elfhawk and I went to see it last Saturday. I was surprised when I found out she'd never read it when she was little, like I had but considering it's only about 10 lines long, it didn't take her very long to 'catch up'. Of course as a child, I always wanted to be a 'wild thing'. An untamed beautiful creature (and as a girl, often this was a horse/unicorn/equine of some sort). While the creatures in Where the Wild Things Are are not beautiful, they were still interesting and different. At least that was what the book was.

Now for the movie. I tried to go into it with an open mind. I haven't read the books since I was a kid so it's not like my preconceived notions are particularly fixed. But the advertisements were beautifully done and looked exciting. Oh how wrong was that.

To be perfectly blunt- the movie was boring, arty (in the not good way) and not fun. They added to the background of the book- they turned what came across (to me) as a normal rambunctious little boy into a kid from a broken home, a teenaged sister, has anger management issues and for some reason, has no friends. When you're an only child (as Max was in the book) it's natural to have imaginary friends and a very vivid fantasy life. In the movie, it's taken for an escape from his problems.

Now the movie started over very, very slow. I understand it had to set up the difference between Max's home life and the fantasy of the Wild things' home but once we get there....there's no magic. It's a bleak, almost colorless place. There's little fantasy to it, although, I'll admit to some surrealism (with a giant dog who appears in one scene, is never explained and never referred to again). And the Wild Things aren't really so wild. They're neurotic, selfish, whiny and stupid. I get the feeling they're supposed to stand in for Max's issues, either his id or his family or both but at the same time...no one really cares. They are not empathetic characters at all, most of the time you find them to be tiresome- or I did.

The critics praised the hell out of this and it just goes to show I have no idea what a critic is looking for. I expected magic and adventure, maybe some danger and a few lessons. What I got was a movie written by psychologists as if they'd asked Max to make the Wild Things represent all the things wrong in his life. There was no joy. It's a lifeless movie with no resolution. Max goes to the island and makes a mess of things and he doesn't grow as a character from it. Was his time with the Wild Things good or bad? Did it affect either him or them? There are no answers and I was left unsatisfied from the movie.

If you want a movie about a lonely, somewhat angry, imaginative boy, rent The Neverending Story. It's beautiful, joyful and scary all at once. It still teaches about The Suck of growing up without being so damned lifeless about it. And maybe it does have a cliched happy ending but at least people enjoyed it and still watch it now. I'm not sure the same could be said for this one.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/final-reminder-for-bookshops.html

A quick reminder (as I was just asked) that today is the day that the bookshop Graveyard Book party reports have to be in to Harper Collins. By 9 pm PST.

http://files.harpercollins.com/Mktg/HarperChildrens/PDF/GraveyardContest_rules.pdf are the rules and info for those who lost them.

Hi Mr. Gaiman,

I was disappointed today to read you won't be part of the judging for The Graveyard Book contests. My not-wealthy, middle-of-nowhere bookstore just sent in its entry, and something we're concerned about is the fairness of judging.

For example, independent bookstores like Powell's (I'm sure you know) easily have enough money and are in a convenient enough location to ask you to come at one time or another. Against stores like that, who were able to put more money into their parties, we stand little chance.

I don't think that it's a lost cause for us; we were very creative. I'm just nervous to know you won't be judging. Can you tell me whether you think the judges will take things like size and location of bookstores into account? It would make me sleep a little easier until the results are announced.

Tusen takk,
Allison

Well, per the rules, the judging is based on:

(i) Overall creativity of the Party, as demonstrated by the invitations, signage, decorations, activities, entertainment, and refreshments.
(ii) Customer attendance and response (i.e., enthusiasm, costumes, participation).
(iii) Ability to capture and represent the spirit of The Graveyard Book.
...specifically to reward creativity, and not the ability to outspend other shops. (That was also why the party had to actually be at the bookshop, and not at another location.)

I asked my editor, Elise Howard, and she said,

Gosh, yes. Here's what we think is happening. We are looking at all the entries. On Monday, we'll send you the best 11, from which you will choose the Grand Prize Winner. The rest will get the first-prize package. So the short answer is that you ARE helping to choose.

The longer answer is that we will be very fair and will consider creativity, which includes work done with available resources, along with pure execution. (Don't you think? We haven't done anything yet; still waiting for more entries to come in.)

