Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Awww, flattery! Yay!

The ladies are absolutely charming as well. It looks like the Unusual
Suspects will be gathering a couple more times this weekend for bands
and beer and then a little late night theatre.

This is exactly why I don't make many plans when I go on vacations. I
much prefer to see what happens spontaneously as I go along.

One of the books I bought last night while under their estrogen
powered influence was "The Last Hot Time." 
Mike, where are you? Everyone is wondering about you and hoping that
you're all right.

While in the bookstore, we did the obligatory check for Neil and Mike
and Terry and were astonished at the insane number of books that they
had of Terry Pratchett's. You'd think they could just have a little
Terry Pratchett section there!

Anyway, I'm just nattering because my host is clamouring in the
bathroom before we cruise downtown to acquire half-price tickets for
the matinee of "The Beard of Avon."

Adam - Yes, there will be another short story reading party! Probably
in November, as I'm taking a few months "off" to recover from what has
been an extraordinarily busy year. Social gatherings *will* resume.

Maybe I can finally get Martha to come to something. Maybe we can get
her to read one of her stories to us.

Neil - FYI... you have now officially entered the category of people
I've met briefly, but know tons of stuff about because of mutual
acquaintences. It's a very odd thing to know so many stories about
someone I've never even sat down over a beer with.

Ciao!
  

    
This is a very charming little story over on DreamHaven's
neilgaiman.net site:
http://www.neilgaiman.net/cinnamon/page1.htm

Neil,  are you going to be doing more of those? 

and re: the journal entry for yesterday? today? I once heard Sherman
Alexie read. He is really intense. I think I may have been frightened
of him, a little. His Reservation Blues was my favorite of the books we
read for my contemporary american novel class. What is the McSweeney's
thing? Is it a book?
  

    
Regarding pics of Chicago gathering:  OOH OHH!  Pictures of all of you
folk who only exist as names in my head!  How very nice.  You're all
so cute!  And it's also so nice to think of Neil hangin' with Mr.
Chabon.  Sort of seems like the like-minded people of the world are all
bound to come together and meet at some point.  I like that.  

Meg:  Los Cuates. *salivate* Oh man, that would SURE help my cold
right now.  

Pam:  probably too late to say this, but have a rockin weekend, and
please ask Brigid to hurry up a bit.  

OK OK, my reunion was disappointing because NOBODY CAME.  It was
poorly planned.  Further, the cheerleaders who planned it seemed to
forget that anyone outside of sports even went to our high school.  It
was pretty silly, but still plenty of opportunity for snickering, so
that's cool.  
  

    
Maure - Thanks for posting that link - I would have missed it.  

Now that Maure's reminded me of the Neil store.  Does anyone know why
Dreamhaven has "Two Plays For Voices Cassette Tapes" but Amazon has
CDs?  Did I miss something?  Was I asleep in class?
  

    

It's great to see "Cinnamon" again. Speaking of which, Neil was there
ever a compilation of the stories you did that accompanied those
whimsical sculptures by Lisa Snellings?  It would be so cool to see the
whole collection reprinted again. 

Walker - And the nicest thing about that is the new friends you make
because of your mutual interest in his work. ;>

Adriana - Awww...well, at least you had a good snicker. 
  

    
Okay, the Backflip Boy (who is putting a demo together for hhis Cirque
audition) just called. He told me that tomorrow he's going to LIE ON A
BED OF NAILS and let his instructor break bricks on his abs, while
they video it. He says not to worry, physics is on his side. 

I love my Backflip Boy. But he's insane. 

I have friends who breathe fire, friends who hang from their hair in
circuses, friends who THROW flaming torches INTO the audience (which,
technically, was an accident), and a boyfriend who does things with
beds of nails.

I'm going to have anecdotal material from my late 20s to last me the
rest of my natural life. 

In other news, my Spirited Away DVDs arrived today! yay! They're from
Hong Kong, and the movie has English subtitles, but alas, alack, the
making of special on disc 2 does not. It is, however, dubbed in
Cantonese. That should put the Backflip Boy's language skills to the
test.
  

