Dinner With Neil Gaiman

[Wybren]

I was wondering if he will write another book set in Faerie? and if the Good Omens movie will ever happen?

[dwndrgn]

For the Gaiman neophyte - depending on what you like is where you should start. For YA try Coraline - it has been described as delightfully creepy. For comics, Sandman. For urban fantasy go for Neverwhere, slightly older than YA but appealing to adults is Stardust. Adult contemporary fantasy, American Gods. Slightly cynical, humorous look at religion if it were a department of faerie, try Good Omens (written with Terry Pratchett of Discworld fame).

His fantasies are quite often creepy, humorous and cynical but with a love for life. They are also varied and imaginative and I feel his best work is that aimed at a younger audience. Go check out his journal at Neil Gaiman - Home and you'll find out lots of good stuff (especially about bees, inks and fountain pens, weird fantasy art, white German Shepherd dogs and music).

[GOLLUM]

Just a reminder folks, the Gaiman evening is on Monday night (OZ time).....so any last minute questions?

[madeener]

Ask him if he'd ever consider getting into animation

[AE35Unit]

Wow this is cool,tho I have fun to admit I don't know that much about him apart from the fact that he's the man behind so many horror flicks. Have never come across any of his books and just associate him with comics. Have fun on the evening!

[GOLLUM]

Thanks I will...

[GOLLUM]

An Evening With Neil Gaiman

Hi all,

Well, I finally got to meet the Dream King and it was Awesome!!!!

Neil rocked up around 1/2 hr after the event started and shared a meal with us mortals, he was on the table next to mine.

Actually the demographic was kinda interesting because there were young people, families with children, people my age and then older folks in their 50s and 60s, pretty much a reflection of Neil's appeal to a wide audience. He was there to promote 2 of his new books M Is For Magic which I bought last year when visiting Nesa and The Dangerous Alphabet, which I got a copy of on the evening.

Anyway, after enjoying a 2 course meal with fellow enthusiasts Neil gave us a short speech about his trip to Australia and the importance of being resepctuful to your fans, which I was impressed by. He certainy comes across as a very approachable fellow.

Now for Nesa and others who wanted to know this, Neil then proceeded to read for us 2 full chapters from his upcoimng "Graveyard Book", the first time he had done so in public. He was quite brlliant at doing all of the various character voices, no wonder he does his own audiobooks. For those of you who don't know the story it is bascially about a child called Nobody who is found as a babe in a graveyard populated by dead people. Anyway, "Nod" as he is called goes through various trials and tribulations as he approaches adulthood, being raised as it were by dead people. The writing was excellent and there was plenty of Neil's wit and humour on show. It'll be coming out in September for Halloween in the States.

Apparently he got the idea about 20 years ago when he saw someone's child peddling around a graveyard and he thought to himself wouldn't it be cool to write a story like Kipling's Jungle Book but set it in a graveyard.

Following his talk he then proceeded to answer some questions. He was only able to answer 4-5 and yours truly managed to get a question in from the floor. The question I asked from Rane was:

Q "Have you any plans to collaborate with any other authors as you did eg. with Terry Pratchett on Good Omens or Gene wolfe on Walkng Tour Of The Shambles and is there anyone who has passed on you would have liked to collaborate with eg. Lovecraft? "

Neil: Neil suggested he had been approached by Rodger Zelazny for a collaboration but sadly Zelazny died before they could get things underway. He also spoke about wishing to write something with Harlan Ellison and a quite amusing story about how each time they would meet at a Con once his work would run through Harlan's copmuter it would aways shrink in size to the point that it had Neil wondering if they had contiuned to collaborate that the whole thing would be reduced to a few sentences.

Other questions inlcuded and I'm running on memory so I'm paraphrasing.......

Q: "The role of the Hero has changed over the last few decades, what do you think is the next evolution in the role of the hero?"

