Pumpkin things mostly

This was the pumpkin I carved the day before Hallowe'en, when it was done...


Time passed. As is the fashion among pumpkins, they slowly rotted and started to look really interesting and disturbing. This was taken about four days ago:




I'd planned to take more photos of them today, but the snow sort of threw everything off, as did the fact that people who didn't know that I meant it when I said I was keeping them around to photograph as they rotted threw them out. I went and found them and took a photo anyway.



Birthday portrait of an author trying -- and failing -- to take a photo of himself and some disturbing pumpkins without falling into the snow.



And -- authoring be damned -- this was undoubtedly the most important thing I was involved in today.

Dreaming of a White Birthday?

I woke up and the world is white. It snowed in the night and it's still snowing. How odd.

Lots of people have been sending in nice birthday wishes, and sending me links to the http://syndicated.livejournal.com/officialgaiman/ feed where more people are leaving happy birthdays...

Thanks so much to all of you.

squashed tomatoes and stew

As of five minutes ago, I am apparently now 46 years old. (It says so at http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2006/11/06/ so it must be true.)

I've never been 46 before.

It's a really grown-up sort of age when you see it written down like that. It's filled with numbers.

I don't think I'm a grown-up in my head. Not yet...

Stardust news

So the Stardust Movie News is that the head honchos at Paramount saw a rough cut two weeks ago, and decided that it was strong enough to be a "summer tentpole" movie. So it's been moved from March 2007 to July 2007. Which I think is mostly a good thing, as it means they have confidence in it and will get their mighty marketing machine behind it, but is a bit worrying as there's an awful lot of competition in the Summer, whereas around Easter we would have been the only thing like that around.

Quick One

It's always an odd moment to discover yourself (or, some years back, your assistant) as a corroborative detail in an Onion story...

This is today's:

Area Man Achieves Your Dream

Although it was odder by far the first time it happened.

I just got a CD filled with stuff -- art and characters and so on -- from Henry Selick of material from the Coraline movie, which looked really quite marvellous, particularly the tests of the way that the character of Coraline herself walks and moves. The maquettes of the other mother look really unsettling. I can't wait till, er... probably Hallowe'en 2008 actually...

Also I have somehow mislaid my mobile phone. Just thought you'd want to know that.

...

And when I was about seven years old my favourite SF story, found in an anthology belonging to my friend Christopher Harris's father, was "Mr Mergenthwerker's Lobblies". Some years ago I was lucky enough to meet Nelson Bond, the author of that story, at a convention. Later, we corresponded about James Branch Cabell. Nelson Bond just passed away, aged 98 -- http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/90254.

born to trouble

Had a very small bonfire last night, and watched the sparks fly upwards.

A few people asked about prints of the Charles Addams Boiling Oil cartoon -- they still sell them on the New Yorker cartoonbank site, currently at this link.

Hello Neil,

I hope to get something published one day. Due to some rather unfortunate events in my life, I am extremely protective of my family's privacy (as well as my own). Any work I release would (hopefully) not have my real name associated with it (I'd use a pen name). How possible is it to be a well known author, say, like yourself, and remain completely anonymous? I am talking anonymity to the extreme-- no photos, appearances, chances at being photographed, no information anywhere about my children, etc.

Thanks,

Anonymous Australian

It's not impossible, but to be successful you'd have to plan it out well ahead of time, depending on how anonymous you want to be. It's probably easiest to do if nobody cares who you are. The more successful you become, the more you would need to plan ahead (where does the money from the publisher go? Who do they make the cheque to? What name and address is on the copyright registration forms?).

Can you get away with not having an author photograph, signings etc? Yes, although you may have to write better to make up for what publishers could perceive as a problem. (If the book is good, though, they won't mind, although you might have to write answers to interview questions and so on...)

You might want to study the careers and secret identities of such people as Thomas Pynchon, Richard Bachman, James Tiptree Jr. and J.T. Leroy (who I tend to confuse with British Western writer J.T. Edson, rather embarrassingly), not to mention Lemony Snicket, and remember that, in the words of Ben Franklin, three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

Hi, Neil! I've wanted to ask this for awhile: how do you like the convertible? How does it compare to the old Mini? You're the only person I know who has owned both, and I'm toying with the idea of buying a convertible, so I want to hear your review.
Mary Roane (missing Chicago after that last post)

There are a couple of real downsides to the Mini convertible -- a lack of trunk/boot space, and limited rear visibility. The upsides mainly consist of pressing the button that opens the roof and then pretending you're in a Japanese Robot movie, and of driving round in a Mini with the top down. I've definitely started toying with the idea of getting something bigger for getting groceries or driving to Chicago in, while keeping the Mini, which was not something I thought about with the old Mini. I wonder how soon until we see the Mini Traveller (or indeed the Mini Hearse).