    
Hi Tara: I got my DVD of Spirited Away when I was home in HK, and if
you have what I have (licensed HK release), you should be able to go to
the DVD menu and then select the audio language (Cantonese dub or
Japanese original)... You should be able to switch between subtitles as
well (none, English, Chinese). I don't have the DVD with me here (it's
at home), or I'd walk you through. ^_^; In any case, hit the menu
button and see what happens. Good luck!
  

    
E-mail from Davey:

Crawling at last into the clear air from the swamp of World Fantasy Con
planning, with strands of email and phone call notes clinging like
duckweed... There will be programming at this convention (as if y'all were
worried about -that-), the pocket program is in layout, and there's a
mostly-final version available on the con's web site at
http://2002.worldfantasy.org/programming/ (from there you can choose Word
or PDF format). I've even, finally, got the program room setups sorted out
and sent the request list to the Hilton (although I don't have
confirmation from them yet on everything we've asked for).

Yay. Whew.

OK, so what have I missed? Jinx went to Disney and then triumphed over car
trouble, Glen went to NZ, Neil won a lawsuit, Miss Mousey went to meet the
parents, Stagewalker's show got (at least) one worthy review, we all got
to read Neil's journal in funny voices <much giggling> (thanks,
Stagewalker!), Erynn sold a story (congratulations!), Mr. Gaiman Went to
Washington, Dan went to Chicago and Maure took cool hanging-out photos,
and Pamela is now out camping. Everybody here ROCKS.

Christy: Belated thanks for the while-ago reminder. I did send in my
planting orders <g> and have even planted the few plants that have
arrived. I read in Neil's journal some days ago that they've already had
first frost in Minneapolis; it seems unfair somehow that I'm still cutting
roses in Boston (a bit later than usual, but, hey, they're still
blooming).

I haven't attended any of my class reunions, high school or college.
(Skipped my high school 25th last year.) Large classes in both cases; I've
kept in touch with a very few friends from each but haven't found reason
yet to spend the time or money to travel back for a big reunion event.

Neil: "Cinnamon" is a treat. It hits the same spot in my inner hearing as
"Ramadan" does. Mmmm.

Saw SECRETARY tonight. Delightful. Makes a girl feel all warm and tingly
inside, it does.

Davey, 10/18/02 11:58pm
  

    
I miss my garden. I used to live in a duplex with a yard. Lots of
roses. Now I live in a (nicer place) condo but it has a small patio in
shade. I guess some people would consider that nice. I wish I had a
sunshine yard where I could at least plant pots of roses. Sigh. But I
can have lilies. Bulbs of all kinds. Now if they'd just spray my area
for mosquitos on a regular basis so I could go outside. Funny, the
duplex was in a bad area of town and I never had trouble with mosquitos
because they sprayed on a regular basis. Now, I live in a nicer area
and they seem never to spray. I can't step outside without getting a
cloud of the things. Sigh. 
  

    

Tara - Think of all the great stories you'll have to tell your
grandchildren one day. Not to mention that Grandpa's bed of nails trick
will be a big hit at Show'n'Tell. ;>

I've missed all my high school class reunions so far, but had planned
to attend the 25th which was being held in Jamaica late September last
year. Sadly it was cancelled, and the reunion committee hasn't
discussed rescheduling. Damn. 
  

    
E-mail from Davey:

(Hey, lookit that, there up at the top of my last post! Martha's a host
-here- now, too! Fun! Hi Martha! Hi Jon!)

Tara: As I understand it, physics is indeed on the Boy's side. It's only
if there's a hydraulic press deviously concealed above the bed's canopy
that you ought to worry.

Cirque shows always thrill me. When will he learn the audition results?

But how do you define "technically an accident" with a flaming torch?!?

Dodge: Are you in a place where a bat box would be practical? (I've always
wanted one, but I think our winters are too cold, and the local mosquito
population doesn't seem dense enough to support a bat colony, which I
don't mind.)

