Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Well there is, that.
 
Neil-- I believe you re Lorraine.  I just recall some *interesting*
zucchinis!
 
Big pumpkins would be grand (in more ways than one).
  

    
I got a copy of Smoke and Mirrors from Amazon.com before I left for Denver
on monday, but didn't manage to start reading it until last night.  I have
to say that it's one of the most wonderful things I've read in a very long
time.  Thanks for writing it, Neil.  I'm greatly looking forward to
finishing it, and then undoubtedly building a Sandman collection.
  

    
And tonight was Iron Chef, and it was, appropriately enough, a pumpkin
battle.

I didn't go to Wiscon as I was too low on time, which I have to say is
probably a sad indicator of how long this topic has to live...

If anyone has any questions, get them in now, and if there's time I'll
reply.

Jeff, glad you enjoyed it. I think Smoke and Mirrors is a solid
collection, on the "if you didn't like that story there'll be another
one along any minute" basis.
  

    


OpheliaB@aol.com writes:




Neil, there's a story I really enjoyed in Angels and Visitations called
'Webs'.  In the introduction you mention a 'huge set of linked short stories
that tell the story of Lupita'.  Well, I was wondering if you were planning
on setting to paper the rest of her story?  It's been really fun watching
this conversation.  Thanks for all of the stories.  (oh, and Hi Tori Bat)

Jen aka OpheliaB

p.s.  Good luck with the pumpkins.
  

    
I went to a baseball game and forgot to tape last night's Iron Chef.  I got
home just in time to find out that the challenger had brought his food cart
into Kitchen Stadium with him, as they were recapping before Tasting and
Judgment.  I turned it off and hope they will rerun it soon; their
scheduling is erratic (last week, they did Girl's Day again, just a couple
of months after I'd already seen it).

And right now I have Whadya Know? on the radio, recorded earlier today, I
believe, and Michael Feldman keeps talking to and about the science-fiction
feminists in the audience: Wiscon radio-show pilgrimage.

It's a good thing about short stories that there's always another one if you
don't like the one you're reading, I think.
  

    
Lunatic716@aol.com writes:

Neil,

How exactly did you come to meet Caitlin Kiernan and have her work full time 
on The Dreaming? Have you read Silk? If so what did you think of it?

Your announcement about the World Horror Con in Chicago '02 has me building 
my time machine a bit earlier than planned. <g>

Thanks!
James
  

    
Jen -- Hmm. There's a question no-one's asked before. I honestly don't
know if I'll ever tell the Lupita stories. It's not that I don't want
to... more that there are so many other stories to tell. And things
that seemed important and original fifteen years ago seem less so now.

There's a short story unfinished on the dusty regions of the hard disk
which begins "Lupita met the One and Only Vicar of Shifting Position
on the whispering outskirts of the Desert."

James,  how did I meet Caitlin? At a World Horror Convention, I think.
She sent a story to the Sandman Book of Dreams, which I loved, and I
congratulated her on it.  That would have been in 95. In 96 while I was
in the Uk working on Neverwhere she sent me SILK to read, and I
enjoyed it enormously. (I thought I gave it a blurb. Search your copy
carefully and you may find something I wrote on it saying that it's a
jolly good book or something a lot like that.)

Martha, for my money the finest moment of Iron Chef is the expression
on Chen Kenichi's face when the Yogurt is announced in the Yogurt
battle.

Saw the Magnetic Fields tonight -- wonderful, wonderful band.
Claudia's voice is heavenly, Stephan Merrit is the most interesting
songwriter since Sondheim. They are a treat live, and are doing gigs in
a week or so in San Francisco and Los Angeles in which they will be
playing the whole of 69 Love Songs all the way through. If any of you
are in SF or LA (andf you can get tickets), go and see it.
  

    


LunaVudu@aol.com writes:



From: LunaVudu@aol.com
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 12:07:28 EDT
Subject: Neil Gaiman - Sandman: the Dream Hunters
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com

You know, Neil, it's really not fair, teasing us with the beginning of a
Lupita story and suggesting we'll never get to read it.

Questions:

Do you find the idea of DC producing "The Quotable Sandman" somewhat silly?
It just seems like such a cheesy attempt to cash in.

Of the stories you've written that haven't been optioned for movies, are
there any that you would love to see on film?  Any short stories that conjure
up really strong visuals?  I know I get that sometimes.

And you know, I'd never have wondered this if it wasn't for rereading Kindly
Ones and its afterword while moving all my stuff home from school, but was
that really Piglet in the bed?

Luna
  

    
I watched the Yoghurt Battle with Michael, and when Chairman Kaga unveiled
the yoghurt and they cut to Chen Kenichi's face, we laughed and laughed.

Chen Kenichi is wonderful at all times.  If he weren't a master chef, he
could be a loveable character actor.

The most interesting songwriter since Sondheim?  Hmm.
  

    
Luna -- well, the Quotable Sandman really only exists (as I understand
it) in order to produce a cool small book that can go in between the
mini Sandman bookends. I don't have the ego to want to put together a
book of quotes of mine, but hope that DC do a creditable job of it now
they're doing it. The way it's been explained to me it's less a "cheesy
attempt to cash in" and more of a way of giving the people who want
the bookends something extra and cool.

