Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

siozie - are you from Winston-Salem?  That's where my boyfriend grew up, 
and his dad was baseball coach at Wake Forest.

stagewalker - I've ordered my ticket, so I'm on will call, which everyone 
who ordered tickets in advance will be too, I assume.  I wonder how long 
it's going to take everybody to get their tickets before they even attempt 
to enter.
  

    
Linda - Hrm... good point. Still, I don't know that I want to take
more than an hour off of work, all things considered... 
what time are you going to get there? If you're there way early and
think that getting there at 4:30 is going to be a problem... maybe you
could call my cell??

Dan
(who bought chips and salsa tonight, but is waiting until Monday to
buy the healthy snacks so they'll be fresh)
  

    

Sure, e-mail me your cell number.  However, I'm in a snit, and may not 
come.
  

    
I've e-mailed it to you...
Why a snit? I hope that it's a resolvable snit and you'll come!!

Had an interesting dream last night, in which Neil was going to be
doing radio interviews and people could go down to the station and ask
questions. I got there fairly early, but accidently signed the third
page on the sign in sheet because each sheet had times on them (which
apparently had nothing to do with reality) and the first two sheets had
all the early "times" filled up. So I never got to get in and say "hi"
and ask a question of Neil... but I noticed on the other lists that
Streak and various Well folk had gotten in... and I had missed them
too. So I tried to write a note to Neil, saying that I had come by...
but was then told that he had left the building already and that I had
to bugger off now.

all of which tells me that I shouldn't read Well posts about Neil
events before going to sleep.
  

    
and is pouting, mainly because she hasn't seen Ms.Diva herself in way
to long and since the Bratchilde has broken her wrist, (that'll teach
her that other drivers are idiots) she was going to be able to come and
everything.

Everyone have a lovely time,.....:sigh:

Jinxie 
  

    

I went to Cody's last night and bought tickets, so I already have them in
hand. See some of y'all on Tuesday.
  

    
E-mail from Glen Seymour:

Would someone tell Pamela that the URL she's looking for is
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store/store.aspx?storeid=GaimanPants

Where she can buy not only a Scary Trousers Shirt, but if she follows the link
to the other store she can now buy a 3 Goldfish clock!

Spam spam spam spam

- Glen
  

    
Linda -- I too hope your snit is transient.
...

Coming to the conclusion that all I need is just a couple of months to
catch up and I could be only a little bit behind...
  

    
Hey, y'all!

Welcome Christy!

Pamela--I am so sorry.  I wish there were something else I could say
or do that would help.  I'm glad to "see" you, though.  I've missed
you.  Don't stay away so long, O.K.?

For those of you that remember my boss who had colon cancer, she died
Thursday morning.  She had been given 4-6 months about six weeks ago,
and had deteriorated rapidly.  She was from Iowa, and that's where
they're having services, so all of my co-workers and I feel......weird.
 Incomplete?  Lost?  I don't know.  We don't get to say good-bye. 
It's odd.

I just miss her.  Something awful.  And I'm glad she doesn't hurt
anymore.

And it's weird, Pam, I had one of those moments, too, when I saw Her
reach out her hand, and Karen stood up (she had been in a wheelchair)
and they left together. And it helped.  It really did.

It's been a rotten month.  My dentist, a lovely, funny, charming man,
53, whose kids were 8, 13, & 21 died of a massive heart attack on the
1st.  

And my spoilt, beautiful 'Tello-fishie ( a black Moor goldfish) died
last week of unknown causes.  I had had him 2 years.  I have convinced
myself it's my fault.  God, sometimes I am so Catholic.

OK, this post is waaaay too depressing.  I hope you all have a lovely
time at the reading. Please post lots & lots & tell us all about it. 
Pictures, too, if you can.  Yay!  Signings are fun, but readings are
*wonderful*.  I'm so looking forward to Humanities this year!

Mary (reading Lady Slings the Booze by Spider Robinson, and who has
ordered the last 3 books in the Urth of the New Sun series by Gene
Wolfe, and who holds Neil completely responsible, because he
recommended Mr. Wolfe in the first place  ;-) )
  

    
Mary, I'm so sorry, that's so much to accept in a short period of
time. Drop me a line if you need anything. Those poor kids. 
  

    
May - oh my... I'm sorry. Words, as they often seem to do when
confronted with the reality of our mortality, fail me.

Adam - if by any wild chance you go breezing into the church while the
rest of us are in Will Call.. will you save us some seats? It seems
I'm filming that day, so I may not be as astoundingly early as I was
hoping.

