Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil - "No!  Says Alien Maddy!"  That does it, I _demand_ books with
Maddy as the hero.  Or at least request politely.  

Oh, and I keep remembering and forgetting to ask... You mentioned a
book at the Cleveland signing, I believe it's by Gene Wolfe, and I
can't remember the title but I think you said something about murders
happening between the lines, so my point is... what's the title please?

John/Mike - Went to bookstore today to look for Planet. Found Planet. 
Had forgotten to bring money.  -sigh-  Oh, and a belated welcome.  :-)

Jen, whose lil bro once introduced himself by saying "Call me Ishtar!"
and hasn't been allowed to live it down since.
  

    

At a guess, I'd say you were talking about Gene Wolfe's PEACE.
  

    
JaNell -- Gwenda takes her Looking After Me When Lorraine Can't duties
very seriously.

Will -- you're welcome. As for a single? I don't think so -- I suspect
we'd raise more money for RAINN doing it as a poster or a booklet.
When you start making singles lots of money vanishes into operating
expenses...

INSTRUCTIONS is in the Datlow/Windling book A WOLF AT THE DOOR and wil
be a Brian Froud-painted poster later this year as a CBLDF benefit.

Dan -- how long? Probably until the VARIETY announcement, I guess.

JaNell -- I have a feeling that you might have her age and motivation
wrong, but I am sure I did say that it was Sunshine in those pants.

Jinx -- well done! 

Rani, thank you...

Kelly -- I sympathise.

Mike -- but my favourite scene in that book was the one you told me
about in the bar in Birmingham in 1984. ("That sounds like a good book.
Can I have a walk on?" "I don't see why not.") The one they wouldn't
let you put in...

Will -- given the choice, I'd rather stalk Michelle than me, too. Of
course, I know where I live, which would make stalking me easier. 

Jenny -- oddly enough, I found a book I'd written and drawn for maddy
aged 3 the other day. NO idea what to do with it, or why i would have
sat and drawn a whole book for her and then forgotten it. (I gave it to
her. She liked it.)   I'm not sure that anyone would believe the 6
going on 7 year old version of her, if I were to write her into a
story. She's kind of unlikely. 

And you're thinking of PEACE. A book that everyone should read at 5
year intervals.
  

    
PS -- Patrick!
  

    

Wanda!
  

    
    [...] but my favourite scene in that book was the one you told me
about in the bar in Birmingham in 1984. ("That sounds like a good book.
 Can I have a walk on?" "I don't see why not.")
    And then came the bar in Brighton in 1987, after you'd -seen- the
walk-on.
    Seems like we spent the first ten years or so of our association
in either a hotel bar or a restaurant in Soho.  Not that I'd have
missed it.

     Everybody else: I think I meant to deal with this before but got
sidetracked.  "Mr. Ford" is Right Out.  I think in this context, "Mike"
is probably the best form, but no one will be put upon for "John." 
There are people, mostly ones I only see non-socially, who only know
that one, and it's not a question of keeping them separate or
secondary, it's just easier than going through the But I Have Many
Names and A Scrolling Business Card bit. 
     The only objection I've ever had to people using "Mike" is when
it's one of those nudge-nudge-say-no-more attempts to pretend an
intimacy that ain't there (there are people like that, but fortunately
I haven't met too many of them) and that has not so far applied around
here.
  

    
Wow, John [Mike] Ford!  Welcome. I was introduced to your work by the
late..great..Gharlane of Eddore who gave HMFJTP? an enthusiastic
recommendation over at rec.arts.sf.tv.  Of course if you knew Gharlane,
he wasn't wrong too often. Well..practically never. Ok..I never caught
him in a retraction. Anyway, glad I took his advice. ;) 

And speaking of Seattle, what is the cure for Starbucks infestation? 
  

    

Gharlane was, in fact, frequently full of shit.  But he knew one great
truth, which is (as articulated by Jane Yolen's son, guitarist Adam
Stemple): if you're going to hit a wrong note, hit it _really loud_.
  

    
I think my S.O. will be delighted that you're here Mike/John whomever
you are. :) (Ok quick aside, DO you find that you act differently with
the people who know you primarly as John vs. the ones who know you as
Mike?)  He's been after me to read Planet for months, and I might just
cave into his Treker-ness so I don't miss out on something.

However I can remember the first story I'd read of yours "There Will
Be a Sign" It was either in Analog or Asimov, and I was about 12
digging through my father's massive collection of sci-fi mags. It was
old then and must have come out about 79. I won't tell you how old I am
know as not to date myself.

I too, perfer to game with people I know, it seems to flow better and
my temper seens to be easier to keep in check.

