Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil -- You're working on something involving <i>AVALON</i>?  Oh my!
 I've had the first two trailers sitting on my desktop at work for
months, wondering if the film is as good as they look.  What do you
think of it?  How exciting that you are in some way involved (hopefully
for you as well as for us).  Are you doing an English translation (a
la Monoke)?  The original film is in Polish with Japanese subtitles,
yes?  How very wild.
     And good luck thirded!
  

    
Danguy -- the version I'm doing stuff with is in Polish with English
subtitles. And no, I'm not doing an English thing -- it's quite
possible that the stuff I'm doing will wind up in Polish.

Martha - will do.
  

    
...and including #73, this topic is celebrating its first birthday. 
Whee.
  

    
Thanks for pointing it out, Sarah. 

& a happy anniversary to all our readers.

Signed on the Dangerous Visions table at the LA book fair today. Was
astonished by the number of fans (and from the books they carried,
serious fans) who didn't know that American Gods was coming out or that
I was doing a real signing tour.

So, anyone reading this -- spread the word. Tell people. Post things
places.  There...
  

    
And Martha, will do.
  

    
Now I guess you will do it twice!
  

    
Neil- I didn't even know you wrote books until about two years ago
when I found a copy of "Neverwhere" that someone had left behind in a
hotel room. And I was like: "Neat! Neil wrote a book." When I regained
internet access, I found out that you had more than one book. Needless
to say, I was utterly amazed! I have no idea what I'd do without the
net....
  

    
<madman> and I found a copy of "Neverwhere" for rent at a cute little cult
video store in Berkeley. We declined to rent it.
  

    
I found a copy of Neverwhere quite a while ago at the Hong Kong
Blockbuster-equivalent (they went under and now it *is* Blockbuster)
and rented it...

... I liked the book better. ^_^;

Happy anniversary, topic 73&104!

-- Mimi
  

    
I've never seen the series and from the way Neil talks about it I
don't think I want to. Love the book, though.
  

    
I stopped by a Tower Outlet on the way home from a Giants/Cubs game this
afternoon, browsed around, and found a softcover copy of "Now We Are Sick"
of all things.  (There was various unusual stock.  "Domesticity Isn't
Pretty" was there too.)  Neil's name is on the front cover of more books
than you can possibly imagine.
  

    

Basically, <gorey> and I looked at it, read the back, and she said, "Too bad
Neil said it sucks."
Now while I don't really remember just how much exaggeration that
characterization may be, we both laughed and put it back.

We also declined to rent either of a pair of Eddie Izzard hosted videos
about Monty Python, despite having gone into the shop in the first place
wondering if they had any of Izzard's standup. Just so Neil knows Neverwhere
was in good company.
  

    
Madman -- don't let me put you off: there are some good things in
Neverwhere. Some lovely performances, and several lovely moments.

...

Survived Nebula night, MC'd, made speech, all went well. Now I am
tired. Goodnight.
  

    
madman and gorey - I rather liked the series very muchly... it's just
the cow I have a problem with. the big... fluffy... cow... hmmm... Le
Video in SF (the city, not the book-genre) used to have a copy - they
might still. (They don't like me, so I try not to go in there any more.
Mostly David J's fault, but still.)

Neil - Still plugging like mad on my website, and anyone on the sfgoth
e-lists, or that goes to any of the clubs I go to, knows about it, and
is dying to get their hands on a copy. One of my managers is even
trying to make it to a reading, just to see why I'm refusing to work on
the local signing dates. (Jeebus, but it sounds like I'm awaiting a
pat on the head or something - oh wait, I am! Mmmm... foreign
Stardust...)

Btw, your speech reminded me to kick myself for dropping out of math
classes all those ages ago. I was certain I'd be a journalist or a
musician, so why did I need to know calculus? Whenever I make it back
to school, I'm planning for a degree in some variety of Geology...
requiring calculus. Oh well, I'll probably change majors again before I
get that far.

squeaks, serious fan who was recently reintroduced to a girl, by a
mutual friend, in the following manner: (pointing to me)"Neil Gaiman,"
(pointing to her)"Jonathan Carroll." and vice versa.
  

    
Neil-- congrats on surviving nebula; those clouds of superhot gas can
be terribly corrosive :)

Everybody-- happy anniversary!  I send you all roses and champagne!
  

    
Neil-- having read your speech just now...

Please tell your 12 year old self that he can be proud-- your writing
has absolutely and forever changed how I look at the world.
  

    
Neil- Wonderful speech! (But I wouldn't expect anything less of you)

Michelle-Geez. Don't tell me you hang out with David J *and* the dude
from Information Society! I'm so jealous. Someday, David J will be my
friend....someday....He is, after all, one of the 500 real people in
the world.
  

    
Erynn - Nonononono... I'm kind of a 'gopher-girl' for the club. David
J came to spin for us. He asked that we rent the video Metropolis to be
played on a screen on the dancefloor. I set up an account and rented
it from Le Video (the only place that had it). Then there was confusion
and it wasn't returned for over a month. Come to think of it, after
yet more confusion (not my fault, btw), I don't think David J thinks
too highly of me either. Ho hum. So no need for jealousy. 

squeaks, whose hair, however, is green with envy this week.
  

    

Neil- to put it in perspective, one must realize that it takes something
monumental to get me to sit in front of a television for just about any
reason. Someday, I will watch it. But this weekend doesn't include that day.

