Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Email from Daniel:

Emily -- Don't know if you've considered travel writing before but it
could be something you're interested in.  My ex-stepdad (I guess that's
what I call him) used to do it and while one may not be able to make much
money at it (he used to supplement the articles with photos taken on trip,
which bring in much more money) you can get your trips paid for in most
cases once you've established a reputation.  Anyway, just a thought.

Neil -- Glad to hear there are some other Neverwhere stories waiting in
the wings.  I enjoyed it immensely, and am looking forward to American
Gods.  The premise, from what I've caught with occaisional popins here,
sounds very intriguing.

Daniel
  

    
Emily - ack! Daniel beat me to it. I was going to suggest travel
writing. You have quite a gift for bringing people places (although,
after having read your write-up, I think that's one of the shrines I
visited on my last trip to Japan - my mother and I went to nearly a
dozen in a matter of days; beautiful trip, but the shrines all blur
together now). My grandmother is a travel agent and when I was studying
journalism she would always try to sucker me into travel writing (I
say sucker because you could never pay me enough to ride an airplane
that many times in my life!), even went so far as to introduce me to
several travel-journalists on some of our trips. 

If it weren't for my pathetic fear of flying and my rebellion against
that branch of the family, it would have been something I'd love to
turn into a career.

Neil - are you working with Andy again then? And when is the project
looking to be done? (Snow Glass Apples is one of my favourite stories)

-squeaks, er, Michelle
  

    
Neil-

Going way back to your 'fanboy' post, going back on to pop culture
grounds, I just wanted to ask...what sort of project was it that David
Bowie was phoning you for?  I thought it would be alright to ask since
nothing seems to have happened of it...
  

    
Emily, it seems to me with a country that bows, the idea of a creature
with a water dish on its head that you can disable by bowing at it (as
it will bow at you and spill its water) is somehow deeply right.

Mary -- the trouble was, the speech was also sold out, as they give
150 tickets to the university students who they do not expect to come,
nor do they. But they don't tell people that when they ring for
tickets. To be honest, as they had arranged that signing (which I'm
sure I'd agreed to, but had forgotten about) I was glad there weren't
more people.

I'm pleased your guess about Gilliam was right. The actress... well, I
love her voice -- it seemed perfect for audio. She's also an ace
singer and dancer and was in one long-running TV series.

Spoke to my Dr today about something else. "You sound really sick," he
said. "Come and see me. It's my day off and I'm doing paperwork." So I
went to see him. "I'm a bit run down after the tour" I said. "No you
aren't, you're sick," he said, and gave me antibiotics and so on.

Daniel -- thanks

Michelle -- before the end of the year. It depends on The Actress. And
 yes, I think I will get to work with Andy again.

Sarah -- it was back in the days of Marvel Music, Bowie wanted to
collaborate on some kind of comic, and I know no more than that. 
  

    

Neil!  Take care of yourself.  Hope you feel much better immediately if
not sooner.
  

    
Neil--  ditto; get well soon.
  

    
Also-- think on this and it may speed your getting better-- the
recording of the NY Phil production of Sweeny is out and it's supposed
to be AMAZING.
  

    
Neil-

Add me to the list of Get Well Soons. It's no fun being sick, much
less on your birthday (hopefully you will feel a ton better by then!).

I am thinking of sending you a copy (or a few) of Cometbus - I keep
forgetting whether or not you've read it. What do you think?

Would making you a mix tape be a crazy fangirl thing to do?

-shira, going to Cafe Wyrd with Ms. Sarah and Elise on Friday!
  

    
Shira, not at all. That would be lovely. Have a great Cafe time with
Sarah and Elise.

BBC America is showing Father Ted. I may have them all on video but it
does my heart good to see them again... and if any of you get BBC
America, watch Father Ted for it is wonderful.

The whole getting well soon is high on my list of things to do, and I
appreciate all the good wishes. I'm actually pleased that I'm on killer
antibiotics and hellcoughsyrup together at this point -- it means I'll
be human by Friday, rather than this sick or a bit more, which I think
is what I would have been if it hadn't been caught.
  

    

NyQuil is your friend.
  

