Friends

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091225

05:00 am - Girl Genius for Friday, December 25, 2009

The Girl Genius comic for Friday, December 25, 2009 has been posted.

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

09:29 am - Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year. All the best, andi

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

09:43 am - Mask

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091223

05:00 am - Girl Genius for Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Girl Genius comic for Wednesday, December 23, 2009 has been posted.

(9 comments | Leave a comment)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/why-all-lettering-is-getting-smaller.html

06:34 pm - Why all the lettering is getting smaller...

posted by Neil

I'm flying out tonight to the UK. I'll hole up in the middle of nowhere with my children and ex-wife and my mother as well, and probably be off-the-internet the whole time. There will be no TV in the middle of nowhere, so I will miss Doctor Who and miss "Statuesque" on Sky1 (10 pm Christmas Day).

Then I fly from the UK to Boston in time for Amanda's New Year's Eve gig with the Boston Pops. It looks like an amazing evening, and "Statuesque" will get its American premiere on a big screen as one of the evening's many entertainments (here's the Boston Pops page listing all the stuff that'll be happening that night).

Trying to deal with the last things I have to do before I get out of here. (Also realised very late last night that the problems I've had reading comics for the next Year's Best American Comics that I'm guest editing has nothing to do with losing my love for comics and everything to do with the fact that somewhere in the last year I must have started needing reading glasses for small print and had not realised this. I found a pair of reading glasses and the world became one with good, easy-to-read comics in it once again... I suppose more things like this will happen as I age. How odd.)

I leave you with a handful of links...

Edgar Oliver was on the Moth bill with me a few years ago. This week's Moth podcast is The Secret Origin of Edgar Oliver. (http://www.themoth.org/podcast is the Moth's Podcast page. It's a fine thing to have on your podcast list: strange, true stories that arrive weekly into your world.)

A reminder that I'll be narrating a performance of Peter and the Wolf in New York on January the 16th. (Details at http://www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com/cgi-bin/Go.cgi?q_id=1004&q_category=1)

The McNally-Robinson blog entry on my trip to Winnipeg: http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/editorial-1366/Neil-Gaiman-in-Winnipeg

And, for a heartwarming story, go to Cheryl Morgan's blog at http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=7272 Then follow the link.

Okay. Back to last-minute things...

Labels: edgar Oliver, will you still be sending me a valentine/birthday greetings/bottle of wine?, Boston Pops New Year's Eve

(11 comments | Leave a comment)

colleencoover

12:56 pm - The Ninth Day Of Xmas at Comics Alliance

Originally published at Colleen Coover.
» Click here « to leave any comments.

Tags: work

09:45 am - Green Curls

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

10:26 am - Goth

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091221

05:00 am - Girl Genius for Monday, December 21, 2009

The Girl Genius comic for Monday, December 21, 2009 has been posted.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/nakedly-commercial-post-sweetened-by.html

11:02 pm - Nakedly Commercial Post Sweetened By A Dog Photo

posted by Neil

Just a quick post to let those interested know that both Amazon and Barnes and Noble are doing extreme Christmassy discounts on ODD AND THE FROST GIANTS. It's available for 50% of the cover price...

The Amazon.com link is http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Frost-Giants-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061671738

The Barnes and Noble link is at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Odd-and-the-Frost-Giants/Neil-Gaiman/e/9780061671739

...

There's a lovely New York Times article that says that CORALINE is one of the best films of the year; a great UK Sunday Times roundup of the best childrens' books of the year, that lists Crazy Hair:

There are few picturebook-makers as cool as Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman, and their latest collaboration, Crazy Hair (Bloomsbury £11.99), for 3-6s, is wild. It’s about a father whose hair is so big it contains tigers, pirate ships and carousels. Distortions and magnifications make the images strange and dark, rivalling the text for energy and verve.

I got to amaze and impress my daughter Maddy the other day, using http://us.akinator.com. You may enjoy impressing someone with it. Or perhaps just learn to demonstrate your telekinetic skill (I wish I'd known how to do this when I was twelve. I would have conquered the world with it).

