Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
went a little crazy and redesigned ljconstantine.com today. Didn't
mean to... it just kind of happened. I actually meant to work on some
designs for work, but got carried away with one design that i rather
liekd, but wouldn't work for a corporate site, so I adapted it for my
homepage. I'd actually had the old homepage design for over a year now,
which is actually a very long life for a web site design. Any folks
want me know what you think? it's kinda spare at the moment, much
simplier than the old one... 

Some folks rearrange furniture. Some folks organise their tapes or
cds. I apparently reinvent my website. It's spooky to realise I've had
the site--under a number of different addresses--for almost 7 years
now. And wow do sections of it need major updating (the neverwhere one
in particular hasn't changed much since the week-end I first put it up,
and some of the animation sites are actually 5 or 6 years old).

Mary: I'm sure your inner redneck is a lovely gal. And packs a mean
left hook.

Kelly: Wil's nifty. I love his stories about his wife and step-kids.
I'm actually doing the Tori cd for my boss. He's a huge Tori fan and
ahs all the albums, but some of the older singles and imports are
really hard to find, so it's a surprise.  I hope they actually do a box
set of b-sides and rareties someday tho--that would be nifty.
  

    
Pam - You want to know the worst of it? I still forgot to order it!
Toomorrow then... erg.

Will - Sad about the rejection. But I figure writing is so much like
modeling - if they've got a particular image and you just don't fit it,
you could be perfect in every way and they'd still reject you. I'm
sure the story is wonderful.

re: McFarlane - Keeping my fool mouth shut in public. I may not have
an inner redneck, but I've big boots and today I'd nearly used them on
someone's hindquarters. Don't need to agitate myself further with the
ramblings of another dweeb.

Kelly - You'd be able to spill more dirt than me. I didn't go
backstage. :)

squeaks, just two more emails and then off to bathe in boiling water.
  

    
Will--thank you for putting a smile on my face with your
"Smooth"/"Pour Some Sugar on Me" comparison. But I must respectfully
disagree with you and say that "Animal" was the much sweatier song.

Trust me.

Tree
Who had the JD t-shirt and blue/black, shag-permed long hair and
therefore is qualified to speak on this matter. And no, you will NEVER
see the photographs.
  

    
Squeaks - I didn't go backstage either. One of the key descriptions of
Mars and I's relationship is "monogamous".  ;-)

-Kelly
  

    
63 messages behind, because I couldn't get onto the web (although I
could, bafflingly, get e-mail just fine).

1169 -- Ninave, if you want to get the Midnight Rose books, I'd search
for them under the names of the co-editors on booksearch or similar.
They were UK only paperbacks and were published in a quantity that
means they aren't, as far as I know, rare or collectable yet. Temps and
Eurotemps were Alex Stewart; Weerde books one and two were Roz Kaveney
and Mary Gentle, and Villains was Mary Gentle, if memory serves.

Maure -- no, that wasn't something I'd answered multiple times. I'd
mentioned that I'd learned this thing was coming out on the blogger,
but only learned that the letters from the scifi network's lawyers to
the would-be publisher had had the desired effect the day I answered
your question.

Will -- I started to be a good writer after the Milford Science
Fiction Writers COnference, a week-long workshop, in 1985. Not because
of any critiques of the story I brought, but because I was sitting next
to John Clute and Gwyneth Jones and Lisa Tuttle and Rachel Pollack and
others of that calibre listening to them critique stories, and
realising that what they were reading and what I was reading were two
different things. And realising quietly on my own that they were right,
and I was wrong. Very useful things to learn when you're 24.

Clarion seems to turn out some fine writers. (They keep asking me to
go and teach for a week, and maybe one day I shall.)

I'd select my workshop with great care. I've heard horror stories from
people who wanted to write SF in local writers workshops with ladies
who wanted to write romance.

- JaNell, there are good workshops, and there are bad; there are good
writer's groups and there are bad. Many writers wind up creating a sort
of notional support group anyway of people you can send something to
when it's in first draft, who will pointout all the places you aren't
wearing trousers before the second draft.

Salinas Beckons & Tara - there are two quite different Spinal Tap
DVDs. Each has an additional hour-long spinal tap film of outtakes.
Each hour-long film contains different material. One DVD has the band
in character wittering over it, the other has the actors (and
separately Rob Reiner) doing their commentary (which is actually
funnier and sharper).

Tree -- well, in theory I'm meant to be coming to Australia for a
signing tour this year. In practice, no-one from the publisher's
contacted me yet, and I'm starting to set time aside for CORALINE -- I
have to go to Book Expo America, to the American Library Association
Conference, do a small reading tour in the US and quite possibly do
something in the UK too... so I worry that by the time they think to
get in touch I'll have no time left.  But trust me, Tim-Tams or no, I'm
doing my best to get downunder again.


