Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(run by posting)

Michelle   -  "And a black deer said "Don't Be Afraid". I knew that
she meant it both literally and ironically, and so I was poised between
love and fear. But it was in this way that I came to be aware of The
Tower, and came to see the microwaves, and was able to see the base of
things, which was out of alignment. And this was when I first knew...
that everything was wrong."

-- Trev / Walker --
  

    
Re: The High King:  I always mix it up with The Grey King.  That
notwithstanding, the Chronicles of Prydain were my first entry into the
world of fantasy literature.  I don't enjoy re-reading them as much
today as I did when a kid, but they left a very strong impression. 
What a terrible disappointment Disney's Black Cauldron was.

Re: what one wanted to be at the age of 12:  I expected to be either a
writer, a cook or a rabbi.  Came pretty close to all three.   
  

    
Michelle--Just out of curiosity...how do you keep you hair from
keeling over?  My current hair is cotton candy like in texture from a
few too many color changes.  Just wondering if you have any secrets. 
:)

Angelina
  

    
Len -- I liked those Susan Cooper <i>Dark is Rising</i> books too.
(Which is to say: I liked them in addition to the <i>Prydain</i>
books, not in addition to you liking them as you haven't asserted that
you do.) I haven't re-read them in nearly as long, but have much less a
desire to do so. I have never seen Disney's accursed adaption and
never plan to, though my wife insists that "it's actually quite cute". 
I forgive her because she's never read the books and so does not know
better. ^_^

When I was twelve, I knew I would do something computer-centric for a
living. Everyone did -- well, nearly everyone. The only person who
failed to recognize this inevitability was my violin instructor, who
after fourteen years of twice weekly meetings wondered why I wasn't
applying to any conservatories. I was quite open about my intentions
all of those years, she just never heard me. I'm much happier this way;
I always loathed performing.
  

    
Well I'm not actually a minneapolis local.  I transplanted myself here
about 9 months ago after I graduated.  I'm still searching for that
community of strange folks (read: ecclectic and interesting and have
something to talk about other than medicine) that I had built back
home.  Other than that I'm settling in nicely and lurking on the list
the last couple of months has pointed me towards some cool stuff in the
Twin Cities.

On being 12, I'm headed toward the "when I grow up..." that
12-year-old-me professed.  I said I was going to be a country doctor
that still made house calls.  Funny thing is my high school science
teachers had me headed toward chemical engineering, I entered college
as a math major (that lasted all of a semester), came a hair's breadth
from going to grad school to do research and after all that I'm in a
family practice residency in a very urban clinic in an underserved
neighborhood--and yes, I make house calls (under certain
circumstances).  I guess that's the cool thing about dreams, if you can
manage to hang on to them, they get to grow with you.

And BTW, most of the time I still feel closer to 12 than to 30.
  

    
kristin-- definitely check out the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
in St. Paul...  It's one of the best and kookiest museums around.

I used to work at the Guthrie (years ago, in another lifetime) and there
were lots of cool little theatres to go to.  One that I can recommend
highly is Kari Margolis's-- and the Margolis-Brown Adaptors.  They are
kind of in betweeen the University (ummmm... Left Bank) and downtown.
  

    
You know, I turn my head for ONE WEEKEND and I totally miss a Neil
signing.  Dangit.  Oh well, at least I was enjoying my ignorance at
Disneyland (the only real perk of living here that I have found as of
yet).  *sigh*
  

    
Email from JaNell:

Ah, I can actually sit down again...

Jenny B.- "Don't you just wish the weather would make up it's mind?" A-Ha,
ha-ha-ha. "Snow, 90 degrees, snow.  It's interesting but it means I have
all of my
      clothes out..." Every day, here, you gotta dress for the season
you're 'sposed to be in plus bring extras for the one before and after,
too. You'd think I'd fail to be surprised after being born and raised
here.


Tona, and Neil- "Little Earthquakes" meant so much, it fit my life at the
time so well...although I remember wondering who this Neil guy was,
too...still am, actually.

Neil Gaiman- "oops -- Justin, not justine. Dunno where the e came from."

Hmm, Neil, what HAVE you been reading on the plane?

"I hope you realize that this will go on your PERMANENT RECORD." 

    JaNell, a Violent Femmes fan
  

    

Somehow, I managed to go through life to this point without reading either
Cooper nor Alexander.
A friend is forcing me to rectify this, but I haven't managed to aquire
complete sets of either series yet, which is a prerequisite to starting to
read them.

