Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Just read Neil's journal entry on the pronunciation of his name- 
I'm right there with you, Neil, mine's mispronounced constantly and
it's 'jah-NELL' if anyone asks, not 'JAY-nell' or 'Jan-nel'.

Neil amazed me, the first time we met in person, by not only
remembering THAT he had talked to me, but being able to put together
the written name with me introducing myself in a very E. Tennessee
accent. He immediately put the two together; just one more reason to
love the guy.
  

    
Blythe, that was so adorable.  I had to read it out loud to Lori,
doing my best impressions of Neil and of what I imagined you sounded
like.  Neil, you really are the best!
     Wow, that little story gives me enough vicarious joy to go a few
minutes not even minding that I'm missing out. ^_^
  

    
Bllythe--yes, I saw the possible Del and Death refrences.  The Del one
was so cute!  I think I'll go read that part again...if I can find
it...damn.

Angelina.
  

    
I find it so kind that Neil is concerned in any way about posting here
at all during such a ridiculously hectic time.  It's also interesting
to know that he doesn't keep a journal, that basically, we are his
journal.  

DanGuy, how's da baby?  What is it like to have this new person in
your home?  

adriana, who still has water in her ears from swimming two days ago.
  

    
Adriana- I had the same problem for a couple of weeks, and was
terrified that I'd not be able to hear anything at the Lex signing- I
ended up using some of that ear wax removal stuff, and it did the
trick.
  

    
Wow - go hide for a week or so to work on Burning Man and patching
things up with separated spouse, and things just explode over here...
:-) I have three post it notes full of comments I want to make! (Yes, I
really do have that bad of a memory...)

Linda - I wish I had checked here before heading off to the UW signing
last night; I would have happily stood up and yelled "anyone else from
The Well here?" - and then been able to meet Blythe. 

I don't know why I'm surprised there would be so many Burning Man
people here, but I am - I'll probably be quite out of it the next two
months as well, as I try to prepare for my first trip out there.
(Thankfully, I lived in Nevada and have been up to the playa before, so
I know what to expect.) Just mentioned sort-of-husband unit and I are
going for a playa-yurt theme. It makes sense to us. Honest.

DanGuy - congrats on the little one! (Late, but better than never, I
hope. :-)

Adriana - I'm stuck in corporate hell as we speak, sigh. I could rant
for ages, but it's just depressing. I'll summarize by saying that when
my boss, after meeting my husbandunit for about 30 seconds, told me he
looked like he was 15 and we didn't belong together.

Okay, so, I went to the UW signing last night. It was a lot of fun, as
Blythe has already mentioned.  :-)  Neil read well, and answered
questions politely and with an awful lot of humour - especially the
worst books bit. (Tho, I am begging to suspect he has a minor obsession
with giant crabs...) One thing that has always amazed me about his
speakings/q&a sessions is how composed he is in the face of such
seemingly silly questions. (Such as the jump someone made in a
question, from a seemingly serious question to "what's your sign?")

After the q&a session (which was ended by a construction crews
insistance of using jackhammers in the room next to us), we were told
to line up against the right wall if we wanted things signed. Wow -
I've never seen so many people move so fast; it was a huge mob!
Apparently enough so that the UW folks asked us to sit down, we were
intimidating the author. ;-)

Mimi - as for the coherantly speaking to Neil... sigh. I've met him a
few times now, and manage to always be very akward and generally shove
my foot into my mouth. Like I did last night, as a matter of fact.  :-)
I have to agree with Glen, it was the whole being asked a question
thing that threw me. (And Blythe - you weren't the only terrified
blonde there last night... hehe. I was the terrified blonde in a
sparkly black shawl and long black dress with red & velvet burnout. I
was with The Worlds Tallest Man [well, maybe not, but Rich is imposing]
and a few other people...)

Okay, anyhow. Foot in mouth. Yes. I was there with a group of friends,
one of which being Miss Karawynn, who has been mentioned around here a
few times. Neil and Karawynn got to talking, after a cute interlude in
which he asked if she was really her (side note: I was identified as a
Well person during this conversation). Then Rich (The Big Towering
Guy, Towering Even Moreso Over Sitting Author) asked his Books of Magic
question and had a few things signed... and then it was my turn. 

