Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'm such a joiner... apparantly I'm part of the Neil Gamain group
marriage.

Pamela - I'm currently free the evening of Friday the 21st, and
probably Sunday the 23rd, but can't hang out with wellies on the 22nd. 
And yes, it's actually more rare for relationships between actors to
occur.. or rather, to last. I had a director make a very strong point
of telling me not to date actors "because they're all crazy... No
offense."
  

    
eh FUZZAH.  *so beet red right now*  Pam, I think I owe you like
twenty lives worth of Nice.

Pamela SO needs to be our publicist, it's true.  I want to make
banners and clothing and bumper stickers of the things she writes.  

Um, well, as far as touring:  The Endless are going to be playing one
tiny little song in NYC at CBGB's Gallery next weekend, and we're gonna
go see Tori at Radio City!  It's more of an I Miss New York trip than
a gig, but, errr...well Chicago will happen some day soon, I promise. 
We just work with a lot of equipment and have to figure out how to lug
it.

wee wee wee all the way home.

-Adriana

oh, and don't worry Walker, your time will come.
  

    

Holley Nowell writes:


I just got a copy of Quotable Sandman. I didn't get into Neil Gaiman until
Good Omens so I am now traveling backward through his writing history or
starting to. I have Neverwhere also on order and am scouring book sources for
others. Quotable instigated a large discussion with the receptionist and
another secretary here in my large corporate world. Mary wanted to know how I
got to know so many such things. And I told her... I read. I read
voraciously. I read discriminately. I read every thing I can get my hands on
that's not a waste of time.

Janet, the other participant in our conversation, reads only factual books.
Biographies. Archaeology. Architecture. But she knows a LOT about these
things. We discussed therefore the obsessions of people because, you know,
nobody can read everything so we read certain snippets of life - certain
pieces. Start with this book and read the one next to it and the one next to
that and pretty soon you know all about Gaiman's world and Pratchett's and
Star Trek's outer space and so forth.

Mary does not read much. She likes cook books. And books like the one on her
desk that tells you what things are - like popcorn and when was bread first
sold sliced and why was that such a good thing. And the newspaper of which I
only read the joke on the Entertainment page and the comics.

She is amazed by me when we talk. How do you get to know so much? She wants
to know. I have never understood people who did not read. How could they not?
They are inundated by the written word by information. How could they not
want to know ALL of the story when they see little snippets of headlines?

How can my son be like his father in that there is not a book anywhere in his
house? Except his wives cook books and magazines. Except his son's books I
gave him most of -B which were his fathers. I read to him. He knew all about
Where the Wild Things Are and Pooh - the real Pooh not the Disney creature. I
read him the Hobbit. Two chapters at least every night. Some more when they
were short and he'd gotten into bed on time. He does not like the Tolkien
movies. They are too complicated. So why did he not grow up reading? It is a
disappointment to me. Whatever else my son does or is, I accept but why does
he not read? Sigh. I failed somewhere I fear.

And so it is Friday night. I will leave the office in about an hour and swim.
Alone. There are few people at the gym on Friday night so I enjoy the feel of
the water gliding past me with no one else chopping up the surface and
splashing my face. I will read before I go to bed some of Guards! Guards!
again because I read a quote the other day that reminded me of a passage and
had, of course to look it up and that, natch started me reading. Or I will
read one of the others stacked on my bedside table.  I will work on my condo
to get it in better shape this weekend. The weather is dreary so I shall stay
in. I shall try to make time to take apart my home computer and replace the
fan so I can start using it, also. Or, I may paint a room. I've been pushed
in that direction the last 3 weekends. Wanting to pick up the paint brush,
open the cans and finish the living room. I feel like to be responsible I
must keep unpacking boxes and putting things away and clean stuff. But I want
to paint the walls. And ceiling. And get the little tone on tone roses in
their climb by and overB the door.

BEAMS to Neil and hoping he is getting better and will be feeling better and
he got his new keyboard as planned.  Ah, and I took the What Author Would You
Marry and sho' nuff, t'was Neil. I suspect if they'd had Terry Pratchett in
the lists I'd have ended up with him though. The pants questions confused me
until I read the lists of authors. And I am disappointed that now I have the
money the shop does not have Scary Pants T-shirts. And a picture in Quotables
has made me want to stop at Michaels and acquire some black and gold wire and
make a batch of very white papier machet and do a sculpture. The weekend has
not enough hours in it and I have not even left the office yet. And I showed
one of my bosses Quotables and he is planning to look Neil up in the
bookstore when he goes. And I came across my embroidery floss in a box and
now want to make my own embroidered Scary Pants t-shirt or maybe...

