Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'm a little creeped out by the beard-in-bag thing as well. Silly
Neil.
  

    
Having just had my memory jogged, I've realized that I wished the
wrong person good luck in giving up smoking a few messages back :^P

That'll teach me to jump into a conversation so late!

Soooooooooo, without further delay, best of luck to Jinx - hope you
continue to "just look", especially given your "nasty case of
something".
  

    
Margret -- it was a goof and I caught it; it'll be fixed, don't worry.

Len -- it's kind of fun to eat the little bits of rice, as well.

Blythe -- you are more than welcome.

Erynn and Michelle -- which means it's a good thing that I didn't let
the CBLDF do the Auction Neil's Hair thing they had wanted to do last
year. The Tiptree is a small auction, held, if memory serves, at
Wiscon, the feminist SF convention in Madison.

...

MOre tired than I can easily believe. Long day. I read a new short
story (polite applause). I read a chunk of American Gods (sustained
applause). I read "Crazy Hair", the little poem I wrote for Maddy in
the sushi restuarant the other night. It bought the house down and
people kept coming up to me and giving me their e-mail addresses and
asking me to please, please e-mail it to them so they could read it to
their kids and grandchildren.


At the banquet this evening did a funny reading (with Joshua Kane) of
2 poems from Now We Are Sick, and Two Bab Ballads. 

ALso went to LEvenger outlet and bought some prototype fountain pens
kind of cheap, and many bottles of brown and grey ink. "But Neil," said
Peter Straub, "The brown ink looks like dried blood." "And this is a
problem because...?" I asked. 

Will read all posts since conference started and try and catch up on
everyone then. 

Am now ready to drop.
  

    
Tiptree auctions have also been held at the Potlatch con on the West Coast.
  

    
The Levenger Outlet is AWESOME, though I don't know how many of the
things they sell actually lead to a more literate life.  They really
know how to market being a bookworm.  

Last time I was there I bought some cheap-but-well-packaged
bookmarks-- ribbons with little weights on the ends-- to give to my
students.  They're still sitting somewhere in my apartment-- I'm not
sure how much kids-these-days covet nifty bookmarks.
  

    
Neil-- if you do email "Crazy Hair" to people, would you please post
it here too?  Please?  

And how cool is it that you have grandparents in your audience?
  

    
Neil- I would love to be exhausted from the cool events that you are.
(As opposed to being tired from the restaurant buisness.) You are a
lucky, lucky sir. No, I take that back. You are a very hard working
sir. New short story? New poem? Wow. If you don't post them here, any
word on when we'll get to read them?

Len- I would have loved to have gotten nifty bookmarks from teachers.
I'm sure that even the ones who don't use them would at least
appreciate the gesture.
  

    
Neil - YAY! I forgot that McKean was doing the book as well! 

And let me second that hope that Crazy Hair will be posted here...
  

    
Hey to Everyone.  I just got back from a trip to the most boring part
of West Virginia to visit family.  Not my family, but a friend's family
whom I had never met before.  It was interesting to spend the weekend
with strangers...Anyway, just reading through all the posts I've
missed...tra la la.

Neil--Hope you can find a bit of time to rest soon!  Even your typing
looks exhausted.
  

    
Oh!  And a big welcome to Blythe!
  

    
So I've just today heard about this thing called Inkwell . Guess I'll
see where it takes me . 

So , Neil . . . about the tour . Are you going to be making any stops
in San Diego or Los Angeles ? I think I remember seeing one being
scheduled in Palo Alto , but I haven't heard of Palo Alto so it's
probably not as close as I'd like . Can't wait for the book to come out
. You told me that I'd like it at the LA reading , and I'm goingbe
holding you to that . To bad it's coming out on the 19th , just a
couple days earlier and I could have myself a nice little birthday
treat . But , being my twenty-first, I probably won't be able to hold a
book until the 19th or so . Ah well . 

Also , I remember you once mentioning a book you had picked up about
the meaning and history behind the names of the different areas of
London . Apologies , but I am tired and me and that last sentence were
really going at it . Hope it came across .
  

    
Welcome to the Well Justin.  :-)

Jen, tired.
  

    
Email from Jo Simons:

mmmm japaneese rice crackers ...

Neil - any chance of a visit to Aus at some point in the not too
(hideously) distant future? (NZ would be too much to hope for). Would be
delighted to have an extra excuse to make the jump across the ditch.

- crazy hair? whose crazy hair? Mine is a bit nutso, but I don't think it
can help itself

Jo
  

    
Not too tired now, but this is a very wonky connection and I have a
lot of writing to do in a short time, so just a hasty message...

