Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Darn you Neil Gaiman!

Darn you darn you darn you!

And darn you from Sarah too!

And darn you from Reg even!

And hell hath *no* fury like a Shira scorned(that's why we love her)!

There is a reason why the universe made spoiler warnings darn it!

<grumble>  :-p
  

    
From the "vast active living intelligent" Internet, reg writes:

So if your hair is 155,000 words long Neil, does that mean you'll need
an editor to cut it?

And I actually don't mind knowing that your hero is dead. Knowing the
destination doesn't necesarily spoil the journey. But if you "Ennis" him
back to life in the epilogue, there will be Hell to pay.

And since it wouldn't be me if I didn't ask a pointless question, and
since Harper Collins are apparently planning to push American Gods hard,
is there anything you've written that you felt failed to reach a wider
audience because of the publishers' unwilingness to market it harder?
And does it frustrate you?

And since you didn't answer this question the first time I asked, is
there any likelihood of us seeing you in our neighborhood anytime in the
forseeable future?

Reg(who figures Harper Collins can more easily afford trans-Pacific
flights than he can)
  

    <scribbled by sunnyrose>
  

    <scribbled by sunnyrose>
  

    
(sorry about all the scribbles...keep making really horrid grammatical
errors)
  

    
That's it Reg...make me look bad for caring...*after* you told me to
add your name to the list...

<grumble>

We'll see if I don't decide to read American Gods right here in
America now! :p
  

    
There was a very famous wwII single-panel cartoon where a GI overseas is
reading a letter ...  from very hazy childhood memory, I remember that part
of the joke of the cartoon was that a soldier would have liked more to read 
at mail call even if the news was bad... Caption, in paraphrase from
memory: she says she's leaving me... and that's all she wrote!
  

    
From the Internet, Vicky writes:

Barely even a ponder later, and Vicky decided not to include the helpful
message at the beginning like last time, as the inclusion of her message
to the ever so lovely inkwell people had been the subject of a little
embarrassment upon the message's posting.  So, that major milestone
skipped past and instantly forgotton, she went about the business of
spilling what her niggly back of the head voice decided was pride.

She had smiled, barely an hour earlier (she smiled again at the little
unintended pun) whilst in the bath, as she happily continued her
consumption of the book Smoke and Mirrors.  She had to smile as the
sudden onset of coincidences or recognition of what had been there all
along tickled her in a 'I figured there was something spooky afoot all
along' kinda way.  The author of the above named collection of fictions
had used her surname in the story 'We can get them for you wholesale', a
story which had turned out to be quite satisfying.

This completed her set.  The author had now used all four of her names
(not intended to make her sound like an old man who delivers presents in
the winter).  This alongside to the co-occurence of their birthday.  She
should have content at letting him know however death does funny things
to you.

Vicky's friend from primary school died last week.  Maybe not a friend,
but a boy who she had watched from afar, thinking that there must be a
sensitive side to him and that he was probably sweet and interesting
deep down.  Now he is dead, after (by all reports) a rather sad, and
painful life.

She reflected upon the fact that also in the last six months she had
lost 2 family cats, a Grandmother and the family dog, in that order.  Of
course it had occured to her briefly that it might be something to do
with the year, but she figured that if it was there was going to be an
end it should have been at New Year's Eve in a sudden attack from a
surreal army of some sort - done in style.  She wouldn't have minded at
the time, it was a crap new year's eve.

Now, however, as the object of this exercise escapes her completely, she
decides to have done with it and display her e-mail address
(serpentine_waiting@yahoo.com).  A vague hope that someone wouldn't let
a little thing like fame and the fact that she sounds like a psycho
stand in the way of what could be an interesting e-friendship.  In
typical hindsight clarity, Vicky realises that talking about herself in
third-person probably hasn't helped her defend her position of
non-psycho an awful lot.  Never mind.

If someone wanted to e-mail her, Vicky would be more than pleased to
share her tales of crystal-therapy class (on a level of mulder to
scully, scully might find herself doubting her scientific principles)
which would almost certainly prove an interesting window of some
description.

There I did it :)

Vicky
  

    
My hero being dead in chapter 16 isn't a spoiler. It's a teaser.
Especially since that's the chapter he learns the most in.