Neil~ Thank you :) My mother is having it framed, and I'm thinking of
throwing a rejection party. Of course I'm sure the 15th one will not
get such a response.


Jinxie attempting to type after having her nails done
  

    
Mike. Right. Got it. *notes to self, knock it off with
tongue-tiedness* .... and I second Jinx's question, partly because I
too go by many different names, as does my Other, and am curious what
your reactions are to having/being addressed by different names by
different people.

*blinks* That was odd. As some of you might have somewhat gathered
(hell, I think I might have stated it a few hundred posts back), my
Other and I were Separated/Divorcing for a while... except now we're
not (quite the opposite, I think, as I find myself living with him
again)... anyhow, we're still in the midst of moving my stuff in, and
cleaning, and he just came up and said "remember when we got these..."
and showed me this, well, I'm not sure what it was. Anyhow, I was
convinced I'd never seen it before, he kept insisting I had... and then
suddenly stopped midsentance, "oh... you're right, that wasn't you...
memory issues, sorry..."

I'm sure there is some lesson to be learned there... but right now I'm
sticking to my current, which is... "now that you've proven that two
people, a four door sedan and a rollerskate of a truck can move a two
bedroom, second floor apartment by themselves,... NEVER do it again..."

-Kelly, tired and aching
  

    
     Jinx/Kelly -- I'm not conscious of a difference.  The largest
pool of non-Mike people (much nicer than calling them . . . uh, never
mind) right now would be the Transplant Clinic staff, who all know me
very well by now.  It's not an impersonal "hospital office," since the
patients are all regulars.  With them, it's at least partly a matter of
not wanting to have the wrong name accidentally get into the records.
     If I hear one name when among people who use the other, I'm less
likely to turn around automatically, but again, I do what I can not to
divide people by that.  It's just a circumstance of circumstances, if
you like.

Jinx -- "Sign" was in Asimov's, way back when.  I can't remember now
whether Ben had seen it at Analog or not.
     A few years after "Sign" there was "Waiting for the Morning
Bird," which is also about the Shuttle (the real one that time).  There
was going to be a third story, "Brighter Mansions," about . . . um . .
. a shuttle crashing on launch.  (Wasn't really me who was prophetic,
it was Harry Stine, who pointed out that a prang, to use the technical
term, was a mechanical inevitability.)  I spent about three years
trying to hammer the melodrama out of the thing, and then events
overtook it.  Odd now to think of what would have happened if I -had-
published it, melodrama or not.  (Nothing, of course.  The only heroic
figure in that mess was Richard Feynman.)
  

    
Poul Anderson died yesterday.  There's notices all over the place,
like sfwa.org and the Locus site.
     I think that the Download Neil's Brain or Otherwise Make Him
Immortal Project needs to be accelerated.
  

    
Well, since Mike is the best form, I'll go with Mike then-- if you
don't mind my asking, how did the division come up in the first place? 
I'm just always fascinated by names, and curious...

Um, I think it was JaNell (the window isn't big enough, so I can't be
sure)-- Oh.  Er, well, I'm not a big Cure fan, either.

Jinx- Congrats.  And thus it begins...

Neil- Thanks <off looking for book>... and how's Claudia?

And darnitall, I haven't been able to find HMFJTP yet.  Grrr.  Damned
Barnes&Nobles, and Borders, and Strand (and, yanno, I've been looking
for HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE for months now!  Months, I tell you.  It has
literally become a tri-state search which has, as yet, yielded naught
in the way of results).

Oh, and speaking of books; Tara, thanks so much, and don't worry about
delays or suchlike on the Twain book.  If you'll give me your address,
I can cover the shipping, if you want.  Just let me know...
  

    
Will--
Take a peek at www.abebooks.com -- I did a quick search and came up
with 109 matches. Rare/unusual items seem to get sold faster than they
get de-listed, but I would guess that 109 is a pretty safe bet you'll
find what you're looking for.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
Thanks, bill^2, but I've had problems with shipping to my apartment,
so I usually have to find things in real life.  That, and I don't have
a credit card, really.
  

    
*blinks* Someone asked the cure for Starbucks infestation... if you
listen to the WTO folks here, it involves bricks... lots of them.
Myself, I prefer the more tame method of brewing my own coffee.  :-) 
Out and about, if I must have a coffee fix, I don't mind much going to
any of the chains (Starbucks, Tullys, Seattles Best), but will choose a
nice independant store first, if there is the option. (Sadly, there
often isn't an option...)

And I must admit, I'm quite hooked on Tazo tea, which is sold thru
Starbucks... bad Kelly. Bad, bad Kelly.


