Interviews
On Tuesday, January 5th, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Neil Gaiman to discuss STARDUST.
Moderator: Welcome, Neil Gaiman! Thank you for taking the time to join us online this evening. How are you doing tonight?
Neil Gaiman: Fairly well -- I'm in the last two days before I set off on a five-week-long signing tour, so all is hectic. But it's good to be here.
Jinx from Connecticut: Hi, Neil. I'm curious to know why you chose the Victorian age as a setting in STARDUST? Happy New Year late!
Neil Gaiman: I chose the Victorian age as the period because I wanted it to be far enough away in time from us to be "long ago and far away" but near enough that it was within our great-grandparents' lifetime. One day I want to do a novel called WALL, set in the present, which would have the descendants of many of the STARDUST characters in it (and a couple of people who are still around). (I've seen STARDUST listed in a few places now as a historical novel, which was not the intention at all.)
Nixiefay from California: Hi! I know you're supposed to be discussing STARDUST, but I had to ask: I only recently read GOOD OMENS, and I was wondering how your collaboration with Terry Pratchett worked? I mean, was Crowley mainly done by you and Aziraphale by Mr. Pratchett, or was it split more into sections? I'm just really curious (and you two seem to be playing the parts in the picture on the back cover). Well it's great to read, in any case.
Neil Gaiman: Terry wrote all the bits that got written in the morning, I wrote all the bits that were written late at night.... If memory serves, we decided that we would tell people that Terry wrote the Death of Agnes Nutter, and I wrote all the Four Horsemen (and the other Four Bikers) until they got to the airbase. But beyond that it's anyone's guess. Truth to tell, I'm not even sure that we could swear now who wrote what and be sure of getting it right.
Niki from niki_palek@yahoo.com: How close is Tristan a reflection of Neil Gaiman or vice versa?
Neil Gaiman: I have mismatched ears too, but apart from that he's on his own.
Sweet Alison from Ohio: Having just returned from five months in England, my first visit, I was wondering if you feel that environment has influenced your writing, and in what ways?
Neil Gaiman: Very much so: I'm English, and my perspective on things is English. (Admittedly, after six years in America, it's probably that of an expatriate Englishman, with an accent that is all over the place, but I'm English for all of that.) I think the main way it's influenced me is coming from somewhere that exists in time so solidly. (Someone once remarked that the main difference between England and America was that in America a hundred years is a long time, and in England a hundred miles is a long way.)
Sean Ramirez from Orlando, FL: What are the largest differences between writing for comics and writing novels?
Neil Gaiman: When you write comics you are using pictures and word balloons to tell your story. When you write prose you're making the reader do a lot more work in the back of his or her head. They have different strengths and different weaknesses. (Writing comics is harder, by the way.)
Adam Webb from Buffalo Grove, IL: After seeing that the second question was asked by someone named Jinx, I thought to ask this question: Do you get a chance to read any of the independent crime comics like "Jinx" and "Stray Bullets," and what do you think of them? Any chance of your doing a crime story in either novel or comic form?
Neil Gaiman: I still read as many of the indie comics (and the interesting mainstream comics) as I can. Not sure that I'll ever do a straight crime story per se -- it doesn't quite seem to be how my head works; but I wrote a story that will I think be called "Keepsakes and Treasures" for an anthology called 999, which comes out later this year (it's a horror and dark fiction anthology) which is one of the nastiest stories I've written, and might almost be a crime story. And there will be a lot of crime in the next novel (which has a working title of AMERICAN GODS but probably won't be called that when it's finished.)
Robyn from Los Angeles, CA: Please tell us you're coming to L.A. to sign...or Orange County.
Neil Gaiman: I wish they were all so easy to answer. Yes, I'll be there next week.... Sunday, January 10th: San Diego -- Mysterious Galaxy, 4-5:30pm, 3904 Convoy Street #107, San Diego, CA 92111 (tel. 619-268-4775); Monday, January 11th: Los Angeles -- Dangerous Visions, 6-8pm, 13563 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 (tel. 818-986-6963); Tuesday, January 12th: Los Angeles -- Brentano's, 12-1:30pm, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90067 (tel. 310-785-0204) and Vroman's, 7-9pm 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101 (tel. 626-449-5320); Wednesday, January 13th: Los Angeles -- Book Soup, 8-11:00pm, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069 (tel. 310-659-3684). The web site with most information about the tour on it is www.spikebooks.com/stardust
James Ortega from Fort Lauderdale, FL: Hey, Neil! Why the two versions of STARDUST? Is the text-only one expanded in any way? Or is it the exact same story, sans pictures? Thanks for all of your work -- the world you've created means a lot to me.
Neil Gaiman: The text-only version of STARDUST is slightly revised (just because I had the opportunity to revise it, so I took it, and because the occasional paragraph had had to be cut from the DC edition for space reasons). Why two versions? I suppose mostly because there are lots of people out there who would love STARDUST who would never pick up a huge, beautiful, illustrated book. I was astonished at how many NEVERWHERE readers had never heard of Sandman. They picked it up, or SMOKE AND MIRRORS, because they liked the covers or thought it looked interesting. And it seems to be working: Avon have already sold ten times as many copies of the text edition of STARDUST as DC sold of the illustrated edition, which means it's reaching a lot of readers who would never otherwise have seen it. And you're very welcome.
Mikebo from Maryland: Could you discuss the differences between the four-part serialized STARDUST from DC Comics and the novel? And is there anything you could say about the "Fall of Stardust" portfolio? How is Charles Vess's wife doing?