They had passed out postits to place our names on, and asked us to
place the postit where we wanted the book signed. I turned to a certain
page I had just read in line while waiting, and placed it there. Neil
asked why that page, and I explained that "Well, I had thought it
was... but then thought 'No, that's too obvious...' " and promptly
stumbled around my words for the next few minutes. Sigh - telling an
author that something is *too obvious* ? I even made it worse by saying
"Well, this always happens with Neils work... I see something, think
'no, that's obvious he wouldn't do that' and then he *did* do that..."
This is where I sigh and groan at myself for a bit. :-)

Anyhow, rest assured all of you who have or will be meeting him -
there appear to be many of us who seem destined to constantly and
consistantly be completely nervous around Neil. It's not *just you*.
Honest. (And I'm so glad it's not *just me*, too!)

And Neil? Thank you for being so kind to this particular terrified
blonde, and I'll take your words to heart, and start listening to my
instincts.

-Kelly
  

    
Just heard back form my editor at the 11th Hour.
The goodness: I get to write the book review for AG. Yay me!
The badness: Due to the designer's move to LA, new issue won't be out
until August 11th.
The okayness: It gives me time to reread, reflect, and rewrite :)
  

    
ever notice how you bugger up the SAME words over and over again?

form = from
  

    
Re:  Using this group as a journal.  Ya know, I never thought of it
like that, but really it does kinda work as an interactive journal.  I
come in, tell a little bit about what's been going on with me, and then
respond to what other people have been talking about with their lives.
 It makes me happy to think that I do have a journal of sorts.  I
never was good at keeping them.

Angelina.
  

    
Journals, diaries & bloggers:  Personally, I find the blogger entries
a wonderful insight into being a writer (since I'll never be one, I can
live vicariously through one of my favorites) and the publishing
industry.  As for it being a marketing ploy, perhaps only the first few
entries since they were about the upcoming book. The rest does read
like a journal/diary. Hmmm... whenever I use the word diary I hear in
my head "dear diary..." so think I'll stick to journal. Most
importantly to me, I never thought of the site as a marketing ploy (is
anything web related really a marketing ploy now days since everything
has a website) but more of an extension of the author.

All I can say is I'm happy the blogger is there and this list is here.
 It wouldn't be possible if Neil wasn't the person he is, does say a
great deal about the man. ::smiles::

Suzanne
(who has purchased a zillion journals but never manages to write them)
  

    
JaNell -- I always here "Jah-neil" in my head when I read your name
(even though I know it's "Jah-nell").  Think it's the list bleeding
over into your name...

Suzanne
  

    
A very wonderful & happy making but strange thing just happened.  I
was going to go and start packing up the CDs in the dreaded back room
when I decided I should check the front door.  As I opened the door,
the UPS van pulled up... so now I have my package from Dreamhaven
(unfortunately minus Martha's book since I, like a ninny, attempted to
order it via Borders and am STILL waiting for it to arrive).

So now I'm bouncy and happy and not at all in the mood to pack even
though I really should.  

Suzanne
  

    
Angelina - Yes, the delirium reference is really cute! At least I'm
going to assume its Delirium, because it makes me happy that way.

Kelly - I think I remember seeing you. You probably don't remember me,
I was just wearing a white peasant blouse, but since I was one of say,
maybe three people in the auditorium actually wearing white (as
opposed to black), maybe you did. I was definately too chicken to yell
out anything about the well, since I hadn't heard [read] anyone mention
Seattle on here. Too bad we didn't meet...do you live around Seattle
or did you have to come far?  Anyhow, I'm glad I wasn't the only
terrified blonde at the signing, though I'd like to think as I'm sure
you do that terror-at-meeting-amazing-people is not genetically linked
to being blonde. I'm stuck with the one, but I'd like to be intelligent
in front of Neil someday :)

And yes, Neil is amazingly gracious to people who ask quite silly
questions. (ie. What's your sign? derived from 'I know you have to
study a lot to know all those mythologies...')

Anyone else besides Angelina see the Delirium or Death thing? My
boyfriend didn't at first and I'm just curious what everyone thinks.

Im glad people liked my signing story, I was afraid I had exceeded an
unspoken rule of decorum concerning the length of posts and as
punishment would be ignored. Glad it didn't happen.

<3/ Blythe  (that's a sideways heart, sort-of)
  

    
Suzanne Scott- "I always here "Jah-neil" in my head when I read your
name...  Think it's the list bleeding
over into your name..."

I am NOT a sub-set!     ;)
  

    
Martha, Linda, Madman, Michelle... ok, I briefly met Michelle, but
otherwise I'm probably going to have to rely on you guys to see *me*...
being 6'2 with long red hair tends to make me stand out a bit...
See you tomorrow night!

