Page Numbering Question

This might be a really stupid question, but, when you write by hand, as you seemingly did when you were in reclusion just now, how do you keep track of what 'page' you are on? You wrote that you are on page 96, and I assumed that is (at least roughly) the page of the final printed book. Or is it the page of the notebook?


I don't know what page I'm on of the final printed book -- that will depend on the size of the type, illustrations, layout and many other things. I can tell what page I'm on of the book I'm writing in though.

Hang on. I'll get out a cellphone and take some pictures. I'll include my hand for scale. (Although it's only an accurate scale if you know how big my hands are. Er, they're quite big.)

The book looks like this:

I got the blank book in Venice and it is almost too beautiful to write in, but it's really solidly built and takes the amount of punishment that being hauled around the world by me tends to give. I have four of them -- two I bought, two were a gift. This was one of the gifts.

I wrote The Graveyard Book and my name on the first page because it made me feel like I'd started something...

I tend to write an average of a little under 200 words a page in this book. Depends on the pen-nib, really...

I go off and number the pages about 50 pages ahead of where I am, because otherwise I will absentmindedly misnumber them while I'm writing. And as I start a new page I circle the number. Putting the circle on the number makes me remarkably happy. Also drawing a small gravestone with a number on it at the end of each chapter.




I'm writing less words to a page than will be in the printed book, of course. There's about 20,000 words in the notebook so far. The chapter I've already written, "The Witch's Headstone", is about 10,000 words long. And I think* the book itself will be around 60,000 words - twice as long as Coraline.




*Well, I hope. It's unlikely to be less. I tend to underestimate, though.

Labels: cellphone photos, Mostly just me going on about a book nobody else has read yet that's still mostly in handwriting anyway, Pictures of a Book, relative hand-sizes, why don't I go and have breakfast

Bet you thought I was dead

The best thing about going off and writing, and not having a phone or internets and things, just a tiny rented cottage, pen and paper and stories in your head, is that everything gets sort of simple and I remember why I do this writing thing and why I love it.

When I got stuck, I'd change notebooks and write an introduction or something similar that someone was waiting for. Then I'd go back to the story. I never turned on the computer, except once to check a detail.

Oddly enough the story that seemed the lesser of the two (most of the chapters of The Graveyard Book are also stories), which is called "The Friend" was easy and comfortable to write, while the one I was excited about, "The Hounds of God" (which I may retitle either "Miss Lupescu" or "The Ghoul Gate" on the next draft, or I may not) was sort of odd and lumpy and is going to need a lot of repainting and moving of heavy furniture when it gets typed up. Still, it has some really good bits in, and I love the ghouls, particularly the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the Duke of Westminster.

I'm on page 98 of the book, and including "The Witch's Headstone" I think I'm actually half way through the book right now. Although some of the final chapter-stories are going to be long ones.
I'm writing a poem that runs through the next chapter, a P.L. Travers-like fantasia called "Danse Macabre", which I think is going to be chapter 5, after the already-written "The Witch's Headstone". Then I'm not sure. Then it's a chapter called "Every Man Jack". Then the last chapter, probably.

Probably more than you really wanted to know, but I'm an author who's been writing a book, and mostly it's what my head is filled with, and it's interesting if you're me.

(Most of the spare bits of head are filled with something that may eventually be called Lyonnesse.)

The worst thing about going off to write for a bit is returning to civilisation and finding several thousand emails needing to be read, work mail, personal mail, Blog FAQ mail.... I'm not sure I'll ever catch up.

Thanks so much to the webelf for having fun and posting links in my absence. It looks like she enjoyed herself, and she put stuff up I probably wouldn't have thought of, so that was good, and I am grateful. (I'm still trying to figure out where she got the Holly picture from, mind you.) Amused that she found, and hustled for votes for the blog awards (even more amused when I discovered that I was also nominated as Hottest Daddy Blogger [?]).

I think I've solved a mystery no one even knew was mysterious. The web elf is your wife, isn't she? Don't forget my no-prize if I'm right!

I think only Marvel can give out no-prizes. But no, you are wrong. The web elf is the web elf. I think she looks like Dave Sim's Regency Elf, only more webby, but I could be wrong, and often am.

Hello,I would like to ask you if you are planning to write comic-book series like "Sandman"?Regards - Paweł Deptuch, POLAND

No, I already did that.

Right now I don't think I'll ever do another 2000 page comic story, but as I said, I've been wrong before...

NEIL,

I'm trying to find my place in writing, and I am leaning towards the Screenplay format. Since you write in almost every format, Which is easier?

1. writing a comic

2. wirting a movie

3. writing a novel

Signed,Bob Castle.

I think it depends on which one I'm not doing at the time. When you aren't doing it, the other ones are always easier, and the kind of thing that you're writing is much too hard.

