Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
First off...
Martha - Please e-mail or call me. It seems that there's been a bit of
a cock-up and I seem to be the one in the best position to make
everything right, like the end of a Disney movie. People at the theatre
are higgledy-piggledy because you never got their e-mail and didn't
know about the show. There has been hand wringing and urgent queries if
I've been in touch with you. Since I haven't gotten any e-mail from
you lately, either, I'm totally unable to soothe the fretful. 

As for more community minded discussion:
As far as comfort books, Brief Lives seems to be a volume I pull out
when I just want to sink into a story like I would sink into my dad's
old recliner as a kid. I have a few books I've re-read from time to
time, like "On a Pale Horse" and "Armor"... but since I can do Brief
Lives in a single evening, it often gets pulled first. 

I'm more into comfort movies than comfort books. Better Off Dead is a
big-time comfort movie for me.
  

    
Mary or Tara, being Chicagoans, can you by any chance tell me what the
Liar's Club is? I pass it all the time, way out west on Fullerton,
near DePaul University. It's probably just a bar or something, but
every time I see it, ten-thousand possibilities spring up in my head.
It's a really old, crappy looking building with a round-ish, rusty sign
that says "Liar's Club, Est. (some year)." I took a somewhat dark
digital photo of it tonight. It's here:
http://www.eurydiceunderground.com/liarsclub.jpg

If either of you can tell me what it is, I would be so grateful. No
one seems to know. I almost, now, don't want to know what it is,
really. No, I really do want to know.
  

    
I loved *Rage*, which King wrote as Bachman and which he'll no longer
publish because of the happenings at Columbine and other high schools. 
But, yeah, *Long Walk*, too.  Very bleak.
And I loved what he did with *Desperation* and *Regulators*. 
Honestly, that man.

So, on comfort; I've read *Stardust* several times, but haven't known
it quite long enough to say I go to it when I need comfort.  Actually,
I think I stop reading when it comes down to it.  Movies, or music, is
usually where I find the most comfort (when my ex-fiancee and I broke
up, I watched nothing but Eddie Izzard for an entire weekend, and then
when I got home at night, for a week.  I had a slight English accent
for three days afterward, and kept calling people 'evil herbivores'. 
Not that they knew what I was talking about, but).  I listen to a lot
of Alanis.  I find I need something light, and breezy, and which
doesn't require much thought (which no, doesn't at all indicate Alanis,
but this is comfort *I* need.  So).  *Keeping the Faith* will alwyas
make me laugh.  And I've seen *The Matrix* some ludicrous number of
times.  Like, twenty, or thirty.

Ninave- Yeah! on college snobbery ruining a good time!  I've gotten
into this sort of argument many times, because I've become so tired of
academia and stodginess and all its.... well, I've been considering
grad school, for writing.  And lately, I've just been totally turned
off by the idea of workshops and the like.  Caitlin Kiernan recently
wrote, in her journal (highly recommended to all of you, if you don't
already frequent it.  Ms. Kiernan is simply bloody brilliant, even if I
feel bad that she doesn't love writing) that the "real world of
writers and publishing bears absolutely no relation to creative writing
classes and workshops" and I just wanted to say Damn straight!  All of
the writers I've ever actually enjoyed reading (with the possible,
notable exception of Michael Chabon.  I'm half through *The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay*.  While I won't say it's *amazing*
quite yet, like I said, there's another three hundred pages or so to
go, and you never know what can happen in three hundred pages [hell,
all of *Stardust* happened in a little over two.  I mean, maybe Chabon
finished *AAKC* with *Stardust* {sorry, that really made me chuckle. 
Like, mid-sentence, he just starts writing *Stardust* <laughing>}])
seem to feel pretty much exactly the same way about writing and
workshops.

Which leads me to a question for Neil and Martha and Mike and, well,
and whoever else wants to chime in on it.  Any thoughts about workshops
and the like?

Maure and Dan slipped, and now I must hunt out Brad Mehldau, and
Cycles, and wonder why Mehldau's name is so hauntingly familiar to
me...

See, my kid-brother, he got his hand caught.  In the microwave.  And
my grandmother... dropped acid, and she freaked out and hijacked a
schoolbus full of... penguins, so it's kind of a bad time, so I'll be
back later.  Kay?  Thanks.  Bye.
  

    

I will eat all the leaves on this tree, such that other giraffes might
starve.

I spend about a week or so where every night I'd crawl into bed, realize I
didn't have a new book, and reread some random bit of Stardust. My favorite
scene is when Tristran returns from Wall, and finds the star, and says, "I'm
sorry. I won't leave you again." And she says, "No, you will not."
It is one of the most wonder and romantic thing ever.
On the other hand, since my gf of almost three years has been in another
state for over 4 months now, maybe I'm biased on that particular quote.
  

