Neil Gaiman's Blog, page 49

Death Wish

I went to Los Angeles, had a sort of a working holiday, came home, and am writing. Working out a lot with the trainer, got a new trampoline. The cherry tree is covered in cherries, and the wild raspberries (red and black) are out in the woods, and I find them when I walk the dog. Nights here are filled with fireflies. Steve Brust came over for dinner tonight and brought his puppy, and we talked about stories and writing until late. It's a good world.

That's about it for excitement a

Locus Award...

Arrived in LAX airport to find that the NorthWest lounge is closed for renovations, and cannot use the lounge or the Wifi. And the airport Tmobile Wifo connection is slow -- it's taken it ten minutes to give me a Blogger screen.
So I will keep this one very short. The Graveyard Book won the Locus Award for Best YA Novel this year. I wrote a speech for my Editor Jennifer Brehl (who was there) to deliver, and I thought I'd put it up here:

You have good years, and you have bad years. I

A Hollyday

So twenty-four years ago today, Holly Gaiman turned up in my life. At that point she didn't even have a name: we had thought she was going to be a Gemma, but she didn't look like a Gemma, so Mary and I went back to the drawing board, or rather the baby names book, and decided independently that Holly was the name we both liked. Her middle name is Miranda because I wanted her to have a bigger, posher name in case she needed one. She hasn't needed it yet, but you never know.

I miss he

What bears do.

Three years ago a bear showed up here. The first hint we had of its arrival was the metal birdfeeder poles beng bent and the emptying of said birdfeeders. So we took down the birdfeeders and, after a few months, the bear went away.
Last year Hans, who does useful things in the woods like building bridges and removing fallen trees, put up an electric fence around the bee hives, on the theory that it was just a matter of time until a bear returned; we had been told by local beekeepers

edinburgh

The Edinburgh Literary Festival tickets went on sale this morning, and the event on the 20th of August, the conversation between Ian Rankin and me, is now sold out. So I thought I should post a reminder here to let people know there are still tickets available for the solo event (just me, reading from The Graveyard Book, talking about it, and writing, and comics as well) on the 19th, from 4.30 to 5.30 pm.
(On the 22nd of August in Edinburgh I'll be doing some sort of Signing for th

Mourning Suit and Green Goddess

Decided not to fix yesterday's "Starberry" typo, as I rather like it, and wonder what they taste like.
Today's post brought volumes 3 and 4 of NESFA's COLLECTED STORIES OF ROGER ZELAZNY with introductions by me and Steve Brust respectively. This is the overview of the project on the NESFA website.
A photo from 1993's World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, taken by Beth Gwinn (a terrific photographer - this is her website: http://www.bethgwinn.com). Four out of five of the Guests o

The Father's Day & Invisible Plane Post

Two of my children have grown up and gone away, and I have one left at home (here seen piloting her invisible plane, in a photo by Kyle Cassidy). And it's Father's Day, which seems like the best time to mention how much I enjoy, and appreciate, being a father. I've learned more from being a father than from anything else I've done, any books I've read, anything I've studied, anyone I've spoken to. It's a good thing being a father, if you enjoy it, which I do. So this is where I sa

the lightning and the lightning bug

I know there are lots of things I should be blogging about, like the Oracular Orb Android App and being taken kayaking by my trainer and the poor bee who got stuck in my hair, and the strangeness of spending days with a New Yorker writer, and potato salad recipes, but they can all wait.

I took the dog out for a walk tonight, and together we wandered across the meadow next door. It was a warm summer's night, dark, and moonless. There were a handful of fireflies flickering intermitten

More on Stamps and Bookburning

Just a short follow-up on last night's post:
More UK media on the stamps: a really good article on the Fantasy Stamps (with stories) in The Times:

“She is so scary,” says Gaiman, examining the stamp. “But, of course, mermaids were always terrifying. With the exception of the Little Mermaid of the Hans Christian Andersen tradition, they would take your soul. And fairies were never things that people embraced — they were unknowable, dangerous, capricious. They could cause real trouble

Stamps, Bookburning and Depth of Field

Just a quick one to let everyone know (particularly people in the UK) that, as the Telegraph just reminded me, the Dave McKean mythical creature stamps go on sale on Tuesday the 16th. So they are on sale now.
If you go to
http://www.royalmail.com/creatures
It will take you to the page where you can learn about the stamps, the various things the royal mail has for sale (presentation packs, postcards etc) and where you can try to buy them. You may succeed. (I didn't, and have, grumpily