Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:23:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Drew Bittner <drewbitt at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

--- Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Drew Bittner" <drewbitt at yahoo.com>
> To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:29 PM
> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
>
> > Having read it not too long ago, I can agree
> > readily that it is not to everyone's taste. Just
> > because Neil Gaiman likes it, after all, is no
> > guarantee that it will necessarily appeal to
> > anyone else.
>
> In all my contacts with Gaiman (admittedly, not
> many) I found him to be an
> overhyped fraud.  When asked to write a foreword to
> a friend's book, he
> supplied a piece which was implicitly all about him
> and literally said
> nothing about either the book or its two creators.
> It was all "Look at me!
> I'm Neil Gaiman!  Look at me!"
>
> I think he'd willingly blurb a book he hadn't read
> or didn't like, just to
> get his name on it in some manner.  "Look at me!"
>
> --Ted White

I'm sorry that these seem to have been negative
experiences. My encounters with Mr. Gaiman (at World
Horror in '99, WorldCon and the National Book Festival
in '04) have been very pleasant; I've found him to be
extremely courteous and personable every time I've met
him.
I can't speak to his forewording style-- maybe his
thought process went on a tangent to what was expected
or hoped for by the author. He's never really struck
me as an "all about me" kind of guy.

Drew

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