Last night Neil Gaiman read chapter four of his newest release THE GRAVEYARD BOOK to a packed sanctuary at University Methodist Temple in Seattle. He has a marvelous reading voice, and it was truly a treat to see him. Sorry you missed it? Neil is reading a different chapter at each stop of his American book tour, which is being video taped and released (for free) on the internet for our viewing pleasure. Chapters 1 & 2 are up currently on his website, with more to come. (Please click here to watch!) The book is a macabre children’s story about a young boy who grows up in a graveyard under the tutelage of the ghostly inhabitants. It is, rumor has it, based on The Jungle Book. His style – omniscient, humorous and slightly tongue-in-cheek – brought to mind J.K. Rowlings. After listening to chapter 4, I am quite looking forward to reading the rest of it. Check out the book’s website.

After the reading, the audience was treated to an exclusive preview of the upcoming movie Coreline, based on his novel of the same name, under the direction of Henry Selick (of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame). Film clips of the movie are also available on Mr. Gaiman’s website. It’s an Alice in Wonderland tale of a girl who travels through a door in her house into an alternate version of her life. Personally, the movie looks quite scary.

Question and Answer Session:

Q: What is your favorite Prehistoric animal?

A: The Diprotodon, a giant Wombat the size of a Volkswagen Bug that lived in Australia.

Q: Of all your stories and plotlines, what is your favorite idea and why?

A: You can’t ask that. That’s like asking wich of your children is your favorite. Occasionally, I’ll look at my short stories and say “you are not some beautiful, shining thing. You are a short, crippled thing.” But like my children I love them anyway.

Q: What music was playing before the signing?

A: A collection of songs loosly inspired by something Neil wrote. Also The Dance Macabre played on a banjo by Béla Fleck, which will play at the beginning of the audio book THE GRAVEYARD BOOK.

Q: How many drafs and revisions do you normally complete before publication?

A: Normally I hand write a first draft, then type it up. This forces myself to get two complete drafts done. With computers there aren’t really drafts, just this long growing thing. I find it easier to delete crap when I’m typing up the second draft from the first handwritten one.

Q: Is is Banned Book Week. Have any of your books been banned?

A: Yes. One that comes to mind is a story from OUTRAGEOUS TALES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT a comic for which I retold a story from the book of judges. It almost sent the publisher in Sweden to prison, and he was saved by his defense – the story really is in the bible. I do a lot of work with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which defends the first amendment.

Q: What is your favorite banned book?

A: I’ve seen the ALA list of “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books” and it’s a toss up between THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN and WHERE’S WALDO?

Q: When you started out did you have ideas that your publishers told you were too huge to publish?

A: No, though there were books I wrote that werer sometimes not good enough to publish.

Q: How did you get involved writing the liner notes form Amanda Palmer?

A: Through Jason Webley. (Seattle musician)

Q: What new movie are you working on now?

A: Writing the script for Anansi Boys.

Q: Is studying literature in college a requirement for becoming a novelist?

A: No. If that were the case we would lose 90% of the novelists in human history. Many writers are engineers. I was a journalist originally.

Q: Do you do school visits?

A: Yes and No. Only to the schools of my offspring, where I get the extra pleasure of embarrassing the offspring. School kids ask the most interesting questions. I was at one reading and a little girl raised her hand and asked, “Have you ever belched so hard it hurt?” I don’t remember what I said.

Q: How does your writing process change for Graphic Novels versus traditional Novels, in that the amount of text in one is succinct and the other elaborate?

A: You assume I don’t write long elaborate descriptions in Graphic Novels. I do, but they are for the artist, not the reader.

Q: How does writing young adult and children’s books differ from writing adult fiction?

A: I just write. The Target audience works it self out. For instance, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is marketed in the US as a children’s book, but in Britain there are two versions–children’s and adults–with different covers and different placement. I don’t know. I just write them.

Q: Where do you write?

A: In a gazebo at the bottom of the garden. Sometimes I borrow houses from friends who have more houses than bodies. Until last year I wrote in a cabin, but I got a dog and the dog didn’t like going to the cabin. He likes it when I write in the garden.

Q: How did you learn to handle criticism when you first started?

A: I would have killed for criticism when I first started. It’s the being ignored that I can’t stand. My first graphic novel I was so proud of. We waited for reviews, any reviews. We got one: that the novel was too expensive. So we went to the publisher and asked to lower the price, then waited again for the reviews. Still nothing. Ever since then I’ve ignored all of them.

Q: What is your favorite ghost story?

A: My friend worked in a hotel in New Orleans that used to get complaints of kids running up and down the hallways, though no kids stayed there. It got to where the front desk would explain to people who called down with complaints that the accoustics were responsible for bringing the sounds of children from the building next door. Then one day a couple contacted the hotel after returning home. They hadn’t had any trouble with noise, but when they developed their film they found one picture taken from about two feet above the bed of the two of them. Asleep.

Q: How much does Dave McKean influence your work?

A: Not at all. Except Mirrormask, which was based on a dream of Dave’s. I write. He draws. That’s why we’ve worked together so well for 23 years.

Q: What is your next book after THE GRAVEYARD BOOK?

A: A children’s picture book: THE BLUEBERRY GIRL, which is a poem Neil wrote for his friend Tory Amos, a prayer for her baby daughter. Illustrated by Charles Vess (click here for some picture). Gaiman read it out loud to the audience and it was beautiful.

In addition to seeing Neil, I also ran into Team Seattle and posse (AKA Urban Fantasy authors Mark Henry, Caitlin Kittredge, and Cherie Priest) who were enjoying the Master and his work.

The Book Swede is hosting a contest to win a free copy of THE GRAVEYARD BOOK.