Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
"Naff" is a common British term.  It's not just that you're out of step,
it's that you're so gormlessly so that it's kind of embarrassing for other
people.  Doesn't embarrass the person who's naff, though, they're quite
blind to it.
  

    
Kristina -- no, I don't thik Blueberry Girl is on the net anywhere.
Tori and I do plan to do something with it some day that will do good,
and I read it sometimes, but always ask people to turn off
taperecorders when I do. (And they do.)

Got your lovely Froudy drawings all safe.

Dan Guy -- I was in New York some months ago, and they had an
exhibition on of Darger in one of the museums. Original art, the books,
the refernce material he used to create them and so on.

Stagewalker -- I found an instant definition on Dictionary.com, and an
interesting derivation at
http://www.observer.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,409178,00.html
(although I take acronymic derivations with a cellar of salt)

Will -- it's the length of the tentacles.... (sorry Rocky)

and Christy -- the book (and binder around it) is terrific. And I'll
use it...

-- and Martha slipped. Just a little.
  

    

Glen!!  Hello and welcome aboard.
  

    
E-mail from JaNell:

Hey all:

A quick (stream-of-conciousness, what did y'all expect?) note to catch up:

Pamela is arriving here in Knoxville today, so I plan to have her 
stuffed with Krispy Kreme and 11th St. Expresso coffee by the next time 
you hear from her...
I asked if she had mentioned her that I got published at Gothic.net back 
in June, and she said I should post it myself, so, here it is. And I 
can't promise she'll return unscathed, so, there.

Cameron and I almost survived the State of Tennessee shutting down. 
Although he works through them (UT, actually) for outside contractors, 
the archaeologists were forced to take vacation days during the shutdown 
just like everyone else because the University of Tennessee didn't pay 
their liability insurance because of the shutdown. Er...

Chris, I'll be looking at your photos - I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed 
photography, and between digging out decade old slides and taking over 
200 photos with my digital camera last Sunday at the monthly Goth Dance, 
I realize how much I enjoy it all over again.
 
I see ToriBat pretty regularly, for those who remember her - she even 
went dancing with me Sunday - we painted her old pants one night at the 
coffee shop with another friend, Nan, and ended up with a face on them 
that Tori declared "Delirium" - I need to get those pics up soon. 
Anywho, ToriBat is doing OK. Hopefully Pamela-Bird will meet her this 
weekend; I'm trying hard to get an awful lot of people who've only heard 
about each other together while she's in town...

The kids are fine, the house leaks, what else is new? Oh, Linda and the 
crafty-minded, I've started fusing glass (again, and in spite of the 
massive heat/humidity here) and glass enameling tiles - some with faces 
- pretty fun. I hope to have a lot of new fused beads, dichroic, done 
before fall. When it cools off, I might even get brave enough to start 
learning to make lamp-work beads - I got the equipment waaaaay back in 
the year, when Cam had his knee surgery. All that flame around all my 
long hair, though...

(Beavis 'n Butthead moment)
Fire!
Fire!
Huh huh, Fire!

Anywho.
It's grumbling outside, so off-line is the smartest option.

(waves, feeling amazingly chipper for such a steamy day)

JaNell
who says, blame Pamela for me posting, it's entirely her fault
  

    

I saw some of your fused glass on eBay, JaNell!  I was searching for 
something and saw the name GoldenNokomis, and I thought, "I wonder..." and 
sure enough, it was you!

You'll be able to see some of mine any minute now as my Website inches 
toward completion.
  

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

    
Hi Janell! Wow. Long time no see!

Christy-Hehe. I hope not. Right now I'm somewhere in the fourth
chapter and I've only typed "shit!" once. Pretty amazing. I try not to
write how I speak.

Kristina- In high school I read a lot of his (Richard Bach) stuff. I
used to fly small planes with my dad so I could relate to most of the
flying lingo. My favorites were/are Illusions, JLS of course. I used to
love The Bridge Across Forever. But I read it to my husband a few
years back and the whole time I was going, "He is REALLY kissing his
wife's ass! I mean, come on!" I don't think we ever finished it. I love
Illusions because you can open it to any page and . . . *Instant
Enlightenment!*

I miss Krispy Kremes....

