well behaved women rarely make history

If Anna Poppenwell, Summer Glau, Tina Majorino, and Rachel Evan Wood had a baby, I think that Elyse might be her. She's one of those people who looks like someone else in nearly every picture and I love her for it.

Preview:



Please credit blevcons or theblev
Commenting is always appreciated.

( 65 Elyse Levesque icons )

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...

JEFF! Oh GOD, he kills me with the awkward and the NAKED and the BREASTS. I think I'm going to go on a marathon Coupling spree this weekend. After, of course, Swingtown. Jack Davenport in the 1970s? SIGN ME UP.

Richard Croyle

fionn mcdiarmid.



( 72 )
This post will be public for a week.

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

Shahid Kapoor

COMMENT HERE FOR THE FOLLOWING:

1. to be added in order to view manips, etc.
2. to make a request (provide links, please).
3. to ask any questions you might have.

all comments screened

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.)

( Prompts W-Z, Crossovers, RPF )

( Prompts Q-V )

( Prompt K-P )

( Prompts E-J )

Welcome to Round Nine of Porn Battle! This will run until midnight EST on November 11th. Please remember to post the prompt as the subject title of your post, and if the story exceeds the length of one post, make the second as a reply to the first part. Happy porning!

( Prompts 0-9, Symbols, A-D )

People who know me or have seen pics know that I have floofy curly super-fine Crazy Irish hair that is about five inches longer when straightened, will stand straight up with little provocation, and will 'fro if it's cut too short. It's usually impossible to deal with--it floofs with hair spray, it floofs without hair spray, it floofs within hours of having been relaxed, it floofs with or without special shampoos, and if I beat down the floof with gel? I look like a drowned rat.

So when I tell you, dear internets, that I've come across a shampoo that can tame the infamous Crazy Irish hair, I need you to know that this is akin to a light-from-the-sky chorus-of-angels miracle that blatantly and completely defies the laws of physics.

And it's even hippie-friendly, too. :D


I really wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tried it myself--but now that I have, I'll probably never buy normal shampoo again.

Keira Knightley
(at age 12)

Thank y'all so much for all the great prompts!

Now I need to finish putting them in order, then I'll send them over to be posted.

See you soon!

Title:
Author/Artist:
Rating:
Warnings:
Prompt: - Beauty and the Beast (any version), The Beast and the Beauty - Furry - His fur against her naked breasts
Word count: (optional for authors)
Summary: (if applicable)
A/N: (if applicable)

She found him near the lower gardens, pacing the patio on all fours. His striped fur rippled beneath the light, and when she perched on the settee and waited patiently for him to join her, he eventually came, kneading his long claws into the fabric, slicing it in long clean lines.

"I am as I was," he rumbled at last. She thought she knew him well, but she could not quite judge whether it was unhappiness of simply confusion in his voice.

Beauty looked down at her hands, clean and brown and callused from the garden. "The spell spoke of love," she said carefully.

He turned one yellow eye to her, measuring.

"Perhaps--" All her laboriously constructed explanations, apologies, hypotheses crumbled like stacks of cards, like long-dry crusts. "Perhaps it's my fault," she said, and hid her face in her hands, letting her hair fall between them. His silence made her heart lurch, nervous.

"Your fault," he said, even though she refused to believe he didn't understand what she was trying to say. The deep, rasping vibrations of his voice trembled in her ribcage, at the pit of her stomach.

"I like you," she said, "as you are." She lowered her hands to her lap, looked at him through her hair. The distance to the edge of the patio was not so great. He was swifter than her, but found it harder to climb trees. Beauty seriously evaluated these factors, and was still evaluating when he moved.

He put one almost-paw on her thigh, fingers long enough to curve over her skin and make her shiver pleasantly--and flexed them. Claws unsheathed and tore through dress and settee alike. "You want me like this?"

