A long catch up (and go and see Amanda Palmer's show)
posted by Neil Gaiman
I stopped blogging in April when my friend Gene Wolfe died. I wanted to write a blog about Gene, who he was, how we were friends, and it just made me too sad.
So I stopped writing that blog, and then felt bad writing about the other things that have happened, like Good Omens coming out as a TV series when I hadn't yet written about Gene.
I miss him still, and kept wanting to send him postcards over the last few months, just as I usually did when I travelled. And then I remember I can't send Gene things any longer.
So Gene went, before I could show him the TV adaptation we made of Good Omens, which had been a book he loved.
It came out on Prime Video May 31st, and people loved it. It broke several records for Amazon, in the US and the UK and around the world, which made me happy. We got three Emmy Nominations, and already started being nominated for and winning awards. Everyone wants us to make some more, and while Terry Pratchett and I had long ago plotted out a whole novel's worth of More, I'm still figuring out whether or not and if so how it could happen.
Then it was announced that Netflix had won the bidding war to be the company that brought Sandman to television. I'm Very Involved in making it -- I'll be cowriting the pilot episode, and working closely with Exec Producer David Goyer and Showrunner Allan Heinberg to make sure it's always Sandman, the one that people who read and loved the comics will recognise and love.
Meanwhile, I had stopped being a Good Omens showrunner, and started becoming a writer who stayed at home and looked after a small boy and also wrote, while his wife went off on tour.
And then we crossed the ocean, and are now based in the UK until the end of the year and are doing the same thing again.
I'm at home, Amanda is (mostly) on tour.
I get Ash dressed in the correct school uniform (PE or Formal) and onto the bus (we always go straight up to the top floor of the bus and he always tells me the rules of traffic lights), and I take him to school.
Occasionally I'll be doing things in public this year, and I'll try and announce them here:
The National Theatre's adaptation of The Ocean at the End of the Lane begins on Dec 3rd and runs until the 25th of January:
It's recommended for people aged 12 and over. Tickets are available here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane
And in one of those nice coincidences that make it look like I actually know what I'm doing, this year also brings the illustrated edition of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Elise Hurst is an Australian illustrator who passed me some of her work to look at after an event, and I was immediately impressed. Her work looks (or can look) like mid-20th century children's book illustration, but with a strange edge to it that seemed perfect for Ocean.
She and I will be in conversation on the 14th of November: here's the details, and how to get tickets -- https://membership.theguardian.com/event/an-evening-with-neil-gaiman-and-elise-hurst-69018926467
Here's a photo Amanda took of me telling a children's story that won't be published for about a year, at an event in Camden for her Patrons (from Patreon). Douglas Mackinnon, director of Good Omens, made it black and white and haunting. Ash is the one looking up at me at the front...
....
If you are in the UK, or Germany or Austria (Graz!), Paris or Prague, Luxembourg, Ireland or Denmark, I wanted to urge you to go and see Amanda in concert on this tour. (https://nointermission.amandapalmer.net/) The show list: http://amandapalmer.net/shows/
This is a very special show. It's about life and otherwise. It contains a friend's illness and death. It contains three abortions (one on health grounds) and a Christmas Day miscarriage. It contains the arrival of Ash.
It's called There Will Be No Intermission. And normally, there's an intermission, because it's a long night.
It's important, it's beautiful, it's powerful, and it's even funny.
Labels: There WIll be No Intermission, Ash, Good Omens, Gene Wolfe, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, sandman tv, amanda palmer
I stopped blogging in April when my friend Gene Wolfe died. I wanted to write a blog about Gene, who he was, how we were friends, and it just made me too sad.
So I stopped writing that blog, and then felt bad writing about the other things that have happened, like Good Omens coming out as a TV series when I hadn't yet written about Gene.
I miss him still, and kept wanting to send him postcards over the last few months, just as I usually did when I travelled. And then I remember I can't send Gene things any longer.
So Gene went, before I could show him the TV adaptation we made of Good Omens, which had been a book he loved.
It came out on Prime Video May 31st, and people loved it. It broke several records for Amazon, in the US and the UK and around the world, which made me happy. We got three Emmy Nominations, and already started being nominated for and winning awards. Everyone wants us to make some more, and while Terry Pratchett and I had long ago plotted out a whole novel's worth of More, I'm still figuring out whether or not and if so how it could happen.
Then it was announced that Netflix had won the bidding war to be the company that brought Sandman to television. I'm Very Involved in making it -- I'll be cowriting the pilot episode, and working closely with Exec Producer David Goyer and Showrunner Allan Heinberg to make sure it's always Sandman, the one that people who read and loved the comics will recognise and love.
Meanwhile, I had stopped being a Good Omens showrunner, and started becoming a writer who stayed at home and looked after a small boy and also wrote, while his wife went off on tour.
And then we crossed the ocean, and are now based in the UK until the end of the year and are doing the same thing again.
