Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(singing "Losing My Religion" to herself on head radio)
  

    
Happy belated b-day to Erynn, Happy b-day notlate to Elise and happy
early to Cameron!  (hope I didn't miss anybody)

Pamela - On concerts... just say that "Ever since The H-h-hedgehog
Incid-d-ent I j-just... oh why did you have to remind me?!"  And then
stumble off bawling and saying the word "pants" a lot.

and on not knowing what to say - I say you should share whatever you
want, you won't embarass yourself... you'll just encourage the rest of
us.  ::grin::

eggs - Oh gods, got home from a date once after eating some bad eggs
and wound up laying in the hallway upstairs unable to move.  Didn't
want to spend the entire night there but I couldn't talk loud enough
for anyone downstairs to hear me so I called my only friend who'd be up
that late and asked him to pretty please call back and tell my family
I was lying on the floor at the top of the stairs and unless they
wanted the carpet ruined... oh and could they please attempt to save
the library book by my bed...

Anyway, hope everyone who was feelin' ooky is feelin' all right now.

Jen, who couldn't eat eggs for years after but loves em now.  
  

    

Happy birthday to all you birthday folks!

Pamela - let me answer your General Question, about how much of oneself
one might consider posting here.

First, remember that whatever you post in inkwell.vue can be read by
anybody on the Web with a browser who happens to be looking at this
topic.  None of us knows who that might be, so if it's okay with you for
whoever they are to be reading what you post, then fine.

The other issue is how appropriate personal stuff might be in this
particular topic, or in conversations with Neil or the rest of the Mob, or
even in inkwell.vue in general.  A good rule of thumb is that if you feel
uncomfortable posting it, or wouldn't want to read it on the front page of
tomorrow's Times, don't post it.

Having said all that, there are other places on the WELL where more
personal and intimate conversations take place, and where conversations of
all kinds take place.  There's genx, or femxpri and WOW for women, which
are private and require an e-mail to the hosts for admittance.  There's
MOW for men.  Talking about the news of the day might take place in g
news, or g current, or g media, or g politics.  Talking about music would
be g music, but there are many other, more directly focused music
conferences.  Talking about words in g words, or books in g books, or g
sf, or talking about what's on tv in g tv or g sftv, or movies or videos
or games, and so on.

Also, if you all would like a more private place to talk, to take the
conversation to a more satisfying level than you might find here in
inkwell, where we tend to talk to authors about their books, when you
really want to talk to each other about things you have in common, or
what's going on in your life, you might want to consider opening a private
conference or an independent conference.  Some one or two of you would
need to decide to be the hosts, and decide your own rules and how you want
to run the place.  If you want it to be by invitation only, open a private
conference, if you want it open to all and sundry, open an independent
conference.

Send me e-mail if you want more info!
  

    

Hello, folks. I'm back from vacation. Stagewalker, I hope the shows went
wonderfully. I confess that I only skimmed the posts above- I may go back
sometime, but I've been reading way too much WELL and email. Just wanted to
pop in and say hi.
  

    
Thank you everyone!

And Happy Birthday to Elise and Cameron! 

JaNell- Of course I meant it in a nice way. Why wouldn't I?
(especially since you were kind enough to read my silly-ass story)
Half the reason I get on here is to see how you're going to tease Neil
next. Sometimes I feel sorry for him...but not for very long.... :P

Linda- So we shouldn't post stuff that we wouldn't want on the cover
of the Times? Good lord. I have to go scribble all of my posts now. 
  

    

 %^)
  

    
Think of it this way: when future researchers, who are most likely going to
be earnest grad students or high school students or something, start looking
at What Life Was Really Like Back In The Days, do you want them to have some
boring blandstupid corporate drool as their only resource?  Or would you
rather they knew that people "back then" (i.e. now) had complicated
hilarious tragic wonderful mixed-up silly lives? (Seasoned judiciously with
calmness, of course. When we could manage it, anyhow. And with the
occasional side dish of
boredom/hope/endurance/coping/fighting/working/changing stuff, too.)

Strike a blow for complicated, messy, silly, intertwined real lives of real
people, is what I say.

Besides, it's got definite silver linings, posting about one's life.
  