Must go now or this email post will be way too long. Will write again next
week.

Hello to everyone. Good weekend.

Dodge
  

    
> "the shop does not have Scary Pants T-shirts"

Actually, I never got around to taking it down.

http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=gaimanmob,GaimanPants
  

    
I am apparently meant for Cory Doctorow, or he is meant for me, at
least via that little quiz. I have never read him, and know nothing
about him, though.

Suzanne,  thank you for the advice and the offer. I may take you up on
it, but I think the LA contingent are coming to meet me there..

Squeaks, so glad you're feeling better, and I too want to know about
the batties! Speaking of which, this picture is so cute, I had to make
it my desktop (it makes me laugh, and I badly need to laugh):
http://a1410.g.akamai.net/f/1410/1633/7d/209.133.64.45/mammals/mammals_l/MA054
2_2l.jpg

Pamela,  I am certain you look drop dead gorgeous in it!

Walker,  the mouth noises. The mouth noises!! I don't know whether or
not I could take it...

I am going to see Penn and Teller's show though.

I've been badgering Adriana to come to Chicago with her band for a
while now. Will have to think of something with which to bribe her.
  

    

Cory Doctorow just finished an inkwell.vue interview, so you could go read
it and get a feel for him. :>
  

    
Thanks all of you for the nice wishes. 

I'm currently rethinking the next 5 or 6 weeks (mostly because
Lorraine came to me yesterday with the list of my movements and said,
"Now, if you actually do all this, you will probably die," and I
probably won't but I took it to heart.

Tomorrow I go and give more blood to the Drs so they can keep tracking
this thing back, and in the meantime I'm recovering, and if everyone
here has their way I will probably go off to my friends Jonathan and
Jane's place in Florida, where I can sit in the sun and go for little
walks and write and continue to convalesce.

I had it worse than any of you on the WHICH SF WRITER test, having
taken it and learned I'm meant to marry myself. I mean, the whole thing
of which side of the aisle my friends are expected to sit is going to
be a complete nightmare...

Maure -- Maddy loved your e-mail, but is trying to decide whether a
reply would mean she'd have to admit to having lost to me at Scrabble.
"It wouldn't be a lie if I said I won," she said. "It would be a fib." 
"Ah," I said, "What's the difference?" "Well," she said, " A lie is
the opposite of the truth. But a fib is more like the opposite of a
joke."  I fear she'll wind up in politics.

Christy -- thanks for passing on everyone's wishes...

Michelle -- good lord. You're in Melbourne. Hug Tree for me. Are you
going to Brisbane?
  

    
A fib is the opposite of a joke!
  

    
Neil,  I'm glad she liked it. I hope she feels better. And politics?
She does seem to have the equivocation down. :)

And yes, get some sunlight. It does wonders.
  

    
The Horror of Blimps:
http://www.teemings.com/extras/truelife/scylla6.html. I laughed beyond
breathing. (Found on TNH's blog "Making Light.")

Saw _Lost in La Mancha_ last night, and loved it. Laughed, winced,
cussed under my breath, contemplated Murphy's Law as a windmill. To
bring that story out of that chaos and catastrophe, and tell it truly,
oh my.

My snow angel is now visible as a negative image: The snow has melted
out of the impressed areas first, so it's a brown-green angel patch of
grass surrounded by the thin layer of snow still left in that part of
the yard.

Neil: I'm glad you have a blog; I've been watching your recovery in
your posts so as not to add to your mail queue. Basking in Florida in
March sounds like a fine idea. Maddy in politics sounds like a waste of
a good musician and storyteller.

Christy: OK, never mind World Fantasy Con, we're definitely on for
sushi (or other dinner) or breakfast or hanging-out or something during
the most-of-a-week I'll be down there. We'll figure it out.

  Whew! on your car repair.

Erynn: Hope your dad's recovery is going well. Stubborn may be just
what's needed now even if it contributed to getting him there.

Squeaks and Dan: Having an Australian holiday isn't "lucky duck," it'd
be more "lucky platypus" wouldn't it? (Or am I just talking out my
arse there?) Squeaks -- glad you're having fun and yay! for batties of
any size. (Do you know which type those were?)

Maure: Do you enjoy roller coasters? Chip and I were in Vegas for a
conference a couple of years ago (I'd never been before, and probably
won't go back except maybe on a trip with friends) and there are a
couple of unusual coasters atop the Stratosphere Tower -— their
High Roller was spectacular. Also, if you appreciate blown glass work,
you've got to spend some time in the Bellagio lobby looking up -—
their entire ceiling is a _gorgeous_ Chihuly installation. Those two
and the outrageous hotel casino frontage displays (the volcano, the
pirate attack, and the chorus-line fountains) are what I remember best
about the whole trip. Oh, and that was where we saw Cirque du Soleil's
"Mystere" which was fantastic.