I'm at home, Amanda is (mostly) on tour.
I get Ash dressed in the correct school uniform (PE or Formal) and onto the bus (we always go straight up to the top floor of the bus and he always tells me the rules of traffic lights), and I take him to school.
Occasionally I'll be doing things in public this year, and I'll try and announce them here:
The National Theatre's adaptation of The Ocean at the End of the Lane begins on Dec 3rd and runs until the 25th of January:
It's recommended for people aged 12 and over. Tickets are available here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane
And in one of those nice coincidences that make it look like I actually know what I'm doing, this year also brings the illustrated edition of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Elise Hurst is an Australian illustrator who passed me some of her work to look at after an event, and I was immediately impressed. Her work looks (or can look) like mid-20th century children's book illustration, but with a strange edge to it that seemed perfect for Ocean.
She and I will be in conversation on the 14th of November: here's the details, and how to get tickets -- https://membership.theguardian.com/event/an-evening-with-neil-gaiman-and-elise-hurst-69018926467
Here's a photo Amanda took of me telling a children's story that won't be published for about a year, at an event in Camden for her Patrons (from Patreon). Douglas Mackinnon, director of Good Omens, made it black and white and haunting. Ash is the one looking up at me at the front...
....
If you are in the UK, or Germany or Austria (Graz!), Paris or Prague, Luxembourg, Ireland or Denmark, I wanted to urge you to go and see Amanda in concert on this tour. (https://nointermission.amandapalmer.net/) The show list: http://amandapalmer.net/shows/
This is a very special show. It's about life and otherwise. It contains a friend's illness and death. It contains three abortions (one on health grounds) and a Christmas Day miscarriage. It contains the arrival of Ash.
It's called There Will Be No Intermission. And normally, there's an intermission, because it's a long night.
It's important, it's beautiful, it's powerful, and it's even funny.
Labels: There WIll be No Intermission, Ash, Good Omens, Gene Wolfe, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, sandman tv, amanda palmer
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Amanda
(new)
Sep 10, 2019 06:41AM
I cant believd how big Ash has gotten. So happy to hear Sandman will be coming to us soon (-ish). Love hearing from you again. We've missed you. :)
reply
|
flag
I've found it very difficult to be inspired by anything since my grandmother passed away last October. There's this strange void that feels like it can never be filled.Thanks for writing this. Thanks for coming back.
Goodbyes are difficult, but I think hellos may be just as complicated. Thanks for the update, and hello, again!
So much looking forward to Sandman. Finally I don't have to explain my tattoo's anymore :)I saw Amanda's show in Amsterdam and it's everything you said and more. It's haunting, sad, extremely funny and it has beautiful music and words and emotions. Go see it.
This is all delightful news, and while I am sorry that you continue to deal with the loss of your friend, I am glad you have things to keep you both busy and tied to the world around you. Keep being you, Neil, and thank you for being you.
Thank you for sharing your loss and the simple joys of a bus ride; we readers can feel preternaturally connected to the scribes we love and your update feels like a postcard from a friend. peace
I'm seeing Amanda perform in Braga, Portugal, and I bought the tickets almost as soon as the dates were announced because I had already missed two of her shows (in South Africa), and couldn't bare to miss another! Now to see if I can ever catch a Neil Gaiman event; I'll have to time any future trip to the UK wisely :)
wow :) Neil Gaiman I am repeatedly amazed how for real you are... this feeling of not wanting to write about other things when I can't bring myself to write about one particular thing being the latest that I can so relate to!looking forward (with some trepidation, I must say) to sandman in motion!
Sandman...... ON TV, there are no words except please, please don't mess it up. Not this very special piece of writing and creativity. Loved Good Omens, thank you for posting.
Sorry for your loss. Also your wife sounds awesome.
I've been deleting tons of emails from mailing lists (normally I look at the name and topic) and unsubscribing from half of them. Goodreads go to this secondary email... but then there's Neil Gaiman. I open it, I read, I hear Neil's voice and Amanda's laughter when I read it. All's well. There was one thing worth reading!
Neil,I don't like what you did here. Just write about Gene and his passing and that sadness. Don't pivot and turn it into a commercial for yourself and your TV projects. Just... don't do that. Yeah, there's useful information here folded in - and I'm looking forward to that stuff - and the living need things to look forward to.
But don't springboard off the newly dead to bring these things to our attention. Honor the dead. Full stop. Then amuse and entertain the living. Compartmentalize, just a bit.
Barney wrote: "Neil,I don't like what you did here. Just write about Gene and his passing and that sadness. Don't pivot and turn it into a commercial for yourself and your TV projects. Just... don't do that. Y..."
Please don't critique someone else's grief. There is no right or wrong way to do it. He said he found it difficult to write about his friend. Don't make it worse for him.
I went to see her in Newcastle and she was amazing.
