Thank You So Much For Replying! And Also Thanks To Everyone Who Commented. This Does Give Some Rest To

Thank you so much for replying! And also thanks to everyone who commented. This does give some rest to my doubts.

Hi Mr. Gaiman!

I hope you're happy and well.

A part of me hopes this ask gets lost, while another really strongly hopes you answer (not a good beginning, but fuck it).

Okay, so here goes *deep breaths*

My parents have some connections in the publishing industry (they know publishers, dad is an author, etc), and they want me to give them something, anything, that they will then get published. Because I write relatively frequently, stories, poems, research articles, and they know it, they keep telling me to create a book out of my written stuff. But I honestly don't want to, primary reason being that I really don't want to get published because of contacts and stuff. My first book was published that way, and while it holds a special place in my heart, I still feel it shouldn't have been published (some stuff is practice, and some maybe needs the right time - is what I feel). I want to do this on my own, and even if I fail, I'm good with it; but I don't want to get published like this, even if it's for initial books that might help me career-wise. But the parents say that time is running out (I'm 22 btw, and sometimes I do get scared that it's really running out), why not use opportunities when they're coming to you on a plate, doesn't matter if the quality is bad, nobody really reads, only the CV is read, etc. And while the idealistic part of me is strongly against it, another more sensitive part of me really gets affected and scared and just...fucked. When I decline, the parents get angry, say I'm stupid, idealistic, don't know what's good for me; and I get sad seeing them disappointed.

Could you please give some advice on this? Should I give in? Should I keep walking the idealistic path and keep trying on my own? I absolutely love the act of writing itself, and honestly, a lot of the time, finishing a piece of work and polishing it is usually enough for me. I can wait for however long, to first find a proper place(s) and then send it, and even then, rejection won't hurt. I'm already working on some stuff, short story collection, etc. but these talks (lectures and scoldings rather) really scare me. Am I doing the right thing, going against them, at least as far as my own writing is concerned (coz I'm usually pretty passive)?

Thanks for reading so much of my crap, and sorry if your time was wasted. It's perfectly fine if you don't answer.

PS really really love your works, and The Sandman (along with Discworld & Good Omens) honestly really saved my life in one of the darker parts - so thank you for that.

Hope you're happy!

Time is not running out. Don’t let anyone rush you. Write a book you are happy with first, and then see if you can get it published.

movies like nimona and across the spiderverse makes me realize that I never want to see another live action movie again. The way you can utilize animation and make visuals so interesting, as well as the flow and colors, is just something you can't do with real people

i wish you love so sincere and so tender that it doesn't just come from a single thing or a single person, but from everything and everywhere. i wish for you to bubble in love and awe of the universe so deeply that you'll feel touched by everything good and precious that have ever happened to you or that you have ever witnessed. i hope it will be so full you will be brought to tears in joy, that you will laugh with them streaming down your face. i wish for you to look up at the stars with eyes and a heart that says: "do you feel this too? is this what it's like to be you? to be part of the whole?" i hope it moves you so completely that the only objective left in the middle of your chest is to give everyone who is alive and in this world the gift of being seen through your eyes when they are full of truth, full of wholeness, full of love

I don’t usually post about media stuff here but I’m so excited that Liz Carr has been cast an an angel in good omens 2.

There’s such a common Christian narrative that disability is a sign of disconnection from God. It’s a curse from god or the work of the devil or something along those lines. It’s an idea that touches so many disabled people in negative ways – it suggests disabled people are being punished for something, or that we’re not as close to God as abled people. People say that disability won’t go with someone to heaven without knowing what a person’s relationship to their disability is.

To have a visibly disabled woman cast as an angel is exciting because it shows a disabled woman being close to god, a person with a visibly disabled body has been cast as a being that traditionally is associated with embodying perfection.

I really hope this is the case anyway

So you mean to tell me that after already weighing down my heart with several tonnes of that cliffhanger from Across the Spider-Verse, I now have another several tonnes added to it by that Good Omens 2 cliffhanger???????????

And there's no confirmation when either will be resolved????????????

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!!!?????

Infighting only helps our oppressors.

Infighting only helps our oppressors.

Infighting only helps our oppressors.

Infighting only helps our oppressors.

Infighting only helps our oppressors.