That's everything from Neil!
Thanks to Neil for answering so many of your questions. He’s signing off:
Neil’s new book Norse Mythology is out now, published by Bloomsbury.
' I persist in hoping and believing that individuals can make a difference in the dark times'
John O’Donnell asks:
Do you believe that good can triumph over evil? Situation being what it is.
Guardian contributor I don't think of good and evil as being distinct free-floating things. I think there are people, doing what people do, sometimes selfishly, sometimes short-sightedly, sometimes even monstrously. (For me, one of the finest evil characters in fiction is the sweet family man torturer played by Michael Palin in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Because he's nice when he's not torturing people to death. Because he does what he does because he thinks it's the right thing to do.)
And I am with Crowley and Aziraphale in Good Omens: the triumphs and the tragedies of humanity are caused, not be people being basically good, or by them being basically evil, but by them being basically people.
Still, I persist in hoping and believing that individuals can make a difference in the dark times. And that things that seem self evident to me (help those fleeing persecution and war, safeguard the planet's natural resources, do not exploit the weak and defenseless, and so forth) may one day become so to everyone...
Phillymonster asks:
As a US citizen... what do you make of Donald Trump??
Guardian contributor I'm a UK citizen. Which means Donald Trump is the reason I worry that the next time I return to the US I'll be taken into a small office in immigration, where they will ask me about this webchat, and I'll not be seen again.
With original fiction nobody can tell you that you completely messed something up'
CateEvans32 asks:
How would you compare the challenges of writing something completely original and a retelling?
Guardian contributor With original fiction nobody can tell you you got the details wrong or completely messed something up. With a retelling, you have to work to make sure that the scholars are going to be as happy as the new readers, but you never have the feeling of staring at a blank page going "What happens next? What does he do? How do I get her out of this situation? What am I doing?"
Perhaps one day I'll write a book of retellings of completely invented myths, and do both.
Rinheartw asks:
Spend more time writing or reading?
Guardian contributor Both please. I'd like more writing time, and I'd like more reading time.
JoeLoop asks:
If this is the same fellow whose stories were on Radio 4 Extra over the Xmas and New Year holidays please pass on my regards and thanks for the excellent entertainment. I thoroughly enjoyed the tale.
Guardian contributor This is the same me! And thank you. I love working with Radio 4, and am always proud and delighted to have my work adapted for the radio.
Comte1853 asks:
I recently listen to The Graveyard Book on Audible which you voiced amazingly well as usual. Knowing that many authors choose not to voice their own work, I wondered what it was that motivated you to go through the process?
Guardian contributor I love doing Audio Books. And do them, unless the accents are too intimidating.
When I started out, I was told authors didn't do their own audio books, and I wanted to, so I did made a CD of me reading my own work, Warning Contains Language. It sold well enough that I was able eventually to persuade my publishers to let me do my own audiobooks, beginning with CORALINE. (But it was a different audiobook world back then.)
Obsidianaura asks:
Who are some good fantasy writers who aren’t being read enough?
Guardian contributor We're getting too near the end of the chat, so let me point you at THE VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS, my recent collection of essays, speeches, introductions and oddments. I promise it will point you at new writers....
Coccyx96 asks:
The episode of Doctor Who that you wrote, The Doctor’s Wife, is one of my all time favourites. I don’t read many comics, but I know you’ve explored some sci-fi ideas there too! Have you ever considered writing a science fiction novel? I know I’d lap it up.
Guardian contributor I expected to be a hard science fiction writer when I grew up. I was slightly surprised when I realised that I had to all intents grown up but I didn't seem to have become the hard SF writer I expected.
I'd love to write an SF novel, if ever I come up with an idea that excites me.
verbalrob asks:
How much, if any, of The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch is true?
Guardian contributor
GeniuneJackson asks:
Just realised we are roughly the same age. How are you finding getting older?
Guardian contributor
davefalse asks:
When an adaptation of your work is produced (or is due to be produced) how much input do you like to have?
I only ask as sometimes I think the more slavishly something adheres to the original the weaker it can be. Are you happy to let a fellow creator play with your creation or do you want to retain some ownership?
