Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
As intrigued as I am by going to a con, I doubt it'll happen.

Squeaks - Damn. See, timing is everything. Any other positions open?

btw, you're a corrupting influence on Erynn... you're gonna drive her
into the poorhouse!

Pamela - not ignoring you or anything.. just don't have any knowledge
on the subject. I know a little bit about fair use in terms of showing
video exerpts in educational settings... but that's about it.
  

    
Maure--try looking for info on the web as to what may be wrong with
Rusalka.  Is she a Black Moor?  I have one that I adore.  Mine is, of
course, named Othello.  

<<winces at collective groan>>

There are some good petshops that might give you some pointers as to
what might be wrong with her--there's one in Westchester (wherever the
devil that is) that specializes in fish. I think it's called Scott's.
It's a total pain when they get sick--diagnosis is so hard. They might
have some suggestions if the worst happens, too.  I sure hope she gets
better.  

Pam--um.  Google?  Good luck.

Ed Foley *still* rocks.  Three weeks in a row.

Mary (reading Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist)
  

    
Okay...so I just spent an hour pounding on my monitor, upsetting the
cats, and alas, I am here. For now anyway. Hopefully I can finish this
post. (wait, one of my writer's usage manual says that I shouldn't
begin a sentence with Hopefully. So the last sentence should probably
read: "I will finish this post, unless the monitor gets all fucked-up
again." Or something. (sorry, grammatical red lights are going off in
my brain all of the time lately and I can't stop it. Damn you, E.B.
White!))

Dan- Ha! But I'm *already* in the poorhouse! It's okay though, I'm
quite used to it, and I'm not in debt or anything, because no one will
give me credit. You're right though, if I don't watch it, I could end
up moving from the poorhouse to a box:o I'm glad you're looking out for
me:)

Squeaks- Good idea. I think I *might* be able to afford it because...

It doesn't look like we'll be able to make Europe this summer, so our
alternate (and cheaper) plan is to visit Portland. Since we plan to
move there next year, we decided that it would probably be a good idea
to go visit it first. Streak, are you here? Well if you are, is the
Econolodge by the convention center located in a good happenin' place?

Maure-I never had any major problems with Amazon before, just minor
ones that could be easily fixed. Until now. I just hope the
unsuspecting person(s) that may receive my package will enjoy the Gary
Numan CDs and the Essential Ellison book I ordered. The customer
service people aren't being very helpful. And it pains me because they
have so much stuff so I'd hate to say that I would never order from
them again. But in an angry (but polite) e-mail, I told them that I
wouldn't, so I probably won't.

"To Dreamhaven!" she cries, and runs carelessly with scissors out the
door.
  

    
Pam and Michelle,  thank you for the good fish wishes. 

Mary,  Thanks for the suggestions. Apparently she has a whole spectrum
of things wrong with her. Within two days most of her tail fin was
gone, so there's fin rot, and her eyes started bulging, she's got blood
spots and steaks, she's gasping for air (gill disease), and she
develped a sort of moss all over her. The pet store guy told me that
one of the new fish probably brought in the parasites/diseases, and he
showed me the medicine to use, but she looks very bad. I don't know
what kind she is - my sister gave her to me for my birthday one year,
but she was really really big and sort of pretty in a really really big
fish kinda way. I don't even like fish generally, but she gave her to
me to round out my zoo. I've grown fond of her, though, so I hope these
pills work.
  

    
Erynn,  I'm sorry you've had difficulty with them. But for crying out
loud, don't run with scissors!! 
  

    

How do you get the fish to take the pills?!
  

    
You grab hold of her around the middle and squeeze until her lips open
up, then you push the pill down her throat until she automatically
swallows it (you have to use a thin, long object for this because a
finger is too big - I use a shish-kabob skewer). 

No, I tell a lie. You just drop the pill into the water, where it
dissolves, and I suppose it eventually makes its way into her system.
But like I said, it's been three days of medication, and she's still
floating listlessly near the surface. Vodyanoi, the fish who is
suspected of carrying the virus/parasites, died this morning. I didn't
like Vod very much, and he was relatively new, so I don't feel too
badly about it. I hope Rusalka gets better though.
  

    

Beams for Rusalka...be sure to tell her how much you love her and how 
important it is for her to take the medicine and get better.  I think it 
helps.  At least, it used to really help with my parakeet, Bert Levy.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
Maure: Poor little fishy.  That sounds awful. >0< Fishy kisses to her.

P.S. btw, Mary: I totally spaced on your Europe trip.  You're going
late this year?  That sounds so cool!  Will Mad Priest Denny be going,
too?  I think it needs a really cool tour name, like "Mad Mass: Beyond
Chicago" or something.  Will you be singing in big, gorgeous old
churches?  Will you get local host families who will make you huge,
fabulous bowls of pasta?
  

    
Erynn's post with "Damn you, E.B. White!" is making me think of "Fuck you,
Robert Silverberg; I feel great!" every time I read it.

Just wanted to share that. ;-)

(And I'd explain the backstory to it, except that I am not sure I have it
right, so I shall merely hope that Mr. Ford will fill in the anecdotal gap.
You know that one, don't you, Mike?)