Janell -- good little article.

madman -- if I'm in exactly the right mood, Leonard Cohen's TOWER OF
SONG is perfect comfort music for me, and I've been known to stick the
song on repeat and leave it on for several hours. (Also been known to
do that with "yippee" from Kid Loco's Jesus Life For Children Under
Twelve Inches CD.)

Pam -- what a great dream

Will -- if a publication's preferred length is 4,500-6000 words, then
aim to send them stories about 5,000 words long. It's not that, if you
send them the single best 700 word story or 10,000 word story ever
written they might not be seduced by it, but you would have many
strikes against you and be out of their comfort zone, and, more
importantly, out of the pages they have allocated to printing that
fiction. (A 700 word story means they'd need a 3,500 word story as
well. A 10,000 word story means they'll have to drop an article.)


Mary -- thanks so much. To be honest, the part that had me shaking my
head is that someone who wants to start making sad little thuggish
threats would do it through an intermediary (in this case the editor in
chief of Marvel) whose word is respected, who was very embarrassed by
having to pass on threats, and who has nothing to lose by confirming
that it happened. 

Tara -- There was a Tori B sides CD wasn't there? I thought I had a
version of Under the Pink with an extra CD knocking around here
somewhere...
  

    
Neil - you do indeed have a version of Under the Pink with B-sides on
it; either that or you and I got very lucky with some CDs.  ;-)
However, it doesn't have a lot of the singles on it - just twelve or
so. I got into the habit of buying her CD singles long ago, simply
because of all the cool cover songs (well, okay, and a very cool Dave
McKean cover on a CD single I already had). The problem is, the CD
single songs well outnumber the ones that are on the B-sides of Under
the Pink - that and the fact that there have been several albums since
then, with more songs. And if by chance it ever comes up, could you
pass on that having Purple Rain on a CD single would be absolutely
fabulous?  :-)

-Kelly
  

    
That Under the Pink with the B-sides CD came from Australia.  I have one
too.
  

    
Linda: It was a Thursday night dream; I swear.

Will:  Sending mental Kate Bush singing “Don’t give up, ‘cause you
have friends...” to you.

<stagewalker>: Wow.  That is so bizarre.  Because what I didn’t tell
you—because it was sort of irrelevant and generally too odd—was that
Tom Cruise showed up in my dream, too.  Right after the police haul Ed
and John away, Tom Cruise shows up in a computer graphics-generated
trailer for VANILLA SKY (which I totally made up in my head, because I
haven’t seen any of the trailers for VS) which I’m “watching” in my
dream like it’s a tag at the end of the Ed-and-John movie.  Honest to
god.

Elise: Au contraire.  I think your bellybutton, Ascot and dead writers
beats my Ed-and-John pair.

Tara: ljconstantine.com looks fabulous!  I’m looking forward to
reading more when I have time.

Neil:  I’m sorry for Joe Quesada, too.  How uncomfortable, especially
when he seemed so excited about the new projects with you.  As for
McFarlane, I keep thinking of Frank Herbert’s quote of Tacitus--"I
believe it was Tacitus who said there was a principle of human nature
requiring us to hate those we have wronged."  Mr. McFarlane doth
protest too much, methinks.  Not that you probably need this, but we're
with you for the ride.
  

    
*rubs eyes*
A weird day of laying in bed and "dreaming" - somewhat awake, somewhat
in control of my dream actions, and retaining memories of it all.

Very bizarre.
  

    
kelly - I've had an odd day of dreaming whilst awake as well. Only I'm
pretty sure mine is due to the lingering effect of Tylenol Flu
formula. Pseudoephedrine does interesting things to my body chemistry.
I've been describing it to people as 'speed lite'.

I think I did alright for poker tho'. We missed you, Linda. And
madman, what was that about Replicants? ;P

squeaks, who supports Neil fully, but is rather sick of discussing
McFarlane
  

    

I was wondering how y'all were doing!  

You might have to loan me "Squeaks" as a nickname for a few days.  I 
promise to give it back when I stop squeaking.
  

    
Neil--exactly.  Weird.

Yay!  Book Hexpo & ALA!  As it happens, the travel agency that I work
for does all the hotels, air, & car for both of those conventions.  I
take it you're going to ALA Summer, not New Orleans next month.  If you
have the slightest problem in any way, ask for me.  I'm not an agent,
but I've been there for 6 years and sometimes it's not what you know,
but who........

