Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Michelle - You should try to come to NYC during Tree's visit. When was
the last time you came this way?  Plus, I've got an extra ticket. 
Please feel free to be tempted. You're always welcome!

Neil - I kept running into Magnetic Fields' music, THE VILLAGE VOICE
ran a huge article about them, they played a few dates at the Bowery
Ballroom and people raved about them.  I was assimilated. ;) 
  

    
Martha - I do a lovely stake & ale soup (which can also be a strew, or
a meat pie filling) that's chock full of mushrooms. So folks who hate
beer and mushrooms are, alas, SOL.

Margret - I can't make it to Stars, but I'm going to do my best to be
at the Barnes & Noble. If I find you, I will wave hello :) If you find
me, you are welcome to do the same. Unless I scare you, in which case,
feel free to avoid me completely...
  

    
Martha - *ahem* ...which can also be a STEW...

So needing coffee, me.
  

    
Neil - You're a vegetarian? I don't think I knew that. I'm not ready
to go that route myself, although I see the great value in it. For now,
I've just sworn off of hamburgers... which I suppose is a start down
that road.

On beer and mushrooms - I don't much care for mushrooms, although I no
longer pick them out of my food when I find them there. I have,
however, acquired a taste for ales and lagers. I'm not fond of
pilsners, though, and just can't handle the dark beers.

Michelle - Have fun this weekend. Anything called Mafioso Muppet
Mayhem would have to be a blast by default. As for garlic, I tried the
garlic ice cream at Stinking Rose, and it isn't bad... although I
wouldn't want to eat a whole serving by myself. It's kind of fun to
have a little taste, though.

Martha - I was probably as bad about my diet as you are, but watching
my parents health issues, being surrounded by health conscious friends,
and having people tell me that they were praying for my dietary
habits... well, I've gotten better. I wouldn't say I eat healthfully
yet, but I'm quite a bit further up that side of the spectrum than I
used to be.

Matej - Welcome!!!

Dan Guy - Wow, great question. *looking at Neil eagerly awaiting the
answer*
  

    
Matej, some years ago I was lucky enough to visit Prague.  The friends I was
with drank a lot of Pilsner, but I'm afraid I just couldn't.  That was
shortly after Coke became widely available there so I drank that in
restaurants instead--doing my best to keep them from putting lemon in it!

And I believe some of my family came from the area of Pils.  I have a theory
that my ancestors left Czechoslovakia because how can you live there if you
don't like beer and mushrooms?--a theory that is blown because I'm the only
one in the family who doesn't like either of them.
  

    
I dunno... I can see a mushroom and chocolate ice cream working...
both are earthy tastes.  Maybe I'm out of my mind.
  

    
With caramel on vanilla ice cream is the only way I take my morels.  I
can't stomach them otherwise.
  

    
I've always loved mushrooms, but not beer. I still prefer wine over
beer. But I can't afford good wine that doesn't give me a headache all
the time. It's definatly an aquired taste. People start drinking it and
like the way it makes them feel and then eventually their brain tells
them they like the taste because they like the feeling, or something
like that. I don't like most American beers. We just can't seem to get
it right. I've been drinking a lot of Guinness lately. Doesn't make me
too gassy like some others. I had my first morels of the year the other
day and they won't be the last. I've never been a picky eater, though.
I'll eat almost anything. Although I was a vegetarian for six
years....I guess I was picky about that, then.

Neil- I didn't know you'd gone veggie, either. Are you no-meat-at-all
or are you one of those just-no-red-meat people? Don't tell me you gave
up sushi....

Oh, I have a question too. I'm a dork who hasn't pre-ordered AG
yet..mainly because I want to make sure it will get here before the
signing (june 24) If I pre-ordered it from Dreamhaven, would it get
here on the 19th or sometime close to then, or do you know?

re iguana picture: I think that's why it's my fave picture. You look
so disgusted at the situation and the iguana looks so happy. It's very
funny to me. I'm glad fans bought it. Sometimes, when I need cheered up
I look at it and life seems happier for some reason. Tee-hee!

God, I've got to go do more packing. I've been throwing out a lot of
stuff. I had no idea I had so much crap until now!

Erynn, who has been listening to the new Tool album entirely too much.
  

    
here i was struggling to stay awake and write a paper for my sociology
course . didn't think i was going to make it , but just the thought
garlic ice cream should keep me going until at least midnight . not
quite sure if anything is going to come closer to the taste of evil
than e-moo , though . carbonated milk . tastes like bubblegum . and i'm
just dumb enough to waste my money on trying it , too .

