Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Man, *I* love the idea of MirrorMask and have been incredibly anxious
to see it for ages now, but I sure as heck ain't camping out for a week
to get tickets. Nuh uh. 

Speaking of camping, back from Burning Man and in dire need of sleep
as I'm now sick (yay!). Toodles.
  

    
Picked up the new Portuguese Casa das Bonecas - The Doll's House - a
week before release. I'm *seriously* in love with its cover. In it I
found a major bookstore's magazine which has the book on the cover -
plus an article talking about Mr. Gaiman's visits to Brazil (how it has
never been seen before - that kind of crowd and enthusiasm for an
author).

I thought I'd share, so here it is: the mag, the article and the
beautiful cover. 

http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/georgiacabr/SandmanBrasil.html
  

    
I notice that "singed" copies of _Anansi Boys_ are available for
pre-order at http://www.neilgaiman.net/single-item-detail.php?id=G1661.
 I thought _Good Omens_ was the book to burn?  ;)
  

    

heh
  

    
Book to burn?

Ordered my signed copy just in case I don't get to go to the signing
in Austin. 
  

    
Yeah, Neil and Terry always sign _Good Omens_ with "Burn this book"
and "Apply match here."  I think it's something from the story, but
it's been so long since I read it....

Of course, since I took six years of French, the _second_ thing I
think of when I see "singed copies" is that they must have something to
do with apes (les singes).  But I'm weird.

The next post will be much more interesting, promise.
  

    
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/gaiman.html

It appears that they've finally decided on times for Neil's reading
and signing at the festival in DC!

Fiction & Fantasy Pavilion 12:40-1:10
Book Signing 2-4

See, I told you the next post would be more interesting!
  

    
Ah. I'd forgotten about that (signed books)
  

    
Tinymonster--no, no!  Le singe est sur le branche!  Le chat est sur le
chaise.....oops, sorry.  I sometimes find myself rattling off whole
monologues of Eddiness.

I'm baaaaaaaaack.  I did *not* move to Connecticut as intended, so
here I sit, back at my old school after the first week of class,
utterly exhausted.  I can't believe I'll be here 'til June.  Oy gevalt.

I'm way bummed that I won't be in DC; sounds like you guys are going
to have a faboo time.  For some reason HarperColl in it's infinite
wisdom has decided that the best place in Chicago for Neil to sign is a
far western suburb on a Thursday night, so I've been contemplating a
car rental.  Unfortunately, I just realized that I don't have tix to U2
for that same week, so I may have to blow car rental money on a
ticket.  Ugh.  

Thank God Neil is coming the day *after* the season premiere of Lost,
or things could have gotten ugly.

I emailed the Debster this morning to see if she wants to make a party
of MirrorMask's opening night.  It's a Friday--why not?  

DanGuy--you have beautiful children!  Congratulations on Max!  Great
name!  

I'm pretty sure Himself will adore you all for the MT.  You guys rock!

Dodge--hope you get to see him, and congrats on the townhouse!  How
did the walkthrough go?

Her Mousiness--get well soon and tell us all about Burning Man.

Mary (reading The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All) 
  

    
P.S.  My other favorite Neil & PTerry sig for "Good Omens" is one will
write, "Armageddon is coming!"  and the other writes, "Look busy!"
  

    
The walkthrough went well. The young girl who'd been living there had
a rather casual cleaning idea. For instance, the wood floor was nowhere
near clean of the rug gunk and when I went to clean it myself, I
discovered she'd possibly never looked below knee level the whole time
she was there as there were spider webs and dust bunnies on the wall
just above the floor trim. I discovered the big difference in room
walls from when there is furniture (covering the problems) to when
there is none. But we didn't ask to have it painted. Ah, well, I
would(will) probably do that myself anyway as I don't care much for
white walls.  She was still cleaning when we did the walkthrough. 

Later, when I got my keys, I also discovered she had done nothing at
all about cleaning off the patio. It took me several days and some big
heavy garbage bags to get that done.  The fishpond needs cleaning too.
But that will have to wait until after I move in. Sometime soon. This
week or next weekend. 
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
You've got a fishpond, too?  Cool!  Good luck with the move!

