me

reposting everything I don't want to forget

[neil-gaiman]

Neil Gaiman, what are you doing EVERYWHERE?? Yesterday, you were in two knowledge bowl questions- one involved a reading from a passage in Stardust, and the other was "Which novel, written by Neil Gaiman, published in 2001-" (I didn't hear the rest of the question before I was shaking my teammate to hit the buzzer). And then, this morning, your name was one of the answer options to a radio show question about who wrote a Dolly Parton song. Sadly you did not write a Dolly Parton song.

Whew!

[confused-robot-cat]

I'm sorry to disillusion people but Neil Gaiman is made up. He's "everywhere" for the same reason mall Santas are everywhere. People dress up as Neil Gaiman and go to bookstores and conventions and run social media accounts to spread joy to all the young adults and queer people. But he's not real. Neil Gaiman is more like a feeling. In Scandinavia he's known as Nail Guaymin and he leaves books in people's shoes every November 10th.

[neil-gaiman]

Thought you might be pleased to know that Good Omens 2 ranked in the top 10 most historically accurate costume designs of 2023 on Bernadette Banner's youtube channel. Her only lament is we didn't get to see Crowley in a men's corset but that's more a personal loss than an accuracy one.

I'm proud of the costume team.

[charliejaneanders]

Random writing thought: the best stories are often the ones that only you could have written — but also the ones that you could only write at this one moment.

I couldn't write All the Birds in the Sky from scratch now if I tried. But the me of 2013 couldn't have written The Prodigal Mother either.

[neil-gaiman]

When people ask if I'd change anything about a book I've already written, I want to explain to them that I'm not the person who wrote that book any longer, and even if I tried right now I'd write a different one. Everything you make as a writer* is a combination of what you want to say and who you are at the time you are telling that story.

*possibly also as an artist or as a human being

[neil-gaiman]

The whole New Year's Wishes sequence in one place...

A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

In 2011, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it’s this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

  Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

  So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

  Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

  Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

  And last year, I wrote:

It’s a New Year and with it comes a fresh opportunity to shape our world. 

So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we’re faking them. 

And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it’s joy we’re looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation. 

So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy.

[neil-gaiman]

Greetings from Argentina dear Mr. Gaiman! I wanted to ask you if you would accept, if they proposed it, to write an episode or season for the new Harry Potter series. Thank you! (I'm a big Stardust fan :))

Nope

[havingfriendsincollege]

Slay.

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Mr. Gaiman,

not really an ask, but I just really wanted to say thank you for creating Good Omens together with Terry because it gave me just about the most bizarre interaction that I have ever had: I was so excited that I started to talk about GO with anyone that would listen. One day at school, I was talking to my friend about it and my science teacher overheard our conversation so he went up to us and said: 'Oh you like Good Omens too? I'm a big fan of the writers' And he proceeded to tell me that he still had some of Terry's books that he had been collection since he was a kid that needed a new home, and so he offered to give me those books (and of course I said yes). A few lessons later he pulled me aside and said: 'Remember when I told you that I still had some Pratchett books...? Well I might have underestimated it a bit' He proceeds to show me two full sized big shopping bags filled to the brim with Terry's books. I was totally flabbergasted. So I went home to the best of my ability with two very heavy bags and started to organize them all...

Turns out that my teacher had gifted me 57 Terry Pratchett books (Including a 2nd edition of GO, which I was very happy with). So now I've got enough reading material for quite some time. Thanks again for creating such a wonderful story that was (somewhat) indirectly responsible for me having back-pain after carrying the backbone of the fantasy genre in two shopping bags.

That put a huge smile on my face.

[cliopadra]

WE’RE GETTING A SEASON THREE!!!???!!!

[userarmand]

gentlebeard + hands

[dalooch]

started season 2 and Twitter says I should be scared 👀

[empireofthesin]

Crowley can’t come back to Soho because with Aziraphale gone they will know he’s single now and half of Soho will be trying their chances and nobody can blame them

[songbird-is-crying]

me: wow, the main character of this colleen hoover book writes about her problematic personal life as fan letters to ellen degenerate, geez who would do that haha

also me: *pulls up neil gaiman’s tumblr ask box* dear neil, how are you? :) i heard a new song today and it made me think of aziraphale and crowley :)) i worry i’m unlovable—

[neil-gaiman]

What is your take on people writing fanfiction? Have they got anything right that might happen to Crowley and Aziraphale in season 3?