Mostly I just wish they'd done the merchandising stuff when we were
doing the comic, and I'd say "Why don't we do an X, Y or Z?" and nobody
ever would.

I think the thing I wanted most was the idea of Endless greetings
cards. i wanted Despair Valentines cards, dammit.

Stories? Well, I'd love to see a film of THE GOLDFISH POOL...

Was that Piglet? I hope so. It would be nice to think so, anyway,
wouldn't it? I knew a woman whose mother took her, as a child, down to
the ashdown forest every weekend, looking for the original Piglet.

(The one in the glass case in the museum or library or whatever it is
is Poglet, the replacement.)

Martha -- On the basis of 69 Love Songs, I think I'd stand by that
statement. He's certainly one of the very few songwriters to realise
that words and music don't have to reinforce each other -- they can
comment on each other, or contradict each other, or even cancel each
other out.
  

    
Despair Valentine's cards could be the most accurate Valentine's cards out
there.

I don't know if I'll be able to get to this concert, but you make it obvious
I'll have to buy "69 Love Songs" and listen to it.
  

    
I think "The Goldfish Pool" would be a wonderful hour short if anyone made
hour shorts, by the way.  A great length, but so uncommercial.
  

    
I just found the P. Craig Russell-illustrated version of Neil's
werewolf story "Only the End of the World Again."  It's a radically
different Russell style from the Haroun Al Rashid artwork in
Sandman.  These pictures make an interesting contrast
to the deadpan irony I remembered in the story from hearing Neil
read it aloud -- somewhere.  (Bay Area CBLDF benefit? Minicon?)
  

    
Martha -- let me know whatyou think of 69 Love songs, when you've
heard it.

Sometimes I think uncommercial is my middle name, but it's only my
middle name in lower case letters written very small, while many of my
friends have U*N*C*O*M*M*E*R*C*I*A*L as their middle names so I am not
allowed to grumble.

Lenny -- Craig Russell did the "thumbnails" for that story, but Troy
Nixey drew it, which is why it doesn't look like Craig. It's his
storytelling, not his drawing.


I have a question for the assembled multitudes, which I need for a bit
in the novel....

1) Do you know who John Chapman was?














2) Did you know he was Johnny Appleseed before I told you?







3) Do you believe any of the stories of him being a barefoot wanderer
planting apple orchards in the wilderness to help the pioneers?



4) Did you know that he was a successful commercial farmer who had
over 14 farms and grew his orchards on over 400 acres of land he owned?


And for extra credit...


5) Who was Hiawatha? (A one-sentence answer is fine)

I really don't want people to go and research this -- just give me
immediate, reading it answers. I need to know how much people know and
how much they're going to need to be told...
  

    

Hiawatha's the subject of that Longfellow poem, right? The one that begins
with the line about the forest primeval?
  

    
"John Chapman" sounded familiar.  I'm sure I heard it before and would
have gotten it in context.  The legend sounds, well, legendary but I
don't think I ever heard the real story.
  

    


OpheliaB@aol.comn writes:


From: OpheliaB@aol.com
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 09:54:15 EDT
Subject: Neil Gaiman - Sandman: The Dream Hunters
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com

1) Do you know who John Chapman was?

Nope.

2) Did you know he was Johnny Appleseed before I told you?

Ah, now I know why it seemed familiar.

3) Do you believe any of the stories of him being a barefoot wanderer
planting apple orchards in the wilderness to help the pioneers?

I believe lots of things.  I know I was told when I was younger that he went
through an area (Findlay, OH, Blanchard Valley) close to where I grew up.
They're fairly proud of it: the hospital there (http://bvrhc.org/) keeps out
a bowl of free apples for visitors, very tasty.  I'm not sure about the
barefoot part though.  :-)

4) Did you know that he was a successful commercial farmer who had
over 14 farms and grew his orchards on over 400 acres of land he owned?

Nope.

And for extra credit...

5) Who was Hiawatha? (A one-sentence answer is fine)

I vaguely remember reading a story about him when I was little, the only
images I get in my head are of a little native american boy, a turtle, and
for some reason Peter Pan.

And now I am going to spend the rest of my morning looking up stuff because I
know I knew more than this when I was little and it bugs me that I've
mentally misplaced the information.

Jen
  

    


Mistervandemar@aol.com writes:


From: Mistervandemar@aol.com
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 10:13:34 EDT
Subject: Neil Gaiman - Sandman: The Dream Hunters
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com

1) Do you know who John Chapman was?

Yes, he was the man commonly known as "Johnny Appleseed"

2) Did you know he was Johnny Appleseed before I told you?

Yes

3) Do you believe any of the stories of him being a barefoot wanderer
planting apple orchards in the wilderness to help the pioneers?

Well, I don't know if he was barefoot, but he did plant orchards.

4) Did you know that he was a successful commercial farmer who had
over 14 farms and grew his orchards on over 400 acres of land he owned?

I didn't know he had that much, but I knew he wasn't just some poor barefoot
guy

And for extra credit...

