Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Joseph - the frustrating thing about Mel Brooks is that a lot of his
stuff (even in Men in Tights) *could* have been funny... but the
directing and camerawork and timing were all so bad that it leeched the
humor out of it. I've come to the conclusion that Mel should keep
writing movies, but quit directing them.

Neil - your former bodyguard? For some reason, it had never occurred
to me until now that you'd have a bodyguard...it makes perfect sense
now that you mention it... but still... hrm.

Dan
Steadfastly resisting reading chapter one until I have the bound and
complete volume in my trembling hands....
  

    
I'm agreeing with Dan.  I read the bit I got in my inbox, but I won't
read anymore.

Follow-up, Neil:  Is there actually a character that means "one who
shapes," as you describe (or Mimi, as you would know, as well)?  And on
signing; I just called Borders, and I thought of Brazil, and wondered
if your rule of three is still valid, or if I should just expect
American Gods signed, and nothing else (the guy at Borders said
publishers don't usually like their authors signing other things.  But,
then, he'd never heard of you, so I'm not trusting him very far at
all.  He thought aloud that it probably wouldn't be too big, and I told
him, well, you broke a record in Brazil, and he just said, oh.)

That's it, again.   Getting DMB tickets soon, and wondering if I'm
going to South Jersey again this weekend (another friend is turning 21,
and you don't want to miss that one).

-Will, who wishes he'd celebrated his 21st with his friends down
there, or any other recent one, for that matter.
  

    
Kelly--

House of Leaves *is* pretty expensive, even in it's paperback form
(which is currently the only edition you can find in my area without
bartering vital organs) but I bought it this afternoon ($20, Borders)
and I'm very impressed with his style of writing. This is after only a
couple dozen pages, and before the begining of the experimental stuff
however. Can't wait to really delve into it tonight.
--Shawn
  

    
I enjoyed HoL quite a bit.  People keeping telling me I should read it
"because it's like something you would write!"  To which I've taken to
replying, "How do you know that I didn't?"  Which, for the ones who
aren't Poe fans, usually is nearly enough to convince them that I did.
     The book made a lot more sense to me after a read an interview
with Poe in which she talked about their childhood a little.
  

    
Will - the problem with trying to impress a Border's employee with
mentioning Neil's success in Brazil is that for the vast majority of
Americans, the world ceases to exist outside of our national borders. 
  

    
I hate our Borders here. Last week I went up there to have them hold a
copy of AG for me. The lady said they couldn't do that. "Why?" I
asked. "Because it isn't our policy." she said. "Why?" I asked.
"Because if we did that for everyone, then we'd have to order too many
books." "and that would be a problem because...." I was going to ask to
talk to a supervisor, but I think she WAS the supervisor. ANd she
rolled her eyes when I told her what book I wanted. Obviously, the
place needs new management. Ah well, I went somewhere else.

Neil- You and your lost posts. Hmph :P

billbill- congrats on your wins!

Will is ignoring me :( {Kidding}

Rocky- yeah, living near a sociopath is never fun. We actually had one
stalking us for six months...think he's gone now (or at least he
doesn't know where we live anymore). 
I hope you like your new place:)

note to self--get House of Leaves, subscribe to Locus, and figure out
why everyone else as the fist chapter of AG and I don't....
  

    
Erynn--
Thanks :) The only possible downside to this week's games is that I'm
pretty sure I either sprained my wrist or broke a bone in my hand
during. If it ends up being the latter, I will be extremely amazed, as
I did it in the first inning of the first game, and proceeded to play
out the remainder of both.
  

    
So Neil, I went to schedule vacation dates around tour dates at the
end of July, and I noticed that the tour dates listed in the tour dates
section of ag.com (for the Canadian stops at any rate) list the street
name and not the city. 

squeaks, who is supposed to be working, not posting.
  

    
Email from Jacqui Stoner:

Hi Neil, 
    I just realised that since I don't have a job (I'm looking) I won't be
able to afford American Gods when it comes out (unless I get it for a
birthday present. I'll be 21 on June 12. Whoo hooo!!!) so I will
definitely be at both your signing in the Twin Cities but I might not have
a copy yet. I was at Convergence last year and I didn't have anthing of
yours to sign so I asked if you could sign my badge. I felt kind of bad.  
By the way, are you planning on going this year?
    Well, it's time to stop rambling.
                                            -Jacqui Stoner
  

    
Shawn -
I have the exact opposite problem; I can find the hardback, no
problem... paperback doesn't seem to exist. *sigh*

On the subject of general books - anyone care to recommend other stuff
to me? I have some gift certificates I could use, and am always
looking for new authors...

