Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Ah, ok... I'm a bit more awake now than last night, so let's see what
else I can natter on about.

I had a very neat experience last night. I saw a couple that I had met
at the American Gods signing/reading last year, sitting further back
and across the aisle from the Well crowd. I was rather impressed with
myself that I recognized people I had only met once a year ago, and
went over to say hello. As I approached, they said "Look! It's Dan!
Hello Dan!"
I immediately ceased to be impressed with myself, because I could not
for the life of me remember *their* names. (I'm fairly good with faces,
but I'm crap with names)
In any event, they were very sweet and they enjoyed the reading very
much and felt it was well worth the three hour drive.

It was equally delightful to attach faces to the names I *DID* know. 
Dreaming: Let me just say that you were a very good sport, letting
Linda and I wax about the weirdness of Las Vegas... especially
considering that I've never been there and have my opinions based
entirely on heresay.
Siouxie: It was faboo to meet you, and you get extra points for
wearing your scary trousers shirt. I really must get mine soon. I hope
your friend enjoyed it too!
JRo: It was also nice meeting you. You've certainly been around much
longer than I have in the Well community and the Neil fandom
community... it was nice hearing a bit about past events.

Hrm, no one has mentioned this yet, and it STILL isn't on
Ain't-It-Cool-News, so I'll do the honors. Neil announced last night
that not only is Mr. Selick doing the adaptation and directing Coraline
for the big screen, but they've confirmed Michelle Pfeiffer as The
Other Mother!

I know it's unlikely, but I hope they do it all live action, because
I'd love to see 

********MINI SPOILER***********

Michelle Pfeiffer plopping black beetles into her mouth... it just
seems so incredibly wrong to me.
  

    
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS on the successful evening, Neil, and on what will
hopefully be an artfully and lovingly produced film.  

I'm hugely sad I couldn't be there.  Sounds like everyone had a great
time, including Maddy.  hehe.  
  

    
I reached my door about 20 past the witching hour :) stumbled into my
office, polished off some work, and then collapsed into a deep,
pleasant slumber full of dreams of gray mist...

As everyone has said already, the reading was incredible! I had
already decided that Neil is superb at narration, but this clinched it!
I read some bits of the book when I got home, but it just wasn't the
same :) I thoughtfully purchased the CD for myself, which I will spend
this weekend listening to as I read the book.

Was it just me, or was the rat's song playing over the speakers during
the break? It was particularly, deliciously creepy!

Squeaks - the doll was adorable!

Dan - It was simply <i>FABULOUS</i> to meet you, Linda, madman, and
the more of you whose names I can't remember, but whose faces I do! (I
am horrible with names, until I have heard them a few times or had a
few conversations with you, so please bear with me :) And yes, my
friend had a great time as well :)

(I had thought Neil said Michelle Pfeiffer was going to be both the
mother and the other mother, yes? I spent quite a bit of time on the
drive back trying to imagine whether the movie would be best as live
action, animation, or a combination of the two....)
  

    
I failed to remember that I meant to compliment Neil for one thing in
particular... 

Neil, your characterization of the cat was spot-on, and had me
giggling quietly every time he popped up in the story :) Thank you!
  

    

Yes, in fact, there was consensus in our row that you must do the voice 
for the cat in the movie!
  

    
First, belated condolences to all who have suffered losses recently. 
My sister just had her first child a couple weeks ago, so I'm feeling
that whole "cycle of life" thing pretty keenly right now.  Mary, I
think the suggestion of a co-workers memorial service sounds entirely
appropriate.

So, glad everybody had such a splendid time at the reading last night!

I will be attending the NYC event, hopefully getting there around
1-2pm or so.  I'll be driving down from Western Mass, stopping by my
girlfriend's place in Weehawken to drop off my stuff, then into the
city by bus.  If anybody gets there before me, could I beg two saved
seats (gf works until 5:30)?

Not sure I'll be able to acquire a Scary Trousers shirt in time, but
I'm about 6', long (past the shoulders) brown hair, goatee, and
glasses.  There shouldn't be more than about 50 guys in B&N who match
that description, so you shouldn't have any trouble recognizing me :)

Looking forward to meeting all who turn up!
  

    
[*Tic*tic*tic]
Only eight more days 'til Neil comes to NYC.  Can't wait..can't wait.
Oh, got my copy of the CD today...yippee!  Not going to listen until
after the NYC debut however..don't want to spoil. 
 
Rick - I plan to be at B&N around noon and will definitely start
saving seats, even if they haven't put them out yet.  *grin*

Just look for a buxom black woman, with copper red hair, wearing a
"Scary Trousers" t-shirt. Unless the t-shirt doesn't arrive in time, in
which case I'll be wearing something depicting Brooklyn.  Either way,
I'm hard to miss.  Really. ;>

Madame Squeeks - Are you at the same address?  
  

    
*blink* 

Voice for the cat? Won't the cat have its -own- voice? 

meg, who tried to find her tiny ASCII kitten-face to put here, but
can't discover where it's gone off to ...
  

    

Oh, you mean, they will cast a talking cat?  
  

    
E-mail from Michaela:

sounds like you had fun at the reading. I wish I could have been there. I
wouldn't have minded even unpadded pews. Or kneeling .. well, maybe I
would have minded kneeling for three and a half hours, but who cares.
*sigh* Jealous me. Want to go to a reading, too. Which reminds me ...

