Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
DanGuy--Awwwwwwwwww!  That is the sweetest thing!  I can't wait to
read Xander's version.

Anyone reading this in the Chicago area should know that Friday night
in the 7o'clock hour many people will be meeting to watch the movie. 
Some of them are Unusual.  Most of them are Suspect.  I evited everyone
I know.  Some of us are going Sunday to a matinee, too. (Or instead).

Back to grading papers.  Blecch!
  

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

    
I like that!!
  

    
<995>

Ahhh, Neil just put my fears to rest here: 
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/09/still-smiling.asp

Very glad to see that he _is_ still blogging because he wants to. 
(And it's cool knowing that someone else had the same concern.)
  

    
Is anyone going to the movie on Friday?
  

    
Whoops! I meant in SF or Berkeley? This is my one chance to go...
  

    
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/09/theres-first-time-for-everything.asp


That.  Rocks.
  

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

    

I plan to see Mirrormask on Friday in Berkeley. Time not yet set.
  

    
(edamame?? Madman?)I was working on sf since I know the area better...
time not yet fixed either, but I'm shooting for the matinee.  Thought
I might get a couple of friends to come with me but, alas, not.
Where is the theater in Berkeley? Near Bart?  I don't drive often so I
don't know my way around there but I wouldn't mind not crossing the
bridge if I don't have to.  I'm coming from Sacramento BTW.
  

    
I cannot bloody believe that a man with whom I have shared a bowl of
sherbet has the NYT #1 Bestseller next week.  I am so tickled I could
just squeeeee!

Mary (who finished Oldest Living Confederate Blah Blah Blah last
night, after an extended hiatus in which she read Anansi Boys followed
by Thud.  That was so cool.)
  

    

Theater is right near the Downtown Berkeley BART, yes.
  

    
Back from the Corte Madera thingie with Michael Chabon (who seems just
as pleasant a fellow as mutual acquaintances have always told me).  It
really is a different place, Marin: at a San Francisco or East Bay
Neil event there are lots of faces I'll recognize; here, well,
eventually I saw Squeaks!

Nice, though.  A good crowd that wasn't an overwhelming crowd, and the
conversational interview was a very nice change of pace.

When I hugged Neil goodbye (Neil so happy to know that finally he will
have a relaxed night's sleep, back to the hotel by 10 and doesn't need
to be ready to go again for nearly 12 hours!--not that one relaxed
night makes up for dozens of half-sleepless ones), I said I probably
would skip the Cody's event tomorrow where there will be so many people
for him to say hi to.  But he twisted my arm: "You should come and
hear a reading from Anansi Boys which you haven't, and they're funny,
and hear a proper Q&A, and bring the postcard for your play, and give
it to tons of people so tons of people will come to your play and you
will be rich."

"Actually so Dan won't be poor," I said, and it was an excellent
point, and I was pleased to be armtwisted, so I'll see a bunch of you
tomorrow!
  

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

    
Hardly anyone from here saw me yesterday, because Marin really truly
is a totally different place!  Heaven knows I'd never been to that
bookstore before in all the years I've lived here.
  

    
DanGuy--Me, too!

Hi, Martha!
  

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

    

It looks like I might cancel my Mirrormask plans for this afternoon to go to
the signing instead. Maybe I'll see some people I know and haven't seen in a
while.
  

    
I have also just returned from MirrorMask.  Saw a couple of books and
bags in the audience.  Cool.  Took a friend to see it since I couldn't
stand to see it alone.  He's an artist and was suitably impressed.  
To give myself full permission to go (it's a road trip) I had to
finish my homework and go to the gym.  It turned out that going to the
gym before the movie garnered a surprise.  Chip, whose gym it is, is a
Gaiman fan as is his ex-girlfriend.  I don't think I would have found
that out otherwise.  He has acutally read _American Gods_ which I have
only listened to.  Guess he really isn't just a *muscle head* and music
jock!

Hope everyone had their best Neil moments over the weekend.
G'night.
  

    

I went to the signing in Berkeley last night, and will be seeing Mirrormask
tonight.
The signing was lovely. Neil was good and funny as usual- I went with three
people who had never seen him read before and they all came out impressed at
how he owned the stage. I got to see some friends I hadn't seen in a 
while. And, as Neil was signing a Mirrormask poster for me, I asked him a 
question.

"It's a question you've refused to answer in the past, but it's been a 
couple of years, so... there is a God, in American Gods," I began, "and 
everyone forgets who he is as soon as they are introduced. You've claimed 
that there is enough information to figure out who he is, but no one I 
know has managed..."

He responded (and I paraphrase): "I have seen some people guess correctly. 
Though I've also seem some people guess wildly wrongly. But I've decided 
that if I'm going to tell people who it is, I will do so in a book."

He went on to say that while the next Shadow book takes place in England 
and Scotland, he has another one in mind for after that, that he may write 
someday, and it may even be called (I think he said) The Unremembered God.

So I thought I'd share that here. 

While we were in line two of the people I was with wandered off to get 
tea. They returned with 5 cups, and there were only 4 of us. "Who's that 
for?" "Neil, if he wants it." "Um... well, let's ask Someone Official." So 
we did, and she asked Neil, and he said 'yes please', and so my friends 
brought him a cup of tea. I don't know if he drank it, but he gave them 
some slices of mango in exchange.

I think that's the extent of my anecdotes from the evening. 
  

    
Lovely.
  

    
I think Neil must have signed for--about five hours?

The important point is, longer than BART was still running.  Squeaks and I
were lucky enough to catch a ride to downtown so that she could catch a cab,
and I a stunningly crowded two a.m. bus, the rest of the way.

I just don't know how he holds himself together so well until the doors
close and everyone's finally gone!
  

    

Neither do I.
And yeah, as the line hit about 30 people I turned to my friend and said
'so, BART just stopped running... can I get a ride home?'
So yes. Approximately 5 hours of signing- started around 8, ended around 1.
And he thanked _us_ for being patient enough to wait through the whole line
(we were last save one person). I was like "Woah, thank _you_ for still
being here!"

And he signed my friend's _The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish_ with
"Best fishes."
  

    
I noticed the last, dozen?, people in the line got movie posters given them.

That was five hours signing after most of an hour of performance (reading
plus questions), mind you.  Plus half an hour more signing of store stock
and pre-orders after the doors closed.
  

    

Wow.
And yes, the last about dozen people got posters- he seemed to like putting
speech or thought bubbles coming from Helena.

And speaking of, I saw MirrorMask tonight. Oh wow, this is a tremendous
movie. I say this as someone who doesn't really do movies often- I just
recommended it to my oldest friend and his response was "Woah, you _never_
recommend movies!" My roommate went- she who can nitpick a movie to death in
less time than it takes for a piranha to strip the flesh from a cow, as I
put it in another place- and afterwards she declared that it was on her list
of perfect movies (alongside Fight Club and Sense and Sensibility,
evidently. Now that's a natural threesome, eh?).

I saw a few reviews that called it labyrinth crossed with Alice in
Wonderland. I decided it was Coraline with Labyrinth with Legend with
American McGee's Alice... and then really good.

Not that anyone here needs to be told to go see it, but this seemed the best
place to gush about it. I really hope it does well enough to go into wide
release. And I'm curious what kinds of commentary might be on the DVD when
that finally comes out.