Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
If anyone has trouble with the ebay link, the ShanMonster has a photo
up on her site:

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

Also...there will be photos of The Jacket (and it's new owner) posted
on my site soon.  I'll post the link when I get them up.
  

    
Neil - glad to here the book is going well.  are you almost finished? 


(Yum...Finally go a nice bit of sushi! Having craving sushi since x
number of posts ago.  Let's hope no-one mentions toffee ice-cream or
I'll really be in trouble...)  
  

    
Damn.  Now I want toffee Ice-cream....
  

    
I was never a big fan of that photo: I think I look grumpy. 

Anyway, today I finished 3/4 of Chapter 18 and a bit of chapter 16.
Now I only have chapter 17 to go. And the end of chapter 18, and the
bit I haven't written of chapter 16. 

n
  

    
Linda -- right now Barnes and Noble dotcom have got FACES OF FANTASY
in hardback for $5 a copy -- at that price it'd make a terrific
autograph book.
  

    
Whoa!  That's a steal (hey, come to think of it my copy is paperback
. . . hmmm).  It's a truly fine book (for autographing or no).
 
Neil-- I wouldn't say you look grumpy in the pic, but you don't look
particularly happy either!
  

    
Maybe you look grumpy, and maybe there are better photos, but that photo's
just fine.  And the blurry house looks great.

Hurrah, you're almost done!
  

    

Neil, I really appreciate that pointer.  I immediately went to order it,
but I'll be damned if I can find it at any price.  I get 80 hits for Neil
Gaiman, but none of that have that title.  
  

    
Linda-

The book is actually a series of potraits by the photographer Patti
Perret, with accompanying essays by the featured writers. 
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2IMRS2DMSW&ms
cssid=EE6BRBS4KK4T9LCR2XQMEK1VC7201HN2&isbn=0641020430
 I think that link should work...
  

    
works for me...
  

    
Neil did not write all the photographs.  A picture's worth a thousand words,
so it would have taken him quite some time.
  

    

I got it.  That photo is on the cover.  I thought Neil was pointing me to
one of *his* books to get started with.  Oy.

And that also explains the autograph reference.  Sheesh.  I'm gonna stop
posting right now.
  

    
Sorry, Linda -- didn't mean to confuse you.

Well, I am happy today. I finished Chapter 18, I think. THe Czernobog
stuff, which had troubled me for ages, finished elegantly and neatly
and Shadow post the events of Chapter 17 is a different sort of person
to the way he started out. And I fixed the epilogue, and wrote a weird
bit in a car, and a sequence in Uppsala -- the Uppsala sacrifice --
which more or less wrapped up Chapter 16 as well.

So I have one chapter left. Admittedly it's the knottiest, strangest
one in which everything happens, including a battle and the resolution
of all other plot threads, and it may be an enormously long chapter.
But I have one chapter to go...

Currently the book is a hair away from 160,000 words. So with luck
it'll come in under 175,000.
  

    
I forgot to mention that the Big Pumpkin is getting really big. Now of
course first frost is hovering in the wings, and I have to decide what
to do to stop it getting frosted out.
  

    
I'm really excited about being a chapter away from the end. I would
like to say that I have no plans right now to write another book this
long. Not sure exactly what the next book will be -- although I like
the idea of something that's three novellas. And I want to write THE
GRAVEYARD BOOK. And a picture book called "Fortunately, The Milk..."

Nothing else exciting to report. Emma Bull is coming out to the
Renaissance Fair this weekend, so I plan to go out and listen to the
Flash Girls. And probably sit and write chapter 17 as well.
  

    
This would be the last weekend then, wouldn't it?
Hmmm.   Might have to do something about that.

And how long *is* your hair now?
  

    
I was planning to maybe go to renfest on sunday since it's the last
weekend and i haven't gone out in at least a couple of years now.  I think
my "maybe" has just turned into a "definitely" .  .  .
  

    
From the Internet, Shira writes:

When I saw Lorraine at the RenFest, she mentioned Emma being there, too.

It would be awfully neat to see them (and possibly Neil and other people who 
post on this Inkwell group?) again.  Maybe I'll be able to go.  That would be 
a lot of fun.

Would they be playing on Saturday or Sunday or both days?

-shira
  

    
Providing no major weather catastrophes or parental conflicts
interfere, I'll be there with Shira on Sunday.  Will the Flash Girls be
playing that day?  And is Neil regretting posting his weekend plans
yet?  :p

-Sarah, who has never ever been to the RenFest.
http://www.ambienteye.com
  

    
Sounds likely that they will be playing from what Neil's said.
 
WHen you get to fest, check the schedule of events for music events, you
might look for listings for Bedlam, Lorraine's other band.  Of course not
all shows are listed on the official schedule, you can always ask someone
at the info booth or one of the performers if they have "The Grid" which
has more complete listings for where performers will be.  
 
And of course, making a rapid circuit of the grounds every so often is
also a good way to track down a performer you're interested in
seeing.  And once you find them once, you can ask them their schedule if
you want to catch them again.  
 
(Yeah, okay, so years ago I used to go to Fest solely for the music.  I'd
see Morrigan, Gallowglass, the Flash Girls, Bedlam, some others I'm surely
forgetting.  Plus Lojo solo sometimes, etc.  Got good at tracking people
down after I got frustrated with the official schedule!)
 
(of course things may have changed.  I'll probably be out there on Sunday,
too, if the weather's reasonably cooperative).
  

    
Where does the expression "and that's all she wrote" come from?

Elise -- My hair? It's long. About 155,000 words long right now.

...
Chapter 17 is happening, although it's breaking all the rules about
Point of view established  in the previous 145,000 words. This is
because of my hero being dead, and not getting around very much in this
chapter.

The word is that Harper Collins a) is very happy with American Gods to
the tune of planning to print a lot of copies. No, a lot of copies. A
LOT. Enough to make an author feel very nervous indeed.

But they are also going, I think, to push it back to June, in order to
give themselves more time to plug it. 
  

    
Not sure whether I'll be out at renfest on Sat or Sun. Or both.

You'll recognise me; I'll have long hair and will probably be writing
in a notebook
  

    
If they're printing a LOT, they'll probably sell a LOT.
  

    
The only web reference I can find to "that's all she wrote" says the origin
of the phrase is subject to debate, dating back either to "Dear John"
letters in WW2 or farther back in American popular song also (not
surprisingly) about being informed of being dumped by a terse note.

<http://www.word-detective.com/100699.html>
  

    <scribbled by sunnyrose>