Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Pamela, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I know how hard it is
to lose someone close to you in a sudden motor accident, and how futile
it seems, so please accept my sincerest condolences. 
  

    
Pamela, no words can express... but my thoughts are with you. 

I've been thinking of Death's words lately, although if you asked me
why, i couldn't tell you... but it keeps coming back to me:
"You get what everyone gets... you get a lifetime."

As for me, I'm down in San Diego right now, at a conference. For some
reason, it just occurred to me to check if any of you lot are down
here, to hang out tonight...
it's rather last minute, but if you are, I'm at the Hyatt in La
Jolla... any ideas of what to do in San Diego on a Wednesday night?

Dan
  

    
E-mail from Glen Seymour:

Pamela,

I regret the timing of my previous message. 

Several years back my best friend died in a car accident.  My friend Ralph was
a huge fan of Roger Zelazney, so when I saw that Zelazney was scheduled to be
at Gencon, I decided to go meet him.  Zelazney never made the convention,
passing away earlier that year.

It was my first real taste of death and I still feel his passing at odd times
because of simple reminders.

My best wishes for you.

Glen
  

    
Pamela -- I'm honoured that I could help. My sympathies.
  

    
Thank you very much, everyone, for your kind words and for sharing
your own experiences.  I think that the sharpness of loss makes the
comfort of connection even more potent.

Dan W: It was so strange, in a way, to have a friend say that quote to
me yesterday.  I didn't even know he'd read SANDMAN.

As for San Diego, you should go directly to Cafe Pacifica in the Old
Town district and eat as much fabulous seafood as you possibly can hold
and then... get the creme brulee for dessert and thank me later, after
you can speak coherently again.  We've gone to San Diego *just* for
that creme brulee.  And Old Town's kinda cute to wander around in.

Glen: I'm sorry you didn't get to meet RZ.  I think that's the hardest
for me... all the things that will never happen... 

Thank you all again.
  

    
Pamela - My sympathies and best wishes, that is a hard loss to bear.
:(

DanW - Hot Topic for a while was carrying several different Sandman
shirts, one of which had that quote from Death, and her resting her
arms on the words with a bemused smile on her face. (It is one of my
favorite shirts :)

Glen - I received my Scary Trousers shirt as well, and its fantastic!
I haven't worn it out yet, I figured I would save it for the reading :)

meg (with much sadness for pamela's friend and family, and much
tiredness for herself)
  

    
Pamela, my thoughts are with you as well, and my condolences.

And I really, really like how you said it up there: "I think that
the sharpness of loss makes the comfort of connection even more potent."  
Yes. Exactly so.

Elise,
who is going to order a Scary Trousers shirt,
and who is also taking this opportunity to wave at Neil and say in a loud
stage-whisper: "PSST! The thing we talked about at my table at WisCon has
come to pass; for lo! it is the fullness of time, and thou mayest tell 
thy comely and stalwart assistant, so that she may contact me before I 
get my butt on the plane to DC tomorrow, lest things have to wait until 
the Second Coming, or at least until my own homecoming late Monday night."

Here endeth the text. Selah. Park it and lock it. Wah de doo dah. (And 
other strange phrases inexplicably current among Mn Renfesties lo these 
many ago, back when dinosaurs trod the boards in tights and fake 
Elizabethan dialect.)
  

    
Elise -- sending you an e-mail with Fedex info, but if things get too
late, just drop them off at DreamHaven. Er, for Lo, I shall be en route
to San Francisco by Monday Night.
  

    
Pamela- I lost a good friend in a motorcycle accident a few years ago.
I know how it feels. My thoughts and sympathies are with you. 
  

    
Deeply, deeply sorry about your loss, Pam.  Thinking of you.
  

    
Pamela - <<<hugs>>> to you for your loss. Just remember to think of
all the good stuff when the bad hits you hard. 

meg - I have that shirt. If I can't think of anything better, I may
wear it out to the opera tomorrow night, just because I can.

squeaks, who will work another 10 hour day tomorrow, followed by
opera, followed by sleep, followed by another 10 hour day, followed by
a Jesus Jones concert, followed by a little sleep, and somewhere in
there I'm having a day off... 
  

    
Pam, I'm so, so sorry.

Michelle,  what are you seeing? Our season's been over for a couple
months, but I'm thrilled about next. The Lyric's even doing Sweeney
Todd this season, but not until November. So many things are going on
this fall that the next two months are going to stretch for an
eternity. 
  

