Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Congrats on your Eagle Award, Neil!

Wow, Dave Sim's another one who looks younger than he is.

Yeah, _Smoke and Mirrors_ is what made me fall irretrievably in love
with Neil's writing.  Got me making time to read again in general,
really.  But I'm a short story fan.  Novel-wise, my favorite so far is
_Neverwhere_, which one of my friends absolutely hated.  If you prefer
your fantasy to take place in imaginary lands rather than the world we
know, you might like _Stardust_.

Gotta run.
  

    


Jouni Koponen writes:


Hello all

Ok, everyone has done their
thanks-for-all-the-cool-people-who-I-got-to-meet-in-Fiddler's-Green -stuff
ages ago, but since I've been busy as hell and such, I'm going to say my bit
now...

Ahem...

Thanks. It was great to be there. It was great to do 'the Neil-things'...
you know, sign books and do little doodles in them and generally just to see
that people liked the book. But most of all it was amazing to meet so many
of the people I've chatted with in here or in afng and to realize that they
are REALLY COOL people... maybe bit insane on some level, but in a COOL way
;-)

I had a very good time.

Thank you.

Jouni(sniff)
  

    
Hi, Jouni!  Have you told everyone in Finland that lots of us didn't vote
for Bush?
  

    
Hey, Jouni!

It was so great to meet you, too!

He's very cool, you know.  He puts up with Americans mangling his
name, and is very gracious about it  ;-)

Hey, Martha!

Why am I hearing Gloria Gaynor on head radio? ;-)
  

    
Oh, and I don't want to be called Really Cool People.  Call me
Ansaphones.  I hate them.

No, no wait.  Maybe I want to be called No Alchohol Lager.........
  

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

    
He drew Neil a birthday card that was beautifully done.

And very accurate.
  

    
1) Does anybody remember how much that Stardust with the beautiful
cover went for at the Fiddler's Green auction?
2) How can I send stuff to get auctioned off for the CBLDF? I'm
putting together a charm bracelet (a la Little Endless book) and would
like to donate it.
3) Mirrormask going to Sundance - is it to determine the number of
screens it will be opening? Or are they looking for distribution? Just
curious since I'd like to eventually see the whole movie.
---------------------------
I got a great shot of Jouni signing autographs and his patience was,
er, so cool. Jouni - do you have a web site?

Oh, and thanks for all the book recs. I got Stardust and next it's
Neverwhere. Eventually I'll get to them all.

I still want the Graveyard story. I hope Mr.Gaiman gets writing time
soon.

Take care,

Georgia 
  

    



Heeeeeere's JOUNI!




Martha -- Yes, indeed I have. I've also been telling everyone that the
scientologists seemed to be interested whether people masturbate or not...

Mary -- Riiight... No Alchohol Lager... umm... sure.

Jouni
  

    
Y'all forgot Good Omens as a book suggestion to read. And if you run
out of Neil Gaiman and am moping waiting for the next one, try out
Terry Pratchett.
  

    
Jouni--it was a Good Omens reference.  I was very tired & silly while
posting last night.

As opposed to.....when, I wonder?

Dodge--you are so right.  I read Good Omens when it came out because I
loved Sandman, and I sometimes forget that it was the first novel of
Neil's that I read.

Weird question--has anyone asked Himself about his reaction to the
Johnny Depp biopic The Libertine?  It's the life story of the poet John
Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, who we discussed here many moons ago. 
I keep forgetting to ask him what he thinks.  The little that I know of
Rochester suggests that Depp is one of the few actors who can make him
sympathetic without softening him up, if that makes any sense.

OK, I have a walk-through tomorrow, and I need to go walk Les's dog
and return videos.  Ack!

Bye!
  

    
Yeah, I thought of _Good Omens_, but not when I had time to post.  It
was actually the first Neil prose I read, but since it was a joint
effort by two authors with whom I wasn't familiar, I didn't know how
much of the good stuff was Neil's.  Actually, I still don't, but I now
know Neil writes good stuff.

Do we know who Les is?  And are you directing another student play?
  

