Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
The Fabulous Lorraine did "Acoustic Guitar" with Lojo Russo at Minicon,
was fab.  I get Lorraine's version stuck in my head sometimes even though
I only heard her sing it once!
  

    

Well, Mr. Gaiman, with five hours remaining, your jacket is going for
$5100!  Top bidder, at this moment, is starlingfeather.

When I did a search for Neil Gaiman this morning, I got 126 hits.
  

    
From OpheliaB@aol.com Sun Aug  6 01:24:39 2000
Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2000 21:24:19 EDT
From: OpheliaB@aol.com
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Neil Gaiman - Sandman: The Dream Hunters

Wow.  Auction ended at 6,101.00.  Wow.  That's more than my car cost.  One 
wonders what other articles of neil clothing would fetch... a pair of 
sunglasses or a pair of socks worn once...  

Jen
  

    
From Sbstarlet@aol.com Sun Aug  6 01:25:57 2000
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2000 01:11:31 EDT
From: Sbstarlet@aol.com
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: (for the Neil Gaiman discussion)

Hi Neil!

Shira here...  It was nice to see you at CONvergence.  I really enjoyed 
hearing you read from _American Gods_ and I can't wait for the actual novel, 
when it finally is finished. 

So... I was wondering, how did Claire Danes come about writing the 
introduction of _Death: The Time Of Your Life_ ?  Since she's not a writer 
(as many of the people who do introductions for your work are) or.. well.. 
Tori Amos, I was wondering how she fit in.

Also, since I'm totally Dead Kennedys-obsessed at the moment, are you a fan 
of the Dead Kennedys or Jello Biafra?  It's already been pointed out in this 
discussion that you're a fan of some punk music, so I had to ask.

Good luck with your all of your current projects, whatever that category may 
include... <smiles>

-shira
  

    
From reg@acepia.net.au Sun Aug  6 01:26:07 2000
Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2000 15:15:25 +1000
From: Reg <reg@acepia.net.au>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Questions for Neil Gaiman

Hi Neil.

Some friends and I were discussing what we would like as an epitath and
I was curious as to whether you had any thoughts on the subject. Can you
think of a single phrase that you would like to be remembered by? I know
it's a morbid question but I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

On a less morbid note, any thoughts of touring Down Under in the
forseeable future. You still owe us a visit remember.

Reg
  

    

From blueeyedmuse@hotmail.com Sun Aug  6 01:54:54 2000
Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2000 02:51:52 MDT
From: Sunny A. <blueeyedmuse@hotmail.com>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Neil Gaiman question

Hello.
In the interest of generating some late night reading material (this place 
has been a bit slow lately) I have decided to post a question.  When you 
were in Tucson, as you mentioned in an earlier post, did you do anything 
touristy?  I have no idea how long you were here, but apparently (who knew?) 
Tucson has quite a few touristy things to do, so I thought you might have 
explored a bit.  There is of course Mount Lemmon, Old Tucson, the Desert 
Museum, and San Xavier Mission (just outside of Tucson), to name a few of 
the places you might have visited.  Also^Åyou had to have eaten Mexican food 
here, because everybody does when they visit (even good old President 
Clinton)^Ådo you remember where you ate?  Probably not, as it was nine or so 
years ago^Åbut I thought I^Òd ask.  This is the absolute most boring question 
I have ever asked anyone.  Cripes.

Did you know that some toddlers think it^Òs funny to run smack into walls and 
bookshelves and such just to make a loud enough noise to send you running 
toward them in terror?

Sunny
Who hopes this newsgroup does not peter out, as she gets very bored when 
said toddler comedian is napping.
  

    


Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2000 19:46:59 +1000
From: Reg <reg@acepia.net.au>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Question for Neil Gaiman

Hi again.
Another question occurred to me as soon as I'd posted the previous one.

With regard to your comments about fans and signings, E.M. Forester is
quoted as saying that he became a writer partly to earn a living but
also "to earn the admiration of people I admire." With this in mind who
is the most unexpected person to ever ask you to sign something? Was
there anyone that really made you think "Wow! So-and-so wants my
autograph?"

Reg(who hopes he wasn't one of the "grumpy" fans. You knew I was kidding
about the "tubes" thing, right?)
  

    
Good lord. I go off for a couple of days and return to a plethora of
questions.

I'm afraid you'll have to be patient now -- I'll need to find the time
to answer everything. And everyone. 
  