    
Wow, it's good to see familiar names and, er, virtual "faces."  Hi
all.

Now would someone *please* take pity on me, because I don't have time
to read the back posts, and tell me how I can order a Scary Trousers
tee shirt?

Because I really, absolutely, positively have to have one.

Especially since I can't be in San Fran on the 2nd.
  

    
E-mail from Christy Smith:

Hello, All,
 
Since I have plans to be at the NYC Neil signing next month, I thought I
would introduce myself now, even though you probably won't hear much from
me until I've caught up on all the postings.  I've blown through Topics 73
and 104, so I'm up to about a year ago now.  I'll get there....
 
My name's Christy, though I've also been known to answer to Lark.  I've
been buying my brother Sandman stuff for a few years now, but I only
recently started reading Neil in earnest myself.  I borrowed someone's
U.K. paperback of Smoke and Mirrors around Christmastime, and, ohhh, boy,
I've never looked back.  As an indication of how totally smitten I am with
his writing, I will tell you that in only six months, I've become 17%
"Gaiman corrupt" on that online purity test -- and other than "Ramadan," I
haven't even read Sandman yet!  :-o
 
I'm finding that I like this Inkwell community so far, too.  You're all
such an intelligent, diverse, and interesting group of people -- and may I
say that any online community that can go over a year without a single
flame (OK, so I could have missed one that got scribbled) impresses the
HECK out of me.  Sad but true.
 
So now for the individual comments:
 
Pamela -- I'm really sorry to hear about your loss, especially remembering
what it was like when I lost a friend that way a few years ago.  It's such
a shock.  And I'm with Elise; I really like the way you put it about the
sharpness of loss and the comfort of connection.
 
Neil -- Wow.  Usually when I feel this sort of excitement and sense of
discovery about someone's work, it's a band or a musician.  I don't think
I've been this enthusiastic about an author since I was about 11 (which,
as a frame of reference, would be almost two-thirds of my life ago).  I
swear, you could write a grocery list and I'd be enthralled!  :)  Thank
you for pursuing what you love and for taking the time to do it well.
 
Neil cont'd. -- Please wish Holly a happy belated birthday for me!  I hope
she enjoys being 17 as much as I did.  :)  And have a wonderful, safe trip
to CA this coming week.  Perhaps I'll whet my appetite for New York by
reading everyone's reviews of the Cody's reading here!  Take care and God
bless.
 
As for those of you in NYC, and anyone who's a veteran at attending these
Gaiman appearances -- I do have one question.  About how early should we
be there in order to get a fairly close seat for the reading part?  It's
my first time seeing Neil in person, and I want a good view (and some good
pictures, if they'll let me take some)!  Neil said at least an hour early,
but I think Rocky said something last year about how the place would be
mobbed already by then.  Advice, anyone?
 
I plan to be there with my brother (and possibly a co-worker).  If I see a
bunch of people wearing matching shirts, maybe I'll amble over and say
hello!  In the meantime, everyone have a great weekend wherever you are!
 
Back to My Time-Warped Lurking,
Christy
 
"She's a bomb, yeah, she makes her presence known" -- The Choir
  

    
Neil - I'm loving the thought of Pratchett-as-Gaiman. 
*silently vows to see that video somehow, someday*

Hi Christy! Always glad to see additions to the swap

Don't have much to say, but thought I'd lazily stop by and browse...
  

    
Hi Christy!

Ok I keep hearing a rumor and I just want to know.  I'm not trying to
spread anything stupid around, but it is my understanding that
Salon.com is in financial trouble and might fold.  What will become of
us?  If I'm wrong, I'm very sorry, but I figured this would be the
place to ask.  
  

    
Christy -- thanks so much, and welcome. 

I really don't know how to answer. If you have an empty sort of
thursday on the 11th, then wander down to Barnes and Noble at lunchtime
and get a sense of how many people are there already, whether they are
handing out numbers and if so can you get one, what you'll need to do
to get a chair near the front at the reading, and take it from there.
In the old days an hour would be plenty, but things are weird these
days, and you might have to be there earlier. If so, arrange to hang
around with nice people (Rocky, for example, is Very Nice People) while
you're killing time in Barnes and Noble.
  

    

What I'm hearing is that this particular writer at Reuters has gotten
information so wrong in the past that the folks at Salon won't even talk
to him any more.  Things aren't great - very few things in the online
industry are - but they are as optimistic about our future now as they
were a year ago.

