Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Holley--the song parody was what I was referring to in my last
post--it's by Mike Ford, aka John M. Ford, aka the funniest human I can
think of, sometime parishioner of the Well parish, and really cool
guy. The line about Emily Dickinson was one of my favorites, too.

<<waves frantically at Mike>>

hey, Mike--can you tell us anything about that comic project you're
working on?  And do we have a publication date for the short story
collection?

Mary (reading a Sister Fidelma mystery)
  

    
Holley. *grin* I love Pardon My Planet. That one took me a second
before I got it. 

Yeah, it's just tough doing theatre during this time of year. Your
sentiments aren't the most common. Still, it was soooo nice to be at
home last night, puttering through my X2 DVD extras and generally not
doing anything but relaxing.

Ah, but back to the theatre tonight. Hope we have a decent house...
  

    
Snow forecast: 4 - 7 inches. My Aunt Fanny. [insert jokes about
parallel parking estimates here] Chip and I just finished the first
round of shoveling--about 8 inches--and it's still coming down, and the
fall is supposed to get heavier again after dark.

Tomorrow I shall make another snow angel in the front yard.
  

    
Hey Christy, and the New Yorkers --y'all OK in this mess?
  

    
STILL snowing. Perhaps the forecast was supposed to be 4 x 7 inches.
Going out to shovel again. No snow angels yet. Contemplating sending
Saint Bernard dogs out. (Wonder if Christy likes brandy better than
whisky.)
  

    
Davey .... I got the things for the you-know-whats regarding the
you-know-whos. I meant to email you right away, but time keeps slipping
from me in the most peculiar ways. Huge thanks yous and smooshy hugs,
and an email to follow sooner or later.
  

    


Holley Nowell writes:



Sorry. This is a really long one.

I was going through the NG Journal Archives and came across a notation from
NG that some comic stores were grumbling about people who only show up once a
month and rush in to only buy their 1602 and then leave.  Well, I do that.
Sort of. But my comic store (Bedrock City in Houston) doesn't mind because I
discovered they have EVERYTHING Neil Gaiman including the books. I found the
paperback copy of A Walking Tour of the Shambles there last time and will
probably get an extra copy of Wolves - 3 of them actually as I'm giving them
as Christmas gifts to my grandson and friends' children.  I need to check to
see if they've got Goldfish, too. I have wandered through the shop and once
got in trouble when I wandered behind a counter in the back to get a closer
look at a metal Star Wars light saber and some model ships and other models
and one of the staff came back to ask me not to walk behind the counter (he
was slightly hyperventilating) as that area is protected. They had some older
comic models such as Wonder Woman and Superman and some Star Wars ships and
such. But, anyway, even those months I am in a hurry, I still walk out with
more than just the comic so they are happy. They should be. I spend between
twenty-five and fifty dollars a month in there. I couldn't afford to go more
often. Almost bought a poster of Two Towers that was next to the counter but
might next month. And they had a great poster from Underworld which I never
actually got to see in the theatre so am waiting for the DVD to come out. And
they have videos and DVDs there also. Hm. I wonder. I wonder if they've got
Two Plays for Voices or Warning. So much to check on.

He also talks about the person who stands up next to the checkout counter and
talks real loud about things they don't really know about.  I was discussing
something with the checkout guy and one of the other staff about Neil - his
journal actually - when I looked up and realized the whole store (5 or 6
people) had stopped and was listening. Well, the 2nd guy was rather far away
so I guess I was talking loudly but I swear I only told them how wunnerful
the journal is and how informative and didn't air any erroneous opinions. The
guy behind the counter only went in once way back when it was the American
Gods journal and he decided he'd go back and check it out again. The staff
are wonderfully helpful.

BTW Does anybody know which issue(s) of Sim's Cerebus has the Sandman parody?
If you fail me, I'll have to dig through all of the almost 300 now they have
in stock because the catalog they brought out doesn't have a description of
the contents and the one guy who'd read Cerebus stopped at issue 40, he said.