Mr. Gaimain, I've heard a story that you once (accidently) launched a firework at Gene Wolfe's head on Guy Fawkes day. Considering today is November 5th, I thought it would be appropriate to ask if this is indeed true. So is it?~Kat

Yup. (Well, at a Guy Fawkes party about 13 years ago a firework shot rather close to Gene's head, although I don't remember now whether or not I was actually the one who lit the blue touchpaper. Astonishingly, Gene's come back to every Guy Fawkes party I've had since, though -- they happen every now and again, not annually -- and he seemed to relish the excitement and not to mind his escape from sudden death, which proved, to my mind, that Gene Wolfe is the last of the gentlemen adventurers.)

(Edit to add that although Gene was first menaced by Fireworks after World Fantasycon in 1993, my friend Medge points out he and Justin Ackroyd came all the way from Australia to fire the Infamous Firework of Death at Gene's head at the Guy Fawkes Party after World Fantasycon in 2002.)

...

And finally, a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly, for the STARDUST AUDIOBOOK, recorded back in http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/01/stardust-audio.html

Tristran Thorn falls in love with the prettiest girl in town and makes her a foolish promise: he says that he'll go find the falling star they both watched streak across the night sky. She says she'll marry him if he finds it, so he sets off, leaving his home of Wall, and heads out into the perilous land of faerie, where not everything is what it appears. Gaiman is known for his fanciful wit, sterling prose and wildly imaginative plots, and Stardust is no exception. Gaiman's silver-tongued narration vividly brings this production to life. Like the bards of old, Gaiman is equally as proficient at telling tales as he is at writing them, and his pleasant British accent feels like a perfect match to the material. Gaiman's performance is an extraordinary achievement -- if only all authors could read their own work so well. The audiobook also includes a brief, informative and enjoyable interview with Gaiman about the writing of the novel and his work in the audiobook studio.

Spotted Jam Tentacles

I got into my car on Friday afternoon and drove down to Chicago to see the Gothic Archies perform, in the form of Mr Stephin Merritt and Mr Daniel Handler (unfortunately their percussionist, the elusive Mr Lemony Snicket, was unable to be with them). It was as fine as I had hoped and as funny. Maddy thought so too.

Saw lots and lots of friends, including Jill Thompson and Brian Azzarello (we ate at Katsu, which is still, I'm happy to say, one of the very best Sushi restaurants in the US, and where the owner showed us lots of Geoff Darrow drawings) and I got to give a housewarming present to Audrey Niffenegger. I did the drive to Chicago in the Mini with ease, the drive back, er, less so. But very glad that I did.

Right. Much writing to do today, but Google tells me of many new reviews, and just so they're linked to...

Dave Itzkoff reviews Absolute Sandman and Fragile Things in the New York Times. This has a delightful Yuko Shimizu illustration of me upside down being caressed by strange spotted things coming out of a book (tentacles of jam, I suspect), and contains the marvellous sentence,

In the first 20 issues of the series collected in this lavish hardcover edition,
one can already see an author with a voracious appetite for literature and an
accompanying taste for the occult, prone to frequent references to high and low
culture, capable of rendering truly brutal acts of sadism, and fond of cats.

It's good to live in a world in which SF and comics get full page reviews in the New York Times Book Review. We've come a long way.

(And I loved discovering Yuko Shimizu's website, from the dancing pandas to the Letters of Desire book)

There's a lovely John Burns review of Fragile Things in the Globe and Mail. (Nice to see someone reading "Bitter Grounds" properly, too.) Steve Bolhafner reviews Fragile Things in Saint Louis, and Michael Berry reviews it in San Francisco. And there's a review of it at Bookreporter.com http://bookreporter.com/reviews2/0060515228.asp.

Evil and Goats

I'm busy writing, but this one seemed to want some kind of reply...