Chris- I love your site!

Len? Did somebody say Len?! Where is he?

Danw- You were in one of my dreams last night. It was weird. You kept
stealing my shoes. I never figured out why. 

That squid makes me glad I don't live in the ocean....wouldn't want to
get in that thing's way.

Ah crap. Time for work. 

Erynn, who wishes it would rain.
  

    

(How very odd, Neil slipped while I was posting and Pico didn't tell me.  
Somehow he got in under the radar - my apologies for not acknowledging.)
  

    
E-mail from JaNell:

Linda:
You saw some of my glass - uh-oh, busted!
I've (hangs head) not put the prettiest up yet, since a store in town 
(Yeah! New bead store! "Lily's") is occasionally buying my hand made 
beads - but I really need to get some of the good stuff up on eBay. I 
have a *lot*. Look for the face tiles soon...
Oh, what's your site URL?

All:
Blueberry Girl?
Very sweet, and not on the web.
(wry grin)

JaNell,
who is missing the Gem & Lapidary Wholesale Show in Franklin today, 
'cause I'm too broke, which sucketh MIGHTILY,
but is still busy doing the happy-crazy-MUST CLEAN CAR-Oh God, I hope 
Pam's not going to be disappointed meeting me in person-dance
  

    

JaNell, I will post my URL here when I'm ready for primetime!
  

    
Wow, it's JaNell! 

Since we're speaking of tentacled things...JaNell's return is a lovely
bit of synchronicity because her lap once served as safe haven when
her hubby Cameron unwittingly ordered the Tako while'st sitting next to
me at the worst sushi restaurant on the planet.  That kept me from
lunging across the table into the laps of Charles Vess or Neil.  

Well-come back sweetie! ;>
  

    
Sweet Flying Otters!- you people have been busy today!! The proverbial
living room has been well used one could say... course the carpet
could probably use a nice, thorough steam-cleaning now...hmmm.

Chris- had a look at your lovely photographs. Wow. Very nice. You seem
to capture a different kind of beauty in people. Something one doesn't
always see in the air-brushed magazines. I Especially like the one of
John Stewart- very clever. And the babies too. They all seem to have
this radiance of...possibility and character.

My mother will be glad to hear it. She's already adopted all of my
friends pretty much. Whenever I'm visiting and someone comes over, my
mother comes out beaming with her arms outstretched and says "I
wondered when you'd be coming home!" She's been a breath of fresh air
to most of my friends whose parents seem to want to contort them like
balloon animals into some twisted version of their own neglected
fantasies. (Usually involving 7 years of college very, very close to
home and denying everything that makes them the beautiful people they
are.) But I should stop while I'm ahead- it's a topic that could fill
it's own conference room. ^_~

DanGuy- as if there isn't enough out there to give me funny dreams.
Honestly.Sounds like an interesting play though- who's it by?

StageDan- It's a deal. Though- I'll probably be counting on seeing you
here first. I don't get to that side very much as a rule. But you
never know... 

Will- my roomate read Dreamt and said it was beautiful. Just thought
you'd like to know. ^_^ And watch out for the "Slugs".

Official Welcome to Glen! Yay!

Neil- That's OK. It'll make the actual hearing/reading of it seem that
much more special. Like really waiting until christmas morning to open
all your presents and not peaking under the wrapping when your parents
aren't home. 

Just make sure not to get them wet or to feed them after midnight.^_~

Janelle and Linda- Playing with glass sounds like fun! Can't wait to
see! Definateley keep us posted!

And I must have missed the Darger revolution..who is he? Is that the
person with the thousand page books that people were talkeing about?
What did he write? Sorry..I was on my own planet for a while and
glossed it all over.

I finally sent Illusions out with my roomate on her way to work. So
she'll probably finish it tonight. looking forward to what she's got to
say. I've sort of become her personal library and feel it's my duty to
make sure she's reading the best of what I have at all times. I've
introduced her to Neil, Tolkien, Rowling, Bradly, Adams, Bantok and now
Bach. Next is Mr. Ford (I finally got Last Hot Time in the mail
today...am very excited to start it- After Kushiel's Dart, of course
Rocky.) then Octavia Butler and Gene Wolfe. I guess I get a little
over-zealous about my particular book-religion.

