Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

thanks for all the vilkommens, everybody... (just so you know, some of us
Welloids are reading yr words via PicoSpan and not on the Web, so the HTML
and formatting come out as pure code.)
  

    
Neil - Sadly, in America, just getting people to the theatre at all is
an accomplishment (or so it seems). An ex girlfriend of mine once
accused me of dating for the sole purpose of expanding my audience
base.
I of course refuted her, saying that increasing my audience base was
merely a pleasant side effect.

On a side note, upon reading that your novels will be coming out in
ultra-collectible leather bound signed editions.. my first thought was
"thank god I'm not a completist." They sound fabulous, but how on earth
are we supposed to build a life savings with such nifty goodies being
laid before us? I already know that next time I visit Chicago the
Unusual Suspects are going to drag me into bookstores and spend
ridiculous amounts of money again.
  

    
Oh! check out the trailer for X-Men 2!! 
Nightcrawler!
Whoo!
And if you have broadband, check out the official site (linked from
the trailer page)... it's really cool. They've actually managed to
create a 3-D interface in Flash! Very weird.
http://www.apple.com/trailers
  

    
Poor Neil is so sick!  Don't worry Neil, I'm impressed by your
symptoms, even if the doctor isn't.  Get well.
  

    
Neil--I'm impressed by your awful symptoms as well.  Get healthy soon!

Warning--Do not see Gods & Generals.  It's appalling.

Must go find out where to buy Neverwhere for my students.....'Bye!
  

    
Dan,  We *aren't* supposed to build a life savings, didn't you know?
We are supposed to be doing our American duty by spending spending
spending all that money we have to boost the economy. Ahem. I went to
Borders last night to do my part, but had to settle for reserving a
copy of the McSweeney's. They're not available to non-subscribers yet.

Christy,  no, you didn't miss anything. He was responding to a
smart-ass question I asked elsewhere about where he gets his ideas (or
idea, in this case).

Walker,  Most likely, I'll be very grateful for company. I don't have
much interest in being in Vegas. I'll let you know when I know more.

Neil,  I hope it's a very short bout of flu. Get better.
  

    
It's nearly 40 degrees out today and my beautiful snow angel is
blurring into oblivion. Phooey.

Neil: 'flu again? Poor pet; I thought _I_ was a bad one for
respiratory infections... I hope the rest of the household are all
fine; I hope you get lots of sleep and chicken soup and tea; I hope
Maddy reads to you and does all the voices; and I hope you feel much
better very soon.

Christy: (reciprocating pseuds? whee!) Did you get my note? Well, yes,
dumping a Coke on someone is inherently unprofessional. However, the
community is evidently quite willing to practice forbearance with
regard to a crime of passion, as it were, in the interests of
/c/o/m/e/u/p/p/a/n/c/e/ justice. Jo's already sent an apology, too. (No
word yet on any response.)

  Are you planning to be at World Fantasy this year? I also don't miss
them (you may have figured that out), and won't be working as much on
this one (I think) so will have more time to spend with friends.

  Um, _start_ bribing Lorraine? It just isn't always successful...

Walker: Boskone was back in the city this year, at the flagship
Sheraton Boston (first time since 1987; long story). Definitely a "how
does this fit there?" sort of con; I wouldn't be surprised if we
completely rearrange the room allocations for next year.

  I'm sorry you never heard back from the Framingham idiots, but I'm
not surprised. If you have an attorney friend who wants a little
entertainment, send them a letter, we won't mind.

  FU at First Avenue on the 17th -- I don't think I'll make that one,
but I've sent Lorraine a note to ask if Seth may bring a taping rig.
You could bring some extra cable. Heck, even if Seth's not taping you
could still bring extra cable.

Mary: What about _Gods and Generals_? Haven't seen it yet, just
looking for ammunition for the "what do you want to go see this
weekend?" discussion.

Hi Magdalen!

...
More recent niftyness: DreamHaven has started using the monster Neil
bibliography I compiled, at neilgaiman.net. Yay! I started it for last
year's Boskone since he was GoH, and have been keeping it updated
'cause it's easier than letting it go stale (at least for me, it is).
E.V. isn't finished coding all of the entry formatting yet, and I'm
working on another round of updates to send her for posting -- and it
won't ever be as obsessively complete as GMZoe's because I'm just not
as obsessive as he is -- but it's a good thorough list in standard
format and hopefully it'll be useful to someone. I'm just pleased that
they decided it was worth having on the site.
  

    
Oo, Neil, sweetie, I'm so sorry you're so sick!  I echo everything
Davey said (including the part about everyone else being fine), and
send you lots of warm hugs and warmer wishes.  I hope you've been
getting some good, restorative sleep.