But I've started reading _Smoke and Mirrors_, by Jane Lindskald.
  

    

From Rowena@compaq.net Mon Apr 30 12:55:32 2001

e-mail from Rowena:

Hello!  Finally have a question...everyone's taken all the good ones! :)
 
Neil:  I was reading last night that the UK edition of Smoke and Mirrors
has more stories than the United States version.
Will the stories be available in a later anthology?  Why were they
excluded?  I'm not asking as a mad-stalking-Gaiman completeist, but as a
writer I wondered why the decision was made.  I'm curious about really
weird things, I know.
    I loved the speech that you made.  Wish I had been there. 
    Ok.  Time to retire again to my dark corner. 
 
R.
  

    
Rowena - just so you know, you *can* be madly-stalking Gaiman without
being a completeist. :)

Erynn - (re David J) There was some miscommunication a few months
after the show and it appeared that I rather left him in the lurch. I
should have followed thru (even tho it wasn't my job), but I didn't, so
now *I* look bad. Oh well. Cheese? 

Dan - Either when I get bored, or the roots look funny. A couple of
days, a couple of months. The going rate seems to be every 2-3 weeks.
And it's actually a rather bluey green - kinda like the color they use
for green hair in 'anime' (thinking of a Robotech character whose name
I've forgotten). It's fun to confuse Neil by showing up with completely
different colors in my hair every time he shows up for a signing. Do
you think that's mean? :)

Walker - Hah! I knew I could get you to post! (cough'fanboy'cough)

Angelina - Avoid overbleaching. Just color over the roots when they
start to grow out until it looks bad. Just use enough bleach to strip
enough color to cover over it evenly. Low volume developer. Expensive
conditioners - lots of them. Having no/very little hair tends to help.

Kristin - Welcome! I have an unbound one too. Started to unfold it
once, realized what a mess I would make, and then just kept it folded.
I think it would be beautiful if you bound it. Dunno where to start,
but let me know how it turns out.

Silth - I occasionally have friends look at me strangely when I
mention the WELL. "That place still exists? I remember back when I used
to post there..." and then they start in trying to prove they're
modern era dinosaurs. 

squeaks, who took a nap (which should have told me something right
there) and is still feeling like garbage.
  

    
Home again.

Rowena -- it wasn't really intentional. The UK edition of Smoke and
Mirrors was published sometime after the US edition; I sent them a few
stories that hadn't made it into the US edition, suggesting that they
could use one or two as promotional things, along with EATEN, which
Avon had not felt comfortable publishing but the UK had no problem
with, and instead they asked if they could put them all in the book. So
I said what the hell.

Just to confuse the issue, I don't plan to put them into the US
paperback edition (out soon!). EATEN does belong in there (and won't
be), but I'll keep the other two for the next story collection, all of
which are going to be unreliable first person narratives.
  

    
BTW -- I just got an e-mail from someone asking about signings at
Stars Our Destination, why I was signing there so often (?) and whether
I'll be coming in for a Terry Pratchett signing in a few weeks.

So, in case any one else was wondering, no I haven't signed at STARS
since the Stardust tour some years ago. And I won't be signing there
again until the June American Gods tour. (And to the best of my
knowledge, no-one's asked me to go to the Terry signing, and I'm
treasuring any days spent at home between now and the tour.) How do
these things get started?
  

    
I just got a check and a copy of a pink book that turns out to be the
British edition of the anthology Snapshots that I'm in.  I am now apparently
among the circle of "internationally acclaimed women writers".  My only
concern: the cover photo of a little girl's feet in grown-up heels may get
people to buy it expecting warm friendly family reads....
  

    
Martha-- congrats on your international acclaim!
  

    
Madman -- Apparently you can buy all of the Prydain books in a single
collected volume, though I doubt it contains <font
style='text-decoration:underline'>The Foundling, and other stories of
Prydain</font>, the books of prequel short stories.  I could be wrong,
though.  As for the Cooper books, I bought them all in a nice little
boxed set for $24 odd when I was in middle school, but perhaps that set
is still available.  That boxed set does not contain <font
style='text-decoration:underline'>Over Sea, Under Stone</font>, the
related sort-of prequel book, though.  (Interesting the parallels to be
unearthed between these two series.)

Michelle -- If you're thinking of a green haired young woman in
Robotech, my guess would be Miriya, the Zentraedi pilot who falls in
love with Max Sterling.  Here's a link to her page in the Robotech
style guide, tell me if I'm right. ^_^  
<http://members.nbci.com/yota_kun/images/miriya.jpg>

Neil -- Welcome home!  So when can we expect this next short story
collection, mmm?

