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My daily happening and thoughts if you care:
Deforestation sped demise of Nasca in Peru
I told you. I told you all. The Dog is the Enemy of the Human. But you wouldn’t believe me. Now look.
See? SEE? 1 comment | post a comment
posted by Neil
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/Harp 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/gra This one had NOTHING to do with me at all. But lor' the winning desserts look tasty... 
My daily happening and thoughts if you care:
The self-portrait photographer/"caricature artist" Kristamas Klousch finally has a website up for her wonderful, ghostly and irreal work.
Who's been putting minicomics together?  spoilers removed The answer is me  I still need to fold 'em... but how do I know when??? 48 comments | post a comment
 Song for an Unnamed Biblical woman (The Pen That Forgot) "You lived like the rest raised a king on your breast a mother a lover a vagabond Yet steadfast in faith among the crying of wraiths a duty bereft of all dignity So the kings went to war their stories sung afar at home you quietly swept dust from the marriage bed For the few that believe there were hearts that conceived a most excellent tree to hang you from So the mob came to call pressed your back to the wall took thigh and took foot and night buried you Left torn by the door your warm blood on the floor you called out for your man who'd forsaken you Soon time would erase any hint of your trace no spoon and no bell and no memory Was it a fate for your lot or a pen that forgot or a bigger truth that should trump your identity? But the Light is a song that outshines every wrong we sing we repent and remember you" -k. rolly model:lauren
posted by Neil
Still trying to get back onto a diurnal schedule. (And, I should add, failing.) Maddy and I started watching the new season of Sarah Jane Adventures tonight, which seems back on form after a dodgy second season. Many amazing things waiting for me when I got home -- I still haven't gone through them all yet -- but today's mail brought me a copy of the Fantagraphics Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons book. Three glorious volumes. I wrote the introduction to Volume 2, and thus got it for free. (If you're curious, there are many Gahan Wilson Playboy cartoons up at this website. There's a Gahan Wilson virtual museum over at http://www.gahanwilson.com 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:
.. 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.  I am becoming hooked on http://curiousexpeditions.org. I was extremely disappointed by the news on the current status of Argleton in Lancashier, especially so since I was hoping to buy a house there. I was going to move to Chako Paul City in Sweden instead, but appear to be the wrong gender and orientation. So probably I'll stay home. (Hmm. You know, posting that French book-cover reminds me that there are some really beautiful new covers out there right now, especially from Poland and Russia. I know for I have signed them for people. I'll try and get some nice clean examples to put up here.) And finally, a link to Joanne Leow's blog. It was lovely to see her again, four years on, when I went to Singapore - it was a great interview, and you can watch us chatting about writing, what I'm currently up to, signings, and why I don't write the same sorts of things twice in a row, at the Primetime Morning site: here's part 1 and part 2. ... Dear Mr. Gaiman, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to mention an upcoming art auction on your blog. The art auction is “art for hearts”. It is an auction of artwork donated by children’s illustrators such as Korky Paul, Lynne Chapman and An Vrombaut. Most of the artwork is original although there are also some signed digital prints and screen prints too. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to help fund research by the transplant team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Transplanted organs do not have the same life expectancy as non-transplanted organs and the transplant team is looking at finding ways to combat this. Full details of the auction are available to view at http://art-for-hearts. It will run on Ebay for a week starting on the 2nd of November. To locate the items people will need to type "art for heart" into the search area and choose "Art" or "books" for items. Many thanks, Kristine Stacey You're welcome. I think this link has everything for sale in the auction: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/scrawldog/m.html?_  Labels: cities that don't exist, make Gahan Wilson King of America, sleep, Singapore Writers Festival
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What a week! Strep throat, broken website, a commission that took like eighty days (in one week!) to complete, jeepers.
There’s something powerfully weird about this beautiful photoset by Marta Lamovsek, not least in this image, where the model really does look like an alien landed in eastern Europe.
Tomorrow night I'm off to the opera. I'm going with an actress from the Twilight movie. This world is crazy. Someone should give it therapy.
The empire strikes backIn 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 againIf you're addicted to![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small} 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! ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} c_s_iIf 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 postcardsLast 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 weekIf 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 atlj_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... ) 193 comments | post a comment
Superb new prints from Laurenn McCubbin:
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