Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Lenny- very cool.

Did anyone read the Last Battle and come to the conclusion that it wasn't
just a train wreck, but that Armageddon had occurred on Earth and both Earth
and Narnia were done? I had never seen it that way, but I know a fair number
of people who are convinced that it's what happened at the end.
  

    
It will be interesting starting the interview on the 29th because an old
friend is getting married in the Elvis chapel in Vegas on the 30th and I'll
be there.  So I'll be starting this from a hotel room on the Strip.  That's
American for you.
  

    
That's delicious!
  

    
Martha--It all seems obscenely fitting to start the interview in
Vegas.  Good timing I say.

Shawn--I can barely tolerate the 90 degree-ish weather right now in
Cincinnati...but we do have that nasty smog issue that makes the
difference between somewhat liveable and horrid.  But still...112? 
Yikes.

Dan--Homely peach isn't so bad.  One girl had ripples on her head,
like a potato chip.  I felt bad, and hoped that her hair would grow
back quickly.

Adriana and Len--Perhaps we should look into this conspiracy thing. 
It is beginning to worry me.  The waffles were the last straw.

Adriana--Thank you!  I love how quickly it dries when I get out of the
shower.  I'm not sure if I want it to grow back or not...
  

    
NEIL- Sez you. I mean, what's in it for me? Anyway, if I buy the book
without knowing, I'll have to gulp it all down just to find out, and
not enjoy it very much. That's if I buy it, I don't even buy de Lint
books new, and giving in for YOU would make you seem special or
something.
So, if I don't buy it, nobody will ask about it, or assume that it was
so bad that I wouldn't be caught in public reading it. The same thing
will happen if I skim through it too quickly and wear the new off.
Anyway, I have extra-strength lip glue, aided by talking about so many
other things that people don't notice what I don't say. And, even if I
do read it and love it, I don't have to say so. I can't lie directly,
but I can obfuscate like crazy. So if anyone asks, I can just say, "um,
well...I never was a big fan of his books" (still haven't read most of
them) and let them assume the worst.
So there. BE disappointed, and see if I care. Ha. (Ever fainter sounds
of endless rant about Scorpios and Englishmen and a few choice
gestures...)

;)
  

    
Neil- Congrats on all kinds of counts! (and tell Holly I said
'Hello'.)

Martha- You lucky, lucky interveiwer you. Who better to do it? Wow. 

I'm gonna be in Cleveland. 24th. You won't be *too* tired by then will
you Neil?

God, it's so humid here. I must go somewhere air-conditioned quickly.
  

    
Angelina - Will also be at Dayton, unless of course I get more
horribly lost than usual.  Getting to Books and Co. is like getting to
Narnia.  And then on to Cleveland.  :-)

Jen.
  

    
Dan--I'm gonna hold you to that......

DanGuy--Good luck to you, but more to Lori!  ;-)

Len--you win.  Anyone who quotes my favorite poet in a joke wins.

I love your reprehensible puns.

Shawn--it went from 50 degrees & raining to 95 & *sticky* literally
overnight. I left Mississippi for a reason!

JaNell--see above.  Do you know where Roane County, TN. is? That's the
family, a long way back. I've heard the table setting ritual before,
and many others.  Protestant or Catholic, the Irish seem to hang on to
the magic.....

Mary (whose goldfish are going starkers in the heat)
  

    
Madman -- nope, I never saw that interpretation. I figured Aslan said
what he meant. (I was also capable of doing the sums, and figured that
The Last Battle was set no later than about 1953, which meant that an
apocalypse was unlikely to have happened.)

I`m having a great time with the libretto except for the `
character...
  

    
DanGuy - I'm really looking forward to seeing you post a few jpgs of
the little one. And maybe years from now he can go to the Well archives
and read how anxious and excited we all were for his arrival.  ;>

Neil - Sunday can't get here fast enough so eat your Wheaties! 

Jixie...now I've got my fingers crossed for you. Hope all turns out
well.

JaZilla re Paul: Don't get me started either, he and St. Augustine are
on my list. :( 

Btw, there is a massive picture of an octopus in an ad for the NYC
Aquarium on the overpass near my apartment building.  You should see me
ducking behind trees and hugging the side of buildings to avoid it
being in my line-of-sight on the way home.  *sigh* 

Abbe - You might be right about the outer coating of Turkish Delight,
it's either corn starch or rice powder. I think confectionary sugar
would probably attract moisture and make the stuff too sticky to eat.

Walker - I second Ja'Nell. Only you.  And that poor innocent cat! Too
bad you didn't have Angus handy.  *grin*
  

    
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1376000/1376479.stm

If ever I do a story set in a disney place, the pubic lice are going
to be in there...
  

    
That story made me so very glad I work in Operations and not Characters.
  

    
Mary Roane - Do I know where Roane County is? Honey, I was born in Oak
Ridge, lived the first 8 years in Norris, and the remainder of
childhood in the wilds of Anderson County... we're neighbors!

Roxanne -  be my buddy on Sunday and give Neil a hard time for teasing
me with restaurant thing, then making me wait. That's almost as cruel
to me as him wearing a Cthulu t-shirt to a reading he KNOWS you'll be
at.
  

    
I just had to take this one 'cause it's the year I was born.
  

    
Oh, I didn't think it really *was* corn starch. 
It just made me *think* of corn starch because it somehow
has always tasted kind of stale and tasteless to me when
it ought to be so sweet that you don't need to put sugar
in the coffee you're drinking to accompany it.  

Maybe if it *is* cornstarch that would be a logical explanation
for the taste!