Guardian contributor I like to have a lot of input, and I like the other creators to have a lot of input too.
GOOD OMENS is my adaptation of our novel, and it's very very faithful, except for the new stuff, some of which Terry and I had discussed 30 years ago and some of which I made up when I was writing it. (BBC and Amazon are making it for next year. 6 hour long episodes.)
AMERICAN GODS is an opening up of the novel: the first 8 episodes (the first season) get us barely a quarter of the way through. (It ends just before they get to House on the Rock). But Bryan Fuller and Michael Green expand, create, fill in and play -- they want people who know and love the book to be surprised as well as people who don't.
The movie of HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES, at my suggestion, used the short story as the first act of the film, and then went its own way. I suggested the shape of the plot, but it was written by Philippa Goslett and John Cameron Mitchell, and they went their own wonderful way with it. (I can't wait until people see it.)
LynnSpin asks:
I still have some Space Voyager magazines in a cupboard at home - didn’t you contribute to this publication at some point?
Guardian contributor Not only did I contribute, but I interviewed Terry Pratchett for SPACE VOYAGER. That was how we met, and how we became friends.
GeniuneJackson asks:
Hi Neil, I’ve really enjoyed the recent BBC adaptations of your novels, and was pleasantly surprised to listen to How the Marquis Got His Coat Back not so long ago.
So, are there any more adaptation planned for in the immediate future - and I’m hoping for The Graveyard Book - or are there anymore London Below stories in the pipeline?
Guardian contributor I need to sit down with Dirk Maggs and Heather Larmour, who codirected the BBC adaptations so far, and plot and plan, and decide what's next. I loved their STARDUST so much.
'There's a novel I wrote when I was 21 that will remain unpublished because it isn't very original or very good'
Andr0meda asks:
How many unpublished/half-finished novels do you have?
Guardian contributor There's a novel in the attic I wrote when I was 21 that will remain unpublished because it isn't very original or very good.
There's a chapter of the next ODD book in existence, and half a book about frogs, both sitting waiting for me to get to them, or to keep writing them between other things.
And then there are books that are outlined, or even just ones that are waiting for me to finally get to them...
Updated
CateEvans32 asks:
If you could re live one day in your life again what would it be?
Guardian contributor Probably my 50th birthday in New Orleans, a day that began with a surprise flashmob wedding, and got better and better, surrounded by loved ones and friends.
TinRobot asks:
As a child I was slightly obsessed with Greek and Norse mythology. The subsequent realisation that these were, essentially, religious texts made me utterly incapable of believing in any kind of organised religion. (Though quite happy to idly imagine gods of my own.)
Would you welcome your new adaptation of Norse Mythology having similar effects on the impressionable kids of today? And what’s better - inventing your own gods, or playing with other people’s?
Guardian contributor They might well have that effect on impressionable kids. We are all atheists for somebody's gods, after all. (Or you could be like me as a kid, banging every likely-looking walking stick against the ground in the hope that it would transform into Mjollnir.)
I like being able to do both: invent new gods and play with the old ones.
On his marriage to Amanda Palmer: 'We are two big, complicated people'
Kungfulil asks:
What’s it like being married to your current wife? And do you think it’ll last?
Guardian contributor I'm enjoying it so far. She's really funny, and she seems to like me.
I hope it will last. We are two big, complicated people, with our own lives and careers and wants, which sometimes mash and sometimes don't, and with a small son to whom we are both devoted, which means we need to make sure that we are together as much as possible and making life (and calendars) work to spend our time with each other and with him.
(Typed in London with a wife and small son in New Zealand this week.)
ChrisTurner1 asks:
What is your favourite Dresden Dolls / solo Amanda Palmer song?
... Amanda Palmer of course being Neil’s wife. His answer:
Guardian contributor I have her "Mother's Confession" stuck in my head currently.
"At least the baby didn't die..."
Here’s Amanda’s own webchat when she visited our New York office:
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justaquickword asks:
When Tolkien re-worked Norse myth in Lord of the Rings, he completely ignored a big part of Norse pagan culture; blood sacrifice and the Blot festivals. Did you encounter that in your research and if so, what do you think it tells us about the relationship between the Scandinavians and their gods?
