(no subject)

[cleolinda]

All right. Have finished American Gods. Don't quite know what to think of the epilogue in Reykjavik and all yet, but okay--sign of a good read, that you keep thinking about it. Highly recommended.

Here's how dumb I am: Vladimir sends me this copy from Zagreb late last year, as previously mentioned, and I get to Neil's autograph--as you will recall, Vladimir is Neil's Croatian translator--and I go, "Huh. Cat eyes. Random. Okay." Yeah. So I'm taking a break from reading to eat dinner (yes, I try to read books in as few sittings as possible; it's just a compulsion I have), and I'm talking to Vladimir on IM, and he says, "What'd Neil draw in your book again? I think I remember..."

"Uh... cat eyes?"

"No, it wasn't cat eyes. Go check again."

"Well, I'm pretty sure it was eyes, but whatever, and one of them is OH MY GOD."

ODIN!



And seriously, it is a great book. It's the kind of book that--well, put it this way: I read Lolita and I love Lolita, but I read it when I was about eighteen and it seriously messed up my writing style--for a while I was obsessed with crafting little Fabergé egg sentences instead of actually telling a damn story. Nabokov can do that to you--I think the way Vladimir put it was that his style is "overbearing," in terms of being an influence. Gaiman is the kind of writer who makes you want to put the book down and lock yourself in front of the keyboard for a few hours. He makes you see all kinds of things that are possible to do as a writer, and makes you want to try and see if you can do them. It's not a style he has that you want to copy--it's a complexity of character and story that you want to live up to. It made me want to sit back down and hammer away at Black Ribbon, where Nabokov just made me want to write what was, in my hands, nothing but exquisitely phrased whining (bless). I had the same reaction to Gaiman's Stardust, too--his writing makes you feel brave enough to try your own things out. Can't quite explain it any more clearly than that. And really, I think that's the kind of writer I'd want to be. Not necessarily the writer who sells the most or the writer with Harold Bloom's seal of approval (and never the twain shall meet on that one, trust me), but the writer who makes people want to read, and makes people want to write.

Comments

[shoukinkasegi.livejournal.com]

Nothing like getting a book signed by the man himself. NG's a fan's author. Not snobby but not overbearingly friendly either. And he's always tired (jetlagged?). I love how he squibbles. For the Vess-illustrated Stardust I gave to my baby sis as a birthday present he drew a girl and Mona Lisa-smile moon and star with a gold ink pen. He roxxxorz (: That autograph/drawing on your AG is awesome.

[paperandglue.livejournal.com]

Who's Odin?

[eclectica.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love Neil Gaiman's writing, too! I've read American Gods, Stardust, and Good Omens. (Btw, am I just imagining it or are they making a movie out of Good Omens?)

[sprunkle.livejournal.com]

Lucky you for having an autographed book. I'm going to read some of his fiction after I've worked my way through the Sandman library on the cheap. But since it has your seal of approval...
Shallow note: I think Neil Gaiman's kinda hot. It's the leather jacket.

[edda.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're quite right about Neil Gaiman. He does make you want to write. And you are definitely in that good-read, gotta-see-what-happens-next category.

And I SO want to fly down there and break into your place and grab that book and run cackling into the night with it clutched to my chest, but as it would make future LJing kind of awkward, I'll just gawp at the picture.

[kaytethinks.livejournal.com]

Your name is Lauren? NOT cleo, linda, or any variation thereof.

I am officially moronic. *sheepish* Note to self: don't take things so literally.

[thelxepeiakat.livejournal.com]

I read Gaiman's Wolves in the Walls for the first time today. Loved it, and Dave McKean's illustrations are wonderfully haunting. After reading your post, I have to add his not-for-children novels to my already very long reading list. I'm feeling the need to be inspired to write. Apathy is beginning to sound more fun than writing. Oh, and he really is hot.

[idan-cohen.livejournal.com]

That's Gaiman for you. Just reading his blog inspires you. I think he and Pratchett are in some sort of nefarious inspiring cabal.

[(Anonymous)]

Vladimir here - still with no LJ account of my own, solly.

Actually, I have a dirteh sekrit to admit. Cleo's (Lauren's) autograph could have been vastly more complex had Neil had time to devote to it... I think I gave him about 20 different books to sign for myself and most of my friends, so he chugged away at his hotel room coffee table while I watched *can't say what* on his laptop... This was just as he was getting ready to leave for the Frankfurt Book Fair, and he was about three times more jet lagged than usual, but (bless) he didn't even look at me funnily when I grinned and gave him the pile of books. Admittedly, he usually draws larger things in larger editions, and Lauren's copy is just the UK paperback.

Having observed him signing his stuff over that weekend, it became quickly obvious that Neil has a designer drawing for each title... Like, a variation on Odin for AG (eyes, or the whole portrait, depending on available space & time), a mouse for Coraline, a comicbook text bubble with "Mind the Gap!" for Neverwhere, that moon and falling star for Stardust, etc. And there was a guy who brought him all 10 collected issues of Sandman once, and he signed them all, but I frankly can't remember what he did. For vol. IV, Season of Mists, I got a v. pretty drawing of Loki. But the most awesome autograph of his that I've seen is in my editor's copy of Endless Nights - it's done in silver marker on black, and features a full-figure drawing of Morpheus/Daniel that's just so simple and so striking.

I think Neil decides what do do for each book as part of his regular postproduction - and it's such a nice touch. I've never seen him decline to add that bit, however reduced, to an autograph. He doesn't have to do that, and sometimes you can tell he barely has the strength to hold his pen, but he chugs along merrily regardless.

Neil roxors. That I know for sure ;)

[(Anonymous)]

Vladimir again. Sorry, just one more thing.

Neil was asked - not by me - about Good Omens getting made, now that it had fallen through once. And he said to keep your fingers crossed for Brothers Grimm, because if that turns out to be a hit, Terry Gilliam will regain his footing with Hollywood - and hopefully make Good Omens next. Neil was v. proud of the script and the collaboration with Gilliam, and it just seems the whole project clicked for both of them - and it fell through because of a ridiculous budget-cutting decision (it wasn't going to be v. expensive anyway).

So no, it's definitely not a dead project.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

He just wrote Believe! in mine. But he did draw a mouse in Coraline. :)

[coloredvision.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, I found your journal because ... MY HED IZ PASTEDE ON YAY.

But as for Neil's writing making one go "I need to be writing. Right now." It's so true.

And I'm so jealous of your signed copy.

American Gods

[deoridhe.livejournal.com]

You have a signed copy of American Gods??? *proceeds to envy you silly* I adore Gaiman, with an utterly illogical love that usually I reserve for animals and deities. If he wrote a version of the New York Phonebook I would try to read it. His blog is hysterical, too; I just wish the syndication worked better so I could have it on my friends list and not get spammed everythree days.

As for his take on gods and their Avatars... I'm still thinking about it. We discuss it at our Blots (Asatru religious ceremony) occassionally. I'm not sure how I feel about the concept religiously speaking, but story wise it was fantastic!