"My friends are gone and my hair is grey..."

I woke up with a line from John Cale's song "Tower of Song" going round in my head "...I ache in the places where I used to play...". I ache pretty much everywhere at this point, although I'm still enjoying myself. Still paying my dues in the Tower of Words, I suppose.

So yesterday I did the local MTV (an MTV station so far out of the cultural mainstream that it still plays rock videos, how cool is that? I think they'll put the interview out on Friday here) and some more interviews and, after finally conquering the evil of the hotel's printers, successfully printed some ANANSI BOYS out. And then I read to a large crowd, and signed for about grateful 600 people (including, at the end of the night, the ones who had stuck around hopefully outside in the heat but didn't have line numbers, although they only got a signature).

The FAQ line is completely filled with messages from people in Manila saying "when I got to the front of the line I didn't say anything/burst into tears/said something stupid but what I wish I'd said was....", all of which are really nice and none of which I'm posting here.

And instead I'm going to get up and get dressed and fight with the evil printers one last time before going off to the morning's first interview. (You must imagine me on one side, all early-morning bleary, holding a golden sword of truth and righteousness, while these printers lumber menacingly over the hill towards me).

In the Tent

In the Philippines, the people are enthusiastic on a level that makes the Brazilians look reserved and polite. They shout very loudly when they're happy, too. There's a noise that a few thousand of the locals make when they all shout at once to let you know they're happy to see you that made me finally understand the idea of a wall of sound...

Apparently over 3000 people turned up to see me, although only 700 tickets guaranteeing you a signature were given out (and had all gone well before lunchtime). (Which I still don't quite understand as I was told it would be limited to 500. But there you go.) It began late, due to overrunning tv interviews, followed by Printer Hell, when I couldn't get something to print out on the hotel printer, so I had to read it on stage from the laptop -- which left me feeling I'd made the right choice in getting a laptop that weighs about 2lb. So the event began a little after 4:00pm. A short ANANSI BOYS reading, a short Q&A, and then I signed...

I stayed till everyone still there in the tent was done -- I finished signing for the last people in line, all of us more than somewhat shellshocked, around 1:25 am.

Goodnight.

Open Secrets

As a postscript to the last one: I got back to the hotel after dinner and the man with the metal detector ran it over me to make sure I wasn't a terrorist, then said "Welcome back, Mr Gaiman." A nice man held open the hotel door for me and said "Welcome back, Mr Gaiman." A lady pushing a trolley across the lobby hesitated, and I stopped for her, and she said "Thank you, Mr Gaiman." And then I got up to the floor I'm staying on to be met with a conspiratorial "Did you have a nice dinner Mr ahem?" from the receptionist. [Ahem stands for the mystery name. She didn't have some kind of horrible cough.]

It's actually dead sensible registering under someone else's name, and I even do something like it myself at big convention hotels (ever since the time someone phoned my room at 3:00 am to tell me how much he liked my stuff, having phoned every hotel in San Diego asking for my room). But the name they chose catches me by surprise and makes me smile every time.

...

http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005_07_005981.php is a comic of my speech at the Nebula awards in Chicago a couple of months ago.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5517 lets all of you going to San Deigo for Comic-Con know that...

The Jim Henson Company, Destination Films, Samuel Goldwyn Films, and Dark Horse have teamed up to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund by hosting the Fund's MirrorMask Welcome Party at Comic-Con International. Featuring art, props, and images from the upcoming film MirrorMask -in theaters September 30-this gala party will be held at the Westgate Hotel's Terrace Under the Stars on Thursday July 14 from 8 PM until 11 PM. The catered event will be free to card-carrying CBLDF members and open to all others for a suggested $5 - $15 sliding scale donation. Attendees will also receive a MirrorMask Takeaway, courtesy of The Jim Henson Company, be entered into a special raffle, and view a trailer of the film.

Yet another reason to be a CBLDF member. Apart from supporting free spech and all that stuff.

...

And to all of you writing all the terribly nice messages from Singapore telling me you had a good time and asking me please to come back, the best thing to do is for you to write to Lena St. George-Sweet OBE at the British Council, and tell her you think I ought to come back, or just thanking her for bringing me in. Then she can wave the messages at the powers that be to help there be a next time -- and this time they'll hqave a much clearer idea of what to expect. (http://www.britishcouncil.org.sg/whatson/event_details.asp?EvID=156 has the email adresses and mail address).