For roses, I don't know of any substitute for long hours of sunlight, so I
think you're necessarily resigned to not growing them for a while. (I
wouldn't be happy in that situation either.) OTOH, I can't grow 'true'
lilies -- this whole area has a viral infestation that eats them from the
bulbs up. (I don't know the source, but it spread through yards like
nobody's business a few years ago and hasn't been starved out yet.)

Davey
  

    
mmm... batties. Um, I like bats. :)

Frightening that I can think of many scenarios in which a flaming
torch being thrown into a crowd would be an accident. Still, it's
frightening, and I certainly wouldn't want to be in that audience. 

Speaking of audiences, I recently took the boy to stagewalker's show
(naturally, I had to wait until he was out of town before going to see
it ;P). Dan makes a funny looking bug, he does.

squeaks, who shouldn't feel caffeine withdrawal headaches when you
consider how much caffeine she has in a given week... but here it is!
  

    
Hi,...I've never gone to any of my reunions, never felt the need,
practically everyone I disliked is still in the area, giving me tons of
snickering opportunities, and all the poeple I cared about I'm
actually still in contact with.

As for the big news,.....:deep breath: I'm buying a house. I'm
frightened near out of my mind, but as Georgia O'Keeffe said "I've been
absolutely terrified every moment of my life, and I've never let
it keep me from doing a single thing that I've wanted to do."
 It's little and it's such a deal I couldn't say no if I tried. 
  

    
We went to Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 plays in 60
minutes) tonight. Dan was in two of the plays. It was extremely
amusing.

And then we went to the Hop Leaf for libations. And it was very nice
to meet and hang out with Dan. More of youse guys should come to
Chicago to visit us.

Tracey, woo! That's fantastic news. Best of luck to you with it.
  

    
Squeaks - I hope that the show went well technically. I haven't called
to see how it went yet. Did I tell you that I'm the one in the video
as the bug-men, or did you just recognize the hair?

Maure - I go by "stagewalker" for a reason. If there's a stage, I
wanna be on it.

must sleep now. tired. I misread my itinerary. My flight actually
*departs* at 11, so I need to be there by 9. Ick.

Night, all.
  

    
Oh, Jinx... congrats on the house! That's faboo news!
  

    
Jinx--Yay!  Go, you!  Congratulations!  I would love to own someday 
<<sigh>>

I am pooped.  Have had an absolutely delightful time with Dan for the
last 4 days--we've seen theatre, eaten pizza, bought books, watched
Miyazaki and snickered at a genuinely awful all-girl cover band.  And
now I have to go back to work?  Whose idiotic idea was that?  Oh, mine.
 Right.

Mary (reading Titus Alone)
  

    
Jinx,
Congrats on the house. Be sure and take BEFORE pictures just before
moving in and then AFTER after you get everything done exactly the way
you want it. You'll be amazed. 
Also, make yourself immediately aware of the homeowner's association
if there is one and it's rules and GO to the meetings. Become involved
if you have the time. You'd be amazed at the amount of power they have.
When I bought the one and only house I ever owned, I didn't know
anything about such things and somehow, without ever meeting me or me
them, they decided from the start they didn't like me. They harrassed
me from BEfore I moved in until the day I finally fled seven years
later. I've always hoped that the people who had the house before me
were horrible to them and they just transferred that to me. Combined
with the fact they were power mad demigods who loved to crack the whip.
Well, I won't get into that. Just be aware. It's one of the pitfalls
of owning a place and if you handle it right, it can be not a problem
at all.