Neil: Well quite frankly I don't know and that may not be a bad thing. I'm a little suspcious of the whole idea of the "Hero" because I like to write about characters the person in the street can relate to.

Q: "What was it like working with Terry Pratchett?"

Neil: Well, I had had an idea a while back on Good Omens the story and had been kicking it around for a while and one day I messaged Terry to tell him that I had finally got an ending to the story. Anyway, Terry it may have been suggested we might like to collaborate or maybe I could write the story on my own or he would complete the story. Anyway, I'm not stupid so I of course said yes I would love to collaborate with you on this project and the rest as they say is history. Funnily enough, in those days we were using the snail mail to correspond by posting a floppy disc in the mail. We even once got so adventurous as to use email but as the modem I had was like a 1K modem I kid you not, it would have been easier for me to ring Terry up and dictate the thing over the phone to him!

Q: "Do you have many more ideas still running around your attic (mind) you're yet to put to paper?"

Neil: Well quite frankly not many. I have a story maybe a novel and a few other shorter things in mind but nothing that's come to full fruition yet. I had a story relating to Coraline? (sorry folks, I cant remember if it was that or another character he mentioned on the night) which I thought was kind of neat and I read it to my daughter but she didn't like it much so that was pretty much that.

Q: "What's the latest rumours on a film for Good Omens and who would you like to be cast in the lead role?"

Neil: Well AH Yes the continous rumours about a film for Good Omens. Well it's still in the works, I actually sold the rights for Good Omens to Terry Gillan for a farthing. Actually, I had to buy one off ebay and I tell you it cost me a whole $7 dollars or something! I subsequently sent him the said farthing and the deal was sealed. As far as a leading actor I know Johhny Depp has been mooted for the role and I would be quite fine about that.

Anyway that basically finished the questions up and then it was on to the book singings. As my table was close to the signing table I got in early. He thanked me for my question saying it was fun and I had 4 books signed, Good Omens HB for a friend's daughter and I got Sandman Nocturnes and Preludes, Coraline and American Gods personally signed by Neil. I then mentioned to Neil that I was associated with SFF Chronicles Forum and he seemed to immediately know of us. I then asked if I could arrange an online interview with him and he was fine with that, I was basically to drop him a line on his blog, which I'll do in the next week or so. Very cool...

OH and I almost forgot to say that a photographer from the local newspaper was there taking some happy snaps of fans including moi, so my mug and name will most likely appear in the local paper but if that happens I'll try to provide a link here for those interested.

Anyway I hope some of you have enjoyed my thoughts on a night with Neil Gaiman.

Cheers....

"Hanging Out With The Dream King"

[Culhwch]

Sounds like you had a good time, Gollum. I've got a couple of signed Gaimans (Good Omens and Stardust) that I picked up from a local SFF bookstore the last time he was out this way, though I missed the signing event... Good news on the online interview, too. And of course he's heard of us - surely we're the most influential and famed SFF forum on the interwebs?

[AE35Unit]

How cool is that! I've never come across a Neil Gaiman book or Good Omens for that matter.(I always associate him with graphic novels which don't appeal to me,so its nice to know he also writes 'proper' novels) Must look out for his stuff!

[Nesacat]

Sounds like a very good time indeed GOLLUM. Am looking forward to reading about Nobody as well, after hearing Chapter 1.

[GOLLUM]

Yes it was a great event.

One thing he mentioned was to check out Australian Shaun Tan's silent graphic novel The Arrivals. It's one of the best graphic novels I've ever come across and I would urge you to check it out. There are no words just images of immigrants and the journey both inner and outer one takes when leaving your homeland.

I'll be seeing Shaun in a week or so and hope to tee up an interview with him. He's twice winner of the World Fantasy Award in the arts section. At this rate maybe I should start a portfolio...

[kaneda]

You have no idea how jealous I am!!

But sounds like you had a good time, and good on you for suggesting chronicles to him.

[Marky Lazer]

Why didn't I see this before? Good work there, precious!