    
Let's see... first things first, is anyone out there near Lebanon,
Kansas? There are a couple of things I need to know, for the novel. And
I don't really think they're worth losing a day's work to go and look
at...

***

Shira -- Thanks. I'd heard a rumour that she was a fan, and asked my
agent to get her the comics, and she wrote the intro. I've heard people
grumble about it, but I liked it.  I wanted Amy Ray of the Indigo
Girls to do it -- she's a fan, and a really nice lady, but they were on
tour when I needed them.

We met during the recording of and promotion of Princess Mononoke. I
liked her.

Most of the punk music I'm fondest of was recorded in 1976 or 1977.
Early Stranglers, Adverts, Pistols, Damned...

Reg -- I always figure that on days when I start worrying about my
epitaph that I don't have enough to do. 

I remember solving it entirely to my own satisfaction a few years ago
"Oh, of course, that'll do" but have of course since then entirely
forgotten what it was, and it's not something I wrote down. Over the
years I've come up with some funny impromptu ones for interviewers -
never any as good as W.C. Field's though.

Yup, there have been a few people over the years who have made me go
"omigod so and so wants my autograph" but this topic already came too
close to namedropping on the reply to Sarah-silth.

But I didn't become a writer to gain the admiration of people etc. I
think I did it because it was what I wanted to do most of all in the
world.

No, you weren't one of the grumpy ones. (It was several months after
the con that it occurred to me that the Fosters TV ads -- and the XXXX
ones as well -- showing on UK TV through the 80s  had Australians using
the word tube for can/tinny etc. But I still like to blame Australian
and Robert Aickman fan Barry Humphries for it.)

Sunny, didn't do anything touristy in Tucson, apart from buy my wife
some jewellery, and that was rather accidental (I think it was the
saleslady's first day on the job -- when I told her I thought the
bracelet was rather pricy she looked upset and wailed "But I'm not
allowed to go down to less than half price on them!") -- the most
exciting thing I did was go to Beth Meachem and Tappan King's party
without my leather jacket (the very same one you Just Paid Enormous
Amounts of Money For On E-Bay  -- for which, my thanks, and of course
the CBLDF's) because it was so mind-crogglingly hot. And 20 minutes
after the sun went down I was shivering. 

I think I was there for about 3 days. Yes, I had Mexican food -- a
very nice lady who was a Pro Food Critic dragged me off for lunch in a
little unassuming place where I had the first and the very very best
tamales I've ever had.

***

Had an idea for the... sequel is the wrong word, but book after
CORALINE. I was watching a Mexican documentary last night when I solved
the narrative problem I've had for 15 years with a spooky children's
book. I gave up on it many years ago -- in fact I gave Terry Pratchett
one of the central ideas in it for Johnny and the Dead, because I
figured it was completely defunct.

But it just yawned and woke up and came to life again, and I still
like it. And it doesn't cross into Terry's territory. It'll be a while
until I get to write it, but I may try and do it as I did much of
CORALINE, by writing half a page instead of reading a couple of pages
before bed.
  

    
Oops. Missed Mari's post.

Yes, it's true. There's a photo of us at the back of The Kindly Ones.
I live in fear that Geoff Notkin will one day find the tapes from that
era and release them to the world.

If you can find the Rhino DIY Punk collections they're a really fine
introduction to the period.

Napster-wise, I try and think how I would feel if someone who wanted
to read one of my books could do a quick websearch, download and
printout the book, and not buy it, and I would be neither happy nor
impressed. 

I think the creators should be allowed to control the means of
dissemination of their work. 

Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs -- the best thing about it is that it
has enough room for favorites to come and go. I could probably post my
ten favorite songs but that might change.

100,000 Fireflies is my favourite Non-69 Love songs MF song.

City of the Damned is my favorite non-Magnetic Fields Stephin Merritt
song.
  

    
By the way, the VIP tickets for the Last Angel tour went for

NY -- $1825
Chi -- $685
Portland -- $810
LA -- $1475

and again, my thanks to all of you who bid...

The tickets should go on sale very soon. There will be a limited
number of premium tickets on sale which will include a CBLDF reception
before the show.
  