Hey, my friend João Guilherme Ripper <698> is in this month's _Agenda
VivaMúsica!_  (http://www.vivamusica.com.br/agenda.php)  His article's
on Page 5 of the download; maybe at some point I'll sit down and try
to read (or rather, decipher) it.  Such a cutie!
  

    
dodge--you've got a fishpond!  I am pea-green with envy at the moment.
 I want koi so badly I can taste it, but I live in an apartment. 
<<sigh>>  Congratulations!  May Brigid and Brendan bless your house!
  

    
Yeah. It came with the townhouse seeing as how it would be harder to
move them. There are 7 goldfish. One is yellow. One is orange. And the
other 5 are red-orange and bigger. I call them the queen and king and
their personal guards. The girl assured me they are goldfish as she was
the one that put them in there. They are, however, some 6 to 7 inches
long from nosetip to long tail tip. I didn't know they would get that
big but the pond is plenty big enough for them so I'll leave them. A
friend of mine said I could trade them in for smaller ones but I think
I'll keep these.

I am thinking about getting some smaller fish - but I'm curious. Will
the bigger ones eat them? 
  

    
Goldfish grow as large as the environment will let them.  Keep them in
a small bowl and you stunt their growth.  So 7" is not that
surprising.
  

    
Sounds beautiful, Dodge!  It's great that it came with the fish
included.
  

    
I've had a couple of goldfish close to that big, and they've never
bothered smaller fish.  Sometimes you have to be careful that  smaller,
faster-moving fish don't chew up the bigger fish's fins.  Ask at your
local pet store & they can make some recommendations about what kinds
of fish will do well out there, and go well with goldfish.  

I sometimes worry that Tiger, my Oranda that's that size, will
accidentally inhale a small fish, but I never worry that he'd eat one
on purpose.  They're too hard for old Fat & Sassy to catch.  ;-)
  

    
Quick one. 

I just found out the translation is being read in Portugal and Africa.
I was already aware, because of e-mails, that there were people
reading it who hadn't bothered to join the community, but it's so cool
to know it's actually helpful to people.

That lady in Tokyo (right?) had a really good idea.
  

    
And quick story on fish.

A friend of mine went with her kid and got him a nice golden fish. He
named it after me - and I was all touched and happy the way you get
when a v. young kid thinks you're cool and names his pet after you.
The next morning the pretty fish was floating tummy up. Dead. That
cute kid spent the whole day saying, in a sing song sort of way...
Georgia is dead! Georgia is dead!

and Dodge
I too want a pond! It sounds lovely!
  

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

    
My dad had tropical fish up until I was around 12.  The names my
brother came up with for them could certainly hold their own against
Maddy's "Salsa" and "Cheesy Popcorn"!
  

    
Honestly, the best thing to start out with is tropicals.  Ignore the
people who tell you goldfish are easy!  They can get quite large (ask
dodge!) and are subject to an annoying number of digestive ailments and
other illnesses.  They also make a lot of poop.  I mean *a lot*. 
Tropicals are beautiful, easy to care for, and do not require a degree
in piscine biology to diagnose when they get sick, which they do fairly
rarely. 

I do love my goldfish, but I sigh with envy every time I go to
DebbieAndChris' house and see their beautiful 55-gallon tank full of
pretty fish and healthy plants.

I post this as a community service to anyone who, like me, just wanted
a few pretty fish in a small tank.  I now have 3 10-gallons, a
29-gallon, and a 36-gallon, and spent 1.5 hours cleaning tanks on
Sunday afternoon.  Debbie has 1 55-gallon and 1 15-gallon, and spends
about 20 minutes a week on maintenance.  Don't let this happen to you! 
;-)
  

    
yes. I'm going to have to clean the tank. A guy at the petstore said
he'd do it for me for $150. Ahem. Beg Pardon? So, I'm thinking of
getting a big ice chest, putting water from present pond so they aren't
too shocked, have 2 filtrations so might put the little one in there,
and emptying the water and cleaning the green stuff off the sides and
the silt and gunk off the bottoms. Yes, I know it won't be easy.  After
I've done it once I may actually consider the guy's offer.  
  

    
Anyone else going to be in NYC on Tuesday for the signing?