Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Congratulations.
  

    

I wish, wish, wish I could come to your reading and I'm so disappointed
that there isn't one in the Bay Area.  

I know that several folks have joined the WELL and I'm very happy about
that.  I hope that they will spend some time wandering around in other
places than just inkwell.vue while they're here.

It's just that my poor brain was SO frazzled and it needed a break.
  

    
T.S Valle e-mails:

To all:

Thanks for the great stories/experiences/etc. etc. about the CBLDF tour Neil
is currently doing. It's good to hear the turnouts were so enthusiastic and
upbeat... can't wait 'till the Los Angeles stop (and not only 'cause it's a
day before my birthday... yay!).

Onto the questions/comments/etc.

Neil--  Funny you should mention a 'Neil Gaiman Question Concordance'...
remember, I have an amazing amount of video/transcripts/audio/conversations
with Cthulhu-Knows-How-Many questions and answers on them... that 'Ask
Virtual Neil a Question' idea has been banging around my head for a while...

Rocky--  HEY! Whassup grrrrrrrrl? Drop me a line and stuff. You know the
address. Good to see you back in the swing of things. Guard those piercings
for me.

....also, I have to do the plug... if any of you readers are in the Los
Angeles area, and are waffling on going to the Oct. 26th Reading at the
Writer's Guild Theatre... GO! There are tickets still available, they're
going for cheap ($20, $16 with a valid Student ID), and it's the last stop,
of the last tour, and it's going to be a spectacular time! Some of the
locals and I are also planning a Post-Reading Birthday Bash and Benefit
Auction for the CBLDF... so come, listen, and then relax and party!

Take care...

T.S. Valle -- nightwalker@neilgaiman.com
  

    
Neil -- Got see you and that was more than enough.  

Re: Blueberry Girl, I'm glad you're willing to entertain the idea, you
can't imagine how much of an impact it had on the few women I briefly
chatted with after the reading.  Next to being simply awestruck by the
excerpt from AMERICAN GODS, the poem/prayer was truly amazing.  I guess
being the father of two daughters and a guy who "writes stuff" enables
you to so eloquently give voice to the hopes, fears and dreams one
might have for them as girls-in-the-world.  Hearing that voiced
reminded some of us of all those possibilities our arrival heralded so
long ago.

And I guess we'll have to wait for the AMERICAN GODS tour to hear your
answers to those ..*ahem*.. intersting questions.  It's so funny to
watch your face when you come across those little gems.

Congrats on the Geffen Award.  I'm a Harry Potter fan too
[unapologetically I might add], but STARDUST was definitely something
special..even if 5 copies is a tad excessive for anyone to own. *grin* 
  

    
Linda -- Thanks for the welcome, and don't worry about wondering
around, I've been reading both Hypenation and Mirrorshades, but
inkwell.vue already has some familiar faces so it felt kind of 
comfortable to jump right in. 
  

    
Hello folks, and hi Neil! I've been lurking in this topic for quite some
time and I'm pretty excited to hear that you're doing a reading tour.

I'm a little late to the party, though - is there a place that lists the
dates/locations for the remaining readings?
  

    
Linda, I know how you feel.  The closest stop was from six hours away
from here.  It would be nice to be able to wrinkle up the continent at
whim, but I don't like to think geological repercussions
... But in place of attending a reading, I finally got around to
signing up for a membership, so I guess I'll just indulge in the
smidgen of Good-Samaritanism...:P
  

    

At lunch today I found out about Tuesday's Portland reading. Gak... going to
have to tear across town at a high rate of knots to make it, due to a
previous engagement, but if you see a geek stumbling over people as he
clambers far too late into his seat, please excuse me.
  

    
Details of the final tourdates are at


www.cbldf.org
  

    
thank you!

I'd really like to make it to the L.A. reading. I'll see what I can do.
  

    

Rocky and Sarah - I'm glad you're both here!  Rocky, I am also happy that
you've wondered over to Mirrorshades...
  

    
Welcome aboard Alison :P
  

    
Linda - I usually like to lurk awhile before posting..gives me an
opportunity to familiarize myself with the relevant topics and not
sound like a crass newbie when I post.  Wrt, this particular group, you
all have some very interesting stories, which of course is my
particular passion.  Stumbling into a writer's forum is about as
awesome as it gets.  Which brings me to a question for you, I noticed
in the introduction that you lecture on "body acceptance" issues.  And
I've been meaning to ask exactly what is that in reference to?  There
are so many issues for women in this particular area, and I was
interested to know on which of them do you focus your energies? 
  

