Today, November 10th is the birthday of my favorite author Neil Gaiman!

(click on image to see a more realistic, scruffy Neil)

As I’ve mentioned before I was first introduced to the genius of Gaiman’s work through his epic comic series The Sandman on one of my first solo trips to visit Scott in NYC. The depth of literary and mythological references in his work hooked me instantly and I became “a fan”. Soon after this I was in Border’s Books in Tulsa, OK and saw that Neil had written his first novel:

Despite enjoying all of Neil’s works Neverwhere has always been my favorite. The story of a young man in London who discovers the world of London Below, a world existing between the cracks of our reality, really resonated with me. There is an Alice in Wonderland quality about the book that reminds me of daydreams I used to have as a child. It is a magical, whimsical, fascinating story with a great hero and heroine, wonderfully entertaining bad guys, and inhabits a world that brings my imagination to life. I try to read Neverwhere at least once a year…great book!

Stardust would be my second favorite and is arguably his most well-written novel. I like both the novelization and the illustrated version with art by Charles Vess. If you like fairy tales at all this is one of the best. Terrific, terrific story!

Neil is frequently trying new things in the literary world and Coraline was his first children’s novel. The story of a girl who finds a dark mirror world behind a locked door in her house is one that adults have reportedly found terrifying and children have found fun. It was a creepy little tale but not scary in the traditional sense of what one thinks of as horror. Coraline is reportedly in the works as a film by the producer of A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.

Wolves in the Walls is a short tale written for younger children in which young Lucy hears wolves in the walls but cannot get her family to believe her. Eventually they come out and take over the house, watching television, eating popcorn, and making a mess with the strawberry jam. This tale is illustrated by Gaiman’s usual artist Dave McKean and the images are at once wonderful and scary.

In addition to these and several other novels and short stories Gaiman and McKean have recently come to the big screen with their movie Mirrormask. A collaboration with the Jim Henson company this is a film that I’ve been dying to see and probably will not be able to until in comes out on DVD. Shame on Kansas City for their lack of foresight in not scheduling this film.

Neil Gaiman is an interesting cultural phenomenon. You’ve either heard of him or you haven’t, but if you know him at all you are aware of the interesting, entertaining and inspiring universe that his talent has created. Each work is different in its own way and yet is uniquely Neil Gaiman. He is a master with words and has a seemingly boundless level of creativity. If you aren’t reading Gaiman’s blog on a daily basis you are missing out on interesting articles, links, and any number of bizarre and fascinating things that his myriad fans send him. You don’t have to be a Gaiman fan or even a book lover to find any number of fascinating things on his website. His Sandman graphic novels were part of a movement that saw comics lifted out of the realm of geekdom to be considered serious literary works. The Endless characters and their tales are responsible for my discovery of how amazing comics can be…not to mention they spawned groupies who show up at his signings dressed as the various characters:

Death

Delirium

If you haven’t been introduced to this amazing world I encourage you to go pick up a copy of Neverwhere or Stardust and dive in. Reading will truly never be the same.

Happy Birthday Neil, you are one of a kind and are an inspiration in so many areas of my life. Thank you again Scott for the introduction and thank you Neil for all you do….write faster!!!

I welcomed in the month of November with a 101 degree temp which changed to 102 on the second. Hooray for me. Maybe this means my fall/winter sickness has just gotten itself out of the way early. November is one of my favorite months for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that towards the end I add another year to my age. Then of course there is the feast of food that is called Thanksgiving…this is also the day that my family traditionally puts up the Christmas tree and turns on the Christmas lights for the first time. I love the feeling as November winds bring crisp, chilled nights and the spirit of the holiday season begins to permeate the air. Yes, November is a great month.

In Ireland November 1st is the first day of Winter, so to Fence, “happy winter”!
_________________________

As I lay home sick yesterday I was flipping channels and saw that Sci Fi was showing back to back episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I hadn’t seen that show since its original run. It was fun to watch. I found it less hokey than I thought I would despite the fact that it is obviously very dated. In at least one episode it was obvious that mini-skirts were the uniform-de-jour of the 25th century as that is what all the female crew were wearing. I remember really loving this show as a kid and I enjoyed the trip down memory lane yesterday.

