Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Erynn - I'm sorry to hear about the scoliosis; I have it too, four
curves, and in fact would be four inches taller if my spine were
straight. Find a good chiropractor; mine has worked miracles, as in, I
can walk... :)

Finally, a real perk for being the Programming Chair of ConCat: the
publisher of this year's GOH, Yvonne Navarro, sent both her book _Dead
Times_ as well as a bizarre and funny book co-written by her assistant,
Westen Ochse, called _Scary Rednecks and Other Inbred Horrors_. The
Scary Rednecks book has some hysterical Appalachian stories best summed
up by the classic joke, 
"What's does a redneck say just before he dies?" 
"Hey, y'all, watch this!"

Strangely enough, there are some backwoods deities stories, too...

And at 11th St., I met a perfectly rational looking woman who insisted
that it's her destiny to marry Neil, since her name's Mary...
  

    
Dianna--Oh, my God.  That's hilarious.  Am stealing it immediately.

Erynn--Congrats on the jobs.  What a choice!  They both sound
wonderful.  Could you do both part-time?   :-)

I'm sorry to hear about the scolisis, though.  Be well!

Mary (still rereading AG at a leisurely pace)
  

    
Yesterday I bought AG on tape.  I am getting used to it, as the voice
is very different from the one that I read it to myself in, but it is
good.  I enjoy hearing him do the different voices.

Erynn--So sorry about the scoliosis.  

Sound like fun jobs.  I wonder if you could do them both and be a half
price vet ass?

Mary--How can you bear reading AG so slow?  It kept me up at night...
:)

Dan--how WONDERFUL about the show!  

Angelina, who feels its damn time to start talking again.
  

    
Angelina--'cause it's my second time through.  This time I'm just
savoring.

More Neil in November!  Check out Dark Horse Comics solicitations for
Oct. 2001.  Harlequin Valentine by Neil & John Bolton.  This little
theatre chick thinks she just died & went to Heaven!

Mary (who's *very* excited about Neil's take on the commedia
dell'arte)

P.S. Did I forget to tell you that I loved your Italy story, Adriana? 
I did. And I had forgotten that there is a correct reply.  But there
always is.......
  

    
Watched Joanna Lumley on Celebrity Castaway tonight.  She seems quite a
sensible and down-to-earth person when you remove the Patsy drag.

Anyway I noticed that the next and last episode features Lenny Henry in the
Amazon, which you, Neil, must know all about how it went already....
  

    
Mary--Ah yes.  That makes perfect sense.  Silly me.

Angelina.
  

    
I read Xander the L'il Endless Storybook last night.  He seemed to
like the colours on the Del pages, and he managed to keep from spitting
up onto it, so I suppose he liked it. ^^

Pamela -- Lori took my name because she never liked how hers looks
written out (she's an exceedingly visual person); mine, she told me,
"looks much nicer -- it has lots of parallel lines".  Which was a good
enough reason for me.
  

    
Email from michaela:

Hi everybody! Just came back from my pilgrimage to Canterbury. My
shoulders are still aching - must be all the books I carried on my back. I
can't help buying lots when I am in Britain, and this time I brought some
of my own as well ;)

Neil - you didn't mention that you knew I was coming! Or did you fail to
make the connection, there being so many German women at Canterbury called
Michaela ;))

