If you want to see Neil Gaiman in Santa Rosa on July 6, you’d better act fast. Tickets for his appearance at Santa Rosa High School went on sale yesterday, and even without much notice or advertising, they’re already selling quickly.

In just one day, reports Vicki D’Armon from Copperfield’s Books—sponsor of the event—roughly a quarter of the tickets are already gone. “I think I’ll probably have them through next week,” says D’Armon.

Gaiman is no stranger to local readers. I mean really—American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline? The Sandman? (To the uninitiated: Gaiman wrote a children’s book. He called it The Graveyard Book. That about sums it up.)

He’s also committed to his fans at a level that’s pretty unusual for authors of his stature. After the reading and Q&A, D’Armon reports, “he says he’ll stay until 4am to sign books.”

$35 gets you into the event and a copy of Gaiman’s newest, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. If you want to go with a friend and share the book, special $50 tickets allow two entries and one copy of the book.

While available, tickets are being sold at Copperfield’s stores. You can also get them online here.

A round of applause to Chris Coursey for his self-critique published today in the Press Democrat.

After going through several front-page stories that acknowledged “human error” (Winnie-the-Pooh fake being one) or otherwise contained mistakes in judgement, he chastised himself for not seeing the forest for the trees in the Willits bypass story—i.e., calling the Mendocino County tree-sitting demonstrator’s tactics “futile and dangerous” and having faith that “cooler heads” (i.e. CHP and Caltrans) would work something out.

Of course, that was before bulldozers and SWAT teams were unleashed.

Whoever made that call was obviously a lot more of a hothead than anyone predicted, and I’m not sure Coursey needs to concern himself with too much hand-wringing in this case. (Not like the torrent of apologies a few weeks ago by journalists who supported the Iraq War.) But we have to say, it’s always nice to see some self-editing and ownership when errors have been made.

In a Los Angeles Times article republished Monday in the Press Democrat, reporter Maria L. La Ganga writes about the saga starring George Lucas, his abandoned film studio project (pictured) and his promised replacement of hotly contested affordable housing.

She writes:

His next move, some here say, was payback for what Lucas described in a written statement as the “bitterness and anger” expressed by his neighbors.

Interesting to me is that this story is written by someone from the Times, over 400 miles away. A planning commission meeting where affordable housing minimums are discussed isn’t often statewide news—but then again, this is Marin we’re talking about here. La Ganga mentions the statistic that that 60 percent of Marin’s workforce commutes from out of the area. She also reports there have been protestors seen in Marin wearing buttons with the slogan “End Apartheid in Marin County” as a stance against the disparity.

A report from Live Local Marin, Miles From Home, puts into detail the commuting numbers mentioned above, along with plenty of other pertinent info—like that many of those workforce commuters make less than $40,000 per year.

Lucas’ projects, along with the topic of affordable housing in Marin — which some would call an oxymoron — have garnered quite a bit of attention in the local press. The issue is far from resolved, and this reporter is looking forward to reading the sequels and finding out how the story unfolds.

For a little back story on the project and Marin’s housing issues:

A Bohemian article on Marin’s affordable housing issues.

A Bohemian article on Lucas’ promises of affordable housing.

A Press Democrat article on Lucas abandoning the original project.

A Marin Independent Journal article on the local opposition of the zoning.