    

From moonlight@graffiti.net Sun Aug  6 22:23:07 2000
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 13:19:17 +0800
From: Sarah Rudek <moonlight@graffiti.net>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Questions for Neil Gaiman

Hi Neil- 

  Well, I seem to be in the midst of a belated Thingie takeover. :) With all your dreamwriting and dreamtalk and dreamautographs, I don't think I've ever actually heard your opinions on dreams and if or how they should influence us. Do you believe we should react to our dreams? And if so, to what degree? How about interpretation, do you think its a matter of personal comprehension, new age books or something all together different? Or perhaps you believe dreams are just stories in their most organic form? Or none of the above? I'm just throwing out a few vague footholds on a very broad topic -overall, I'm curious to hear some of your insight on dreams. 

-Sarah

  P.S. Just wanted to suggest James Lileks' site, http://www.lileks.com/ , if you haven't been there. Included among *lots* of fun popculture miscellania, there are quite a few interesting tidbits on the history of quite a few Minneapolis buildings (
http://www.lileks.com/mpls/index.html ) ... its also responsible for appreciation of ghost ads. :) And speaking of onlinestuffs, I^Òd be honored if you^Òd take a look at my site: http://www.crosswinds.net/~ambienteye  Thanks. :)
-- 
_______________________________________________
Get your free email from http://www.graffiti.net
  

    

Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 01:36:31 -0700
From: Ghost Who Walks <kelryntal@earthlink.net>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: For the Gaiman Discussion:

First of all I'm not quite sure if this will even make it on the board,
because I don't really have a question.  Its more of a statement, but I
can cross my fingers and hope.  I was looking over the questions and I
realised something.  After being a fan of your work for going on what
seems a lifetime, but has been in fact only 10 years or so, I have never
once had the chance or opportunity to thank you.  So, that is what this
post is for: To say thank you.  For the record I actually met you a long
time ago, it was when Mr. Punch was just released.  You were at a
signing at Oxford books in Atlanta, Georgia.  It is not really important
I guess, but at the time I was unable to thank you.  There was a
sprawling crowd, I think it was only just slightly hotter in there than
it has ever been on the surface of the Sun, and you were doing a lot of
signing and sweating.

So, eight or so years later here is what should have been said on that
night a lifetime ago:


Hi there, Mr. Gaiman, I would just like to thank you for writing things
that I want to read, to say thanks for being around even in the most
neurotic and hard pressed times of my life.  I'm sure you've touched me
no more or no less than all your other myriad of fans, but regardless I
feel the need to pay you some how.  I feel the need to lay at your feet
some small offering, I guess a few words from me no matter how heartfelt
could ever be enough.  They by no means make up for the years of hard
work and devotion you have laid at our feet, yet I will say them
anyway.  Thanks for the good times, the bad times, the laughter and the
tears.  Thanks for continuing to write high quality work that time after
time surpasses every standard I set.  Thanks for creating a world in
which I have immersed myself in a thousand times and each time gifts me
with something new.  Thanks for just existing, you have touched
countless people with your words, and not all have the words to thank
you, so I'll be egotistical and do it for them7  I think I could
continue thanking you but I will not, words are simple to say, but
rarely they do the feelings justice, so7  I guess in the end7 just
thanks.


Oh7 and thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to
someone who has always had a fond memory of his two hours in line for
just a few hurried words spoken to a man behind a table.


Ghost, Who has said his peace and wishes you well.
  

    

From: "Maria Siu-Lee Ng" <m-s-ng@freeuk.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2000 14:32:48 +0100

Hi Neil,

I read in the 2000AD year 2000 diary that once you wrote one of the
Tharg's Future Shock stories - I'd be really interested to know which
it was, what it was about & which Prog (issue) it was in.  I suppose if
I knew, I'd try to track it down - I guess it just tickles me that I
might have read one of your stories years before having heard of you.
I used to read 2000AD on & off years ago, and the Future Shocks were
usually a favourite -Joff-kilter, twisted & hilarious.  (They replaced
it some years ago with the uninspired Vector 13 stories, in which the
twist was ALWAYS men in black/aliens/JFK conspiracy theories)

Thanks for all the great writing, and please don't forget to include the
northwest in your next UK signing tour.

Maria Siu-Lee
  

    

From: "Maria Siu-Lee Ng" <m-s-ng@freeuk.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2000 14:48:50 +0100

P.S. to my query that I just mailed.  I scrolled back to read previous parts
of the discussion, and you mentioned that you enjoyed readings in preference
to signings.  Do you ever do readings in the UK?  I'd love to attend a
reading rather than a signing any day.

