Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
[starts hyperventilating and flapping her hands madly at the idea of
Neil in Australia again] Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod... Must ring
bookshops, must plan, must not freak out... [freaks out and runs around
like a headless chicken]

Linda--We are the Tree/Jinx. We are one. And it was a pleasure.

Rocky--I'm with 'Walker. I absolutely INSIST that you be in LA for the
Book Soup signing. With capitals.

Neil--Watch out for Eddie's son Callum. He's been picking up girls
twice his age by luring them into his bedroom to 'look at his comics'.
Not to mention walking up to them in their workplace and asking them
out for drinks... ;>

Tree
About to listen to Snow Glass Apples while she documents 80 web pages
for her latest client.
  

    
Okay. Wow. 88 posts since I've been gone. The stupid phone company
finally came out today, so all is well. I'm all moved and this area is
quite nice (except for a shop downstairs that INSISTS on playing Dean
Martin and Frank Sinatra continuously, the same songs over and over
again blasting out onto the streets.)We ended up having 10 people
helping us....I guess the beer bribe did work:)

Ahhh where to start.... forgive my typos..I have two bandaids on my
fingers...

Will- Do you happen to be the older sibling? just curious. I didn't
like Velvet Goldmine, either. I think Bowie should make his *own*
biography movie....I understand about messed up compy's. Mine changes
colors for know reason. Get The Blue Screen Of Death a lot and I'm sure
that one day soon, it will crash completly. 

DanW- It's nice to be blamed for things once in a while and I missed
you, btw.

Michelle- Aren't phone companies the worst? I hate them, hate them,
hate them.

Neil- I agree with Martha. There aren't to many authors that get
recignized in public, I don't think. Give yourself a pat on the back.
But be careful too, there are a lot of crazies out there...

Oh! Neil and Martha- Since you're both Pros and I don't get a chance
to speak (type) with too many pros...I'm submitting to The Magazine of
Fantasy and Science Fiction soon (it's my first pro mag) and after
searching endlessly around the net, I still can't figure out if you're
supposed to put the title and author name on the first page, or just
have the header, or nothing at all. For some reason I can't find
anything that talks about what to do with the first page. And second,
do you still underline words instead of putting them in italics? THere
seems to be much debate on what a professional manuscript looks like
these days. And I do *not* want them to know that this is my first time
submitting to a pro mag. Trying to make everything perfect. Thanks:)

Dan Guy- Is the baby here yet? This is so exciting! <fingers crossed
that everything goes okay> Is your wife alking around a lot? I don't
know first hand but I hear that helps. My mom was in labor with me for
48 hours and then I tried to come out feet first. I guess I didn't want
to be in the world that badly. Once again, good luck!

Oh my god! Snow Glass Apples Audio?! Interviews!? I have to go!

Erynn, who always forgets to go to the AG website first, before she
comes here....
  

    
Kelly -- thanks...

Will -- I discovered Eddie Izzard when Lenny Henry stuck on the Live
at the Amabassadors video and said "Watch this". Sometimes it's fun to
watch a comedian with a comedian. You can get a real insight into the
craft.

Joseph -- Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is a must -- a
reprint of the original, and the latest edition. After that you're on
your own: I've got about a dozen dictionaries of slang, none of them on
their own complete -- the best is probably the Partridge.

On dictionaries of Mythology, I'll try to assemble a bunch and do
capsule reviews on the neilgaiman.com american gods area. The only good
one I've ever found was a dictionary of Norse mythology I found in
Norway (although it's in English, and translated from the German). The
rest are mostly a frustrating trawl through secondary sources.

Suzanne -- good old Lyn. Is he still there? 

Last time I did a signing for him I went back to the hotel (the
Mirage, I think) for sushi with writer James Robinson. The waitress,
who was Japanese, was convinced I was John Lennon-San. I told her I
wasn't, and that he was dead. She nodded wisely, and said "You sign for
me, John Lennon San?"  So I signed a napkin for her...

