Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Will - which collection is Strawberry Spring in?  I only read it the
once a long time ago but every so often images from it get stuck in my
head all day.

Neil things are the _only_ things I can read out loud coherently. 
With other stuff my mouth tries to keep up with my eyeballs and I end
up stuttering things out so fast everyone goes "huh?"  (I totally
butchered the story "Bullet in the Brain" the other day) But with Neil
stories I have the voice in my head to go along with.  And for things
on Warning I don't even really have to look at the page.  

I brought in Warning to school today and gave many people various
tastes of things and all were suitably impressed.  I _will_ make my
friends spend hundreds of dollars.  Mwah haaa!  

Jen.
  

    
Shawn... the patented Neil Gaiman Voice (tm), available in selected
locations worldwide.

Squeak/Bob/Hey You... I've often considered Bob a fine name.  However,
I'm always being told "no" whenever I offer it as a suggestion when
folks are looking to name things.  Then again, I can only really hear
the word "bob" as Rowan Atkin's says it in Black Adder. Michelle...
I'll probably call you Squeak, since that's how call yourself.

Re: 3 requests... does seem like Rocky should be visiting LA, since
three is a magic #.  perhaps if the three thingies say Rocky's name
together in three rounds...

Re: Poor Shaved Kitties... I'm just really glad I wasn't drinking
anything else my keyboard would have looked like Dan Guy's. *grins*
Then proceeded to read it aloud to Pete (not in the Neil Gaiman Voice
mode... well... not quite) who laughed as well.  Hopefully Furball is
recovered and given a nice treat.

Suzanne
  

    
Hi! I was drawn in to join the WELL entirely by reading this
thread, all because I learned of its existence because an entire
community of Tori Amos fans are hanging on to Neils' every word about
Strange Little Girls.  [ yes, Linda, I know I could have just sent you
or the other hosts email to participate in this one conversation, but
really, once I read this conference, I was hooked on the idea of 
getting more =) ]  so here I am.  

It'd be boring to simply post an introduction, so I shall say all 
of the things that the past few responses have made me want to 
blurt out...

Will - you do know, having written a paper about it and all, that Bill
Watterson in fact named Calvin and Hobbes after the philosophers, 
and tried to reflect a simple version of those philosophies in the
characters? 

Linda - reading aloud while snuggled up with a significant other is
wonderful.  My boyfriend and I started out with Roald Dahl's BFG,
but have since moved on to more impressive accomplishments - all four
of the Harry Potter books, and Freedom and Necessity.  =) I'm not
convinced we'll be able to top that for length and plot density of
a book to be read aloud.  

Danguy - I seem to have missed where this "Boston party" you
 mentioned came up beforehand.  I have noticed a distinct lack of
American Gods signings in Boston, and any remedy would be 
appreciated. ;)  I suppose I should be pleased enough at having
remembered to drop by MIT when Neil read there a few years ago.

Neil - I'm looking forward to getting to read American Gods.
It may be dangerous, though - I'm supposed to *sleep* on flights
to Europe, and I'll be on one the very next day after AG goes on
sale. Uh oh.....     I think I'm with Emma Bull and Will Shetterly on
the McPaper.  Do the people whose book purchases make up USA Todays
bestseller list really turn out to be the people who might or might
not buy your books?  I wouldn't have thought so. *shrug*

 
  

    
Erynn--
According to the USA Today article referenced at AG.com, the second
part will be available next Thursday, June 7. Not a terribly long time
to wait, but STILL...

Suzanne--
I can't help hearing "Bob" pronounced a la Kevin Kline in "French
Kiss" -- either "Bub" or "Baaaaahhhb". :)

Re: reading aloud: My fiancee and I have gone through most of Angels
and Visitations, most of Smoke and Mirrors, Good Omens and Goldman's
"Princess Bride" aloud. Great fun, and we take turns reading chapters.
  

    
"Princess Bride" is the best. Especially when read aloud:)
  

    
So I'm in South Jersey, after learning earlier that I have to
*compete* in my sister's point, um, thing, on Sunday.  I'm really,
really nervous.  And I know I already posted today, so I'll make this
quick:

Erynn- Did I give the impression that my sister's spoiled?  My brother
(middle) is, but her, not so much.

Jen- "Strawberry Spring" is in Night Shift.  What's "Bullet in the
Brain," and where might I find that?