Welcome to Manila

I've a few free minutes in Kuala Lumpur airport, so I just wanted to post a few thank yous. First and foremost, thanks to Lena St. George-Sweet of the British Council, and to the British Council for bringing me in to Singapore. Lena is a treasure and I'm not sure I'd have survived it without her.

There are lots of other people I ought to thank here -- Eddy Teo, the indomitable Jane Tay, Loi Zhiwei, all from Penguin Books (who distribute Headline Books in Singapore) ("Hey," said Eddy casually, the day after the library@orchard reading. "After you did that reading from Anansi Boys, I doubled our order for it. I think people will like it.")

The Borders folk (too many to name but starting with Sallie Fox and Farokh Mohamad), Kenny Chan and his team at Kinokuniya, and Lee Han Shih and Carol Tan & Meng at ComicsMart who did so much to make the Cineleisure events work.

And thanks to Ker Lay Hong, Tan Siang Teck and Boey Ying Hao from the British Council for providing support.

Also especial thanks to whoever brought the packet of Marks and Spencers chocolate raisins during the Borders signing, which helped when I flagged. And everyone who stood for a long time to get something signed, and was still cheerful when they got to the front of the line...

I wore a leather jacket in Singapore -- it was new leather jacket, an Armani thingie I got on sale, with a perfect clean line I've already ruined by stuffing pens and things into the pockets, and honestly not much thicker than a shirt, so it was perfect for all the refrigerated environments I kept walking into.

I'm in Manila now (the phone just rang, and it was my host letting me know that 10,000 people are about to have a spur-of-the-moment political rally somewhere fairly close to my hotel) and I doubt I'll wear the leather jacket much. They don't quite seem to have the same sort of enthusiasm for serious air conditioning here.

It was a huge contrast, coming out into in the funky sprawl of Manila from the gleaming bustle of Singapore. I was VIPed through the airport quite wonderfully by a lady who was puzzled that I didn't have an entourage (Me: "Er. Sorry.")

And other than that, I'm just starting to recover from the last few days, blinking a lot and smelling a little like Tiger Balm. And I am staying in my hotel, I learned on check-in, under an assumed name. "Hullo," I said to the lady checking me in. "I'm Neil." "I know," she said. "But we'll be calling you Mr _________." Identity can be so gelatinous sometimes.

Where's Maddy?

Neil - what's happened to Maddy? The last I heard she was with you in Scotland, and now you are in Singapore and Maddy has somehow disappeared from your journal. Which is a shame because I was enjoying her perspective on your trip. By the way, how old is she these days? - I lost count around 11.
Allie. Canada.

I left her behind in the UK, where she was happy to spend time with aunts and grandparents and things. (And a text message from my sister let me know that Maddy(and the rest of my family) are just fine, and were a long way away from today's bombings. Now I have to keep my fingers crossed for my friends.)

I offered her the chance to travel on round the world with me, and she decided not to, which I think, given my work schedule, was in retrospect far and away the most sensible thing to do.

She'll turn eleven in late August.

...

Off to Manila in the wee small hours of the morning.

More info on the Philippines signings seems to be emerging at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gaiman_fullybooked/message/31
and http://www.neilgaimanphilippines.tk/

It was a much quieter day today. Odd things that happened included looking up at lunchtime to find someone passing the restaurant was taking my photograph. Was given a pen, by a pen shop - Elephant and Coral - who feel that authors should get nice pens (this was a Pilot pen with the nib carved out of the barrel, and looks like it will be a lovely thing to write with).

A scribbling machine

Am told I signed for a thousand people tonight.

I'm going to get into a bath now. Afterwards I think I'll go to sleep.

Right.

Australian schedule...

This is the new, revised Australian tour schedule, which replaces the old, unrevised, Australian tour schedule. (I'll edit it on Where's Neil)

First of all, there's Continuum 3 -- http://www.continuum.org.au/ -- which is described on their website as,

Continuum is an annual Melbourne speculative fiction and pop culture convention celebrating creativity across genre and media. From hard-edge science fiction to high-flown fantasy, comic books to film noir, high culture to sub-culture � we sink our teeth into it all!

This year our convention will commence on Friday 15th July and conclude late on Sunday 17th July, 2005. Continuum 3 aims to provide a wide range of traditional SF convention activities as well some new ones, all complementing our theme: Creatures Natural and Unnatural. We are very pleased to have Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z Brite, Richard Harland and Robin Hobb as our Official Guests for 2005, who will feature along with numerous other speakers and panellists in a fabulous line up of panels, presentations and special activities.

