Where did I go? Out. What did I do? Nothing. OR, why I'm coming back to the blog once more...
posted by Neil Gaiman
It's been a while since I blogged. I'm not entirely sure why I stopped – guilt partly. Lou Reed died, and I was going to write a blog about Lou, but I wrote a piece for the Guardian about Lou and what his music had meant to me instead.
And then it seemed so many things had happened, and I had not written about any of them, and catching up seemed less and less possible. I was not worried because there was Twitter and there was Tumblr and people were seeing what I was doing as I did it.
Despite an epic blast of food poisoning, I survived the World Fantasy Convention in the UK, and went to LA for a conference on magical history, where I also I interviewed JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst about their book S for BBC 2's Newsnight. I don't think I have a new career waiting in TV interviewing, but it was fun and enlightening and I asked my questions as well as the BBC's:
I had a birthday, a quiet one, at home in the Midwest, and saw my dog and my friends and warmed my hands at a bonfire.
I had a conversation at the Rubin Museum with Laurie Anderson. We talked about Ignorance. This was inspiring and magical.
There were the two EVENING WITH NEIL AND AMANDA nights at the Town Hall in NYC. The first was chaos, and Amanda loved it and I didn't, and the second was perfectly structured and ran as planned, and I loved it and Amanda didn't. (The second was on the 23rd of November, the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who: Amanda and I saw the 3D screening of The Day of the Doctor first, and loved it, and Arthur Darvill, fresh from ONCE, joined us on stage to hold placards that night).
I was on WBUR with Tom Ashbrook, talking about Sandman: Overture.
Thanksgiving was spent with Amanda's friends, family and Cloud-club-mates at our place in Cambridge MA.
I gave a talk about creativity to the C.A.V.E. Conference in Las Vegas, and spent time with Skottie Young and Dave Gibbons and went to see LOVE with Skottie and Joe Quesada.
I went to the UK for three days: I had a glorious time reading a letter from Kurt Vonnegut Jr at the Reading Agency Benefit along with a star-studded cast, and then doing an auction with fellow auctioneer Gillian Anderson and book models Benedict Cumberbatch and Nick Cave. We raised over £11,000 for the Reading Agency (a Good Thing).
You can read about it, and watch Benedict and Gillian in letter-reading action at http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/news/cumberbatch-cave-anderson-and-gaiman-join-together-in-praise-of-letters.html
The next night was the National Book Awards, sponsored by Specsavers. I was nominated for three book awards – Author of the Year (for Ocean at the End of the Lane), Children's Book of the Year (for Fortunately the Milk) and Audiobook of the Year. I won Audiobook of the Year, for The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I wore a tie and everything, and was grateful.
I had several mysterious meetings the following day, particularly with the United Nations High Council on Refugees, for and with whom I'm hoping to do something good in 2014, then I came back to the US.
Straight to New York. I has been asked by author Molly Oldfield to read Dickens' prompt copy of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and had agreed if I could do it with a Dickensian beard and in Victorian Garb: I remembered seeing actor Emlyn Williams performing an evening of Charles Dickens when I was a boy, and the clothes and the beard were all. It happened, and was unlikely and delightful.
From http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/charles-dickens-christmas-carol-neil-gaiman-and-molly-oldfield. You can listen to the whole event there...
The holidays were spent in the sun, with the family, and were made extra-wonderful when I learned that Ocean At The End of the Lane had been voted the UK's Book of the Year.
...
And now I'm thinking about the year to come. I'm planning a social media sabbatical for the first 6 months (I talked about it here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/14/neil-gaiman-social-media-sabbatical). It's about writing more and talking to the world less. It's time.
I plan to blog here MUCH more, as a way of warming up my fingers and my mind, and as a way of getting important information out into the world. I'm planning to be on Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook MUCH less, although I'll make sure that posts letting people know about new blogs here keep going up, and I may nip out into the world from time to time to plug good causes.
Keep an eye on http://www.neilgaiman.com/where/ which will tell you where I'm likely to show up in person, and how to get tickets:
21 Feb 2014Billings, MontanaAn Afternoon with Neil Gaiman21 Feb 2014Billings, MontanaAn Evening with Neil Gaiman24 Feb 2014Calgary, CanadaAn Evening with Neil Gaiman [SOLD OUT]07 Mar 2014Glassboro, NJGood Art: An Evening with Neil Gaiman29 Apr 2014Syracuse, NYNeil Gaiman at The Oncenter Crouse Hinds Theater07 May 2014New York, NYAn Evening with Neil Gaiman
is the current list.
If you are used to hanging out with me on Tumblr or Twitter or Facebook, you are very welcome here. Same me, only with more than 140 characters. It'll be fun. Or it'll be like watching someone giving up smoking.
Labels: Book of the Year, Sabbatical, Laurie Anderson, The Reading Agency, Charles Dickens, National Book Awards, Lou Reed
It's been a while since I blogged. I'm not entirely sure why I stopped – guilt partly. Lou Reed died, and I was going to write a blog about Lou, but I wrote a piece for the Guardian about Lou and what his music had meant to me instead.
And then it seemed so many things had happened, and I had not written about any of them, and catching up seemed less and less possible. I was not worried because there was Twitter and there was Tumblr and people were seeing what I was doing as I did it.
Despite an epic blast of food poisoning, I survived the World Fantasy Convention in the UK, and went to LA for a conference on magical history, where I also I interviewed JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst about their book S for BBC 2's Newsnight. I don't think I have a new career waiting in TV interviewing, but it was fun and enlightening and I asked my questions as well as the BBC's:
I had a birthday, a quiet one, at home in the Midwest, and saw my dog and my friends and warmed my hands at a bonfire.