BTW #2: If I copy all the NG Journal into Word, put the dates in order and
arrange the times from earliest to latest instead of latest first, and print
it out and put it into a 3 ring binder that I can read at my leisure, is that
copyright violation? I wonder if Neil would mind. It's not like I'm selling
it or anything. Maybe I should go over to the Journal and check the FAQ and
ask. I'm also making a list of all the books he suggests, especially the
childrens' books because my grandson is getting old enough to be read to.
Have got through 2001 on the books and am almost caught up to 2003 present on
the binder. Am having a wonderful time reading the journal from the beginning
at night before I go to sleep. Considering I've only gotten through 2001 on
the books it's AMAZING how many he talks about.
  

    <scribbled by bumbaugh Mon 8 Dec 03 13:14>
  

    
(oop, a dupe. ne'ermind.)
  

    
>I can read at my leisure

Since it is just for you, and it will just server as an archive.  I'd
bet a dozen donuts that Neil will say that is fine.
  

    


Holley Nowell writes:



That's kinda what I thought too. 

Say, has anybody been seeing the new Battlestar Galactica stuff? I'm less and
less feeling a like I'm going to watch it and a little outraged at basic
changes.  I mean, the Cylons were invented by the humans AND they look human.
Baltar is a young, good looking, genius innocent scientist duped by the
Cylons.  And today I saw in the paper that Starbuck is going to be FEMALE.
Now, I might overlook the humans and Cylons stuff. I could even get to like
the cute Baltar. And being female myself, it's always great to see women in
good roles. But STARBUCK? Hmmm.
  

    
print out the entire journal? That's a lotta paper.

You could use the amazing blog index that GMZoe put together:
http://members.aol.com/saveuscoraline/index.html

it kind of tells you where to find the things you're looking for when
you can't remember when N talked about them.
  

    
hrm, except that it seems to index things just up to October of '02.
Maybe he has more recent stuff on one of his other sites, or maybe I'm
misremembering how much he indexed . . . 
  

    
Hey Holly, if you've bought _Adventures in the Dream Trade_ you
already have the first nine months of Neil's blog, properly sequenced
(at least, in the trade paperback edition the entries are properly
sequenced; Chip spent an awful amount of time sorting out the
sequencing errors from the hardback printing as part of our cleanup
work on the paperback) --the whole _American Gods_ weblog is in _Dream
Trade_. </shameless plug>

According to GMZoe's comics site, the Sandman parody runs in Cerebus
#164-170, 172-174, 176, 179-180, and 182.

I couldn't stomach the first incarnation of Cattlecar Galaxative so
wasn't planning to try the current one. Thanks for the assurance that
I'm not missing anything.

Maure: Oh good, I was beginning to worry. Now I can just resume my
usual state of wicked anticipation of future demonstrations of your
evil-genius flair for mischief. Email would be good, too.
  

    
From Holley:

Oh, yes. I have Adventures in the Dream Trade. That was what inspired
me to do this in the first place. I wanted to read every entry no
matter how inane. From beginning to end. And, yes, it's a lot of pages.
But my office is always throwing away these really big nice 3 ring
binders just because they were imprinted with the old logo or because
they discontinued that manual, so I didn't have to pay for that and,
well, I didn't pay for the paper either 'cause I printed it out at
work. Actually, I recycled paper as well. See, my boss is always
printing things from the internet or from some legal search site and
there's these pages that have gibberish on them that come out last.
Well, perhaps not gibberish. Page 3 of 3 which has only the site
location noted. Or blank pages or well, you know what I mean. I save
those and print on the blank side because it accumulates. So, really,
not stealing. Recycling.

Battlestar Galactica. I was recording the old series and watching it
and you know, it is really awful. I guess back then I just ignored the
ham and heavy handed moralizing. It was, after all, a part of almost
every show on TV at the time. But Starbuck and Apollo were cute and I
used to think Lorne Greene was cute too. Hm. Maybe the new series will
be better. Maybe they will make it more real SF and maybe the acting
will be better. Think I'll give it a chance. I'll record at least the
first show and see how it goes. But I'm not hopeful.  I shall miss the
red eyed clunky robots the Cylons were. 

Anybody watching Tru Calling? 
  

    
Actually - that's better than Recycling.  People always seem to forget
that Recycling is step #3.  1) Reduce 2) Reuse 3) Recycle


I am actually addicted to Tru now. 
  