Erynn- will do a rain dance for you in my shower. Every little bit
helps you know! (...said the old woman as she pissed in the sea)

Okie- already post is too long. Which means there are ten-thousand
other things right now that need  my attention. Like Dinner!! (now
where did we stash that grill...)

Oops- Rocky slipped past. 

Kristina, who signs off giggling violently.
  

    

Re Bunny of the Month Club...is that an octo-bunny?!!!  >8o
  

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

    
JaNell wants me to post this anonymously:

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/3b529aa1/bc/WorldHorror2002/Authors+and+Other+W
ildlife/The+Rabbit+For+Maddy.jpg?bcX8Ba9AwwGtOkAl 

It's the rabbit pic from WorldHorror.
I saw where Rocky was asking about it.
  

    
E-mail from Robyn Pearson:

Chris, i admired your site a while back when someone posted
the link to the Tori picture on the tori discussion boards...
my housemate has your picture of Jon Stewart printed out
and hanging over her desk...we both have a little crush on
him...our husbands are so tolerant! ;-)

Great photos!!

I'm happy to see so many people enjoyed the foodporn interview!
It was so fun to do!  Hopefully, thanks to Neil being brave
enough to be the first "celebrity" to go out to eat with me, i'll
have the chance to do more interviews :)
stay tuned!

---------------------------------------
Robyn Pearson
chantrelle@foodporn.com
"I believe in eating. I think women especially have this
fear of eating, and I think there is a whole euphoric plane
you can rise to when you have a good meal. You sit down and 
with every bite you honestly just say thank you." 
- Tori Amos
  

    
Amen Tori!! Thank god somebody said it! There's little more that's as
satisfying than a 7 course meal in an italian resteraunt (in Little
Italy no less) Where every course is an event and the food a work of
art to be tasted and harmonised- closed eyes -with like a movement of a
delicate and textured symphony. 
Thanks Robyn! And good luck!

Dan Guy- I will keep my eye out for the movie. Sounds intriguing. Is
the current script still by Zak Penn? What else has he written?

I'm with you on the Bunnies. 6 arms. 4 ears. Big alien eyes. Soft and
cuddly and likes to watch you sleep...I don't see a downside.

Neil- on the physics thing. I totally sympathize. I had such a bad
experience with chemistry in high school. (the teacher was a
mysogonistic mad man who professed that he was just too smart for us to
comprehend his complicated grading scale in which no girl ever got an
A. He's currently enjoying an "early retirement" I'm told) SO I was
turned completely off science until I read Stephen Hawking's  "Universe
in a Nutshell". It's kind of like Kahlil Gibran for the lef side of
the brain. It'll totally open new understanding not only of the science
fiction world but everything, really. 

Plus you read it on the subway and people always ask you what college
class you're taking...heehee. This is also around the time I discovered
Donnie Darko...My brain was scrambled for nearly a week. I love that
movie.

So if you want a crash course in physics that's even kinda fun- Mr.
Hawkings is a sure bet.

Orange Faerie's Quote O' the Day:
"Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that
never were and ask why not."
- Goerge Bernard Shaw

Kristina- who didn't really mean to write more than a couple sentences
and whose housemate is prancing around in a slip with a belt arounf
her head and a straw in her hair saying "I am Poke-your-Hontas!" 

Margaritas. Never on a Thursday.
  

    
Oy vey ist mir.

It's taken me ruddy hours to catch up.

Oh, God.  Read Book of the New Sun *again*?  My brain is *already*
fried.  Maybe in 6 months........

You know, it's gotten to the point that when I see Mike Ford's name in
a post, I start giggling, just to warm up.  When are you coming to
Chicago, so the Unususal Suspects can follow you around and ask silly
questions, and get you to sign copies of your book until your hand is
sore?  Just ask Neil.  We're harder to get rid of than kudzu.

