author sensitivity...

Over at the Dreaming website, Lucy Anne the Librarian has gathered together all the reviews of Stardust the Stage Play, including a number that haven't been posted here. It only runs for another three weeks, so if you're in the Chicago area, and you were thinking of going, you probably should.

Dear Neil,I'm disturbed that you posted the Christopher Hitchens exchange in amusement. Normally I find your treatment of fans (and pretty much everyone else) unimpeachable -- which is why it's hard to see you apparently sympathizing with Hitchens's derisive and arrogant treatment of a fan. I have to agree, it would be terrible if everyone were like him. Glenn Peters,Portland, OR

I just reread it to see if I still thought it was funny or if I was failing somehow in sensitivity, and I'm afraid I still think it was a funny exchange, possibly because it was such a strange interlude in the middle of the Guardian's Two Hitchens Brothers Finally On Stage event.

It seems very much par for the course where Hitchens is concerned in terms of his relationship with the world, and I didn't really see it as him being specifically nasty to the woman in that tent who simply wanted to know if, seeing that he was smoking, could she smoke too; when she said that they all ought to be allowed to smoke, he said that he wouldn't stop her, but pointed out that he was in a privileged position, and there wasn't a lot anyone could do to stop him.

Having been up on stage a few times over the years with The Only Person Allowed To Smoke In The Room (and art spiegelman is always much better behaved than Hitchens), I've often wondered whether something like that would ever happen, and thus I was amused when it did.

(This post should not be seen as in any way condoning smoking, smoking on stage, appearing on panels, using the phrase "If anyone doesn't like it they can kiss my ass," Christopher Hitchens, behaving like Christopher Hitchens, literary festivals, the Guardian, or rudeness to people in the audience who are dying for a ciggie.)

(Oddly enough, the last time I mentioned Hitchens on this blog by linking to my friend Roz's Live Journal article about him a few years back I was roundly told off for not agreeing with his politics and implicitly condoning the view that he was a "drunken fop". So for the record, I think Christopher Hitchens explaining just why he believed Mother Theresa of Calcutta was an evil woman, while smoking and drinking his way through his interview, during Penn and Teller's "Let's see how many people we can piss off this week" episode of BULLSHIT, was a remarkable piece of television.)

Ultra-basic question: How should a non-published writer approach a comic artist with a script he hopes to get the artist to draw?

"Hullo, would you like a drink?" is a good sort of a start. Best bet is to go somewhere that artists are and go and meet them. Once they like and trust you, spring the script on them.

how do you come up with all your ideas like for Coraline

You probably need to read this: http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/essay03.asp which explains, I hope, everything you will ever need to know about where I get ideas from.

hi neil! i was just wondering, when it comes to reviews I can't imagine how absolutely nerve-wracking that sequence of being published must be. so what do you do to take bad reviews (as if you've ever received one) and put them behind you? do you read them alone late at night and scoff silently and mumble condecending things like "you fool, you'll never understand" or "one day, when i'm ruling the world you'll regret those words" or even "how about I tie my literary awards around your neck and drown you at sea?". or do you really just wait until your fans accept the book and respond.it must be a tough and grueling process...trevor,toronto canada

I took my very first review very seriously. It said the book was too expensive, so Dave McKean and I persuaded the publisher to make it cheaper. Nobody ever noticed.

Reviews are opinions. That's all. And I've had so many of them over the years that they tend not to stay in my head longer than it takes to read them. When I was much younger I'd walk around the house and put together long letters in my head to the reviewers I'd never send. These days if I think anything about bad reviews I think that maybe they'll like the next book, or maybe they won't, and then I get on with whatever I'm doing. It takes less energy.

...

Over the years I've said no many times to doing readings from comics. Dave Sim's come up with a way to do it... http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/archives/2005/05/dave_sim_reads.html

An assortment of bits...

Good evening. As I type this, I'm watching The Horn Blows at Midnight with Holly, on a long white sofa with sushi pillows. She wanted to know if the film was as bad as Benny made it out to be on his radio shows... (well, no, but...)

You know, while you're writing a book, it's yours. No-one else gets to read it unless you ask them to. It's sort of private and secret and it's, well, as I said, it's all yours. Then one day, some months after it's finished it gets published, and then the reviews start, and now it's public property and it's not yours any more. But you have several months to sort of grit your teeth and start getting used to the whole review thing.

Marcus Gipps is a bookseller in the UK, and he gets advance readers copies of books, such as, well, Anansi Boys. And he reviews them. Which meant that this morning he sent me a link to his review of Anansi Boys up at http://www.livejournal.com/users/marcusgipps/16062.html, four months before the book will be published. (It's probably worth mentioning that what Marcus is writing about is an uncopyedited, unedited, not the draft of the book that will be published, version.)

I was more than a little relieved to discover that it seemed like Marcus had read the book I'd written, and seemed to have enjoyed it.

...

I spent about 45 minutes a few days ago in the X-Men 3 offices, seeing what they'd planned for the movie, watching animatics of some of the sequences, admiring the concept art. I heard people there muttering about the fact they'd got a movie coming out in May 2006 and they didn't seem to have the budget to make the film they were planning, and how they'd probably be reduced to a pulse-pounding tiddlywinks battle between Magneto and Wolverine in the final sequence -- but they all seemed very committed to the project, while hoping that their budget and time issues could be worked out with the powers that be. So I was sad to see from Ain't It Cool that Matthew's left the film. If it's true, then I suspect it means that the Stardust film may be happening rather sooner than anyone expected.