The stuff I brought for Neil from Iceland has been run off with by pixies or
something. If they give it back, Neil, I will make sure it gets to you.
  

    
Pam--it is highly unlikely that I will be able to go, but if I get a
chance, I'm there.  *All* of my closest friends are in the choir, so I
will be so bummed if I get left behind.  At the moment the Mad Priest
is indeed going, and will be celebrating a couple of the Masses,
perhaps even concelebrating with our Polish friend on the second floor
of the Vatican.  I suspect lightening will strike.  The best part is
that several of these folks have been before, so I can tag along to
dinner at cool places.  My friend Barb (from whose computer I am
posting this--housesitting again--well, and kidsitting, too) spent 3
months living in Italy year before last, so I *really* want to follow
her around.

We will indeed be singing in what Eddie would call "fuck-off big"
churches.  St. Peters, the Tomb of St. Francis in Assissi, the Duomo in
Milan, *and* Florence, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, and the
Sistine Chapel.

I think it's time to sell my mother.

I hate being broke.

Maure--Black Moors are those bug-eyed black goldfish with the long
tails.  'Tello-fishie is about 4 inches long, now.  They'll get to
about 6 I'm told.  How big is Rusalka?  I'm taking it as a good sign
that she's hanging in there.

Mary (who finally finished the scissors keep cross-stitch project that
she bought at Hampton Court palace.  It's a Tudor Oak pattern.  Go,
me!)
  

    
Linda and Pam, thank you again. I told Ru what you said. She didn't
really respond, but I am sure she'd appreciate it as well as I do.

Mary,  she's probably a Black Moor, then, because she's got big buggy
eyes and she looks like velvet. Only now she sort of looks like Revenge
of the Ghost of Black Moor because she's got trails of white-ish fuzz
drifting all around her. She was easily 5 inches before her tail
started disintegrating. Poor fish. I've read that they have a three
second memory, so I hope she can't remember how uncomfortable she's
been. She seems to be doing a little better tonight. I'll just have to
keep an eye on her. And go you, indeed, with your wicked wicked
cross-stitching ways! 
  

    
To put in a good word for Amazon.co.uk -- they sent me a very battered
copy of Peter Greenaway's 100 Allegories; I phoned and barely had a
chance to grumble before they promised that another would be on the
way, and, because it was uneconomic for me to send the battered copy
back across the atlantic, I was on my honour to donate it to a school
or library.

Erynn -- I thought that usage people only grumbled about "Hopefully"
as meaning "I hope that" or "one can hope" as opposed to "Full of hope"
(ie the opposite of hopelessly). And there's nothing wrong with
starting a sentence with that, eg. "Hopefully we marched onward to what
we were convinced would turn out to be a glorious victory".

Lioness -- not a problem. According to some survey, 40% of icelanders
had had personal encounters with pixies or trolls...
  

    
Maure- I, too, hope that Rusalka gets better. I don't have any advice,
though. Never had any luck with fish. I've had every pet under the
sun: hampsters, hundreds of mice, cats, dogs, reptiles, aquatic frogs,
Praying Mantis', ants...but I've never been able to keep fish alive.
But I do know how to light candles, so I just lit one for Rusalka. 

Neil- You're right. I didn't elaborate. Being a former Hoosier, I know
that I almost never use it correctly unless I'm making myself think
about it (i.e. second drafts of things). Who are these Grumbling Usage
People anyway? Where did they come from? I mean, they make sense, but
*damn* they're annoying. 

Lioness- I hope John-Mike responds...because I have no idea what
you're talking about:)

It's funny, when I was in high school all of my teachers were sure
that I was going to be a pro-writer. They'd always look at my work and
say things like: "You've got a gift!" or "You're going places! Someday
everyone will be paying money to read your work." I was published in
the yearbooks, school newspapers and whatnot. The teachers would always
read my creative writing aloud to the class, as an example of what
good stories or poems should sound like. So imagine my surprise when I
started getting rejections. I'd never heard anything but praise, so I
was convinced that the editors were fools. I talked to my mom about
this recently. "Where did I go wrong?" I asked. "Everyone always said I
was great." "They were just being *encouraging* dear." "Well, a lot of
good that did me! All that time I was ramdomly flinging bad grammar
and weakly constructed plots around...and they just wanted to be
*encouraging*?" Blargh.
(Oh crap, I also read that you're not supposed to begin a sentence
with "It's funny". You're supposed to just write the sentence and if
it's really funny, it'll speak for itself. Opps. Come to think of it,
you're probably not supposed to start a sentence with "Oh crap"
either...though I have yet to read that rule. I know, this is all very
boring so I'll stop now.)
  

    
DanW - <trying to answer without going into 'afn-g Tuesday mode'> Uh,
other positions available at present include: lying down (preferably
asleep), sitting floppily on the floor, and leaning against something
that will prop me up. (then she mutters unintelligibly about stupid
exercise programs wearing her out)

And I'm not driving Erynn to the poorhouse. I'm merely handing her the
keys in case she chooses to go there and needs a fly ride. ;)

Erynn - Portland is nice in the summer. And some of the coolest littl
antique shops to browse through are in Portland.

