artificialjew asked: Hi Mr. Gaiman, You’ve been my favorite author for most of my life. You were also my mother’s favorite author, and we always shared your work. For my mother’s birthday last year I even bought the both of us tickets to see your show for the Frederick speaker series in May. Unfortunately, she passed away very suddenly this January, and now at 21 years old I feel lost in life without her. Do you have any advice to help me handle this grief? Thank you for all that you do.
It’s not a bad thing, grief for people who you loved or cared for, who are gone. A dear friend of mine for 35 years died today and I’m stunned and sad and hurt and lonely and all those things. And I’d rather have them than not care.
Time heals. Or at least, it scabs, and then it heals, even if it leave a scar.
I’m really sorry for your loss. You aren’t on a schedule to feel better or get over it. I’ll see you, I hope, in May.
miriams-song asked: Have you ever seen headcanons about your characters you don’t agree with/seem “OOC”? How does that make you feel as a writer?
Like I created characters who have gone off to have lives of their own in other people’s heads.
thecheerfulnihlist asked: Alright: I have a novel about how most heterosexual relationships are fairly awful and how toxic masculinity is the root cause of this. How would you go about selling this book? I have tried several publishers, and I'm wondering if an agent is the way to go. Basically I don't know how to tell a publisher they should market a book that alienates straight white males, but I don't know if an agent can get my idea across without compromising my vision. Any insight would be help.
As a general rule, few publishers will respond to a novel that has a thesis, unless they also respond to the story and the characters. Which is not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t have themes or messages in your book, but that’s normally not what a person buying it in order to resell it (which is what a publisher is) wants to buy it for.
What a book is about can go more than one way. Coraline is about bravery, and it’s about the way that people who have your best interests at heart do not always give you the attention you need while people who don’t have your bets interests at heart can sometimes give you all the attention you desire… but that’s not how I’d describe it to a publisher, or a potential reader. To them I’d talk about the plot: Coraline is about a small girl who finds a door in her flat that leads her to a flat where her Other Mother and her Other Father, who have big black buttons for eyes, are waiting, in a world that’s more interesting and fun than the one she left. They want her to stay with them for ever. And to sew buttons into her eyes…
Publishers, like readers, like agents, respond to story, not to theme. So lean on that.
cadhla-marie asked: Hello, Mr. Gaiman. My mother and I have been rereading Good Omens in preparation for the release of the miniseries on May 31, and she and I have a question about Dog. What breed is he supposed to be? He sounds a lot like a dachshund to us (one ear that always going backwards, looks like he could burrow into rabbit holes, angry small-dog temperament, etc), but in the pictures I have seen from the series, he looks to be a different breed entirely. What was he meant to be when the book was written?
He’s supposed, in the book, to be a mongrel. That’s what Adam wants him to be. Even, as Adam explains, a pedigree mongrel.
chloejanedecker1 asked: I'm watching "Once Upon a Time" on #Lucifer. Your Voice is on the Screen.Will We Ever Have Your Voice or Appearance on the show?
I’ve told the Lucifer team that
a) I’m very willing and happy to repeat the role
but that
b) if they either need to cast a real actor who can act, or
c) they want me to repeat it but I’m not actually available then I will not be in the slightest degree hurt or offended if they recast the role, and they should do whatever’s best for the show.
Pantomime by John H. Striebel in The Star-Gazette, Elmira, New York, March 12, 1924
Later, Striebel created a comic called Dixie Dugan, about a small town heroine originally modelled on silent film star Louise Brooks.
(Well, I think it’s interesting.)
cordyceps-sapiens asked: Rereading American Gods, I realize just how important to the setting the time of year is, and how different it is from the series. (It's hard to imagine how the series will handle the clunker-on-the-ice plotline with Easter already past.) Why did you change that?
I didn’t. I never understood why the people who did, did.
hewhomakesnosound asked: Good day, Mr. Gaimen. I'm writing a scholarship essay for college and the requirements is to interview a professional in my field. Just 3 questions. Much love for answering me. 1.) What initially inspired you to pursue the industry that you are currently in? 2.) what are some aspects about your career that you didn't know about or consider when you were starting out? 3.) What are some things I should be spending my time doing now outside of school to help me prepare for a career in this field?
1) Hunger, a need to have a roof over my head, and no other marketable skills.
2) I didn’t know about most of it when I started out. But the idea that there could be problems of success was way beyond me: I understood the problems of failure, but that success could bring its own set of problems was a surprise.
3) Read everything you can, especially the kinds of things you wouldn’t read for pleasure. Then try to imitate what you’ve read.
The Computer is your friend. Trust Friend Computer. (Paranoia: The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues by John M Ford, WEG, 1985)
I miss John M Ford, who was a long way ahead of his time.