And that's followed by,

Monday 18 July-Melbourne
Lecture, Q&A, Book signing:
The Australian Centre for Youth Literature
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Enquiries: Mike Shuttleworth, 03 8664 7014

Tuesday 19 July-Canberra
4-6pm Signing event:
Gaslight Books, Fyshwick
Unit 10/83 Wollongong St
Enquiries: Gayle Lovett, 02 6239 3633

7-10pm Lecture introduced by Colin Steele, Q&A, Signing:
Manning Clark Lecture Theatre 1
Union Court, Australian National University
Enquiries: Diane Whitehead, 02 6125 4144

Wednesday 20 July-Sydney
12.30-3pm Talk, Q&A, Signing
Galaxy Books
143 York Street
Enquiries: David Lynton, 02 9267 7222 or 02 9264 3260

5.30-7.30pm Talk, Q&A, Signing
Kinokuniya
Enquiries: Steve Jones, (02) 9262 7996

Thursday 21st July-Brisbane
6.30-10pm Talk, Q&A, Book Signing
Pulp Fiction
Anzac Square Arcade
265-269 Edward Street
Enquiries: Ron Serdiuk, 07 3236 2750

Another long day

Today was a lot like yesterday, although it started much earlier with morning television, and the last of the signing ended around 10:40, rather than after midnight.

In the meantime I signed lots of things, and have decided that the people of Singapore I've encountered so far are, on the whole, friendly, funny, smart, literate, culturally diverse, and extremely keen on making sure I've eaten. Eaten lots, and eaten well and eaten locally. (And incidentally, you have to try some of this. I've given you a bag of it for later.)

It's a bit of a marathon, but the people are making it fun.

"Took off to the Land of Nod"

Got up. Went to British Council. Did press conference. Did interviews. Stopped doing interviews at 4:30 and did MirrorMask presentation/talk and signing. Signing ended late, so we showed the next house "A Short Film About John Bolton" while I crammed down some food (a gross disservice to a chef who was trying to feed me like a visiting VIP, sigh), ran back, did another MirrorMask Presentation and Q&A, and then another signing which finished, somehow, a little after midnight.

I may have left something out.

The people in Singapore are very nice, the food is good, the author is braindead.

...

Also http://movies.aol.com/movie_exclusive_mirrormask_movie_clip is now up.

in a singapore sling...

I am a) in Singapore and b) already amazingly well-fed, thanks to Lena St George-Sweet of the British Council. This is all good. On the downside I've had four hours sleep and 13 hours of flying in the last 24, and the world is starting to feel like it's made out of some kind of thin gelatinous substance that wobbles.

Getting online is much easier than it was in the last hotel I was in, although it involves carrying my little computer into the hotel's business lounge, and my internal clock has simply stopped. It could be any time.

A few links: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/gorillaz.html is the text of the interview with Gorillaz published in this month's Wired. (Seeing that the interview was much longer than what they had room for in Wired, and had lots more odd good bits besides -- the interview as printed is simply an extract by the Wired editors of a few bits of the transcription, I've asked my editor at Wired if we can put the whole thing up here, and we probably will, and then I can put the actual intro as I wrote it up as well, and feel a bit more comfortable about the whole thing.)

Over at Emerald City blog I saw the Locus Award results, and rediscovered that my story with the extremely long name had won the Locus Award for Best Short Story. This made me feel more guilty than happy, as I had meant to write a thank you speech and then what with the travelling everything got away from me, and I didn't. I think I would have mostly wanted to say thank you from the 22 year old me who started to write the first draft of this in pencil late one night on East Croydon Station, and who would have just been happy if it had been published (the forty-something year old who took that first draft from the box in the attic twenty years later and polished it into a publishable short story (as seen at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/08/forbidden-brides-of-faceless-slaves-in.asp) was also delighted, but not as much as the 22 year old). (Terrifying photos of the award ceremonies can be seen here.)

Which reminds me, for the next month you can read my short story "We can Get Them For you Wholesale" at http://www.shadow-writer.co.uk/wholesale.htm, the website of the man behind this calendar (filled with 100 word short stories, and paintings too. I did Death).

Tomorrow will be long with lots of interviews and some signings and a MirrorMask presentation or two. Good night.