Star Struck

I look embarassingly pleased with myself to have Neil Gaiman actually signing my book! He said he had only been to KLIA in Malaysia and of course politely said he would have loved to go. Oh, he was extremely charming!

He read excerpts from two new stories he is writing - a book about a child who is brought up in a graveyard...he says it is really 8 linked short stories. The story opens with a killer disposing of this boy baby's family, the baby crawls into the graveyard and is rescued and brought up by the ghosts. Someone in the audience asked how could this be a children's book (it had a rather chilling opening paragraph) . I won't be able to post the answer blow by blow but the gist was that children can take such things in their stride. He said that he had loved The Jungle Book as a child and it was full of Death, blood, hunting and killing, and that The Graveyard Book was a nod to it. When he wrote his children's book Coraline, his editor had nightmares about the story, while his two daughters aged 6 or 7 at the time loved it and wanted to know what happened next. Neil Gaiman is a great story teller - he can see the story going on anywhere. He got the idea for his book when he used to live in a house in Surrey with no garden and took his young son on a tricycle to the graveyard near by to cycle along its paths. I look forward to reading this when it comes out.

He also read us a chapter from Odd and the Frost Giants - his World Book Day 2008 contribution, which he's supposed to hand in to the publisher next week. Odd is the son of a woodcutter/woodcarver who is drowned at sea, he has a limp from injuring himself with his father's axe shortly after his father's death as he tries to take over the job, his mother remarries and the story begins as one winter, Odd takes himself off to his father's old woodcutting cabin in the forest and meets (I think...) a grumpy bear and two other creatures who turn out to be argumentative Gods trying to regain Asgard from an invasion of Frost Giants.

All in all a cracking evening - they even sent him on stage in a cloud of dry ice, LOL. Well, you know I'd do it all again. Check out his website for his blog and lots of cool stuff http://www.neilgaiman.com/

Very small round up

Well this isn't my post on my favourite food, or on Lavender, or on the vagaries of memory - but I will promise all those because I will have written down my promise and must therefore do it - remember the Frog Prince? I threaten my children - "A promise is a promise." (or else a frog will come and sit on your pillow and implore you to kiss it until you do). Hmm. I am just excited because I am going to see Neil Gaiman at the kids litfest in Bath this Saturday. Yay! I just know he will just be so delicious. Don't worry though, hubby Mr G is coming along err... to escort me. I shan't do anything rash. I'll bring along American Gods and Stardust for him to sign. And the very next day Lyrical Lemongrass and Bald Eagle are coming to stay for a few days! I can't wait to see them, I expect we are all going to have a bubble in the spa, in the rooftop pool. We'll watch the steam rise in the chilly air with the Abbey looming gracefully in the background. Ahh Autumn, my favourite season.

Fourth Blogger's Breakfast Club May 26th, KL

Lee Su Kim Photo by Lyrical Lemongrass

My LitSaturday in KL began when Lyrical Lemongrass picked me up from the hotel forecourt and we set off to Bangsar for the Breakfast Club. We sneaked in just as Eric was introducing Lee Su Kim author of Malaysian Flavours (Pelanduk Publications, 1996), whose new book, A Nyonya in Texas: Insights of a Straits Chinese Woman in the Lone Star State (Marshall Cavendish, 2007) is now available at MPH. I also noticed a slim volume on Manglish. She spoke amusingly of her experiences in Texas, and how Americans view Malaysia (where??). The guy who always asks about making money from writing piped up at question time, amid much giggling from the audience, so I asked Su Kim if she'd met any cowboys while she was in Texas, to change the subject. Surprisingly, she said No! (and there's a whole chapter on this in her book) There were no cowboys to be met in Texas and she had to pay money to go to the Rodeo to catch sight of any. How disappointing! I just adore cowboys, you'd think there'd be a few wandering around in Texas. She was very funny and a confident speaker.

David Byck Photo by Lyrical Lemongrass

David Byck, author of It’s a Long Way to the Floor (Johnathan Styles, 2006) says it is not an autobiography, it's about the process of change. He looks very fit, so the man walks his talk! On his website he says his book is "a true story of how yoga changed the life of a hot dog-eating, sports-loving, weight-lifting, Mr. Corporate America from the inside out." I wish I could have seen a little bit of the man before (he does describe himself on his official website ) - but David seems like a very relaxed and happy kind of guy. You can see how his gentle, self-deprecating humour would carry the tone of his book.

He spoke with a lot of honesty and integrity about the writing process, describing how he's going about his second book and some very funny anecdotes about going to a writing workshop in the US and the process of editing after one has written the first draft. What I remember? 1. Work on your first sentence. 2. Finish your manuscript before even thinking about anything else. 3. The difference between most published and unpublished writers is simply that the published writer didn't let anyone discourage them. He was a very encouraging and motivating speaker and I think he'll be reading a chapter from his book-in-progress at the next Readings at Seksan's.

Kudos to Eric and MPH for getting such entertaining speakers, and for such a lively session. (Ooh and nice curry puffs!). I met Chet and Spiffy and k.kim which I recognised from Blogworld and somehow ended up going in a group with Eric, Xeus, Spiffy and Lyrical Lemongrass to Red Ginger and then onwards for a lovely box of cakes at Just Heavenly. Mmmm mmmm!


This picture of what I had: Death by Chocolate is from their website. I definitely survived to go back some day.