I met Erin Grey at a Star Trek convention in Tulsa a few years back and was stunned at how little she appears to have aged. The couple in front of me in line commented on this to her and she talked for awhile about her exercise program, etc…it obviously worked for her. She was very nice.
_________________________

As I mentioned earlier, Thanksgiving is fast approaching. It is traditionally a time of massive overeating due to wonderful quantities of food being laid out in front of you. With this in mind I leave you this warning to be prepared and to lay off the left over Halloween candy in preparation for upcoming holiday gorging:

Happy November everyone!

Well it is here…Halloween…All Hallow’s Eve…the last day of October. Could a month have went by more rapidly? I don’t know. This post will be predominately pics so bear with me. Although long it should be a quick read.

My wife and 3 of her friends from work meet monthly at one or the other’s home for a get together. They adopted the name Dancing Tarts from the title of this post. Mary knew that I would appreciate the opportunity to do a Halloween-themed Tarts party and thus the invitations went out last week:

(Alex Raymond illustration for envelope)

(cover of tri-fold card)

(World series was over, of course…and vampire hunting proved unsuccessful)

(need to have at least one ‘tart’ on the invitation!)

The party kicked in gear Friday night. I decorated the kitchen table with this centerpiece

and each lady had their own grave marker treat bag

complete with really bad macabre poetry by yours truly. Each one reflects something about the Tart in question and I reprint them here for you to moan and groan at my poetic terror:

Mary (loves dessert):

Mary, Mary…quite contrary,
She was as a matter of fact.
Insisted on eating one last dessert
and she died of a tart attack.

Dominique (has an impending stray cat problem):

Curiosity drove Dominique to grant a reprieve
To every cat she discovered outside.
When she ran out of room she asked them to leave
Curiously they stayed, and she died.

Carrie (likes, and reportedly frequently sings, showtunes):

Carrie was quiet fond of her karaoke,
showtunes she like to sing.
‘Memory’, ‘Fame’, and “the hills are alive”
were a few of her favorite things.
One rainy night up on the roof
“the sun’ll come out tomorrow” did ring.
As she slipped and fell to the solid ground
she felt the wind beneath her her wings.

Laura (world champion knitter):

All the danger aside, a mob knitting job
was what our Laura did take.
A sweater for Nick, one matching for Pearl
she was now ordered to make.
She knitted all night but it wasn’t right
one was pink, the other blue.
They started to fight, Laura died that night
because Nick won (and) Pearl too.

There’s a bad knitting pun in that last line…really bad, I admit!

and Tori (my daughter…teenager…shopper):

Tori shopped and spent, purchased and bought
at the mall though she had not a need
Piled with bags, looking not as she ought
a ‘watch your step’ sign she did not heed.
Tumbling down to the floor below she thought
“Shop ’til you drop, indeed!”

Sorry, but I had to share. We ate delicious vegetarian chili, grilled cheese and apple sandwiches on sourdough bread, and had a cream cheese and chocolate pie for dessert. We roasted pumpkin seeds and the girls carved pumpkins:

We took them outside and lit them up and I played with various settings on Nick’s digital camera:

The long faced guys are squash that I had carved earlier in the day.

These are some pics of pumpkins and lights I took with the camera set on the ‘fireworks’ setting:

The party was alot of fun and I enjoyed being an honorary tart for the evening.
_________________________

Saturday afternoon the Smith family came over to carve pumpkins for the first time. Although I had cleaned out the inside of the Tart’s pumpkins the day before I thought Jeff needed to dive right in to get the whole effect.

We (the royal ‘we’…meaning ‘Mary’) baked cookies and we all sat around decorating them.

(Zach “the Fonz”, Tori, and Ashley)

Keri arrived and we carved pumpkins…the kids helped some but mom and dad got to do most of the work.

(Zach “the Fang”)

(Ashley, “the demure”)

Zach picked out a wolf pattern that Keri carved for him which turned out great

And Ashley wanted a combination of a horse and some stars and lightning bolts from 2 different patterns which Jeff mastered quite will for his first carving experience.

(taken with ‘fireworks’ setting)

Tori found a really cool pattern of the face of Chicken Little from the upcoming Disney flick. It turned out really cool but I didn’t get a good picture of it.

We played games and ate pizza and had a really terrific time.
_________________________

All in all we had a wonderful Halloween weekend and look forward to the trick-or-treaters tonight…especially James and Jules’ brood who always look adorable in their costumes. One year…was it last?…the three oldest dressed in matching pink 60’s go-go dancer outfits…it was super cute!

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe and happy Halloween! I’ve enjoyed sharing predominately horror based posts with you and there are more to come over the coming months as there are things I didn’t have time to post. Thanks for reading.