Mary - Why do people moan so obviously at Othello, but not at my mouse
named Door?

Maure - <she lights the incense and casts the stones and meditates the
vibes of good health whilst holding a rose quartz for its love and
healing properties> Is it working?

lioness - Thanks to Neil, I always associate 'Iceland' with 'Reykjavik
sushi' - and I'm now very afraid for what the pixies might have made
off with. (damnit Erynn, I usually happily don't notice when I end
sentences with prepositions)

squeaks, who is rather proud of the current pseud
  

    
Maure - I had a couple of blackmoors with the same problem and they
did come out of it.  I haven't gone all the way back in this thread for
time reasons but if you don't have it already, see if you can get the
anti-fungal droplets to add to the water and also a ph stabiliser.  I
did try the pills but they seem to take a long time to break down
whereas the droplets start to work straight away.  Your local pet shop
should be able to help here.

A lot of it depends on whether you catch it early enough.  I did lose
them both about 2 years later but that was pretty much down to old age
- they don't have a lengthy life span - but they seem to enjoy life in
their phishy ways!
  

    
Erynn -- look, as a writer anything you do to communicate is allowed.
Start a novel "It's funny, but every time I wake up in bed with a
corpse I have to start from the same place with the local cops. You'd
think they would be used to it by now" if you want, don't if you don't
want to. 

Find a second hand copy of "Grammar Without Tears" by Hugh Sykes
Davies. The important thing is to keep people turning pages and leaving
them happy (or at least, satisfied) when they've turned the last page.
Write fiction that people will read, even if you're just posting it on
a web site and sending your friends the URLS... 

...

Our 6 year old goldfish, the biggest, went to meet his fishy maker
recently. Sigh.
  

    
     Okay, the mildly rude writerly tale runs:
     A number of years ago, there was a Bob Silverberg story in which
two androids had sex, apparently on an experimental basis (I haven't
read the story in question).  Post-coitronically, the male android says
that he feels spent and depressed, and the gynoid replies that it's
okay, men always feel that way.
     Isaac took exception to this observation, and wrote an essay in
which he suggested that should a male (human being, presumably) finish
his gentlemanly delving in good spirits, he announce, "Screw you,
Robert Silverberg, I feel great."  (The S word, rather than the F
upgrade; at the time the essay was written, there weren't quite as many
places you could publish an essay containing the venerable bleep.) 
Isaac firther noted that, should the other person involve ask something
on the order of "And who the hell is Robert Silverberg?" the fellow
could explain, possibly selling a few books for Bob.

     This concludes today's episode of "Dr. Ruth of the Space Patrol."
 Tune in tomorrow, when we'll hear Cadet Foley say, "Muffins of
Mercury, Cecelia Tan, that wasn't in the cadet manual!"  
  

    
    On further recollection, I think what Isaac may actually have
suggested as an expletive was "The heck with you," times being what
they were and seem determined to be again.
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>
  

    
Wow, what's up with freaky computers? Mine's been a bit spastic this
week- I tried to restart it on Tuesday and it decided suddenly that it
HAD NO HARD DRIVE. Started asking me for a boot disk, which game me
flashbacks to the computers we had when I was little, computers which
actually *had* boot disks because there was no such thing as a hard
drive at that point. My boyfriend, who's a high priest of the Computer
God, has decided that the ~3 year old computer is waaaay past its prime
and he's slowly re-building it for me. Such a sweet guy. 'Course he's
trying to persuade me to switch to Linux too; that will not happen
until some way is found for me to play my computer games on a Linux
box. I cannot live without my Black Isle games. 

Lioness- have you forgotten to propitiate your house-brownies
recently? They tend to get angry and hide things if you don't leave
sufficient crumbs on the counter for them. Of course, at my house I'm
never sure whether missing items were hidden by the brownies or whether
the 6 month old kitten has appropriated them as toys.

annie, whose once-vibrant green hair has faded to a gentle moss color,
and who is having a writing weekend, since most of her friends have
gone out of town for this first weekend of spring break.
  

    
Oh, and the bit I forgot to put in in my last post:
Squeaks, it's almost spring, right? (although i must admit that we
cannot tell here in western NY; it keeps snowing... bleah) So go for
the green/yellow combo!
  

    
Being a host and all I can't have a pseud, but I so loved this one I had 
to try it on just this once.
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

Hi all

Just heard (from a very nice lady from OTAVA) that 'American Gods' will be
out in September in finnish. The title has been translated to 'Unohdetut
jumalat' ('Forgotten Gods' in english). Otava will use the coverimage from
the US edition, which is a bit disapointment since there're many talented
illustrators (I know some of them personally) who could've done some
interesting versions for the cover...

But anyways, it's cool...

Dan Guy -- Hey! Happy birthday... yeah, I'm late, but oh so sincere. How's
Alexander? Walking yet? Joonas talks a lot nowadays and gets really
frustrated 'cause nobody understands what he is saying.

Jouni