Kicking 2008’s Ass! Happy New Year!

It's definitely a sign. I will be turning 25 and this gate gave me some perspective on what the no. 24 means…

   With that issue over, you can read my literary forecast for 2008…. Please Click the Link Below

  Literary Forecasts: Kicking 2008’s ass

Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas 2007!

Hi

  Merry Christmas! I got this oriental holy family from our friends at Intermedia. Cheers!

Learn more about Christmas: Visit the Vatican Website 

Overflowing season of sappiness

   Yes, it is Christmas. This means it is the time of the year that I can be super sappy without people thinking I gone off to the deep end of the candy cane. Click the link below to read my unwrapping of the reality of Christmas!. Cheers and Merry Christmas!

You-letide 

 If that was too sentimental, I found a charming and light essay for avid readers on

You are What You Read

from the New York Times. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas! 

Stories….

I was out of town last week so I was only able to post last Saturday's article today.Here are stories I didn't know what to do with so I placed it in one article. Below is a visual guide to the article. 

Read Now Supreme: SSS: Shopping, saving and sharing this Christmas

Hands on Manila Charity CD 

 
MV Doulos Boat Bookstore

Cranium Game Book

The Power of A Compliment

   I complimented artist Vladimir Zimakov for his book cover of Moby Dick. Below is the email exchange 

and the wonderful result. 

Subject: Mailing List Request
From: jvincentsong@gmail.com
Date: Sat, September 01, 2007 11:07 am
To: vlad@vladimirzimakov.com

FirstName: Vincent
LastName: Ong
comments: I LOOVVVEEEE YOUR MOBY DICK COVER! I bought the book because of it.

I would have never bought if not for what you did! 

On 9/3/07, vlad@vladimirzimakov.com < vlad@vladimirzimakov.com> wrote: Hey Vincent,

Thank you so much! Moby Dick has been ilustrated so much in the past that I almost gave up. But I guess I am doing something right. Thanks again for the email!

-Vlad

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Mailing List Request
From: "Jan Vincent Ong" <jvincentsong@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, September 03, 2007 4:07 am
To: "vlad@vladimirzimakov.com" < vlad@vladimirzimakov.com>

Hi
  Is there a way to order a poster version of your Moby Dick cover? I wish Vintage covers were made into large posters. Ciao!

On 9/15/07, vlad@vladimirzimakov.com <vlad@vladimirzimakov.com> wrote: Hey Vincent,

So unfortunately Vintage don't make posters (though they should, since their book cover art is quite awesome lately). In any case, I can send you an original print that they used for the cover of Moby Dick. Just let me know where to send it to.

-Vladimir

Shipped Yesterday:

  Wow, saying Thank You can get you a whale of a surprise!

Q IS FOR QUESTIONS FOR NEIL GAIMAN

 
Neil with Angel

   In Subic, I was able to have an exclusive interview with Neil Gaiman on books, new media, and The Endless. Below is what transpired:
What is the new world order for creatives?
The new order is exactly same as the old order. I keep doing things that interests me. So I move into new media. Everything changes, everything reconfigures.
How have you changed with media?
  The biggest problem before was distribution. You were dependent on someone else, cost of distribution, You needed to find people. Now, the cost of movies are inexpensive. We live in YouTube world. I put a goofy video about me training a bat. Next thing I know, 50,000 people have seen it.
   Our world right now, whether it be in advertising or any other medium. everybody has instant access to distribution. It is a great democracy. I wish I had the technology now when I was kid. It would have sped up the process.
What excites you about moving between media (comic to books to film)?
I am worried that journalist like to make my  career linear. They think it’s is like an evolutionary progress from being journalist to a comic book writer, etc. It isn’t really like that and I don’t like being boxed in.
Do you think of the possibility of extending a script of a book to film script?
I do, then I stop myself.  It is because you start thinking movie plots and movie logic. There are movie people asking for movie rights to my Graveyard book and I tell them “Go away”. I will think of a movie ending when I finish the book.
Do you love Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate factory)? Have you read his story about a machine that writes books? What do you think of it?
    I love Roald Dahl. It was odd I discovered his nasty adult short stories that were so sharp and so nasty. Regarding the story machine, I haven’t seen one. Yet it would be great so I could retire and rest on a hammock.
Why do people love hearing myths again and again?
    I think people love familiar stories. As a kid, you would ask your mom to read your story again and again. Books are places. Reading is the joy of going to that place. Sometimes the joy is seeing something before it went that way. In Sandman: Endless Night, you see the Endless appear in a period long, long before time. Kinda fun to see when they were that way, when death was much colder, dream was much more innocent.
Would the Endless be different 11 years after the series ended?
    The joy of creating those characters is that they would hold up in any situation. They are pretty much the same. In a world where people still desire things, In a world where people still die, they are pretty much unchangeable.

Neil Gaiman, Nuff Said

    Above, the only way to get Neil out of his black clothes. Below is a link to my stalking Neil Gaiman experience.

The print version has more and I will try my best to post the rest. thanks

Neil Gaiman Stalking Fest