Anyway. Where to start? Uhm. I'll try to be brief or I'll end up filling
your screen with endless chatter. Started out on Thursday, arrived in
Britain on Friday, drove a few hours, picked up my husband, had him drive
a few hours, found a hotel (story in itself .. we ended up in a rather
posh hotel because they offered a discount of #30 (!) rather than have us
go back to the cheaper one that didn't have the type of room we
preferred), had a brilliant artery-clogging English breakfast the next
morning, drove another few hours, arrived at Canterbury on Saturday around
noon. Found us a place to stay (a miracle, the town was overflowing with
tourists, as it apparently always is), had the whole afternoon until the
signing to look around. You are right Rebecca, it isn't ranking that high
on my list of favourite British towns either - it is just too crowded and
touristy. But still, we went to have a look at the cathedral. Knowing that
pilgrims have come to that place for ages is awe-inspiring. Having said
that, I think I prefer the York Minster though. Go and see it if you get
the chance. Rambling already, sorry.  In the late afternoon we went to the
bookstore, did some heavy shopping, I collected our tickets for the
reading and seemed to make an impression on the shop assistant, when she
learned I had come to England just for the event. Finally it was evening,
we talked to some nice people who were also waiting, traded pieces of
information and gossip we had picked up. The girl from the store I had
talked to earlier turned up and told me Neil had told her to have me come
in first since I had come from so far away and we got to sit in the first
row - I was so thrilled - I must have spent most of the reading sitting
there with an idiot grin on my face. The reading was lovely, dunno how
many people were there, maybe around 100.. there was Q&A afterwards and
the signing. We didn't join the queue but remained where we were, since we
were practically sitting in front of the table where Neil sat and signed
anyway, and it was good to just sit there and watch the people, listen in
on what was said, being perfectly happy and comfortable having confirmed
that (as I suspected all along) everything that had been said about him
being such a nice guy was absolutely true. While we waited I also got
_Angels and Visitations_ and _Warning: Contains Language_ signed by Dave
McKean - I didn't know he'd be there before I came, so I was really
pleased. Anyway, when everybody except us had had their go, I managed to
forget only about a third of my English, the rest obligingly stayed around
for my use, I taught Neil how to pronounce "Michaela" (which he managed
rather well for an English speaking person), I got some stuff signed
(including a stand-up advertising the event, which I was allowed to grab),
we talked a bit - let's just say it was well worth it! Oh, and we got to
see a photograph of Maddy - she looks really cute :) Had a pint afterwards
with one of the guys we had met there.  So much for being brief. Well.
Drove back to Harwich the next day, was sort of in a daze the whole time,
arrived a few hours ago. Spent most of the journey back re-reading AG. I
bought a UK edition over there, since it is still so cheap and I will lend
out the other one, or give it to a friend. Btw, my husband is now really
glad that I insisted on going. I am, too ;)

Mary - this is how you spell Willkommen: Willkommen - so now you can write
it.

I promise my posts will be shorter from now on.
  

    
Michaela: No!  Promise your posts will remain long, and descriptive,
and will bring us to the signing with you.  I feel like I've been to
Canterbury now (well, not really, but I really, really want to go even
more now)

And is it just me, or is it just terrific when someone puts a long
post up here?  I always love them.

On last names- I, personally, despise the hyphenated thing, if only
because I've never understood this whole oppression/subjugation side of
things; I mean, I know it went on before, but nowadays, people are
just generally rude and moronic, and have their priorities skewed for
the worse (well, most, anyway.  Present company and select few other
individuals excluded).  I took a sociology course in college, and wrote
a journal about subjugation in general, and poverty, and, well,
sociological-type stuff.  Most of the people in class (and this was a
private, Jesuit college, mind you, which was interesting, because it
was inner-city [Jersey City]) were both well-off and railing against
poverty and injustice in America, and it got to a point where I just
had to point out that, you know, people have it worse elsewhere; 97
percent of American households own a color-television, and there are
people on the street and in other countries . . . er.  I'm sorry, now
I'm getting completely sidetracked and am about to start railing about
people who want to put a stop to immigration, and here I was only going
to say that, you know, surnames aren't really all that important. 
This is stupid source material, but way back when Lois & Clark was on
the air, Lois Lane was about to marry Clark and was in a tizzy about
her last name, and Clark looked at her, and he said, you know, there
isn't anything I would change about you... I don't care what name you
take; I fell in love with Lois Lane.

I don't know, I guess.  I understand it's a protest, but I think
people are protesting the wrong way.  Seems kind of petty.

And, you know, I like Entrekin (my last name) a lot, and it's gonna be
famous sometime in the not-too-distant future, but I'd still change it
for something equally cool (perhaps Avalon [yeah, William Avalon, I
like that], or Islington] or something) if the woman of my dreams
wanted (although, I think that one of the things that would make her
the woman of my dreams would be that she's see the last name issue as
the facade it is), but I really think that one of the things that is so
wrong with marriages nowadays is that people concentrate so much on
moronic little things like surnames when they ignore the important
things, like love, and romance, and communication.

