Do You Hear That? No Nightingales

Hi Neil,

I write to you because I find myself without answers, and who better to turn to than you, the person who has arguably raised the most questions in my life due to your lovely stories.

I currently live with my dad and step mother, his two sons (my brothers) and her two children. There are a lot of us in one space right now and it’s safe to say we don’t get along very well.

Getting to the point, I want to live on my own. I have the means to do so (hypothetically). I have a job and a car and savings put back, but up until recently it hadn’t occurred to me that leaving was an option. I always thought it wasn’t allowed for some reason. That there would be consequences for revoking my presence from them like I’m their favorite toy instead of a person.

The fear, I suppose, is that they won’t forgive me for leaving. That I’ll leave and fail somehow. That I won’t be able to come back from the hubris that is thinking I could do things on my own. Truly though, the real danger is that I’ll never be in a place where I can be myself without some all consuming guilt gnawing at my stomach.

The question is whether or not to deal with the current circumstances or risk losing everything for the chance at success.

Can you get the things you want and keep the things you have?

Sincerely, a huge fan wishing they had a beloved Bentley to live in and offering condolences for the rant.

As a parent, you are doing your job when your children leave the nest and become independent. It means you did something right.

As a child, it's always scary to leave. But it's necessary. You aren't punishing the people you are leaving. You are beginning your journey to independence.

What’s your favourite line from good omens?

The invisible and unbreakable one that joins Crowley and Aziraphale.

How does it feel to be really old

63 doesn't feel Really Old. Just old. I'm hoping to be able to tell you how it feels to be Really Old in about 30 or 40 years, though.

Hi, Neil. I was wondering if you could confirm what the correct spelling of Edwin's last name is in the Dead Boy Detectives show since both Payne and Paine seem to be getting used in the tags. Thanks!

It was Paine in the comics and is Payne on the TV.

Were you the one who pioneered the concept of Hell being locked from the inside? With sinners crafting the punishments they feel they deserve?

I don't think I pioneered it. I used it for Sandman, and I think if I stole it from anywhere it was James Branch Cabell's novel Jurgen.

Hello, Mr. Gaiman.

What do you think of Netflix reapetedly cancelling actual good fantasy shows and mass produce another dumb pieces of garbage with poorly written characters and a weak plot without any message which either nobody watches or a bunch of people watch and conclude they're worthless anyway. They clearly don't care about fine cinematography. I wouldn't want that to happen to any of your shows, don't you fear it?

Kind regards, have a great time.

Not really. You make the best thing you can, hope it finds its audience, and keep going. Worry about things you can affect, not things you can't.

How do you appreciate the praise and positivity from people while not letting the hate get to you?

You kind of have to not really let the praise get to you either.

Were there any of your more popular books that you didn’t think would get popular/ not as well known books that you thought would do better?

I never expected Norse Mythology to become an international bestseller. I hoped Mister Punch would make more of an impact than it did.

You have any particular thoughts or rules you follow regarding violence or gore in writing? Certainly your own writing touches darker stuff like the occult and mythological, which often comes hand in hand with the occasional murder, dismemberment, etc. Your works sometimes have violence but others barely at all. What's too much? Is there a too much? How do you find that sweet spot, like with the Corinthian, where it's jarring and shocking but doesn't get an eye roll?

Mostly my rule is that if I do it, I mean it. If there's going to be violence then it will have physical and emotional results in the story. Beyond that, I just try and tell the story.

I'm confused about the GO timeline. When Crowley and Aziraphale first meet, we learn that They will be "shutting all this down again in about 6,000 years.". But Crowley tells Nina and Maggie that he and Aziraphale have been talking for millions of years. How is that possible?

Because there was lots of Good Omens angel time before Earth Time started.

hi neil! i have two questions about dead boy detectives.

firstly, you mentioned that you wrote a few of the scenes in the show. if you don't mind me asking, which ones were those?

secondly, why were charles and edwin's backstories different from how they're established in the sandman comic? i assume the plotline of season of mists will be featured in the upcoming season of sandman, so how come it was cut out of edwin's backstory?

When we started making Dead Boy Detectives it was for HBO MAX, and we weren't allowed Sandman connections.

Even if we had been, part of the fun of the Dead Boy Detectives is that Charles died in 1989. Sandman on TV exists in contemporary times. (Morpheus was imprisoned in the basement of Fawney Rig in 1989 in the TV version.)

I wrote the Sandman connected scene in Episode 1, the Sandman connected scene in Episode 7, and (before the move to Netflix) the final scene with the boys back in the office in Episode 8.

Do you not know the concept of a happy character or do you choose to ignore it? (I am genuinely interested)

I need some clarity on your ask. (I too am genuinely interested.) Are you asking about happy characters who are simply always happy, whatever else is happening in the story (like Jim, or Muriel) or happy characters who are fundamentally pretty happy until the story starts happening to them (like Aziraphale or Fiddler's Green) or happy characters who are enough at peace and have enough self knowledge to be happy and wise (like Death)?

I'm curious, for shows, when is the score recorded? Sometimes it seems like the music is matched exactly with the beats of a conversation or line. I'm wondering if that's because it's lined up in editing or if the music is done close to last and it's conducted to match the show, or a combination. Thanks!

The music is normally written after the picture is "locked". So the composer can and often does score the music around the conversations.

What’s the most colorful thing in your wardrobe

Socks.