. i submitted a few and i am sure quite a few other people must have submitted some, too, but for a long time no new questions have been answered. (i know this idea must seem very overwhelming, but there are a lot of us who would really like to hear responses to our questions.) thanks!

Sorry about that. The problem with mousecircus.com's FAQ line is that they go to a department which collects them together and every six months sends me a ten page e-mail of questions. And if it arrives when I'm busy it gets put to one side until I have time. (The way the neilgaiman.com line is set up, the stuff just comes in and I answer it as I go along.) But I've just sent a message to the Harper Childrens department in question and asked them to send over the latest bunch. (There's still no guarantee yours will get answered, of course. And I tend not to answer things I've answered before.)

I love the idea of more free time, but it hasn't happened yet. It probably won't happen until Anansi Boys, and the MirrorMask "picture book" which will be a sort of novella-length illustrated novelisation, are handed in. Given a couple of other things currently going on it may not happen at all, or not for a while. The 'copious spare time' comment the other day was intended to be taken with a large dollop of chilly irony. (Currently I'd really like the time to sign and number the 300 cool things that were meant to be Xmas presents, but are now New Year's Presents, which are sitting, unsigned, on my chest of drawers.) Time is precious.