...

We've now overhauled http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/shortstories/partiesstory, the "How To Talk to Girls at Parties" main page, and it now has a bit more explanation of what it is, links to the text version and the audio version of the story, and links to the other Hugo nominated short stories.

http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_nominees.php has all of the Hugo nominees up, and links to all but one of the novellas, novelettes and stories, and even one of the novels.

There's a small and valid-up-to-a-point controversy going on about not enough women being nominated for Hugos this year. (For example, this from Bookslut.) (The up-to-a point bit for me is where it's implied by some commentators that the Hugo nominations are imposed from outside, rather than simply voted for by fans and readers who are eligible to vote. They're the Hugos, you get to vote for them as a member or supporting member of the WorldCon, and if you want to see something on the list next year, vote for it. Tell your friends to vote for it. Look at the 2004 Nomination details: in 2004 it only took about 25 votes, sometimes less, to get anything shorter than a novel on the list.)

...

An interview in connection with the PEN World Voices Festival next week in New York -- http://www.wildriverreview.com/worldvoices-neilgaiman.php.

Labels: How to talk to girls at parties, Hugo Awards, Mostly just me going on about a book nobody else has read yet that's still mostly in handwriting anyway, PEN world voices festival, Webelf Wonders

Though He Can Never Look At Cheese The Same Way Again

This is a message from your neighborhood Web Elf. Mr. Gaiman reports he is done with chapter three, somewhere around page 98, and has started chapter five, entitled "Danse Macabre." A little mouse has told me that Neil may return very shortly indeed.

So as a gift to herald his return, you should all go and vote for the blog at the Blogger's Choice Awards.

Or rather, you should all go and have a look at the candidates and vote for the best blog of your choosing. I would never presume to sway your judgment by asking you to vote for this blog.

No. That would be wrong.

It would be wrong, for example, to trick you into voting for this blog by showing you a video of rats being tickled:



As it would be equally wrong to bribe you into voting for this blog by showing you adorable photographs of Maddy Gaiman with her adorable new haircut:



No. I would not stoop to such low and dishonorable tactics.

But if you vote for this blog I promise I'll be your best friend and possibly also make you cookies and buy you a yacht and also a puppy.

Regards,
The Official Web Elf

Labels: posts in which there is no implication of a heroic struggle in anyone’s basement involving a giant cheese wedge and a fight to the death from which the author escapes miraculously unharmed

And Certainly Not In Anyone's Attic

This is a message from your neighborhood Web Elf. Mr. Gaiman reports he is knee-deep in Chapter Three, and things are going well.

I've asked the Oracular Ball if he will ever be returning from his mysterious whereabouts, and it told me: Tomorrow I plan to plant things, and to walk around the garden a lot.

Which, I think, is a good sign.

(Because there are no more videos about The Graveyard Book, here is a YouTube video in which Neil reads Locks, from Fragile Things.)

The text for the Hugo-nominated How To Talk To Girls At Parties is now up at Cool Stuff & Things, along with the audio.

This came in from Terri Windling, who is selling her house:

Want to own a 16th century fairy tale cottage in England, complete with goblins on the kitchen walls painted by Brian Froud, Alan Lee, Charles Vess and other artists? Here's an extremely rare opportunity to do so. The cottage is located in the middle of a small, bucolic country village at the edge of Dartmoor...perfect for a writer, painter, or dreamer seeking inspiration in the countryside. More information is available on Phillip Fowler's website.

Lucy Anne, who runs The (del.icio.us) Dreaming, wrote to remind that tickets for the Rogue Artists' stage adaptation of Mr. Punch are on sale.

Finally, here is one of Holly's favorite songs as a small girl. (Mostly because it's rather wonderful.)



And here is Holly as a small girl, at about the time this was one of her favorite songs. (Mostly because I think by posting this, we are giving Cute Overload a run for their money.)



Regards,
The Official Web Elf

Labels: Froggyland, holly's favorite songs, How to talk to girls at parties, paraskavedekatriaphobia, posts where elves promise the author is not being kept tied up in anyone's basement, Rupert Bear

Like Muenster, Or Swiss, Or Possibly Even Gouda

This is a message from your neighborhood Web Elf.  Neil's dropped a line from his mysterious whereabouts to say he's finished chapter two of The Graveyard Book, entitled "The Friend," and is now sinking his wee teeth into chapter three, "The Hounds of God."  (In the meantime, there's a snippet of video on YouTube where Neil talks about the origins of The Graveyard Book.)

There are some new Stardust stills over at Film Ick.

And here is a painting of Maddy.  Because, really, you can never have enough paintings of Maddy.