    

That would have been <lioness> who is an activist in that area.  She is
Neil's interviewer, not that he needs one, or at least she was for the
first two weeks of this topic.  She does pop in now and then, so perhaps
she will see this post and answer your question before long...
  

    
Linda,  

Yeah, I regret I haven't had time to stumble around more...this place
seems really cool and vibrant; one of the first things I noticed was
that intelligentsia seemed to be bursting from the seams.  I have read
a few forums, though mostly dead ones...I think it's really neat to
find these open ended conversations that have ended over a decade ago
still hanging around, frozen.  Mostly it's just I haven't had time to
participate.  Speaking of time, I was pretty happy to find out that
I've been hired at DreamHaven Books and Comics.  Very part time, but
what a great part time job...
  

    
Sarah--
Congrats on your new job... I'm way envious.  I almost think I'd
commute from NYC to work at Dreamhaven.  That is, if the salary
supported the commute.
  

    
You get to live in nyc and you're jealous?  I 'phhht' at you.
  

    
Sarah, congrats on the job.

Spent today carving pumpkins and chainsawing trees and suchlike with
Tesla and Eric, who come out once or twice a year and play in our yard,
as it were. Only with chainsaws.

Meanwhile, an interesting dilemma -- someone forwarded me a page from
the public forum at the Dent, the Tori Amos website, where people were 
discussing the Blueberry Girl poem, and as far as I could tell,
agreeing that it was their right to tape it and/or post it on the web
for those who weren't there, and I shouldn't perform it publically if I
wasn't prepared to put it into the public domain.

Which I really am not. It's my poem for my friend and her baby, and I
read it in Chicago for Sheila as a favour, because she asked very
nicely and she and Darrien'd paid much too much for dinner as a CBLDF
donation. And I did it in NY as there were a few requests and it seemed
unfair to say no, having done it the night before.

I was probably going to do it on the next two stops, but I'm now
having second thoughts. 

Am I being too sensitive on this?
  

    

I don't think so. As a musician I certainly don't think that anything I play
publically is something I have lost all right to have any say in. There's
quite the thrash on this subject in the music conf's "The Ethics of Live
Performance" topic, where some members of the pro-taping group argued that
very thing- that, because it was done publically, they had the right to tape
it and do anything they wanted with it. I don't agree with them, and so I
don't think you're being too sensitive.
  

    
        On the other hand, those of us on the next two stops would hate to
miss the poem.  Ultimately, of course, it's up to you.
  

    
No you're not being too sensitive, it was something sacred that you
shared it with us as is your right, but having made it quite clear that
this was a gift for Tori and her baby, people should be ethically
bound to respect that fact. 

Perhaps someone should drop a gentle hint over there that the
exploitation of your gift isn't showing much respect for Tori, the baby
or your friendship, and let them know you're dismayed at the prospect.
It might also be a good thing for them to be reminded of the context
in which the reading of the poem took place.

Sarah -- I would kill for that job...and I live in NYC. Congrats!
  

    
Sarah, I am deeply envious, and I don't even get to live in NYC.

And Neil, I don't think you are being oversensitive at all. Your words
are your craft and you made Blueberry Girl as a personal gift. If you
choose to show that gift to others, it is your right, but those you
show it to do not have the right to take it and copy it and treat it as
public property. It shows a great lack of respect for your gift.

Reg
  

    
The Blueberry Girl poem is yours.  Could I have taped, and then
published, the chapter you read from American Gods, simply because you
read it out loud? Can a play, because it was performed publically, be
printed without the author's permission?  I am, admittedly, tired and
with one ear to the ballgame (Go Yankees!,) but it seems pretty clear
to me that the "tapers" are in the wrong.

To fence-sit, however, and fully understanding that you're not
inclined to publish the poem... what if you DID publish it, but put the
proceeds into a savings bond or something for Blueberry Girl?  Perhaps
then you could turn public interest in the poem into an ongoing gift,
rather than a potential violation of your rights.

Regardless of what you do, it's a stunning poem.
  

    
e-mail from shira:

Neil, I don't think you're being oversensitive at all.  The poem is yours and 
Tori's and the baby's and by reproducing it without your permission they 
would be showing a great lack of respect, or at least that's my take on it. 

You can't really stop whatever bootlegging may occur, but maybe posting your 
views to the forum or having someone else (such as Sheila or Darrien) post 
for you would help people understand your objections to it.

-shira 
who has a first kiss
  

    
If people knew that bootlegging your performances could mean they didn't get
those performances, they might listen.  Sad though.