Beauty swallowed. Looked fixedly at the trees, into their dark branches and thick leaves, staring until they blurred vaguely. "Yes," she said, her cheeks burning, her lips pressed together and then, carrying on valiantly with the suspiciously derailed-by-subtext conversation, said, "so it may be my fault. That you don't look like you did. That you haven't changed back. That you, you know--" She darted him a frantic look. "Are still. Ah. Furry."

Title:
Author/Artist:
Rating:
Warnings:
Prompt: - Fairy Tales, Hansel/Gretl: on one's own; making due; incest; with sex; kitchen utensils as toys
Word count: (optional for authors)
Summary: (if applicable)
A/N:

"We can't go home," Gretl said. They looked up at the stars, empty and vast, and she took his hand and held it tight, their hands flushed with warmth. She thought: our father took us into the trees and cast his eyes away. What do we have left?

"No," Hansel said grimly.

Each other, she thought, and laid her head on her shoulder. The screams had faded; her very numbness was slipping away. A distinctive smell hung heavy on the air. "It's been so long since I've smelled meat," Gretl said.

"It doesn't make me hungry any more," Hansel said.

Gretl licked her lips and shivered, burying her face in his shoulder. "No. Not me either, not anymore."

His fingers very carefully closed around hers, holding hard. They sat alone in the dark, waiting for the smell to dissipate, while the winds howled like wolves through the trees.



"Are we going to stay?" He asked her in the morning while she chipped a long piece of gingerbread from the doorway. It never stayed gone, always whole and unscathed when morning light once again dawned. She broke off a piece between her teeth and studied the doorway. Perhaps now that the witch was dead, her house would be broken and consumed by scavengers.

"If we don't, we should take as much as we can," she said, and licked the crumbs from her lips. Birds chirped softly in the trees; the sound itself seemed distant, untouchable.

Her brother took the gingerbread from her outstretched hand, frowned as he studied the house. "We could go back," he said. "To the village, or another..."



They were all they had left, and they needed nothing more.



unfin

( +88 )

( +36 )

( +36 )

anna szczekutowicz.



( 125 )

This post will be public for one week.

Title: Sephiroth a Jenova
Author: jessara40k
Fandom: FFVII
Pairings: Hojo/Sephiroth, future Cloud/Sephiroth
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Huge consent issues
Theme: 44. fairy tales

( “Hojo-sensei never talked about his magic, and what few spells I can use are all minor enough that I can power them from my own body and soul.” Household and personal appearance spells mostly, even if he did prefer to tend to his hair and clean himself up without them. “I...don’t remember anything but being in this tower, looking like this. I knew that my mother had to be called Jenova, but nothing beyond that.” )

ANNA FRIEL
( 680 icons, pushing daisies )

( this is a fake cut! )

i've added icons from the entire first season!

Re: Paranormal Activity

Thingie: *goes bump-tap-skritch-thunk-screech-"O hay thar" in the night*

Guy: I am a big manly man and, armed with my camera, I will handle this wtfery on my own with my cunning plan! What plan? Who knows!

Girl: I AM FREAKING OUT AND WILL CONTINUE TO FREAK OUT AND WILL STAY RIGHT HERE AND FREAK OUT LOUDLY.

Me: You guys are so not good at this*.





*Perchance I've run into a few too many things that go bump-tap-skritch-thunk-snore(yes, it snored)-"O hay thar" in the night . . . But I've got the feeling this movie will be to people who've actually dealt with ghosties/poltergeists what "Let's split up and hide from the axe murderer in different rooms of this creepy old house!" is to most normal people.

(updated 10:28am: some fandoms don't need entire names)
(Updated 5:35am Nov 2: Sorry, me + muscle relaxants = x_x)

Couple of things to read before you post:

1) PLEASE spell out your fandom completely and characters correctly. There's a very good chance I won't know them.

2) PLEASE use proper capitalization and number notation (roman numerals for the most part).

Things that don't conform to the above will make me cranky, and you will likely end up with your prompts ignored.