Neil - do you by any wild chance have a vestigal sixth finger? If so,
there may be the possibility of getting caught up... 

(in order to understand this post, you all must come see The Six
Fingers of Time, when it hits the stage in October. This has been yet
another bit of Shameless Self Promotion.)
  

    

Lemme know how many seats to try to hold and I'll see what I can do.

Some pictures to cheer up the conference in general:
http://www.tumbolia.org/kitten/
  

    
Mary -  Words fail me. {HUG}  

Jinxie -  I was so looking forward to seeing you too!  There's no way
you can take a "sick" day?  Leave early?  Build an android to take your
place?  Pleeeeese?  

Madman - Thank you. Cute kittens are definitely emotional crack.  ;>
  

    
God, Mary, I'm so sorry.  Quite a bit for such a short period of time.

Today I'm going to dance with my sister in another recital.  Two
different songs.  I'm a little nervous.

To put it out of my head, I finally went to the *Coraline* site, and
let it load completely (I'm impatient, most of the time).  Very, very
impressed.  How wonderfully.... well, wonderful.
I followed the link and ordered my CD copy from Amazon.  Should be
here by the middle of next week.
I've decided, upon careful consideration and after viewing the
website, that I'm going to give it to my sister first, and let her read
it and decide whether or not it's okay for my ever-so-sensitive
psyche; she reads *Lenore*, and *JTHM*, so I think she can handle it
and tell me if I can.
In the meantime, I'm going to hide under my covers and make a small
platypus out of yarn.
I think things are best this way.

And now I must go help my sister cut her costume.  Wish me luck!
  

    
Mary -- and a hug from me.

I was going to post about how my usual laptop just upped and died 24
hours before I leave for SF, but it seems less important now.
  

    

Oh, dear, Mary.  So much to deal with.  Beams to you, and to the families 
of those who have passed.  Have you considered having your own memorial 
service for your boss for those who could not attend her family's service? 

Thanks for the kitty pictures, madman!  I need a seat, too, please while I 
wrestle with will-call.

Will:  merde!
And, I just got a silver platypus.  When you're done with your yarn 
platypus, I think they should meet, don't you?
  

    
Ummm... hello.

I'm quite the lurker. Usually rant at my monitor instead of putting
things in writing... or just sent an email directly.  Hmmm.  It's the
shy thing coming out but I did meet some of you at the Vroman's reading
and that was quite lovely.

And speaking of lovely, it seems the universe said I should go to the
reading in Berkeley.  I wanted to then looked at the surroundings and
decided I couldn't. Yesterday a pair of frequent flier tickets arrived.
So I've taken this as a sign and taken the appropriate measures. Since
I'll be arriving at noon and will probably be at the venue shortly
there after, I'll offer to hold seats (at this time that's two...
correct?). I'd really like to meet some of the wonderful people I've
been reading and this time, I don't have to run away before the end of
the evening.

Will... break a leg! I'm sure you & your sister will awe them.

Mary... do hope the month gets better and I'd second Linda's
suggestion.

Eeeks! Need to run off... very late to a b-day party!

Suzanne
  

    
Well, whoever gets in position to hold first, hold for me. And if I've
had a very hard day maybe I'll ask you to hold me too... but we'll
just have to see.

BTW, everyone is still invited, but since I don't know how many to
expect or what anyone wants, I can't guarantee I'll have enough/the
right kind of snacks for everyone/anyone. So it may behoove you to
bring something to share (or hoard, depending on your temperment and
your horoscope for that day)

Dan
  

    

Maybe we'll make a stop at Safeway or the like on the way.
  

    
E-mail from Michaela:

Hi all,

it's been a while, and it feels good to plunge back into your stream of
conversation .. though right now the topic has taken on a somber note and
reminded me of the losses I myself have experienced not that long ago.
*BIG HUGS* to Pam and Mary. Seems that Neil's Death has been a comforting
image for many of us.
 