    
Okay, Neil (and Martha) - Now for you to show up at a San Francisco
Tori show and prove it. :P

As for privacy - I'm used to posting on an all access newsgroup. 'Nuff
 said.

squeaks, who is off to burn things as soon as she hits send. see you
in a couple of weeks!
  

    
Erynn: I seem to have lost the spirit to tease Neil... so he is safe
from here on out.
Unless he teases me back, and makes me feel all gooshy and loved
again, and riled up enough to retaliate. ; >
  

    
Oy vey ist mir!  I promise not to complain one bit about spoilt
vacations.  I was nowhere near as sick as you've been, Neil.  May you
be as well as I am now, ASAP.

Happy Brthday, Elise, Cameron, and Erynn!  

Elise--am so jealous of you for having seen "O".  All of my friends
who've seen it raved.

Tomorrow night I get "Sweeney" with Hearn, Lupone, Harris, et al.  I'm
already humming "Have a Little Priest" to myself under my breath.  The
ticketwere a birthday present--it's fun; I get to relive my b-day 3
months later.  I'm digging it.

JaNell--punkin, we always miss you!

Mary (who's on the BRAT diet, and it's turning her into one!)
  

    
Neil--I do wish you would stop recommending books that are impossible
to find. Perhaps you could include the email of someone who might be
able to get them back in print, so we can go annoy the hell out of
them. And Mike should consider himself very fortunate, not every guy
has a dad who'll take a salmonella egg for them. Hope you are feeling
better.

Jenny--If you are going to walk around saying "Pants" a lot, make sure
you do it with a strong, working-class British accent. It really
doesn't sound good any other way.

Oh, and Margret says "Hi!" She is down under, in Reg and my tender
care and having a spiffy time, even though the weather sucks.

Tree
Trying to figure out how she can lay a hand on a copy of the Necon XX
program (containing a short story by some pommy author, apparently)
without bankrupting herself utterly.
  

    
Adriana~ Some time right in the middle of the grand opening of
expansion of the casino I work at. So we'll see, there is no available
days off until the end of October.
A screenplay is a very tough thing,...good for you!!!

Pamela~ Thanks, it was fun, made some intersting new friends and
whatnot.

JaNell~ Well,...I tell everyone, just about everything. If I don't
want people to know normally it doesn't go beyond family. The oddest
part was thinking in retrospect that maybe I should have asked if it
was ok to mention my SO's daughter. Then feeling funny after for not
mentioning his other three offspring. 
:shakes head:,....this kid thing is odd.

Neil~ Not a huge thing, actaully you have a better track record them
most of my family. My Grandmother who named me, misspelled it in her
will. Which she gave me a copy of the other day,....odd.
Hope your stomach has settled,...and I think that's what you get for
eating poached eggs ;shudder;

Mike, I didn't mention, cause I actually forgot, but your name came up
in a roundabout way at the tryout. There was a Star Trek question on
the first test, and in everyone asking who'd written whatever it was,
someone said "If it was Planet I would have known it."

Mary~ What's the BRAT diet entail?

Tree~ Remind Margret postcards for me? 

Jinx off to get more tea
  

    
JaNell:  Of course I missed you!  You’re inimitable (and that’s a good
thing, no Martha intended.  You’re a spicy meatball, as my coworker
says.)  

JaNell/Linda: "Here forever" is terrifying.  "Front page of tomorrow’s
Times" might paralyze me forever.  Large, ominous thumbs to measure
by.  Thanks for the words of wisdom.

Linda, thanks especially for the suggestions about other conferences. 
I’ll go check them out.  And go back to read that nice email the Well
folks sent me about how to work the shortcuts thingies.  (I may email
you if I get lost; I have a terrible sense of direction.)

Erynn:
>Good lord. I have to go scribble all of my posts now. 
Funny!  I’m possessed by that morning-after feeling myself, today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to all the big golden cats.

JennyB/Tree: Everytime I hear the word "pants" out of context, I
always hear Stanley Tucci doing Latino in my head: "My pants?  No way!"
where pants sounds like paints.

Mary: Whining about being sick on vacation is always in season.  It’s
a dismal state of affairs not to know whether to record the time on
your timesheet as vacation or sick time.  Happy belated—have fun at
Sweeney!  

Elise:
(997) made a difference to me.  There are people, moments, that remind
me to get my sorry ass back on the path and walk in beauty like it
matters.  Thank you.  

