Merry Christm...er Neil Day!!

Last night I could not fall asleep. No, it was not because I kept thinking of all of the horrible things that the dentist was going to do to me this morning (which actually wasn't too bad), it was because of new Neil Gaiman books!! The long wait is over and I am now the proud owner of 2 (yes, only 2) brand new, hardcover, first edition, Neil Gaiman books.

The first is Interworld, a Young Adult novel written by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves and is apparently about a boy at war against himself in two different dimensions of reality. At least that is what I gather from the jacket flap. I may be totally wrong about that. We shall see.

The second book is M is for Magic and is a collection of short stories for children. Most of these have been published before, but it's a great collection and the cover is wonderful. I have another signed, numbered, limited edition of this book coming to me later from Subterranean Press!

A word to the wise. If you go to Barnes and Noble to buy these, don't freak out if you can't find them in the fantasy/sci-fi section. I found Interworld in the Teen section and M is for Magic in the Children's section. So I suggest you look there.

While in the children's section, I also picked up the last three books I need for the Newberry challenge. They are Bridge to Terabithia, The High Power of Lucky, and The Tale of Despereaux. All three look great and all are new to me except for Bridge which I read ages ago, so it might as well be new to me. So I now own all of the books for that challenge and can get started on it!

I couldn't find the new illustrated Stardust or the Stardust visual companion, but that's ok, because I couldn't afford them anyway! I spent enough money today as it is....thank God I signed up for B&N's members program when I had the money for that ;) But in other Stardust news, I'm happy to welcome Deslily to the Stardust ranks as she received her copy in the mail today...you're in for a treat! Also, Friends of English Magic (a wonderful site for Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, and Charles Vess related news) has started a Stardust movie news blog! How cool. I suggest visiting it often ;)

Lots of Fun Web Wanderings

While playing catch up on my blog surfing I found all kinds of fun stuff online. Book news, fun blogs, and a new addition to the blog roll.

Lots of new news on Neil Gaiman. Found this one the day before I left, but didn't get to post on it. Neil Gaiman appears to be working on a new book as is evidenced by this post. He started with a short story that is being worked into what looks like a novel that was inspired by his son riding his bike in a graveyard. Seems to be titled "The Graveyard Book". Or he may be talking about two different books there. Not really sure.

If you stop over at amazon, you find all kinds of great Neil Gaiman news by doing a search for his name. The first is a new edition of Stardust illustrated by Charles Vess that is due out May 2, 2007 and is published by Vertigo. This made me very happy as I never got a copy of the original with illustrations by Vess. Can't wait for this one. I love Charles Vess' work and his blog over at Greenman Press has been added to the blog roll.

Gaiman also has two other books forthcoming. The first is a collection of short stories called "M is for Magic". I believe that I heard about this awhile ago and it is supposed to be geared toward a younger reader. It's due out July 1, 2007. The second book is Interworld which is a collaboration with Michael Reaves. Also geared towards younger audiences with a release date of July 1, 2007. The cover for that one is great!

The next thing I stumbled across brightened my day tremendously. There is a wonderful blog out there called the Friends of English Magic. It's subject matter is everything Susanna Clarke, lots of Neil Gaiman stuff, Charles Vess stuff, and just all kinds of wonderful things that interest me. The title of the site is of course taken from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The Friends of English Magic was the name of the scholarly magician society in that book who were not practical magicians, but just studied magic. I discovered this site because I was getting lots of referrals to this blog from it. After some investigating, I found that the author of the site had some very kind things to say about my review of The Ladies of Grace Adieu on this post. Always good to get a nod from a site as wonderful as that one. They've also been added to the blog roll.

I also stumbled across a wonderful post by Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings that made me smile in a nostalgic way. A post all about Star Trek! Carl is a wonderful reviewer and I always look forward to the things he has to say about books, art, movies, and culture in general. This post was about the History Channel's Star Trek anniversary special and a great homage to the beautiful thing that is called Star Trek.

Finally, I came home to find that I had won 4 incredible books off of ebay that I really didn't think I was going to win. The first book is Dustcovers, a book that Carl told me about. It is a collection of all of Dave McKean's covers for Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic. Can't wait for this one. The second is Subterranean Press' edition of The Road to Lisdoonvarna by Charles De Lint. It is a signed, first edition, numbered (#424/2000) book and I got it for $9.99! How awesome is that. Next is The Alchemy of Mirrormask. Mirrormask is the wonderful cinematic child of Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman, and I have mentioned it before here. This book collects some of Dave's original sketches for the movie as well as paintings and shows the process from original ideas to completion. And last, but certainly not least is the Trade Paperback version of Black Orchid. This is a graphic novel that was the first collaboration of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Can't wait to read it.

This is all the news I have for now, but it seems to be enough to satisfy the palate for now.

Update: One more exciting piece of news. Just saw that Tori Amos will release her new album, American Doll Posse on May 1, 2007 to be followed by a world tour. yay!