...

Over at http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/hugolink.htm are links to this year's Hugo Award nominated stories. I love that you can read them all online, and that there are links to some amazing things to read. For example, this biographical essay, taken from the nonfiction collection by Phil Klass (AKA William Tenn)http://www.dpsinfo.com/williamtenn/constantinople.html is compulsive reading, of the "you couldn't make that up" variety.

...

I sometimes find myself in awe of people like art speigelman, who smoke in front of audiences in places that smoking isn't allowed. So I was amused by this exchange from an English literary festival, where Christopher Hitchens was smoking...

Female audience member Excuse me. I'm not usually awkward at all but I'm sitting here and we're asked not to smoke. And I don't like being in a room where smoking is going on.

CH (smoking heavily): Well you don't have to stay darling, do you? I'm working here and I'm your guest, OK? And this is what I'm like; nobody has to like it.

IK Would you just stub that one out?

CH No. I cleared it with the festival a long time ago. They let me do it.

FAM We should all be allowed to smoke then.

CH Fair enough. I wouldn't object. It might get pretty nasty though. I have a privileged position here, I'm not just one of the audience, so it would be horrible if everyone was like me. This is my last of five gigs, I've worked very hard for the festival. I'm going from here to Heathrow airport. If anyone doesn't like it they can kiss my ass.

IK Would anyone like to take up that challenge?

(Laughter. Woman walks out)

...

As a follow-up to a couple of different things I've been talking about here recently -- audiobooks and The Last Unicorn sequel -- this page http://www.conlanpress.com/html/comments.html features people's comments on Peter Beagle reading The Last Unicorn.

...

This blog gets quoted in an article on Moleskine notebooks. Which I mention mostly because I've been feeling guilty for about three years for losing the address of someone who sent me a gift of some moleskines, back when you could hardly find them in the US, and I've never said thank you. So if it was you, thanks so much and I'm sorry I lost your address. (There. A small karmic weight off my mind. But I still feel guilty.)

...

Someone kindly wrote to let me know that Anansi Boys is slightly more expensive in Canada than it is anywhere else in the world. $369 to be precise, although it's $351 for Chapters Indigo Members. I wonder how long that'll stay up there...

Talking about typos, I discovered this on Making Light.

...

Hi Neil, thanks for the information on how to behave at a book signing, and if you ever come near where I live, I assure you, I won't try to secretly tape you! That being said, however, I work for my University newspaper, and I have been formally dared by the staff to try and set up an interview with you, and I have to tape you legally, no climbing in through windows or anything (well, that makes it a little bit more difficult, and really clashes with my "journalistic style", but rules are rules and you can't go back on a double dog dare, not even with infinity, I tried.) So I'm wondering, how would someone set up an interview with you? I couldn't find the info on your site, and I won't win the box of mini donuts in our office fridge unless I do it "professionally", so any information you could give would be great. I would even share the donuts.

Cheers! Cassie, University of Regina, Saskatchewan

Well, you being in Canada, you'd want to contact the press department of Harper Collins Canada. Which twenty seconds playing with google, suggests that this page -- http://harpercollins.ca/contactemailus.asp?uid=12 -- would be the one you'd use. I trust that'll get you your donuts.

There doesn't seem to be a similar webpage for the US -- but an e-mail to Jack.womack at harpercollins.com should work.

If you're in the UK and you need an interview from Headline, contact lucy.ramsey at
headline.co.uk. (They've also got the new covers for the UK paperbacks up at the Headline site.)
I'm not actually certain who people in Singapore, the Philippines should contact for interviews (most requests have been coming in through the FAQ line so far). In Australia, you'd go to http://www.hha.com.au/.

iffiness

Just a small post to say,

a) I neglected to say that the pen that comes with the Really Useful Book journal, with the special light on the end to reveal the invisible sayings, also writes invisibly.

b) While I've heard from a few people that specific places have announced where I'll be signing in the US in September/October (for example, Cody's books has me listed as signing there on September 30th at http://www.codysbooks.com/blog/index.jsp) I don't yet have a complete list. It'll go up here as soon as I do.

The UK tour will be in November, probably from around the 4th to the 20th. Again, when I have dates I'll post them here.

c) I just went out to my little writing cabin for the first time in a few weeks. What a perfect day to go and write beside the lake, I thought, when I got out of the car. How fresh and wonderful everything smells. A good day to be alive. Opened the door, thought "gosh, smells a bit iffy in here" so I emptied out the rubbish bin beneath the sink. I turned on a ceiling fan, and nothing at all happened, and somehow the iffy smell seemed to have become even iffier. I went and looked in the fridge, with a sinking sort of feeling. The light did not go on when I opened the fridge door. It was warm in there. Everything in the fridge was warm. When I opened the door, the iffy smell became, well, rather less iffy and a lot more definite.

A little detective work and I found, near the door, a small note from the local power company, dated two weeks ago, letting me know that they had been by to change my electricity meter but I was out. It didn't say that they'd cut off the power if I didn't phone them back, but I suspect that's what they did.