I will stop taking prompts after I wake up Wednesday November 4th, which is usually 5:30am-ish EDT. Then they'll be sorted and posted by the other co-mod for you to write on.

Thanks!

Title: Taking Over Me
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Pairing(s): 10/Rose
Rating: PG-13ish (One curse word)
Disclaimer: If I owned it there would be more happy Doctor and less emo Doctor. (I want him happy damn it)
Warning(s): Mild angst and then a lot of sap. (AKA: Dani's usual style.)
Summary: She was horrified. It was wasn't her. She wasn't saying that or thinking that. She loved listening to his babble. Loved watching his eyes light up and seeing him smile as he acted like an over eager puppy ready to impress her with his brilliance. He looked so hurt, like she'd just taken a rolled up newspaper and whacked him on the nose while telling him that he was a bad boy.

Notes: written for Spookathon Prompt cursed object or jewelry
Beta: Thank you Ian
Word-count:1,908

Taking Over Me

Title: Major Arcana
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Pairing(s): 10/Rose
Rating: PG-13ish
Disclaimer: If I owned it there would be more happy Doctor and less emo Doctor. (I want him happy damn it)
Warning(s): Mild angst and then a lot of sap. (AKA: Dani's usual style.) Post Girl in the Fireplace)
Summary: Rose lay on the ground, pale, still as-
Notes: written for Spookathon Prompt #45 - Tarot. Sorry about the late posting. I had it edited and ready to go but then forgot! (My second one will be up soon. I have a last minute correction to the end.)
Beta: Thank you Ian
Word-count: 2,207


Major Arcana

Interlude II: A Letter from Home   The inspiration: "Giles is up in Andrew's room. They've got pizza and Eric Clapton music and Giles was pacing back and forth calling Bruce Wayne a sanctimonious bastard and he'd trained you guys the best he could without a damned penny he didn't have billions of dollars and limitless resources. On and on about how he'd done the best he could and how dare some bloody wanker that runs around in a Kevlar Batsuit dare make assumptions that he'd purposely hoped something bad would happen to any of us." from "A Zeppo In Gotham--Interlude I: The 'Haven" by Lisa Roquin   Summary: Giles, Andrew, and Sirius get together to send a howler to Batman.   Caveats and Disclaimers: I’ve seen the early Batman TV show, the early Batman movie, Super Friends, the older cartoon, the semi-older cartoon, and at least 4 of the newer movies. I’m not promising any of this is compliant with any of them. I will say I at least attempted to fit the time line as much as I could in keeping with Lisa’s original work and Batman’s latest cannon. I do not own Lisa’s “A Zeppo in Gotham ” series or Batman in any way, shape or form. I was just inspired by them and as such: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. This is just sincere admiration and wanting to say ‘Thank you for your work.’   *****   ( Read more... )

Title: Yesterday's Boy (1/3)
Fandom(s): 30 Seconds to Mars
Pairing(s): Shannon/OFC, Jared/Crow
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: It would make a great movie, don'tcha think?
Warning(s): Smart-assedness, Teenagers (They deserve a whole strata of their own), hormones and shinies.
Summary: Shiny comes in many different packages. Some small and some large; but, they all have a consequence attached. Follow Jared as he learns this lesson in how all things that glitter aren't gold.
Notes: written for Spookathon Prompt #45 - Tarot
Beta: saddle_tramp and lisaroquin
Word-count: 2411

( They'd been in Gris-Gris... )

title Of Wolf And Man
author: lisa roquin
rating: 15+/mature
fandom: 30stm
pairing/characters: Shannon/Jared, Tomo, Tim
series: Loup Garou
disclaimer: lies, fiction, untrue. completely and totally made up. I know no one, know nothing of their personal lives. I make no claims of knowing much of anything.
summary: There was only one thing Shannon and the Beast agreed on, Jared had to be healthy, safe, whole and near.
warning: letocest. hints/implications of shapeshifterstyle bestiality. angst. m/m
author notes: thanks to </a></b></a>gwionfawyr and </a></b></a>jiltanith for read throughs.
written for </a></b></a>spookathon 2009 and curtailed into as much of a standalone piece as I could make it with the whole spin they tried to throw at me.