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March01/e-Moo.bpf.html
  

    
Erynn/Dan -- I had a minor health scare back in january, and decided
to try going veggie (with fish). And I've a) enjoyed it and b) lost
15lb. And taken care of the cholesterol/HDL/LDL thing. So that's good.

Martha et al: I love Mushrooms, and quite like really good beer (but
only when I'm in the mood for it. Which is maybe annually.) Never
managed to cultivate a taste for olives.

And I've seen Martha encountering The Wrong kind of Pizza, so I am not
taking that bet.

Matej -- thank you so much. The english edition will be out long
before the Czech edition -- it has to be translated first. Have you
seen the Czech edition of Smoke and Mirrors?

European Morels are as tasty as the US ones, but they have to be
boiled three times before they are safe to eat. (HOW do people find
this out? "Yup, boiled it twice, but Ernie still died. Let's go for
three times..."  And don't get me started on tapioca.)

Margret -- as far as I know, I'll be doing a reading in both places,
yes. And I'll probably read different things -- at that stage in the
game I'll be trying out lots of different bits...

Dan Guy -- It's no longer the custom for magazines to take all
copyright. Most magazines and anthologies take "First World Serial
Rights" which means they buy the right to be the first people in the
world to publish the story, and they don't take anything else.


Rocky -- oh good. Welcome to the fold...

Erynn -- why don't you preorder American Gods from the store you'll be
getting me to sign it at?

Because the book is on a one-day laydown no-one can sell it before the
19th, so no-one's likely to sell it before then. I don't know how it
works with Amazon et al -- I suspect they'll put them in the post a day
or so beforeheand.

But if you're going to a signing -- then, if you can, order the book
from the store holding the signing. It makes them happy, and it makes
Harper Collins happy, and if the store and the publisher are happy then
so am I.

Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I've never listened to Tool. But
I liked Maynard when I met him.

Justin -- with luck, tomorrow I'll answer your questions...
  

    
Neil - Where the... no, who... no, that's not right either... Black
pepper ice cream? 

Martha - I think I mess up the palate theory too. When I was little I
hated mushrooms and liked beer. Now I rather like mushrooms
(particularly the exotic varieties that cost way too much), but I
dislike nearly all alcohol (Asian genetic thing). And I only like 3
kinds of olives. And 'worse eater' as in eating very unhealthy things
or as in being very picky? I tend to not eat very badly, but I'd wager
your nickel and raise the ante on pickiness. ;)

Rocky - You *could* always come out here. Between Neil signings and
trips to visit thingies down under, I'm all kinds of nearly-broke. re:
MF - Resistance is futile. ;p

Matej - Hello!

Tara - If *I* didn't scare Margret off (waving 'hello' to Margret),
I'm sure you won't. :)

Erynn - We've been playing Tool in the store a lot. I think I'm more
happy with the Weezer, but the Tool is quite impressive.

squeaks, who is feeling rather geeky with her Star Trek habit just
now.
  

    
        Just to add myself to the mushroom-beer database: I, like the
inestimable Martha, can't stomach either.  I recognize, on an academic
level, the appeal of both mushrooms and beer; I can understand that
other people enjoy having them in their mouths, and I support that. 
For my own part, however, I think both beer and mushrooms taste like
crap.  Also olives.  And a bunch of other things.  I have, however,
broader tastes than <madman>, a man so depraved he doesn't like Indian
food.  Admittedly not personally knowing Martha, I would suggest that
<madman> may be a worse eater than she.
  

    

Like I said, I won't put money down, even if she will. Wouldn't want to turn
this topic into a grocery list, after all.
But I know one thing that Martha and I do agree on.

Peeps!
  

    
I'm not as healthy an eater as I should be.  But I am generally conceded to
be the champion of unable-to-eat-things-normal-mortals-enjoy-thoroughly.

I will eat Peeps though.  But only very fresh ones.
  

    
I'll chime in on the food conversation.  The only beer I can tolerate
is Guinness (it's good for you after all).  And I hated mushrooms until
I went out with a wonderful guy & the waitress mistakenly brought us 2
orders of stuffed mushrooms.  I tried them & never looked back.

Olives should come from Greece.

Hi Matej!  

Margret-the silly redhead standing by Tara will be me.  And if I don't
scare you, nothing will.

Len--I suspect you are barking mad.  It's my favorite thing about you.