Regards,
The Official Web Elf

Labels: paintings of Maddy, posts where elves are definitely not holding the author for ransom in exchange for large sums of cheese, Stardust, The Graveyard Book

Help, I've Been Kidnapped By Elves

This is a message from your neighborhood Web Elf. Neil is off waging a great battle against a pile of blank paper, and he has asked me to tell you he is Alive and Well. (For the curious, there's some rogue footage of Neil reading a chapter of The Graveyard Book on YouTube that may tide you over till he returns.)

There's also an article today about Neil Scary Trousers Gaiman over at The Independent.

For those who have been eagerly awaiting the audio for the Hugo-nominated How To Talk To Girls At Parties, you need wait no longer. Neil can be found reading it over in the land of Cool Stuff & Things, in mp3 format.

Lastly, here is a song. Just because.

Regards,
The Official Web Elf

Labels: How to talk to girls at parties, Hugo Awards, Neil Scary Trousers Gaiman, posts that assure that the author is safe and has not been kidnapped by elves at all, The Graveyard Book

"I'm just going outside, and I may be some time"

I'm falling off the world for a bit to work on The Graveyard Book. I don't think there will be any internet where I'm going, so it may be a bit before I post again.

Then again, I sometimes announce that I'm falling off the world, and then follow it up with lots of posts about random things, so you never know.

Labels: The Graveyard Book, Vanishing authors

the enormous bed

Hotels are so different, one from the next. Today I'm in a room smaller than the bed I slept in last week. (The hotel put me in there because they were out of normal rooms, and told me it was the biggest bed in London. I do not doubt that it was. It would have slept families.)

The Independent on Sunday article will, I am told, be out this week.

Please can you settle a family row and confirm that it was you that we saw at The Now Show on Thursday evening? I wanted to get your, and Marcus', autograph but the youngest was too shy and ran away first.

b.t.w. My eldest, 16, oft quotes your "kindly declines your offer of a comb" and liked the bit about hunting for weasles.

Matthew

That was me, yes. I hope that settles the family row. I was there as Mitch Benn's guest, but was thrilled to see Marcus Brigstocke (who I hadn't seen since we made A Short Film About John Bolton), and then delighted to find out that I went to school with Steve Punt ("I saw your band in the music hall," he said, as only someone who was once fourteen can say to someone who was once sixteen. "You were a legend." And then we reminisced about the school peacock and Stewart Elsey's chips.)

You should have said hullo.

...

Lots of people wrote in to say that,

There are higher quality versions of the Tyger animation as well as more information on it at http://guilherme.tv/tyger/.

...


Hi Neil, I'm glad your having a fun vaction after a busy signing tour, but I'm wondering if any developments on the Crazy Hair front will be made while your hanging out with Dave. I remember you describing it last October and it sounds absolutly delightful!-Rachael

It's done! He showed it to me! He's finished! It's amazing! I may have to rewrite a couple of lines to make the words and the pictures match up perfectly, but just a couple of lines, and then we will be done. Expect it out in 2008 from Harper Childrens and from Bloomsbury in the UK. It's gorgeous. (There's a picture from it at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/uploaded_images/Pgs.24,25-707551.JPG)

Hello Neil,

Longtime fan here with a comics-world-related question. Seeing as Coraline is already in production and I can't be cast, haha, I've turned my sight on to the new 'Preacher' series (yet-to-be-cast) on HBO.

Specifically I'd like to try for the character of Tulip OHare, and thought I should send of a 'screen test' where I'm reading from the comic, as well as a few shots recreating panels from the comic, along with my headshot and resume. I'm also going to try to be signed with a local casting agent for Maryland... and see if they can help as well.

My question is:
1) Should I send my information to Ennis & Dillon via Vertigo? Would they recieve it?

2) How can I be a fan and still have my request taken seriously?

Any input you have would be greatly appreciated... as I'm sure you've had experiences like this throughout your career.

Cheers!
Jess Angell

Well, I've been given lots of headshots by people that I wasn't sure what I was meant to do with them over the years. To answer your questions...

1) Possibly it might get to them, but Garth and Steve aren't casting it. They won't do anything more with a head shot and DVD than shrug and wonder why you sent it to them. If you're amazingly amazing they might send it on to a producer who probably won't watch it, but you'd have to be jaw-droppingly brilliant, and even then it probably won't do anything.

2) Be an actress.

I'm serious. If you want to be in something like that, your best bet is to be an actress already. Be a good one. Take lots of parts. Do TV, movies and theatre. Be someone who, when a casting director says to a producer "I think we could get Jess Angell to play Tulip," makes the producer go "Really? Would she be interested in something like this?"

Casting is about a lot of things, and one of them is getting the thing made.

...