Speaking of coming to Chicago--Stagewalker--you might want to plan a
loooong trip here, since Himself is reading Coraline the last week of
October for the Humanities Festival.  Of course, *you've* already seen
that production.....;-)  Whenever you come, just let us know.   We'd
love to hang out.

I think I had about a hundred other things to say, but I must go write
a cover letter telling the state of Connecticut why they want to hire
me to teach (my mom lives in Middletown, and I want to nearer to
her--and I'm not really a city girl.  I'm just not.  There's a reason
that rats eat each other when there are too many of them in a cage. 
Really.  There is.)

P.S.  Where is Len?  That's an excellent question.  Oh,
L-e-e-e-e-nnnn!  Where are you?
  

    
Another anonymous e-mail, this time from Christy Smith:

EEK!  Purple squid bunnies!!  ;D I'd thought they were sculptures when I
first read about them, but now I see they're plush mutants.  That is just
so twisted!  LOL!!
 
Glen -- So the many tentacles of the WELL draw another one in!  (Anyone
sense a theme here?)  Good to see you posting on your own.  SOMEday I'll
do the same... *sigh*....
 
Chris -- Try being a Chris Smith.
 
"the delightful and charming Mr. Gaiman" -- Glad you like it!  That was
one of those great finds where you see something and think, "Oh my gosh,
so-and-so just _has_ to have this!"  Then when it arrived, I saw that
(besides its being even more beautiful and well-made than it had looked in
the catalog,) the leather was done by "Oberon Designs," which made it just
seem that much more appropriate.  Enjoy.  :)
 
JohnMike -- And I suppose another key ingredient would be spaghetti code?
 
Martha -- Great... now I had to go look up "gormlessly."  (For those
wondering:  The closest American translation would be "cluelessly," it
seems to me.)
 
Kristina -- I'm all curious about your artwork now.  I will just have to
satisfy my curiosity next time I'm in NY.  :)  ("Froudy drawings" -- Hee!  
Hee!  I see what he did there.  ;)  )  And your mom sounds very cool.  
Her attitude on letting kids develop into who they are sounds like my
parents'; it seems we are part of a fortunate few.
 
JaNell -- Where ya been?  Don't you have an account anymore, or are you
sitting out for a while?  Please say hi to Pamela and Tori Bat!, as I'm
sure everyone here echoes.  And please, definitely pin your hair up when
working near those open flames!
 
Oh, and cute pic.  (Gad, Neil almost looks like a college kid there.  
<shakes head in speechless amazement>)
 
I don't know, _does_ Len come around here anymore?  I hope so.  He was cool.
 
The Dans -- And you'd think at least *one* of those Neils would be single,
but noOOOOoo...!  <eg>
 
Linda -- After DanGuy's _Suspect Zero_ quote, I'm a little scared of
things that slip in "under the radar."  Not that Neil didn't scare me
already.  ;p
 
Rocky -- And that would have been a *bad* thing?  <eg>
 
>From the State That Was Founded by Carrolls,
Christy
  

    
naff and gormlessly... more proof that this place will enhance your
ability to be understood by fewer and fewer people on the planet. They
are fabulous words though.

And I repeat... Neil, I want your bunny. I don't just want a mutant
bunny. I want *your* bunny. If she had them in stock, I would buy one.
But since you can't special order, I am going to have to insist that
you stop cloning yourself and put the bunny in the Dupla-Neil machine
and make me a copy.

Will - I remember those lists. I *loved* those when I was growing up.

OtherGlen - Welcome aboard!

JaNell - Howdy! You're practicing a new form of taxidermy with Krispy
Kreme and Coffee? Does this mean that we're going to be seeing Pamela
for sale on EBay soon?

Erynn - so *that's* where those pumps came from.

Kristina - I think my new year's resolution will be to take more
advantage of couches across the globe.. so maybe NYC will be visited
sooner, rather than later.

Mary - He is? Damn shame it's not going to match up with the marathon.
I'd enjoy seeing him read again, but I get the feeling it would mean
something to my friend if I was there rooting him on. But in any event,
we shall most definitely hang out. I fully intend to do my week in
Chicago like I do everything else... overscheduled!
Whoo hoo!
  