I just returned from a lovely 3 and a half weeks holiday in Sweden and
Norway. My husband and I, two friends, a camper borrowed from my parents
in law, and a tent. If you get the chance, do visit the Lofotens. They
are like a mountain range dropped smack into the sea. You get small
fishing villages with bright red wooden houses and racks to dry the fish,
lots of small fishing boats, beautiful coves set before a backdrop of
mountainous country that's so steep that there is just one small main
road hugging the coast (plus a very few minor roads leading to some
hamlets and stopping there)- where there's not enough space for it, they
built oneway bridges that span the water in a white arc. Add the midnight
sun to the vista and you get the picture.
It was quite relaxing, though we spent quite some time on the road; but
Hanno (my  husband) managed to read American Gods at last - he hadn't yet
because he wanted to be able to savour it, and that he did. The timing
was actually very good, because it reminded him forcefully why he wants
to travel to Britain to go to a Neil reading/signing. I had been a bit
apprehensive, because at the moment there seems to be no money and lots
of bills. But who know when we'll get another chance to go - besides I
just loved the Canterbury reading last year! I do hope we'll make it.
I almost forgot - when we got back, the Coraline CDs waited for us :)
Great timing! I haven't had time to listen to them yet, but I am really
looking forward to it.

That's it for now - when I have truly arrived home, got myself to working
a bit and cuddled my horse to near-death, I'll be back.

Michaela



 
  

    
DanW - Right, church! Like a bookstore, with the ... uhm, hymnals
and... yeah. :) Look, what a lovely shade of pink I have now!

Linda - Yes, I grew up in Winston-Salem, and escaped when I was 19, to
New Mexico, and from there to the Bay Area. There are a lot of things
I miss about NC, and a lot of things I am glad not to have found in the
Bay Area. My parents still live in W-S and rural NC, so I go out at
times for visits, but it is much more frequent that they come out here
for a week in the summer. What high school did your boy go to? No idea
how old he is, but wouldn't it be amusing if we knew each other? :)
  

    
Many thanks to you all for the kind words & hugs.  It helps more than
you know.

Suzanne--welcome!  Hope you have a blast at the reading!

Will--I'm a bit late, but merde anyway.  Hope it went well.

Madman--Ooooooo, that's one cute little furball.  Thanks for the pics!
 When did you get her/him?  Name?  Tell all!

Neil--very sorry about the laptop.  Hope it gets better.   I'd say a
prayer to the patron saint of computers, but I must confess (pun fully
intended) that I have trouble having any faith in a patron saint who
died hundreds of years before the thing they're patron of was invented,
if you see what I mean.

I think I've just come up with a new slogan--"Catholicism--it doesn't
have to make sense!"

Yay!  You're taking Maddy!  Hope she has a ball!
 
Michaela--Welcome back!  It's good to hear from you!  Thanks for that
lovely description of your vacation.  I'm glad you had such a good
time.  I'm having restless feet--I need to win the lottery so I can go
explore the planet.  <<Sigh>> One of these days......

Mary (who is now reading Irish Gold by Andrew Greeley--I know, I
know...--and waiting for her Gene Wolfe books to come in so she can
find out what happens to Severian)
  

    
Madman - good plan. There's one just down the hill from me on Grand
Ave.

Neil - I had a similar experience with a Grammar checker back in
Seminary. I lost a 20 page Greek Exegesis paper. Fortunately I actually
had it finished two weeks early, so I had time to reconstruct it...
but I have no shame in admitting that I cried at the time. (I still
refuse to use Grammar checkers on my documents.)

Well, my self-promotion for Six Fingers may have been overly hasty.
There are concerns that the story won't translate well dramatically, so
we may be choosing a new story tonight. I gotta learn to keep my trap
shut... *grin*
  

    

Ok, furball story.
Friend of a friend found an abandoned kitty under a house. Options were we
take him or he goes to a shelter, so we took him. His name is Lao-Tzu
Mitsurugi. We got him at about 5 weeks old a bit over 3 weeks ago now, I
think.
Prior to this, Robynne's friend Summer had offered us a purebred siamese
kitten (her mother breeds them). About a week after we got Lao-Tzu Summer
came over to visit and saying "please don't kill me" walked in with a tiny
siamese in her arms. Said "she's yours if you want her."
We ended up deciding that socializing Lao-Tzu would be a good idea sooner
rather than later, so we took the siamese and named her Mina. Pictures of
her have not yet been developed.
Lao-Tzu is now over twice the size he was in the pictures and looks even
bigger when compared to Mina. For the first few days he hated her, but now
they play fight a lot but there's lots of love there, too. When Mina was
mewling because she was being bathed, Lao-Tzu jumped up from where I was
petting him, ran into the bathroom and started bitterly complaining about
Mina's treatment. Very cute.
That's the story of the furballs.
  

    
Neil:

I think you want an extra portable laptop drive in its own case that you
can plug into a USB or SCSI port to back up and then use in emergencies to
transfer data to another computer.