I had a conversation at the Rubin Museum with Laurie Anderson. We talked about Ignorance. This was inspiring and magical.
There were the two EVENING WITH NEIL AND AMANDA nights at the Town Hall in NYC. The first was chaos, and Amanda loved it and I didn't, and the second was perfectly structured and ran as planned, and I loved it and Amanda didn't. (The second was on the 23rd of November, the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who: Amanda and I saw the 3D screening of The Day of the Doctor first, and loved it, and Arthur Darvill, fresh from ONCE, joined us on stage to hold placards that night).
I was on WBUR with Tom Ashbrook, talking about Sandman: Overture.
Thanksgiving was spent with Amanda's friends, family and Cloud-club-mates at our place in Cambridge MA.
I gave a talk about creativity to the C.A.V.E. Conference in Las Vegas, and spent time with Skottie Young and Dave Gibbons and went to see LOVE with Skottie and Joe Quesada.
I went to the UK for three days: I had a glorious time reading a letter from Kurt Vonnegut Jr at the Reading Agency Benefit along with a star-studded cast, and then doing an auction with fellow auctioneer Gillian Anderson and book models Benedict Cumberbatch and Nick Cave. We raised over £11,000 for the Reading Agency (a Good Thing).
You can read about it, and watch Benedict and Gillian in letter-reading action at http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/news/cumberbatch-cave-anderson-and-gaiman-join-together-in-praise-of-letters.html
The next night was the National Book Awards, sponsored by Specsavers. I was nominated for three book awards – Author of the Year (for Ocean at the End of the Lane), Children's Book of the Year (for Fortunately the Milk) and Audiobook of the Year. I won Audiobook of the Year, for The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I wore a tie and everything, and was grateful.
I had several mysterious meetings the following day, particularly with the United Nations High Council on Refugees, for and with whom I'm hoping to do something good in 2014, then I came back to the US.
Straight to New York. I has been asked by author Molly Oldfield to read Dickens' prompt copy of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and had agreed if I could do it with a Dickensian beard and in Victorian Garb: I remembered seeing actor Emlyn Williams performing an evening of Charles Dickens when I was a boy, and the clothes and the beard were all. It happened, and was unlikely and delightful.
From http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/charles-dickens-christmas-carol-neil-gaiman-and-molly-oldfield. You can listen to the whole event there...
The holidays were spent in the sun, with the family, and were made extra-wonderful when I learned that Ocean At The End of the Lane had been voted the UK's Book of the Year.
...
And now I'm thinking about the year to come. I'm planning a social media sabbatical for the first 6 months (I talked about it here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/14/neil-gaiman-social-media-sabbatical). It's about writing more and talking to the world less. It's time.
I plan to blog here MUCH more, as a way of warming up my fingers and my mind, and as a way of getting important information out into the world. I'm planning to be on Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook MUCH less, although I'll make sure that posts letting people know about new blogs here keep going up, and I may nip out into the world from time to time to plug good causes.
Keep an eye on http://www.neilgaiman.com/where/ which will tell you where I'm likely to show up in person, and how to get tickets:
21 Feb 2014Billings, MontanaAn Afternoon with Neil Gaiman21 Feb 2014Billings, MontanaAn Evening with Neil Gaiman24 Feb 2014Calgary, CanadaAn Evening with Neil Gaiman [SOLD OUT]07 Mar 2014Glassboro, NJGood Art: An Evening with Neil Gaiman29 Apr 2014Syracuse, NYNeil Gaiman at The Oncenter Crouse Hinds Theater07 May 2014New York, NYAn Evening with Neil Gaiman
is the current list.
If you are used to hanging out with me on Tumblr or Twitter or Facebook, you are very welcome here. Same me, only with more than 140 characters. It'll be fun. Or it'll be like watching someone giving up smoking.
Labels: Book of the Year, Sabbatical, Laurie Anderson, The Reading Agency, Charles Dickens, National Book Awards, Lou Reed
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Bryanna
(new)
Jan 01, 2014 07:22PM
I love reading anything you write, whether it is in a book, a tweet, or a blog post, and I look forward to what comes in 2014.
reply
|
flag
Happy New Year! You make a fabulous Dickens. swear there must be some shared DNA there, or maybe just his spirit. A friendly Spirit. That writes :)
Amazing how something we love can overwhelm us when we feel like we 'owe it' something. More blogs more contact more pictures. Then we slow down and remember that this is what we like to do, we dont HAVE to do anything and it is fun again ;)Wishing you the best of luck in everything that you love. I adore you and your work, hopeing that some day the stars will align and I will be blessed with the chance to attend one of your events :D
I doubt I'll ever find myself anywhere near your vicinity, which is a shame, because to shake your hand would be my greatest honor--but I'll settle for as much literature as you can create in 2014! Ocean at the End of the Lane was wonderful, and once again, I find myself finishing the last lines thinking, "How does he keep coming up with this stuff? And how does he tell these stories so eloquently, with just the perfect amount of detail?" I have found a lot of writers to admire over the years, but after reading only a handful of your stories, you had trumped even my childhood idols. I can only dream of being half the writer you are, but more than any author out there, you remind me why I ever wanted to write in the first place. I rarely do this but I wanted to come out of the woodwork, just for a few minutes, to say thank you for everything from The Graveyard Book to Coraline, which chilled and fascinated my children, and especially for The Sandman, which ousted The Walking Dead from the #1 spot on my favorites list as soon as I'd finished the first storyline! I can't wait to read Fortunately the Milk to my kids--if only they will sit still... I hope you never stop writing!!