Neil - I am aware that you don't know everything about the scheduled
signings on your upcoming tour, but do you happen to know whether all
these UK stops that only say "signing" - not "reading and signing" like
the one in Manchester (the only one as far as I remember) - are really
"only" signings? Not that I'm complaining, but I guess I'd rather travel
to Britain from Germany to a reading/signing than just for having you
personally draw a sinister or funny or whatever rat in our copy of
Coraline. I really liked Canterbury, but maybe I should consider
Manchester this time... (Btw, right now Hanno is looking over my shoulder
and telling me to tell you to use a Mac and not one of those PCs (that's
sinister for you) that do stuff to you like eating files for breakfast
and the like .. he told me a few days ago when he saw the picture of you
and your laptop on neilgaiman.com - the day after I read about your
crash, so maybe you had better heed our advice ;) ).

Michaela
  

    
It was lovely meeting or seeing again all of you, and yes we shall have to
have a gathering in the near future. <stagewalker> and I will fight over
hostship.

It was a fabulous reading from Neil, of course. I particularly liked Mr.
Bobo and the cat (who I pictured as a grown-up version of my kitten Lao-Tzu,
who is black with green eyes).

I am so thrilled that Henry Selick is doing the movie! I wanted to go up and
compliment him on his work, which I always enjoy, but I was too shy. Stop-
motion animation! Yay! Of course now I want to know how much of the movie
will be stop-motion and how much will be live-action. I can't think of a
more ideal director for "Coraline" than Selick. Neil, could you possibly
tell us how that came about?
  

    

Yes, the song from the dream and the rats was playing during the
intermission. Pretty damn cool.
  

    
Also playing was Lemony Snicket's "Scream and Run Away." Love that.
  

    
ooo000h! I have not heard the Lemony Snicket song -- I didn't even
know there was such, I have only read the first few books so far. 

castle - Talking cats are all the rage these days, though it is often
difficult to convince them to talk without liberal tuna or milk
bribery. I hear some of the more well-to-do families have gotten theirs
hooked on catnip, if you can believe! Such a shame, addicting those
poor poor dears...

*goes off for some quality time with amazon.com*
  

    
    Without wanting to start a[nother] animation v. live action
argument, Henry Selick would seem an odd choice to direct the picture
if they -weren't- going to do it in animation, and model-based
animation at that.  Not that a combination might not be the most
effective, and not that I wouldn't trust Selick with live actors far
more than, to pick a random example, George Lucas or Michael Bay.

     Re DOCTOR WHO:  t'other night Tobe Hooper's spectacularly weird
LIFEFORCE was on -- a picture in which everybody works very hard and
the vehicle keeps getting its tires deeper into the muck (this is not,
I am sure, at the top of Patrick Stewart's resume), and I realzed that
what it needed was to be a Doctor Who story, with a Robert Holmes
script, Jon Pertwee in the Frank Finlay role, Stewart as the Brigadier,
and Colin Firth as Sgt. Benson.
     Another opportunity missed.
  

    
Re: Selick - Honestly, I don't know much about his work, beyond
Nightmare Before Christmas (which, of course, I loved) so I had no
basis for thinking the movie would lean either way, towards animation
or live action.

My personal preferences lean towards animation of some kind, but I am
also a sucker for animation, especially of twisted nature. (Not Without
My Handbag, Vincent, etc.)
  

    <scribbled by castle Thu 4 Jul 02 12:06>
  

    
Squeee!!!!  Michelle Pfeiffer !  Faboo!!

Congratulations, Neil!

Thanks for the reports, everybody.  It's the next best thing to being
there.  Can't wait to see pics of the doll..<hint, hint>
  

    
It's possible that it will be a combination of live-action and stop-motion
animation, like "Monkeybone" was. That's what I'm wondering about, if it'll
be all animation or a combination.

<siozie>, "Not Without My Handbag" is hilarious. Nick Park is great.
Selick's other works include "James and the Giant Peach," "Monkeybone," and
a short called "Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions." I think he doesn't get
enough credit for "Nightmare."
  

    
Selick was talking about having done some test filming of his family members
with black buttons on their eyes, to show how it would look.  Sounds live-
action to me....

By the way, who did the charming picture of the mouse jazz combo that was on
the stage's backdrop?
  

    
I am very jealous of all of you, especially because of the attendance
of Lemony Snicket and Henry Selick. I probably wouldn't have talked to
them, but I'd be all smiley just seeing them. 

Meg,  you can hear the Lemony Snicket song at his website,
specifically here: http://www.lemonysnicket.com/count.html
Last school year, I taught the song to Mom's second grade class --
there's just something about a roomful of children singing "run run run
run run run run, or die! die die die die die die die!" that is just
the cat's meow. 

Rick and Rocky, I'll be in NYC, but not sure whether or not I can make
it to Neil's thing yet. I'm meant to be indulging in various acts of
debauchery with the aid of my shortly-to-be-married friend. I'm going
to make an effort to be there though. If I make it, I'll be the
not-tall (but not short, darnit), not goth-looking, brown haired girl
with nerd glasses who looks confused. If I get my goldfish teeshirt
before I leave, I may wear that. Usually I hide somewhere in the back,
so I'm not a good one for saving seats.

Oooo, neat. Michelle Pfeiffer. What I really want to know is who is
playing the cat (the suggestion for Neil is seconded!), and who is
playing Coraline. I so look forward to this movie. 

Mike, I don't know either Doctor Who or Lifeforce, but I'm all for
anything with Patrick Stewart and Colin Firth. Mmm.
  

    
I have no idea if Lemony Snicket was actually there or not, just that one of
his songs was playing before the reading started.
  

    
He was . . . I was taunted by the fact by 'Walker at about 3 this
morning, the wrethced creature.
  

    
He was there.  He was wearing scary trousers.
  

    
not sure what wrethced is, but it sounds like something worse than
what I had intended ...