Title: Watercolored Kisses
Author: ShinSolo
Pairing: Steve/Ghost
Rating: R
Fandom: Poppy Z. Brite - Lost Souls/Drawing Blood/Other Short Stories in the Missing Mile Verse. (Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite - E-book can be downloaded here à http://www.sendspace.com/file/ig7ene )
Warnings: Ghosts, Language, Adult Content, Slash, Mild Drug and Alcohol Use, Mentions of Violent Death
Disclaimer: If only I owned these beautiful characters. They belong to Poppy Z. Brite (the goddess of all things dark fiction), I’m only borrowing them out of my love for them.
Author Notes: Reading Lost Souls isn’t a must for understanding this piece, it is written as a standalone. However if you’ve read Lost Souls you might understand a few inside jokes that might be missed otherwise.
Prompt: Dia de los Muertos / The Day of the Dead
Summary/Excerpt: On most nights at six A.M., Steve would have already found himself at home and warm. Stretched out on Ghost’s floor, staring up at a ceiling covered in faded leaves and painted stars, Steve would be on his 3rd beer and listening to Ghost tell him all about his latest dream or whether or not they should just pack up and head for the stars. But this wasn't most nights.

( watercoloured kisses )

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.

Abed so needs more screen time where he doesn't have something blocking his face. This guy and Donald Glover make the show. The last 45 seconds while the credits roll is my favorite part of every episode. I doubt that anyone will need as many icons of him dressed as Batman/a Power Rangers Putty as I made, butttt I couldn't stop myself.

Preview:



Please credit blevcons or theblev
Commenting is always appreciated.

( 139 Danny Pudi icons )

Yesterday I decided I'd be healthy and go for a run/walk with Oni. Okay, so it's less a "be healthy" and more a "In a month I have two back-to-back workshops with Rachel Brice and Mardi Love. If I intend to survive and/or not have the workshops close with me laying on the floor crying and them toeing me every so often and telling me to STFU and deal, I need to severely up my cardio."

So on my good-intentioned adventure I turned my ankle (again) and ended up hobbling two miles home, and Oni got a tick that ended up partially embedded in his ear, requiring a $50 vet visit. FML. :P

He talked to the vet too much and she muzzled him. I can't really say I blame her--he does have angry eyebrows, a jaw that hinges at the back of his head, and a tendency to sound ferocious. After it came off, he seemed mortified (and thus was silent) for almost ten minutes.

Almost ten. Then it was back to normal . . . well, as normal as he can get.



A hop on the vet's scale showed that Oni now weighs in at sixty-eight pounds--almost twenty-five pounds up from when we got him at the shelter back in '04. This information prompted me to be insensitive--"Damn it, you giant fat hairball, stop stepping on me!"--and prompted zen_of_nihilism to tell terrible jokes: "He's not fat, he's husky! Ba-da-dum-ching!"



One week until Nekocon. I have way, way too much stuff to make--though the steampunky rings have come out fairly interesting thus far. :P So we all know what time it is . . . Bulleted list time!

To do:

Clean not-made-by-me merch from merch wheelie

Check bank balance, mail etsy orders, make byz and half Persian bracelets for local store

At least fifty hair forks: 5 purple/silver, 5 purple/orange, 5 blue/silver, 5 blue/orange, 3 bronze/geary, 4 silver/gold, 4 green/orange, 3 green/silver, 4 fall, 3 calico/geary, 3 gunmetal, 3 gold/geary, and whatever else I turn out.

Hair sticks. Lots. Like 100+ lots. This might require a

trip to Lowe's for a new dremel drill bit.

Finish flower & steampunky rings

Figure out how many supplies I really need to take--I'm tired of lugging an Oni-sized wheelie around.