Abbe- Welcome!  And yes, actually, that was why I could include Calvin
and Hobbes in the paper.  And Sandman, because, well, I did this whole
thing about how the philosophy of Hobbes was cyclical, and when it
ended it, well, renewed itself.  Like Sandman ended in waking.

Neil- One question you missed, and that I missed re-asking:  My sister
swears up and down that she saw you in an episode of Tales from the
Crypt; were you really in one, or is it just her wishful thinking?  Oh,
and I've been reading (and am finishing now) Outside the Dog Museum,
and wondered if you had read it, and what you thought.

-Will, who is staying on his toes all weekend.
  

    
Will - Thanks.  :-)  Crap, Night Shift appears to be the only Stephen
King book no one in my family has.  Oh well, like I don't go to the
library 20 times a week.  "Bullet in the Brain" is a short story by
Tobias Wolff and was in one of my english textbooks.  It appears to be
in a collection called The Night In Question.  

Jen.
  

    
Email from Kathy Li:

Just a note to Erynn Miles: the SFWA page has Vonda McIntyre's
article/example of manuscript format in PDF and HTML.

http://www.sfwa.org/writing/vonda/vonda.htm
  

    
DanW - When things get to where they're supposed to go, UPS is
amazing. But they do have a knack for magic. :)

Oh... (ahem)... 'squeak!' :)

Walker - Well, you can re-write *those* lyrics right after you finish
with the Mouse of Pain song "Squeak Around". (refraining from adding an
American Gods reference to Walker's nudge to Rocky)

Incidentally, Linda, I have something of yours that you probably want
back. :)

Suzanne - I've now got witch bits from Macbeth stuck in my head...
"thrice to thine and thrine to mine and thrice again to make up nine",
and "weary seven-nights, nine times nine...". Then again, life's been
functioning in factors of three all day (except the two counts of
eight, but since that's 2 cubed...)

on Neil in academia - Didn't get fully into Neil (and most of my
interesting reading) until after I dropped out of college. But I *did*
use Bugs Bunny in my final for my 20th Century Classical Music class.
That would be the same class that made me a Sondheim fan. 

squeaks, off to make more rings in lieu of dancing in an overcrowded
smokey club.
  

    

Wow, squeaks, you're fast!
  

    
Suzanne--I thought that "Blackadder" reference was too obscure to
mention.  Thank God I'm not the only one who thought of that!

Neil--I have not laughed that hard in a long time.  The Furball story
was hilarious.  One of my boys needs to be shaved as well, but I'm
kinda scared--he's 12 & FIV positive, so I fuss over him too much. 
What's weird is only Sebastian's fur mats.  Berlioz, his brother, who
is also long-haired, is as mat-free as Patrick Stewart.  Go fig.

Nope, never did a paper on anything Neil.  Hadn't started reading
Sandman yet (I graduated in '90) Did do a directing analysis paper on
the fiLms of Phil Joanou so I could watch "Rattle & Hum" about 400
times.  The paper probably wandered off the track about the time Bono
took his shirt off...:0

 Will--been meaning to tell you, I think it is*immensely* cool that
you dance.  "Merde" on the recital!

On the Neil voice <tm>--a) I was hoping *you'd* read AG, but if you
say it's good, I'll take your word for it. b) Even after seeing
"Neverwhere", I still think of your voice reading Croup & Vandemar.  I
remember being completely taken with those characters from the few
pages you read on the tour.   

Ca't wait for that video!  I've told so many people about "Being an
Experiment.." that I'm going to have to loan it out for weeks (to get
them to buy their own!)

Just read "Skipped Parts" by Tim Sandlin.  Anybody else here read the
rest of the GroVont trilogy?  Is it as twisted as that?

Och, ai, I'm babbling.  Hope Tara's having fun in Eire.......zzzzzzzz

G'night!

Mary (started Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay)
  

    
Michelle -- currently, six cats. Lucy the boy cat went to live with
Adam Stemple & Family, which means that Maddy gets a kitten at some
point in the next six months. I wish Norwegian Forest Cats were a bit
thicker on the ground, as I'd love one of those for the house.

DanGuy -- you're welcome. I thought to myself, "out of this small
personal tragedy, I can spread wisdom and enlightenment" and am
delighted that enlightenment has spread, along with cheerios and
coffee, across the screens of the world.

Don't trust anyone who tells you that Emma Bull is not a fictional
character. Nobody real eats that slowly.