Just my... well, I guess it was a couple of bucks, that was.  Sorry.
  

    
Michaela--your Canterbury trip description was wonderful.  The
cathedral is quite amazing despite the town's hokeyness.  The stained
glass is good, and I liked the Norman architecture in the basement. I
just remembered something I read about Canterbury--that it really
hadn't changed, in tone and "touristy-ness," since it became a
pilgrimage destination.  Which kind of makes sense.  Did you go into
the horrid "Canterbury Tales" walk-thru diorama building ("authentic
scenes and smells," I believe I remember being touted, ugh...)?  
In any case, I'm much jealous, and bravo to you for travelling such a
long way.  A fine pilgrimage.  

Erynn--It's amazing how cheerful you feel around guts after a while. 
It's a regular tonic.
I'm also sorry to hear about the scoliosis, my Mom has it, and I agree
with JaNell, the chiropractor is a good thing.

Jen--thanks for the Carroll recc.  At some point I shall, I don't
know, sell a kidney, and be able to afford another big stack of books,
which will include him.  At this point I'll have to sell the other one
just to afford a moving truck big enough for my current library.  Urgh.

Rebecca, who has books like other people have roaches.
  

    
Linda and the Bay Area crew - The show runs until August 11, Friday
and Saturday nights. I don't know if they do groups or not.. I had a
group of seven that came on Saturday night and there was no discount
involved. Since tickets are only $10, they don't even have a student
rate. *shrug*

Erynn - sorry to hear about the back. I was diagnosed with slight
scoliosis when i was in the sixth grade and went immediately to a
chiropractor... I think it helped, as it's not even noticeable at this
point. (granted, it was a mild case to start with, but I think that
catching it so early really helped).
  

    
Will - wow, I don't know where to begin... so I'll rebut with two
words, hopefully spelled correctly:

                            Kunta Kente
  

    
JaNell- Should I ask 'what?' or 'who?'  Either way, I ask.
  

    
Wow, I think I just read 150 posts to catch up where I left off over a
week ago. Hello all, especially to newcomers!

Please, please, come visit my new website dedicated to who else? Neil.
I decided to teach myself html and what better way, than to make a
site about Neil. Im sure it has typos and a few errors. Please forgive
and don't hesitate to tell me about them.

It's a site of quotations by Neil gathered from interviews (not his
works) and I've only skimmed the top of the interviews so far. It's
nothing magnificent, but if you want a concentrated dose of Neil
wisdom, I think it's a good place to go. Particularily if you're
interested in writing. I haven't checked the site on netscape yet, I
hope it works. I know it does on internet explorer. Let me know what
you think!

www.tonightbystarlight.com/neilgaiman


Neil, if you see this, I'd love it if you visited my site!

--Blythe
  

    
JaNell- all right, forget that; I ran a search (it's actually "Kunta
Kinte")... Roots, and all.  I hope I didn't... I hope... er, I don't
know, but I hope you didn't read any misogynism or subjugation or
oppression into my post, because, if anything, I feel just the
opposite.
Of course, I think I'm also starting to realize that the way I see the
world is far different from the way everyone else sees it (all right,
maybe not everyone, but most, at least).  Equality?  I don't know; most
of my sociology journal was about how I don't much believe in
equality, because people are so different, and better at different
things; I can write the pants off of near anyone, but when it comes to
sports, well, I just suck.  Doesn't mean that people should lower
athletic standards just so's I can play; I'll just sit off to the side
and tell some stories and keep those who don't like sports entertained,
and I'll be more than happy to do that.  I do think there should be
equal respect for everyone, obviously, and I guess that's the problem
with the world; not everyone does, which is a stupid, pointless shame.
It's so nice, though, to come here, and find people who *do* respect
others, and embrace uniqueness, and strengths, and brilliance.  Man, I
love the Well.

And Blythe, what a truly wonderful site you've got going there.  The
design is awesome (you might want to change the font to something a
little more contrasting; a bit hard on the eyes, but maybe that's just
me), and it's supremely well written.  I really hope that someone,
somewhere, sometime soon, calls me a sincere writer.  Just beautiful.