-Kelly
  

    
Will: well, lemme see if I can find one of my loaner copies, and stick
it in with the Twain :)
  

    
Tara- Damn.  You're just way too good to me.  How can I return the
favor?

(and, man, everyone on the Well is just *SO* cool.  Just so all of you
know.  Every last one of you.  And I'll stop now, before you all start
to think of me as that drunk guy at the end of the party who loves
everyone.  I mean I do, but I don't want you thinking all that <grin>)
  

    
Will: um... When someone else wants to read something you have, lend
it to them and think of me :)

Kelly: Tazo Brambleberry tea is addictive, and *so* of the good. I had
to force msyelf to walk past the Starbucks inside my grocery store
when I bought groceries (my office was close due to thunderstorm which
flooded the basement, plunged half the office into darkness, brought
down the phones, the network, and caused a generator on the 5th floor
to overheat and start a small fire. So I went home, and went grocery
shopping) just now. 

Of course, then I walked immediately to the display of sushi next to
the Starbucks (we never had sushi at my Jewel before! Not ever!) and
bought a box of sushi and extra wasabi to eat for lunch tomorrow. So I
saved myself from the sugar only to get probably close to the
equivalent in sticky rice :)
  

    
Has anyone else wondered if Freemasons run The Well?  I mean, take a
look at that start page!  I'M NOT BLIND!  i know why the caged bird
sings, and all that...

Sorry.  I've been playing Majestic.  It's...it's getting to me.

Um.  One time, I had to play Elsa in The Sound of Music for THREE
MONTHS.  8 shows a week.  So I don't want to hear it from any of you. 
Also, one time in summerstock I also had to play Frau Schmidt, the
cranky old maid, even though I was only 18 years old and didn't look
appropriate for it at all.  So I played her like Alice from the Brady
Bunch and even had a white streak in my hair.  My best friend was
playing Maria, and we had these scenes together where we simply laughed
out loud through the whole scene as I tried to see how bolgey and
googley my eyes could get.  Audience and contract be damned!  That's
all.  *bowing head in shame*

Tara, I never responded to your post about a month ago, but I have to
say, you and I must have met, because I was in the CIRT pod every
single day during the time you were working there.  Those were some
lonely, weird times.  Wowza.  
  

    
Adriana Roze: Well, I worked Friday nights until Saturday mornings,
and then Satday and Sunday evenings that summer... the rest of the
term, I think I was in the Journalism Pod.  I would have had short-ish
auburn hair, HUGE glasses, and probably a gigantic dark green sweater
that as down to my knees and rolled up to my elbows. And I was (and am)
a sturdy, born-to-bear-offspring kidna girl. No waif, me :)  I think I
was writing Earth 2 fanfic and creating my Due South fan site back
then (1995? soemthign like that) and probably was always a little
insane come 4am on a Saturday morning... 
  

    
Wow, this is hard to describe/explain to a 12 year old.

Tara~ you made me homesick, I haven't heard of a Jewel in so long. Do
you have Osco's as well? I've been getting a lot of pre-made sushi as
of late, no where near as good as the first time I ever had it, or the
last time I had it in a resturant (knoxville,....I still think I ended
up eating someone elses stuff)

My Sound Of Music moment~ Well, it bores me, but every time I hold my
breath, hopeful that Rolph won't give them up. 

Mike~I have an odd memory for things and good stories stick. I was
just getting into this genre and not even in high school. I remember
devouring the Foundation series, all due to this massive crush I had on
Ian. I thank Ian a lot sometimes.

Jinx who is going through her massive collection of anthologies 
  

    
     Jinx -- nothing wrong with remembering good stories.  It sure
beats the bad ones that are microscopically engraved on your memory,
like "Eye of Argon" on the head of a pin, and WON'T GO AWAY.
     Mesh chalices and startled priests and fauceted scarlet emeralds,
oh my.
     And there's certainly nothing wrong with having a massive
collection of anthologies.  I'm probably of the last generation to be
mightily affected by Groff Conklin (though never slight the power of
libraries not obsessed with deaccessioning), but if we're lucky, damon
knight and -especially- Judith Merril will resonate for another decade
or two.
  

    
Jinxie - The Resteraunt Incident.


One of my day's highlights was Rowan (3) singing, Broadway style,
about 27 verses of the "Scooby Doo" theme song, most of which he made
up on the fly, right at the dinner table.  My favorite verse was, "...
and you gotta go to the potty, when you get where you're goin'."
It was one of times you just stare in wonder.

(Hope I haven't told this next one yet)
A while back he said, very seriously, "Mama. Let's have a talk. You
need to leave Dada alone, 'cause he's stupid for you."

One of my friends calls him "frighteningly articulate"...  ; >