(1007):  And again.  You’re my kind of people.  Or I wish that I could
be your kind of people.  Anyway, I appreciate the blueprint very much.
 I’ll be working on posting outside the lines.  I’ve never been a
steady hand with spices, though, so it could get messy.  Also, I’m
afraid I’m still living under the iron hand of that old adage: "If you
can’t say anything nicely, don’t say anything at all."  (Clearly, I’m
suffering from a deficiency of elfosity.)
  

    
hey all! many many things have happened since I posted last... 

I managed once again not to see James Marsters at Chicago Comics Con,
had a drink with Tom Sniegoski and Chris Golden at Chicago Comics Con,
ran into either a very laid back (or a very stones) Jay Mewes of Silent
Bob and fame and did not find out much at all about an indie movie he
shot in Vegas in November, also ran into Jill Thompson and gave her
hugs and "So when are you going to do a reading of Scary Godmother for
the CBLDF, hmm?" and promised to leave a ticket for her at Bristol Ren
Faire with the lure of "They have several new edged weapons booths...",
attended my first and most likely last Good Guy/Badde Guy Volleyball
game at Bristol, did not get much sleep, and most recently, a friendly
cat helped me find a new used copy of Elliot S. Maggin's "Miracle
Monday" which is now on my shelf next to my old used copy of "Last Son
of Krypton" in roughly the same place where my original used copy of
"Miracle Monday" must have been some 3 or 4 moves ago...

Oh, and I bought fake hair. I'm way into the idea of fake hair at the
moment. It's very big, and Barbie-like, only in a fake-readhead way.
Cast Party Sunday will be very entertaining in a big-hair sort of way.

Happy b-day to Miss Tori! First time I saw her perform was seven years
ago I think... My brain is all mooshy, but it was my second day in New
Mexico, she played the campus theatre, and I think Maddie was on the
verge of being born at the time. Tori had a cold, and still put on a
fabulous performance, and it was the first concert I had ever been to
that didn't involve an orchestra, and I was way giddy for weeks. That,
and became in one night a rabid Bill Miller fan. I saw her once more I
think in South Carolina in 1996, but the audience was full of very loud
teenagers who yelled out requests every time Tori paused for a second
(I wished to explain the concept of a set list to about a thousand
people *sigh*), so my first time is still my fave. I missed the small
venue tour, tho everyone else in my office had comps I alas, as newbie
HTML coder girl who was actually coding the 3com Big Picture
promotional site responsible for the comps, did not. And I keep missing
her ever since... Tho I have a scary huge collection of Tori singles
from all over, at this point. And I'm determined not to miss another
tour. Then again, I said that back in 1998 I think, too...

Will: glad the book got there :)

Neil: eeep re: poached egg. I give you cautious hugs.

Mary: BRAT? Also, chatted with Christina Neetz last week-end, and may
have crash space for us up there if the MN RenFest trip is still a go
for Labor Day... Yay!
  

    
*ahem*

... or very stoneD Jay Mewes....

I go eat food now.
  

    
I love Jay Mewes. When I met him, Clerks had only been out for a few
months, I think. He was much more laid back than I expected him to be,
though he looked a bit paranoid at times. But that was probably due to
what we were smoking:0
  

    
Erynn - Happy birthday!

Elise - Happy Birthday! Your bubbling brook of prose made me happy
today (not that I wasn't already in a good mood.. but it contributed!)

Janell - Happy birthday to Cameron

Tori - where ever you are.. happy birthday!

Madman - the most recent show went quite well. We got quite good
houses for that particular venue, and all were quite pleased.

I wish I had more to post, but let me wish everyone well here at the
Well while I go engage in the alternate realities of Burning Man.

But on the plus side, I'll have a week's worth of posts here and
comics at Sluggy Freelance (my newest obsession) to look forward to
when I return. That... and the actors should be off book... joy!
  

    

Sluggy Freelance is a worthwhile obsession.
And I'm very glad to hear your show went well. I am looking forward to your
next offerings!
  