Blythe - wonderful fan story. I feel much better knowing that I can do
nothing that will surprise Neil, since so many of us have locked up
already.
Also, I saw Delerium and smiled widely when I did... I missed Death,
though.

Kelly - Ok, Michelle is part of the Death Guild, I'll be at Sanctum of
the Erotic Goddess this year... which camp will you be with? I want to
make sure to connect during Burning Man and remember how HUGE it was
last year.

Tara - congrulations! Make sure we know where the review is if it gets
published online.
  

    
Squeek. 

Hi. I'm new. 
Okay, I'm not new but I am a newbie. (Gah. It's been years since I've
been one of those...now I feel old.) And I must admit that I am
completely jealous of everyone who has met the infamous Neil. 

I just joined and I thought I would say hello. Neil is my favoritest
author and I feel in love with his writings all over again when I
listened to Snow Glass Apples at scifi.com. And I was wandering around
the internet and saw this conference and I had to join. So I did. So.
Hi. I'm Rani. 

Nice to meet you all.
  

    
All right, Rani!
  

    
Rani - nice to meet you! As a Well newbie, I'll gurantee they don't
bite (hard) ... I've been on the net way, way too long, and felt kinda
old when I joined up here, too (I remember the Well from when it was a
little bitty tiny BBS... sigh) ... oh, the memories. (Don't mind me and
my pain medication...)

Blythe - I actually do remember seeing you, or at least someone in a
white peasanty blouse.  :-)  I remember leaning over to one of my
friends and commenting that the atmosphere was so diverse; the last
Neil thing I was at was a CBLDF reading on Halloween many moons ago, in
the Bay Area. I probably don't have to say any more for y'all to know
what the crowd was like.  :-)

DanW - so far two large camps have said we can join up with them;
whatever Church of Mez ends up doing this year, as well as the SeaGoth
group. We're currently uncommited, and thinking about just staking a
spot out on our own. Any advise you have regarding joining up with
larger camps, or anything else you can think of, would be greatly
appreciated. (I don't want to take this thread over with Burning Man
stuff, and know it would probably be easy to do - feel free to eMail
me, tho!)

Dreaming of home,
-Kelly
  

    
I'm only a little over half-way through THe Book. I know that's very
sad, but a lot has been happening....There are loud dynomite explosions
and black helicopters flying around and all the Italians are freaking
out. No. I'm not making this up. It's really weird...so we've been
trying to figure out what's happening. ANd my husband keeps seeing me
in a black car with some guy. But I don't know any guy with a black
car. Sometimes I think I'm in THe Twilight Zone. Don't know. Anyway, as
soon as I'm done with this post, I'm going to read for as long as I
can. I'm also looking up a lot of gods, as they appear to find out
exactly what they're It's definitely the bestest book I've read in a
long, long time...

Blythe- That's so sweet! (and don't worry about long posts. I think
we've all been known to do that from time to time. Except for Martha.
She's all about one liners. But everyone else---We have to indulge from
time to time and it's all good. )

DanGuy- Yes! How is family life?

Rani- Hi!

Martha- Never liked roller coasters. Don't know why. I think I'm one
of the only people in the world who doesn't.

Jen- Dammit. Now I'm wishing I *had* yelled something about The
Well....In Cleveland, I think I was one of two people wearing a dress.

On thinking of something intelligent to say at signings: I could
barely speak up and tell him who I was...not because I was afraid of
him, but because there were so many people and everyhting was so
rushed. Even if I had had something to say, there wouldn't have been
time.

It's weird,like I said before, my Husband Jesse doesen't really read
too often..let alone finish a book. But he's been obsessed with AG and
is not far behind me and suddenly we're talking about it from the
second he walks in the door. It's amazing. And he's checking up on the
AG journal as often as I am. Hell, He might even join The Well. 

Off to read...
  

    

So, anybody go to the Kepler's signing today?

Hello, Rani, and welcome to the WELL and to the inkwell and to Neil's
topic.

Dan - I will look for a tall guy with red hair tomorrow night.  You can
look for a short, fat woman with short dark hair and purple glasses who
will be with a tall dark-haired guy.  Or you can stand on a chair and
yell and see what happens.  And when I find you, tell me about the Death
and Delirium bits because I'm not sure I noticed...
  