Len -- the coolest thing was that Chip phoned me up and read me his
intro over the phone (and I told him that he could find Tantoblin in
the dictionary, and pointed out that saying that Wanda's was the only
problematic death in the story ignored The I Don't Like Dogs Lady, both
of which wound up in his finished piece).

Many years later I wrote the intro to THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION for
him.

Will -- it's roughy. 

Dianna -- it's Galaxy.

Jo -- well, In a perfect world, if I signed in Australia I'd stop off
in New Zealand as well. But this is not a perfect world, so you may
have to come to sydney or somewhere.

Joseph -- it's always good to have a few things you like as a sort of
ground zero test for sushi places (I'll always start out with simple
tuna, yellowtail, and salmon sushi, and a salmon skin handroll, and go
on from there.)

Dan -- I think most of the characters in Good Omens really do have
their own voices, yes.

Brian -- thanks for posting it.

Trevor - I dunno, you've got dutch, hungarian, french, spanish and
maybe a few others I can't think of offhand...

Sarah -- send it again, please...

Shawn -- I love the idea of licensing my voice out... 

Erynn -- a friend recently sent me his first novel to read. I found
the time, somehow, and read it. It ended at a point that was obviously
about half way through the book. I asked him why. He said that all the
best advice he'd seen said that a mss should be 65,000 words, so that
was where he stopped.  I told him no-one would buy half a book, and he
should finish it first. He told me that that wasn't what the SFWA
advice said. I wished him the best of luck...

And yes, it's odd about SGA. I don't know why they split it in two.

Abbe -- I did a long interview this morning for a Tori fanzine, in
which I worked very hard at not saying too much about the new album.

I spoke to herself yesterday, though, and things are coming together
swimmingly. There'll be some writing I have to do, pretty soon -- I
hope, before the tour, as the finished album, CD book and everything
will be handed in at the beginning of July.

The boston info is at the american gods journal - www.americangods.com

And USA Today's bestseller list isn't made up of USA Today Readers.
It's just made up of a broader spectrum of books and reporting stores
than the New York Times list is.

Will -- not in CRYPT as far as I know. Dog Museum is one of my
favourite Carrols (A Child Across the Sky may be my favouritest, but
these things change.)

Michelle -- I sent Sondheim his copy of American Gods today.

Mary -- I declined to read American Gods -- too many different
American accents for me to feel entirely comfortable. The reader is
amazing -- I was listening to chapter four this evening, the slavs,
Czernobog and the Zorya sisters, and loving the accents he gives them,
each distinct. And I kept listening to find out what happened next,
which either says good things about the audio version or bad things
about my memory.

I'll read Coraline though. (Although I'd love to see if I could get
Dawn French to read the UK audio version.)

& so to bed
  

    
Watching NY1 (our local 24 hour news station) this morning.  Ty Burr
did a review of the website Broken Saints (www.brokensaints.com)...

                         TY BURR [offscreen]
...[the creator of the site is] clearly up on modern graphic novel
classics, like Neil Gaiman's _Sandman._

more Neil in the mainstream media... as a touchstone, yet.

yay.
  

    
Michelle -- I don't think I ever used Neil's work in a paper for
school, but I threw Sondheim into every paper imaginable, starting in
7th grade (a comparison of _Sweeny Todd_ and Anthony Shaffer's
_Sleuth_).  The best Sondheim paper I did was a (sort of)
deconstruction of "Finishing the Hat" from _Sunday...George_ for a
Modern French Philosophy.  (B+ on the paper, D in the course.)

Neil-- I read your introduction to Einstein Intersection the same day
I bought Dhalgren.  It found its way yesterday into a comment I made on
a student's paper-- she said that 1984 and Brave New World expressed
their authors' anxieties about the future, which I believe you cited as
a Big Misconception About SF... I suggested that they might be
comments on the authors' views on their present.   
  

    
Mary--  What's the GroVont trilogy?
  

    
Hello everyone.

Will- nononononono. *my* sister is spoiled. I never meant to imply
that yours was. you were saying something about getting something and
about how a sibling got, like, three things. That's why I guessed you
were the older one, cus the younger ones usually get more for some
reason. But I didn't mean it as harshly as *spoiled*. (just in my
sister's case, I guess.) Wow! you dance? That's wonderful! I miss
dancing....

Kathy- Thank you:) I'll check it out today. 

