Hiya!

I'm a newbie here and was just wondering if anyone happens to know more about Fragile Things, what it will contain and so on?

As I've understood it it is mostly already publsihed material, but my main question is whether that means material just published in various anthologies or magazines, or stuff already available in previous short story collections by Master Gaiman (I am of course thinking about Angels and Visitations and Smoke and Mirrors. My hope is, of course, that it is material that is not contained in those two books, so that I get some more Gaiman short fiction to read.

Personally, I believe some of his best writing is in there among his brilliantly crafted short stories.

L&B,
JJ3

I'm pretty sure Fragile Things won't contain anything from Smoke and Mirrors (not so sure on whether or not it will contain stuff from Angels and Visitations that *did not* get reprinted in Smoke in Mirrors...for some reason I think it will). But for the most part, it's going to be made up of all the latest stuff he's published in magazines and anthologies.

Welcome to the board by the way!

Hiya again!

Thanks for the info... this means I have a great treat to lokk forward to... didn't want to pre-order it until I knew more.

And thanks for the welcome.

This sounds good scoundrel. I hope you're right and that I won't have to buy another 5 anthologies for one of his stories at a time.

Chimeer (and Mad Swede), you read about his M for Magic one, too, right? The collection of short stories specifically for Young Adults? I don't know if all those stories will be in Fragile Things, too (maybe Aitapata or Dweller does), but whatever the case we'll have 2 cool new collections coming out soon. And then the Graveyard Book.

I remember M for Magic from a mention in his blog. So 3 new things to look forward to, it's cool. I wish there was a section on his site similar to "where's neil" with "what's coming up", where all the things we can expect in the near future are listed. Especially at times like this where so many things are going on, it would be useful.

Multi-author anthologies are cool to a point. After reading 3 of them in a short time recently because of 1 or 2 stories of Neil, I find that they are somewhat tiresome in the sense that you have to adapt to 20 different styles rather quickly and you're left with a bit of a hunger for those stories that you did like and a bit of a frustration having had to read the others. They are good from time to time. So for now I'm happy he's collecting his toys in one box.

Hiya Scoundrel, must admit that I hadn't heard about the M for Magic collection. I only stumbled over the Fragile Things collection when I saw it available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk (but without any really specific info attached, hence my query).

Also, haven't heard anything about The Graveyard Book. What is that? A New novel?

I must admit that I still haven't had time to read The Anansi Boys or Mirrormask yet, even though they are waiting in my shelves. Being a PhD Candidate in English lit, strongly limits the reading of my own choice at the moment (mostly I read work related stuff or comics I sneak in in between), that and the fact that there are so many interesting books and authors out there...

Also (#2) and pardon my rambling on... one way of getting around the many shifts in multi-author anthologies is of course not reading them as a book but one or two once in a while over a longer period.
Speaking of short fiction and collections (and given my appreciation of Gaiman's short fiction), wouldn't it be interesting if Gaiman actuall wrote a short fiction collection as opposed to "merely" collecting miscellaneous pieces? I mean, I love all his comics short fiction in Sandman (read: Dream Country, Fables and Reflections, World's End and The Wake) which is of course thematically related.
Imagine Gaiman writing his version of Joyce's The Dubliners, perhaps set in London Below or some such place... ah well just a thought.

FT collects new stories published since the last collection. The only previously collected stories it has are the ones that appeared in the UK edition of S&M but not the US edition of S&M - I don't know if those stories will be in the UK edition of FT or not. None of the stories from AV are in the collection. FT has uncollected stories like "Sunbird" "Bitter Grounds" and "October In The Chair"

Graveyard book is N's next creepy young adult book, no firm release date yet

Thanks for the info, GMZoe. Must admit that I wasn't even aware of the fact that I'd missed some stories in Smoke and Mirrors (I just looked and saw that I indeed have the US edition). Is there any way we could find out whether or not these will be in the UK edition (being a newbie in this forum I'm totally in the dark as to whether maestro Gaiman's ever visits or responds to queries)?
I'm just wondering so that I know whether I NEED to order the US edition or if the UK edition will carry me all the way.

