Neil Gaiman's Blog, page 37

Stopgap

This isn't actually the next blog entry. Well, it is, but it's just by way of a stopgap until I get an hour's downtime to actually write the next entry, the one that takes me from Chicago and the CBLDF to Stillwater and the UK, with volcanoes and suchlike on the way.

I'm on deadlines right now, which means that there's been nothing much happening except writing, and burning food. I'm getting to be really good at burning food. Baked apples mostly, which are things I can pop into t...

What I Did to Celebrate National Library Week Part One: Vonnegut and Rollergirls

So...
when last seen, I was on my way to Indianapolis, where I gave the 33rd McFadden Memorial Lecture. I talked about libraries (because it was National Library Week) . This was a bit intimidating, as previous lecturers included John Updike, Maurice Sendak, Lloyd Alexander, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut (who had been an Indianapolis resident).
At the end of the lecture I was presented with the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Award for Literature, a national literary award created and admini...

Useful Information. Plus added Creepy Doll...

I've been waiting for the new CBLDF website to go online, but it's not quite up yet, so I'm just going to cut and paste their press release.

The CBLDF Salutes Chicago With A World Class C2E2 Showing!

This weekend the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund lands in the windy city with an incredible array of events and exclusives for our supporters at the inaugural edition of C2E2! Join us for An Evening with Neil Gaiman, Signings with Tony Harris, exclusive new prints by Gaiman and...

In Which My Matter Duplication Ray Is Almost Perfected

I ought to be blogging either about National Library Week (at least mentioning the National Public Radio interview I did with Euan Kerr) or about the events coming up later this week in Indianapolis, Chicago and Stillwater.
But instead, the important thing that I am currently feeling guilty for not blogging is Pearl. So I am going to tell you about Pearl.
Pearl is a bitch.
Pearl is most definitely not my bitch.
Pearl is, like Cabal, a White German Shepherd. She belongs to my...

Just Happiness

This is an animation of Charles Vess's art, turning Pencils into Paintings, with me saying the poem over it, to promote the book of INSTRUCTIONS we've done. And it is so beautiful. I am really proud of the job that the Harper's team did on this. I want to make everyone watch it.



For those having RSS problems, or who cannot see an embedded video here, the direct YouTube link is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRvqO1MjIs. You can also go to http...

How to Mortify Your Daughter

Several days spent writing and recovering from travel. My dog is good, my bees are happy, I'm writing (scripts mostly), I'm eating healthy foods and walking and really life is enormously enjoyable and has very little in the way of adventures. The wildest thing I am doing currently is not shaving.
Matt Smith's debut episode of Doctor Who arrived on Saturday, and Maddy and I prepared to watch it. But Maddy, who is now fifteen and a half and has a driving permit, had gentlemen...

Four Hives Of Bees and things on my kitchen table...

I'm home.
When I left, it was winter. I've come home to the kind of Spring that means that Summer is just rumbling around like someone shuffling his feet waiting to be invited into a room: temperatures in the 70s, everything green and warm and welcoming.
The best news is that all four hives of bees survived the winter. I wasn't sure that they would -- was pretty certain that the red hive (which swarmed last year) would be empty (it wasn't), but all the lessons from the previous y...

Three Quarters of The Way Around the World...

I didn't expect to have time to blog until tomorrow, but I'm awake early.
So, let's see. I'm in the UK. Arrived friday night, saw my daughter Holly and my scary goddaughter Hayley, who now share a flat. Holly and I ate at Kikuchi in Hanway Street. She told me about the voluntary closing of The Hump, and suggested that Michael Sheen and I may have precipitated the raid.
Up early on Saturday and I took the train to Brighton, where I was a surprise guest at the World Horror Con...

Another Post From The Eternal Transit Lounge of the Soul

I loved Moscow, except for the traffic. The people were wonderful, my publisher was bemused and delighted that hundreds of people showed up for every signing, talk and event. I want to come back.

I'm writing this in the Aeroflot First Class lounge. It has luxurious seats and fast wifi and absolutely bugger all else in the way of nice things for international passengers. This has cheered me up immensely: I'd asked to fly Aeroflot because I'd heard so many horror stories from peopl...

A Quick One From Moscow

I was in Poland. First to see Amanda open a music festival in Wroclaw (which, by the time I left Poland, I had decided is pronounced something fairly closed to Vrotswaf) and then we went to Warsaw, where I did lots of interviews, and we filmed a segment for Polish Breakfast TV ("It is about people coming to Warsaw as romantic destination"*) and I did a signing while Amanda did a ninja gig in a nightclub basement.
My publishers kept me fed.

And then there was a half day that was...