Martha, I don't know of any substitute for sunlight either. I've
tried. No amount of nutrients will get them to live. There are a FEW
rosebushes that purportedly do  well in shade  according to the
catalogs but they usually mean filtered sunlight kind of shade like is
under large leaved oak trees not the dense
not-one-little-beam-gets-through shade like under pin oaks. Cecile
Brunner is an antique rose that I've grown in such partial shade that
did quite well. Ah, well. I'll just have to put up with it.  Sorry to
hear about the bulbs, though. I love my Amaryllis and daffodils. We
can't grow Tulips and Bearded Irises well here because the ground stays
wet and they rot during the winter but I keep planting them to see if
I can get them to grow. I have pots inside with them in it.
  

    
Email from Christy (posted a day late late, apologies from hosts):

Let it be known that I have officially forgiven Mystic Color Lab, the U.S.  
Postal Service, myself, and my own luck for losing my pictures of the
Coraline signing.  What I got to experience a week ago was worth so much
more.

This is long overdue, but:

Neil, you dear thing, I had such a nice time with you and Maddy last
Saturday!  It was great to see you again (minus the 350 people in line behind
me this time), and to meet your daughter.  You had interesting things to say
(no surprise there), and were a delight as always.  Thanks for taking the
trouble to meet up with me; I can definitely see how you've come to have so
many friends.

And Maddy!  She is so much fun!  Barely eight years old, and I'm already
loving the way her mind works.  ("Skeletons playing ukeleles," indeed!)  I
realized, as I was walking around after you left, that I will probably never
pass the Capitol reflecting pool again without thinking of dolphins.  Please
thank Milady for that, from me.

For those of you who haven't yet met Maddy, she is every bit as cool and as
smart as you think she is, and then some.  Now that I think about it, she's
not unlike my brother Ben was at that age:  not merely a cute kid, but
already an interesting person as well.  And to watch father and daughter
interact is just unique and priceless -- not to mention a hoot!  :D

Too bad I didn't get to talk computers with Mike.  But again, if he ever
needs anything while he's here (Hmm... like maybe a job-hunting contact in a
couple of years?), you guys know how to find me.  And good luck to Holly on
her college hunt!  :)

I should have some Book Festival pictures for you when I finish the current
roll and get it developed.  I'll send them to DreamHaven when they're ready.  
I hope you had a wonderful time in DC, and went back home happy and
refreshed.

And thanks for answering my Coraline question!  My mom had the same reaction
to _The Blob_ as you did with _Son of Dracula_.  It didn't help that she had
an older brother who *loooved* to tell her how The Blob was going to come
into her room via the heating vents!

After Neil and Maddy left the Fest, I stuck around until it was pretty much
over.  I saw Cambodian dancers acting out their thunder-and-lightning myth,
and a really funny woman -- Rosalynn something, if I'm spelling it right --
who told about her experiences as a seven-year-old Jewish immigrant from
Russia back in the 1920's.  Finally, I went to one of the children's tents
and caught the tail end of Linda Sue <Something>'s talk (Korean, Newberry
Award winner, delightful), and then grabbed a seat in the front row, center,
for a PBSKids show.  I hoped in vain to see LeVar Burton -- apparently, he
had hosted the morning show, while I was just arriving and looking for a
Celtic band -- but I did get to be about ten feet from Bob McGrath of _Sesame
Street_ as he sang to us.  I think the grown-ups in the audience were as
thrilled as the kids!  He's looking GREAT, as boyish as ever, despite the
fact that he's gotta be almost 70 by now.  He sounds great, too.  What a
nice, reassuring way that was to end the fest.  :)

And Meg -- Yes, you simply MUST come back to Washington sometime!  We could
do a Barking Mad get-together and try to rope DanGuy in.  :)  I keep meaning
to check out the LoC more thoroughly, too, if only to see if my songs are on
file....

Dodge (re:  stealing pumpkins) -- An eight-acre "garden"?  :)

Neil and Martha -- BBC America sounds like a description of FX I read a
couple of years ago:  "the all 90210 network all the time."  Oh, but she
noted that it had _The X Show_ and _M*A*S*H_ sometimes, too.

I wonder how I'd do at driving on the other side of the road.  I seem to be
able to flip things around in my mind pretty well; I can read upside-down,
write backwards, read mirror-writing without a mirror, etc., so I could
probably adjust (though I often hear that the adjusting *back* is worse).  
Must have something to do with being left-handed.