I sighed, and drove home, and now, rather late, am about to go and work in the gazebo at the bottom of the garden instead. It's not by a lake, but at least it only smells like fresh-cut grass, so that's all right.

I feel like I should at least link to something funny before I go. So here's the Adventures of Lethem and Chabon....

So you're going to a signing....

I hear you'll be within shouting distance in the next coming months. I'm aware of the stupidity of my question but it bears asking just the same:Will you be offended if you were asked to sign a paperback edition of your book instead of hardbound? And related to that, are the royalties the same whether you sell the paperback or the hardbound edition of one of your books?

No, I won't be offended at all.

Harper Collins asked very tentatively this year if I'd let them limit items signed on the ANANSI BOYS signing tour in September/October to just copies of ANANSI BOYS, and I told them that I wasn't going to do that, and we'd stick with the same old signing rules we've always done (which is, depending on numbers, I'll sign unlimited copies of ANANSI BOYS, and probably two or three things people have brought with them or bought there).

I don't know if the shops in Australia or the Philippines or Singapore are going to have any specific rules -- if they are I'll try and post them, or you can check with them yourself.

My personal rule is that, sure, I'm happy to sign it, whether it's a hardback or a paperback or a comic, or old or new or whatever. I don't go on signing tours to make money (I suppose there's an argument to be made that they increase goodwill and thus increase the odds of someone buying your book next time, or something, and publishers are very aware that they're selling books NOW that they would have sold over the next few months but might not have sold that week); I do them because it's good to go and meet people, and because, while exhausting, they're also more or less fun, and because it makes a change from sitting in a room and making things up. And it makes numbers into people, which I like.

Whether you have a hardback or a paperback, whether it's a pristine object encased in lucite and nitrogen or is a much-thumbed book held together with duct tape and stains, it doesn't matter to me.

Royalties for authors -- it's generally around 8-10% of the cover price of a paperback and around 10-15% of the cover price of a hardback. Sometimes these are on sliding scales (8% to 10,000 copies, say and 12% to 50,000 and 15% thereafter). It tends to be much less for comics.

If I were you, I'd assume that I'm being very well recompensed by my publishers, and that as far as I'm concerned, readers are readers and booksales are booksales, and I am convinced that everything sort of works out for the best.

(See http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/03/dont-know-how-youll-feel-about-this.asp
and the follow-up, http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/03/i-was-there-in-cleveland-in-1999-when.asp).

Back in 2001 I did a post with helpful signing rules for people going to signings, which I've reposted, with additional information since, at least once -- http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/08/one-that-includes-repost-of-helpful.asp -- and I should probably stick it up over at the FAQs, or do a revised FAQ thing, or just make it easy to get to on its own, or something.

For now, I'll repost it here, so forgive me if you've read it before (and if you're one of the people who reads the LiveJournal feed, please remember that you're reading a feed, which is why there isn't a LiveJournal cut, because the last time I posted it I got at least a dozen letters from people telling me off). And I'll include the preamble from the last time I posted this, which was before a Borders Wolves in the Walls signing.

Depending on the number of people there we'll limit the number of things I'll sign, in order that everyone gets something signed. But if you have a best-beloved something you want signed, feel very free to bring it along. Some authors will only sign The New Thing. I'm not one of them. (I normally try and do something whereby it's 1,2 or 3 things that get signed PLUS as many copies of The New Thing as you want.)

Some stores are especially nice to people who buy the New Thing, or buy the New Thing from them -- they have special lines or put you to the front or something. I don't believe Borders does.

Back in April 2001 in the original American Gods blog I scribbled out a bunch of suggestions for people going to signings -- I'll repost them here, partly so that they're in a journal entry with a permalink.

I have been asked to give some dos and don'ts for people coming to signings. And although I've written do's and don't's and suggestions for stores before (and may possibly reprint them here, for contrast), I don't think I've ever written any suggestions for the people who actually make the signings possible.

If you've never been to any kind of signing with me, the first thing you should know is, wherever possible it'll start with a reading and a question and answer session. Then you'll be herded into lines (or, the first 50 people will be called, just like at a deli counter) and I'll start signing stuff for people. And that will go on until everyone's done, and happy, and out the door.

So here you go... Some dos and don'ts in no particular order...

1) It can be a good idea to call the store first and find out if they have any specific ground rules. Some do, some don't. Will they be handing out numbers? Will you have to buy a copy of American Gods from them in hardback to get prime place in the line or will it be first come first served? What about books you bought somewhere else? Can you bring your ferret?

2) Get there reasonably early if you can. I'll always try and make sure that anyone in line during the posted signing times gets stuff signed. At evening signings I'll always stay and make sure everyone goes away happy, but on this tour there will be several places where I'll need to go from a signing to another signing, so don't cut it fine.

3) You may own everything I've ever written. I'm very grateful. I'm not going to sign it all, so you had better simply pick out your favourite thing and bring that along.

4) As a rule, I tend to tell stores I'll sign 3 things people bring with them � plus any copies of the new book you buy (if you have six brothers or sisters and buy one each, I'll sign them all). But stores may have their own policies � and we may wind up changing the rules as we go in order to make sure that everyone gets stuff signed.