Oh, and, just so everyone knows, Blythe has said what I was trying to
say better than I could; anyone can be a hero, or a villain.  Black,
white, gay, straight, male, female; none of those terms have anything
to do with whether you're a good person or not.  Laws yes, everybody
knows that.
  

    
Blythe--wow!  
I've just been skimming, and I feel like I've taken a brain-vitamin.  

Of particular attraction is your very own "Why Neil?" section, which
points up something I'm noticing:  I think Neil makes us better
writers.  I've read so much _good writing_ here, about Neil and about
his books and about any little tangent that shoots from Neil and his
books like morning glory tendrils, climbing and climbing...not only
that but words in strong, vigorous voices--not people trying to _be_
Neil (not that he could really be duplicated), but people _fed_ by him,
like he'd just had us to dinner and we were renewed by the repast.
There just seems to be some kind of inherent generosity about him.  He
makes me feel like a writer, as though he's conversing on a level
rather than from a Great Height.  Perhaps that's what does it.  I've
found that words flow--good words, truer words, fresher--after I've
read his.  And as we all know, this is definitely not a truth of all
authors. 

In any case, Blythe, you've hit the mark here.  Brava.

Rebecca,
blatently in awe of anyone who can teach themselves HTML, let alone go
and make such a nice site. 
  

    
oh, p.s., Blythe--I use Netscape and it worked just fine!!  Very
pretty, and I especially liked the curly, spiky calligraphed "Neil
Gaiman" that somehow also managed to look like Sanskrit.  Did you do
that?
Rebecca
  

    
And boy, Rebecca, did you prove your point with your second paragraph.
 "Morning glory tendrils"?  How very, very beautiful.  "Good words,
truer words," haven't been better said about this.
  

    
Awwww, Will, I'm embarrassed.  I'm blushing.
Actually, I'm a gardener, so plant references just jump to mind in
situations like these.  Maybe I should've used "pumpkin vine tendrils"
in this case, but then again they don't really climb, do they...
Rebecca,
chuckling at the notion of tangents crawling along the ground and
taking over the yard, challenged only by the zucchini...
  

    
Michaela--Have no worries about long posts, especially those as lovely
as that.  I very much enjoyed reading about your trip to see Neil.  

Blythe--I am blown away by your site!  It is beautiful, loaded with
very nice quotes, and you describe Neil's work wonderfully.  It is
truly one of the best Neil sites I've ever seen.  Thank you so much for
sharing it with us.  I will take the time to explore it closer in the
future.

Angelina.    
  

    
Blythe: I loved your site, especially the Sincerity essay.  Right on
the nosey, for me.  Well done!  I think the quotes are a wonderful
resource and unique among the Neil sites I've seen, since you've done
all the hard work to arrange them into such nice bouquets (to continue
Rebecca's metaphor.)  FYI: I viewed it in IE5 and everything looked
great, except the Images page did that "smear" thing when I tried to
scroll right.  (Could just be my browser)

Rebecca: You are a gem.  Thanks for your words.  I _loved_ the "mouth
of the wolf" image for Kushner--it gave me a totally new appreciation
for her, since I have such a visual brain.  As for the Bob Dylan
symmetry: Wow.  All I could think of was Neil, telling the infamous
"scary trousers" story at Booksoup.  He said something like, "And then
I went outside and sat on the bench, and had one of those peculiar Neil
Gaiman moments... (in which a homeless woman thought he was homeless
and tries to help him, and becomes immortalized as Mad Hetty)."  The
point being, I think, that some people are kissed by the fairies at
birth, and thereafter, things are never quite the same as for others
less fortunate.  I found it interesting that he seems to acknowledge
and accept this about himself, in his own unassuming way.

DanGuy: As I mentioned above, I'm really visual.  What a fabulous way
to choose a name!

Will: That's all I mean, really.  Freedom and respect.  And you're
right, the most effective forms for these vary widely between
individuals.

Michaela:  Congratulations on your wonderful Trip to Neil!  Hope
you're all recovered soon.  I'm so glad it went well.  What a great
opportunity to sit around and just listen for a while at the signing.