Martha -- How are you enjoying the circle thus far?  I take it that
your story is not one or more of: "warm friendly family"?
  

    
Dan-- is the absence of _Over Sea Under Stone_ really that much of a
loss?  I absolutely love the other books, but I find that one
unreadable-- and not really necessary to an understanding of the plot.

Have you read the Golden Compass books yet?  
  

    
Len -- I wasn't complaining about <font
style="text-decoration:underline">Under Sea, Over Stone</font> not
being included in the set, just trying to give as complete a picture as
possible. I've never finished USOS actually, as the first few chapters
failed to excite me and my mother handed me her collected Tolkien
about that time. I had no trouble understanding the rest of the books
without having read it.
     I have read the Golden Compass trilogy, yes. I really enjoyed the
first book, liked the second well enough, and loved many parts of the
third but was ultimately disappointed by it. I feel like Pullman really
dropped the ball on "dust" and the whole "new Eve" prophecy, among
other things.
  

    
Michelle - mean? Um... no. Jabbing him with a penknife if he didn't
recognize you would be mean. You're just providing him with a little
"wake up" every time he sees you. 
I'm glad you take such precautions with your hair. I remember a girl
in high school who burned her scalp with less than cautious hair
treatments.

Neil - Welcome back! Revel in your brief respite.

Martha - Congratulations!

On Prydain books - I actually didn't read these books until I was in
my early 20's and got a bound collection of the primary books (i.e. not
the prequels that you're talking about) from the Science Fiction Book
Club. The volume I got was a special printing of theirs, however, and I
don't have any idea where it could be found elsewhere. Sadly, it got
misplaced during my several moves since then...
  

    
Email from Rowena:

I'm sorry to bother thee again, but I couldn't help but reply...thanks for
you patience!  I'll behave myself, now...
 
Michelle - That's good to know...because one wouldn't mind being a high
quality, pleasant and fun to be around stalker, and my wallet is currently
keeping me from being the other kind.  :)
 
Neil - Oh, cool!  That's always the way things seem to go...I love the
fact you put out anthologies, because I hate to miss any stories.  Maybe I
am a mad stalking completist!
 
R.
  

    
Oh, I'm enjoying the company of Isabel Allende, Katherine Dunn, Margaret
Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid.
I just wish they'd stop phoning and coming around.
  

    
Email from JaNell:

Martha- What great company to be in! The only person who's ever left me
speechless (a miracle, to be sure) is an author I DIDN'T meet, but only
saw speak - Alice Walker. Absolute goose bumps. And when I got back to
my car, one of my crayons, a bronze exactly the color of her skin, had
melted on my dashboard. It's there yet.
    Even meeting my favorite SF-ish author last year, Charles de Lint,
didn't render me speechless. In fact, I'm pretty sure he and his wife
think I was on crack at least part of the weekend, 'cause long about my
third wind (Con Staff, can't sleep, clowns will eat me), I get
re-ea-ally hyper. Think the
floor buffing girl in "Real Genius".

JaNell
  

    
JaNell, if I think of the floor buffing girl in Real Genius, I'll
start having a crush on you....
  

    
Email from JaNell:

Dan-
    Ok, but visualize her in her late 30's, more voluptuous, longer
hair, part Cherokee, some Irish, and a bit of everything else, and a
hillbilly.
    Oh, and she goes to Cons, and hangs out at a coffee shop, and (of
course) is still doing fixing-the-house stuff. And writes writers she
doesn't read, just 'cause she's met them and they seem interesting.

J.
  

    
Michelle- I don't think you look bad....

Martha- Congrats! :)

Neil- most rumors these days start on the Internet. The net is a great
place to find information at times, but there are also people like
that girl who pretends to be Death. And there are misunderstood
statements that get twisted around or exagerated and of course people
who like to think they have "inside information" and think they know
what they're talking about. In fact, there's a rumor (a small one) that
Death is going to be a boom-boom-boom-flashy-bad-hollywood movie with
a lot of cliche lines. But I don't beleive that. Sad.

DanGuy- I'd highly recommend reading Martha's The Arbitrary Placement
of Walls. Very,very delightful (and creepy) collection of stories. But
order it through Dreamhaven not via donkey like I did.

Dan- Neil's the only writer that I get all "fanboy" over, too.