Funny you should ask me that. As an obsessive reader of Good Omens Season 3 fanfiction I was amazed to see how much they have right including:

Sadie and Dottie's boarding home for indigent chinchillas.

Crowley's sad death after eating too many pies.

Who stole Mr Wimble's Magic Hat (how they got this one I will never know).

Why Aziraphale wasn't in the gorilla suit, and also

The Herring Problem.

Frankly I'm not sure why we're even going to make Season 3 any more. You people are already so far ahead of us. Although I suppose that the pies were a bit obvious.

[akboro]

[dduane]

Terry knew.

[petermorwood]

"...the kind who brushed the dog and told their children bedtime stories..."

That passage leads into this one:

Yup.

Terry knew.

[ineffableteeth]

I am screaming look at these photos

Cut scene of Crowley sleeping on a WALL in his PAJAMAS (HE WEARS PAJAMAS ((AND BLACK SILK ONES AT THAT)))

(From the Script book) He DOES wake up a mess and he DOES clean up instantly (WE WERE ROBBED OF MESSY HAIR CROWLEY)

CONCEPT ART FOR CROWLEYS BEDROOM

I CANT

[dee-morris]

In so many universes that bed has seen so many unspeakable things.

[odonata523]

Male Scifi and Fantasy writers: Look at this !Strong! female character! She can fight and solve puzzles, and ends up with the sidekick not the hero! Isn’t she a great character?

Everyone: No, she’s one-dimensional and still only exists to please the hero’s ego

Male scifi and fantasy writers: You’re never happy! This is how characters are written! Besides, it’s much harder for us to write women because we are men!

Terry Pratchett: *creates a female character who is literally the embodyment of a dog, sets her up to be the love interest of Protagonist Hero Man.* *writes her as clever, emotionally tortured, lonely and powerful* *uses her to explore difficulties of bisexuality and masculine dominated workforces*

Terry Pratchett: *Creates a pair of old witches, one of whom is a virgin and the other who has slept with lots of men.* *makes them best friends, never dismisses one lifestyle of the other, explains lifestyle choices based on characters history and personality, uses this to develop each character as the books progress*

Terry Pratchett: *Writes Sybil Rankin* *makes the powerful rich lady heavy set but beautiful, never plays her by her looks, develops her as she ages, acknowledges the way society views such people and then spits on their attitudes* *does it again with Agnes*

Terry Pratchett: *Writes a book about an entire army secretly being women, creates complex female relationships, introduces same sex relationships completely naturally*

Terry Pratchett: *takes old joke about female dwarves and uses it to explore gender identity without making it seem forced or unnatural, carefully discusses some of the issues and complextities whilst still making funny and witty observasions and maintaining genuine fantasy tropes*

Terry Pratchett: *DOES THIS ALL OVER AND OVER AGAIN, DEVELOPING CHARACTERS AS HIS VEIW OF THE WORLD DEVELOPS AND CAREFULLY APOLOGIZES FOR EARLY MISTAKES*

[odonata523]

Excellent note by @spiderleggedhorse

[dduane]

Terry’s writer superpower was always Thinking Things Through. All the way through.

[colleendoran]

Happy Birthday, Neil Gaiman.

[briarrose44]

Happy birthday indeed, sir. A wee blast from the past for you.

[neil-gaiman]

I will never be that young again. Also, I will never be this young again.

(Thank you!)

[neil-gaiman]

I've noticed that people have started spreading the 1992 Good Omens script around. Please don't. If you've got it up, please take it down. There's a mess of serious and real legalities involved, and I don't want to have to start being a dick and asking for copyright takedowns and all of that, and I don't want to have to regret letting it out into the world. Just take it down, unshare, delete links. Thank you.