Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(Thank you, Adela!)
  

    
omigod. Thank you all... 

Thank you.

It's going to take me till mid-december to finish saying thanks to
everyone who sent me a happybirthday e-mail. So this is a hasty
omigod&thanks from me to all of you, and I'll write something more
sensible ASAP.
  

    

Who needs sensible! Happy Birthday!
  

    
Neil-

I was writing Yet Another Story tonight, and for the first time ever,
I actually *felt* something for a character (besides the
self-gratification slop).  It was exhilerating and kind of 
break-throughish to me; I have a hard time feeling much in Real Life as
it is...  

Anyways, what I'm asking is if anything similar had happened to you. 
Did you ever have a turning point were you felt could *really* start to
write people?  Or was it a gradual thing?  Or shall I assume that the
Awesome Neil Gaiman was born with the gift to be able to bridge us Real
Life People with the fiction population so well?  



...I guess what I'd really like to ask is how you write characters so
damn well, but that's a bit of a lofty question...not to mention you
probably want to keep some of that business on your side of the
curtain...


*who sounds cheesy, got her cbldf card today and fails to make a milk
and cheese-y joke...*
  

    
Neil--

I think I read this somewhere on line, so odds are it's an
unsubstantiated rumor.  That said, is it true that you've expressed
interest in writing an episode of Buffy?
  

    
Email from Sheila:

I just wanted to say "Happy Birthday," Neil.  I'm glad you were born.  
I'm glad you followed your muse.  Thank you for everything you've given
us.

Sheila
  

    
Neil-
I hope you're feeling better.  Birthdays are crazy enough without
adding illness to the mix.

Shira -
You *are* so cool enough.  
How could anyone with your patented sunshine and spunkiness not be?
I just never got your email. Sorry :(

-randi

While were at it, ditto on what Sarah asked.
  

    
I'm still way behind on e-mail. 

So.. I had a nice, quiet 40th birthday. A few friends flew in for it,
which was nice, but everyone fitted around the kitchen table for
dinner, and I was given some wonderful presents. (Including, from my
wife, a Harry Clarke drawing, and from Lisa Snellings, some Lisa
Snellings glove puppets. Other memorable presents were a griffin, a box
of fine wines, several works of art, and the single most atrociously
wonderfully unwearable hat in human history -- it looks a bit like a
pagoda -- courtesy of my six year old daughter. Who loved it and knew
that I would too.)

I have one more antibiotic to take: am 70% better, but still very
tired...
  

    
Sarah  -- The only trick to writing good characters I know is to
believe in them. And to go and find the little bit of them that's you.
I don't remember One Shining Moment after which I could make up real
characters... but I do remember the moment that I realised that good
fiction consisted of walking down the street naked, more or less.

Len -- first I've heard of it. I don't have many plans to write more
TV for a while.
  

    
Shira -- and Happy Birthday to YOU too -- you're around now, aren't
you?

Randi -- thanks for posting all of those messages.

Reg -- it's perfectly possible. Alan's is on the 18th. We Scorpio boys
remember things like that...
  

    
Hellos...

Since we have a few WELLers in the Minneapolis area, I thought I'd do
the shameless self promotion thing and let anyone who might be
interested that I'll be reading as part of a First Avenue/7th Street
Entry showcase, along with a bunch of other writers and musicians and
the like.  It's next sunday, the 19th...starts at 4pm and goes until
1am-ish.  I'll be reading in the 7th street entry room, which is 21+
(so I'll be in a room I wouldn't legally be allowed into
otherwise...eeee) around midnight.  Tickets are 5 dollars, 6 dollars
for the Entry...I also have some complimentary tickets, so if anyone
around here is interested, drop me an email...it would be cool to meet
some of you folks...
  

    
Saw the Green Lantern-Superman comic. It was strange reading it after
all this time. Some awful dialogue, and some not awful dialogue too.
Lots of lovely artwork, though. I'm glad there aren't any other 13 year
old lost scripts out there, though. (Well, except for that MR X
script, but no-one has a copy of that.)

Sarah -- good luck. it's a great venue.
  

    
Neil--


It sounds like the people who love you made sure to make your 40th a
non-traumatizing experience.  I can just about see the whites of 30's
eyes, and I don't like the look of it.

By the way, Pinkwater writes of a certain Silly Hat sect of Buddhism;
perhaps you might don your daughter's gift and head to Tibet.
  

    
Neil-
Yes, I am still here, and thank you very much!