Neil- Yes, I've looked at all of the stats of what a mss should be
lengthwise for short story, novelette, novella, novel. I had no idea
there were so many rules in writing. Some of the things I've run across
since seriously writing are very informative, although, I try not to
worry about things too much. I miss writing freely just for writings
sake without going "oh no! this is over 5,000 words! This will never
get published in a magazine." I'm trying to forget the marketing rules
while I write. My stories turn out much better when I do. I'm not even
going to attempt to write a novel again until I master the short story.
However, if I remember correctly, the SFWA, or the writers guild, or
some important writing organization, also has a disclaimer that says to
not stop writing a book in the middle just to meet the standard
length. They say to just finish it, and then to let the editors trim
the fat, as they usually do anyway....

6 cats? Wow. At one point I had 5. Now I have 3 and a bunny. We're a
very happy family:)
I'm very excited about "strange little girls". Everything *does*
happen in threes! There's the new album, new book from you, and Jethro
Tull is coming this summer as well. WooHoo!

Okay. I don't consider myself to be a stupid person. However, at
times, I can be a bit spacey. Last night I was running some errands
around the very happening Little Italy. Everyone was staring at me and
smiling. I thought, "Wow! It's like I'm famous!" I figured maybe a
fairy had made me famous overnite. I walked the streets doing my best
homecoming queen wave and enjoyed the hour of my new-found fame, as the
people stared on in awe.Such a great feeling. Then, when I returned
home, my husband pointed out that my shirt was inside-out. Blast. 
  

    
John Lennon-saaaaaan~ (Or Neil-sama) - I wasn't eating Cheerios so
those didn't make it onto my computer screen when I read the AG
journal, but if I were, they'd be flying. Party -- ManRay!! That was
the only club I've been to in the 4 years I was in Boston... ^_^;
(Michelle -- used to go with Eric-the-doormat and other friends ^_^;)
Quite the logical place to have the party really. I'll spread the word
to my Boston contacts. ^_^ Out of curiosity, how many people from HK
*are* there who access the AG site anyway? Do you know? *hopes for
enough to take over a table at a coffee house* ^_^; And glad to hear
Furball's okay.

DanGuy - Chibi is small kid, tiny tot, can have cute undertones but
not always, depending on tone. Kawaii is plain cute. ^_-

Mary - About Jin-Roh. For reference: I saw a DVD (zone 3, sound:
Chinese or Japanese, subtitles: Chinese or English), but it's not
dubbed in English. Will check and let you know if I spot any other
version. (They sell all sorts here, US, UK, HK, Japan... ^_^;)

abbe - Hi!

On "Bob" - Anybody seen The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
(abridged), by the Reduced Shakespeare Company? (If you haven't, I
think they've got a tour coming up. See www.reducedshakespeare.com )

-- Mimi
  

    
Email from dianna:

Tree AND Jinx - OK. You guys got me good. Nice one :P (Being suckered like
that feels like getting a virtual wedgie *blushing*)

Jo - You are a kind and compassionate soul (for taking pity on poor
confused me).

As are you Neil - i *will* take you at your word in the future. How could
i have doubted you? Beg pardon :)

YAY for Galaxy! i knew they'd come through. They rock.

Tree - Please let me know which bookshops in Melbourne you're *persuading*
to bring Neil, and i'll contact them too. i've contacted Minotaur and
Slowglass but i'm not sure if they are the right ones to be asking...

dianna
  

    
Email from Jacqui Stoner:

Good Morning,
    I've written before using the stonmeul account and I figured since I
might actually be writing more by e-mail I should use my own account (I
will get a membership when I can afford it). So, my real name is Jacqui
Stoner and here is my question: Neil did you happen to have the movie
Legend on your mind when you wrote Stardust? I'm asking becaus of the
character Una. In both the movie and the book the character by the same
name offer another character his hearts desire.
  

    
Erynn - I've got 2 younger siblings (we're all girls) and my
observations are: 1) the youngest one's closest to Mom, from the days
when she hides behind Mom's knees; 2) the middle one has the most fire
and was brave enough to get onto the elephant with Dad while I cowered
on the ground; 3) I always got the new clothes (nobody's bigger than me
to give me hand me downs). Oh, and that when things come in sets,the
eldest always gets pink, the middle one blue and the youngest yellow.
^_^; (My theory is: girl --> pink. Another girl? Next logical color -->
blue. A third one?? Umm.... yellow. Yeah. They make it in that color
too.)

