Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Wow, new hair for squeaks, work for Madman... ok, I'll work on
poker/story/something or other night as soon as I can. Maybe we can
find a garden gnome, some accessories from Good Vibrations and some
Super Glue and make a treat for Linda as well.

I just ordered some Lafferty short story collections from Amazon, so
maybe I'll read one of those...
  

    
Maure--glad you had a good time in Texas.  Sorry the weather couldn't
be better here, but who knows?  By the time you get home tomorrow, it
could be 94 degrees & sunny.  Are you going to Horrorcon in a few
weeks?  We should try to meet.  I'm pretty sure Tara is coming with me.
  And our friend Debbie, and the coolest 12-year-old ever <tm>

Hey, Neil--when you get a second, what's your schedule like for
Horrorcon?  The website hasn't been too  helpful yet.  Which days are
you reading?  And are you & Gene Wolfe doing a reading or anything
together?  

Anybody else coming to World Horror?

I have deduced that a) the Drunken Master that I saw was indeed the
second one, and b) seeing that movie can infect one with the insane
desire to see every Jackie Chan movie ever made and to force everyone
you know to see Legend of the Drunken Master.  There is no cure.  Help
me! and c) eBay is *really* bad for Jackie Chan junkies.  *Really* bad.

Mary (who just started Princes of the Air by somebody named Ford...)
  

    
I'm just interrupting my complete and utter housebuyer emotional
breakdown to say...

Adriana is a Real FanGirl because she has a Sandman poster over her
loo.

And Howard Shore won for Best Original Score.  Which was all I asked. 
The world can sleep in peace.

Glad to see everyone's well on the, er... here.
  

    
maure -- I passed on a chunck of the post with Megan's e-mail to Holly
via e-mail. She has Hotmail, which seems to mean that mail from me
goes automatically to her junk folder and is then deleted, but she may
read it.

dan -- let us know what you think of the Lafferty

mary -- I wish I knew. I keep getting asked to do extra things at
World Horror, and I say "I don't know, I haven't seen my schedule...".
It would be enormously fun if Gene and I were to do a reading.

pamela -- so how was the garage sale?
  

    
It's true.  She said so in VANITY FAIR.

Neil, et. al.: For the truly intrepid, the full gory details of the
garage sale are here:

http://www.pamela-birdsnest.net/item.asp?user=Pamela_bird&tab=weblogs&uid=1092
165

For the less interested, it can be summed up thusly:

1.  Garage sales are anti-Pam
2.  People are gorgeous
  

    

Great description, Pam!!  I wish there were photos.

Dan - do not allow my gnome anywhere near Good Vibrations!

Aside from the occasional ant, busily scurrying among the nest of computer 
cables on the floor, all is quiet.  Too quiet.
  

    
Mary,  as far as I know, I am going to Horror Con. It really depends
on my schedule for the Thursday and Friday - if my students have any
tests either of those days, I won't be there, but I definitely will
come on Saturday and Sunday. I would be delighted to meet you, Tara,
and the coolest 12 year old ever.

Neil,  thank you. I told Megan to think about how she'd feel being
invited to hang out with someone she didn't know at all, but she said
she'd like it. I would run away, myself. I hope your speaking
engagement goes very well tonight. I am still haunted by the hour of
Coraline. It's not a bad sort; it's a lovely sort of haunting. And July
will be here soon. Did you say the audio book will be out in May? 

Pam,  that was lovely.
  

    
Pam- I love your weblog, it's so inspiring!
  

    
Maure -- Screw the vet. What does he know anyway??? I drove from Miami
to San Francisco and back again with my four cats in a white Ford
Escort. It would have killed them to stay locked up the entire time.
Instead, I let the kids have free rein which made the trip rather
enjoyable. The truckers passing us really got a kick out of seeing
Princess sunning herself on top of the dashboard. 

Mary -- Would love to attend HorrorCon this year, but I've decided to
wait another month and take my first vacation in four years instead.
Come May 1st, I'll be cruising to Key West
(http://www.jadedwritings.com/pages/030602.html). I can't wait!

Jade Walker
  

    
Jade -- well, I think you should come to Horrorcon. I mean, a chilly
April in Chicago vs. a Cruise to Key West? 

Pam -- loved your Xanga description of the event.
  

    
Jade,  I love the visual of the cat on the dashboard. Kira was happy
to sleep under the blanket. I don't know whether or not I could drive
with my three roaming around. I love how you describe the
unclenching-ness of driving. I completely empathize with that, which is
why I rented a car in Texas and drove all over. I love the feeling of
driving on highways, as long as it's not the stop and start type I'm
usually doing.
  

    
I just read this on the WHC website, in Gene Wolfe's bio sketch:
"In 1996 I taught a semester of creative writing for Columbia College.
"

I went to Columbia in 1996!! I oscillated between deciding to take the
creative writing class or the poetry workshop, and chose the poetry
workshop. That would have been so cool to have had a class with him.
Damn!
  

    
Jade--we shall miss you at Horrorcon, but don't listen to the
Englishman.  He probably *likes* damp chilly weather ;-)

I do the same thing with my 2 cats--let 'em roam.  They  *hate* being
caged in a car.  It winds up that Berlioz curls up in the back seat,
and Sebastian stands in my lap with his front paws on the window
looking out (yes, this is when I'm driving).  This has usually been on
that strip of I-57 between Memphis & Chicago, where if you see 3 cars a
day you're lucky.