Here's a Czech literary scandal I found fascinating, featuring a non-existent 19 year old Vietnamese girl: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/200912/The-literary-scandal-that-rocked-the-Czech-Republic-884057/.

And in case any of you need photos of worried or screaming children sitting on the laps of Santas who go from inert to terrifying: http://www.sketchysantas.com

Labels: half-price books, Coraline, dog photograph, Crazy Hair

(12 comments | Leave a comment)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/xmas-roundup-with-some-good-links-and.html

06:57 pm - Xmas Roundup With Some Good Links and a photo of an author in it

posted by Neil

How the hell did it get to be December the 18th? Ohhh. All the links I meant to post. Arghh.

For a start, I want to repost this little true thing I wrote, from last year's Independent: it's about being an eight year old Jewish kid who really wanted a Christmas tree...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/neil-gaiman-hanukkah-with-bells-on-1203307.html

I wanted to tell you that you can still get the signed prints of "Before You Read This" I did with Todd Klein -- it's a poem I wrote that Todd lettered -- at Todd's website (along with Todd's other unique signed prints -- collaborations with Alex Ross, Alan Moore and J.H. Williams). http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=6525. (If you're hesitating, order: they're really cheap, and the second printing will be gone soon.)

Also, for signed things and rare stuff, you can Do Good while last minute shopping by heading over to the CBLDF shop website. Here's the page with stuff related to me on it.)

I just got my author's copies of "A Hundred Words To Talk of Death", the poem I wrote that Jim Lee illustrated and Todd Klein lettered. (Someone wrote to me on Twitter pointing out that it is two syllables short, and unable to figure out why. I will leave that as a problem for you to solve.) It's beautiful -- the same size and quality as the print of "The Day The Saucers Came". It's glorious. (Thinks: I can take a photo to show people.)

I didn't used to think of Jim Lee as a glorious and subtle pencil artist, but he really is, and this is wonderful. (You can order them from here, and read about Kitty's adventures in shipping them out over at http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com/, with bonus pictures right now of my Very Late Guy Fawkes Part of last month.)

Here is a photo of an author who needs a shave holding a print of "One Hundred Words" poem.

Kitty herself is heading off on tour with Lady Gaga early next year, and Maddy is going to see them in Chicago (where, about eight years ago, I first met Kitty, on the road with Tori) (Who will be interviewed tonight on ABC -- Tori that is, not Kitty or Maddy).

Amanda and I have been having something that isn't quite an argument about Lady Gaga for a few weeks. We have really rubbish arguments, because they normally resolve into the discovery that we weren't arguing at all, just saying the same thing from two different points of view. Amanda posted a ukulele video-song-blog she'd written late last night from her Boston flat when she was probably meant to be practising her New Year's Eve Tchaikovsky, and I discovered that our latest argument wasn't an argument and we were talking about the same things again. It's art. You make it.

I don't think I will ever write songs and post them on YouTube instead of blogging. I'm in awe of someone who can. It's a good song, too, not just a funny and wise end-of-an-argument, even if she has to stop and scroll down at the last verse.

Also, she said "aluminium".

And finally, in keeping with the not-exactly-Christmassy-but-sort-of theme of this blog...

Labels: Tim Minchin, lady gaga, Jewish Christmas things, amanda palmer, Jim Lee, Todd Klein, photo of me holding something

(31 comments | Leave a comment)

08:50 am - Hoody

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091218

05:00 am - Girl Genius for Friday, December 18, 2009

The Girl Genius comic for Friday, December 18, 2009 has been posted.

(5 comments | Leave a comment)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/late-night-mystery-post.html

04:43 am - Late night mystery post...

posted by Neil

Hullo everyone. I took a week off from Blogging, then didn't have a second during the whirlwind of the last few days.

As a result of which I have dozens of open tabs and dozens of letters to the FAQ line that I've marked as things I should answer. I'm not going to try and do them all now (Maddy told me that I'm taking her to school at 6:30 am, as she's got her first period of Driver's Ed). But there are a few things I should say before I sleep...