    
The snow wasn't too bad here, thanks for asking.  At least, *I* didn't
think it was too bad.  But I was raised in Connecticut.

> (Wonder if Christy likes brandy better than whisky.)

You bet I do!  Try it over vanilla bean ice cream....  <blink blink>
OK, I'm back.

We got probably about three inches in DC, I guess, with a lot of wet
yuckiness and cold winds.  But despite being exhausted Friday night
from packing for an office move, in addition to the cold and wet, I
really enjoyed the Rom event and found it very interesting.

Has anyone read the Little Lit book?  How is it overall?  I'm thinking
of ordering it from DreamHaven for Mother's Day (yes, I've already got
Mom's Christmas and birthday covered), and wondering if the one Neil
story in it is worth the rest.
  

    
Tee-hee!  The recap page of 1602 #5 amuses me.

That is all.
  

    
Hey all. Wow everything is spinning. December is full of crazy.
My plays are going well. The one I wrote opened last night and was
received well. I am pleased. It features EMMY award winning Bob Risher
as my Santa. I am...honored. The actors (and director) make me look
good. It's so surreal seeing words of mine performed. I just may try it
more often. 

Sounds like everyone is doing well. I am glad and wish I could think
of more to say, but I desperately need a nap before call tonight. More
later.

Zzzzzzzzz.
  

    
Yay Erynn!  That all sounds cool!
  

    
Erynn, that sounds like such a rush. Woot! I'm glad it's going so
well.

Christy, the Little Lit book is... uneven, but besides Neil's story
(drawn by Gahan Wilson, and Neil got Gahan Wilson to draw kids and
monsters partying and having a food fight in a graveyard, which is
worth a _lot_; and besides, Neil named the little sister Goneril, which
delights me for no reason I can explain), there's also a Lemony
Snicket story in there that's a jewel. I say go for it.

I'm still waiting for DreamHaven to ship 1602, which they only plan to
do in complete sets, for which all eight issues have to be produced
and distributed, for which Somebody has to finish writing them
<waving>. It's still on schedule, anyway.

Holly, I print drafts and file notes on the backs of "dead" pages,
too. Why else does paper have two sides?

We're being told to expect more snow Sunday afternoon through Monday,
and the bus I take most often is still on snow route from last week's
dump, grmph. (The route shift means my closest stop is a quarter-mile
further and uphill. In the snow. Both ways. No, strike that last bit,
but the rest is real. Feh.)
  

    
Thanks for the rec, Davey.  And at least when you get _1602_, you
won't have to wait for a month to see what's about to happen!

-Christy just finished Part 5 and is verrrry curious.  But mostly,
she's curious about what one-sided paper would look like.

P.S.  I'll bet you're going to be in great shape by the end of next
week, with all that extra walking!  My new office is on the 7th floor,
so maybe I should get back into the habit of taking the stairs....
  

    
Somewhere in France, someone who gave Neil a large Moleskine notebook
is very thrilled right now.  <g>

I sometimes do idly wonder what gets written in the notebooks I've
given him.  Perhaps some early parts of _1602_, or the Shadow novella,
or something I haven't even heard of yet has been Nerfme'd into the
leatherbound Chinese-landscape one or its refills; and who knows
what'll cross the path of the one I spotted after the _Wolves_ trip and
grabbed in time for NYIBC (and won't describe here in case he hasn't
received that crop of gifts yet).  Y'all know what I mean?

Paper, schmaper.  Right now I am LOVING the spiffy new laptop I just
got for work, shortly before we moved to our spiffy new digs.  I got to
do a lot of Cleaning Stuff Out, both electronically and physically,
over the last month, and I feel all sleek and modern now.