    
On further consideration (and triggered by others' posts, in some
cases), I've come up with the following "Comfort Media":

Brian Daley's "Han Solo" novels - yes, remnants of my youth, and still
the only books set in the Star Wars (TM) Universe that feel
pitch-perfect to me, especially in this post-"Phantom Menace" world,
where even (especially?) the Lucas-produced work feels like really bad
fan-fic.  No, that gives bad fan-fic a bad name it doesn't even deserve
- let's just call it "corporate", in all the worst senses of the word.

"The Sure Thing", "The Princess Bride", and "This is Spinal Tap" - all
(shockingly) Rob Reiner films, and all including long bits of dialogue
I can quote verbatim.  These are all from my college years, so no
doubt remind me of simpler, academically-focused times spent hanging
out with friends from that era of my life.
  

    
Will, and anyone else~ 
Workshops. 
No. 
I already go to too many meetings that get overrun by the most
difficult person there, and everyone finally justs lets them run it
(usually into the ground) out of sheer exhaustion. Writer's Workshops
seem to be an exercise in avoiding writing. Maybe IF everyone were on
an equal footing AND all there for the same reason of ALL of them
improving and getting published...
But then Communism works, too...
In Theory.

What I want is some one who knows what they're doing to say this is
good, this needs re-working, maybe you can express this more
clearly/less tritely/without using cliches, get back to me after you've
reworked it. I'm still trying to work up to that level of rational
kindness when I read other people's work; I still see their heart
spread out all over the page and I get all mushy and evasive.
  

    
And back to a previous topic, Genre.

I found a copy of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" yesterday, and just
finished it this morning. It seems to fit into Horror, or at least
Psychological Horror... maybe Mystery? Has anyone else read this, and
if so, what did you think?
  

    
I was thinking about comfort media and would certainly second the
Spinal Tap nomination. Every rock n roll cliche in the book and it
works. I always wished Marty Di Bergi would get to host his own show,
wonder if it's too late...

whoosh...back to work, 
from your correspondent on Hampstead Heath, London
  

    
Rick: Yes! I loved those! I still grab up copies used when I can find
them. Han Solo At Stars End was such the fave in my late teens! Also up
there, for me, is Elliot S. Maggin's "Miracle Monday". It's just a
very fun Superman novel, even if the ending makes no sense...

Maure: at the risk of sounding like a commercial, I CitySearch'd it,
and it appears to be a hip yuppie dance club and bar. Here's the link
if you wanna check it out :)
http://chicago.citysearch.com/profile/3677908

I also seem to remember a few years back they had some kind of open
mike night--I was supposed to meet one of the Bristol Faire performers
there (the uber-talented Christophe the Insulter, aka Chris Buehlman)
to drop off a book or something, only we never connected. I'm pretty
sure it's the same bar. Back when I lived on Racine and Belmont, I used
to walk past it all the time when I'd walk home from the Fullerton
stop, I think.

Mary: Yay! Re: "Last Hot Time." I will never look at the Art Institute
or Lower Wacker the same way again.

JaNell: I read "Beloved" for a class in college, and I remember
enjoying it very much, tho I thought the pacing was a little weird at
the time. I think that most folks, tho, would call it "magical realism"
because that's the fancy lit world version of "fantasy" that helps
separate it from "Sword of Shanarra" type pulpy stuff that they think
is all there is to "fantasy". I'm sure when I re-read it one of these
days, I'll have more to say about it, 'cause I'm pretty sure I haven't
read it in something like 8 years... 

Also, I disagree about workshops. As someone who went through 3 years
of workshops as a Creative Writing Major, I found them very useful for
two big reasons reasons. A good workshop will: 1) force you to write
things for deadlines, 2) teach you to deal with constructive criticism.
I figure in a world where if you are a published writer, you WILL have
to deal with editors who will ask for changes, it's best to learn how
to listen to what other people have to say about your work and divorce
your ego from your story enough to try and see if what they are saying
really would make your work better, rather than sulking and throwing
diva fits.  And in the real world, doesn't matter if you disagree with
your editor--she or he is your editor. That makes her always right as
far as the publisher is concerned.

The way I see it, you don't have to always make every single change
anyone suggests. But you should at least *listen*, and think about
whether or not changing something *would* improve your work. Because
the quality of the work supersedes your ego. Isn't that why we write?
To tell the best story we can? 