5) Eat first. I'm not kidding. If it's a night-time signing of the kind that can go on for a long time, bring sandwiches or something to nibble (some signings with numbers handed out may make it possible for you to go out and eat and come back. Or you may be first in line. But plan for a worst case scenario of several hours of standing and shuffling your way slowly around a store). (If it's a daytime signing somewhere that a line may snake out of a store into the hot sun, bring something to drink. I always feel guilty when people pass out.)

6) You may be in that line for a while, so talk to the people around you. You never know, you could make a new friend. I've signed books for kids whose parents met in signing lines (although to the best of my knowledge none of them were actually conceived there). And while we're on the subject, bring something to read while waiting. Or buy something to read � you'll be in a book shop, after all.

7) Don't worry. You won't say anything stupid. It'll be fine. My heart tends to go out to people who've stood in line for hours trying to think of the single brilliant witty erudite thing that they can say when they get to the front of the line, and when it finally happens they put their books in front of me and go blank, or make a complete mess of whatever they were trying to say. If you have anything you want to ask or say, just ask, or say it, and if you get a blank look from me it's probably because I'm slightly brain dead after signing several thousand things that day.

8) The only people who ever get short shrift from me are the people who turn up with tape recorders who try and tape interviews during signings. I won't do them � it's unfair on the other people in the line, and unfair on me (and I was as curt with the guy from the LA Times who tried it as I am to people who decide on the spur of the moment to try and tape something for their college paper). If you want to do an interview, ask the bookstore who you should talk to in order to set it up.

9) Take things out of plastic bags before you reach me. Firstly, it speeds things up. Secondly, I once ripped the back off a $200 comic taking it out of a plastic bag, when the back of the comic caught on the tape. The person who owned it was very sweet about it, but tears glistened in his eyes as I signed, and I could hear him wailing softly as he walked away.

10) Yes, I'll happily personalize the stuff I sign, to you, or to friends. If it's a birthday or wedding present, tell me.

11) Remember your name. Know how to spell it, even under pressure, such as being asked.

[If you have a nice simple name, like Bob or Dave or Jennifer, don't be surprised if I ask you how to spell it. I've encountered too many Bhobs, Daevs and even, once, a Jeniffer to take any spelling for granted.]

12) No, I probably won't do a drawing for you, because there are 300 people behind you, and if I had to draw for everyone we'd be finishing at 4.00am � on the other hand, if you're prepared to wait patiently until the end, I may do it then, if my hand still works.

13) If it means a lot to you, yes, I'll sign your lunchbox/skin/guitar/leather jacket/wings � but if it's something strange you may want to make sure you have a pen that writes on strange surfaces legibly. I'll have lots of pens, but they may not write on feathers.

14) At the start of the tour the answer to "Doesn't your hand hurt?" Is "No."

By the end of the tour, it's probably going to be "Yes."

15) Yes, you can take my picture, and yes, of course you can be in the photo, that's the point isn't it? There's always someone near the front of the line who will take your photo.

16) I do my best to read all the letters I'm given and not lose all the presents I'm given. Sometimes I'll read letters on the plane to the next place. But given the sheer volume of letters and gifts, you probably won't get a reply, unless you do. (On one previous tour I tried to write postcards to everyone who gave me something at the last stop on postcards at the next hotel. Never again.) If you're after a reply or to have me read something, you're much better off not giving it to me on a tour. Post it to me care of DreamHaven books in Minneapolis.

(And although things people give me get posted back, on the last tour FedEx lost one box of notes and gifts, and on the tour before that hotel staff lost or stole another box. So smaller things I can put into a suitcase are going to be more popular than four-foot high paintings done on slabs of beechwood.)

17) No, I probably won't have dinner/a beer/sushi with you after the signing. If it's a daytime signing I'll be on my way to the next signing; and if it's an evening signing I'll be heading back to my hotel room because I'll be getting up at six a.m. to fly to the next city. If there actually is any spare time on the tour it'll've been given to journalists, and if there's any time on top of that old friends will have started e-mailing me two or three months before the tour started to say "You'll be in the Paphlagonian Barnes and Noble on the 23rd. That's just a short yak-hop from my yurt. We must get together," and would have got themselves put on the schedule. (Still, it never hurts to ask.)

18) If you can't read what I wrote, just ask me. After a couple of hours of signing my handwriting can get pretty weird.

19) If I sign it in silver or gold, give it a minute or so to dry before putting it back in its bag or closing the cover, otherwise you'll soon have a gold or silver smudge and nothing more.

A Small Sunday Number Ponder

Just a small Sunday morning ponder about numbers...

For reasons that are much too complicated to explain (which is to say, I don't know what they are) the website at www.neilgaiman.com is subscribed to two completely different statistic trackers, to let the webmistress know how many come to the site and where they come from and so on. Mostly, I think we have two trackers because they tell us different things. Only one of them, for example, lists the searches that bring people to the website, something that is normally a very useful tool for a blogger who is otherwise completely out of ideas -- it's like the comedy store comedians who, when all else fails, look out at the audience and say "Hey, is there anybody here tonight from New Jersey?" (you may need to insert somewhere else in place of "New Jersey" depending on where you live and whether or not you have comedians there) and figure that should get them some laughs. You should always be able to get an amusing and interesting blog entry based on the fact that people turn up at your site having googled for Awesome Cameltoes or Jam-smeared Scouts or Cleavage Tentacles or something. I remember waiting for the arrival of the stat thing that would give us search phrases like a kid waiting for Christmas, only to discover that, month in and month out, the phrases that people seem to turn up here with are pretty much always the same, and they aren't very interesting. Here's April's top twenty search phrases, with numbers, from Google:

1 neil gaiman 6,881
2 sandman 616
3 gaiman 481
4 neil 413
5 american gods 366
6 "neil gaiman" 267
7 neverwhere 220
8 the sandman 204
9 mirrormask 191
10 neil gaimen 175
11 neil gaiman blog 166
12 dave mckean 155
13 neil gaiman sandman 135
14 sandman comics 130
15 blog 124
16 sandman gaiman 108
17 neilgaiman 99
18 anansi boys 84
19 neil gaiman journal 76
20 gaiman blog 65

(And the only thing that I found odd about that is that if you Google the word "Neil" using "I'm Feeling Lucky" it brings you to this journal.)

And it continues like that, on and on and on. You have to get down to #322 before you get "Naked Pillow Fights" -- although at #399 we discover that one lone person searched for "dinosaurs and the bible space and time cavemen paintings buy tape" and down below that there's one sad "gaiman wet t-shirt" which left me wondering what the person was looking for and why, and one "Cthulhu sex" which left me wondering whether they'd liked it when they found it. (Although it probably took them here.)

But I've wandered off the subject. So. Two different trackers-of-stuff. And this morning, with them both opened (looking at where people go on this website, so I sound intelligent next week when I talk to HarperCollins about what we're going to do in the Big September Redesign) for the first time ever, I wondered if they said the same things...

And they don't.

According to one of them, for example, there are 65,822 people in the UK reading this, making 7.97% of the traffic to the site. According to the other, in April the UK gave us 44,707 visitors (and 4.43 % of traffic).

They both seem to agree that we only had one person in from Mongolia, and one person in from Albania. But one of them reported about 150,000 more visitors to the site in April than the other did (about 850,000 as opposed to about a million), although the one that saw 150,000 fewer people overall also saw 130,000 more people from the US than the other one did. They even disagree on pure "hits" -- one sees 11.5 million in April, the other 11.3 million. If anyone has an explanation, I'd love to know what it is. In the meantime I shall resolve to take internet statistics with even more grains of salt than I used to.

(None of the numbers having to do with this website and journal mean anything anymore. The last time they meant anything was around September 2001, and I learned that we had around 20,000 readers, and decided not to stop because, well, 20,000 readers was an awful lot of people. These days it's no longer an awful lot of people, it's just abstract numbers.)

(Which reminds me -- according to http://www.livejournal.com/syn/list.bml?page=1 there are 10,445 readers of this blog's syndicated livejournal feed, while according to the officialgaiman's page at http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=officialgaiman there are 4,918. Anyone have any idea which is accurate?)

Hi Neil,I just thought you might want to mention to your fans in the Philippines that the bookstore chain that's holding your book signing in July has set up a mailing list where fans can get updates and news about the event. It's at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gaiman_fullybooked/. Can't wait for you to get here! Cheers,Tania Manila, Philippines

I'm looking forward to it as well. (Did you know that there were 1484 visitors to this site from the Philippines last month? Well, that or 2,557, depending on which counter you believe.) Consider it mentioned.

And before I go off and start the day, Bob Sheckley's flying home.

a really useful book

Back in October I mentioned that I'd written the text for Dark Horse's REALLY USEFUL BOOK. I wrote it, and I forgot about it until the book arrived here this morning. It's a red faux-leather-bound journal which looks like this:




It comes with a pen that is also an ultra-violet flashlight, which illuminates the invisible advice in the top corner of each page. Which, when I was told about it by Dave Scroggy, I thought sounded needlessly gimmicky, but which, I discovered this morning on opening the thing, is actually enormously fun, because what you get is a lovely Dave McKeany blank journal to write in, and you only get the peculiar but helpful messages (like "look behind you" or "it was in his pocket all the time") if you actually shine the light thing on them. And I've wandered around the house showing it to people.

I assume that mine arrived a little early. (I checked the neilgaiman.net just arrived page at http://www.neilgaiman.net/just-in.php -- and it looks like the MirrorMask PVC figures have arrived, but they didn't mention the journal.)

(There's a description on the Dark Horse page from which I just stole the picture.)

Looking or listening...

Greetings from sunny (er, um, dreary, grey, and drizzly, rather) Cambridge, Massachusetts. There's an interesting article about the validity of "reading" audiobooks today in the New York Times (http://nytimes.com/2005/05/26/fashion/thursdaystyles/26audio.html). What's your opinion on audiobooks? Do you think listening to them qualifies as reading, or do you think that the two are really separate experiences. Given your comment today that Lenny Henry reading the audio version of Anansi Boys is "a happy thing, and a good thing," I'm inclined to assume that you like audiobooks to begin with, so my question has more to do with whether or not you think audio can be a substitute for print or not. Best, Margaret (P.S. Maddy is really the star of your blog. You do know that, right?)

Oh yes. Actually, I suspect that I am merely a supporting player in THE *MADDY*GAIMAN* STORY and am perfectly happy for this to be true.