Trevor -- I'm much less help on foreign Neverwheres, as the foreign
rights deals were originally done by the BBC. Who never got me a list
of where they'd sold the book, or provided any documentation. So it's
not at all unknown for me to see Swedish or Hungarian Neverwhere's at a
signing that I've never seen before.

There were only 1800 BBC hardbacks, and 500 signed ones.

Douglas -- those are unique individuals, not hits.

Dianna -- Jinx is a nice lady from Connecticut USA. Tree is a nice
lady from Melbourne. They are not exactly the same person. Trust me.

So far it's just one store in Sydney that's said they want me, but I
trust it will spread now like a virus.

Jouni -- Otava are a terrific publisher and nice people, and I very
much hope they get American Gods.

Stone. You. Yes, you Stone, no-one else: yes, it was you I was
replying to. Just like this is a reply to you, too. And not to a
different Stone. Promise.

Shira -- Will Shetterly and Emma Bull used to refer to USA Today as
the MacPaper. I'm kind of fond of it, myself, mostly because their
bestseller list is more interesting than the Times list, and more
reflective of what books people are buying.

Tree -- one of the joys of going to see Eddie and Anne is that Hayley
and Erin and Callum are always several years older than the last time I
saw them. Hayley adopted me on my first trip out there, Callum adopted
me on my last visit.

I'm just pleased that Eddie's doing Alex strips, so I get to see what
they look like as they get older -- it's less of a shock to the system
when I see them.

Erynn -- I'm not sure it matters too much anymore. I tend to put the
title and author name on the first page (in case the title page gets
lost). And I always underline except when I forget and italicise,
because when I started on typewriters all publishers were very definite
that that was what they wanted. Now, with people taking copy from
disks, they seem as happy with italics. 

These are all opinions...
  

    
::crawls out from under homework::  Hey everybody.  Just wanted to
belatedly say things like 'happy birthday' to all the birthday people I
didn't say happy birthday to, and good luck on everything I missed
wishing you luck on.

Heh, I just used Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable for a paper I
wrote today about Cold Colours.  I like seeing mentions of books right
after I use them, I don't know why but it makes me giggle.  ::crawls
back under homework::

Jen.
  

    
Neil - Thanks for the helpful words.  It took me a little while to
locate a copy of the Brewer first edition reprint, but thankfully
half.com helped me out.  

I'm aready thrilled that this discussion board exists; I feel I've
walked into a world of literature (and music in some cases) that I
never knew existed.  I can't wait to discover what else this topic has
to offer as the days unfold.

Oh, and before I forget to ask...  Neil, I keep reading posts where
you mention your love for sushi.  Any dishes that you particularly
favor?  

A friend and I go to a nice local Japanese restaurant on a weekly
basis, and we're slowly digesting (pun not intended) each dish on their
menu.  Sure, it's burning holes in our wallets, but we're simply
hooked on it now.  I personally keep a bottle of plumb wine nearby at
all times.

-Joe
  

    
Erynn, it's always a good idea to put your manuscript in standard form.

Briefly, what you want to do is, on page one, in the top left-hand corner
(single-spaced), put your name, address, phone number, and e-mail.  In the
top left-hand corner, put the approximate word length of the story, rounded
to the nearest 500 words for a long story, the nearest 100 words for a
short story.  (Your word processor's word count is not the story's actual
word count, a "word" in typesetting meaning six characters and/or spaces,
but it'll probably do.)

Go a third to a half way down the page.  Center the title of your story;
double space; center "by [Your Name Here]".  Go down another couple of
double spaces.  Now your manuscript begins, double-spaced between lines.

In the upper right-hand corner of each succeeding page, to allow for editors
dropping stacks of mss. on the floor and needing to straighten them out
again, you put your last name, the key word or two of the title, and the
page number, rather like so:

                                                    Gaiman/SNOW -- 15

Go down four spaces from the header, and the manuscript continues.

You don't need to put "THE END" at the end of your story, especially if it
ends in the middle of a page, though if it ends at the very bottom of a page
you might write "END" or "--30--" just to make it clear they haven't lost
the last page.