Can anyone tell that I'm wired?  I just got back from seeing U2 and
they were amazing (again).  This is my fourth tour.  If I ever win the
lotto, I will follow them to the ends of the earth. (Pun fully
intended).

Oh, and Terry Pratchett was great on Monday.  He didn't read, of
course.  He told us the "Good Omens" movie will never happen.  And if
it does, it won't.  What a charming, funny guy.

Mary (off to read more of The Thief of Time)   
  

    
(Reposting this from the americangods.com journal) And an e-mail
waiting for me on my return, from Rambling Jack Womack, the Harper
Collins publicist... posting it as is for all the Los Angelenos out
there...


Just talked to Jen Ramos at Book Soup in LA, and due to OVERWHELMING
RESPONSE they're changing the event venue on the 29th to their larger
space, and moving the time to an hour earlier (this works out fine
within the restof your schedule). Books will of course be sold on-site.


So, the new specifics:


FRIDAY, JUNE 29
7:00 PM


BOOK SOUP
Speaking/Q & A/signing to take place at:
Beverly Hills Library
444 N. Rexford St.
Beverly Hills, CA
phone: 310-659-3684
(Store phone, as before)

Spread the word....

.................................................

Michelle -- yes. I tried it. It was sweet and peppery and would not
eat it for pleasure for all the tea in china.
  

    

Mary!  You made it!  Welcome!

I like mushrooms.  I dislike beer, mostly as a result of the dime-a-glass
Fridays when I was in college, when I would down great quantities of it
and knew I was done when I could no longer feel my face.  Then I would
attempt to ride my bicycle home.  I do like Pilsner Urquell, though.  If I
am forced to drink, it's either champagne or tequila for me.
  

    
Tree here.

Well, my cover is blown, Neil. UPA decided they couldn't POSSIBLY have
a usability conference without me presenting so I'm going to be in the
US from June 23 to July 16. So I'll come say "Hi!" at Book Soup. Do I
need to book? And can I sneak in an extra book for signing? My mum
ADORES Dreamhunters and I promised to get her copy signed for her. No
gnomes this time.

Rocky, I'll probably in in NYC sometime around the 7th July, so I
think I'll be missing all your signings and Magnetic Field's
performances (although they are performing at a venue walking distance
from home this weekend--no Neil, but good enough for me!)

Michelle, I have NO doubt at all that we can make plenty of trouble in
San Francisco...

Oh, and any Aussies on the list should know that they have rereleased
a swathe of Diana Wynne Jones books (Harper Collins) with spanky new
covers. So if you want to increase your Neil corruptness (or is it
purity?) or just want to go read good books, go buy them! Borders even
has a 3 for the price of 2 deal on.

Tree
Madly planning thingie flights around the US and grumbling because now
she won't get to hear Neil say, "Tree! What on EARTH are you doing
here?" :(
  

    
Mushrooms are quite nummy, IMHO. Beer... Mark will continue to drink
mine for me (though I have to say the best beer name is Arrogant
Bastard Ale (http://arrogantbastard.com/), a small brewery outside of
San Diego, the bottle made me crack up while reading it). Mark says
it's quite good as well.  When I do decide to drink (once in a very
blue moon) it's usually hard cider, preferably Woodchucks (YUM!).  

Len -- yuck.  I like both chocolate & mushrooms but not really
together.  Could almost be a Ben & Jerry's flavor... *shudders*

Peeps -- I end to salivate when I hear or say the word... it's the
thought of poking the little buggers that gets to me. (Hmmm.. that is
rather embarrassing, why am I sharing it with you all?!?)

Matej -- Welcome! 

Mary -- sounds like your b-day week is going well! Did someone gift
you with unpacking?

Seems I won't be attending the LA reading/signing (and it's in a
library... can't get Neil to mine, so I'd be glad to visit someone
elses!), since I will be attending a "Staff Day Training" (think that's
their new name for "Staff Day").  If it's anything like last year's,
other than the keynote speaker and the staff skit at the end, I'd
really rather eat chocolate & mushroom ice cream.  Now wondering if
I'll be able to make the SD reading/signing... suppose I'll just have
to fly back that evening.  

Suzanne
(who realized her upper & lower case went out of whack along with her
punctuation and thus should probably consider sleeping)
  

    
Mmmmm.  Mushrooms and beer are both good.  And olives.  I've been
vegetarian for 11 years and decided when I quit meat that I really
ought to eat everything else.  Being in Japan turned me into a fishy
vegetarian, and it's hard to go back after all the beautiful fish here.
 It seems there is an abnormal percentage of people in this topic who
are more than qualified to understand...