Paperwork things

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

Starting November 1st, the next round of Porn Battles will start. Once again we will ask for your prompts to be thrown out there for smutty minds to snap up and churn out porny gems for everyone's enjoyment.

SO start writing those prompts out, find a few from previous battles that you want to see written and throw them up.

Remember, all prompts in the top comment slot so they'll be found. If you think of some after you've posted, then post again. There's nothing that says you can only post once. In fact, we'll love you more if you post more.

Title: Worth the Effort
Author: jedibuttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: FR13
Summary: Dresden Files/Castle. The mist roiled, then parted around something long, slender and whippy that quickly vanished back out of sight...
Spoilers: Dresden Files novels through "Small Favor"; vague Season 1 for Castle
Wordcount: 2500
Notes: Violence, tentacles, humor. For the 2009 spookathon, prompt #26, B-Movies. References the 1958 movie "The Trollenberg Terror", known in the US by another name.

( Worth the Effort )
-x-

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

---

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.

---

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.

---

[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...!)

---

[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.

Viggo Mortensen



( 297 Icons )

Title: Shadows of the past
Fandom(s): 30 seconds to mars
Pairing(s): Tomo/Tim, Tomo/Jared
Rating: R
Disclaimer: not true, didn’t happen. Don’t know/own them..
Warning(s): slash, non-graphic character death, angst, first POV(Tomo), scary stuff
Summary: when Tim died, he didn’t think he would ever have a good day again. Until he met Jared.
Notes: written for Spookathon.
Beta: Queencheeze, thank you very much honJ
Word-count: 7250
( Read more... )

Title: Boy and the Ghost
Artist: elanor_pam
Fandom: Violinist of Hameln
Rating: PG
Song Prompt: Tarja Turunen - Boy and the Ghost
A/N: I was inspired by some of the artwork found at http://beruga.fc2web.com/top.html - I would point specific drawings, except the gallery is a forest of links, and finding anything in it is pretty close to impossible. Then again, anywhere you click you're bound to find something amazing. I wish I could sketch like that...

( All he wanted was a toy... )

I was finally starting to be completely past my Law & Order SVU-induced depression--taking two or three or five seasons in a row apparently does a number on one's mental state--but found myself thrown right back in via cnn.com's front page today. So a poor teenage girl got gang-raped outside her high school's dance by at least four guys and ended up having to be flown to the hospital in critical condition. Further investigation showed that this wasn't just a gang-rape, it was a show--at least fifteen and possibly twenty guys stood around and watched and did nothing to help for the two hours plus duration. Some even joined in.

Wow, I said. It's like Crank, only--oh, wait, Crank wasn't fucking funny either.


For reference: In the Jason Statham movie Crank, Statham's character needs to keep his heart rate up or he'll die. At one point he decides to up his heart rate by having sex with his girlfriend. Against her will. In public and in broad daylight. As a crowd of mixed ages and genders stands around and watches and does absolutely nothing to help her, despite her screaming and shouting no and trying to get away/fight the guy off. Of course, she magically decides she likes it mid-rape (to the cheers of the onlookers), and of course the female witnesses are more concerned with Statham's character's sex appeal and the size of his cock than they are with the woman who was just assaulted in front of them.

It's nightmare-fuel rape played as humor. It's without a doubt the worst movie scene I've ever watched. And now it's come to life, with a resounding shout of, "Silly female! Did you actually think anyone around you would come to your rescue?"


So . . . Do we really wonder where some people might get the impression that this behavior is appropriate?

I'm not advocating censorship here; just awareness. Here's a movie clip where the ditsy blonde girl has her clothes ripped off and is violently forced to have sex in public, despite her struggles. Not one of the onlookers tries to stop her rapist from carrying out his assault. You the viewer are supposed to see it as comedy.