Maria Siu-Lee
  

    
(www.lileks.com is one of my favorite websites and it's mention here is
further proof of how small a world it is, as I know James Lileks from a
billion years ago).
  

    
lileks.com is a scream.
  

    
Sarah -- I tend to think that 98% of dreams are obvious, weird,
churning things -- the sleeping equivalent of defragging a hard disk,
or being forced to look at things you're avoiding. 

And then there are the other dreams, and god knows where they come
from.

I've never read a book on dream interpretation which made any sense
(although they make a fraction more sense if you know that most of them
are parroting earlier books, and the earliest books were in latin, so
many of the if you dream of X it means Y are actually old latin puns). 
I've never yet read a book of scientific dream theories which wasn't
contradicted by something in my experience (according to scientist A
all dreams are in black and white and we imagine the colour on waking,
according to Dr B all dreams are silent and we imagine the dialogue on
waking, according to researcher C there can by definition be no tastes
or smells in dreams -- and so on).

Ghost -- that WAS a hellish signing wasn't it. (And Jimmy carter
signing in the next room made it even more surreal). I'm sorry it was
so strange and surreal and sweaty.

You are very welcome, thanks for the kind words.

Maria -- I think I wrote 4 or 5 Future Shocks. One was okay. One was
rewritten to take out the jokes and was fairly pointless. One was just
writer in-jokes...

I stopped doing Future Shocks when I noticed they were reprinting them
in the US 2000AD comics without paying us royalties. And that was
pretty much it for me and 2000AD. If they paid royalties for reprinting
work, I would have kept working for them.

As to the dates? No idea. Lance Smith has a bibliography that someone
can refer you to -- I'm sure it's up at the Dreaming
(www.holycow.com/dreaming), and he's bound to have them all listed,
though.

The last two signing tours I did in the UK I started each signing
(except the Forbidden Planet ones, where they didn't have the room or
organisation to make it happen) with a reading and Q & A period. Some
were really fun -- Edinburgh they rented a hall, for example.

Honestly, I'd love to do something like the Guardian Angel tours in
the UK, where it's not about signing, but reading and telling stories,
but it would take someone organising it, and I don't have the time.

I would imagine that American Gods will bring me back to the UK for a
while.
  

    

From Sbstarlet@aol.com Tue Aug  8 22:41:49 2000
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 01:22:03 EDT
From: Sbstarlet@aol.com
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: For the Gaiman discussion...

In case anyone is interested, Lance Smith's bibliography can be found in an 
old alt.fan.neil-gaiman.  The address of the post is 
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=525790839&fmt=text .

-shira
  

    

From blueeyedmuse@hotmail.com Wed Aug  9 23:41:38 2000
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 16:12:36 MDT
From: S. A. <blueeyedmuse@hotmail.com>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Loads and loads of questions for: Neil Gaiman

Hello again, and thank you for answering my very boring Tucson question.
I have been pretty brain-dead lately, but I think I finally came up with 
some questions I am interested in.  And a few other people have asked me to 
post questions, so I think I^Òll lump them all together, if that^Òs okay.

I was wondering, to continue the thread about fans, what are some of the 
more crazy/silly/ingenious and just plain memorable questions that you have 
been asked?  And the answers too, I suppose, if you are willing to post 
them.  Also, along the same lines, what are some of the more 
crazy/silly/ingenious and just plain memorable stories that you have been 
told?  And to round it out, what are some of the more crazy/silly/ingenious 
and just plain memorable things that you have been asked to sign?

Okay^Å

Shield wants to know if you have ever thought about bringing a Dr. Who story 
into existence, in any medium.  And the age-old Dr. Who question:  Who is 
your favorite Doctor?

Erin would like to know if you celebrate Independence Day, and Sean is 
burning to ask if you have ever received any unappreciated gifts from fans, 
and if so what they were.

I think that^Òs it on the questions for tonight.  Thank you again^Å

Sunny
In non-crazy/silly/ingenious-or-just-plain-memorable mode.

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
  

    
I'm afraid we're heading into favorite sock-colour and type of boiled
sweet territory here, Sunny.

I was asked by Virgin if I wanted to do a Dr Who book, and said no. If
the BBC gave me Dr Who for a year or two, and carte blanche to do what
I wanted as long as I brought it in on budget and gave them 13 or so
episodes a year, then I would love to do Dr Who.