The First Avenue Mainroom and Entry are good - I am not sure which I
prefer. I have been to some great shows at the Entry but the Mainroom
is nicer. And neither can beat my memories of the Foxfire <sniffle> for
which I am still mourning.

<shakes head at Sarah for all dat spamming>

-shira, who just got back from a GTCYS concert..
  

    
>Other memorable presents were a griffin, 

Wow...and all this time I had stopped believing...:p
  

    
Len -- Pinkwater is a genius, and as good as it gets, when it comes to
writing. (I bought the latest Werewolf Club book for Maddy today, and
am reading Four Novels: I think I've read everything in there as
individual books, but I'm looking forward to rereading them all in a
rush.) 
  

    
Neil--

Oooh-- I didn't know Four Novels was out yet!  Which of the Snarkout
books do you prefer-- Avocado of Death or Baconburg Horror?

I bought my first Werewolf Club book on my last once-a-year pilgrimage
to Dreamhaven.  Maddy's clearly in for a treat.

Sarah-- LOL!
  

    
Len --

Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, easily, although I'm looking
forward to rereading the Baconburg Horror. I got a job reviewing books
almost 20 years ago because I got tired of people looking at me warily
when I started babbling about how good SB&TAoDeath was. So I wrote it
down, and spent the next five years as a book reviewer.
  

    
I would love to see that review!  Did people even know about Pinkwater
in the UK?
  

    
Email from Sean Michaels:

Hi again Neil.

Glad to hear that your birthday went well, and that you are slowly
vanquishing the evil forces of Phlu and Sneize, and may one day recover
some part of your sanity or health.

Just a couple of things: re: Len... Daniel Pinkwater... Wow. Here in
Canada, no one has any idea who the heck he is, at least in the circles I
move in. I have long been an immense fan of the Snarkout Boys and the
Avocado of Death, as well as the Last Guru (which sits over my desk with
DWJ's Power of Three, Neil's Neverwhere, JRR's LOTR, Dante's Inferno,
Salman Rushdie's Ground Beneath Her Feet, and Neal Stephenson's Snow
Crash). Although I had read the published versions of his radio show (Fish
Whistle or some such?), I assumed that Pinkwater was a forgotten footnote
from the time of my parents. I am most gladdened to hear that I was
mistaken, although it amazes me that his silliness has extended across the
Atlantic! I suppose if it can last frigid Ottawa/Montreal winters, it can
do anything...

Oof - sorry for the verboseness of the rant. I'll stop here, save for a
small [respectful, I hope] plug for my other post from a few days back,
that you may have missed, mr neil gaiman sir, amidst the deluge of
birthday greetings...

I will now return to Hour of the Bewilderbeast.

Sean
  

    
You're welcome, Neil. 

Blame Dylan from newsgroup - he's the one that asked if we were doing
anything for your birthday, and it sort of snowballed from there.

Well, that and the fact that Scorpio girls also remember things like
that :)
 
I was just pleased at how sweet and clever everyone's greetings turned
out to be - and that there were so many of them!

Are the Pinkwater books humor books, or are they children's books like
Dav Pilkey's? I'm not familiar with him.

-randi
  

    
Pinkwater is basically published as a children's writer, though his works
are instructive for all.
  

    
*Is* it a Scorpio thing to remember birthdays? I remember everyone's
birthday, while my Leo best friend can't remember anyone's but her own
and her sister's. My Virgo exboyfriend learned mine pretty quickly,
while my good Scorpio buddy Trevor remembered yours, Neil, but until I
refreshed his memory had no idea when mine was. <pout>

-shira, listening to Lou Reed's "Transformer" which SarahwithanH has
so graciously given to me for my birthday!
  

    
I doubt highly that it's a Scorpio thing to specifically remember
b-days. I forget them all the time. Just us Scorpio's have a tendency
to remember *Neil'* b-day. :) And Lucy Anne, er, you're Randi here...
*sigh... Dylan V may have started it, but you ran with it. 

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better, Neil. 

-squeaks,
who is both dreading and looking very forward to the b-day email
arriving from the parents tomorrow.
  

    
From Daniel Loft:

Howdy all,

Neil -- Happy belated birthday.  Good to see more of us Scorpio types out 
there to make the whole Christmas season that much more hectic.  I've got my 
own (today), my dad's, brother's, and roommate's all within three weeks of 
each other.  Was lots of fun for my mom when we were little.  All except my 
dad, he was big.

On another note, I just saw a copy of Warning: Contains Languae for sale on 
ebay but it was out of my price range right now.  For future consideration 
does anyone know where I might be able to pick up a copy?

Thanks for the help,
Daniel