We *finally* got AITDT yesterday.  Loved Mike's intro--the poem was a
riot.  Will start it as soon as I finish "Princes of the Air".

Mike--I meant to say how much I loved Dragon Waiting.  I am now
shoving it and everything else of yours I have at my friends and
insisting that they read it.  I( just got a copy of From the End of the
Twentieth Century for exactly that purpose.  Can't wait for my actory
friends to read A Little Scene to Monarchize.......

Well, it's Tuesday of Holy (Hell) Week, and I'm still on my feet. 
Things are looking good.  Now if I can survive my friends coming to
watch the Vigil, I'm golden.

Mary (tired, babbling and shutting up)
  

    
Poo, I forgot to say--Pam-- loved your description of the yard sale.  
No wonder we've filled up 17.5 topics--I can never remember the
important stuff I mean to say.  Hmph.
  

    
Mary -- Thank you.

Obligatory whatever-it-is:  DRAGON will be back in print from
Millennium in about six weeks -- in the UK and Europe. 
Amazipadeedoodah UK lists it as on sale 9 May.  There's almost
certainly going to be a US edition, but I don't have any details to
offer yet, and given the time these things take, it's unlikely to
happen before very late this year.
  

    
Neil -- You're killing me, you know that? Horrorcon is mighty
tempting. I would love to see you, Gene Wolfe, Gahan Wilson, Brian A.
Hopkins, Yvonne Navarro and the Son of Svengoolie under one roof. Ah
well...I'll definitely attend next year. 

Maure -- I never get to drive. When I moved to Manhattan, I sold my
car and I've been using public transportation ever since. It's nice
living without traffic jams and gas bills, but at the same time, I miss
taking long, relaxing drives. 

Mary -- Have a blast in Chicago! Be sure to enjoy a brat while you're
there.

Jade Walker
  

    
        Okay, see, where I come from, "enjoy a brat" means something _real_
different...
  

    
Mary -- THE DRAGON WAITING is one of my favourite books in the world.
It even, in memory, survives the original UK cover, a painting of a
very lumpy dragon executed by a talented 12 year old. But not a very
talented 12 year old.

Jade -- I was teasing. Enjoy Key West. They do a terrific sunset down
there. And we, as Streak suggests, will enjoy brats, gamins and street
urchins on your behalf.
  

    

Cats in the car,....my 2 are apt to wander at will, since both the
girls are totally able to open their carrier. Min climbs onto her
favorite spot (my neck) and goes to sleep, totally making it impossible
to change the radio station. Dora climbs up onto the passenger seat
and watches the world go by. 

Jinxie watching Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back, reading my email and
waiting for the oil guy to get finished and knock on the door.
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

Ahhh.

(sniff) I like the smell of a fresh topic!

Like Neil pointed out at the end of the topic 125, this really seems to go
on forever.

I searched my first post and found it in topic #73 (message 620) dated 26
Sep '00 (few weeks after Neil had been in Finncon)! That's almost two years
ago...

And that reminds me...

Neil -- I know this (more or less) constant whining has to be frustrating,
but is there even a slightest hope of you touring Scandinavia (and Finland
in particular) in the near future?

Jouni
  

    
Jinxie:  beware of a certain Scooby-Doo deleted scene on the Jay and
Silent Bob DVD.  It's traumatizing.  I don't ever need to see Scooby
that way again.  *shudder*
  

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

    
Wow, it's been a long bit of catch-up for me, too much to comment on!

Dan, you crack me up!! Adding accessories form Good Vibrations would
be a heck of a way to achieve the desired obscene gnome. My big sister
actually found a rather obnoxious one on Ebay which seems to be
imitating a plumber with the way its pants lie across its bottom. It's
not quite mooning, but there's definitely a crack to be seen. She
bought it and gave it to our little brother as a Christmas present, and
he proudly displays it on a shelf in his dormroom.

On car-roaming cats: One of mine (the sweet, well-behaved and timid
but loving Buttercup) would do wonderfully as a loose-in-the-car-cat.
The baby, OTOH, would be a terror. I probably would end up having
cat-under-the-brake-pedal with little Zwei. She's just too much of a
nut, and would probably try to play with my feet as I drove. (this is
the cat who, a week ago today, knocked down two kitchen shelves-
entirely; the brackets were even out of the wall- and everything on
them, then proceeded to play in the potting soil from the plants
knocked over by the falling stuff. I arrived home after a full day of
work to find the kitchen destroyed and potting soil EVERYWHERE. Nearly
had roast kitten for dinner.)

Jennifer- yeah, isn't grad school fun?? I guess I didn't really want
any spare time til I'm done with the PhD. Barely even any time to read
new literature by Master Gaiman. :(

annie (still waiting for spring. why does it keep snowing??)
  

    
Annie, you can have our Spring if you want it!  It seems to be
perpetual Spring in L.A., and never winter. *sigh*  Kinda feels like
bizarro Narnia.
  

    
Oh, wouldn't that be nice...i'd prefer perpetual spring to the
perpetual winter-under-the-White-Witch that seems to occur in
Rochester. Apparently the only month that Rochester's _never_ had a
blizzard is July. 
My favorite times of year are spring and fall- for some reason i just
love the in-between times like that. I'm pining for the smell of
thawing dirt right now. I wonder if i can persuade my next landlord to
let me dig up part of my yard for a garden...