With that all taken care of, next I've got to blow the dust off my
apartment.  (Goes off to tend to the laundry)
  

    



Holley Nowell writes:


notshakespeare: I forgot that. I do a lot of Reusing because any item that
can be painted can be turned into something else in my house. The wipes in
the plastic boxes can be painted and redone to be nice little desk boxes to
put paper clips and bulldog clips or rubber bands or whatever into. It's not
unusual to make a whole desk set of that and stew cans and big tuna cans or
tall kinda cans into things to hold things in on a desk.  I reuse junk mail
and stuff by running it through the blender with water and turning it to mush
to make papier machet. Bowls. Roses and other flowers. Medallions. or just
put in the bottom of a box lid and let it dry and it makes a good (free)
disposable cat box to put sand in. That's what I'm going to do with all my
boxes after I move. I buy powder in little plastic boxes with twist on lids
which can be painted to become a little things or rings or whatever box.  Old
plastic bottles can be painted and used to hold a variety of liquids or
creams which I then buy in large containers. I also use little boxes from the
office and I wrap them with Xmas paper and make little bows and put a wired
gold ribbon on them in a loop so they become Xmas tree decorations. Old
styrofoam balls wrapped in the cord type decorative stuff make new ornaments
also. Decoupage pictures from magazines. Well, you get the drift. I make
stuff out of other old stuff. In fact, I'm going to start a braided rug soon
and use material out of old clothing that isn't good enough to give or sell.
And I too am addicted to Tru. It was surprising to find that although they
set up a kind of formula, it's never quite the same. It was sad when she
didn't save the fireman or keep the building fire from happening. It's
amusing that she keeps trying to meet the new photographer person and seems
destined to get SO CLOSE in the first run of the day and then lose the
connection while trying to save someone in the second run. I wonder how Davis
knew what was going on. Can't wait to find that out. AND he knew before hand
that she wouldn't be actually taking the test either.
tinymonster: I was very amused about the recap page also. It was especially
useful since something he said allowed a couple of things to fall into place
for me.
erynn-miles: Yay on the play.
daveysnyder: Yep. Paper has two sides. I sometimes cut it into fourths and
use it in the office for loose notepad thingys.
Beams on keeping safe in the snow to all of y'all that get it.
tinymonster: I thought Neil actually bought those from some neat shop he
found while he was there. But I may be mistaken. And my computer comes back
to me after I move. It'll be all upgraded and clean and spiffy too. But it
won't be all modern because there's really only so much you can do to
upgrade. I think I'm reaching the time soon to buy a new one. Thinking of a
laptop that I can take with me places also.
Counting down to Moving Day. I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of
somebody talking clearly and loudly on my very on patio. They'd opened the
gate in the privacy fence and were talking. It was a weird feeling because it
sounds almost like they were in the house. It was the woman who rents the
other condo talking to a prospective buyer for mine, I think. I think she'd
shown her condo and then brought her over to see the location of mine as I've
told them I don't want to be disturbed on the weekend. She was telling the
lady that it has the same floor plan and the carpet is the same (ugly) Berber
that she has. The woman commented on the nice plants and edging on the patio.
Ha! Tooooo bad. I'm taking the scalloped edging and the pots and all the
plants will be dug up and go with me. Shame I can't take the soil as well. I
guess I could though I'd probably prefer to get new. I put 'em in with no
reimbursement for the improvements.
Cleo, my cat, has taken great exception to the boxes. Since it's her second
move, I think she's glommed onto the fact something she won't like is going
to happen. She's taken to using all the boxes as a scratching post and I have
had to tape up several boxes she's damaged because she actually manages to
get through the box to leave a hole to the items within.  I actually watched
her last night jump up onto one and hook her claws into the tape I used to
shut it and rip the tape off the top of the box.
  

    
Erynn - congrats on the show! Very exciting!

I have been very negligent in coming on here to announce that I ran
into Linda-Castle the other day. We were both returning to the garage
after seeing different shows downtown and hung out and chatted while we
waited for the defective ticket reading machine to get fixed. She says
Hello to everyone who still remembers her.

I am having difficulty in writing this because I am at someone elses
keyboard and they have the computer set with portuguese keyboard
layout, so whenever I try to do a quotation mark or a slash, I get some
other odd characters.

Why am I writing this here(question mark) Because my friend has just
begun deportation proceedings. Immigration came a week ago, pounding on
her door, burst in and took her and her husband away in hand and leg
cuffs. He has chosen voluntary deportation, but she posted bond and is
staying and going through the court process. (no, they were not getting
along before this happened) So, I am spending a lot of time here,
trying to be supportive and help her with her minimal english.

All I can say is... life is never boring.