Meeting Neil Gaiman

He did a great reading and I could even hear him from where I was. And he's as personable and kind as his reputation. Really glad I got the opportunity to meet him, and I hope I get to again soon.

Also . . .

I have been promised by Management that I will get out of work in time tonight to see Neil Gaiman at the University of Chicago. Which means I should figure out where I'm going. Right.

The Oracular Journal

So occasionally I ask Neil Gaiman's Oracular Journal whether something will happen.

Here was my question: Oracular Journal, will I actually get paid this week?

Answer: Some big star names, some people you've never heard of...

Hmm.

Reading you a story . . .

If anyone has trouble understanding my dehydrated voice and mumbling mouth, please let me know. I'd be happy to send along some text to go with the reading.

Yes, Mom, I'm drinking lots of water to combat the drunken debaucheries of last night.

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Brief Thoughts on Fantasy Writers

I set a schedule for myself to start at 6:30 a.m., but of course I've been online all morning checking out the blogs. Really gotta stop this habit. I'm two hours behind.

I've been thinking a bit, in brief interludes between practicing and composing and teaching (I have some time on my hands right now), about fantasy writers who really know their history. You can feel it as you read. Gene Wolfe is a good example of this in his Book of the New Sun (at least the first half; I haven't gotten around to reading the second half yet). But the MC, Severian, is an apprentice in the Torturers' Guild. The detail with which he infuses this guild and the world surrounding it is rather astounding. Many fantasy writers tend to gloss over the small details in the hopes the reader won't notice. The result being of course that you can't imagine the world the writer tried to build. Somehow the supernatural elements become the only thing holding the story together. But with Wolfe, the supernatural takes a backseat to Severian's story. You accept the supernatural along with everything else. He's one of those writers who can make you believe in the supernatural. (He's also one of those writers who makes me want to impale myself on my pen.)

But in reading the first half of this series, I almost felt as if I was reading a slice of history—one that was so real that so-called accurate history, with its absence of witchcraft and the supernatural, is some bastardized account of what really happened back in the good ol' days. And you can tell Wolfe has read a lot. It's just something that wafts off the pages.

Neil Gaiman and Rowling are another two I can tell really know their history, mythic and otherwise. I'm looking forward to reading John Crowley's Aegypt series, too.

But now that I'm going back to school, I'm fighting guilt when I read. It feels too luxurious to read fiction. I have some blogs I use for my teaching, and I don't post to those nearly enough, so I'm trying to refresh myself on music history and so forth (interesting reads in themselves). Just trying to use this time to prepare as much as I can.

One thing I notice when I read music history now is that I absorb a lot more regarding time and place and the political/historical situations surrounding the development of music. I think this is because of my interlude into reading so much in the last four years.

So what about you? Do you notice that your favorite writers are sort of unpaid historians as well? (Not that a few of these writers don't make up for that in their royalty checks . . . )

Favorite Writers

Okay, enough about me.

I want to hear from you. Who are your favorite writers? Who are the ones that wrote the books that changed your life, made you decide to be a writer? Why?

As a kid, it was Beverly Cleary. As a teenager, Judy Blume and Stephen King. As an adult, Ray Bradbury and Neil Gaiman.

Beverly Cleary because she wrote a character that was just so me: Ramona Quimby. Ramona was weird and individual and totally followed her own beat.

Judy Blume because she wrote books that allowed girls to explore being a teenager, including that sex thing. Yeah.

Stephen King because his writing was so scary yet so conversational.

Ray Bradbury, because in Something Wicked This Way Comes he nails what it means to be alive.

Neil Gaiman because his ideas have such a twist and are the most original thing out there. There's no one out there doing what he's doing.

Ooh La La

Is it just me, or does Neil Gaiman look kind of sexy in this photo?

Excitement

I know this has nothing to do with books, but I'm excited about something.

Today I buy my first sound sample library, the Garritan Personal Orchestra. Now, this is the least expensive sound sample library I've been able to find, and East West Quantum may be better (it's certainly more expensive, and no doubt I will have to add that to my sample library eventually), but it's paired with Finale.

My pipe dream has always been to be a film composer. I am working on a film right now (a documentary), and if this sound sample thing works out, I can start sending ideas to the director and she can hear mockups of the music before I send it on to the musicians, all with realistic sounds. I can also make a demo to give to other people. And and and . . . I can start submitting music I've already written to music libraries as early as tomorrow (but more likely toward the end of the week. I expect problems. There are always problems. I just pray they won't be problems that set me back a few more months. I'm already way behind on the Life Plan.)

Okay, this may be why my writing is at a standstill. But not for long! For Neil Gaiman has lots of good advice about second drafts, which has come at a time when I sorely need it.

And by the way, where the hell are my beard pictures?

On Writing

My job is two hours and fifteen minutes from where I live. It used to be three. No, I didn't move closer, and the job site sure as hell didn't move closer to me. I just found a better route home, is all. (The way the trains and buses meet up, getting home used to take three hours.)

So during the week I'm little more than a zombie who works, sleeps, and eats. I don't do anything interesting during the week. And I pretty much hate it.

Weekends I write. I do try to write on the train, but in the mornings, I'm too exhausted (I leave by 6 a.m.). At night, I just want to read on the way home.

I just read through a story I recently wrote. I thought I would wince—I usually find reading my first drafts painful—but I found myself pleasantly surprised. My story-telling skills leave something to be desired, but I liked much of the word content.

I have a whole philosophy on writing, you see. I believe there are good storytellers, and then there are good writers. Dostoevsky, for example, was an excellent writer, but a horrible storyteller. JK Rowling is a frocking great storyteller, but her writing is so-so.

There are very few writers who can do both. Stephen King is one, although his writing can be uneven. Neil Gaiman is another. I think he's both a great writer and a great storyteller. Gene Wolfe, a writer who makes the rest of us want to impale ourselves on our pens, is both a great writer and a great storyteller. You remember the words and the story.

For me, right now, I think I'm a pretty good writer and a beginning storyteller. Which means I'm a rather lousy storyteller. I think I need to analyze more when I read, instead of letting things just soak in. Osmosis is fine. Photosynthesis is fine. But I think I've been avoiding analysis. No, I have been avoiding analysis.

So. Gotta go do some analysis. Also, my computer is getting wanky—a sign I need to shut down for the night.

Good night, and good luck.