...which means that

a) I was wrong and will be the ultimate judge, from the shortlist. (Damn.)

and

b) everyone's on a level playing field.

Does that help reassure you?

PS -- Widgett's Graveyard Book Dessert competition winners have been announced over at http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/11/06/graveyard-book-dessert-challenge-winners/.

This one had NOTHING to do with me at all. But lor' the winning desserts look tasty...

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/note-to-self-nights-are-for-sleeping.html

Still trying to get back onto a diurnal schedule. (And, I should add, failing.)
And, of course, although I posted it before, it bears repeating that you can watch the film that Steven-Charles Jaffe made of the "Dark and Silly Night" comic Gahan and I did for art spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's Little Lit at the New Yorker site, or here:



And if I'd been here for Hallowe'en I would have posted it here then. Which reminds me, The Graveyard Book party season is over. Over thirty independent bookshops had Graveyard Book parties (The ABA's Bookselling This Week reports on thirteen of the parties -- and the shops -- at http://news.bookweb.org/7149.html.) The very best one of all will get me in their shop doing a signing in December and, looking at these thirteen, I am very glad I am not any kind of a judge for the awards.

My only hope is that the shop that wins will be somewhere warm. But most of the places on the party map will be just as cold by December as my house. (Vague and only climate-based relief that HarperCollins said No to Alaska in the rules mingles with vague and selfish disappointment that they also said No to Hawaii.)

It looks like the CBS Sunday Morning profile on me is going out this Sunday, the 8th, 9:00-10:30 AM, ET. According to this website:

Correspondent Serena Altschul visits author Neil Gaiman -- the tender-hearted master of the macabre -- whose books, including Coraline and The Graveyard Book have topped best-seller lists for 25 years.

.. which left me wanting to go "I am NOT a tender-hearted master of the macabre, I am in fact VERY SCARY INDEED," but I suspect I would convince nobody.

Thrilled to see that Odd and the Frost Giants was listed as one of Amazon.com's Best Books of 2009. While I was in China The Graveyard Book was listed as one of the ALA's teens top ten for 2009 as well, an award voted on by over 11,000 teens. (And I made it onto the list with lots of other good people.)

Also, Fragile Things was awarded the French 2010 Les Grands Prix de l’Imaginaire Award for translated short fiction. My thanks to the judges, but mostly to the translator, who in this case is the incredibly talented Michel Pagel. If I ever look good, do well, sell books or am popular in a foreign country, it's because of the translators, and they never get enough thanks or acclaim. And I think I'll post the cover here, because I never have.

You're welcome. I think this link has everything for sale in the auction: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/scrawldog/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Y'know I grabbed this up because I thought I could answer this one relatively easy and once I started thinking about it....I couldn't. I don't know if I have a favorite all-time romantic movie scene. I mean, it's probably pretty obvious by now, that I have a predilection for action movies and those aren't exactly known for their romance. Granted, this is why I DO enjoy the romances in them (for the most part). They're brief. They're parsed down to their essences rather than get so overblown and annoying. They rely on chemistry (whether or not they should, granted) and stolen moments.

I also very much appreciate the understated romances in kung-fu flicks and some of the Chinese epics I adore. I'd have to say that the romance between Michelle Yeoh's character and Chow Yun Fat's in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is what sold me the movie (that and the awesome fight scenes between the female characters, which were, in my opinion, far superior and fraught with character conflict than the male/female ones). Their interactions were beautifully done through halting dialogue and the most heartbreaking looks I think I've seen. If I had to pick a favorite scene of theirs, it would either be the tea scene in the middle of the lushly green forest (the framing in that scene is gorgeous simply by itself!) or his death scene (er, spoiler if you haven't seen the movie yet?). It breaks your heart, well both of them do for different reasons, though mostly for the fact this is a love that has lasted years and denied for that long due to honor. It was so much more compeling to me than the romance between the girl and the young wanderer/bandit/teenage rebel boy.

Another one that follows the same vein of a prominent romance that doesn't take over the story, is Mononoke Hime. I am very fond of their romance although you could interpret it without any romance at all if you chose. Miazaki clearly enjoys strong female leads which I think makes the dynamics between San and Ashitaka refreshing. San is the warrior and very much a blunt, uninterested-in-romance-I-have-things-to-kill character while Ashitaka is the seeker; he's thoughtful and intelligent and responds with his heart (without being idiotic about it). I think the love theme in the movie is beautiful as well and is all the music.