Guardian contributor I don't think it was part of what Tolkien was trying to make in Lord of the Rings.
Oddly enough, it's the underpinning of AMERICAN GODS. So I researched it extensively when I was writing that, and you will find a lot of it in there.
ID8065352 asks:
Please can we hear more from Panda Chu - our 16 month old’s favourite set of books. More Chu please!
Guardian contributor They are MY 16 month old's favourite books too (along with Oh No George, A Bit Lost, and Goodnight Gorilla) and I am starting to feel guilty that there are only three of them. I need more to read him too.
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IreneLavington asks:
Where do you draw the line between what is suitable for children and what is suitable for adults? Or don’t you?
Guardian contributor I try not to write books for children with things in that I think would bore them.
But I try not to write books for adults with things in that I think would bore them either.
plicetene asks:
Approximately how many banana daiquiris were consumed during the writing of Good Omens?
Guardian contributor My guess is none. The Banana Daiquiris only started when Terry and I had to write author bios, and I wrote one suggesting I would like cash, and Terry suggested he would like banana daiquiris.
Which meant every now and then I would find myself embarrassed when someone would thrust cash at me and at the end of signings would have it all donated to the CBLDF, and Terry got a LOT of free banana daiquiris, which he didn't have to donate to anybody.
Updated
Kate Rees asks:
If you could pick any actor from any era, who would you like to play Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens?
Guardian contributor
'My next novel is driven by my loathing for a huge number of politicians in this day and age'
TuskGeorge asks:
Hi Neil, have you ever considered writing about politics as Terry [Pratchett] did with.. well, nearly everything, but things like Night Watch and Jingo in particular? European Politicians in the style of American Gods might just be the best thing ever.
Guardian contributor When I wrote SANDMAN people used to complain it wasn't political, by which I think they meant that it wasn't actively attacking Margaret Thatcher. But as time has passed what I did back then seems more and more quietly political.
The next novel in set under London, and is a fantasy, but the things driving it are my feelings about refugees and the homeless, and my loathing for a huge number of politicians in this day and age.
ed_209 asks:
I’ve just read the second book in Paul Cornell’s Shadow Police series - The Severed Streets - in which you were a character. The author says that he had your blessing for using your name, so I wondered how it felt to be a character in a novel written by someone else? What did you think of his physical description of you? Were you aware of / friendly with Paul Cornell before he approached you to use your name?
Guardian contributor I've known Paul for years, and loved his work, so was vaguely chuffed one day when he took me aside and asked if he could put me in his book. He told me what he was planning, and I said I was very happy for him to do what he had planned...
'I'd rather Sandman was a TV series than a film'
David Ambrose asks:
If there is an adaptation of the Sandman would you prefer it to be a film or a TV series?
Guardian contributor Given what you can do in TV these days, I'd cast my vote for TV. (I do not actually get a vote.)
Updated
DanHolloway asks:
I watch your London Book Fair “dandelion” speech regularly. The rest of the world seems to be catching up - Adam Grant’s book Originals has done a lot to give a platform to the importance of failure. But it feels like the literary world is still as flummoxed by the notion as ever - even the self-publishing world that should be an umbrella shelter for the experimental seems to be desperately seeking the centre of the bell curve. Do you see any signs that the literary world has taken any of what you said on board?
Guardian contributor Things are changing. I don't think that anything that's happened in the last three years has changed anything I said at the London Book Fair's DIGITAL MINDS conference. And as you say, the world seems to be catching up.
Here's the speech, video and transcription.
The most important thing is telling people not to be afraid of the new ways of getting their stories out. And that's working: Kickstarter could now be seen as the second or third biggest publisher of comics in the world; I suspect that by the end of next year Patreon will be the primary "publisher" of comics, in the sense that more and more comics and creators will be funded by Patreon patrons.
I don't think any of this means that traditional publishing is over: it's pretty robust. But the ease of creation is going to have to be taken more seriously. And the stuff created... some of it will last, and some of it doesn't need to last.
mooneym asks:
Just wondering, Neil, how much was your dive into the God business inspired by my favourite SF book written as fantasy, Roger Zelazny’s “Lord Of Light”? Whether it was or not, American Gods gives us some tremendous characters who could easily sit with Sam, Kubera, and Yama-Dharma.