    
Pam!  I was beginning to worry you'd crept off...glad you liked the
chicken story.  It was kind of mortifying when it happened, but far too
humorous to keep to myself, in the end.  One of those things you need
to get off your chest.  Yes, they did ask permission first, very
nicely. 
I've been feeling rather quiet these past few weeks, nowhere near as
exciting and eventful as most posts here.  But:  I did drive through a
great big evil storm this afternoon, which gave me the shivers.  In a
good way.  
Oh yes--Pam, re: privacy, have you looked at <well2001.pri>?  It's a
private conference for people who've joined this year.  Very quiet and
cozy and friendly and such.  
  

    
Hmmm, I don't *remember* hearing that echo when I posted...
  

    
And, oh, happy birthdays to all of the other Leos out there!
  

    
Pamela - Every time I hear the word pants I think of an episode of
Round the Twist where the one kid was cursed to say "without my pants"
after everything he said.  It's also one of the fun things to say after
reading a fortune cookie.  Like "In bed" and "with children", although
all three in a row is a bit much and scary...  Have I said this
before?  I'm constantly paranoid about repeating myself, and because I
lead a pretty boring life I am in constant danger of doing so. Look! 
Two constants in one sentence!  I _am_ repeating myself! -sigh- 
::wanders off::

Jen.
"I can't stop saying without my pants, without my pants."  
  

    
E-mail from Michaela:

Hi all,

long time no write - I'm back in Germany, though not home - my best friend
suddenly decided to have a major crisis in her life, so here I am.
Anyway, seems like a lot has happened while I was in England. I hope
everyone who suffered from salmonella poisoning is feeling better by now - I
hope it is an experience I'll never have; we keep chickens though, so we
know how old our eggs are. Are you serious about cookie dough with
"reconstituted egg white"?? That sounds ... very  .... American to me ;)
My trip to England was fine, spent a wonderful weekend in the Dales and the
Lake District. Had lots of time during the week to go shopping in Derby. I
found an Oxfam shop - ever since Mrs. Whitacker I love puttering around in
those shops - didn't find any interesting old lamps or stuff, but picked up
a copy of one of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series books, which made me
very very happy. It cost all of 59p and it really beats ordering them for a
few dollars plus a few dollars shipping - *happy dance*. Plus there was a
lovely cluttered second hand bookstore with a whole big shelf of
Fantasy/SciFi - and in my pile of books I dragged to the counter, there was
a copy of _How Much For Just The Planet_.
Mike - how on earth did you get away with writing this book? Somehow I had
always imagined Star Trek Novels to be ... different. (I think I'll go on
hating Star Trek  and just make an exception for your book).

Michaela 
  

    
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.....

Oh, my God.  Oh. My. God.  

George Hearn is a god.  Patti Lupone should be the Empress of the
Universe.  Stephen Sondheim was in the house.  Davis Gaines may be the
finest tenor I've ever heard.  Sherrill Milnes is....Sherrill Milnes. 
To hear him & George Hearn sing together......

Obviously, words fail me.  And on top of all of this, I found out my
boss at work has known Patti Lupone for years.  It's been a weird day.

the BRAT diet is Banana, Rice, Applesauce & Toast, and they give it to
children when their stomachs are.....delicate.  They've put me on it,
and I don't mind much, but there's so much sugar (part of the point,
I'm sure, is to get lots of sucrose & glucose into you to keep you from
dehydrating) and I don't normally eat this much processed sugar.  So
I'm hyper as all get out, and have that icky sugar aftertaste in my
mouth.  Blecch.  I'm ready to go back to Nutrasweet!

Tara--oooooh.  You rock.  Todd is going to Madcon........

Mary (goes off singing--"I feel you, Johanna..." to look for a
soundtrack)
  

    
     Linda -- I got away with REFLECTION because there was a different
editorial regime in place.  I got away with PLANET because it was sold
before the regime changed, and the "editor" (quotes because he had
neither skill or talent) was given early on to understand that this was
what he was going to get.  His entire editorial contribution was to
demand the removal of a couple of scenes, attempt to mess with the song
lyrics, and insist on Marc Okrand's semiotics-free version of the
Klingon language even when Okrand didn't provide the word I needed.
     My favorite point there was that the Okrand dictionary had a word
for "ponytail holder," but not for "radiation."  At one point I
thought about having an Enterprise crewman discover this failing in the
Universal Translator ("What do you mean, we're being bombarded by
ionizing ponytail holders?"), but it would have been a bit too obscure
even for that book.