5) Who was Hiawatha? (A one-sentence answer is fine)

I used to know this, honestly I did, but I can't seem to recall at the moment

I really don't want people to go and research this -- just give me
immediate, reading it answers. I need to know how much people know and
how much they're going to need to be told...

While the people around this area (ohio) probably know a fair amount because
he (Johnny Appleseed) did a lot of his stuff here, I doubt people in places
he didn't go through (most of the U.S. and beyond) would know quite as much.

Mike
  

    
I didn't know Chapman's name.  I didn't believe the Johnny Appleseed legend.
I couldn't have told you he was a commercial farmer but I'm not surprised.

Hiawatha is best known for living on the shores of Gitchy Goomy, by the
shining Big-Sea Water and whatnot; didn't he have something to do with the
founding of the Five Nations?  (Was it five nations?)

For an uncommercial guy you're doing okay.  And I'll definitely let you know
what I think of the 69 Love Songs.  I haven't looked into their San
Francisco concert, thinking, perhaps wrongly, that it's probably too late to
get tickets anyway.
  

    
        My answers are:
        1. Sort of.
        2. No.
        3. Sort of.
        4. No.
        5. He's the guy from the poem, who I understand really was an Indian
hunter/warrior/leader/stud/whatever.
  

    

A response from the Web:

From LunaVudu@aol.com Sun Jun  4 11:12:32 2000
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 21:47:38 EDT
From: LunaVudu@aol.com
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Neil Gaiman - Sandman: The Dream Hunters

1) Do you know who John Chapman was?

No, but it sounds like I probably should, shouldn't I?

2) Did you know he was Johnny Appleseed before I told you?

Nope.  But now I'm going to have that silly Grace song from Girl Scouts stuck 
in my head for a week and a half.   "The Lord is good to me, and so I thank 
the Lord... for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the 
appleseed...."  Oh, help.

3) Do you believe any of the stories of him being a barefoot wanderer
planting apple orchards in the wilderness to help the pioneers?

I don't, really, but I knew he had some basis in fact.

4) Did you know that he was a successful commercial farmer who had
over 14 farms and grew his orchards on over 400 acres of land he owned?

I did not.  But I suppose that would be that basis in fact I was thinking of. 
 I just remember reading a book about him in pre-school.

5) Who was Hiawatha? (A one-sentence answer is fine)

I don't really, no, but I associate the name with the whole "Indian Prince" 
kind of image.  I know why Jen thought of Peter Pan, I think... it has to do 
with that whole "Tiger Lily" sequence in the book/movie, when Pan rescues the 
princess from Hook and then they all celebrate at the camp.

"...The Lord is good to me."  Oh, dear.....

~ luna
  

    
Dangit Luna, now I have that girl scout prayer song thing stuck in my
head, too.  Eek!
 
I didn't know Johnny Appleseed's real name, but I had a vague notion there
was basis in fact somewhere.  But no specifics.
 
I know who Hiawatha is, but then I live in Minnesota.  It's required here,
I think.  
 
  

    
Hi Neil,

I'm glad to read you're a Sondheim fan. It's interesting to see that
the people whose work I admire and respect seem to admire and respect
each other's works. I really enjoyed the two Tori Amos tracks on the
"Color and Light" CD. "Children and Art" is one of my favorite songs;
it makes me think of my great-aunt, a sharp 93-year-old Irish woman.

I recently reread the whole Sandman saga, stopping after each volume
to read the relevant chapter in The Sandman Companion, and I must say
that, although I found the books a fantastic read the first time, I
found my second experience, compressed and intense as it was, to be
mind-blowing. I've read a lot of high-brow literature, in French (my
first language, I'm French-Canadian) and English, and I've never read
anything like Sandman. The most impressive feature for me is how you go
from the mythological  significance of the affairs of the Endless to
the down-to-earth significance of the affairs of extraordinary mortals,
from the abstract to the concrete and back again. This perpetual shift
in scale, along with the shifts in space-time and in female/male
points of view, are like movements along three axis, weaving a rich and
full tale.

Have you ever seen those 3D puzzles in foam: there are cathedrals,
Star Wars vessels and the like? I designed the CD-ROM version of these
games, in which you build the puzzle and then you can explore inside.
We have four titles out, and the reason I'm mentioning this is because
I think you might have a blast with the third one we did, the
"Neuschwanstein Castle" in Germany. I don't want to talk about it too
much here, but we have the three Fates as characters in the exploration
part of the CD, whose thread keeps breaking, and who are considering
using steel cables instead. It's all very campy and tongue-in-cheek,
but the 3D graphics are impressive. If you'd be interested in a
complimentary copy, send me an e-mail at mdonovan@dyad.com. I'd be
honored to give a little something back in exchange for the many hours
of entertainment your stories have given me.

Mike
  

    
i belive that Hiawatha was a cigar statue of an indian who fell inlove
with another cigar statue in a song.
dunno if he was something else, but i remember singing along to the
song on rode trips with my family when i was younger.
  

    
That was Kawliga. Song by Hank Williams, I think. A different fictional
Indian. Hiawatha was by Longfellow.