Guardian contributor LORD OF LIGHT was hugely important to me when I found it, aged about 11, but I was already infected by a love of myths and religions and other cultures before I read it. I think it probably influenced Sandman more than American Gods, in odd ways.
LRSheasby asks:
I love to write and I have the ideas (10k words into my first novel) but after a long day at work I don’t want to write in case I produce drivel because I’m tired. Life gets in the way at a weekend usually too, resulting in glacial progress. Is it better to wait and allocate a set time when I’ll be sharpest (or would that be forcing creativity?) Or should I just push on so at least it’s done and re-draft it afterwards?
Guardian contributor Have you thought about doing what Gene Wolfe did, when he was working and trying to write as well: he would get up an hour earlier in the morning, and write 450 words every morning before the family woke and he had to go to work?
Terry Pratchett write his first half dozen books by getting home and writing about 400 words, no matter how tired he was. You can write a novel in 8 months like that...
'A translator changed what I had written to what they thought I ought to have written instead'
mensurrat asks:
Hello, I was wondering if you had any thoughts about the translation of your work into other languages. Other than completely trusting the translators, do you get involved in the process in order to make sure your work is reflected accurately in other languages?
Guardian contributor My books have been translated into so many languages, that normally I just the translators and the process. I answer questions for translators who are confused or puzzled (and who sometimes catch goofs I missed).
I only worry when I start hearing complaints from people who speak a language that the translation is poor -- the first Spanish AMERICAN GODS had a gorgeous cover, but a lot of complaints.
I can read French and (less well) German, and once asked a French publisher to retranslate a book, because I noticed that the translator had changed what I had written to what they thought I ought to have written instead.
LokiLaufeyjarson asks:
1. How dare you, an Englishman, try and write a book about the Norse, about Norse mythology and the Nordic soul?
...No actually thank you! For bringing attention to our little mythology, I’ve always personally loved it, but have found people outside of us nordics know very little, if anything about it at all.
2. Have you travelled to the countries of these stories? Seen where the tales originated from?
Wishing you the knowledge of Óðinn, the laughter of Loki, the Love of Freyja and a splendid day of Týr.
Guardian contributor I dared mostly because I feel like they are part of the heritage of humanity, and polishing them up and giving them back to the world seemed like a good thing to do. But I was intimidated, and tried as hard as I could to retell them with respect, and to do my research as well and as thoroughly as I could. That I'd loved the stories for 50 years didn't hurt.
I've been to the places the stories come from, yes: I've been to Iceland, to Norway, to Finland, Sweden and Denmark, not to mention Northern Germany.
Happy Týrsday to you!
Neil is with us now
If you haven’t posted a question yet, leave one in the comments below!
Post your questions for Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a screenwriter, a showrunner, a comic book writer and a novelist, but above all a kind of old-fashioned storyteller. His tales of gods, dreamworlds and gothic horrorscapes have made him one of the world’s best-loved cult authors, even as he increasingly moves into the mainstream.
After being hired by DC Comics in 1987, his Sandman series became enormously acclaimed over its seven-year span. He segued into novels like Stardust, Neverwhere, American Gods and Coraline, all of which have been adapted for film or TV; Gaiman is currently developing his Terry Pratchett collaboration Good Omens for the BBC.
There’s still time for a new novel though, Norse Mythology, which retells the stories of gods like Loki and Thor. With the book out now, Gaiman joins us to answer your questions about it and anything else in his career, in a live webchat from noon GMT on Tuesday 14 February. Post them in the comments below, and he’ll answer as many as possible.
263 Questions, and I managed as many as I could in the time we had, and stole more time from the next thing. They are now about to pry the computer from my fingers and send me back on the road.
Thank you to everyone who asked the questions. They were all so good. Thanks to the Guardian for hosting this.
Right. I'm back on the road. I'll see if Odin has organised a goat-pulled chariot to the BBC, or if we are back to using taxis. (See Tom Gauld's glorious cartoon for more details of this unusual book tour.)
THANK YOU ALL!