-Pam
  

    
Dan Guy--Your wife is right, your name is very nice, visually.  All of
those strong verticals look *great* in calligraphy...I'm perpetually
evaluating that, and especially right now because I just finished 200
wedding invitations.  It's like some kind of reflex at the moment, I'm
thinking totally visually, it's always like this after batches that
big.  You get to really appreciate pretty calligraphy names.  

Pam--forgot to tell you how much I loved the "spider-souled people"
description about the Kushner.  So very very apt.  She's just a
total-immersion type of storymaker.  And Neil must be fairy-kissed. 
How else could he make that much good stuff and still have time to
inspire everybody?

Rebecca, 
who's just finished watching the puny instructional video for her new
(quite expensive) dog clippers and is feeling decidedly fleeced.  For
once, thank heavens for those nice instruction manuals, otherwise I'd
be greasing the cord.
  

    
E-mail from Helen:

Hello,

I'm hoping someone can help because this niggling fear has started to make
me nervous.  I will be driving up from Montreal to see Neil Gaiman when he
is in T.O. and I'll be dragging a few copies of AG with me for friends who
can't make it.  I know that Mr. Gaiman has stated that he'll sign all copies
of AG, no problem-o, but is it rude to offer up a proof of the book to be
signed?  I work in a bookstore and so does the person who introduced me to
Sandman over a decade ago, which is how we got our hands on the proofs.  Let
me assure you that we are not trying to up the value of the proofs for
future e-bay excursions, we're just kinda broke at the moment.  If you think
that it is at all verging on rude, I won't even bring them with me.  Also, I
was wondering if you had any feedback on the best manner in which a person
can launch a campaign to get an author to come to their city?  People keep
telling me that authors are not really willing to come to Montreal anymore
which is why T.O. gets all the cool signings and readings.  Were there such
bad experiences in Montreal?  I guess I'll check in Topic 115 for a
response.  I'm not a member, so I'm not sure this will work.

Thanks
Helen
  

    
Not rude to offer a proof.

Rude to hand him 100 items to be signed!--but you said "a few", so you're
not one of those people I watch drag in a heavy bag full of a dozen or more
books.

Neil probably knows better than I do, but I'd guess you should write to his
publisher, and have your friends write, if you want him to come to your
town; also, if you can find a suitable bookstore to put itself forward to
the publisher as wanting to host him, that would have to help.  (If no
bookstore thinks to ask for him, the publisher has nowhere to send him!)
  

    
Email from michaela:

I realised that the # did not turn out to be "Pound Sterling" as it should
have, nevermind. Guess you got the idea anyway. I feel I am back home now.
Which basically means that my normal life has rushed back in to nag at me
to do something about a lot of things, which is too bad - I liked being in
Dream Country for these few days. I hardly thought about anything
connected to life back home at all. Here's another little anecdote from
the trip though. On the ferry to England I met a guy from New Zealand, who
was also travelling alone. What a stroke of luck, since he turned out to
be the perfect travelling companion. We talked about literature,
recommended books (guess who I told him he should read), he told me about
New Zealand and time flew past. He said that most people from New Zealand
leave their country for Europe at one point or another, having read and
heard so much about it and feeling they live at the end of the world. Now
I realise that Americans hardly feel they live at the end of the world (my
impression so far has rather been that they feel they ARE the world ..),
but is there a nostalgia for "old-world-things/places" in America as well?
I never gave much thought to it before. I live in Europe, it is no big
deal to me to live surrounded by such a lot of history. But somehow I got
to thinking about it and I wondered how you feel about it.

Rebecca - No, I haven't done the tour, I don't know whether I would have
if I had stayed longer. It sounds awful ;) But as it were I felt that
taking in the cathedral was more than enough to do in the little time we
had there. Having a wonderful Cream Tea (scones, clotted cream, raspberry
jam and tea) afterwards and trying to be calm about the forthcoming
reading seemed a better idea than trying to see as much as possible in one
afternoon.

Blythe - I think your site is wonderful! Have you e-mailed the guy who
does the "Dreaming" website about it? (Puck, is it?) If you haven't, you
should, I am sure he'd like to mention it on his site.

All - please feel free to correct my English if you find yourself thinking
that something or other I wrote seems odd .. I am always grateful for the
chance to improve. I'd appreciate it.