Music, and silence work well on me for romance moments. There doesn't have to be tears and wailing or whatever goes on in those romantic melodramas. There doesn't even have to be actual sex either. Like as in Strictly Ballroom. The movie itself is spun out of the most basic of premise- the story of the ugly duckling. And what draws me to it is its quirky, off-beat humor, I'll have to admit, my very favorite scene is the dance sequence between the leads to Doris Day's "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps". It's all in the eyes and the tilt of their heads and the dancing. It's dreamlike almost and slow, exploring really. I like it and I always get annoyed that it gets interrupted no matter how many times I've seen the movie. I like it better than the triumphant-we've-overcome-the-odds routine at the end in fact.

I'm not saying that dialogue has no place in romance for me. Obviously I wouldn't be a fan of the he-said-she-said type relationships (see icon) if I didn't like dialogue. But I have trouble interpreting it as strictly romantic, you know? Romantic dialogue is usually quite cliche and laughable if you don't say it just right. Shakespeare has beautifully romantic dialogue when he wants (language is the only saving grace about Romeo and Juliet to me) and the scene on the rocks in 12th Night where Viola describes the love of women and the fact she is 'all the sons of my father's house and all the daughters too' is very romantic to me somehow. It's the way she admits her love, with a frankness and calling out Orsino about his maudlin, drippy and very melodramatic notions of love that I appreciate I suppose.
But I guess I find going with Shakespeare to be cheating somewhat as these lines have been around far longer than movies.

And of course, if I'm going to do this prompt and be a proper geek, I have to at least mention the scenes in Empire Strikes Back. Do I even need to elaborate further? They're fun, they're funny, they're even touching. The princess and the rogue is so very, very cliche. It's a Trope even (and yes, I will spare you all a link from TV Tropes so we all can get on with our lives today) that's probably Older Than Shakespeare. But it works for me. I love The Mummy because of it.  I love the modern version of it in The Cutting Edge don't judge me. I love it in Firefly, which while not a movie** (although Serenity was, obviously...) it's the same principle.

So I suppose that romance in movies (or tv) for me, has less to do with the scene themselves than the characters and the way it's built up to. Things like Twilight aren't ever gonna do it for me. They're too focused on BEING romantic so they AREN'T romantic. At least to me. Give me characters that fall in love in spite of themselves. That realize, abruptly, in inappropriate moments that they're in love. Give me characters that are friends and fall in love. Give me a little taste of romance and I'll probably come back for more.

Oh and if you want a real answer to the above....um, let's go with the waltz scene in Sleeping Beauty. Now someone else on my friends' list do this so I can be nosy. ;P

** And if I'm talking about TV romances, I cannot not talk about Susan and Marcus from Babylon 5. There's no strictly romantic scenes between them but dammit, The Scene, where Susan is utterly destroyed kills me Every Single Time.


Note to self: You still owe tkie a review of Where the Wild Things Are.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/author-comes-home-and-displays-many.html

I went to XinjiangProvince in Western China to continue researching my Monkey/China book. This is the photo I took of a scenic building that, I discovered when the men came out to arrest us, turned out to be a police station. If you're in Kashgar do not take pictures of this building. Trust me on this.



... or discussion of the pomegranate crop, counted as politics. It made my journey even stranger than it might have been already.
More photos of China and Singapore in my next post, I hope. In summary: Singapore was wonderful, but the visit was much much too short: we were there for about 50 hours altogether. Once again, the food was amazing and the people delightful.


(Middle photo of the amazing bubble by Miss Holly Gaiman. Who is fundraising.)

The tin man walked a long and lonely road. Many things he passed on by, ignored because they offered nothing of value. Yet, one day he stumbled upon a porcelain doll, shattered upon the ground. He looked upon her, saw her heart and fell in love. Like one caring for a bird with a broken wing, he took to her.

He did his best to piece her back together. She was missing pieces. So, with love and patience, he took some of his own pieces to put her back together, including his own heart. In time, she healed, and became a whole person.

As one, they shared some parts, but remained still as two separate individuals.

They traveled for awhile, and along the way she showed the tin man new light, and he saw more of the world around him than just the road he traveled. They learned from each other. They cared for each other, and fast became the best of friends.

