Me, myself and Neil

Inside my little chamber at home I have my own shelf for special books. When it's late and I'm all alone in my little chamber, Neil comes out to me, silent and inviting.

When he does that, I cannot resist. I just bend my head towards the shelf and look at Neil with his words and utterly many books. I walk over to my little neverwear and pick up one of the Neils I got. Usual the Neil I pick is the Neil that calls out to me.
I never pick a Neil myself.
Neil picks me.

So I sit down. I read the words of Neil. I fall and fall into the world he creates for me there and then. I'm the Other Mother. I'm Coraline, and I'm in London. I'm Nobody Owens. I'm actually nobody. Thats perfect. Like Jack of all Trades I walk trough his written society alone. My wife loves fiction without the fantasy. My kids read the Humpty dumtpy and the Woddly doodly.
I travel with Neil.

Am I a stalker?
Yes I am.
But in a nice way.

I stalk the real Neil on Twitter. I follow his every step, at least the steps he let me follow. And I enjoy the road he is taking me. I enjoy listening to the fireplace in Scotland, and I loved the boredom in the Globes. I celebrated the engagement, and I smiled when he wanted the second generation iPad. I cried when dad died, and I held around my cat when Zoe was released. I cheer every nomination.
So I stalk, but in a good way. I stalk the ones that let me stalk them.

So every night, Neil call upon me. I sit down with him, and as sudden as a paper turn, he sits besides me, reads his work loud. Only the Itunes between us.
Lovely.

Get out of here you say!
Absolutely.
Lovely crazy - for let me be plain out clear
I love Neils work and his amazing crazy hair.

So I love my little special place in my special shelf. I love when Neil comes around. Whether he comes with good news about marriage or scary stories with the fireplace as the sole lightsource.

Sometimes the journalist wake me up. He asks: Why is this Neil so great? What does he have, that all the other thousands of hardworking writers don't?

Well: The answer is easy. Neil is ingeniously simple in his choice of words, he is honest, thrilling and fun. I love fun. Therefore I love Neil.
As simple as that.

How can I ever stop?

I have written almost my whole life.

Since I was a kid in the little town of Voss, my imagination took me places where dead people walk and talk, and into a world where anything is possible. Of course all of this happened in my head. In the real world, I was a ordinary boy in a ordinary world, happy living with a normal family.

I now write for a living. Im a journalist in a newspaper called Vestnytt. Its a good newspaper, and I love my colleagues and my place of work. Every day my hands dances on the computer and words come out. Words from fact. Eventually the words get stained with ink, and planted on cheap paper for people to read the next morning. Thats what I get paid for.

The other ting don't pay me diddly, yet.

Every night, when the sun has set, and the Night Things climb out of their earthly bed, my other brain starts to work.
I have called it The Other Kai (thanks Coraline).
At first I didnt know that it existed, but after reading Damon Knights Creating Short Fiction, I discovered where the voice in my head came from, and not the least, how to control it.
Thats why I gave it the name The Other Kai (thanks Neil).

After establishing the fact that there is another Me in my head, and If waken when I call on it, Im able to conjure more stories and make something out of them.
Finally, after almost 40 years, I can control the voice in my head.

The dear readers of my blog, may find me crazy. The answer is probably yes. Crazy as hell.

But I belive that my imagination all comes from The Other Kai. When on work, struggling with a deadline, I tend to call, in my head, for The Other Kai, for inspiration and help to get on when Im stuck, and I get help.
Within a few minutes, a strange but silent voice in my head gives me the lead that helps me go on and finish the story.

And in the night, when I sit in front of my Apple, and write about gosts, and dead people, and everything I love to write about, The Other Kai is awake and with me, all the time.

That was not the case before. Before I knew my other self.
Earlier I reached out into the dark, got clues, and nothing more.
Now I know what to do with the clues.
So I keep on working, and maybe one day, Ill get my Other Stuff Published.
Just maybe.

Until that day, Ill keep on pushing The Other Kai, and work with him, conjure stories with him, and love him until my dying day....

...how can I ever stop?

In favour of Neil Gaiman

This is the first blog I have ever written in english, and I do hope that the ones that speak and write this complex language, take that into consideration.

After reading Neil Gaimans blog this morning, I felt the urge to write some words in his defence. Not that the famous writer needs it, but Ill still do it.

One thing that I have been thinking about for a long time, was the critique of Gaiman and his likings of the famous Junglebook-writer, Rudyard Kipling. Telegraph was a newpaper that wrote about this. Gaiman got what was near to resemble a hate-mail after professing that Kipling was one of his literary heroes. Gaiman has also based his award winning, Graveyard book, on Kiplings Jungle book.

Why should Gaiman not have Kipling as a literary hero. Is Gaiman a facist, just because Kipling was accused of beeing that, after writing If and Gunga Din? I have read Kipling, and he is a wonderful storyteller, and Gaimans Graveyard book understates just that.

One of my literary heroes is Knut Hamsun. His book Victoria, is one of the most sensible work of love one can read. But Hamsun met Adolf Hitler. Hamsun was positive to the nazi-regime. Hamsund never regretted his flirt with the nazism, and wrote a book in his defence after WW2, his trial and the house arrest, called Overgrown Paths. But I love his books, and admire his work as a writer. Does that make me a nazi?

I think not!

Gaiman, 49, said: "I definitely don't write like Kipling but he was a literary hero as a kid, to the newspaper. Is that enough to receive hate-mail?

I think not.

Well. As a journalist, i try to my very best to write the trouth and as exact what the source say. Gaiman recently was the receiver of female hatred after The New Yorker quoted him; I "wasn't anyone's bitch". The best part is that according to @neilhimself (username on Twitter), he never said those words. Still he apologised several times, but the critique went on.

Well Neil Gaiman is my most favoured writer, and I follow him and his family and friends on Twitter. I cannot understand why so-called fans of him, now claims that all his good work is futile because something they have read in a newspaper. Shame on you.

I have a cat, and I love it. Neil Gaimans cat, Zoe, is dying, and the Gaiman-family is about to loose a member of their family. Thats sad, and should be respected, even if its a cat. For some, as for me, the cat is a equal member of the family, and the sorrow when my cat travel to the other world, will be overwelming.

Thats my speach of the day. As I said, Neil Gaiman can take care of himself, but I wanted to write some words even though.

This is my cat, Neil. Best of wishes for Zoe. Will think of her in the days to come.

Kai