Here's the real-life reflection: teen girl, possibly drunk or drugged, is violently gang-raped in public. Not one of the onlookers tried to stop the rape. What did the guys standing around think? That it was funny? That putting the girl into critical care was a good time? That this was a good chance for them to get off as well?


The area's police haven't released any explanations yet--though I'm sure no explanation given could ever hold water for the victim or victim's family.







In slightly more lighthearted news, a French court convicted the Church of Scientology of organized fraud because of their high-pressure "spend money on us and be saved!" tactics. Scientology spokespeople responded by comparing the ruling to the Inquisition--which, while a step up from shrieking and throwing poo, still goes to show that they Just Don't Get It.

Being fined for victimizing people: It's like being horribly tortured and burned at the stake, in a way. Only not.

Sad when throwing things at Scientologists registers as braincleaner.

Title: Mimsy Were the Borogroves
Author: judas_denied
Pairing: Shannon/Jared, Shannon/Jared/Tim
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: 30 Seconds to Mars
Warnings: Creepiness, humor, language, mindfuckery, S&M, werewolves
Disclaimer:Get your head 'round that one. It means that it is my job to tell you the true story of what never happened. Perhaps that's a definition of fiction.
Author's Notes: This is also Kit84's very late birthday fic. Spookathon gave me the prompt and Kit's request gave me the plot. The title, cut text, link text and epigraph are all taken from one of the following: "Jabberwocky", Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, all by Lewis Carroll.

Summary/Excerpt: The first time it happens Tim doesn’t think much of it. It’s just a coffee cup left in the sink and two beer bottles on the back porch railing. The second time it happens is a lot different...

Link: And the mome raths outgrabe.

**note link to locked fic journal

Our Bella got the flu, so we only got half the movie filmed. The rest should go fairly smoothly, though . . . well, as long as Oni continues to behave. He's mis/behaved wonderfully so far, and only managed to eat the toe out of a sock.

Don't ask. Yet. :D

~~

I finished Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and am pretty sure I'm obligated to make the man cookies at some point. The end is a little sudden, but the writing is high-level for a kids' book and overall is one of the better ones I've read in a while. I recommend it.

~~

I finally finished Chelsea Cain's Heartsick. The book's main murder mystery plot seemed eclipsed by the side(?) plot of the insane yet beautiful female serial killer and the suicidally depressed cop she's Stockholm syndrome'd, tortured, and brainfucked into a scarred, divorced, and drug-addled shadow of his former self. I'd say this is probably because the latter is a pretty new concept, while the mystery/thriller section is overflowing with the former.

Either way--the book got off to a somewhat slow start, but once it started moving (and the WTF-y interplay of Gretchen & Archie actually got going) it was interesting. If anyone wants my ARC that I've been hoarding for the past couple years, let me know.

~~

I started reading Captain Blood, too--what can I say, I wanted something out of the ordinary--and was pleasantly surprised. The main character is a near-radioactive Marty Stu (an Irishman who's the best physician around, was an awesome soldier and is still an awesome fighter, speaks perfectly accented Spanish, is oh-so-physically appealing, plots the best & sneakiest plots to ever be plotted, repeat any of those a few times over, so on and so forth) but the story rolls along really well for its originating time period, and it's written on so much of a higher level than what I've been reading lately that I'm frequently astounded. I'm not mentally tripping on the sentences because the language is archaic, I'm tripping because it's such heavy-duty wording that I as a reader have to pay close attention to in order to properly get the feel and description of things. I still don't expect much from it storyline-wise--I'm willing to bet dollars and donuts that the titular character will break hearts, defeat everyone, find treasure, get the girl, and possibly fart roses by the time it's all over--but I'll probably keep with it for a little while longer. Or at least until I find something else entertaining.

My springkink prompts. A fairly decent amount, all things considered, and the fandoms run the gamut from Magic Knight Rayearth to Robin McKinley's Sunshine.

TALLY SO FAR
0/54

WELL THEN. It looks like my time will continue to be full of writing porn.

( Read more... )