So, audio books. And once again, Harold Bloom demonstrates his twerphood to the world. "Deep reading really demands the inner ear as well as the outer ear," said Harold Bloom, the literary critic. "You need the whole cognitive process, that part of you which is open to wisdom. You need the text in front of you." From this we learn that art and wisdom only go in at the eyes. What comes in by the ear is manifestly a lesser experience. The corollary, of course, is that real writing gets written down by the hand, and only inferior, wisdom-less writing gets dictated by the mouth, which is why Paradise Lost must have been rubbish...

Again, it's just snobbery and foolishness.

I don't think the experience of reading a book and the experience of hearing a book are the same. I tend to think the experience of hearing a book is often much more intimate, much more personal: you're down there in the words, unable to skip a dull-looking wodge of prose, unable to speed up or slow down (unless you have an iPod and like hearing people sound like chipmonks), less able to go back. It's you and the story, the way the author meant it.

If well-read, an audio book can be magic. If competently read, well, it's normally okay. If less than competently read it can set your teeth on edge.

There are some authors -- Poe, for example -- who are at their best when heard. (Here's a link to MP3s of The Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven, read by Basil Rathbone.) I always find Mark Twain somehow richer in audio.

I don't believe there are books I've never "read" because I have only heard them, or poems I've not experienced because I've only heard the poets read them. Actually, I believe that, if the writer is someone who can communicate well aloud (some writers can't) you often get much more insight into a story or poem by hearing it.

(I do, however, believe that abridged audio books are the work of the devil and that abridgers-of-books will probably have a special place in hell, where it will just be them and Harold Bloom, and there will be nothing for anyone to read but the Readers' Digest Condensed Novels for all eternity. It still bothers me that there are people who've heard the audio version of Neverwhere, who think they've read the book.)

Apart from Neverwhere (which was well read by Gary Bakewell, and abridged sensitively for the first 2/3 of the audio before descending into a sort of frantic and desperate attempt to hit a few of the book's high points on the way to the end), I'm really pleased with the audio versions of my stuff so far -- George Guidall's reading of American Gods was terrific, and Dawn French's reading of Coraline was outstanding.

There's definitely a part of me that feels that Lenny Henry's reading of ANANSI BOYS will be in some odd way the definitive text, but that's because Lenny was there when I came up with the idea, and much of the time while I was writing it, I was hearing Len's voice in the back of my head. (I actually found the original outline for ANANSI BOYS yesterday, the one I wrote in 1998 and never looked at again, while looking for cool things for the Hill House edition, and it was so odd to see the moments of occasional, almost coincidental congruence with the novel I wrote in 2004).

I don't have any judgement when it comes to any of the readings I've done, apart from a vague sort of embarrassment (I think I said somewhere that it's like hearing a message that I left on voicemail -- mostly I just think Do I sound like that?) But I like doing them, and I'm pleased that they're out there, so people can hear what the stories sounded like in my head when I was writing them.

...

People ask me sometimes why I support the CBLDF, and why, as an Englishman, I tend to wax rhapsodic about the First Amendment. This is an example of why I think the First Amendment is important: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4576663.stm.

I think that each of us has the right to his or opinions, and to express those opinions; and that each of us has the right to argue with those opinions, to comment on them, to agree with them, to ignore them utterly. I don't think people should be imprisoned, hurt, killed or punished for having opinions or expressing them. And I think that has to apply as much to opinions and speech I find repugnant as speech and opinions I'd happily endorse -- because there are people out there who find my opinions and writing and speech repugnant.

...


Hi Neil,

The link to the derelict London cemeteries was wonderful. I thought, if you enjoyed that, you might also enjoy this link:

http://members.aol.com/crescntcem/index.html

Which is a pictorial guide to the cemeteries of New Orleans. It's great stuff. Especially check out St. Louis No. 1 (where they shot that scene from Easy Rider) and Odd Fellow's Rest, which is one of the most desecrated cemeteries in the city.

I have family buried in Metairie Cemetery, which has in my opinion some of the most unusual and beautiful tombs anywhere (the angel in Chapman and Hyams is my favorite).

Enjoy!

Leigh Butler

...

And my friend Dan'a, who is the better or at least prettier half of human beatbox and all around good bloke Matt Chamberlain, wrote to tell me that matt and i were reading your journal and he says to tell you to tell Maddy he doesn't know what a 'sting' is either... Which probably demonstrates that Matt spends much too much of his life drumming for Tori and Bowie and Fiona Apple and people, and not enough time in Las Vegas supporting comedians so obscure that only Mark Evanier could tell you who they are and why they matter.

...

Neil, I just finished reading the Mirror Mask illustrated film script and I noticed something I wanted to ask you about. In almost every one of your stories, with the exception of Wolves in the Walls, fathers in your works seem to be either incompetent, indifferent or non-existent. Is this a conscious decision on your part, and, if so, why?Looking forward to Anansi Boys, Mark Goldberg

Not really. Actually, I think that Morris Campbell is a very good ringmaster, and he's not a bad dad. He's just not very good at coping with the situation he finds himself in, and anyway, it's Helena's story. Dunstan Thorne in Stardust was a pretty good dad, under the circumstances. ANANSI BOYS is all about a father-son relationship, in its own way.

