Neil Gaiman's Blog, page 54

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Hello world.
I'm home. It's raining, as it's been raining for two days, which is a good thing as it's taking care of the remaining piles of snow or the shadowy places where paths are still covered with ice. Looked out of the window yesterday and realised the first snowdrop was out, which made me ridiculously, momentarily happy. Snowdrops were the first flowers I remember being able to identify - I learned about them age 3 or 4 from a book with a title like "A story a week" - and the

Hugo Thoughts

The Hugo nominations are in. 
It's a great nomination list. I hesitated when I was told that The Graveyard Book was nominated -- I turned down a Hugo nomination for Anansi Boys a few years ago. But this time, after a few days to think, I accepted, and I'm glad I did, mostly because it's really astonishingly nice company to be in. The kind of company where I don't feel like I'm in competition: Neal Stephenson, Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross are friends (I've known Charles since, wh

The Religion of Dolphins...

I slept for the better part of 13 hours last night, and now feel remarkably human compared to any other point in the last ten days. Actually-rested is good. Maddy and I cancelled one leg of Maddy's Spring Break Adventure, although we still plan to go off tomorrow for a couple of days in the sun for the second leg.
Picked up my copy of New Scientist over breakfast this morning (which, along with Fortean Times, is my favourite publication) and found myself puzzling over an article tha

Monday, Colbert, and tabs galore

This is what I wrote yesterday, but didn't post. (I went to sleep instead.)

I'm on the plane home from New York right now, with Maddy. (Mike flew back to San Francisco at the crack of dawn this morning.)

The New York stop on the way home was to appear on The Colbert Report - they had asked me to a couple of weeks ago, and we'd set this date. I came close to cancelling last week, but thought it was the kind of thing that my dad would have liked me to do -- and, perhaps more importantl

Before and After Science

Presenting Maddy Gaiman at 7:30 this morning...



and Maddy Gaiman at 9:30. Braces off. Proud parental smile as well as the happy Maddy smile...



Here's The Colbert Report interview: it will play in some countries, and not in others. Full blog report of New York trip to follow...

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cNeil GaimanColbert Report Full Episodes
Political HumorMark Sanford
NASA Name Contest
No, it wasn't rehearsed or scripted (people keep asking me), and it was much too

Colbert and me...

Hullo from a hotel room in which Mike Gaiman is reading Lance Armstrong's autobiography, Maddy Gaiman is reading Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle ("Dad! You're in this!") and I am not reading anything but am instead getting on the computer to say that I will be interviewed on The Colbert Report tonight, for those of you who want to set your TIVOs and also that I am wondering whether or not I should shave.
I guess I will.[image error]

Labels:  Stephen Colbert

Long weekend

So it's been a week. Saturday I found out, this week was spent in the UK, with relatives, giving eulogies and hugging people and seeing old friends and relations... My parents' actual 50th wedding anniversary was the 1st of March, but the whole family had been meant to get together at the end of the month. And now we were all seeing each other too soon, and in the wrong way.

Every day felt like a Sunday. So odd. A week long weekend.

The easiest thing was standing up at the servic

intermission

I'm in the UK for a few days with the family for funeral stuff. I think I'm not going to blog for a bit: I'm reading all the condolences, and am touched and grateful. But it's all a bit immediate, and the world can carry on for a week without me.

another day

posted by NeilWhy didn't you say it was your dad?" asked a friend, after reading the last blog post.

Because when I wrote it, I didn't know if my mum had told the rest of the family, if the cousins and the aunts knew yet. And so many people read my blog, I did not want family learning it from here. But yes, it was my dad.

While it may not be true to say that he was never ill a day in his life, it would certainly be true to say that he was never ill as long as I knew him: yesterday he was in the mi

A Day.

posted by NeilA long, strange day. In the taxi downtown this morning I learned that there had been a sudden death in the family, and I went down to the sunshine of Union Square to phone people, and sort logistical things out, and breathe. Several people suggested that I cancel the signing, and I even thought about it for a moment, and realised that I couldn't: there were hundreds of people lined up outside Books of Wonder, and it gave me something to focus on. So I went and did the reading and Q