-Kelly
  

    
Neil, terrific excerpt.

As I read it outside and under a very grey sky, a plane passed low,
right on cue with the story.  One who spent most of their lives in
small towns hours away from airports still notices these things; I'm
glad.

Thanks.
  

    
(That is, if it is possible for ONE to have mulitiple LIVES)  We can
only hope.
  

    
Neil - Would that be the same bodyguard that I hung out with, helped
with the line, and videotaped the Midnight Reading?

As a Ronald McDonald?

<blinks> Whoa.

Also... continuing mention of the neilgaiman.com website... it should
be completely in their hands now, since all the final paperwork was
faxed/mailed last week.

..and speaking of Neverwhere/Places Below... leaving to take the
MetroNorth to CT from Grand Central in New York, and looking out across
endless tracks and darkness, you really start getting a sense of
*something else* down there... and it's incredibly creepy.

Off to slowly hunt down alternate Smoke & Mirrors... 

-- Trev/Walker --
  

    
Oh, and Jouni - No, I haven't.  :(   Been busy.  [But did you notice
the toy-gun-robbery in the AG first chapter? :p ]  Anyways, I'll see if
I can dig up your address from afng.  Take care...
  

    
K. I didn't get the exerpt in my mail, but I clicked on the link
thingy and read it that way...

I love it! I can't wait to read more! Yippie! 


BillBill- Wow. I hope it isn't broken. Adrenalin is a strange thing.
Once when I was a catcher, I got hit in the head with a baseball bat.
Sometimes this happens by accident, but this was no accident. The girl
hated me. They didn't want me to continue the game, but I was so angry
and I wasn't going to let her win...so I played, and we won. However,
after the adrenalin rush wore off, I found that I had a concusion and
as a result, I beleive, that I lost most of my spelling ability that
day.

I was checking out THe Dent to see what was new with Tori. I made the
mistake of entering the forum. It's funny though. They're all arguing
(Mike not included) over what the new album is going to be. Some of
them who have "very reliable sources"..after all, they heard it from
"Jon Evan's cousin's friend's girlfriend.", know for a fact that
_Strange Little Girls_ is an album of covers and Neil has to get some
writing done before her tour so he's doing the tourbook and it may or
may not be Sandman related. Heh.
  

    
E-mail from JaNell:

Oh, Michelle, the one color I'm NOT painting a room in my new house is
orange - even the really cool shades, even in my toddler's room - for
that very reason. Funny story- my husband, Cam-the-tentacle-eater, took
our older son to a Pokemon thing at the mall a few years back. A
middle-aged couple, dressed head to toe in Big Orange Cult
paraphernalia, stopped a moment, took a look at the kids happily trading
Pokemon cards, and one of them said, "Isn't it sad that they have to
pretend to be someone else?"

Joseph- "Men In Tights", until recently, was the ONLY movie I've every
walked out on.

Neil- Warm Sushi? Cold Miso? There's something oddly cryptic there...
but I'm glad it wasn't wildly profound... I guess? Maybe I'll look for
the "Missing Neil Gaiman Postings" site. When I first saw you mention
the "Blogger", I thought it was some British profanity for some king of
useless, idiotic person or thing, like I use "putzer". Maybe I wasn't
too far off after all.
Your former body guard lives in Knoxville?

Jacqui- I'll be 37 on the 12th!

JaNell
  

    
For those who may have simply taken SciFi.com at their word that Part
2 of Snow, Glass, Apples would be available tomorrow, it's actually up
right now. I know what I'll be listening to on my way to and from work
tomorrow...
  

    

Folks, I've got my stern face on right now, and it really doesn't look
good on me and I hate to wear it, but right now, I'm afraid I must.

We, the hosts of inkwell, are very happy to post the e-mails that you send
us for this topic.  Happy to get the e-mails, happy to post them for you.