    
I think the stuff I've been given is wayyyy beyond NyQuil. One extra
teaspoonful of it and I'll probably miss Thursday altogether.
  

    

From Ansible 160, November 2000:

### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###

 PUBLISHERS AND SINNERS. _Dept of Upelevatoring Insights._ Andrew Wheeler
 of the (US) SF Book Club confides: `When we saw the manuscript of Neil
 Gaiman's _Neverwhere_, it had obviously been the victim of a perfunctory
 search & replace Americanization, since characters were always saying
 things "apartmently".'                                                        
  

    
When I first saw that i was about to tell Dave Langford it had to be
rubbish, as I'd intentionally kept the word 'flat' in there... and then
I checked the book, and discovered that he was right, and they'd all
become apartments... sigh...

Hodder Headline just reprinted Neverwhere in the UK. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed they did it from the "preferred text" I sent them -- an
e-mail I got from the copy editor led me believe they're printing it
from the US Text. 

(Author's note: the only place I KNOW the preferred text was published
was in France, which is coicidentally the only place it's won a major
literary award.) (I think it may also have been published in the
preferred text in Holland.)

I think I may be doing a lot of reading for the next 24 hours. And
sleeping. That too.
  

    <scribbled by castle Wed 8 Nov 00 20:09>
  

    
Email from Scott:


Ouch.  Sorry to hear about your experience with the blurb for the Kaluta
book.  I've been looking forward to this one for a long time.  A really
nice art book on Mike is *way* overdue.  NBM is also supposed to be
releasing another one focusing on his work sometime in the coming months.
Unfortunately, Mike told me he's not sure exactly when.
  Please do more work with Kaluta in the future  ; )

  And please get well.
  

    

How did we both post the same e-mail at the same time??  Anyway, I
scribbled my copy of it!
  

    
Five seconds apart! Synchronicity!
  

    
Scott. I'm looking forward to seeing the kaluta book too. Especially
since I've already appreciated it.
  

    
"Flat" isn't even not an American word, though we tend to use it only for
apartments that take up an entire floor.
  

    
Martha. That was what I thought -- I'd kept it in the manuscript as a
word that would add flavour, as opposed to flavor. I just grabbed a
copy of the latest (8th printing of) Neverwhere and started to look it
through, to find any other things that may have crept into the text
while I wasn't looking. Most of them I, apartmently, can't do anything
about. But the most egregious can probably be fixed.

Which reminds me -- there's a place in Stardust where some copy editor
has carefully gone in and messed up the number of ghosts vs living
brothers in Stormhold. Wasn't in my manuscript. And a place in the UK
edition of Good Omens where an editor describes famine as a seven
letter word (I'm pretty sure it's still six in the US edition).

And now I shall sleep. 
  

    
Sleep.  Feel better.  I have a cold and I hope I feel better too.
  

    

re 1086: Damn, man, you could sell that on the streets for a nice sum.

It's probably worth more to you to get you well, though. Good night!
  

    
Neil-

Do get better and for the sake of science, please finish all your
antibiotics.  We don't want any evolution of those little buggers.  
  

    
        All the talk since last night of "Lord, what must other countries
think of America right now?" reminded me of an old question I meant to
ask Neil: I note that in Books Of Magic, John Constantine says
something to the effect of "When you finally do get to America, you
discover it's exactly like every movie and TV show about America you
ever saw."  I've noticed this from a couple other British expatriates,
Quentin Crisp being the one I can specifically remember, this notion
that America is like the movies.  In that line, was John speaking for
you, or just for himself?  What was your impression of America the
first time you came here, and what's your impression now?
  

    
Neil - medicine can be fun... 'specially if you still remember the
weird medicinal haze sort of stuff when you're normal again - makes for
wonderful song lyrics at any rate. Even so, hope you are feeling human
again soon. Get some rest, drink orange juice, and if Tree were here
she'd offer you a virtual bowl of her infamous Thai Chicken Soup...
much better than the generic *real* kinds you get in a can. :)

As for the UK *famine* being a seven-letter-word... maybe they thought
it had a *u* in it?

-squeaks
who thinks shira makes excellent mix-tapes. :)