Yet, a day came when she left the tin man, and lovingly he let her take those parts they shared with her. She was happy, full of a new life and freedom. Why would he take that from her? He watched her skip ahead, on his now not so lonely road. Occasionally she would come back to oil the tin man, for through his missing parts, he would quickly rust and soon stop working.

She urged him along, tried her best to help him keep up. The tin man was slow to move, rusting and missing pieces, but he kept on going. He would always be there, right beside her.

The tin man was missing parts, though not for lack of looking. He will find them again. Even though he would have a hard time finding them on his own, as he was usually left to do, he would find them again. As long as she returned from time to time to keep the tin man oiled, he would eventually find all the parts he needed, and they both could soon have a traveling companion, on this long and winding road.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/i-go-i-go-look-how-i-go.html

Mr. G is too busy to use the internet, so I'm still here.


Item, the first :: CBS Sunday Morning has moved the segment on Mr. G from this Sunday, November 1 to (tentatively) Sunday, November 8. More as it develops.

Item, the second :: Thanks to reader Tony McFee and Audible.com's director of direct marketing, we have the NYC subway ad!


Item, the third :: Reader Aurora RuPert carved Death into a pumpkin:

---

And then there was the mailbag:


In honor of the many Graveyard Book Halloween parties being thrown this weekend, Emily P. submits her own goblin variation, journal as an algorithms problem set:

Between the hours of 11pm on Friday October 30th and 11pm Sunday November 1st, 15 bookstores will be hosting Graveyard Book Halloween parties. Mr. G would like to visit as many as he can in these four hours. Assume you can model these bookstores as a connected graph G(V,E) where each vertex v corresponds to a bookstore. Positive edge weights w(u,v) denote the time (in minutes) it takes to travel between bookstores u and v.

a. Give an algorithm to calculate the maximum number of bookstores Mr. G can visit in four hours by traveling along the edges of this graph.

b. Give the run time of this algorithm.

c. Assume each bookstore also has a weight B(v) which tells you how long you can stay at that bookstore. Mr. G does not want to play favorites so on a given path p of n bookstores, he will stay k minutes at each bookstore where k = min(B(v1),B(v2),...,B(vn)). Given this constraint, give an algorithm to determine how many bookstores Mr. G can visit in four hours.

If anyone manages to provide a suitable answer set, they shall have an imaginary cookie.

---

Brittany H. writes:

Hi Lorraine!

I just wanted to say thanks for the link to BDFAR in Durham! I've lived in the area my whole life, but somehow how I had never heard of it. I am G-mapping directions there as we speak and now have a fruitful occupation for my afternoon.

1.) I'm not Lorraine. (She's far more fabulous.)
2.) You're welcome! I hope you liked it. I picked up some incredible used books there over the years, as well as the comics and music.

---

Teresa J. writes:

Any chance of you posting a photo of yourself before you hand the reins back? I'm sure the ladies would appreciate seeing another staggeringly good-looking, funny, and smart gentleman over whom they can swoon. :)

I'm sure they would, but I thought you were asking for a picture of me? *rim shot*

I like my quasi-anonymity. The closest you're going to get is this:


This is Eben, my spirit animal.

---

Apropos of nothing, except that Mr. G has been known to mention his Android phones, I'm playing with the Motorola CLIQ this evening. It's fun and cute, but I don't think I'll be trading my (deliciously modified, optimized) G1 in for anything short of a significant upgrade in processor and RAM.

I am feeling serious gadget lust for both the Motorola Droid and the Nokia N900, but the former is only on Verizon (and possibly, next quarter, AT&T), and the latter has a great deal going for it (including, but not limited to, my love for my N810 and the superiority of Maemo judged purely on the bases of openness and linux-completeness), but I've become rather partial to Android and its Google apps. I can only hope that T-Mobile quickly gets on the ball and announces something on par with either. (Surely Google won't bring out an inferior ADP2, or switch carriers?)

---

National Novel Writing Month begins Sunday. I've been participating successfully since 2005, and recommend doing it at least once if you have any sort of writerly ambition. It's a good deal of fun, and completely mad.

---

I've received several queries about where else I may be found online. I'm willing to go as far as re-stating that I have a largely neglected livejournal.

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

So, I have posted bits and pieces to a story that has been kicking around in my head, and I have decided that I wanted it to start a little differently. So, here is a new take on the same story. It's not much at the moment, but it got the ball rolling, and that is all i was looking to do at this time.