Reg. February 2002 I shall be Guest of Honour at Boskone, in Boston.
I'd forgotten.
  

    
And Justin, yes, there will be an LA stop and a San Diego stop. And a
Minneapolis stop.

And later in July (after the UK tour) there will be a canadian
microtour. 

I've not posted the tour list so far, as I figure it'll be circulated,
and I'd it to be circulated incomplete.
  

    
Can anybody suggest a good edition of the Arabian Nights? 

Thanks in advance.
  

    
Len -- while I don't mind giving some of the people who were at the
reading Crazy Hair to read to their kids, I'm afraid that I feel that
posting it here would feel too much like putting it into the public
domain. It's possible that I'll find that e-mailing out a few Crazy
Hairs also means it's put into the public domain, probably attributed
to Dr Seuss, but I doubt it.

The Madrus and Mathey (sp?) is the best edition of the Nights: the
Burton is lovely but not reader friendly. It used to be published by
Routledge and Kegan Paul, if memory serves.
  

    
Peter Straub, by the way, says that when he said "But that ink looks
like Dried blood" my actual reply was "But that's why I like it."

I checked -- it's Madrus and Mathers and is called the Book of a
Thousand Nights and One Night... there are copies around.
  

    
I'd like to see Crazy Hair....
  

    
Neil--I certainly understand the way you feel about putting Crazy Hair
up on here.  Especially since the inkwell is web readable.  But it
sounds really neat.  I do hope I get to read/hear it one day.  

I am currently wondering where Neil gets all the extra hours in the
day...he obviously gets more than 24 (or maybe he just doesn't
sleep...)  I could use extra hours right now if you know where I can
get em...
  

    

It's too bad that my co-host <tnf> does not still have a band called Crazy
Fingers.  Crazy Hair would be a great song for them to do.  And then we'd
have to fill in the rest of the body parts, wouldn't we?
  

    
e-mail from Jessica:

Heh, me again... all this talk of signings, I have to say something myself.
I've never been to a real signing, so I was curious how it works... how many
things one can bring, if it has to be store-bought, etc... you all have
answered my questions before I even had to ask!

I *did* have the great privilege of being one of the special-reception
people at the Last Angel reading in New York... it's at once one of my
favorite memories, and most embarassing, because my complete social
ineptitude almost cost me the chance of having my photo taken with Neil.
Luckily my friend spoke up for me before Chris Oarr rushed Neil backstage
for some sudden emergency...

And.. oddly... I write as if he's not going to be able to read this, but
somehow I can't bring myself to address him directly. I suppose I should.
Hi, my name's Jess, and you are probably my biggest inspiration. I was the
weird one who, at that reading's question-and-answer bit, had asked
something akin to "My friends make fun of me for talking as if we were on a
first name basis, so I have to ask, can I call you Neil?" and how to
pronounce "Bachalo." I almost died when you actually answered my question.
And now I proudly show people my souvenir photo
(http://rizaelle.net/jess&neil1c.jpg ^_^) and tell them, why yes, I *do*
have permission to call him Neil....

"Liar!" they usually reply, or at least "Hm, he looks tired." But I know the
truth..!  ^__^

Jessica ~*
  

    
and a postscript from Jessica:

Oh, and if anyone was interested... ::gets her nerve up::
http://rizaelle.net/inscribed/muse.html  Comments?
  

    
Hi Angelina, thanks for the welcome.

Jessica - Neil is really lucky to have someone spend all that time to
write a poem about him :)  I really like the title and the last two
lines a lot. I know how you feel exactly. Another good piece of advice
I gleaned from him is in - the name is slipping my mind, help anyone? -
*Tulips and _____* -  Anyhow, in it he says something like, "Write the
story that only you can write." Which, the more you think about it,
makes far more sense than "write what you know" or advice like that. I
also have a treasured photo with Neil, due in fact to the guy who was
taking pictures pitying my social ineptitude and offering to take my
picture with him. 
  

    
Jessica: that was beautiful!
I wonder how many people Neil has inspired to write, or at least has
provided inspiration for writing. I've written three stories as
Christmas presents and Wedding gifts as the result of the introduction
to Smoke and Mirrors...

Of course... it's the "finish" part that I tend to find the most
difficulty with. Maybe tonight... maybe tonight...

Blythe: I like that! That truly is great advice. It's also so much
more challenging... the spectre of "is this pedestrian? Could anyone
have written this?" is a malevolent little imp.

Dan