Neil: It amazes me that a writer should be so clueless on the complexity of human realtionships! But then maybe that's why you write Fantasy Fiction , making relatioships the way you DREAM them to be and not based on reality! Your remark about Charles Admas evil ex-wife was really uncalled for! I'm not saying the woman wasn't a raging bitch on wheels but maybe he lead her down that road to bitch dom! I've been reading the fuss over Paul McCathy tapes yelling at his dead wife Mary and a friend of my said she couldn't beleieve her ex-Beattle could be so cruel. And I thought the man wasn't a saint, so he yelled at her, it just proves they were married! If you live with someone you're going to have conflict! I often wonder if you have your wife locked up in the turret of your house like Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, you never mention the woman in your blog! And if you two decide to part ways she has every right to half of what you have because without her you m ay not have been the successful writer you are now! I'm not a bitter woman but a person wise enough to know where human hearts are involved all kind of evil things can happen! Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion. Truly- Ms. Wright

Sorry if I upset you by describing Charles Addams' second wife as "evil". While I agree that relationships are complicated and that Mr Addams was probably a far from ideal husband, when you get to the point in the biography where she's taken out the $100,000 life insurance policy on him and then gets him to write a suicide note she's dictated, I think "evil" seems a fairly apt sort of word.

(Then again, the New York Times review of the book only goes as far as describing her as "diabolical" and "the one woman he might reasonably have wanted to murder".)

Still, I've not yet finished the book. She may redeem herself by the end.

And this one was too important to ignore,

Dear Neil -Do goats figure prominently (or even in a minor role) in any of your works? I have read some of your novels but can't claim encyclopedic knowledge. I am trying to compile a list of goat-related science ficton/fantasy works and right now coming up a bit short. In fact, it totals exactly ONE title at the moment.Any help would be appreciated.
N. in Virginia on behalf of Princess Grace of BaaBaaDoo Farm

What about Stardust -- a book (and a film) with two goats in it? One that is transformed into a man, and one a man transformed into a goat.

There's goat in chapter two of Anansi Boys, of course. But it's curried.

So there we go. You now have another two and a bit goats.

There's also a high rise goat in this Charles Addams cartoon, of course...

http://www.charlesaddams.com/gallery02.html

miscellaneous stuff

Hullo, Mr. Gaiman. Been silently following the journal for quite some time now, but I'm moved to write you based on the Halloween picture of Maddy. I wanted to express jealousy at what appears to be an original from your Secret Origins collaboration with Matt Wagner and Bernie Mireault (a comic that got me IN to comics in the first place) and...is that an original Charles Addams piece? I've always loved that drawing in particular and if it has to be on anyone's wall but mine, I'm glad it's yours.

b

That Riddler Secret Origins page was the first comics art page I'd written I ever bought, from Bernie Mirault, back in 1988ish. It's now my son Mike's, because he loves it even more than I do, although it's currently sitting in the office on display waiting for Mike to discover where he's going to live and work for the next few years.

The Addams picture on the office wall is a print (the boiling oil on carol singers cartoon was an original he never sold, according to the rather drippy and disappointing Addams biography I'm currently reading, which means it will probably go up on the wall of the Charles Addams secret gallery just by the men's toilets in the New York Library if you wait long enough) [Edit, no an evil ex-wife got it from him in a divorce settlement], and was a triple gift from my gang of assistants, Lorraine and Cat Mihos (who helps out when I'm in LA) and Malena (my undead zombie assistant on 13 Nights of Fright).

(I do have a Charles Addams original, though -- you can see it at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/10/addams-thing.asp)

The other painting on the wall, for the people who wondered, is a Bill Sienkiewicz Judge Dredd cover (there's a picture of it at http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?Comic=graphicnovels&choice=dredd18).

Dear Neil,

Could you please tell me what the name of the movie/TV show is that you included the clip for on Halloween? I'm a couple of years older than Holly, and I could swear that it's something I used to watch as well--something that I remember loving. It's driving me crazy that I can't remember the name of it, although I can tell you that it was shown each year on HBO during the mid-80s.

Best,
Jenny Rappaport

it was....


I Just want to say I am glad someone else in the world enjoyed watching The Worst Witch 18 years ago. My sister and I would watch it every year. About 3 years ago she procured this on DVD and we laughed at how cheesy it is, and, I think, worried those who had never heard of it that we forced to watch it on our tstaes in movies. Especially in the world of Harry Potter, Mildred Hubble will always have a sepcial place in the heart of my family. Thanks for the holiday memories


...

