Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Neil Gaiman's American Gods

This is topic Neil Gaiman's American Gods in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by JP Carney (Member # 894) on :

I know, I know, this is Hatrack, the OSC board. But I can't resist. I have to tell all of you about Neil Gaiman's new novel American Gods. It's out today (6/19), and he's on a limited signing tour (I'M GOING TO SEE HIM THURSDAY IN SAVOY, IL!!) through the end of July.

If you don't know Neil, he's a tremendous author of comic books, graphic novels, poems, short stories, novels, and screenplays. I can go on and on about Neil, but I'll refrain and simply point you to http://www.neilgaiman.com

Get the book American Gods!!! You won't regret it!

JP
Too excited for words righ now!

[This message has been edited by JP Carney (edited June 19, 2001).]

Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :

Thank you for the advice, JP. He will be just a couple of blocks from my house this Sunday. If I can squeeze some time from my summer schedule I will go to see him.

To make it relevant to the board, can you give some comment on the book? Do you like the writing style? Plot? Characters? Punctuation? Cover art?

Posted by JP Carney (Member # 894) on :

Okay, I'll try not to ramble too much.

First off, I haven't gotten my copy yet, I'll get that Thursday when I get it signed by Neil.

Second, the first chapter of his book is at http://www.neilgaiman.com/books/americangods_hc.asp I was hooked. I'll wait until I've read the whole book before I try to disect the writing, but I will try. Could make for an interesting discussion, especially if others get a chance to read it.

Third, early on Neil was doing a weblog journal (he still is, but you can't get to the archives right now). In it he talked all about the post-writing process of a writer: permissions, blurbs, proofing mss, proofing gallies, signings, promotion, editors, copy editors. It was fascinating. Hopefully the archives will become available agian, and if they do, I'll let you know. Reading them chronologically really gave me a feel of what it's like to be a bigtime writer with a bigtime book coming out.

Fourth, he's got scanned images of some notebook pages from his creation (pre-writing?) phase. Have only seen the first one as they're scanned jpgs and take a bit to load, but it was cool to see (http://www.neilgaiman.com/AmGods/notebook.asp)

Finally, cover art. Check it out for yourself www.neilgaiman.com Neil says it's quite apropos to the story. I'll let you know what I think after I've read the book.

I hope you don't mind this indulgence, but I'm a huge Neil fan, and an excited one. AND I do believe there is a lot on his site to give you insights into the profession of writing (if those darn archives were still there). His journal is a real insider's view of the life of a professional writer (he even posts the mundane at times, just to show it's not all glitz and glam) And the images of his notebook just proves to me that my notebook isn't so worthless.

All that said, I'll shut up now, and we can get back to talking about what we're all here to talk about.

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 1170) on :

Hey, JP, you were really at the Savoy signing? So was I.

Posted by JP Carney (Member # 894) on :

Tom, I sure was. I've posted my thoughts on the reading/signing over at the neilgaiman.com message boards, in the AG Tour forum, under the post A Midsummer Night in Savoy, IL 6-23....and I've got a link to my pictures in another post called (same AG Tour forum) AG Tour Pictures!

It was amazing, wasn't it?