    

Neil -  I know one friend of yours who doesn't like the term "sci-fi."
 Doesn't like it even one little bit. *grin*


Rocky, who was lucky enough to witness a memorable rant by Harlan
Ellison on the use of that word several years ago. 
  

    
Stagewalker: yay! we shall party! everyone can come to my house and I
shall cook yummy food and we can be silly all in one place?

Rocky: are any of Harlan's rants instantly forgettible? Just had a
"well, Harlan's always memorable..." moment. Doesn't surprise me one
bit he'd have an opinion... Tho now I'm curious as to what it is, and
does it merely apply to the word sci-fi, the people who use it, or the
actual term "science fiction"?

Me, I'm getting to the point where I tell folks I love to read
speculative fiction, just to watch their eyes boggle a bit. But that's
cause I'm perverse.

But truth be told, I don't read SF much at all--I'm an urban fantasy
and hardboiled detective reader most days (which is probably why I
loved _Last Hot Time_ so much!), with a serious fairy tale and folklore
fixation. I *watch* plenty of SF media (la la Farscape la la!), but
never really gotten into the books and short stories the way I glommed
onto fantasy and such. Tho I admit, I do read SF media tie-in novels (I
think I have every single one of Diane Duane's Trek books, plus Mike's
and despite the fact that it's a Mary-Sue from Hell, I still love
Kagan's _Uhura's Song_), I never really think of them as SF. I think of
them as media tie-in novels. Weird, huh?

In my head, Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein are SF. All those folks. I wonder
if I'd gotten into them at an earleir age (or frankly, if I were a
boy) if I might have become as obsessed with SF as I am other genres.
But in the end, it's not the tech that interests me--it's the
characters. Which is why what SF I've read I've really enjoyed, becasue
I've found the books where it really isn't all about the tech, it's
just about people.

Which remidns me, I suppose if you call Spider's Callahan short
stories SF, then yeah--I did read SF :)
  

    
*shudders at the volume of posts since last visit*

Kristina - on little Italian restaurants; my brother was visiting NYC
last year on buisness, and his guide took him to a tiny little Italian
restaurant in a rundown neighborhood. When they parked, he started to
notice a higher number of BMWs and Mercedes parked along the street
than you would usually expect to see in an area like that. He also
noted that there seemed to be well dressed, dark suited men patroling
the street around the cars. 

He was pretty anxious when he went into the restaurant, and I think
probably more so when he saw that not a single patron had his back to
the door.

On another subject, I had a terrible time with chemistry too. But I
can't really blame it on my professor. He was extremely intelligent but
just a little bit demented. He would constantly try to test us on
subjects that he had forgotten to teach us, and there were a lot of
things he forgot to teach us because he would get side tracked easily,
spilling off into a diatribe on how dairy products and hot baths were
carcinogenic, and if we took a shower every morning we were just asking
for it.

It sounds bad that we would get tested on things we never learned,
but, clever little buggers we were, we pretty soon found out that we
could get him to answer our questions for us while we took the test.
Simply go up to him and tell him that we weren't quite positive about
question 2 but we were pretty sure the answer was X (X being the answer
we knew for certain was wrong) and were we right? At which point he
would get terribley flustered at our lack of intelligence and go work
the entire problem out on the chalkboard. 
 

Tara - I sympathize with not being a hard boiled SF reader. It's
certainly the characters and drama that interest me the most whenever I
read a good SF novel. But then again, I guess I'd say that about
anything I read; after all, you take away the character and the drama
and you're pretty much left with nothing. 

At any rate, the technical aspect of them has never interested me as
much as the open spaces SF presents to tell some great stories.
  

    
E-mail from Christy Smith:

Hi again!  Would you please post this to 144?  Thanks!

Mary -- Your mom lives in Middletown!?  That's where I went to high
school!  AND you're Catholic....  If you tell me you're a Mercy girl, I'm
gonna flip!

Christy
  

    
E-mail from Christy Smith:

Neil -- Whoa.  7 stars!?!?  Good for you -- and for George Guidall!

I will enjoy watching those video clips, in a few minutes when I am "off
the clock."

(Did I make Post 1000?  Did I?  :-D  )

Christy