Just read your post on having writers create a will for their literary estate. This is a site for the rest of their estate and their life.

http://nolo.com/

Thanks for advocating for DIY when dealing with (most parts of) American law.

jim bruce

Truth to tell, I'm not actually the world's biggest advocate for DIY law things, not after watching a nice old curmudgeon with a DIY attitude to the law, all of which he'd got from helpful websites, get himself sent to prison by a judge and prosecutor who really all just wanted to send him home. But nolo.com is a terrific website.

Mr. Gaiman (and all little minions who will peruse this between myself and Himself),

One huge appeal of being a writer (merely an aspiration of mine, which may or may not convalesce into a sustaining career) is that I am under the impression that if one has a laptop, or pen and notebook, then the exact location on the planet is unimportant, since writing can be done anywhere. I worry I am perhaps incorrect in assuming the nomadic possibilities of being an, ahem, novelist, if you will, as it only very recently occurred to me that perhaps a writer is constrained in location by his or her choice in a publishing company, and editor, and the countless other behind-the-scenes people of which I am unaware. Do you feel you are limited in your whereabouts due to necessary proximity to those folks that assist in turning your ideas into something devourable by the devout masses? Alternatively, would managing everything via e-mail from any location that struck your fancy be plausible?

Sincerely,
Rachel Harbin
Michigan, USA

If you're going to write novels (if you're going to write most things) nobody cares where you go to write, and nobody cares where you live, not as long as you can get and receive mail. Nobody cares what you wear while you write or what time of day or night you do your writing. What they care about is how well and interestingly you write, how much you make them want to turn the pages, how much they want to find out what happens next.

Worry about what goes on the page, not about which country or which coffeehouse you're writing in.

Hi Neil,

I've been out scouring bookshops looking for a copy of Fragile things but the bookshops know nothing. Is there a set release date for it in Australia or should i just order through Amazon so i don't have to wait.

Sarah

The details of the Australian edition of Fragile Things are at http://www.hha.com.au/books/0755334124.html. Rumour says it may arrive in your shops on November 9th.

If it was me, I would simply contact Justin Ackroyd at http://www.slowglass.com.au/ ("Australia's largest science fiction, fantasy and horror mail order bookstore" says the webpage. Also Justin's a good bloke.)

(Although you get some fine things in Australia before the rest of the world does -- wonderful Margo Lanagan collections, for example.)

What is "Interworld"? I've heard about "M is for Magic" but not "Interworld" - both showing a pub date of 7/2007. Enlighten us. Thanks

I'll tell you all about the mysterious Interworld, which is a HarperChildren's book by me and Michael Reaves, sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Hi Neil!...I was wondering if you had any words of wisdom for those of your fans who are delving into the wilds of NaNoWriMo in November?Thanks!!

Well, first of all, I want to wish all of you doing NaNoWriMo the best of luck. (And I meant to mention the new site for young people and teachers who want to try writing a novel in a month -- http://ywp.nanowrimo.org//modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=34).

No real worlds of wisdom, though. Write something you'd want to read. Make your daily word count, if you can, but the world won't end if you don't. Surprise yourself. Make magic. Remember that none of the rules you've been told apply when it's just you and a blank sheet of paper. And when you're creating characters, write people you would want to spend time with -- even the nasty ones.

Last Night's Costume

"Oh, I know what I'll be," said Maddy suddenly, having rejected my suggestions that I could make her up into something perfectly monstrous. "I'll be you."

So she went and got my clothes, put them on, and finished it with a leather jacket and some dark glasses.

I took some photographs of her, doing her best impressions of me being photographed. (This is one.)



Then I drove her to her friend's house.

When she got home, I asked her how it had gone. "Well," she said, "Only one person asked what I was meant to be. I said I was my dad, but they looked sort of blank, so I said I was a secret agent, because of the dark glasses. And they liked that."

Then I made up a tradition of us reading vaguely spooky poems to each other before she went to sleep, Kipling's Smuggler's Song and Monro's "Overheard on a Salt Marsh", the Macbeth "Hubble Bubble" speech and a few more. You can make up traditions if you do it with conviction, and remember to do it next year too.