Running Saws
I went to England, where I attended Amanda's art event, and saw her band's first real public amplified gig. (I sang Leon Payne's "Psycho" between two duelling musical saw players.) We went from there to Utrecht to celebrate the wedding of Amanda's sister Alyson, and to spend time with my milliner daughter, Holly, who has just completed her Higher National Diploma in Millinery, and is no longer a 'prentice Milliner.
(Photo by Elliott Franks. The whole photoset is here. L to R, we are looking at shadowy Chad Raines, Adrien Stout of the Tiger Lilies, me, and Michael McQuilken. And some flowers.)
On the plane to the UK I finished writing the new novel. I'm not sure right now if it's going to be called Lettie Hempstock's Ocean or not. I think it's a good book - or at least, I think it's a real book, and I'm proud of it, and whether it's good or not will be up to other people to judge. Despite the protagonist being about 7 years old for most of the novel, it's a book for adults. Or at least, I think it is.
Now I'm doing things to it, including worrying that there's a better title and rereading it and making it better and clearer and scarier wherever I can. But it's a new book for adults, one I didn't even know I would write until February, and it makes me happy that it exists.
Waiting for me when I got home were some fold and gathers (or F&Gs) of Chu's Day - unbound copies that will go to booksellers and librarians and such people who will decide what they are ordering and how many copies of a book that has not been printed.
Chu's Day is the first book I've ever written for really little kids. Ones who cannot read. Ones who can only just walk. Those ones. I hope that they like it, or at least, that they love Adam Rex's amazing illustrations.
...
This is advance warning that on Friday the 29th, at 8:30 am UK time, Tickets for the Edinburgh Book Festival go onsale.
I'm only doing one event there this year, on Monday the 13th of August, at 8 pm. Chris Riddell is the artist in residence and he and I will talk together about Coraline's Tenth Anniversary. (Here's the UK's 10th Anniversary edition.)
Details at http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/coraline-with-neil-gaiman-chris-riddell
I'll also be playing the Voice of the Book at the Edinburgh Playhouse on July 21st, in the final show of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live tour, currently going on. (The whole tour is at http://www.hitchhikerslive.com/tour-dates.html and some dates have started to sell out. But not Edinburgh, not yet.)
(There may be one more Edinburgh thing. I'll post details here as soon as I know.)
I'm strangely jet-lagged right now... I was writing this and suddenly the world went all flat and odd, which means, I suspect, that I should stop writing now and either go for a run or go for a nap.
I wish I could do both at the same time. But then I'd wake up and be somewhere I had no memory of running to, and no idea of how to get back...
Labels: Holly graduates, Elliott Franks, Chu's Day, Edinburgh Book Festival, Lettie Hempstock's Ocean or whatever it winds up being called, Edinburgh, the perils of sleepjogging, Coraline
(Photo by Elliott Franks. The whole photoset is here. L to R, we are looking at shadowy Chad Raines, Adrien Stout of the Tiger Lilies, me, and Michael McQuilken. And some flowers.)
On the plane to the UK I finished writing the new novel. I'm not sure right now if it's going to be called Lettie Hempstock's Ocean or not. I think it's a good book - or at least, I think it's a real book, and I'm proud of it, and whether it's good or not will be up to other people to judge. Despite the protagonist being about 7 years old for most of the novel, it's a book for adults. Or at least, I think it is.
Now I'm doing things to it, including worrying that there's a better title and rereading it and making it better and clearer and scarier wherever I can. But it's a new book for adults, one I didn't even know I would write until February, and it makes me happy that it exists.
Waiting for me when I got home were some fold and gathers (or F&Gs) of Chu's Day - unbound copies that will go to booksellers and librarians and such people who will decide what they are ordering and how many copies of a book that has not been printed.
Chu's Day is the first book I've ever written for really little kids. Ones who cannot read. Ones who can only just walk. Those ones. I hope that they like it, or at least, that they love Adam Rex's amazing illustrations.
...
This is advance warning that on Friday the 29th, at 8:30 am UK time, Tickets for the Edinburgh Book Festival go onsale.
I'm only doing one event there this year, on Monday the 13th of August, at 8 pm. Chris Riddell is the artist in residence and he and I will talk together about Coraline's Tenth Anniversary. (Here's the UK's 10th Anniversary edition.)
Details at http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/coraline-with-neil-gaiman-chris-riddell
I'll also be playing the Voice of the Book at the Edinburgh Playhouse on July 21st, in the final show of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live tour, currently going on. (The whole tour is at http://www.hitchhikerslive.com/tour-dates.html and some dates have started to sell out. But not Edinburgh, not yet.)
(There may be one more Edinburgh thing. I'll post details here as soon as I know.)
I'm strangely jet-lagged right now... I was writing this and suddenly the world went all flat and odd, which means, I suspect, that I should stop writing now and either go for a run or go for a nap.
I wish I could do both at the same time. But then I'd wake up and be somewhere I had no memory of running to, and no idea of how to get back...
Labels: Holly graduates, Elliott Franks, Chu's Day, Edinburgh Book Festival, Lettie Hempstock's Ocean or whatever it winds up being called, Edinburgh, the perils of sleepjogging, Coraline
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Hypothesis
(new)
Jun 26, 2012 07:28AM
I, coincidentally, just finished rereading Coraline yesterday with Dave's horrifyingly amazing drawings to accompany it. However, Chris Riddell's illustrations are quite lovely, too, judging by that cover. So much so that I'm tempted to get that edition as well. Ahhh!
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Looking forward to Lettie Hemstock's Ocean or whatever it winds up being called! Loved The Graveyard Book! you made me cry at the end and I'm bloody 32!And I know you're over and done with The Sandman and the Endless, but I sort of miss them... :'-(
I look forward to seeing the new Coraline. Chris Riddell is one of my favorite illustrators. His drawings together with a wonderful book equals YAY x infinity!
Thanks for the update (shares with people in the e-ther), grateful for the efforts you go to to entertain and amaze us, so I shall look forward to the seeing the new book coming out.
I think I may have to get Coraline's tenth anniversary edition. Even though I have the original Previews Exclusive HC edition with the glow in the dark rats on the cover.