-- Mimi
  

    
Ah, Vonda McIntyre knows what she's about.  You can trust her sample
manuscript pages.

The thing about proper manuscript format (besides the politeness of making
things as uncomplicated for the editors, of course), is that you don't want
to be distracting them from the thing that's important: the words on the
page.  So look at Vonda's sample and go to!
  

    
Linda - a) it's Neil. b) it's something I've been waiting on for a
year and a half. c) if it weren't for things like work and sleep, it
would have been finished in 2 days. It's actually been finished for a
week, I just wanted to go over it again. :) 

Neil - 6? Most I've ever had was 4. But I'm about to get 2 rats, to
add to the 3 mice (none of whom are blind, btw). Norwegian Forest Cats
are gorgeous, but considering my allergies I was quite happy playing
mommy to an Abyssinian for 2 years (stupid evil ex- kept the cat). Have
you heard from Puck lately? Last email I got from him had him living
at the zoo (he said it was a house, but I still think it's a zoo).

Len - My daddio sent me the link to broken saints eons ago because it
reminded him of 'something someone who likes Neil would like'. Took me
forever to actually see it with a decent connection... but it's sooooo
beautiful! And if I was more familiar with Sondheim when I was writing
papers, I'm sure some of it would have made it into the papers. I'm
still happy at the memory that my 20th Cent Music final got me an 'A'
and a 'Long live Bugs Bunny!' note. :) Which reminds me, I need more
Reich in my collection.

Dianna - Wait 'til Tree comes to visit and we become the 'squeaking
tree' entity. :)

Mimi - How is doormat-kun? ;P My Daddio is eldest of three and Mommy
Dearest is youngest of three. Between the two gangs of sibling rivalry,
I ended up as an only child... unless you count Neko the cat, who was
my big sister until I was 15.

squeaks, who has to call a girl about a rat.
  

    
Neil -- She eats slowly, does she? Delightful!
     I read _The Einstien Intersection_ because I saw that you'd
written the intro, and so was sure it would be good.  And I wasn't
disappointed.
     I spent the summer before my senior year of high school in Oxford
and bought the paperback edition of _Good Omens_ there because I had
not yet seen it in paperback in the States.  And I remember sitting
around on so many nights and acting out bits of it to friends and
passers by.  I particularly enjoyed doing the bit where A and C are
drunk and talking about dolphins and gorillas building nests and the
like -- you and Terry got many laughs those nights.

Len -- I watched the first few episodes of "Broken Saints" when it
began, but haven't remembered to check back since.

Mimi - Kawaii I knew, and use often. ^_^  Chibi was indeed the word I
was looking for, then, thank you for the definition!  I have often
heard it used to describe the small-bodied / super-deformed style of
manga.
     I adore the Reduced Shakespeare Co.  I saw that show the year I
was in Oxford and loved it immensely.  I saw them again last year at
Duke and enjoyed it, but the line-up wasn't quite as funny as my
nostalgia-ridden memory insisted that the first line-up had been.

On the subject of writing papers on Gaiman works, I frequently cited
bits here and there.  I used two bits from _Signal to Noise_, one ("We
live in a world in which the only utopian visions arrive in commercial
breaks...") in a cultural anthropology paper on advertising and another
("We are always living in the final days.  What have you got?  A
hundred years or much, much less until the end of your world.") in an
english paper on apocalyptic stories.  I cited one of the love bits
from Sandman ("...Love takes hostages...") in a cult.anthro paper on
the shared mediating structures of falling in love.
     And, as I think I've mentioned before, I wrote a starry-eyed
review of _Stardust_ for the school newspaper that got slashed to
pieces because of space constraints.
  

    
Mimi- interesting..... I grew up with a mixture of pink and yellow. 

Martha- Will do. I'm hoping to polish things up this weekend. But I'm
currently (slowly) unpacking odds and ends of misc junk and trying to
organize things around the house. It's not working. The junk is
winning. So I'll probably get to it soon. 

Danguy- That's my favorite part too! ( the A and C dolphins and
gorillas part of Good Omens, I mean) I love acting it out with friends,
though my british accent needs work.
  

    
I almost forgot...

Michelle- I love rats. I like them better than mice. They're like
little dogs. You can train them. I had one a few years back, Damien,
and I taught him all kinds of tricks. He was great. I wasn't too happy
when he ate one of my gerbils, though.

Puck in a zoo? That reminds me....I've been wondering why he doesn't
come here....or does he and I missed it?