Get better, dear man.
  

    
Gods & Generals is 3 hours & 45 minutes long, all the dialogue was
lifted from letters of the time period (apparently) and is therefore
very elevated language (which American actors have a difficult time
with) and casts Stonewall Jackson as Moses.  Heston being unavailable,
he is played by Bruce Boxleitner.  There's more, lots more, wrong with
it, but I have to go teach now.   M.
  

    
Maybe Neil's symptoms would impress the doctor more if he had
measurements as to the distance of his projectile vomiting.
I mean, one or two feet might not impress him much, but if he's
getting four, or maybe even SIX feet... hell, that'd impress the hell
out of ME.

...

I'm not being helpful, am I?
  

    

No, not really, but I love the pseud+post combo there.
  

    
So then, would he need a doctor or an exorcist?

Oh, wait, this is Neil we're talking about.  Clearly, both.
  

    
Neil:  Jo is "Papersky" on Livejournal.  Her pages are at:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/papersky/

She's kind of embarrassed about the coke-dumping incident, but
there are multitudes of people supporting her in her comments
section.
  

    
I want to belatedly add get-well wishes to Neil & mention that I _am_ going
to have read the novella very very soon!  Feel better as soon as you can,
Neil, do.
  

    
Martha and Lenny -- Long time no see!  Welcome back!

And additionally to Martha -- Ah!  You lucky @!*#@(^#$!
  

    
"Pitter patter, pitter patter, listen to the rain...." -- Steve
Hindalong

I doubt there are many intact snow angels left on the East Coast
today.  But that's OK; I am enjoying mellowing out on this gray,
melodic day.

<magdalen> -- Sorry about the HTML.  I asked the Mob about it a couple
of weeks ago and got no complaints, but now that there's a known
picospan reader here, I'll try to tone it down.  (Just so it's known
that I really can do better than _underlining_, *asterisking*, and the
ever-annoying ALL CAPS for speech-like emphasis....)
  

    
Davey and the Snow Gerbils -- I'm not actually planning to be at WFCon
this year (I'm really just a babe in the woods when it comes to
fantasy lit), but if you're going to be in town, I'm open to getting
together!  That goes for all of you who may be coming.

Good going on the bibliography!  Something with that much work going
into it deserves to be seen.  And on behalf of all the curious fans,
thank you!

Neil -- Raising a steaming cup of honey-flavored green tea in your
honor!  I haven't forgotten about ya....  <<<<<<<<<<hugs>>>>>>>>>>


(Am I impressed?  Reading his symptoms makes my heart hurt.)

I thought I was going to lose my car yesterday.  On the way to work,
the transmission was acting so incredibly weird that I was afraid I
wasn't going to make it to the repair station.  And when it's the
transmission, that's like hearing the vet say, "It's her heart"; you're
thinking, "This is it, it's over, I'm gonna have to put her down." 
And personally, this is the worst time in years for me to afford a new
car!  At the very least, I was sure I'd be putting a hefty sum on my
already unusually strained credit card.

Turns out, the bad leak was fixed by replacing a blown filter,
possibly damaged by some stray foreign object (an ice chunk?) -- a job,
including parts, labor, and tax, that came to under $180.  It was not
only a fraction of the cost I'd expected, but I didn't even have to USE
my credit card!  Wrote 'em a check, and it's done.  Oh. My. Gosh, what
a relief.  Holy crow.

So I bought myself a really calorie-laden dinner last night to
celebrate.  So there.  <g>

I hope you are all having a nice, cozy weekend -- or an adventurous,
social one, as you prefer.

Seeya,
Christy
  

    

if only so uncomplicated! but no, the Surprisingly Good Story That Came
From Above & Alighted Upon Me In The Woods happened to arrive about one
week too late. the stories that went to the workshop application humanoids
were both incomplete (hey they said "in progress") and just plain
undeniably weird. one is the wannabe-transgendered father who keels over
and the saucy transvestite at the funeral with the JAckie O glasses story
-- i told you about that -- and the other is probably too un-literary and
blearily graphic, sexually. so i probably won't get in.

what happened to that last one of yrs? i dug it up to the ending. kinda
wanted more there. seemed a little haiku compared to the rest.
  

    
Either somebody's answering a question from off-list again, or I've
gone and mixed meds.

But I do gather that MagTiff has entered stories to apply for a
workshop of some sort.  So, break a pencil, <magdalen>!