  The bat photo is adorable!

Glen: For a time traveler, maybe somebody out of one of the Spider
Robinson Callahan's Crosstime Saloon stories?

Pamela: WisCon, eh? More in email.

  Live From the Hard Rock With Walker ought to be at least a radio
program. Or maybe we could just do it every time you go. <g>

  Excellent! quiz results. (Definitely WisCon.) (I suppose I shouldn't
mention that I successfully gamed that quiz to hit Neil, Kelly, Cory,
and China Mieville in about a 10 minute span, but it's solidly
reassuring that you got Kelly on the first round.)

Walker: All right, fine, you should. We can go out with Christy, too.
Besides, if your career plans stay on track you can probably deduct it
as a business expense anyhow.

  GMZoe has a new (updated) purity test on his own site. You should
take it as a calibration exercise, hm?

Dodge: Hello again! I don't know why people don't read. Because it
requires participation, and there are now other ways to acquire
information with less effort? (This also touches the stage vs movies
argument, for entertainment.)

  The garden catalogs have been stacking up for weeks now. I'm going
to put in one or two more roses this spring (among other plans), so I'm
starting to think about moderate-sized (up to ~5') with
yellow/gold/apricot/cream blooms (_no_ pink tones) that are hardy in
Zone 5 and can be successfully doctored through black spot (my worst
recurring problem). Any thoughts?
  

    
>somebody out of one of the Spider Robinson Callahan's Crosstime
Saloon stories?

I can't say that I've read any.

It hit me recently that Marco Polo appeared in the "soft places" in
Sandman, although I'd still have to figure out the costume part.
  

    

I adore Maddy's quote. That's wonderful.
  

    
thanks for the blimp link! I needed a good laugh and that was just the
thing for it.

Neil, welcome back! Take it easy until you feel like you're back to
snuff, and then take it easy for a few more days, just to be sure.
  

    
Hrm, I got Neil too. Better not tell the boy... then again, it might
be fun to see who he gets. :)

Pam (and Walker) - Well, I'll be home on the morning of the 12th, so
hopefully I'll be recovered and won't be too far behind on work and
I'll actually be able to hang out and do stuff. Doing stuff is cool.
And maybe Walker can show you where he dropped Jesus. And in addition
to 'arsebiscuits', might I add 'honking nob-head' to your vocabulary...
(thanks Tree). As for drop dead gothy outfit, I can only hope it's
PVC, so as to wipe the Walker slobber off of it (g).

Adriana - You had best stop up in the Bay Area if you're going touring
all over the place. :)

Maure - Yay to funny looking batty cuteness! It looks like the
photographer caught it off it's guard. Fuzzy. 

And while I'm talking batties, this is what flies over Tree's balcony:

http://www.wires.au.com/animals/flyfox.htm

And if you're REALLY into batties, might I recommend this site.

http://batroost.com/Adoptabat.html

Davey - Lucky platypus my arse! I've been saving up for this for
YEARS! (and oh, is it worth it) Not gerbils, mice (although if I ever
saw a mouse as big as the body of a flying fox, I'd run far away before
I could find out the size of the rats).

Neil - Consider Tree hugged. (speaking of which, Walker - she was
thinking very platypus-like thoughts) Will not be making it to
Brisbane, but will be meeting Sally (Brisbane thingie) and Mute (Sydney
thingie) in Sydney for a few days before I have to fly home. Seeing
how Mute works with Eddie, hopefully it's the next best thing to having
him there. 

squeaks, who will get around to responding to emails sometime today.
  

    
Mouse - You're half a bloody world away, having the adventure of an
awesome nature, yet you still have the time and ability to rip on the
'Walker. Heh.

I knew there were reasons we hang out. Hopefully you'll be decently
recovered in that week to go play. If not... I'm considering borrowing
Devil Bunny, and doing some clandestine pictures of my own.

...and Yay! for Platypus-Trees!
  

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

    

Congratulations Papa Dan!  Molly is a wonderful name. All my best
wishes to you and your family.  :)
  

    
Great sayings! Happy belated birthday, and hello to Miss Molly (that's
also my niece's name, and _we_ like it), and mazel tov to you and
Molly's mommy, and wow do you ever have a cool librarian.
  

    
May I just go on record as saying that Bruce Springsteen has the
greatest little butt.  (I caught the concert on CBS Friday night.  He's
still The Boss.)