But, suddenly, we are getting e-mails from people who are not on the WELL
who want us to NOT post them in this topic but forward them to other
people who are on the WELL and have posted in this topic.  Um, no.  Not
gonna do it, not gonna get into the mail forwarding business.  Sorry.  If
you really must send e-mail to a WELL member privately, get a WELL
account, and look that person's address up and send them e-mail yourself.

Also, let me clarify one other thing:  the hosts are volunteers.  We don't
work for the WELL.  We host this conference because we enjoy it.  Most of
you are absolutely delightful and make all of the effort very worthwhile
and we thank you for being so much fun and making this such a great
experience.  To the very few of you, and you know who you are, do not
abuse us.  It won't get you very far.

I'm happy to take off my stern face now and return you to your regularly
scheduled topic, in progress.
  

    
JaNell - Warm Sushi, Cold Miso = That one sushi night where we all
went, and it took forever... I think it was one of the AltFanThingies
that said "Sushi resturants in Knoxville really don't expect
customers"... How long were we all there... three hours or so?

That shade of orange is forever burned into my mind. That, and the
looks on the residents as I strutted past chanting the name of whoever
they were playing that year... hehe.

-- Trev/Walker --
(Trev to some, Walker to others... not like the Jee/Trinx entity)
  

    
Yay on Linda! :)

As I myself can't manage to put on said "stern face" without appearing
to have severe digestive problems, I salute you for laying down the
law. 

That having been said, muchos gracias for hosting for us, as the short
time I've been here I've had a blast.
  

    

 %^)

Most of the time, I do, too!
  

    
I've had a blast too! I hope this topic goes on forever and ever. (I
know that it won't, but I can still dream, can't I?) I wish I could see
everyone in person and we could sit around and drink wine. That would
be fabulous:)

Yah for Linda seconded. As for stern faces....when I put on mine, I
usually look constipated. 
  

    
Linda's right.  The hosts on the Well (I'm one myself, in a different
conference) get no pay.  We do this for the love of the sport.  So don't try
to take advantage of her!
  

    
1772 posts -- I don't think the software will LET this topic go on
forever -- we have about 200 posts max.

Mimi -- when you decide where the Hong Kong meet is let us know and
I'll stick it on blogger -- or maybe I'll ask the NeilGaiman.com people
to put up a page for meetings and parties.

...I did tell the photo shoot story. Really I did.

Dan -- I only need a bodyguard at San Diego...

Will -- no idea -- Mimi might know.

The rule we've told the stores is 3 things plus whatever they buy (or
maybe, as many copies of American Gods as they want). This may be
modified by stores, and may have to be modified if the lines get 
really bad.

The last signing I did in the US (Sandman: Dream Hunters in NY) was
about 800 people...

Erynn -- that's the kind of thing that you might want to drop a line
to the general manager, or even to Borders central about.

Most of the people who actually run Borders are really nice.

Michelle -- e-mail sent to Harper Collins.

I keep asking them just to put up an HTML page with the tour info on
it. They keep plugging it in to some master database instead, which
outputs information to the TOUR page, so things keep changing, entries
appear twice and so on.

Meanwhile, the Book Soup signing has just moved back to Book Soup as
the LA library had double booked themselves without noticing.

jacqui -- Don't worry. I'll sign a piece of paper, if you've got one
<g>. Happy upcoming birthday...

Sarah -- thanks so much.

trev -- Kevin Starr is his name. And he is, professionally, a Ronald,
a job he takes very seriously. Well, seriously for a clown.

Erynn, well, I said on this topic I had to write some stories for the
CD booklet, so that might not be something from the sister's
girlfriend's cousin of someone who once met someone who looked a lot
like Matt Chamberlain.

jaNell -- indeed he does. I don't know how you'd go about looking for
him, though.  (Does hasty google search... you'd find him on
http://www.kdla.net/libserv/children/performer.htm )

Linda -- whoo. Stern but fair.
  

    
Neil-tee-hee. Yes, I know, but they said tour book, not CD book.
Telephone. Nevermind. 
Ah I have a question: I lived in Indiana a long time and I've never
heard of Eagle Point. Am I crazy? I'm only confused because the other
cities you've mentioned so far are not fictional (as far as I know)