I'll see if I can find a link to a good sample manuscript page.
  

    
Jenny -- you wrote a paper about Cold Colours? How fun.

Joseph -- Sushi? depends on the place. The only thing I've learned is
that no two restaurants do the same thing in the same way, and that
asking the sushi chef what's good -- and placing yourself at his or her
mercy, with parameters -- is a good thing.  I love fish, am on the
whole not a huge fan of 'seafood'. 

Erynn -- what Martha said. 
  

    
Neil - re: Neverwhere. Oops. Sorry. Someone misinformed me somewhere
along the way and for some reason the wrong info stuck. Doesn't the UK
edition also have a bit more humour in it? (note to self - re-read
Neverwhere, both eds.) and re: Stardust. Yay! (bounce bounce <--
something like Tigger, but not quite as springy) I might actually be
able to read that one and follow along! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

Suzanne - Bob... :) (honestly, whatever you feel like calling me
works. I even respond to 'hey you'.)

Stalker-boy (Trevor) - That's not nice, so :P back at you. ;)

Rocky - Thirded. Come to CA. You know you want to.

Tree - Breathe! Now let's just see *when* he goes to Australia. Maybe
I'll be as lucky as you and only have to extend my vacation a little
too. ;P

Erynn - Yes, the phone company bites. 

RE: Phone. After much hassle and much money, it's working again. The
saddest part is missing the call from my folks telling me they were out
for the weekend and I could use the pool, so long as I remember the
alarm code... which I don't.

squeaks, who has talked another friend into the Kepler's signing. :)
  

    
Neil - forgot to ask - How's Furball? And how many cats do you
generally have on any given day?

squeaks, who is far too sugar high to sleep.
  

    
Sean -- I wondered when you'd pop up again.  Are you still lurking on
Cloudmakers?  I went to digest mode, subscribed to the moderated list,
and stopped hanging out so much in the irc room, as I have too much
else going on in my life to be getting so sucked into "the game".

Erynn -- Today is her due date and the baby has yet to shuffle forth
from the womb.  My wife, Lori, is staying surprisingly mobile.  We went
for a short hike last weekend, in fact.

Neil -- Next time I see you, I'm going to call you "John Lennon-San".
^_^  I love the idea of the Boston party, and the possibility of Gaiman
parties scattered about the globe.
     Also thank you (and Furball the cat) for the public service
announcement.  My wife was up with me at 4:30 this morning and wanted
to know why I was laughing and spitting my Cheerios all over the
keyboard.  I read that bit to her in my best "Neil Gaiman" voice and it
had her rolling as well.


In my early teens, I assumed that Emma Bull and Cat's Laughing were
completely fictitious, as I had only come across them in "Mojo Mayhem"
(man those x-babies were adorable -- the term is 'chibi' I believe?). 
Imagine my shock when, wandering aimlessly around the stacks on day, I
spied the name "Emma Bull" on a spine.  And then to discover that it
was indeed the same Emma Bull?  My mind was blown.
  

    
Neil-- reading Dhalgren and re-reading Game of You at pretty much the
same time.  What are your thoughts on Delaney's introductory notes? Is
it odd to hear a writer who you respect so much analyze your own work
in such a way? 
  

    
Dan Guy - for some reason I am convinced that your little one is just
in the middle of a really good book and is not going to come out until
he finds out who killed the vicar.

Neil - It was really fun to write about, but the paper was a last
minute rush thing so my teacher will be the only one who ever sees it. 
I should write another one, only well thought out.

How many people here have ever handed in something Neil related for a
school assignment?

Jen.

“I was gonna say!”
“Say what?”
“Where are my damn waffles?!  Which ended up being invalidated on
several counts, because they’re right there and they’re french toast.”
  

    
Jen--
For my third or fourth-semester French class in college, we had to
speak with our T.A. for 15-20 minutes on a topic of our choosing. I
chose the Endless. She was one confused lady after the 15 minutes were
up, so I spent another 15 answering questions.