I am so jealous of all those who get to go to signings...
unfortunately my efforts in the 'converting Japanese children to Neil
fandom' area will not bear fruit in time to get him here while I'm
around to appreciate it.  I'll just have to stock up on everything I
can get my hands on in August when I come home for my vacation...

Neil -- I first read your 'I lost 15 lbs' 'I lost 151 lbs'.... that
was a bit of a shock, as I'd seen no pictures of you at over 300...

Michelle -- Star Trek is one of the great ways into the land of the
weird.  Nothing whatsoever to feel geeky about.  (Speaks the purchaser,
at age 13, of a $75 porcelain Mr. Spock doll... geek city but I still
love it.)

I've decided that what the world needs is more things that are strange
and beautiful, in places where lots of people will come across them. 
I just read an article about an artist's protest involving laying sod
over a large stretch of sidewalk and a bridge.  Art like that is great
because it's really aimed at people who aren't going to walk into a
museum.  
  

    
Neil -- Ah, that sounds much better.

Martha -- Fresh peeps?  The horror.  A peep has to be left out in the
open air for at least five days, if not a week, to mature and ripen. 
Only then with it achieve it's full richness.

I too have never had much of a taste for beer.  And of course,
everyone tells me that I just haven't tried "the right one" yet.  I,
for my part, doubt its existence.  I do enjoy black olives, though,
which I could never stand as a child.
  

    
Email from Matej:

Thanks for all the warm welcomes.

Martha -- Pilsner Urquell is definitely the best (and pretty healthy too,
as beers go). I definitely drink less Coke being here, seeing as it is
usually more expensive than beer. And I completely understand your battle
with the lemons. Restaurants think they are being classy by putting lemons
into soft drinks. They even do it for mineral water and soda, even if you
order it with wine. I do not understand.

Neil -- I never knew there was a Smoke & Mirrors out in Czech! I do read
Czech, but it is much slower going than English for me. And even though I
prefer to read authors in their original language, I will definitely seek
out S&M for the sake of comparison and collectibilty. I wonder who
translated it. Thanks for the tip.

Emily -- I understand your woes. I fear I may never see a Neil
signing/visit to Prague in my time hear. Terry Pratchett was in town
recently for a premiere of Wyrd Sisters in Czech (I have not seen in yet)
and he did a singing, so that's a good sign. And the knowledge of the
Czech S&M and AG gives me new hope. We shall see.

Matej
  

    
Email from Chris Stedman:

Neil -- With all the Miracleman controversy being stirred up again, how do
you feel about Mcfarlane bringing him back in Hellspawn 12 & 13 knowing
that you and Mark Buckingham own 1/3(at least) of the character?

Chris
  

    
Matej, I don't mind lemon in mineral water and soda water, but definitely
not in Coke.  In this country, people used to put lemon in Tab and other
diet colas to ameliorate the bitterness of the artificial sweeteners, before
aspertame, and some people just like lemon in Coke.  For some strange
reason.  Yes, I was paying more for Coke than my friends were paying for
their fine pilsners in Prague restaurants!  But the dollar went so obscenely
far that, for me, it was just a difference of pennies.

If you read English better than Czech, may I ask where you're from?

Dan, you see, there you are with the Peeps majority.  But I cannot eat with
the stale-Peep majority at all.  When shopping for Peeps, I'm the one gently
poking the plastic wrap to determine the Peeps in the store aren't too
stale.
  

    
        It's a good thing you don't check them for Pure Evil, or you'd never
eat the unholy marshmallow fiends.  At night, you know, they glow. 
Colors the human eye can't see, but they glow all the same.  Peeps are
the eggs of a dayglo alien species that will one day reach larval stage
and tear themselves free from the husk of your body to rampage
stickily through the streets.  Peeps are the souls of invisible beings
that move through the world unsuspected, who have committed sins we
haven't words for and been reincarnated in a candy factory in New
Jersey, frozen into sugar-and-fat solidity to suffer both known forms
of tackiness, and eventual consumption.  Peeps are not manufactured,
they appear on the surface of a certain forbidden section of the Gobi
desert, every morning a few more of them poking up through the sand,
pushed up either by Brownian motion or other forces best left
unspeculated about.  Peeps are the dessicated corpses of gods, and
their intense sugary sweetness is merely how your body interprets the
aftertaste of faith and prayer that still clings to these decomposed
out-of-favor deities.  If Quetzalcoatl were more popular, your Peep
would be eating _you_.  Fear Peeps.