As per before, thanks to everyone for their help and info.

And the Graveyard Book sounds interesting... especially since I liked Coraline much more than I liked American Gods (still haven't read Anansi Boys)... AG was just too much rehash of stories already used and told (superbly one might add) by Gaiman in Sandman IMHO. It probably didn't help that I read King & Straub's Black House just before I read AG. The style of that novel is really great, and it quite frankly put Gaiman a bit to shame.

Then again, I stick with my main feeling that his best works are either in comics (Sandman or anything together with McKean) or short fiction ("Troll Bridge" and "Murder Mysteries" are two definite favourites).

GMZOE'S BACK! wOOt wOOt!

*ahem*

Just had to get that out of my system. Hope we see you around some more, sir!

Uh, Mad Sweede, I hear what you're saying about AG and Sandman (I loved AG but read it before I got very far into Sandman, so it didn't bug me). Definitely pull Anansi Boys off your shelf and give it a go when you have a chance. Quite different in tone than either AG or Sandman. Very funny and occasionally creepy.

Uhm, GMZoe is a guy? I always thought he was a she because I interpret the name to be Game Master Zoe and Zoe is mostly a girl name. Unless of course, you spell it Zowie

Also, I thought that The Graveyard Book is also a collection of short stories kind of in the same theme. Or is it a novel?

I don't think Graveyard Book is a collection of stories...I'm think it's a novel about a boy who gets brought up by the ghosts in a graveyard.

(And GMZoe is a guy...although I think his daughter's name is Zoe, and that's why he goes by GMZoe. Heh, I'm doing a lot of thinking today! Watch out! )

GMZoe = Grand Moff Zoe, a la star wars. that's how it started out anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by JJ3 a.k.a The Mad Swede:
Is there any way we could find out whether or not these will be in the UK edition (being a newbie in this forum I'm totally in the dark as to whether maestro Gaiman's ever visits or responds to queries)?
I'm just wondering so that I know whether I NEED to order the US edition or if the UK edition will carry me all the way.

If no one here knows, the best way to find out is probalby to ask the man. He does not read these boards ever, so the best way to do that is via the faq section of the main site, here. it's helpful tho if you use the search function to see if the question's been answered before you use the faq.

I hear you Scoundrel... and let's just say that Anansi Boys are high up on my pull off the shelves list. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm way to tied down with working on my close readings of Master Rushdie's novels for my dissertation to give myself the time to enjoy other reading (apart from occasional comics snuck in between) and I do prefer to focus on one novel at a time. But I'll remember your words, most definitely.

Also, thanks fluffllama, I think I'll send the man an e-mail then, since I haven't been able to locate the info elsewhere on the site.

from N:
"The US edition will have the stuff that was in S&M in the UK."
So, you should preorder the US edition of FT

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Scoundrel:
I don't think Graveyard Book is a collection of stories...I'm think it's a novel about a boy who gets brought up by the ghosts in a graveyard. QUOTE]

Yes. 'Graveyard Book' is a book, not a short story collection; but 'Fragile Things' which he is editing now is a collection of his short stories. He's still writing The Graveyard Book, so they're concurrent projects.

I liked 'Orange' a story he's adding to a multi-author short story collection [and wonder where he learned so much about orange sunblock.]

Okay - NOT orange sunblock - orange self-tan: it's been a long day!

quote:

Originally posted by GMZoe:
from N:
"The US edition will have the stuff that was in S&M in the UK."
So, you should preorder the US edition of FT

Thanks GMZoe, the US edition it'll be then for my part. So as to not miss anything.

Thanks everybody for the help in this matter... and for making me feel very welcome indeed in here.

*bump*

were there specific questions you had, London...?