Even if that's all I learned from workshops, to me, those were pretty
important lessons for me as a writer. And yeah, I had the same sort of
problems every student has with her teacher in a writing class. My
personal fave was when I gave him a teleplay, and he got on my case for
writing a Highlander spec instead of something that was REAL writing
like NYPD Blue, no matter how patiently I explained that I could
actually GET WORK writing for a show like Highlander hence it was a
more sensible choice. Plus he claimed (back in 1994) that short story
writing was dead because the only REAL short stories were in Harpers
and the New Yorker, and when I tried to point out that short genre
fiction like SF and fantasy was booming (or at least, there was MORE of
it out there), he dismissed it because it was REAL writing. So he was
a close-minded ass. Doesn't mean I didn't learn.

So make of that what you will. And keep in mind I've never actually
sold any fiction :) So maybe I don't know my ass from my elbow in this
dept...

salinas beckons: I heard the Spinal Tap DVD has commentary from the
band completely in charatcer. Someday, I need to devote 6 or 10 hours
of my life to Spinal Tap, as I currently live in blissful ignorance....
  

    
okay, here's Tara's fave way to waste time at work... (shhhh, don't
tell my boss!) 

I've been surfing Google Groups, which has finally uploaded the 20
year Usenet Newsgroup archive, and reading all of Squiddie's Mr. Peanut
.sig files, as well as the scary scary scary threads that lead to the
formation of the Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade.  Not to mention Lance's truly
hysterical essay on how Odin All-Father has been writing under the pen
name of Neil Gaiman for years. It is making me horribly nostalgic for
the old rec.arts.comics.misc crowd...

Next up: Suicide Squid!

BWA HA HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!
  

    
DanW - TWO DOLLARS! hee hee! :)

Will - What on earth are you on, and why aren't you sharing? Then
again, I got to work early to work on work stuff, and instead, I'm
here, so I shouldn't complain too much, I suppose.

Tara - Wonder if Lance knows he's a discussion item here... Got the
strangest silly package from him last month.

squeaks, who will bring Devil Bunny Hates the Earth to the next poker
night, if she remembers...
  

    
Tara~no, I'm pretty sure that *Loki* is writing under the name "Neil
Gaiman"; or maybe it *is* Odin, and Loki is writing under the name of
Neil Gaimna, or maybe both?
No, if a diety *is* occasionally writing under the name of Neil
Gaiman, that would explain the God-like ability to go without sleep, or
write in pockets of time unavailable to mere mortals...
Hmm, have to think on that one.

Re: Writing Work shops
I'm already rethinking my position on them, after talking to a friend
who's been in one. A well run one might be just what I need. My friend
pointed out that every published writer has written reams of crap
before getting published, and they had to get polished somehow. He
explained the very definite rules set out in his group about
critiquing, designed to make it a productive, balanced experience.
Something scary, but doable. So I'm thinking about it...

Oooh, the Genre Snobs! A good story is a good story, regardless. I
suppose no one ever told him what Tolkien did for a living...
  

    


Tori's Strange Little Girls has now been on a loop for the last five
hours, and I feel like all the girls are here peopling my room.

I wish I'd caught her gig at the Union chapel...bad timing
  

    
Tara,  I *knew* it would be much less interesting than I had imagined.
Citysearch, hmm? I should have tried that. I know the commercials, but
have never used it. I'll have to bookmark it for later use. Thank you
so much for the web-fu. 
  

    
ninave - "Knight in Shining Armour" was a very fun book :). I have to
agree with <madman> on Sylvia Plath though. Comforting is about the
last thing that comes to mind with her. Well, at least for me anyway.
Her writing scares me. 

My comfort books? "The Jungle Book" and "Wind in the Willows" and
"Green Eggs and Ham". I like Fleetwood Mac for comfort music. Don't ask
me why. 
  

    
Pamela--I did a quick Amazon search and the book you are looking for
is 'Tikki Tikki Tembo' by Arlene Mosel. I just love the rhythms of it
and it begs to be read out loud. It's like Dr Suess.

Madame Mousey--If you were thinking "Gee, I really should send Tree
something nice for Christmas...", copies of your signing photos would
be especially welcome. And I'll even put them up on my website, when I
get around to updating the damned thing.

Incidentally, if anyone gets a chance to see the lovely Mousey sing,
check her out. I saw her sing carols a couple of years ago and it was
wonderful (and we made damn hot 'eight ladies dancing' too!)

Lionesse--Would it be very wrong of me to say that my boy and I
consider 'Fish Heads' our song?

Ninave--Yes, it is a sign. Go out and buy a copy of 'The Phantom
Tollbooth' immediately. You won't regret it.

Neil--I suspected one of the ladies of the house got them. You would
have organised another trip down under a damn sight faster if you had.
;>

Tree
48 hours after her office Christmas party and she's still
recovering...
  

