Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
FWIW Announcement:

What:   "Little Lords of the Desert"
        Book Signing & Media Event
Who:    Donna Atwood (bratwood), illustrator & Conrad Storad, author
When:   Saturday, November 14, 1998
        Noon to 3:00 p.m.
Where:  Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix AZ

 I think we'll host a big party that night. Well regulars are invited.
 I know most Bay-Bees are reluctant to venture into the desert. But if
you're thinking of making a trip in this direction, mark your
calendar,  and e me. It's our most pleasant time of year.

http://www.well.com/conf/singles/images/bugs.jpg
  

    
This book is going to be SOOOOO neat!
  

    

Say more about the book, bratwood. What's it like?
  

    

and how little are these lords?
  

    

here's who's touring the Bay Area around now:
Darlene Love (I just spent the day with her - REALLY fun!)
Judy Collins (tomorrow)
margo Kaufman, Stacey Wolf, Andrew Tobias, Arlene and Alan Alda, Lorrie
Moore, Jim Lehrer, Leigh Steinberg, margie Pallatinie, Robert Mcneil,
Margaret Drabble, Patrick Smith, Fannie Flagg, Susan Isaacs, Barbara
Kingsolver, Dave Barry, Francesca Marciano, Jerry Spence, Joan Lunden,
Harold Evans, Susan Minot, Juan Williams, P.J. O'Rourke ... all int he next
couple of weeks.
  

    
Darlene Love!  She's so great.
  

    

At A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books in SF (my new part-time employer!):

Lorrie Moore is sick, so her appearance on 10/15 is cancelled.

Edwidge Danticat:  Friday, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m.

David Mas Masumoto:  Thur., Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m.  (i introduce him...)

Robert Pinsky:   Wed., Oct. 21, 7:30


here's hoping i don't get shy at the wrong moments.
  

    
Little Lords of the Desert
Coloring/Learning Book
ISBN 0-9660293-2-1

An educational coloring book featuring 26 of the most popular spiders
and insects native to the Great American Deserts. Printed in the U.S.A.
on 100% recycled paper and bound like an artist’s tablet. 32
single-sided pages, 8.5" x 11".

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Six Legs & Eight Legs   4
Who Is in Charge of Planet Earth?       5
Map of the Great American Deserts       6
Arizona Blister Beetle  7
Bee Assassin    8
Black Widow Spider      9
Bordered Patch Butterfly        10
Carpenter Bee   11
Drone Fly               12
Giant Desert Centipede          13
Giant Hairy Scorpion    14
Giant Vinegarone        15
Grand Western Cicada    16
Green Darner Dragonfly  17
Horse Lubber Grasshopper        18
Ironclad Beetle 19
Jerusalem Cricket       20
Large Milkweed Bug      21
Mexican Queen Butterfly         22
Mexican Red Knee Tarantula      23
Obscure Ground Mantid   24
Ornate Tiger Moth       25
Palo Verde Beetle       26
Polybiine Paper Wasp    27
Tarantula Hawk Wasp     28
Texas Carpenter Ant     29
Tiger Beetle    30
Western Tiger Swallowtail       31
White-lined Sphinx Moth 32

Page 8:
BEE ASSASSIN (Apiomerus)
Size:       1/2 inch to 5/8 inch long.
Color:   Red with blackish-brown markings on the shell.
Habitat: Meadows, grassy fields, and gardens.
Food:      Insects of all kinds, especially bees.
Assassin bugs are found throughout North America. The Bee Assassin is
most common in the West and gets its name from the manner in which it
catches and kills other insects. The Bee Assassin lays in wait on the
leaves or petals of colorful flowers waiting for honeybees and other
pollinators to land. When the bee is busy gathering pollen, the Bee
Assassin pounces. It grabs the bee with its powerful forelegs. Then it
drives 
its sharp beak-like mouth into the bee's back, injecting strong
fluids. The fluids digest the insides of the unlucky bee. The Assassin
then sucks out the digested goo.
  

    

Yum. Sounds like a great book.
  

    

Susan Minot's book is alleged to be amazing!
  

    
What a lot of great stuff going on.  Phoenix, hmmmm?

Gee... I'd love to hear tales from kkg, or are your adventures too 
confidential for a World-Wide forum, Kathi?
  

    

she tells our condom adventure at the drop of a panty.
  

    
I saw <bruces> ranting publicly ("speaking publically" would not do it
justice) at Yerba Buena Center last night, and a fine, vintage Sterling
rant it was... afterwards, at the reception, I got to kiss his ring...
  

    
He was fabulous, and so in demand that I missed kissing his ring, alas.
  

    


Ah, the condom story - still the best one ever! But best told with the help
of one's eyes.

I've had a delightful couple of days - yesterday with Darlene Love, who is
by far the most down-to-earth and funny and gracious of all the girl group
60's singers I've worked with on book tour - and that's most of 'em, I
think.  Good chance Darlene'll sing "Da Doo Ron Ron" with the Remainders at
our upcoming gig in Miami (Nov. 21, Miami Book Festival - Bayside
Marketplace, 6-ish PM)

But today - the queen of graciousness and class, voice still pure as a bell
whether singing or laughing in the car:  Judy Collins.  Yikes - what a lady.
Judy was the first "chick singer" I ever saw be generous to another "chick
singer" when she introduced Joni Mitchell to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival
crowd with this gleeful sort of "Hey kids - look at the cool new thing I
FOUND!" attitude, and made me realize women could work together playing
music - this was kindof revolutionary in the 60s, when we were mostly either
solo folkies or "the girl" in an otherwise male group.  Her albums got me
through most of my teenage heartbreaks and i once interviewed her about 25
years ago and realized she was smart and nice.  So to have Judy Collins
greet me when we met a few years ago with "Kathi - I've been following your
musical career for years! How nice to meet you!" (Of course, using the term
'musical' loosely since she was talking about the Remainders, but still...)
it was one of those "I can die now, thank you very much" moments.

Saturday I have Arlene and Alan Alda with a children's book.  This week I'm
liking my job just fine.

For a juicy, funny, rock & roll gossipfest, read Darlene's book, "My Name is
Love."

For a loving and inspirational story of dealing with a son's suicide, read
judy's book, "Singing Lessons."


if you need to learn your A-B-Cs, real Arlene Alda's A-B-C.
  

    

I interviewed Alan Alda several times.  He is hilarious.  Tell him I said
hi.  He won't remember me, what what the hell.  Also, ask him what he thinks
of Woody Allen.
  

    
And then tell us!
  

    


Mission accepted.
  

    

i get to introduce Susan Minot on Oct. 30!  glad to hear there's some buzz
about the book.   does anyone know if her last name is pronounced Mi-know or
Mi-knot...?
  

    

Like "Pinot" I bet ...
  

    

My knot.  Accent on first syllable.  (She is my pal, she always smells
really good and is so beautiful it's scary.  Yet we all adore her.)
  

    

gracias.  now i will not make the mistake of frenchifying her name.
  

    

I am interviewing Robert McNeil on stage tongiht in Marin. He's touring his
new roman a clef sort of thing, which is not actually very good but I will
fail to mention that.
  

    


You have just mentioned it to the World Wide Web, of course.
  

    

different though from standing up there with the author beaming at your
elbow.