Spent a wonderful day in a 5 1/2-hour jam session with some local
folkies at a friend's house.  I hope this becomes a regular thing.  I
don't know when's the last time I've felt so... <i>right.</i>

It's after midnight, and I have to get up for work tomorrow morning. 
I am going to post for real sometime soon, promise.  TTFN.

Slipped by Rocky AND Davey.
  

    

From Holley Nowell:



DavidSnyder
On roses.

I know of a couple of antique roses that are that buff coloring
and they are gorgeous roses but both of them get huge in Texas.
They may not get so big if you are further up north. They are Reve
D'Or and Buff Beauty. Also for the Cream is a Tea rose called
Sombreuil. It's growth is very similar to the upright leggy growth
of the Hybrid Tea but it is a climber - which never, in my
experience, needed much support. A cream coloring that blooms a
pale peach in cooler weather, the rose blossom is more like a
teacup saucer than a teacup as it opens out with many many smaller
petals and looks like someone took a ruler and cut across the top.
All three of these roses are very nicely and heavily scented.

More beams to Neil to get well soon.
  

    
I didn't know there are batty stamps, but my _Bento_ came in today's
mail and the stamp is a cute little red bat. I found the series at the
USPS site http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/sr02_050.htm and
they're all cute.

(_Bento_ is an always interesting itty bitty fanzine by Kate Yule and
David Levine of Portland, http://www.spiritone.com/~dlevine/index.html
)
  

    
*running by with tiny little lighter lit*

Neil lives!  Neil liiiiiiiiiives!!!

I strongly encourage you to do everything you need to do to keep
yourself firmly on that side of things, including slowing down.

As for the wedding yourself problem: you might try asking the guests
to sit according to whether they feel more in touch with your feminine
side or your masculine one.  

     *

Dodge: It's one of the great regrets in my life that I can't read
*everything*.  Or, at least, everything that I'm interested in.  Which
is quite a bit.  And it's such a *treat* to get the whole swimming lane
quietly to yourself.

SF Dan: What fun to meet you!  Friday would be better, probably, since
I'm leaving Sunday evening.  (Walker'll be around another day, tho.) 
Otherwise, we're hoping to go a-Gothing Friday or Saturday, depending
on the Mistress of Meeses' availability.  More as things coalesce.

Michelle!  It is imperative, absolutely IMPERATIVE that we see you at
least for a little bit on our visit.  Why are we coming at all, except
to visit FOG's and eat Ghirardelli's?  We must visit the
bunny-slippered ratty, we must see pictures of your trip, and we're
hoping you'll escort us somewhere dark, gothy and musical Friday or
Saturday... or at least point us in the right direction.  So, rest up
the week before (it's really almost 10 days, even), so we can bask in
the glory of your gorgeousness.

And "honking nob-head" is going to be *very* useful.  Many thanks.

DanGuy:  Many happinesses to you, your wife, and your new little one. 
It's nice to hear from you again.

*WALKER WARNING: Turn off your eyes, now, 'kay?*  

Christy: Yes, he *does* retain an amazingly youthful posterior.  I saw
him on tour last year, and I confess to succumbing to the very same
thought.

*End Walker Warning*

Davey: LFTHRWW: *bows*  We're here almost every week, folks!  And
Wiscon, yes.  More in email.  Thanks!  
  

    
Pam -- that sounds like the set-up for a sketch from a very old UK
comedy show by a man called Dick Emery: he had a set of formula
sketches based around a character named Miss Mandy and some double
entendres...

Usher:  Can I help you Madam?

Mandy: That's "miss".

Ushher: Miss.

mandy: Where should I sit?

Usher: Well, are you more in touch with his male or his female side?

Mandy: .... Pardon.

Usher: Well, put it this way. If he walked into a room, would you find
yourself touching your female side?

Mandy (hits him with her handbag.) ooh you are awful... but I like
you.
  

    
Hey! Neil just mentioned "Dancing Ferret Records".  In the early 90s
Dancing Ferret was just a local concert promoter named Patrick.  I
played in Twilight Tenebrous, a LARP he used to run.  We still chatter
politely on the rare occasion I put on a leather skirt and hit the goth
night he runs at a local club.
  

    
Gaah!  It's already past my bedtime *again*.  Let me just get one
loooong-overdue message out of the way:

Suzanne!  Welcome back!  I don't think you've been here since before I
was a regular!

Kind of ironic, BTW, to have someone called (dreaming) complaining of
insomnia.  ;p  (For the record, I heard that complaint from four
different people last week!  You'd think it had been a full moon.  It
must be that February thing.)

And Glen -- There almost _was_ enough for a "Big Book of Get Well
Wishes."  It was pretty impressive when I gathered it all together. 
This Neil dude must be a pretty nice guy, to have all these friends
caring about him.  ;)