I also got the professor of my Science Fiction lit class at UMich
hooked on Sandman. Quoth Eric Rabkin: "I have more unread books in my
personal library than I could possibly read in my lifetime." Sez me:
"Here, try this!" One week later: "Dammit, Bill, here's Fables and
Reflections back, now I'm going to have to go to Dave's and buy the
collections!" Heh. :) For the record, the website that started the year
I took the SF class is apparently a pretty good reference point. Check
out http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf . Fortunately for me, they seem to
have taken down the student papers, of which I had several printed. :)
  

    
Neil- like Dan, did my best Neil voice and read "Nicholas Was," "Baby
Cakes," and "In the End" (which is a wonderful little story, I must
say) to a friend, and have now spurned a small Neil community in
Talkeetna, Alaska (any plans for signings *there* <smile>.  And on a
fish note, I had excellent ruffy (sp?) the other night, along with
homemade clam chowder, and crab bisque (and I'm glad I cook like my
dad, and not my mom).

Erynn- I am the oldest.  Of three.  23.  My brother's 20.  Sister is
16.

Michelle- My friend just went out to San Francisco.  I'll be joining
him when I get the funds.  Perhaps you can all let me know, and we can
coordinate something...

Jen- I wrote a paper that incorporate Thomas Hobbes, Calvin & Hobbes,
and Sandman, all at the same time.  It was mainly Hobbes philosophy,
with the other two to highlight certain thematic similarities.  My
teacher liked it.  I also gave "Midsummer Night's Dream" to the
professor who finally made me love Shakespeare (hated Shakespeare in
high school. Then read Lear in class in college.  My teacher told me
not to hit the line breaks so hard.  An epiphany).  Not sure he's read
more, but he's enjoyed it (he's currently working on the Harry Potter
series, if I'm not mistaken).

I've often mentioned writers or singers in papers.  I've done papers
on everyone from Alanis Morissette to Steven Speilberg, Dean Koontz,
even mentioned Peter David in one about the nature of good and evil.
I'm usually self-referential, too, like I'm already known, or something
(even in my novels) <grin>.

Linda- "l'esprit d'escalier"; one of my favorite phrases, and God
bless a culture that could come up with a name for said feeling.

DanW- also check out Avengers for an Eddie Izzard cameo.  Am getting
"Circus" soon on DVD, as well as "Shadow of the Vampire", for which I
read that Eddie should have been nominated, and not Dafoe.  Haven't
seen it yet, so I can't say either way.

DanGuy- Surprised you didn't induce labor by reading to your wife in
Neil's voice and having her go into hysterics.  <good vibes your way>

-Will, who paid for two day ground shipping for his laptop, only to
find out it would take a week to customize, and who is now grumbling to
himself (and nursing a head cold, to boot).
  

    
Email from dianna:

Neil - Trust you? i don't think so - you are a writer after all :)

Was the bookshop in Sydney, Galaxy perchance?

Tree/Jinx - i'm very confused now '~'  Who's toying with me, you or Neil?

dianna
  

    
E-mail from Jo Simons:

Robynne and Dan Guy - the kakapo is not a beautiful
and tragic bird. As an NZer, I must say that although
cute, they are big (heaviest parrot known) and very
very stupid. But having no endemic predators will do
that to you. Although endangered I find it difficult
to find them tragic ... the amusement factor is just
too high.

Neil - possibly going to Aus? Woohoo. I'll have to dig
out my suitcase from the wardrobe

Linda - Tree is telling fibbses. There is a Tree and I
think she is using Jinxie's WELL account. <looks
apologetically at Tree/Jinx but I thought that Linda
wasgetting confused>

woops - Neil already fixed that.

PS. Feel like a visitor when Neil gets there Tree?

Jo/sparrow 

Who was already sort of planning a trip to Aus but now
has added incentive
  

    
Neil - I see your point.  I recall several items on the sushi menu at
my local restaurant that are custom-made.  They call one dish the
"Sakura Rt. 46 Roll" (the place is located off of Rt. 46 here).  All I
know is that it has some eel in it and is delicious.  I always make
sure to tip the waitress generously, as I am now becoming a regular
there.