But unless you're writing a story about parents, they tend to be marginalised, because if they're on stage and being effective and cool and wise then there's nothing for your lead character to do. If Coraline's parents hadn't been somewhat distracted, and had paid her all the attention she wanted, and sorted everything out when iffy things began to happen... then you wouldn't have had much of a story, especially not a story about a girl going up against something dangerous and learning to be brave and to figure out what was important for herself. In The Graveyard Book, my next novel, the hero's family are all dead when the story begins, because if they weren't there wouldn't be a story.

But there's a children's book I'll write one day called FORTUNATELY, THE MILK which is all about the adventures of a dad, which will, I hope, redress the balance.

...

I wasn't particularly impressed (or interested) when Amazon.com brought out their "statistically improbable phrases" feature. But I loved it when Roddy Lumsden at Vitamin Q put a list of them together -- it felt like a poem.

The Anansi Boys Question of the day

The weird thing about this blog is the way that questions come in about things I keep meaning to talk about. It's been happening for four years, so you'd think I'd get used to it, but I never do. For example, this morning I wound up having a long conversation with my agent and then with my editor about making sure that people didn't think that ANANSI BOYS was a sequel to AMERICAN GODS. And this evening...

Obvious question, I suppose, but just to keep things straight, is Anansi Boys a sequel to American Gods?

So, a good and timely question. No, ANANSI BOYS isn't a sequel to AMERICAN GODS. I actually came up with the idea for ANANSI BOYS a couple of years before I started to write AMERICAN GODS, and borrowed Mr Nancy from ANANSI BOYS (which hadn't yet been written) for AMERICAN GODS. (Oddly enough, while looking at my hard drive today I found an early outline for ANANSI BOYS, and oddly, a four or five page opening couple of scenes from a ANANSI BOYS screenplay I wrote before I decided that the story would be happier in prose.) Which means that there are things you may know about Mr Nancy if you've met him already (his fondness for Karaoke, for example, or his love of Carrie) that might resonate for you in a different way in ANANSI BOYS.

I imagine it's set in the same world as AMERICAN GODS. (But then, several careful readers have pointed out that AMERICAN GODS is set in the same world as STARDUST, and the two stories don't taste anything like the same.)

The only true sequel to AMERICAN GODS so far is a novella about what Shadow did next called "The Monarch of the Glen", published in Bob Silverberg's LEGENDS II.

This is how I described ANANSI BOYS in a cover letter to the proof copies that are going out to booksellers and people:

My new novel is a scary, funny sort of story, which isn't exactly a thriller, and isn't really horror, and doesn't quite qualify as a ghost story (although it has at least one ghost in it), or a romantic comedy (although there are several romances in there, and it's certainly a comedy, except for the scary bits). If you have to classify it, it's probably a magical-horror-thriller-ghost-romantic-comedy-family-epic, although that leaves out the detective bits and much of the food.

And I got an e-mail today to say that Mr Lenny Henry will be reading the unabridged audio book version, and that it'll be available in the US and the UK. This is a happy thing, and a good thing. (Lots of Lenny goodies are now up at http://www.lennyhenry.com/home/funny_bits_video.asp?pID=5 incidentally.) The Audio ANANSI BOYS will be out when the novel is (September 20th) and will be downloadable, will be out on CD, and will also be available as an MP3 CD.

... 

Those of you who wonder what it must be like to live with a writer, wonder no more. All is explained (robotically) at http://www.livejournal.com/users/scott_lynch/127371.html

... 

ANother review of the STARDUST play at http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=8324 

and from The Dreaming I found that the Green Man Review had done a review of The MirrorMask Script Book -- http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_gaimanandmckean_mirrormask.html

...

You're talked about in the Eric Rice interview with Kevin Smockler as part of his virtual book tour. It's the quicktime movie at http://blog.ericrice.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/24/883053.html#attachments). Do you think you could have had the career you've had (eg in all the different media) if you haven't been in Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

Interesting. (One minor correction -- although I've worked on a couple of video games over the years, it was in each case immediately followed by the games company going under, and none of the games ever got as far as being made. But I have written radio plays, so it evens out.) I think he's right up to a point -- the fact that I enjoy working in so many areas is made easier by the way that speculative fiction is now a language spoken by so many media. But it's also because I really like working in different fields, and I'm always interested in trying to make new mistakes in new areas. I do think there have always been people like me, who wanted to try as many media as they could, but it's easier to see now because there are more media and because these days people notice.

...

Jason Erik Lundberg's article on my short stories and identity is now up in polished form at http://www.strangehorizons.com/2005/20050523/switcheroo-a.shtml. It's probably worth warning you that it contains spoilers for the four stories discussed ("Troll Bridge", "Other People", "Foreign Parts" and "Harlequin Valentine") -- and, I suspect, contains a thesis that probably spreads into several longer works.

Lots of people have written in to let me know that I'm officially a blogebrity.

And I keep forgetting to mention that I read an advance copy of Seth's WIMBLEDON GREEN and loved it. A funny, paranoid, charming, comics-obsessed graphic novel (it's at the bottom of this page). Definitely worth keeping an eye out for.

And a final lovely link from a Jasmine...

H'lo, A little while back you mentioned you'd be doing a graveyards book. I thought you might like: derelictlondon.com, and in particular http://www.derelictlondon.com/cemetery.htm. There's a mention of a West Norwood Cemetery with catacombs, and I wonder if this was the place to which that door in your basement lead once upon a time?