( No Title as of Yet )

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/playing-with-forms-journal-as-list-of.html

[My apologies to those of you seeing these posts again in your feed reader. I am attempting to diagnose the current LJ syndication fail. -your faithful web goblin]

• Lest I give a mistaken impression by referencing The Guild and The Legend of Neil, please know that I am the very antithesis of a gamer. I have never played a MMORPG. I haven't played a first-person shooter since the original Castle Wolfenstein. Never the less, I enjoy a good laugh, so I avidly follow things like Penny Arcade and The Guild. (Am I the only one who thinks it's strange that PA has never featured Mr. G, by the way?)


• I am not the knavish sprite I once was; it now takes me more like eighty minutes to put a girdle 'round the Earth, and twice that to get one around myself.


• I don't, in fact, have a secret network of subway-photographing New Yorkers. Unless by "photographing" you mean "dwelling".


• There is no sanity clause.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/playing-with-forms-journal-as-weekly.html

[My apologies to those of you seeing these posts again in your feed reader. I am attempting to diagnose the current LJ syndication fail. -your faithful web goblin]

Due to his special needs and peculiar physiology, Mr. G is shipped from place to place in a specially designed steamer trunk filled with a brandy-like solution. Upon his return home, he is not so much re-installed as he is decanted, the solution slowly replaced with tea. Mr. G spends the first subsequent week in a zombie-like fog as he marshals his power and bids his senses return to him, like Odin summoning Huginn and Muninn.

During this delicate period, care must be taken that nothing unusual intrudes upon the process, lest ZomblieN go wandering into the forest after deer and hapless hikers. It is rumoured that the lye pit is getting full, and Woodsman Hans needs a new shovel.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/playing-with-forms-journal-as-back-page.html

[My apologies to those of you seeing these posts again in your feed reader. I am attempting to diagnose the current LJ syndication fail. -your faithful web goblin]

Clare M. writes:

I haven't a question, more a spot of praise for Dreamhaven Books that I'd like to share with you, if I might be so bold.

Some time ago, Neil told us that Dreamhaven had a new batch of signed stock. I was looking for a special gift for my honorary neiece and so ordered a signed copy of Blueberry Girl, feeling slightly apprehensive about having it shipped to the UK. But, it arrived wonderfully packaged, very quickly and for a modest shipping fee. Thank you Dreamhaven.

Three cheers for Dreamhaven Books! It has bought, sold, and even published a lot of awesome stuff over the years.

In the spirit of this, the Graveyard Book Parties contest, and Tor.com's serialization of Cory Doctorow's Makers (for which he has requested that readers share some of their favorite booksellers or bookstores with the rest of the community in the comments sections after each post), please allow me to wax nostalgic about one of my favorite ones.

My local independent book store, growing up, was Books Do Furnish A Room in Durham, NC. From third grade through college I was there at least once a week. When I was little, buying Batman and X-Men comics, I had no idea that the store owners had great taste. By the time I discovered what I'd been missing, the Miracleman TPBs and the Dave McKean art books were gone, but I did manage to snag "Angels & Visitations", "Warning: Contains Language", "Violent Cases" (numbered and signed by Mr. G and McKean!), the whole run of From Hell, several Sandman shirts and posters, and "Signal to Noise".

It's an awesome place.

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Eden writes:

How did you first get into Neil Gaiman's work?

That's a good question. I hadn't actually thought about it in, well, possibly, ever, so the answer surprised me. My first exposure to the idea that there was a "Neil" was when I bought a used CD of Tori Amos' "Under the Pink" for $9 at Books Do Furnish A Room. I loved it; later, I got online and found out what "hanging out with the Dream King" and "Neil says hi by the way" meant.

The next time I was in BDFAR, I picked up the Sandman "Dream Country" TPB, because it was the shortest and least expensive. It hooked me completely, especially the Midsummer Night's Dream story with Vess. I picked up the earlier Sandman trades, started getting the monthly issue, and then got into his short fiction and other comics work. The rest is history, long-boxes, and continually upgraded bookshelves.

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Sandi L. writes:

Are you enjoying your time updating Neil's blog?

Yes. I wasn't sure at first; I was feeling decidedly unwitty and unworthy this time 'round, convinced that Non-Birding Bill would be doing a much better job. In the past few days, though, I've received many nice notes, so I guess my meager attempts are not all rubbish.

