pipistrellafelix (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pipistrellafelix) wrote2005-10-04 10:43 pm
pipistrellafelix) wrote2005-10-04 10:43 pm
Best. Author Talk. Ever.
I can now die happy: I got hugged by Neil Gaiman. Hugged. By Mr. Gaiman. Because, which makes me even more pleased, because he liked the picture I did for him of Death. Ah! I am beyond excited, it's ridiculous. Also it was a really fabulous talk all round....
-Talking about how prolific Terry Pratchett is: that he wouldn't stop writing unless you took away his computer, and his paper and pencils and pens, and locked him up--"and even then he'd start licking the wall...a whole novel in spittle."
-About the signing line: "Kids and pregnant ladies first--but you have to be properly pregnant, you can't just nip off to the loo now. ...Probably not a gag I should have used in church."
-How people tended to see Good Omens after he'd written a "serious novel" in American Gods: "I had obviously written a very serious novel about the apocalypse, and Terry had pranced behind me, pixie like, dropping jokes and bongos and the occasional footnote."
-On his desire to write "funny": "I wanted to write a book that would increase the sum total of happiness in the world--a modest goal."
-The first line for Morpheus from a terrible script for a proposed Sandman movie: "Ha ha, puny mortals, as if your human weapons could hurt me, the King of Dreams, the Sandman." I think that was it. I was laughing really hard when I wrote that.
-On putting Nancy in American Gods: "It was like a special guest appearance by a character from a book I hadn't written yet."
-News on the Good Omens movie: Johnny Depp is still wanted for Crowley, and still wants to play Crowley. Robin Williams was originally signed on to play Aziraphale, Madame Tracy and Hastur--I kid you not--but not anymore. Apparently the movie may in fact be happening now; as he put it yesterday in Portland (and goes and quotes himself): "I thought it was completely dead, but in fact it's just lying in a glass coffin surrounded by dwarves."
-His newest children's book, that he's writing now: "It's about a small child abandoned in a graveyard, brought up by dead people, learning to do what dead people do."
-"Directing in self-defense": when you direct something of your own purely so no one else will screw it up.
-The man who holds the legal rights to "Miracle Man": "A man who loses legal cases like other people lose ballpoint pens."
-From yesterday in Portland, re: his signing policy: A girl asks, "If you sign my breast, is that one thing or two?" To which he replies, "If you want a signature for each breast, it's two."
I bought Anansi Boys* and got it signed, and had Neverwhere ("Mind The Gap!") and Good Omens (to Terry's "burn this book" he added "apply holy match here") signed as well. Then I said, "I have something for you too," and handed him my picture, and he went, "Aww..." and reached out and said "Hug." So man. I got to hug Neil Gaiman. *grin*
* This annoys me, though; because the bookstore policy was that if you bought Anansi boys, you got a free ticket; but you had to have Anansi Boys to get anything signed, which they didn't tell me before (and to which Neil Gaiman promptly declared it didn't actually matter). So, um, argh. But it was okay, because we argued and got a ticket refund (haha, yay for pushy mothers) and got the book anyway, and Mum and me got it signed to both of us. Still. Bookstores and their policies...
Also I got a package from Emily today in the mail, so that made me really happy. Today was good. Now I have to do homework, before I crash; why are all three classes all in a row on Wednesday? Oh, right. Because I'm in honors and a writing tutor. Go me.
...Neil Gaiman!
-Talking about how prolific Terry Pratchett is: that he wouldn't stop writing unless you took away his computer, and his paper and pencils and pens, and locked him up--"and even then he'd start licking the wall...a whole novel in spittle."
-About the signing line: "Kids and pregnant ladies first--but you have to be properly pregnant, you can't just nip off to the loo now. ...Probably not a gag I should have used in church."
-How people tended to see Good Omens after he'd written a "serious novel" in American Gods: "I had obviously written a very serious novel about the apocalypse, and Terry had pranced behind me, pixie like, dropping jokes and bongos and the occasional footnote."
-On his desire to write "funny": "I wanted to write a book that would increase the sum total of happiness in the world--a modest goal."
-The first line for Morpheus from a terrible script for a proposed Sandman movie: "Ha ha, puny mortals, as if your human weapons could hurt me, the King of Dreams, the Sandman." I think that was it. I was laughing really hard when I wrote that.
-On putting Nancy in American Gods: "It was like a special guest appearance by a character from a book I hadn't written yet."
-News on the Good Omens movie: Johnny Depp is still wanted for Crowley, and still wants to play Crowley. Robin Williams was originally signed on to play Aziraphale, Madame Tracy and Hastur--I kid you not--but not anymore. Apparently the movie may in fact be happening now; as he put it yesterday in Portland (and goes and quotes himself): "I thought it was completely dead, but in fact it's just lying in a glass coffin surrounded by dwarves."
-His newest children's book, that he's writing now: "It's about a small child abandoned in a graveyard, brought up by dead people, learning to do what dead people do."
-"Directing in self-defense": when you direct something of your own purely so no one else will screw it up.
-The man who holds the legal rights to "Miracle Man": "A man who loses legal cases like other people lose ballpoint pens."
-From yesterday in Portland, re: his signing policy: A girl asks, "If you sign my breast, is that one thing or two?" To which he replies, "If you want a signature for each breast, it's two."
I bought Anansi Boys* and got it signed, and had Neverwhere ("Mind The Gap!") and Good Omens (to Terry's "burn this book" he added "apply holy match here") signed as well. Then I said, "I have something for you too," and handed him my picture, and he went, "Aww..." and reached out and said "Hug." So man. I got to hug Neil Gaiman. *grin*
* This annoys me, though; because the bookstore policy was that if you bought Anansi boys, you got a free ticket; but you had to have Anansi Boys to get anything signed, which they didn't tell me before (and to which Neil Gaiman promptly declared it didn't actually matter). So, um, argh. But it was okay, because we argued and got a ticket refund (haha, yay for pushy mothers) and got the book anyway, and Mum and me got it signed to both of us. Still. Bookstores and their policies...
Also I got a package from Emily today in the mail, so that made me really happy. Today was good. Now I have to do homework, before I crash; why are all three classes all in a row on Wednesday? Oh, right. Because I'm in honors and a writing tutor. Go me.
...Neil Gaiman!
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you should authorize me to see the picture you drew for him because i would like to and it says i am not authorized.
*_*
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I need to read more of Neil's books..... I feel guilty that I haven't. I am also incredibly jealous of you for meeting him. Incredibly.
And.
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Will go authorize you now.
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I really adore the book Neverwhere, which is dark but has an undercurrent of humor that I like a lot (if you can find the DVDs, all the better; both together rock. If not I could burn them. Except I don't have a burner...)
Stardust is also really sweet, and lighter than most of his stuff. Everything of his is going to have a current of darkness and weirdness, though. What I like is how funny he makes it, usually.
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