Neil Gaiman: The "Fall of Stardust" portfolio is utterly beautiful -- more than 30 lovely paintings to hang on your walls by various amazing artists. A short story by Susanna Clarke (about the time the Duke of Wellington went to Wall). A couple of poems by me, and the prologue to the Wall novel. Karen Vess (who was in a bad car accident in July and needed spinal surgery and several months in rehab) is home again and I believe doing very well. Charles and Karen's house has been being remodelled to allow her to move around in a wheelchair.
Lord Anubis from Vienna: Hi, Neil! I was wondering if the Lillim in STARDUST had any relation to the Kindly Ones from "Sandman." Is there any connection?
Neil Gaiman: I think the triple goddess tends to creep into my fiction when I'm not looking; the Lillim were certainly an aspect of that. When I was thinking about STARDUST I thought that the two sisters would play more of a part than they did, but once the witch-queen got onstage there was no shifting her.
Suleyman Okan from Istanbul, Turkey: I have sensed a peculiar mood in the wall of the village in STARDUST. No child tried to climb over it, no one tried to push the guards and run to the other side, none with Faerie blood flew over. Not a single creature from the other side.... And I heard of your upcoming story "The Wall." Will it be somewhat related to this almost unnatural existence of such a strong taboo?
Neil Gaiman: To some extent, yes.
Steve from Seattle, WA: Hello Neil. I'd like to know which modern writers you enjoy. Luna says hi, BTW.
Neil Gaiman: Let's see... Jonathan Carroll, Gene Wolfe, R. A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, Wendy Cope, Hugh Sykes Davies, Kathy Acker, Robert Aickman, M. John Harrison, John M. Ford, F. C. Gonzalez-Crussi, Angela Carter, Robert Irwin, Iain Sinclair, Samuel R. Delany, Geoff Ryman, Diana Wynne Jones, Jack Vance, Eduardo Galeano, Charles G. Finney, John Lahr...er, this could go on for weeks. That's probably enough to be going on with.
Lucy Anne from New York: Being that sushi doesn't travel well, and alcohol is probably not allowed in bookstores, do you have any personal rules as to what you would like or not like out of your audience at a signing? Thanks.
Neil Gaiman: Mostly just reasonableness -- and most people at signings are amazingly sweet and reasonable anyway, considering how long they've been standing in line clutching their books. Gifts are cool but not necessary: I remember one signing several years ago when a fan gave me a handful of Herkimer "Diamonds," wonderful quartz things, and I simply gave them away over the next six months to other fans who gave me cool things. Each store on the tour is going to have its own guidelines for the way the signings are run. My own perspective is that, assuming the lines aren't obscenely long, I'm happy to sign any three things people have brought with them and as many copies as I can of anything as they're buying then and there in the store. But that may have to be modified, depending on the number of people and the time available. Where possible on the tour I'll do readings too.
Brad Epperly from Santa Cruz, CA: I was just curious, what work of yours do you feel is the best work for someone (say a comics fan or a noncomics fan) to be introduced to you with?
Neil Gaiman: I think it depends on the person and on what they like. I'm not trying to be flip here -- I've written so much, and in so many styles. SMOKE AND MIRRORS might well be the best place to start, just because if you don't like anything in there then the chances are that you won't like anything else I've written. But beyond that...if they like funny, then GOOD OMENS might be the best place to start; if they like complex, mythic, and occasionally creepy, then "Sandman" (although "Preludes and Nocturnes" isn't really representative of the story as a whole); if they like uncomplicated adventure, then NEVERWHERE.... I hear that DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING makes a lot of friends. Most people will like STARDUST -- I keep seeing reviews from people who say, "I don't like fantasy but I loved this...."
Rosemarie Del Latte from Fort Lauderdale, FL: Hello, Neil! After talking with a friend of mine and rereading "Calliope," I began to wonder how you feel about ideas? Do you suffer from the weight of "ideas in abundance" and wonder how you will ever be able to get it all down? How do you handle the thought of dying before
your pen has gleaned your teeming brain? Or is this even a problem for you? Have you seen others struggle with the issue, and what has been your advice to them?
Neil Gaiman: I tend to seesaw from "How am I going to get all these stories told?" to "Why am I staring at this blank sheet of paper?" with very little in between. I worried about dying before "Sandman" was done, mainly because it was so big, but it's not something that's bothered me since. (It might do if I start another large project.) But I've written a few things now that I was happy with -- a couple of issues of "Sandman" and "Mr. Punch," and THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH, and STARDUST, and a few of the stories in SMOKE AND MIRRORS -- so I figure I'm already ahead of the game.
Pam from Chicago, IL: Can you give some insight into what STARDUST is all about? Is it something that someone who hasn't read you before can pick up and read, or do you need to start with a prior book?
Neil Gaiman: I think that STARDUST is definitely a book that someone who hasn't read anything I've written before (or ever heard of me before) can enjoy. It's a romance, of sorts. I've seen it described in reviews as a fable, and as a fairy tale, and there's truth in both of those descriptions. It's about a young man who lives in a village called Wall, somewhere in the British Isles, about 140 years ago, who is in love with the village beauty, and who promises to bring her a fallen star, and of the consequences of that promise. The village is on the border of Faerie, and the young man's quest takes him farther than he had imagined it would. It's funny and it's sad, and it has some exciting bits and some magical stuff too.
Moderator: Thank you, Neil Gaiman! Best of luck with STARDUST. Do you have any closing comments for the online audience?
Neil Gaiman: Just that I'm sorry not to have answered all of the questions (next time I do one of these I'll have to type faster); and thank you all for having me. And I hope I'll see lots of you on the signing tour.