Jen - I never handed in anything Neil-related in school.  However, it
was because of school that I was introduced to the world of Gaiman.  In
my Sophomore year of college, I decided to take a course in theatre (I
was growing tired of looking at differnetial equations all the time). 
The professor of that course (director and Tony Award nominee Bill
Gile, who is now a good friend of mine) had in his posession a large
stash of comic books, and was kind enough to hand them over to me.  To
make a long story short, among the books were  paperback copies of "The
Doll's House" and "Dream Country".  Thanks to him, I'm here with you
all, talking about books and sushi.

-Joe
  

    
 Well, I ordered an iBook from eBay, and while the seller has been a
pleasure, UPS has managed to lose the damn thing. Their tracking system
has it getting as far as Illinois and then vanishing into thin air.
It's been insured, fortunately, but I was *really* looking forward to
being able to go and write in the park.

On Neil related writings - Nothing for academia. I didn't discover
Neil until after I was out of school. Although, I did write a story
about my dad's brain surgery that involved him having a conversation
with a slightly modified Gaimainy Death. (I gave her a characteristic
of the Death I had written in my play "In a Distant Country" years
earlier. Otherwise, she's very "Sound of her wings" Death)

On reading aloud - I'm currently reading Good Omens to my girlfriend.
It'll be a long term project, but it's fun. I'm not doing it in a Neil
voice however, but trying to give the various characters their own
voices.

Will - you're coming down here? How splendid... housing's a bitch,
though. Save your pennies.

Hey You - squeak!
  

    
On reading aloud: Stardust is just wonderful aloud.  The
double-dactyls, perhaps?  And also, there's an obscure Stephen King
story, "Strawberry Spring"; it's just beautiful, with wonderful
language and a 'wow' sort of ending.  I'm currently working on buying
the film rights, and making it my first movie.

And Dan- I will be coming down there, but probably only for a week or
two.  Just visiting, really, though I've been thinking of jetting to LA
just about permanently, but hear too many horror stories about
aspiring film-makers who really just bus tables.

It is the Land of Dreams, though...

-Will, who actually carries a copy of "Strawberry Spring" in his
wallet.
  

    

I read Stardust aloud to my boyfriend!  It was fun.  

When we first started dating, we bought tickets to see Phantom of the
Opera here in San Francisco.  Tickets were hard to come by and the ones we
got were several months in the future.  It was early enough on in the
relationship that we weren't sure we'd still be together when it was time
to go to the play!  Anyway, I checked the book out of the library and we
took turns reading it to each other, which turned out to be not only fun
and moving and touching but really filled in the story for us in a way
that just attending the play cold would not have.  Like that very first
scene where the music box is being auctioned.  Without reading the story
first, you never would have understood that.  

And now, here we are, almost eight years later, still together and still
going to plays and still, occasionally, reading aloud to each other!  (We
have tickets for "Contact" on Sunday, btw.)

Anyway, what I really came here to say is, folks, if you are not on the
WELL and would like to have your comments posted to this topic, please
address them to inkwell-hosts@well.com, not just individually to me or to
jonl or to tnf.  That way you stand a much better chance of seeing your
comments posted in a timely fashion.
  

    
There's a review of American Gods on slashdot today:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/06/01/155238
  

    

Neil - Hrm. Neverwhere woes. Well, I guess I'll just have to change to
a 'Smoke and Mirrors' completist... I only have the US Hardcover, and
the UK Mass-Market paperback (I seemed to have misplaced my ARC).... at
least it's not nearly that prolific... yet.

Michelle - Back At'cha! :P! (Oh crap... now I have RHCP's 'Soul to
Squeeze' stuck in my head as 'Soul to Squeak'... ARGH!)

Re: Reading aloud - I performed 'Babycakes' from AV/S&M for a final in
Advanced Acting once... it was only lit by a single overhead spot, and
I was dressed all in black... and was holding a large leather journal
which I was stroking lovingly. It worked well.

