Neil Gaiman 'Doctor Who' = Awesome! | Airlock Alpha

I don't seem to have posted this here yet, and I can't think why. Neil Gaiman is writing an episode for the Sixth Season. That I am looking forward to, no matter what else happens in the seasons (and the new trailers have me feeling pretty optimistic):

Neil Gaiman 'Doctor Who' = Awesome! | Airlock Alpha

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Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry" Online

Hi! Remember me?

Just popping in to say that there is an NPR podcast of Jane Curtin reading Neil Gaiman's short story "Chivalry" up online for another few days.

"Chivalry" has been one of my favorite short stories ever since I read the first sentence, "Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."

It's is full of low-key humor, an odd sort of sadness, and I realized today that I don't really understand it, not fully, and I intend to go on reading--or listening to it--and probably never will fully figure it out.

And Curtin is a marvelous reader. It's interesting, too, to hear the audience response to different lines. It's not a loud audience, but it is there, recorded in the background.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

There is a movie coming out soon--from all accounts, it will probably be an extremely good, very well made movie. There's lots of lovingly done stop-motion animation & it's being funded by someone rich enough not to need it to make an instant, insanely large profit, and sensible enough to know it.

But I don't have a countdown in the sidebar the way I did for The Graveyard Book (which just won the Newberry Award), and I'm probably not going to go to see the movie Coraline, myself, because:

Coraline is an extremely well-written, very creepy little book. In fact, I think it gets creepier each time I read it.

It's also a gem of a book, and I love it.

So I'm scared to even try the movie.

Either it will get the subtle, horrible creepiness right, in which case I will probably crawl under the theater seats and never come out, or it will miss the point entirely and I will be incensed.

I do, however, heartily recommend the book.

Anansi Boys

I didn't go to the library yesterday--I finished rereading Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman, instead.

It's brilliant.

I'll try to post some bits here just to give everyone an idea of the flavor of the writing & I'll add: It's got lots of good bits, but it isn't just good bits, it's a really good book. I like most of what Gaiman has written, and I think even the stuff I don't like is very well done, but I think this is his best so far.

*Yes, he's also the one who wrote "Chivalry," the short story that begins "Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."

Bits and Pieces

Having finished Orphans Preferred, I find myself in the position of having no library books left to read. This means I will either have to make an unscheduled trip to the library--an appealing possibility--or finish rereading Anansi Boys for the fourth or fifth time, which is also tempting. I love that book.

***

I spent a large chunk of today happily tangling myself up in writing a mystery subquest for The Broken Hourglass.* I had it all nicely plotted out and then partway through realized not all of my alibis and motives held. Back to the neat, tidy outline I'd printed out yesterday, pen in hand, scratching stuff out, filling stuff in, and generally making a mess before I could start writing again.

I have done very little with mysteries so far. I wrote one for the one in the Trio, but it is much more straight forward. I've always known mysteries took a deal of plotting, and doing it this way means keeping all lines of questioning in my head at once. I think I have it all plotted out now, but I've some witnesses yet to interview.

I wish I could load it up on the computer afterwards to test out how it plays on screen before I send it in, but I don't know WScript , so that's out.

Actually, I was slow off the mark with the mystery. First I had to read up on the Byzantine military to find out what to call the captain of a city militia. In the end, jcompton beat me to it on the search (wounding my researcher pride ;) ), and the answer is a tessarius, but I did get to read some good bits, first, about various empires and emperors and organizations (probably one reason he beat me to it; I bet he had the good sense to go straight for the answer).

And then I had to go read up on corny pickup lines to fix a niggling bit from yesterday's writing. That, of course, meant getting distracted by an article about college students who did a deliberate experiment with bad pickup lines to see whether or not they worked. No, I can't remember where it is to bookmark it, but their conclusion was "sometimes" and "it depends." So now you know.

****

My sisters dug me out of the WhoDunnit this evening so we could take a walk on the beach.

And now it is time to walk the ever-faithful Cinder.

All in all, it's been a good day.

*Yes, I probably am going to keep including the link for a while. I'm excited & want everyone else to be ,too.