Michelle -- Congrats to your friend!  (Ooh, royal blue is an *awesome*
color.)  And it sounds like a wonderful time you had in the Midwest.  So your
boy's really a Cheesehead, eh?  ;)

Copper Falls sounds lovely.  If you're ever in Connecticut in the Fall, you
ought to check out the Heublein tower in Simsbury.  Maybe it's not Seven
States Flagstone Court <g>, but you can see the autumn leaves of _six_ states
from up there.  (Jinx, you been there?)  Autumn is one of the chief things I
enjoyed about Connecticut.

(And Neil, TELL me about autumn in rural Pennsylvania!  To my mind, PA is
probably the most beautiful, and friendly, state in the Union.  But I _could_
be biased, she says, grinning blissfully.)

Pam and Adriana -- Feel better soon!  And Pam, hope you're having fun!  
Don't set any fires you can't put out!

My 10-year high school reunion was never held; there was not enough interest
to rent the hall.  :( And I would have gone!

I think I know _why_ there was no interest, though.  Most of my classmates
ended up staying in the area.  They're always in the Alumni News helping out
with school fundraisers, kids' activities, etc.  I'd imagine a reunion is no
big thing to them, since they see each other all the time, anyway.  But what
about those of us who actually ventured OUT of that small pond?  {:(

Oh well.  I liked college better, anyway.  ;)

Maure -- Nice pictures!  I can tell which one's Dan (and he's a cutie!); now
who's who among the girls?  Is that you with the cool Goldfish shirt?  :)

Ooh, have fun reading to the kids!  I am going to have to start doing that
somehow.  Seeing Maddy made me miss my little cousins and step-niece.

I like Adam Sandler, too!  Stupid, yes, but somehow terribly appealing.  I
think _Mr. Deeds_ was the last movie I saw on the big screen, and I enjoyed
it very much.

Bookmarked "Cinnamon" and will read it.  Yummy yum yum!

Finished Part III of AG this morning.  It really is brilliant.  Neil once
suggested that the Epilogue puts a different twist on everything, so I'm
going to digest this much for a day or so before I read it.

I am currently taking a week off from work to focus on some other priorities.  
Today's priorities included reading, eating pizza, and watching shows I'd
taped up to two weeks ago.  And hey, SOMEbody's got to finish those Kahlua
mixes in the fridge!

Sing a Song, Christy


She kills me
She thrills me
She spills grape juice on me

-- The Choir, "Cherry Bomb"
  

    
Hullo all.  Thanks muchly for the well-wishes.  Our festival was a
smashing success.  Our visitors from across the country actually showed
up, much fun and renewal and bonding occurred, and I recovered from my
cold despite the 40-ish temperatures at night.  It was resoundingly
determined that we'll do it again next year.

Tara: Best of luck to your boy.  And I hope that, if he makes it in,
they don't make him do *that* for the show!

Jinx:  CONGRATULATIONS!  Many best wishes for a smooth and relatively
painless buying process.  Buying a house *is* terrifying.  But I'm so
happy that you found such a good deal.  And whenever it gets
overwhelming, just keep reminding yourself of the huge tax breaks.

I'm glad to hear the various meet-ups in Chicago and DC went so well
for everybody, and thanks to Maure for the pictures.  (Is that you in
the first one, or are you taking them both?  I second the motion for a
list of who's who in them.)  How on earth did Dan manage to get into
two of the plays?

Adriana: Sending over my immune system beams to you!

Neil: Glad you had fun with MC.  And I'd offer my wishes for no more
signing tours, but... I just can't do it.  Here's hoping they're as
painless as possible in the future.
  

    
Christy - driving on the other side isn't to hard.  You just stay
between the lines like always.  It was the fact that my turn signal was
on the wrong side that took me 2 weeks to learn.

