Category: Neil Gaiman

  • Good Omens/Collaboration

    *This week’s Monday post is brought to you early by Really-Busy-Tomorrow Cereal! In a post the other day, Jenny asked me what I thought of our new collaborative adventures. To Jenny, I say, Good Omens. Oh my, how I love when things sync up like that. The book in question is a delightful collaboration between…

  • Story and Poetry – Why Aren’t They Together?

    In Fragile Things, a collection of short stories and poems by Neil Gaiman, there is a wonderful poem called “Instructions.” As Gaiman says in the introduction this poem is “Quite literally, a set of instructions for what to do when you find yourself in a fairy tale.” While he might not come out and say…

  • Talking to You

    Hello there, reader. Here goes my first post on Place for the Stolen, and I’m thrilled to be here. Also, I’m blushing a little from Jenny’s kind introduction. Jenny’s one of those cool people who is wicked smart and clever. Not to mention that she can, and has, straight up told people in our writing…

  • Neil Gaiman Selected Shorts Interview

    Poking around YouTube, I found this very fascinating interview with Neil Gaiman from Selected Shorts. All the questions came from Selected Shorts viewers/listeners. Gaiman himself just pulls them from a bag and answers – you can’t get any more straightforward. Whenever you have about ten minutes to spare, check it out. He talks about truth…

  • Expect the Unexpected: Turning

    “…he could see the blackbirds, and small hedge-hopping sparrows, a single spotted-breasted thrush in the boughs of a nearby tree. Fat Charlie though that a world in which birds sang in the morning was a normal world, a sensible world, a world he didn’t mind being a part of.    Later, when birds were something to…

  • The Second Reason to Read Widely: It’s Probably Been Done

    *The First Reason to Read Widely: because reading is fun.* And now on to the second: because what you’re writing has probably been written already. I give you Exhibit A: “It begins, as most things begin, with a song.” ~opening line of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman Seems innocuous enough, right? It’s a very intriguing…

  • Chapters in Which Something Happens

    My son, who is three, is on his way to being the next Neil Gaiman. Bryce likes to tell stories. The other day we were driving somewhere, the destination is unimportant, and he asked me if I wanted to hear a story. Always open to the possibility of stealing my children’s ideas and using them…

  • New Year, New You, New Mentor: Neil Gaiman

    To kick off the New Year, we have a new mentor (who had been scheduled late last year before I got all overwhelmed and schtuff). You may recognize the name: Neil Gaiman!!!!!!!!!!!! *and the crowd cheers* And to emphasize the importance of mentors – whether the mentors know they’re mentoring or not – I direct…

  • Winning the Newbery Medal: What Does it Take?

    Newbery Medal winners are generally destined for a long shelf life, heaps of attention from libraries, teachers, and parents, and are often deserving of the lauds and acclaims. What does it take to write a Newbery Medal winner? Well, you can take a peek at the criteria here. But I’m also going to break down…

  • How to Avoid Being Too Dark?

    On Monday, while discussing young adult literature, I utilized a ‘bedroom’ dark metaphor. The argument being that you can see in the dark if there is some light trickling in. In my opinion, all young adult literature – all good young adult literature – has that little bit of light trickling in, even if it’s…