http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/07/death-wish.html

I went to Los Angeles, had a sort of a working holiday, came home, and am writing. Working out a lot with the trainer, got a new trampoline. The cherry tree is covered in cherries, and the wild raspberries (red and black) are out in the woods, and I find them when I walk the dog.
Hello Neil,

And finally, there are now more than 666,666 people following me on Twitter. So we had a party. It's still ongoing, the party, over at http://bit/ly/666party and to join in all you have to do is upload a photgraph of you and a Balloon. And once 600 people showed up at the party, the webgoblin made this: a mosaic.

I had fun drawing teens for that last comic, and was looking up dangerous teen fashions from the earlier part of the century. I think the Teddy Boys were my favorite.

Too bad I was a teen in the late 90s/early 00's and there was absolutely nothing remarkable about that time! Except regrets and frosted tips (same thing).

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/2009/07/lido-with-my-workshop-students-venice.html

As I mentioned yesterday I am in Venice conducting a workshop with local Venetian students. A few want to be photographers but most are aspiring fashion designers.

Explaining to the students the hows and whys of the way I work has been a real refresher for me. So many of the things that I do are instinctual, but verbalizing it to someone else really helps to restore my focus on the fun of my job/art.
The first day here we walked around Venice trying to shoot people in a similar way that I would in New York - it was a disaster. No one interesting to shoot, very hot and the students weren't really motivated. After a while we all sat down as a group and I tried to find out what they like to do when they have free time. Most all of them said that they like to go to the beach. So the next day we went to the beach.

I wanted to them to see that you don't have to separate having fun and taking pictures. I take pictures walking around on the street because I find it very relaxing and fun. What each student needed to do was to find what they were passionate about and try to capture that passion with images.

I tried to explain that if they want to become a fashion designer they should try to take photos that will inspire a certain feeling of a season, or a gesture, or a mood. The pictures that I took above are, to me, the essence of Summer. If I was a designer I would look at photos like this at the beginning of the spring design season, just to remember what it is that everyone loves about the sun, warmth, and vacation.

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/2009/07/sunset-in-venice-last-night.html

I'm in Venice until Friday to conduct a workshop. This is the view from my hotel on the Grand Canal. It is incredibly beautiful here in Venice. I will be posting more photos from here in the next few days, then I'm going back to Sao Paulo!

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/06/locus-award.html

Arrived in LAX airport to find that the NorthWest lounge is closed for renovations, and cannot use the lounge or the Wifi. And the airport Tmobile Wifo connection is slow -- it's taken it ten minutes to give me a Blogger screen.

You have good years, and you have bad years. I'm having a really good year right now. The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal, which made me happy, and it has now won the Locus Award which makes me equally happy, in a completely different way. It's one thing to get approved of by the world out there, it's another thing to get approval from your family, and the vastness of Locus Readers and voters, comprising as it does SF and Fantasy readers and writers, editors and artists, is a family, even if it can be a quarrelsome and incestuous one, and its approval means something special. I suspect that I may be the luckiest boy in the world, and would not want you to think for one moment that I am not grateful or aware of this. The Graveyard Book took me a very long time to write, and I want to thank my son, Michael, who inspired it; my agent, Merrilee Heifetz, who supported me, my editors, Elise Howard and Sarah Odedina; my illustrators, Dave McKean and Chris Riddell; and the people at Harper Collins and Bloomsbury, who have worked so hard to make sure that people read it.

And then run for the plane. (Also, congratulations to P Craig Russell, who got a Locus Award for his beautiful graphic novel version of Coraline).

Man, school is ending for the summer! I am seeing teens everywhere. I'll make one of those YA series, where adults believe what teens tell them. Except instead of fake teens, mine will have real ones because real teens don't give a shit about anything.

Also happy birthday to Jess Fink! The internet told me it was her birthday.

And hey, remember- my book is reprinted and ready to go!