Saturday, November 29, 2008

so... here I am at Neil's....

...and he gets all these great ideas, i don't know how, or from where,
but he always seems to be brewing up one thing or another--
maybe because he's British and living here in the United States,
or maybe it is because his IQ is exponentially off the charts,
who can say.
Maybe during his childhood, he shook hands with a demon on a highway
or perhaps saved an angel from drowning, not certain.
There are legends...certainly he was born under some kind of lucky stars...

Anyway, last night, Neil came up with a plan which he posted on his well-read blog
a blog which brings people from every undusted corner of
this planet, people who love to witness his ideas, to watch over his shoulder
as his stories spill like gems from his pen...
this plan of his was simple.
He put me in charge of fifty precious GRAVEYARD BOOK posters,
fifty which I watched him sign, to give to you bright stars out among you...

here is Neil's plan and i quote:

So what I'm going to do is this:

First I'm going to sign a bunch of posters -- probably about 50. Then I'm going to give them and the BPAL Graveyard Book scents to the wonderful Cat Mihos. And I'm going to tell her that we're running something that isn't exactly a competition, but is sort of smaller and more informal and a bit more easy-going. It's this:

From here until the end of the year (and further out than that, if the stuff holds out), if you do something effective to help get other people reading The Graveyard Book, tell Cat, and she'll send you a signed poster.

(Something effective in this case would include persuading your bookshop or library to do a Graveyard Book display, and taking a photo of it and sending it to Cat, teaching it in your school, reviewing it for your local paper or doing something equally as imaginative.)

If you do something Awesome and Amazing to get other people reading The Graveyard Book (for example, talking your whole town or city into having one of those months where everyone in the town reads the same book, and it's The Book In Question...) then you get a signed Graveyard Book poster and you get one of the BPAL Graveyard Book scent collections. And she'll probably throw in one of the Graveyard Book Neverwear tee shirts as well.



(Like this one.)

Possibly even give you a Kendra Stout Graveyard Mousepad.



(Like this one)

Send email, photos, cuttings from your local paper, proof that it was you and you alone who talked Oprah or Richard-and-Judy into doing The Graveyard Book on their TV book clubs, etc., to Cat Mihos, Furrytiger@Gmail.com . Do not send them to me. I will not have the swag. I will not be handing it out. I'm merely going to set this thing in motion and sign fifty posters -- twenty five on the McKean side, the other twenty five on the Riddell side.

Cat's decision is final. She'll blog the things she gets in as she goes along at the Neverwear Blog (http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com/). And then every now and then I'll do a round up here.

How does that sound?

It is Kitty here again,
I have already started to receive some emails with big claims, so I will be evaluating them,
and in the meantime, will be doing some specials here at Neverwear.net.
Thanks go out to all of you readers, with each book you read, you earn an angel some wings...

ps it is snowing here at the Gaiman Mansion. Thank you, Quiche!

8 comments:

... said...

Oh how I would love to do something imaginative enough to earn a shirt, poster or lock of hair from Neil.

It will be interesting to see what people come up with.

A lock of your hair t'would be quite lovely too. I like yer purdy hair. :) *pets*

Marjorie said...

Y'know, as soon as I saw this post over at BossBlog I pictured you swamped by an immediate deluge of 1000s of e-mails...

Hmm. Does having bought copies for virtually all of my friends and relations for christmas count? I have a biggish family, so that's quite a few new readers...

Enjoy the rest of your stay. And the snow.

Dan Guy said...

It's an awesome idea. I can't wait to see what people come up with.

The first time I ever got Neil's attention was just before American Gods was released; I called every book store in the county and made sure they would all be stocking it.

Kitty Cat said...

Danth,
can i just shrink you down to teeny tiny and put you in the mail to my house?
UK Marj, i know you have done alot, I am keeping my eyes on you.
and New Lady REalm, put the scissors down...
*pets! i love it....

Marjorie said...

"I am keeping my eyes on you." Now, why, when I read that, did I mentaly hear "Be afraid, be very afraid..." at the end of it... ;-))

Ariel Zeitlin Cooke said...

Hi Cat,
It turns out that I deserve Gaiman-obilia and I didn't even know it! I posted this last night on the child_lit listserve at Rutgers U. and one of the members told me about Neil's lovely offer.

What do you think?

Ariel

"Subject: Neil Gaiman Rocks!

Child_lit people,

I had a huge triumph today that I want to share with you. I started an author study of Neil Gaiman in my 6th/7th grade SpEd class which is last period on Wednesdays. I read to them from the beginning of The Graveyard Book and they were quiet for 25 minutes! I just kept going because they were so enraptured. This is the first really good class I've had with them. As a librarian and teacher, I cling to the hope that any kid can be reached by the right book but sometimes that seems like a fantasy. Today it was true.

Ariel

--
Ariel Zeitlin Cooke

School Media Specialist
McKinley Elementary School
1 Colonnade Place
Newark, New Jersey 07104
Phone (973) 268-5270
Fax (973) 350-5719"

Ariel Zeitlin Cooke said...

P.S. You can reach me at arielzeit@gmail.com.

sara dee said...

so i have been working all week on this, hopefully by next week i will be done with all of my projects.

tried to post on here right away, but i only have the internet on my phone & it wouldn't let me post. thankfully i got to the real internet today!


hooray for you & neil & this glorious adventure i have started!!

thank you thank you thank you.