Neil, as I've been remembering to read the blogger on americangods.com
this question has occurred to me.
[This is probably the wrong topic as there's another one going on
in inkwell.vue on bloggers and 'zines and things... but I'm
curious to ask *you*, so there.]  Why do you call it a blogger?
When I read it, it sounds to me pretty much like the other online
journals I read that call themselves journals.
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

Dan Guy - Way to go! I'm keeping my fingers... err, my thumbs up for you
two... I mean three.

Neil - Thanks. Have a nice tour!... Even though your not coming here :-(
....oh well, maybe next year, eh? ;-)

Jouni (who really doesn't feel any older or wiser today than yesterday... or
last year... or a year before that... or...)
  

    
Neil was gentlemanly enough to tell me what he put in AG from our Con
here in Knoxville, and now I feel bad for bugging him over what turned
out to be a very small thing. Now I'll have to go on about the wonders
of American Gods everywhere I go, just to make up for it.

And I was having so much fun fussing about it...
  

    
Neil- You should do a story about that. Hilarious. Thanks for the
link.And lovely essay too:)
  

    
More "oh look, another example of how Disney treats their workers like shit"
than "hilarious," but it's funny in a strange and pathetic sort of way.

btw, if you want more weird tidbits on Disney, ask me or <doctorow>. I work
at WDW and Cory's an obsessive nut.
  

    
no. I didn't mean that Disney workers getting pubic lice in real life
was hilarious...I meant if he made a story about a Disney place and you
think it's all nice, happy, well.... Disney-like flowery and then the
characters started itching. Sorry. I should have specified. My cousin
once worked for Disney as Cinderella in the Electric Light Parade. I've
heard lots and lots of stories. Never anything like this though.
  

    
Abbe -- blogger is the name of the software -- www.blogger.com  it's
short for weB-LOG -- and, yes, it's a journal.

Jouni -- I'll be back to Finland sooner or later, I'm sure.  It's
somewhere I like.

JaNell --  and don't think I don't appreciate it.

Robynne -- I'm not sure I'd use it as anything other than the tiniest
background detail. But something like that says such a lot about other
things in the relationship between employer and employee ("We have
successfully negotiated for the right to have washed underwear.")


.....


The advance copy of the new Tori album has just been supplanted on the
house turntable (er  kitchen Bose CD player) by PLAY EACH MORNING,
WILD QUEEN, the new album by the Flash Girls.

When your assistant has been waiting for album to come out for ages
she's more than allowed to bring home a box of them and stuck it on.
Order your copy from www.Dreamhavenbooks.com and you can see the cover
at http://www.fabulous-records.com/cat_flash.html
  

    
Neil- Just curious: Didn't you say way back when that you were
interviewed about "Strange Little Girls" in a Tori fanzine? Which one
was it, if you don't mind my asking....
  

    
Neil - Are you writing a short story-like-thing for the Tori CD
booklet? Or just kind of a nice intro-sort-of-thing? I'm still trying
to talk my boss into letting me stock the store with Flash Girls, but
he's skeptical. By the time he makes up his mind one way or the other,
all of the locals will have already received their copies from
DreamHaven... which may actually be his plan. Hrm.

DanGuy - Sounds like the little person has a mind of his own already
:) Best of luck! 

You too Jouni. And is it your b-day? Sorry, got a little behind 'cause
*life* (tm) got in the way (nothing bad, just a lot of stuff I put off
until "later"... which has since become "now")

Walker - Lizards... (and I say 'lizards' here like Andy says
'squirrels')... (snicker) Only you indeed. Tho' in a typical 'Michelle'
manouevre, I managed to get one of my rats tangled in a dreadlock
yesterday. The dredd was unintentional and I almost ended up with a
shaved head as a result - and not just to get out the rat.

btw, Angelina, I rather *like* the shaved headed look. The bottom half
of mine is completely bare as well. Incidentally, when bleaching the
slightest stubbly bits, do so *before* re-shaving... not right after
(ah... feels all warm and tingly... I mean... OW! THE BURNING!!)

Erynn - A friend of mine worked (works?) at Disney World - forget
which characters... but yeah, stories... not usually good ones either. 

JaNell - I know a guy who was named Jamohn because his parents
couldn't decided between James and John. Somehow I find it appropriate
that he's a middle child too. :) As for the sushi restaurant bit, I
have half a dozen people dying of curiousity and purchasing AG as a
result because I got to that part while reading it at the club and
amidst hours of sitting in booth in the bar, very involved and serious
about reading, I jumped up (well, sat up very quickly, on my knees too)
and started cackling and slamming my hand down on the table. then I
noticed people were staring and I started laughing harder. And mostly
the only explanation I could give was a very excited "He put the sushi
in the book! I know that sushi! I KNOW THAT SUSHI!" - which makes
perfect sense if you understand the reference, but since I'm the only
person at the club who did... so people are going out to buy the book
to see an inside joke they'll never get. :)

squeaks, who is also stealing the year she was born, but it's not why
she posted just now.
  

    
Wow! Just visited AG.com and was stunned at the, well, not even
overnight, over-hour overhaul it received! INcredible! But whose idea
was it to put all that cool stuff up just hours from the chat? Sheesh.
:) Many enthralled hours are to follow. Now to figure out whether I'll
read the notes section before Tuesday...
Bill^2, just missed his year.
  

    
Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a "contact the webmaster" link on
AG/NG.com, but it is worth mentioning: On the "other books" page, the
"Smoke and Mirrors" and "Stardust" images are transposed.