Last night I had a dream that was a cross between Sandman, Neuromancer, and
Donnerjack. I was, essentially, Destruction, but the plot more closely
resembled a cross between Destruction and Ishtar's story and Dream Hunters.
Oddly, the dream included some still images that conveyed plot, as though I
had been reading something formatted as Dream Hunters is...

It was seriously weird.
  

    
Michelle- So David J dosen't like you because you found a tape for
him? Why didn't he have his own copy? Maybe he's only half real. I'd
rather meet Peter Murphy, anyway. I saw him up close at a show fairly
recently. He was great. I was so close to him, in fact, that I could
see his man boobies.

Neil- Okay, time for the photo story! Let's hear it, let's hear it!

Erynn, who is merely a hallucination on your part brought on by a bad
piece of cheese.
  

    
Erynn - love the cheese thing...

Michelle - your hair is green now? How long does your hair stay one
particular color? (I mean, I love it... but I remember looking at your
Girls with Glasses layout, and your hair was a different color when I
saw you, and now it's a different color again... you're a rainbow
girl!)

Neil - I honestly don't know what to say about the speech. It made me
think of what I wanted to be when I grew up, and the twisting and
confusing paths I've walked since then. I'm so different from the
picture I had of myself at twelve. So different from the picture I had
of myself a mere six years ago. The twelve year old me would consider
the 30 year old me a work of implausible fiction and would be too
mystified to be dissapointed. 

In any event, let me add my voice to the chorus of "thank you" for
being a SF writer in the sense of "SF means whatever the hell we want
it to mean"... You've inspired me, as you have inspired so many others,
in ways no other author has before. You've even helped me come to
terms with my own tendency to go "Fan-boy" about you with your
frankness about your own ability to lose higher brain functions around
those you respect and admire the most. (If I maintain any sort of
eloquence at the book signing in Berkeley, I'll be quite astonished)
You've lit my imagination aflame with your work, directed me to other
fabulous authors (and musicians), and generally proved that the advice
of "never aspire to meet your favorite writer because you'll be deeply
dissapointed" is not universally true.

Dan
  

    
On the occasion of the 1st anniversary of this topic, I suppose I will
have to finally de-lurk.  The impetus is not really that it’s the 1st
anniversary, but instead that the lock on my call-room door is broken,
and all of my stuff is inside.  Thus, I’m stuck here at the hospital
tonight with no reading material.  All my texts are in there and I’d
even made a trip to Dreamhaven yesterday in preparation for downtime
between emergencies and calls. <sigh>  

So, to de-lurk…  First the initial fan-girl shuffling of feet:
red-faced, ducked head, etc.  I’ve had this fear of fanaticism ever
since reading Harlan Ellison’s “Xenogenesis” and so I’ve never gotten
around to e-mailing or writing authors who have affected me.  That
said, I’ve always mean to contact you, Neil, through a publisher or
some such means to say how much I appreciated Sandman and subsequent
works.  When I reached the end of The Wake, tears streaming down my
face, I was struck by how appropriately final it all was—I’d just taken
a long journey that coursed over several years, revisiting some places
more than once, and it had come to it’s end just where it was supposed
to.  Obviously I had no idea what that destination was when I picked
up “Preludes and Nocturnes” but I had reached it.  I’ve only had that
experience, tears and all, one other time in my 22+ years of reading: 
I was in the 8th grade and had just finished “The High King” by  Lloyd
Alexander.  I consider it a rare gift and I thank you.  

On other works…I have an unbound, uncut copy of  Angels & Visitations
that I bought at Dreamhaven b/c the real copy was $50 and I couldn’t
afford it at the time.  I thought it might be fun to unfold and spread
out and read at some point.  It’s not.  It’s a royal pain.  So, I’m
thinking about binding it myself, making my own cover, and possibly
bringing it to one of the Minneapolis signings, but I have little to no
idea how to do this.  (The binding/cover part that is.)  I could
probably work something out and do a credible job with it I think.  It
would be easier if someone knew a website with pointers or could pass
along some ideas though.  Any takers?  I've had this thing for almost a
year now and I haven't read it.  It's driving me nuts to have a book
on my shelf that I haven't read.

I guess that’s all for now.  Thanks again.

Off to get some sleep if possible.
  

    <scribbled by whispered>
  

    
Kristin - Nice to have another local in the topic.  Not to mention
someone who had an emotional response to "The High King".  That series
was one of my childhood hallmarks.  It was sort of an emptiness...orf,
that's it, that's all he's given us of Prydain.  So in the next logical
step, I pulled out my lovely pink notebook and wrote my first novella.
 :]

. . .

Speaking of books, I just picked up "White Noise: An A-Z of the
Contradictions in Cyberculture" and had to smile at the fact that the
third chaper, Community/Alienation is primarily focused on the WELL.
Interesting.  Seems I knew next to nothing about this place.  Didn't
even realize it was connected with the Whole Earth Catalog.  :+
  

    
Kristin -- Welcome.  I too had such an emotional response to finishing
"the Wake", and to finishing <b>The High King</b>.  I was just
thinking of Prydain the other day, actually, thinking that it has been
ten years at least since I last re-read those books,  and that I
desperately need to purchase my own copies (now that I no longer live
at home and have my mother's at my disposal) so that I can re-read
them, and read them to Alexander when he's old enough.

Neil -- I loved the speech.  Thank your 12 year old self on my behalf
for being sure then, and thank you now for doing what you do.