    
Tree - Send me a new snail mail address - I have three and I don't
know which one works, if any. You will have photos and other things in
said package. As for Fisheads - you're a sick and twisted girl, and I
love you for it all the same.

Kelly - 4 encores? We only got 3... still rocked the house tho'. SF
rules. :P

-squeaks, who is listening to her friend talk dirt about stuff that
happened backstage after VNV.
  

    
JaNell -  Toni Morrison is one of my favorite authors, however, I
found "Beloved" to be a very difficult read because it was an extremely
depressing book. And I agree with Tara's description of it as "magical
realism"  which has more in common with the works of Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, [Who can forget "100 Years of Solitude?]", than Stephen King. 


Tree - Did you ever get the Babycakes polish I sent you?

Someone asked about comfort music: Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane;
Vanessa Daou's "Zipless" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's Songbook are always
on my CD changer.
  

    
Jo - Fleetwood Mac is comfort music for me, too. And Stevie Nicks type
clothing, too.

Tree - oh, well, I think it's very romantic that your boy and you consider
"Fish Heads" to be "your song". Twisted, but romantic. (And now I'm trying
to remember the actor involved with the Fish Heads thing. Drat.)

And we should probably be careful about calling me Lionesse, because it
makes me want to slide inexorably into signing myself Lyonesse, and that is
Not On, for various reasons. (Besides, I used to - very infrequently - go by
Ys, and one drowned city as a monicker is sufficient, probably. <grin>  )

Other comfort music: the 6:59 section of Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concerts"
recording, particularly the bit with the incredible series of runs. It's
like flying. Tori's "Silent All These Years".  Marianne Faithfull's "Blazing
Away" (the entire album).  Edith Piaf. And recently, Fagatron's song,
"Asskickatron", from the live Homocore recording done in the Twin Cities.
(Well, not that recent, but I've been playing it recently.) And a few odd
Emerson Lake & Palmer bits, and some Greg Brown, and Boiled In Lead's "The
MIcroorganism" (I'm an old Lead fan; no disrespect to Adam meant, but my
heart belongs to Toddy, Lead-wise). Oh, and the Ramones, and a bunch of They
Might Be Giants, and a lot of Richard Thompson, Richard & Linda Thompson,
and some Linda Thompson solo.

Comfort movies: um, the Marriage of Maria Braun.

No, really.  Well, that and Bull Durham. And Philadelphia Story, but that's
for romantic reasons involving Mr. Ford. (hello, dear, if you read this.)
  

    
    Elise -- hello.  Barnes & Barnes, the "Fish Heads" guys, included
Bill Mumy, star of . . . Babylon 5, shall we politely say.
  

    

Comfort music: The entire CD "Celtic Oddysey".
Billy Joel's Cold Spring Harbor.

Those are the main ones, for me.
  

    
E-mail from Kathy Li:

Tara:  Geez, didja have to tell me about Google's USENET archive? :-) 
THANK YOU!! I just had oodles of fun reading stuff from the
net.comics/rec.arts.comics days when I still posted.  Had a great time
unearthing a "Neil said..." post I wrote after the 1991 San Diego Comic
Con.  Ah... sweet nostalgia.  Suicide Squid Forever!!

--Kathy
  

    
Favorite Childhood book? Hmmm...Definitely "Anne of Green Gables,"
although "The Boxcar Children" was actually the first book I ever read
on my own that didn't contain pictures. Finishing it felt like such a
major accomplishment when I was five!

Favorite Comfort music? Easy. Billie Holliday. No one is sadder than
Billie, and hearing her pain always makes my own feel so trivial.

Neil -- My latest book, "Sex, Death and Other...," is coming out this
month in paperback. You're listed in the acknowledgments. How can I get
a copy to you?
  

    
        While music has never been a significant part of my life, I have to
say that Billy Joel's _Glass Houses_ and Melissa Etheridge's
boneshakingly sexy _Brave and Crazy_ are two old comfort favorites of
mine.
  

    
Jade,  Billie is excellent - Lady In Satin is one of my very favorite
albums (and also the most haunting, I think) - but I prefer her early
recordings, when there was a wicked joy in her voice. "Swing Brother
Swing" and "Me Myself and I" are two of my favorite songs of hers.

Roxanne,  such taste you have! ;) The Hartman/Coltrane album is
superb. My One and Only Love is especially magic. If you haven't heard
the Peacocks album (Stan Getz and Jimmy Rowles), you should - I think
you'd enjoy it.

Lioness,  my ex-roommate had access to a small but old cemetery in the
Chicago suburbs. I remember one night there, playing hide and seek
with a few friends, with the Koln album sifting out from the windows of
his car. It was wonderful, and I think of that every time I hear Keith
Jarrett.