My doctor tells me that he isn't actually dead anyway, but I say he
is; and seeing it's predicted that he dies three times during the book,
I certainly count it as one of them.

If anyone is worried about spoilers about the novel, I'd cheerfully
suggest skipping the topic. I can more or less assure you that no
apparent spoilers will actually be given. But I shall write whatever I
write about the book as I write it.

...

Reg -- I get very frustrated by DC's inability to promote and
advertise things outside of the comics market. STARDUST sold 4000
copies in the Charles Vess Illustrated hardback, sold 50,000 copies in
the Avon unillustrated edition. 

I'm not sure who my publisher in Australia is -- probably
Hodder-Headline. I don't think any cons will be bringing me in though
-- in the last four years I've been G of H at national cons in both
Australia and NZ, and also went along to the national con in Tasmania
after the NZ trip. 

And I wouldn't make any assumptions about anything in the book from
anything you read in my inkwell comments. Time is mutable and frangible
in this book, and life and death are two sides of a coin.

martha -- I'm still nervous.


Michael and Gail -- thanks so much.

Vicky -- I'm with you on the third-person thing. Every now and again I
have to write bios in the third person of the "neil gaiman is the
winner of lots of awards and his daughter told him today that he is so
eighties its embarrassing" variety, and I worry people will think I'm
weird. 

I may be getting a cold.

And RenFest today was FREEZING. Wintery. Wear long undies and carry a
hot water bottle weather.
  

    
Well, I'm not nervous.

Don't get a cold!

If you do, I checked Consumer Reports today: throat lozenges with Dyclonine
are the most effective.
  

    
Reg, the figures on Stardust are just talking about the hardbacks.
Paperback figures are pretty similar in proportions, though. And I'd
love people to see the illustrated edition.
  

    
Martha you are a wealth of information....pity I couldn't have found
out about that a week ago!
  

    
Next time.

I had a tiny sore throat, so I checked my handy online Consumer Reports
subscription before I went to the drugstore.
  

    
Lots of wearing personal stuff going down, but managed to get 1500
words of the all-important chapter 17 written, including one twist
which surprised me. It's an odd thing to get your villain to actually
do one of those "I'm going to explain everything" speeches, because
sometimes they explain things you didn't even know were mysteries.

It seems to be seriously autumn currently. I'm covering my giant
pumpkin every night with black plastic, but it's a doomed cause.

I'll have to write something for  my Christmas Card then, rather than
just send out pumpkin seeds.

Saw the AMAZING Dave mcKean illustrations for the DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD
FOR TWO GOLDFISH television series today, which were good...
  

    
Hope everything's okay, Neil.

How many pumpkin seeds could you have sent out to each person anyway?  Not
enough for a decent snack.

(Wish I could see the McKean TV illos.  I know he's capable of working in
any style whatever, so I shouldn't be surprised--)
  

    
Martha -- ah, these are Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seeds. I figured I;d
send one to each person on my christmas card list to grow their own
pumpkin with...  The Godiva pumpkins are the seed ones.

The Dave TV illos are very lovely -- they are firmly based on the
style he created for DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH, but are
even more simple and vibrant. Gorgeous stuff. I thik he's going to
start on WOLVES IN THE WALLS soon.

Let's see. What else. Went to the last day of Renfest yesterday, to
see if the Flash Girls would actually do a gig. Arrived in time to say
hello to Shira and Sarah (two nice ladies occasionally sighted from
this topic) and then to go in search of food as I was starving. Watched
a Bedlam show, which was fun, but not a Flash Girls show.

Then went and saw Todd Menton do his "Monkey Boye" show, which was
fun, and caught a bit of "Puke and Snot" which actually helped a lot in
amplifying some points in a conversation I was having with my friend
Jim, who is a drama professor, about Shakespeare's clowns & why they
aren't funny.

And then ran into Lorraine and Emma who were going to have a photo
session in the smelly sachets of stuff booth (Wood Willow and Whatnot I
think) and actually played about 5 or 6 numbers, including Tea and
Corpses, which made me very happy. I stood leaning against a post, and
I grinned. Then came home and covered the giant pumpkin with black
plastic.
  