Jinx - Congrats.  Just remember, you don't have to change everything
all at once; but if you have the time you might want to paint some
things before you move the furniture in.
  

    
Ooo, Christy, I didn't even think about telling who's who. Woops.

Ok, so . . .

this one (http://i.xanga.com/Maure/dtmcmd.jpg), from the left, goes:
Dan, Tara, Mary, Chris, Me, Debbie.

this one (http://i.xanga.com/Maure/t/ddt.jpg), from the left, goes:
Debbie, Dan, Tara, Mary.

I took pictures clandestinely of the spooky gorgeous Halloweeny house
I pass on the way to work every morning. It's such a cool place -- ask
Tara. I've made up the person who lives there. I told about him a
little, here:
http://www.xanga.com/item.asp?user=Maure&tab=weblogs&uid=4933583
I'll post the pictures sometime of the house. I'm a little worried
that I'll get caught taking pictures, and have a terrible curse set
upon me by the occupants. I'm a little crazy, but it makes the morning
walk fun.
  

    
Email from Davey:

Jinxie: Yay HOUSE! Yay YOU! I've bought three times, it's exciting and
exasperating and scary and did I mention exasperating? Yay good deal, too --
those are few and far between, especially anywhere up here. Do you have an
inspection report on the property yet? And, does it have a yard or garden?

Dodge: The roses-and-lilies bits are mine (not Martha's). I've seen Cecile
Brunner in catalogs but never had one. (I'll list my entire collection for
you if you ask...) As for bulbs, well, it's only the lilies that I can't grow
-- I have crocus, all sorts of tulips, 'imported' daffs (I don't plant them,
the squirrels bring them in from my neighbor's yard), five species of iris,
&c., &c. And we're in a city neighborhood, so no worries about deer. It's
just the lilies that get et...

Christy: Maddy Fan Club (me, too)! Your BookFest walkabout sounds grand;
thanks for all the notes.

So you're PA-biased? Where are you from? I grew up in Philadelphia and went
to college at Millersville State; had my student teaching practicum
assignments all over Lancaster and York counties, and drove to visit friends
at other campuses all over the state.

Maure: Oooh, wonderful story! I'd like to see photos of the place -- it
sounds Gorey-esque. Do any of the spooky-ass cherubs look as if they were
once holding cameras?

Davey
  

    
Congratulations Jixie!  Oooh...you're about to become a homeowner,
does this mean you're all grown up now? *grin* Just don't forget to
sprinkle the pixie dust prior to moving in. Hope it all goes smoothly
for you sweetie.  My cheeks are hurting due to the big grin.  :D

I'm so glad to see that everyone has been having happy trails lately.
Just wishing I could hang out too.  
  

    
Christy - 
*blush*
and isn't forgiveness a wonderful thing? Especially when one is
forgiving oneself!

Pamela - I see a stage, I walk on it. Simple as that.
...
no, that's a terrible lie. The show is called Too Much Light Makes the
Baby Go Blind, and is 30 plays in an hour, in random order. I insisted
we sit in the front row, and got grabbed by a cast member and told to
rip off half my clothes and give a back massage to a strange man for
the "Big Happy Gay Sex Play!"... and so I did. Then I got grabbed again
to answer questions while one of the actors did an extremely bad 2
minute portrait of me for "It's Like Looking in a Mirror"

Anyway, as I settled down in the airport this morning, I pulled out
one of the books I bought while under the spell of The Unusual
Suspects. It was Mike's "The Last Hot Time." With an hour to go before
I even boarded my flight, I started to read.
I did not realize when I bought it that it was about a man named
"Danny" who goes to Chicago and encounters a darkly magical world,
surprising new companions, and learns to accept his past and accept his
own shadows.
Seeing as how this is the first time I've been to Chicago since I left
it as a penniless Seminary student in a bad marriage, seven years ago,
the book felt like a big symbolic biography!

It was also a great read. Gulped it down in one bite and was done
before the plane hit the tarmac in San Francisco five hours later.