    
E-mail from Rebecca:

Adriana--I've heard (never tried it, mind) that a bit of rubbing
alcohol  in the ears will help evaporate trapped water.  You might help
that along with a hairdryer, on warm??  Oh wait, I think the hairdryer
thing is for earaches.  You never know, it could help anyway.  

I'm fighting a losing battle with my self-control about savouring, not
gulping, the book.  I believe I lost last night, really.  But it's just
that I've got this deadline for an art thing, and the paint's not drying
well (enamels), I think it's the humidity, and I told the guy I'd have
it done tomorrow...and I've been TRYING to stay away from the book to
work on it...and I think I'm going to have to tell him to give me
another week if he wants it done RIGHT instead of FAST (and who will say
no to that?)...he doesn't have to know that it's because I've got to
spend today finishing American Gods...

The other thing I've been doing (apart from reading and avoiding
deadlines) today is keeping tabs on our cows, as it's the tail end of
the calving rush. People tend to view cows as rather dumb, but I find
them to be extremely calming to be around, very meditative and wise. 
They even hum, sometimes.  Which leads me to wish that Hathor would show
up with the other Egyptian gods.  Really, it could work, as there's a
large show cattle industry (worship?) over here.  But then there would
probably have to be some bad subtext about the mad cow and/or foot and
mouth thing.  I'll be quiet now.  I need to go...ummm...paint, yes,
that's it, paint...
  

    
Menlo Park really was too far away, since trains stop running & all, and I
don't have a car.  Thought about it, as Neil will doubtless be even more
exhausted Wednesday, but whattayagonnado.
  

    
Adriana & Erynn -- That baby is doing well.  He's well behaved on the
whole, sitting there quietly peering all about with wide eyes and
occasionally sucking on his fist.  When he does decide to cry, though,
he screws up his little face and turns beat red.  It's very amusing. 
Provided he hasn't gotten himself too worked up, the sound of my
laughter usually causes him to stop his fit and resume peering about. 
He seems to have a running gag with Lori in which, when she positions
him for feeding, he'll start licking all around the breast like a cat,
narrowly avoiding the nipple every time.  As soon as she says something
about it, he'll let out a wet giggle and then latch right on. 
Suffices to say he's very cute.  Here are a few pics, for those of you
who asked: <http://www.p0mi.com/xander/gallery.html>

Neil -- I re-read my hardcover of "World's End" last night.  I was
surprised to see that it was one of the book that you so graciously
autographed for me many years ago, as I'd forgotten that.  As if that
wasn't enough, here is just how dense I am sometimes: you wrote "Daniel
-- go in judgement" and it didn't even dawn on me at the time that you
were being cute and riffing off of the meaning of my name, so
petrified was I by awe.  Next time I will be relaxed.
     And I loved the dedication therein to Maddy; Xander was sucking
on one of my fingers as I read it and I started to guffaw, which made
me open his eyes and suck all the harder.
  

    
Hello, all.  Not much new on my end, but muchly new here, apparently.

Rani- Welcome!  Take your coat off, stay a while.  Like a beer, or a
cider, perhaps?  Freshly warmed, and with cinnamon (the cider, that is.
 Not the beer.  That'd be nasty.)

Danguy- That's so cool... I'm trying to get through Sandman; the main
thing keeping me is the price of the hardcovers.  I'm up to Game of You
now, which is not far at all, obviously.

Adriana- Okay, meant to tell you this, but forgot; the best way to get
water out of your ear is to tilt your head so that the ear with the
water in it is facing downward, and then jump up and down on the foot
on the same side.  Yes, sounds weird, I know, but it works; I swam for
two years, and that's what we did (and it's quite a sight, to see an
entire swim team doing described maneuver after a meet; it's a wonder
we didn't make it start raining, or something).  If that doesn't work,
I don't know what will.

Blythe- I don't think there's a limit on length here; if there is, I'm
sure we've all broken it at one point or another.  And we'd never
ignore you.

I agree that this topic says something about Neil, and muchly, at
that.  It's a special kind of person that bring other people together,
like he has with us.  I'm personally forever indebted to him for many
reasons; Stardust, stories, dreams, and, of course, all of you.

-Will, who's gonna quit now, before he gets sappy, or something.
  

    
Rani - Welcome! Just curious, how do you pronounce your name?

Dan - What a cutie! My 2-year-old walked by as I was looking at your
pictures; he took a good hard look at the third picture down on the
right and declared, "That baby is thinking a lot." and walked away.