No, that was a much tidier graveyard. But I love all the ones on that page. (Incidentally, I filmed A SHORT FILM ABOUT JOHN BOLTON in Stoke Newington, and the Good Omens author photo of Terry Pratchett and me was taken in Kensal Green Cemetary, which is where G.K. Chesterton hoped to go to Paradise by way of.)

And finally... Neil:> From reading your journal over the last few years, I know you don't mind being put right on teeny-tiny things like this, so here goes: What Maddy does with the chopsticks isn't, strictly speaking, a rimshot. A rimshot is when you hit the drumskin and the metal or wood bit round the outside (the rim) at the same time, with the same stick. It produces a loud 'crack' sound, and is a useful way to put in an accent, or compete against guitarists with their amps turned up to 11.

What Maddy does (ba-dum, tish!) is probably best referred to as a sting.

Trust me, I'm a drummer (I've waited decades to be able to say that!). Cheers, Peter Flint Buckinghamshire, England

News! News!

There's an article on Alan Moore and his further falling out with DC over the V for Vendetta film at http://comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13
and I'm pretty sure that most of the people reading it are going to be going "oh no, Alan's severed more ties with DC" or whatever. Me, I rather felt that Rich had missed the big important news story, which is offered as a squib at the end.

Alan's proposed to Melinda Gebbie and they're engaged! This is so unutterably cool. (I wonder if they'll move in together, or if Melinda will still live around the corner in the Place of Dolls.) Anyway, this blog would like to officially tender its congratulations to them both.

Sheckley, CBLDF, bits

Lots of things from other people. Berry Sizemore says, of Robert Sheckley:

I have good news for everyone. First, Anya has a Paypal account ready.
Please do me a huge favor and update the link at your site. It is
driving people to my Paypal account and now it is time to point it to
Anya's account:

ROBERT SHECKLEY FUND PAYPAL LINK

(NB -- this is the correct link to spread about.)

There is good news about Robert. His condition continues to improve.
His writing and laptop is slightly exagerated. He's doing both, but
just enough to communicate with Anya. It looks like he will be coming
home on Thursday, if a complicated exchange between the current doctors
and the Mt. Sinai doctors occurs. It's a matter of translating charts
and prognosis and etc., plus a phone call or two.

It struck me yesterday that actually the best form of fundraising for Bob Sheckley would be for someone to bring his best novels and short stories back into print in the US in mass-market form. Given that Douglas Adams was happy to acknowledge in interviews how much what Bob did in the 1950s and 60s resembled what Douglas did many years later (and actually Bob was Douglas's first choice to write the Starship Titanic novelisation)it seems like this is a perfect time to make his work available for a new generation.

This came in this morning from Charles Brownstein of the CBLDF, which I thought I'd put up because I know that artists read this thing...


ITEM! Support the GA Defense In CBLDF Auctions

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has launched a series of auctions to
assist in the defense of Gordon Lee. This week's items will launch
today at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. They are:

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2, #1 -- Signed by Alan Moore
& Kevin O'Neill

Batman #608, RRP Edition -- Signed by Jim Lee

Sandman #50, variant cover -- Signed by Neil Gaiman

In The Shadow of No Towers poster -- Signed with orginal drawing by
Art Spiegelman

Angry Christ Comix -- signed with original Dawn drawing by Joe Linsner

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZcbldf

CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein says, "Waging the
aggressive defense of a First Amendment case requires the best
attorneys, and the best attorneys require a lot of money. We're
launching this auction initiative to help offset the investment we've
already made in this case, and to help shore up money for the trial.
We're lucky to have received a number of generous donations of art and
collectibles and over the coming weeks will be releasing them to the
public to assist in our cases. I hope people will be generous in
their bidding, because it comes at a time where every dollar we
receive makes a major difference."

ITEM! Call for Art Donations

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is calling upon artists and
collectors to make donations of original art and rare collectibles to
assist in summer fundraising. CBLDF Executive Director Charles
Brownstein explains, "Summer represents our busiest fundraising
season. We run auctions at the major shows including Comic Con and
Wizard World where the money raised can sometimes pay for an entire
phase of a case. This summer we're calling upon the creative and
collecting communities to make a donation of original art or similar
rare collectible for us to include in those auctions. A piece of art
that may be resting in someone's file drawer can help us pay for a
motion to be written or an argument to be waged."

Donors of art will receive a letter of acknowledgment from the CBLDF
that includes the amount the piece raised on auction. Donations can
be sent to: CBLDF, PO Box 693, Northampton, MA 01061. For shipping
information to a street address, please e-mail Charles Brownstein at
director@cbldf.org.


I saw a press release this morning that said that MirrorMask will be opening in New York on Sept 23rd. But seeing it also said the film was codirected by me and Dave McKean, I'm not sure how much credence to give it.

There's another review of the Stardust stage play at http://gaychicagomagazine.com/ad.stage.asp

Will Eisner's final book, The Plot, is reviewed positively at the SF Chronicle, and less positively at the Boston Phoenix http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/arts/books/documents/04681353.asp.

(Incidentally, if you're in New York, there's an Eisner exhibition at MOCCA until September -- http://www.moccany.org/exhibit-eisner.html for details.)

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned the Post A Secret website here in the past -- http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/ -- but more and more people are reminding me about it, and the postcards are getting prettier and stranger.