Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Mary Roane wrote: "You're all barking mad.  The lot of you."

And this is a *problem* for you because...?
  

    
Mary--I ordered my video the day Neil posted that it was out, and it
took a month for them to ship it.  I remember reading somewhere that
they were having some problems with it, but they must have it all
sorted out now.  I'm sure yours will be coming any day now.  It was
worth the wait.  (Oh, and yes.  They do like me better than you. 
nahh!)

Angelina.  (Imagining herself in Neil drag, and wondering if she could
pull off the accent...where could I get a wig like that?)
  

    
Well, if you waited until Halloween...
  

    
If they ever do a movie of this topic, "Barking Mad" would make a lovely
title.

Neil, I hope you're getting a little rest, somehow, somewhere. (I should
go look at the website to see where you are now.)
  

    
He's at home, probably wide awake...


(Neil & his wife, lying in bed; she turns over sleepily to him,
notices that his bloodshot eyes are staring blindly at the ceiling.)

She: "What's wrong, Neil? You've been like this for days..."
He: "It's the fans. They're absolutely, barking mad."
  

    
Email from Jouni Koponen:

Still lightheaded and off-topic (and the topic seems to be 'the very
nature of Neil's sexual presence both in fantasies and in reality'...
hmmm)

Thanks, everybody! The boy doesn't have a name yet. (We've been calling
him Nuppu (it means 'blossom') during the pregnancy and still) In Finland
the official name is given when the child is babtized or otherwise
formally registered. This happens when the child is about 2 months.

Now, we are pretty sure about the name already (we're just kinda lookin'
if the name suits the boy), but it is still a secret...

Jouni (levitating back to cloud 9)

PS. I'm gonna post some baby-pictures to the 'Jouniac's online storage for
small oddities' (for those who haven't been there the address is
http://www.geocities.com/jouniac/picts.html ) in near future... I'll let
you know when.
  

    
Woof...

JaNell... thank you for that image of Neil kept awake at night by our
madness... that's the second barely suppressed guffaw in the office in
as many days.

Madman ... I was actually referring to an online satire someone posted
here many moons ago about Todd McFarlane copyrighting Neil's likeness
and name.

Besides, Neil thanked me for my contribution to the well when he
signed my book, and I'm sure that he'd already figured out that I was
one of the barking mad ones...
  

    
I just wanted to say, apropos of nothing, that I was listening to
WARNING yesterday, and reading along with the stories in SMOKE &
MIRRORS, and Neil is the kind of writer that uses words like
'lustrated' and 'asperged', which is just really, really wonderful. 
I'd never even *heard* of those words before (and once I actually look
them up and find out what they mean, it'll probably be even cooler).
I also... well, I'm not a fan of poetry.  Never have been, and never
will be, and I never read "Cold Colours" or "The White Road" because of
that.  But to hear Neil read them to me... now, that was okay.
Oh, and to see the looks on people's faces the first time they hear
"Nicholas Was," and "Babycakes," is absolutely priceless.  Recommend it
to everyone.
  

    

<stagewalker> - Ah, well, there we go then. That's what I get for not
reading closely some days.
Maybe they have joint custody?

I read Babycakes for the first time yesterday. That was _wonderful_.
  

    
I thought I would pass along this link to a lengthy analysis of sex
(and the lack thereof) in comics over the past sixty years, which I've
been chuckling over for the last fifteen minutes or so.  The author
pokes fun at Frank Miller and Grant Morrison, among others, but is
extremely complimentary of Neil.
<http://calliope.terrashare.com/mv01.html>
  

    

I just had the inner story of Murder Mysteries sink in, and proceeded to
read all the posts about it in 104.
I can definately understand it being someone's favorite story without them
even catching that there was a tale in the frame- the story of the Silver
City is just cool.
  

    
Dan - you're welcome. By now y'all should know why Neil signed my AG
the way he did:

-JaNell-
who teases me unmercifully...
(but I don't mind)

with a big ol' NerfMe lookin' sig at the bottom.

It still makes me feel all warm and gushy and special... and probably
always will.
  

    

I feel that I should share with this group some sensitive information that I
have obtained from seekrit sources- today is <soukup>'s birthday.
  

    
Happy Birthday, Martha!!!!
  

    
Happy Birthday, Martha!
  

    
Ditto! Happy Birthday and many more to come, Martha!!!
  

    
Happy Birthday to you,
You post to a zoo,
But you must not mind too much
'Cause you're barking mad, too!
  

    
Jouni--Congratulations!

Happy Birthday Martha!

I have to fifteenth (or whatever I am) the vote to have Neil
impersonators read Streak's soliloquy (completely hysterical by the
way). I don't think I can participate unless I found a very good wig,
but I could offer up my boyfriend who is rather pale, with dark messy
hair and practically lives in his leather jacket! Sadly, we are in
Seattle though....

Will--I would have liked to have seen my own face the first time I
read _Eaten_!


Ok, I have to complain a bit here.  Because you all are the only ones
who will sympathise with me. My family, frankly, doesn't care. We're
going to Vancouver this weekend and we're returning home the day before
Neil comes and signs two blocks away from our hotel. If I ever find
out that Neil stays at the Hyatt there, I will truly have a fit. 
Imagine casually bumping into him on the elevator! Alas, that won't be
me. Actually I shouldn't complain, because I know there are those of
you out there that couldn't go to a signing and I did already go to
one. Still.

Well, I'm off to pack for Vancouver where I will be helping to prepare
the city with Neil-fanatic energy. I thought about scattering millions
of post-it notes in the street that say "Hi Neil! Tried to stay
longer. love, Blythe."  But then everyone told me I was insane. 

Bark.
  

    
Martha!  Yay!  Happy Birthday!

What kind of cake will we be having?

Angelina.
  

    
Cake?  I don't think there's any cake....
  

    
Happy birthday, Martha!
No cake?  Hmm, is it too late for someone who lives on your coast 
to fix that?
Would you have to throw it away in case we were trying to poison you?

I was once faced with an overwhelming urge to bake a bunch of
chocolate chip cookies and send them to one very nice US Consul
in Croatia who made it possible both for my sweetie to come back
from our trip on time *and* for us to go see Dubrovnik together
(putting him away from the US Embassy when he would otherwise have
had to be filing forms) but then I thought she would probably
have to throw it away anyway. (that and I would have had to bake
them back in the US and mail them, and they'd get stale.)

Somebody said they're ordering War For The Oaks?  Does that mean
that *now* they've decided to put it back in print?  I searched
long and hard before I found someone selling a copy on ebay so I
could read the damn thing... =P  (and it was worth it, too.)  I'm
bummed that Emma Bull seems to have been spending time producing
excellent flash girls music instead of a new novel ;)
  

    
If you put nuts in the cake, you'd be trying to poison me, or at least make
my body feel very, very bad.
  

    
        Happy birthday, Martha.  As my gift to you, I will not write one damn
word about how you might sum up your own sex appeal.
  

    
Martha: Of course there's a cake!  Here you go!  

http://www.mackenziespub.com/party129.htm

(Ignore those people at the bottom--hangers-on and wannabes who
crashed the party.)

Also, Jouni:  Congratulations!  I'm so glad to hear everybody came
through beautifully (and slightly bubbly).  We'll miss you while you're
busy changing diapers!
  

    
Jouni - Congrats!!!

Martha - Happy B-day.  :-)

Streak - ::laughs::  ::rereads::  ::laughs some more::

Jen.