Hullo Mr G. I recall your excellent contribution to 'AARGH' when it came out (I'm that old), and thought you might be interested in the campaign to save the veteran London bookshop Gay's The Word, survivor of the Clause 28 battles and now threatened by the general Starbucks-ing of the streets. It's always stocked a good selection of gay & lesbian-related graphic novels and comic books. Times story here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article1462206.ece?token=null&offset=0


...but it's not really threatened by the Starbucksing of the streets. It's threatened because most mainstream bookshops have really good LGBT sections now, which they didn't have before. Just as it gets harder for the specialist SF shops once the SF shelves in the big bookshops get big.

I think it's sad when the little shops go, and I wish they wouldn't, but I don't think it's a bad thing when things that were once specialised interests become more easily available in the mainstream. It means that the small shops have to figure out what they can give their customers that the bigger shops or the online world simply can't.

...

Last November I mentioned Clive Barker's inspirational speech on genre as a continent, given impromptu at British Fantasycon. Someone wrote to let me know it's now up at

http://www.clivebarker.info/newsfantasycon2.html

...

Thanks for signing two of my treasured Sandman hardbacks on Friday. MUCH appreciated as always. I have one more to go!
I was wondering, did you watch Dr Who on Saturday night at the same time as your fellow countrymen? I'm guessing you didn't as you would rather watch it back in the US with Maddy. But if you did, what did you think?
Til' next time. Tony Scudder.

I didn't. I'm waiting until I am home to watch Dr Who with Maddy. Anything else would be wrong.

...

Congratulations to Bryan Talbot on the publication of Alice in Sunderland -- http://www.bryan-talbot.com/alice/.

And there's a German interview with me (in English) up at http://www.phantastik-couch.de/interview-with-neil-gaiman.html

Labels: Clive Barker, completely abandons the idea of writing lots of labels and goes to bed instead, Crazy Hair

Rabbits and Tygers and Butterflies oh my

Dave McKean is showing me short films on DVD. And I just realised that the films in question are up on YouTube.

First he just showed me this. The Butterfly of Love. When he described it -- mirrored footage from Rashomon with a cool soundtrack -- it sounded, well, dull. And then I saw it, and it was haunting...



He also showed me Tyger. Absolutely beautiful, like something I dreamed as a boy.



And he wanted to show me this, but I'd already seen it. I might even have posted it here once. But just in case I didn't link to it, and because you should see it, here's the magical and disturbing eight minutes of Rabbit...

Labels: butterfly of love, Dave McKean, rabbit, Tyger, youtube

Bless...

Why, I thought, in a not really paying attention to things sort of way, are people writing in and making jokes about my impending sainthood?

And then someone sent in this...

As far as April Fools' jokes this one is pretty good:
http://www.locusmag.com/2007/0401_NeilGaimanSainthood.html
they almost had me for a moment.
Sho


and it all made sense.

I thought it was really funny (it's a fine crop of April 1st articles in Locus this year), and it was nice to read "quotes" by me that sounded sort of like things that I'd say. If it did happen like that. Which of course it didn't.

Hi Neil,

You mentioned the Forbidden Planet signing on Friday and that the queues weren't very long. I had intended to be there, but on scoping out the shop beforehand found that their sign said you would be signing copies of Fragile Things. Alas, I had brought my copy of Anansi Boys with me (it has an off-the-shelf, pret a porter style signature, and I rather fancied getting the haute couture version).

Thus I scuttled away rather than face the social embarrassment of presenting a book for signature and being told it was the wrong one.

So could I ask you - would I have been turned away? Or should I just not be such a scaredy cat next time?

Thanks

Katherine

No, you wouldn't have been turned away, and I wouldn't have even noticed. Lots of people simply brought a beloved book or two along. Or a comic. I don't think I signed anything unlikely like a bass guitar or a rubber vampire bat at that signing, but you would be astonished at what people bring.

Your best bet if in doubt would have been to ask the nice people at Forbidden Planet, who would have reassured you.

There are signing tour FAQs up at neilgaiman.com and I'll try and get them pulled out and given their own easily findable page...

For now, the most recent time I posted them was at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/05/so-youre-going-to-signing.asp

...

I am at Dave McKean's oast house in Kent right now, finally starting to feel like my batteries are starting to recharge. I am trying to persuade young Liam McKean to put some of his videos up on Youtube. He's really funny. He knows many interesting things about pigs, too.

Thrilled to see that Pan's Labyrinth is now on the Hugo nominations list (http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_correction_faq.php).

Right. I have to go and watch Liam on the trampoline now. I have no choice. Then I go with the McKeans to see the exhibition of Dave stuff in Rye.

Labels: facts about pigs, liam mckean, oast houses, signing FAQs, why I am not a saint, you can bring your book to a signing honest