None of us wants to see the WELL go away, and we will do whatever we have
to to keep the community together.  Several years ago, when there was some
sort of problem, that I don't remember any longer, that caused us to
wonder what would happen if the WELL were to go away, so a whole bunch of
us got together and started The River:  www.river.org

It's still a tiny little community (I couldn't continue going there at the 
time because financially things were shaky for me when the community was 
gowing) but there are still lots of members, and I assume that, if the 
WELL went south, we'd all head over there.  We'd just have to develop some 
software to create a Web-readable conference like this one.  The River has 
lots of bright minds, though, so I don't think it would take long.

Here's the River's History and Mission Statement:

OUR HISTORY
In 1995, several hundred persons experienced in computer conferencing were 
conferring electronically to discuss the past and imagine the future of 
online communities and commercial communications services. 
As a result of those discussions we decided to join together to create a 
member-owned virtual community and commercial non-profit online service, 
The River.
Our goal has been to share what we have learned online and then apply our 
collective wisdom to design that which will be in the future. 



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

OUR MISSION
"The River is an open, self-governing, uncensored, economically 
sustainable, computer conferencing system. The central missions of the 
River are to maintain a medium for conversations among a group of diverse 
people, and to foster virtual communities which control their own destiny. 
The River Community is owned and governed by the people who create the 
high-quality conversations which are the source of the River's value. The 
River is dedicated to experimentation, and welcomes newcomers." 

The bottom line is, Adriana, not to worry.  We will find a way to stay 
together if anything happens, and there's a solution waiting in the wings.
  

    

Neil slipped.  When we went to see him the last time he was in town for a 
reading, we got there two hours early and got seats fairly close to the 
front in the same room where the reading took place.  Many others had to 
settle for hearing him over the speakers elsewhere in the store.
  

    

Also, in response to the Salon question, here's the response to the news 
article by Salon CEO Michael O'Donnell:

http://www.poynter.org/medianews/extra17.htm

in which I see I have the gender of the reporter wrong.

Also, there is a discussion of this issue going on in the news conference 
- g news - topic 2716.
  

    
WELL members are also invited to drop by the <salon.> conference, where
there's even more conversation about the news article and Michael's
response.
  

    
Christy - Welcome! :)

I don't know about the rest of you BA folk, but I plan to get there as
soon as humanly possible. I mean, how torturous IS it to spend a few
hours in a bookstore? :)

(I used to spend hours in the Wake Forest U library as a kid,
wandering the stacks of old volumes...)
  

    
Oh, Meg... I wouldn't go to the bookstore if I were you... since the
event is happening at a church. The First Congregational Church at 2345
Channing Way, to be precise.

I hope to be there about 4:30.. an hour before the doors open. 

San Diego was nice. I ended up meeting up with someone from nerve.com
and getting dinner in La Jolla.

See some of ya on Tuesday!
  

    
Christy, just for a frame of reference, I went to see Neil when he
signed at the BordersWTC.  My best friend, sister, and her boyfriend
got there at ten or eleven for the six o'clock signing.  By noon, there
were eight of us.  By one o'clock, close to twenty.  By four before
the event itself, the small section they'd cordoned off for the reading
itself was completely occupied, half the reference section was pack,
and all the adjoining aisles were filled.  After that, I couldn't see
the people who'd arrived, and I was way at the front and talking to
cool people, and so I didn't keep tabs on it.
We took up the whole third floor, I believe.
And welcome to you.  Have fun at the reading; I was thinking of
trekking back up to NYC myself for it, but I haven't yet decided if
that is, in fact, in the cards.  We'll see.
  

    
Pamela -  I'm really sorry to hear of your loss, hopefully all the
wonderful memories will help you through this difficult time. 

Madame Squeeks - Jesus Jones is still around?

Christy - Welcome!  I'm definitely attending the reading in NYC and I
plan to be there at noon. Neil read at B&N's 20th [?]Street location
once and they weren't prepared for the size of the crowd. Hell, they're
never prepared! Maybe this time will be different, but don't count on
it. 

And since I'd like to meet other Swapmeet attendees, I'll wear one of
those "Scary Trousers" t-shirts.  :)

Neil - Thank you, I'm in excellent company. 

Rocky who has forged wonderful friendships with fellow Wellies and
Thingies...some of the nicest people.