Neil Gaiman Live!

Neil Gaiman's reading and Q&A last night was great - albeit too short ! He read the beginning of Anansi Boys to the assembled horde (about 120 people I guess) since very few people there had already read it. It made me very eager to get hold of a copy - I shall have to badger the library for it (nicely of course !!)

For those who really liked American Gods, you may like to know there's a short story about Shadow, set 2 years after the events of AG, included in Robert Silverberg's Legends II; Neil's story is called 'Monarch of the Glen' and (logically, given the title) it's set in Scotland (and is not to be confused with the British TV show of the same name !) He said last night that he was planning to write more Shadow short stories - at least one set in London, and at least one in which Shadow finally returns to America...

Regarding Mirrormask (which Neil said is the most Frequently Asked Question at present), he said he doesn't know when we're going to get to see it in the UK (on the grounds that he's "just the writer and they don't bother telling [him]" ! It's quite possible that the American region DVD will be out in the US before the film screens in the UK, but he heartily recommended seeing it "on the big screen", because it'll be so much better. I'm quite interested in seeing it, myself - Stephen Fry (who reads the Harry Potter audiobooks) as a librarian, ought to be fun !!

He also talked about forthcoming projects for the next 12 - 18 months. He's going to do a 6-part reworking of Jack Kirby's 'Eternals' for Marvel.

He's going to do a children's book - I think he said it's called The Graveyard Book, but it's similar to Kipling's The Jungle Book, in that a child's parents die and he takes refuge in a graveyard and is brought up by the dead people, who teach him the sort of things only dead people know (!)

Neil said that he thought the Beowulf (there are some interesting actors voicing this animated feature !) and Coraline movies would be out in the second half of 2007. It's possible there will be a movie of Neverwhere, but he's retired from writing it ! He wants to write a sequel to Neverwhere, called Seven Sisters, and he also wants to write a novella about how the Marquis of Carabas got his coat back, which he said would start with a list of all the things the Marquis has in his coat pockets - and some of them are extraordinary !!

Once he'd finished taking questions, he started the book-signing - and I decamped, because the queue was going to be enormous ! Still it was a good hour and I'm glad I had the chance to attend and see Neil Gaiman live.