by Laurelin

I have always loved a challenge. Who doesn’t love to be tested to the limits, and pushed beyond their comfort zone to see if they can rise to the occasion and be successful? The human mind and body can be pushed, and the reward is sometimes nothing more than the personal satisfaction of knowing you did it. Take rock climbing for example. I started a while ago after reading John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. I thought that the climber’s concept of ‘mind over matter’ when it comes to physical activity was fascinating. To be able to push on and keep going when every muscle in your body is screaming for rest, to be halfway up a mountain (or in my case, a rock wall in a gym) and know that if you stop, you fall, and you might die.

When I’m climbing everything in the world goes silent; all you can think about it putting one leg in front of the other and pushing up to find the next finger hold. You must go on. Failure is not an option. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I find myself searching out similar challenges when it comes to men and dating. I crave a chase and hopefully big payoff. The guys I fall for usually have something wrong with them that I think I can fix, some undesirable quality that I convince myself I find endearing, something that makes things absolutely more difficult than it needs to be.

During my freshman year of college over a decade ago, I fell for one of the biggest “players” I had ever come across. This guy was a disaster, pledging a fraternity and totally dedicated to his brothers, but not at all to his school work, running though women like his life depended on it. And all the while, I was chasing after him, spending too much time with him, then watching him with other girls and feeling terrible. There had to be a real person under there somewhere. I was going to find him, and he was going to fall in love with me and stop all that crazy behavior. I could do this, I knew it.

[..]

by Alex Deuben

When the novel American Gods was published ten years ago, Neil Gaiman went from being a writer primarily known for comics like The Sandman and Mr. Punch and novels like Neverwhere and Good Omens to one of the most successful and acclaimed writers of his generation. In addition to his novels, short stories, picture books, and movies, in the past decade Gaiman has also become one of the most beloved children’s writers of our time, his novels Coraline and The Graveyard Book having become modern classics.

He also penned an episode of Doctor Who, much to the delight of both Gaiman and the long running sci-fi show’s fans. More recently, it was announced that Gaiman will be working with HBO and the director and cinematographer Robert Richardson on a series based on American Gods. Now Harper Collins is releasing the tenth anniversary edition of of the book in a hardcover edition that contains what Gaiman referres to as “the preferred text.”

SG reached out to Gaiman by phone for a brief conversation at the beginning of his book tour.

Read our exclusive interview with Neil Gaiman on SuicideGirls.com.

Lunar Suicide in Level Up

• INTO: Pugs not drugs, art (Mark Ryden, Audrey Kawasaki, Lori Earley, etc), plastic, junk, Old Spice, Max MSP.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Exploring.
• HOBBIES: Pole dancing, burlesque, lomography.
• VICES: Hello Kitty.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Playing computer games.

Get to know Lunar better over at SuicideGirls.com!