I hadn't planned on doing any guest blogging at all. Mr. G isn't going to be gone all that long. I'm only posting because he keeps sending me little things he wants posted. I think he's kindly humouring me.

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audra writes:

"goblin ears knit cap" ???

photographic evidence please. thank you.

and Angela W writes:

I should love to see a picture posted of you wearing your goblin ears knit cap.

I just knew, when I wrote that, that I was going to get a "pics or it didn't happen!" in response. And here it is.

Somewhere, in one of my previous posts from last year, I mentioned that the Web Elf and I had made grand plans for on-site bios of ourselves, complete with pictures in which we would be masked, or otherwise facially obscured, and wearing ears. I was going to commission a knit goblin ears cap from etsy or someplace. Alas, it did not come to pass.

If I did have a goblin ears knit cap, though, I imagine it might look something like this:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/playing-with-forms-journal-as-industry.html

[My apologies to those of you seeing these posts again in your feed reader. I am attempting to diagnose the current LJ syndication fail. -your faithful web goblin]

• The Graveyard Book Halloween parties map is up to 33 independent book stores!


• Dave McKean is working on an animated film adaptation of "Cages"!


• Time is running out for those wishing to take advantage of neverwear.net's sale on the otherworldly How to Talk to Girls at Parties print by Camilla d'Errico.
  
  I have it on good authority that, after this week, the sale will end in order to make way for something completely new, and original. (You may have seen a sneak peek of it tweeted by a certain hugely popular artist.)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/playing-with-forms-journal-as-csi-ny.html

[My apologies to those of you seeing these posts again in your feed reader. I am attempting to diagnose the current LJ syndication fail. -your faithful web goblin]

Mr. G sent the below image and directed me to find someone in New York that could get me a clean, complete photo of one of these subway ads. I wasn't sure if he meant me to post the request here, or if he thinks that I have a secret network of subway-photographing New Yorkers. Which I do, of course. They're just... uh... busy with other assignments. So, my own efforts having come to naught, I turn to you.

If anyone can take a clean, clear, complete photo of this ad for me, Mr. G and I would be appreciative.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/i-have-chart-dragon-chart.html

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This is rumour control. Here are the facts:

• We're up to 35 independent book stores throwing Graveyard Book parties.


• Dark Horse has posted a preview of Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess.


• Livejournal syndicated feeds are borked up; it's not just us.


• For the record, I do not read Mr. G's email when he is gone, not even the FAQ line stuff. I only see things submitted via the Site Inquiry line.


• Mr. G is tweeting quite a bit again, so I expect this will be my final post for this outing. I remain, as always, your faithful web goblin.

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First-time carver Charis sent the below image of a Coraline-themed pumpkin to Mr. G, who forwarded it to me, presumably for posting:



If you have your own carved pumpkin inspired by one of Mr. G's works, I'd love to see it.

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[Journal as the opening to every Twilight book:]

All of my attempts at writing a new post had been in vain.

With ice in my heart, I stared at the blank text input field, then tabbed back to my inbox. Still empty. When was Mr. G going to send me something else to post?

Would I ever learn what he was up to in China? Would I live long enough for that?

The odds of that didn't look so great.

Somewhere, far, far away in the cold mountains of Chendgu, a panda sniffled.

(Oh, Edward...!)

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[Journal as academic paper:]

A Dream and My Cardigan: Thematic Similarities between Neil Gaiman's The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories and Miley Cyrus' Party in the U.S.A.

ABSTRACT: Speculative fiction and tween music are both ripe with stories of alienated characters attempting to find their way through unfamiliar, often bizarre environments, be it high school or the submerged city of R'lyeh. Sometimes, the two genres may intersect, such as with Gaiman's The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories and Cyrus' Party in the U.S.A., both about a lone protagonist's arrival in Hollywood, and subsequent descent into madness.

EXCERPT: ...cardigan, calling to mind Bjork's mad, transgressive act of eating her own cardigan in response to her treatment at the hands of director Lars von Trier on the set of "Dancer in the Dark". When Ms. Cyrus sings, "Noddin' my head like yea / Movin' my hips like yea", she is describing her own ritualized expression of otherness, dancing in her own dark, so to speak, submerging in the dim "womb dentata" of a club full of stilettos.