    
Same here. I was and still am a fan of Terry Pratchett. Read Good
Omens. Ran out of TP books and several months from his next one and
bought a Neil Gaiman one. The rest, as they say...
  

    
I remember talking to a bookish co-worker of mine shortly afterwards,
and having him tell me that the funny parts were probably Pratchett's
and that Gaiman would have contributed the darker stuff.  Hence my
surprise when I later discovered how funny Neil can be!
  

    
(_Anansi Boys_ will be right up my alley.)


(Dammit, but I was looking forward to hearing some of it.  WTF?)
  

    
I have yet to mention that I have a very small set of Fiddler's Green
pics at http://photos.yahoo.com/notshakespeare  and for some reason I
went home without ever taking a picture of superstar Jouni...
  

    
A twelve-year-old boy in the airport the other day, who looked exactly like
a very bleached Harry Potter, was reading a Pratchett book.  He said he also
liked Piers Anthony.  I didn't try to talk him out of the latter but
suggested he find a copy of Good Omens.
  

    
There's nothing wrong with liking Anthony as well as everyone else.

Piers Anthony writes some great stuff, especially the Incarnations of
Immortality series.

The Xanth series is full of some really great, and really lousy puns. 
(My favorite: Catastrophe - A trophy with the rear of a cat.)

His Bio of a Space Tyrant is a compelling drama about the effects of
events in a life and how they change a person.

Proton/Phaze, or the Blue Adept, series is another fascinating
human-driven storyline.

Don't try to talk someone out of a favorite author, just try to get
them to read more.  In fact, it was Anthony who got me to read
Pratchett, which made me want to read Good Omens.  (And the first copy
I read was a galley copy a friend had gotten ahold of somehow.)
  

    
Like I said, I didn't try to talk him out of it.  Though Pratchett seemed
more his favorite author, and that didn't bother me at all.
  

    
I think a lot of people go through a Piers Anthony phase at around twelve. I
did. (I think he's rather like a juvenile Robert Heinlein, who I also can't
stand.) The fact that your airport boy likes Pratchett is promising.
  

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

    
I went through my Anthony phase later, but I've heard a lot of people
say that.

Les is my choir director, a Neil fan (who was in Minneapolis when
Himself was here, and got home when we got there for FG)who used to buy
me the same Neil book I had bought him for Christmas every year (this
was unplanned and happened *3* Christmases in a row) and who always
chats with Neil about Sondheim at signings.

That was more than you wanted to know, wasn't it?

Mary(who on 3 hours sleep is about to finally start reading Going
Postal)

P.S.  I had no idea who PTerry was until years later when I was
looking at the new releases in Border's one night and thought, "Why
does that name seem so familiar?"  It took me a couple of minutes to
remember where I'd seen it before.  I think it was when Jingo came out
here.  The Scottish play parody was my first PTerry book.  Too tired to
remember the title at the mo'.

P.P.S.  Go, Martha!
  

    
My list of authors that I must read their latest stuff when I find out
about it/have the cash/find it in the library:
(In no particular order)
Piers Anthony
Lois McMaster Bujold
Holly Lisle
Stephen King
Anne McCaffery (And, possibly soon, Tom McCaffery)
Neil Gaiman
Mercedes Lackey
Elizabeth Anne Scarborough
Dean Koontz
Terry Pratchett

I don't go through an author "phase" so much, as I try them out for a
few books, and say to myself, "This person can WRITE.", and then they
make the list.  If they don't make the list, then, I probably won't
read anything by them in the future.

Of course, if I walk in a bookstore, I try to take only $30 with me. 
I went in one one time, and came out with lotsa books, but I was two
weeks late paying rent.
  

    
Ah. I know that one. I have a Barnes & Noble on the way home that I
only go into about this time of year to buy books for various persons
and children. I always spend way too much. The rest of the time, I go
into the 70% off store of Half Price books and while I still put a
sizeable dent in my paycheck, at least I feel like I've gotten ENOUGH
books.You know that feeling. You go into a bookstore and come out and
feel like you didn't accomplish anything because you only got one. or
so.
  

    
I can usually swing a hardback and a paperback or two for my $30.

Although, when I hit the used bookstores, I feel like I've hit the
motherload.