The first one is to congratulate Henry Selick and all the Coraline team (and Laika, and Focus) on the wonderful way they are being recognised by Awards. Yesterday, for example, we learned that Coraline is nominated for a Golden Globe award.

There's a great website at http://awards.filminfocus.com/#/coraline/awards which is a bit out of date right now. My favourite of the recent awards is that the Alliance of Women Journalists gave Coraline their Best Animated Character award, although the biggest honour is Coraline being on the American Film Institute's list of the ten most important films released in 2009.

I went to Atlanta. It was foggy and thunderstormy and I signed for 1,050 people. (Here's the Atlanta paper blog on the event. And Little Shop of Stories said Thank You so very nicely.)

I went to Winnipeg. It was cold outside and I signed for 869 people. Here's the Winnipeg Newspaper article. Just behind me, in the grey shirt, is the wonderful Elyse Marshall, publicist from HarperChildren's, who looked after me on the Graveyard Book Tour and who can now run a huge signing in her sleep, which is great, because it means I don't have to worry about any details or disasters. I just do my job and sign and meet everyone.

(How bad can it get? Well, there was the time Terry Pratchett and I were signing in, er, I think it was Leeds, when the people who worked at the shop saw all the people who had turned up for the signing and got scared enough that they locked themselves in the staff room at the back, leaving Terry and me to climb onto tables and shout at people until they formed some kind of a line. The staff didn't come out again until the people had all gone.)

Strangest moment in Winnipeg was getting back to the hotel room at 1:30 am to notice that, beside my bed, a framed photo of my children had mysteriously appeared. I assumed that this was a cool thing the hotel had done. Elyse, on the other hand, was convinced it was the action of a crazed stalker, and insisted I deadbolt and security chain my hotel room, and was enormously relieved, a few hours later, when she knocked on my door and I removed the chain and was obviously still alive.

Dept of delightful mysteries: in hotel room, by my bed, is a ... on Twitpic

Before we left the hotel I took the photo out of the frame and left a thank-you note in its place.

I took the photo and left a note in the frame. on Twitpic

Flew back to Minneapolis. I stopped off at DreamHaven on the way back from the airport this afternoon, and signed more stock for Greg (http://neilgaiman.net/). Theoretically enough to see him through Xmas.

Several people wrote asking me to express my outrage at HarperCollins joining several other publishers in delaying the release of books on the Kindle or e-book format to some months after the hardback comes out, as detailed at http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/11/harpercollins-now-also-thumbing-nose-at-e-book-industry-with-dig/ but after I read the article I couldn't manage any outrage at all, no more than I could manage for people who demand that paperback books come out at the same time as hardbacks. It seemed a legitimate way to publish, anyway.

And, for those of you who want to learn exactly how an author should not respond to an Amazon One-Star review, we present an author named Candace Sams, who begins by pretending she's not the author, just someone defending a good book, then, when outed as the author, claims she's part of a noble group standing up against an evil one-star reviewer, and then informs everyone on the Amazon Comments thread that she's reported them all to the FBI. The Amazon Thread is here. Teresa Nielsen Hayden comments on it at Making Light, here. (Via Cleolinda's twitter.)

And yes, it's a horrible car crash, and I post it here not because it's funny in an Oh God Make It Stop kind of way, but because, if any of you are ever tempted to respond to bad reviews or internet trolls etc, it's a salutary reminder of why some things are better written in anger and deleted in the morning. (Also, if you're an American Games company, don't sue a British blogger in the Australian courts for a bad review.)

Oops. I have started blogging. I will stop now, and sleep for a little while.

...

Before I go: Sky has a website for the Ten Minute Tales series, which includes Statuesque, my film starring Bill Nighy (which goes out in the UK on Christmas Day) : http://sky1.sky.com/10-minute-tales. I wish I could have been at the screening in London on Sunday, more so when I saw my old friend Paterson Joseph stars in one of the films.

Labels: a mystery without any resolution yet, decatur, Henry Selick's Coraline, author mistakes, winnipeg, The Graveyard Book Halloween Party Competition

(20 comments | Leave a comment)

08:55 am - The View

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

09:21 am - Blink

********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

(1 comment | Leave a comment)