    
Was a gorgeous day on Sunday, a great day for fest (alas, I didn't get out
there).  I was kinda picturing Emma and Lorraine either at Wood Willow &
Whatnot or the Mead Booth just like old times.  Cool that I wasn't far off
. . . 
  

    
I don't think I could get a pumpkin to grow in pavement....
  

    
how about growing it in a pot. A Banzai pumpkin!
  

    
From Finland, Jouni writes:

Er... hello Neil... and others (hi Shira)

Great to see you online.

Um... I really hate starts. I mean you can fuck up real bad if you start
something in a wrong way... well anyhow, here we go.

My name is Jouni Koponen (Thingies know me as Jouniac). I'm a 28-year old
graphic designer (with a long hair and almost unhealty fondness to comics)
from Finland (that's why my English may seem weird). I have been reading
your stories for quite a while now and I'm very interested in hearing what's
up and what's going on. That's why I'm here.

Also, I want to say I enjoyed your visit in FINNCON and in Comics Convention
(I'm not sure if I thanked you properly during the signings). The story
about Essie Tregowan (not sure if I got the name right, sorry) was
absolutely marvelous.

Right... shall we go to the questions then? American Gods seems to be almost
finished, but what is the present situation with Coraline? I have also been
hearing something about a book called Murder Mysteries. Could you (or
somebody) tell something about it?

And last, but not least... Do you have any projects in comics at the moment?

Jouniac


        
  

    
I love the idea of a bonsai giant pumpkin.


Jouniac,

Glad you liked the Essie Tregowan story. 

Coraline is with Harper Collins -- they want it to come out after
American Gods. We need to find an illustrator for it: I want Dave
McKean if possible, as he loves the book, but we'll see. Henry Selick
(Nightmare Before Xmas/James and the Giant Peach) wants to do the
movie.

Murder Mysteries is a handprinted book edition of the script of the
radio play version of my story Murder Mysteries, the one at the scifi
channel web site.

That's http://www.scifi.com/set/originals/murder/


THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS may be coming out from Harper collins next
year as well -- Dave mcKean should do the illustrations in November.

The book I cowrote a year or so ago with Michael Reaves has been
bought by a movie company, and we'll probably sell the book rights very
soon. Not sure if it'll be by us or if we'll pick a pseudonym. It's a
Heinlein Juvenile.

And that's next year's books.

No comics projects around at present. Lots of people want me to do
things for them, mind you. So who knows? If the writers strike happens
and the Hollywood work stops, I may have the free time to work on some
comics stuff again.
  

    
Oh, I would so love to see a Neil Gaiman/ Henry Selick collaboration.
mmmm, stop-motion animation.
  

    
Another comment from Reg, via email:

Sounds like it's an expensive, but enjoyable year ahead for we
impoverished readers.

And probably another busy one for you Neil, but if it's any consolation,
according to Hodder Headline, the only visits you will be making to
Australia will be purely recreational.

And my contribution to the question of why Shakespeare's clowns aren't
funny is to point out that they are clowns. Clowns are not funny. They
are disturbing and scary.

Reg
  

    
Another from Jouni in Finland:

Hmmm...

Comics, novels, short-stories, poems, lyrics, radioplays, TV-scripts,
movie scripts, movie directing...

(Kinda reminds me of Rick Madoc in Calliope.... You do have an attic,
don't you?)

About Murder Mysteries -book still... Is it out yet? Do you know how many
copies going to be printed (was just wondering if any of those are going
to reach these parts of the world)?

Dave illustrating Coraline sure sounds divine! Hell, Dave illustrating
ANYTHING sounds divine...

Jouniac (who missed Dave's Vertigo Tarot -cards, and is still kickin'
himself because of it...)
  

    

As a random comment, I'd like to mention that last night I dreamed that I,
along with Neil, Tank from the Matrix, and one of my coworkers went out on
a boat owned by Neil. While trying to come back, half the people on the boat
were asleep, Tank was drunk, and I had no idea how to drive a boat, so we
crashed and got towed.

Just thought I'd share. Sorry about the boat, Neil. (No, no one was hurt.
 :)