Will--meant to say--am reading Caitlin's journal faithfully, and am
finding it a fascinating perspective on writing.  Almost bought
Threshold the other day, but decided I'd better ask for it from Santa
first.  :-)  

Mary (who hopes Santa reads the Well;-)
  

    
Well, I finally made up my mind.  I'm dropping my well account, for
now anyway.  Possibly one day if I again acquire a positive income I'll
start it up again.  In the meantime I'm going into Lurker mode.  I'll
lurk in the bushes outside this topic and occasionally ambush Linda as
she goes inside, slipping a note in her hand.  Happy Holidays to all.

Jen.
  

    

Bye Jen!  We will miss you!
  

    
Will,  I like Jarrett too. If you like strange, sometimes creepy organ
music, get his Spheres. It's interesting and lovely.
I am sorry you got a rejection. Part of me always liked rejection
notices - my ego would recover by whispering to itself "They'll be
sorry one day! Bwahahahahaha!!" Er . . . it wasn't as devious as it
sounds, though.

Neil,  Oh, I'm glad then. I hate asking questions to which the answers
are readily available somewhere. I always feel disappointed in myself
when I do that. On your blogger today, you said, "A sort of combination
of pleased and awkward, I think. Slightly embarrassed, but happy. I
suspect that this is a peculiarly English thing to feel." which is
funny (not funny-haha) because I recently asked my friend Ian whether
the emotion of amusement yet embarrassment was peculiarly English (he
lives near Oxford - Ian Kirk, for the thingies here) or not, and
whether or not there was a short word for it. He said that it wasn't
peculiarly English, but it was a fairly prevalent English state of
being. Or something. I'd get his exact words, but I'm at work and have
no access to them. It was funny to read that, though, because at the
time I asked Ian about it, I was talking about you. 

JaNell,  I love Rowan's little ditty about hot water and superheroes.
Thank you for sharing it.

Squeaks,  thank you so much for the card! I loved it. 
  

    
Jen~ Bye, and hope you can make it back. I've been struggling with the
decision to drop my account or not for the same reasons. Good income
wishes your way. : )

Will~ I made a bet with my friend Kevin, or rather, I proposed a
contest: Whoever gets the most rejection slips between now and this
time next year, wins. Since we're both competetive people, we'll both
*have* to submit stuff now.

Maure~ Thanks. Ro is, um, an odd one. The other day I was down here on
the computer, and when I went upstairs to eat supper, there was a foot
sized piece of torn brown wrapping paper on each step. When I asked
about it, Rowan said that they were poison footprints...

Neil~ Thanks.
  

    
do audition rejections count?  if so i've got you all beat.
  

    
Jen - Sad to see you go. You'll still lurk about tho', won't you.

Linda - you can be 'Squeaks' for now. I'll just be 'Bob' then. :)

squeaks, who needs to figure out the extra $200 on the books now...
  

    
Adriana~ no, as I quit acting 23 years ago...
Never had an audition rejection, but the milk company I did a
commercial for when I was five, Wolf Milk, went promptly out of
business.
  

    
Ooh, but thanks for reminding me; on my list of desperate ways to make
money was "pimp out kids to modeling agency".
  

    

You kids, or will any do?

Thanks, Bob.  I should be done with it soon.
  

    
Well, if any one else's kids are available, why not?
  

    
Thanks guys.  :-)  Looks like my account will stay open through
christmas.  I probably won't post much between now and then, I'll be
too busy getting lurking supplies.  Binoculars, nice warm coat, camera,
ferret.  I really need to start getting rejection notices soon.  Must
get into editing mode and put together a list of stories to edit and
places to send to.  JaNell, I hope you're able to keep your account, it
would be sad if I set a precedent or something.  Although I don't
think I've ever set a precedent.  ::speaks into tape recorder::  Note:
set a precedent.  I'll probably listen to that later and think I said
"bet a president".  But which one?  Not my Lincoln.  My Van Buren? 
I've got like five of those...

Jen, trailing off muttering.
  

    
Jen~ well, it's been coming. We let cable go a while back; this and my
Cricket are next. The Cricket isn't needed as much now that Cam is
working (who knows how long) in the lab instead of the field (which
means that in case of emergency, the school can get one of us if I'm
out of the house), but being in the lab means 40 hours instead of 50
and we were barely making it with the overtime...

Hey, want to join my contest with Kevin?
And you can aways blog at Xanga (free), with me, Kevin, Maure, Pamela,
Jinx, Tree, Shira.... (long list gets fainter & fainter)
  

    
Jen--yay!  You're staying through Chrimbly!  Maybe some lovely
Santa-type person will gift you with a year of the Well.  Drop many
hints.....and make sure you get my e-mail addy.  If you come into town
for Horror Con, or other reasons, let me know!

Mary (who finally saw Bridget Jones, and thought it was better than
she expected, but missed all the things that got left out....)

P.S.  Courtney Davis has been commissioned by Barnes & Noble to do
some stationery for them & just did an album cover.  Yay! for friends
getting work!