Neil, glad to see you posting journal entries again.  Take it easy. 
Hurray for Tiger Balm patches.  :)

(When my mom had the flu last month, *her* magic ingredient turned out
to be brandy.  Which made her extremely entertaining to the good
little daughter taking care of her.)
  

    

whups! i totally mis-posted. that's a pretty funny post out of context;
sorry you guys.
  

    
Neil -- Now you're scaring me, man.
  

    
Phew. Hey all.

Neil- I hope you get well soon. Being sick sucks donkey things. 

Mary- Isn't getting a car great? I know the feeling. Jess and I didn't
have a car most of the time in the Land of Cleves. Now we have a
truck. It's so exciting! We're like, Vroom, Vroom! all over town now.
Hehe. I've always wondered what it'd be like to drive a pink car...

Magdalen- Allo.

Danw- I would totally be part of your audience if I lived closer and
you wouldn't even have to date me:)I'm actually writing an Oscar Wilde
play now. No. It's not really an Oscar Wilde play, but the man is
always showing up in my dreams giving me advice, so I feel like I owe
him. Some of my characters are Wilde-like. Anyway, I'm telling you this
because I've never written a play before, so I have a few questions.
I'll probably e-mail you soon. 

Re: throwing things- Maybe we should make a short film entitled
Authors Gone Wild. It would be great. Who would be the writer
equivalent of Snoop Dog, though? Hmm. Nevermind. 

Off topic for a moment. If anywone lives in a big house or knows
anyone who does, I highly recommend having Murder Parties. I attended
one last weekend at a friend who lives in a mansion. Everyone plays
character and the whole house goes dark. One person is secretly chosen
to be the murderer and goes around killing and hiding people all over
the house. The theme was the Mafia Valentines Day Murders. So I was a
prostitute and Jess was a bootlegger. It was so much fun and very, very
surreal. No one ever broke character. It was like being in a play with
no audience. In a house with six bathrooms and eighteen closets. I
love my theater friends. Anyway, I highly recommend Murder Parties. 

My dad had a stroke last week. A bloood vessel burst in his brain. His
memory is still intact, but he can't move the right side of his body.
It scared me to death. Mostly because he's in Florida and it took a
while before I was able to talk to him. He's in a rehab center and
doctors think he will be okay in time. My sister and I were going to go
see him, but we wouldn't really be allowed to see him much. He's in
the bootcamp of rehabs. It just freaks me out because he's only 52.
Doctors say it happened because he's stubborn and went off of his heart
medication and ate McDonalds. I know this is a no-brainer but the
doctor says that the top two things to do to avoid strokes and other
bad things are: Don't smoke and stay the hell away from McDonalds.

Okay. This post is too long and we have to shovel Barry (the truck)
out of a mound of snow. Poor Barry.
  

    
Erynn -- Off-topic?  I dunno, we've got Signal, and we've got Noise...
I should think that covers everything.

Sorry to hear about your dad's stroke!  I'm glad he's still got his
marbles (and, apparently, can speak OK).  From the sounds of that rehab
program, he'll recover fully or else!

My parents are only a year older than yours, but my dad's been on
blood pressure medication for years.  It's scary to see them starting
to be vulnerable to things like this.

Yep, owning a vehicle is freedom... until said vehicle is under a
mound of snow.  <sigh>
  

    
>No one ever broke character. It was like being in a play with
no audience. 

It sounds like you've never encountered a LARP before (Live Action
Role Playing).  There are several flavors of LARPs, and each flavor has
its own camp proclaiming it's the best.  Personally, I prefer ones
with a lot of character interaction and combat is simulated using Rock
Paper Scissors (there are strict no touching rules).
  

    
(somedays more than others).
Erynn- I hope your dad makes a full recovery, also.  My father is 78
and just started having problems.  It is strange reading about 50ish
parents then realizing -EEK- I am about there. Not that I am an ageist,
or in denial.  I usually don't give it much thought. However, I will
be swimming laps at the Y shortly after I post here ;).

Mary- I've been wondering about your search for copies of
_Neverwhere_.  I will offer up my copy for a student if you can't
locate enough. Let me know. (Then I will buy myself another.)

Neil- While you were away Jerry Springer announced that he may run for
public office (mayor, governor or senator) once again.  I hope he is
serious as we need things stirred up around here.
I appreciated your journal entry about Pete Townsend.  A friend of
mine has had to face similar charges and press the last few months. (He
is not a priest, but was a public servant.) Evidentally, the police
can confiscate ones computer without a warrant. The local press
sensationalized the story. And, what they omitted was as damaging as
what was printed. I don't feel I can go into all of the details, but
know there were no abuse charges filed.  Desire.  Despair. Delirium
(mine!).