Rocky - That's three Thingies who request your presence in LA. Isn't
that binding? (grins)

-- Trev/Walker
  

    
Jenn- Last year I did a fifteen page affair analyzing 'Game of You'
from with a hodepogde mix of queer and post-modern theory.  I've never
been fond of my own academic writing as I feel I can never give my
subject proper justice unless I were grey-haired and nearing the end of
a life dedicated to said subject.  And I mostly dislike lit. theory. 
Plus I don't believe Post-Modernism *really* exsists.  I hope to never
read the paper again.  ^_^

Neil -  Just wondering if you recieved the post South America url
email?  Lately that email service has been giving me reasons to wonder
about their reliability.  Ounces of frustration.
  

    
Jen -- I never did do a Sandman related school project, since I was a
high school Sophmore when I was introduced to it (about 5 years ago)
and at by that age, I considered homework to be extracurricular.[Mostly
too busy reading Sandman :) ] I know this was a bad philosophy because
I just had to look up the spelling of extracurricular.

The one not-quite-exception was a large, charcoal drawing for ART II
which was inspired by Clive Barker's picture in Book Of Dreams. It
turned out pretty cool though. I was so happy when i found out from
someone taking the same teacher this year that she has been showing it
to her students when they did charcoaling. Yay on me!


Neil -- I think you're passing by a potential goldmine here. You could
license the Neil Gaiman Voice (tm)! It's the very best way to deliver
any Gaiman related writings to friends and colleagues. Small royalties
for each use; think about it! :D
  

    
Neil and Martha- Thank you very much. All of the manuscript advice
I've looked at on the Net can be confusing. Marion Zimmer Bradley would
say something and then someone else would contradict that. However,
most things on the subject are consistant and I think I've gotten the
hang of the big important things.  Tonight I'm going through and making
sure all my commas are where they're supposed to be. I've agonized
over this story more than any of my others, which is good, because I
think that means I'm learning. A lot of websites out there don't seem
to know what they're talking about, so I'll listen to you guys. You're
pros. You know what's up.

Unfortunatly, I didn't know much about Neil when I was in school. But
if I were in school now, Neil things would most definatly be
incorporated into my papers.

Linda- I have to read almost everything to my husband. He doesn't like
to read himself for some reason. I will never understand. I'll give
him a book, he'll get a few chapters in, he'll say he likes it, but
then he never finishes it. He did this with Stardust, so I read the
rest of it to him. The only things that he's recently read on his own
were Death:HCOL and Dreamhunters (Which he likes very much and now
considers himself to be a huge Neil fan, ha ha) I've currently been
reading him a lot of Martha and he loves it, but I'm not that great at
reading aloud and I wish he'd read some of it his damn self. He must
have watched too much TV as a kid. Speaking of that....

I had a horrifying epiphany a while back. George (ex-roomate) and I
were watching That 70's Show, and they showed 70's commericals instead
on modern during the breaks (which startled me at first, for a minute I
thought I had gone back in time) We were commenting to eachother about
how much longer they were back then and George said "count the seconds
before they switch frames!" We'd count to ten slowly and then it would
change to another scene. When they started showing modern commericals
we counted--the longest we got to was three. It freaked me out. Why is
everything so flashy? When and why did we lose our attention spans?
Where did they go? Just a thought.
And I haven't read any AG reveiws, but if anyone has a problem with
the book, that's probably why. Since it's so big, some people won't be
able to handle it. They want fast answers, results, happenings. No
stopping to smell the roses for them. No sir. I think all artist need
to unite and work towards expanding people's attention spans. Maynard's
doing it with music, Neil seems to have done it with AG. Perhaps I'll
give it a go too. 

Will- I sensed that you were the oldest because the yougest tend to
get most of the attention and all the cool stuff. My younger sister is
spoiled as all hell.

Michelle- :P I just had to join in.

Neil- Congrats on all the stats for the AG site. re shaving cats: I
think that's the best advice that anyone could give:) Re: SGA. We
(husband too) enjoyed listening to it...but where's the second part?
That's frusterating.