Favorite Doctor? Patrick Troughton (followed by William Hartnell, who
scared me a little). All the others were actors. First episode I
remember was the Zarbi (giant ants).

Favorite storyline was probably the interminable and hypnotic WAR
GAMES as Troughton's run ended. I would have been ten or eleven, and
that was the first time we'd learned of the Time Lords. Until then he'd
just been a Mad Scientist. Shortly after that the Time Lords stopped
being really cool and started being blokes in naff sweaters.


My reply 315 covers a lot of the gifts questions. I suspect that the
most underappreciated gift was probably a piece of art that someone
gave me at a signing painted on a huge piece of wood. The people in the
store kept suggesting I lose it or they could lose it for me, but I
said no, and packed it to fedex back to me, along with all the other
things people had given me in San Francisco and POrtland (as I could no
longer carry them, because of the piece of wood).

And fedex lost the box, so I lost all the cool things people had given
me. And the piece of wood with the painting on.

I watch the fireworks on the 4th of July, but I also enjoy telling
people that one of the reasons the colonists had for wanting
independence was the desire to expand west of the appelachians, which
the British forbade because of treaties made with the Native Americans
in the Proclamation of 1763... and other cool and embarassing things
about American history I learned from James Leowen's wonderful LIES
ACROSS AMERICA.
  

    
Note... I finished Chapter 14 today. My protagonist has spent all of
it hanging from a tree. And the end is -- I don't know if it's in
sight, but I've just played my second-to-last card, and now I have to
make some stuff up, have a war, play my last card, sort out the various
dangling ends, and finish it.

Off to Norway tomorrow morning, and from there to Finland. I'll post
here if I find myself in front of a terminal, or not, if I don't.
  

    
Norway!
  

    

From blueeyedmuse@hotmail.com Thu Aug 10 19:02:14 2000
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 17:23:22 MDT
From: S. A. <blueeyedmuse@hotmail.com>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Neil Gaiman Discussion

Would someone please start the clock at 15 minutes?

I thought I'd post this link for anyone who might be interested in reading 
the interview with the gal who won the jacket.  She feels a bit lame about 
it as it is her first ever interview, and reading it is like hearing a 
recording of her own voice, but she thought maybe the Inkwell readers would 
be interested.

http://shanmonster.bla-bla.com/interview/002.html

So there ya go.

Jacket Gal Extraordinaire
Who wonders if reading your own responses to questions gets less painful 
when you're famous.
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
  

    
Good interview, Sunny. No, reading your own responses to questions
never really gets less painful, although after you've been extensively
misquoted in interviews for a decade or so you come to appreciate your
own responses as at least being you making an idiot of yourself.

Not that you made an idiot of yourself, of course. You should tell the
cbldf about the interview -- I bet they'd happily put it up at their
site, and in BUSTED etc.

martha -- I think it's Norway. Hang on, I'll check. Yup, Norway.

I can even tell you what I'm doing there. Here:


MONDAY 14.08.00

10.00 - Dagsavisen (Newspaper Interview)
10.45 -  P3 (Radio interview)
12.15 -  Lunch
13.45 -  Universitas  (Newspaper Interview)
14.30 -  Bergensavisen  (Newspaper Interview by phone)
15.00 -  Mann (Magazine Interview)


Possible reading at night, but unlikely.


TUESDAY 15.08.00

10.00 -  AVIS1 (Newspaper Interview)
10.45 -  NTB (News Agency Interview)
11.30 - Gutenberg media (magazine Interview)
12.00 - Lunch
13.00-14.30  -  Dagbladet chat (Chat on newspaper's net site)
15.00-16.45 - Metropol (TV interview) 
16.00 - 18.00 -  Tronsmo signering. (Signing at Tronsmo Bookstore)


There. They may add a few more things in. And then on Wednesday I fly
to Finland.

***

I just realised that because I was never able to persuade Compuserve
4.02 to connect directly through Windows NT, when I got this Win NT
laptop, and because I don't have any dial-up or free services that work
in Finland or Norway that, although I'll be able to get my e-mail
okay, through Tapcis (aging, creaky but dependable DOS-windowed
compuserve access program)I probably won't have any net access at all.

Unless anyone has any suggestions for easy and cheap ways to get
online in Finland/Norway, I may be VERY sporadically here for the next
ten days. I may not be here at all.