Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Thanks Martha.  
If anyone knows of a good book to start with, it would be appreciated.

Does anyone else here end defending the merits of and their enjoyment
of young adult books?

Be careful, Michelle, I'll get all chuffed again (she says, still not
being sure the context is correct.  Oy.)  

I'd probably be Lucy Anne here too except it's too hard to spell.

And Scorpio girls was definitely meant in the plural. What, with
Rocky, Vicky, Margret and Shira (and Zoe too) having birthdays within
the past week, it would be silly to assume otherwise :)

And as for you, Miss Mousey <grin>, I hope there's much to look
forward too, and little to dread tomorrow, and the rest of the years,
too.

-randi
who thinks that November 13th is quite a fine day to be born on,
Daniel :)
  

    
There are two Pinkwater omnibuses (omnibi?).  One is FOUR NOVELS and the
other is FIVE NOVELS.  Those would be an economic and efficient way to
start reading his YAs.  (He's also done shorter books for shorter people.)
  

    
Randi - Vey.
I guess I'm just content as an outcast of the Scorpio Girls Club,
'cause I suck at remembering days and dates... and noticing haircuts...
or brand new clothing.  Maybe I'm a guy in a *really good* disguise.
As for the lack of dread, considering how far down I've been during the
first 27 years, it's bound to go no-place but up. :) I'm just
wondering what undeniably cute and silly little e-card my Mommy Dearest
will have come up with this year. <note to self: turn volume on
computer down *before* opening card this time> I'm also hoping that
everyone else who insists on celebrating it tomorrow remembers that I
don't. We'll see. I nearly pulled it off last year.

Martha - thanks for the Pinkwater info (more stuff for me to read on
vacation, if I can find them out here).

Daniel - Happy Birthday.

-squeaks, who wouldn't ramble here so much if she weren't so bored
just now.
  

    
Let's see -- the hasty reply to the question thing: Warning Contains
Language can be bought for cover price from DREAMHAVEN BOOKS who are on
the web at www.dreamhavenbooks.com. The me in particular page is
http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/gaiman.html

Hmmm -- I just went and looked and can't see any copies of WARNING.
E-mail or phone, and ask them -- they may have a copy or two in the
back. (They still have a handful of copies of ANGELS & VISITATIONS at
an exorbitant price --  $75 each, -- and a handful of copies of the
signed and numbered slipcased ANGELS & VISITATIONS at around $100 a
pop. They were saying how odd it was no-one ever ordered the signed and
numbered ones, but I notice they don't mention them on the web page so
that might be why.)

The plan with WARNING CONTAINS LANGUAGE is to reissue it as two CDs,
which would be the first two CDs of a quarterly or twice yearly spoken
word CD, through Dreamhaven. I need to go into the studio soonish to
record the next two CDs, so if there are any stories or things people
would like to hear, now is the time to vote. 

I might also modify the short cuts CD on Warning -- add another track
or so to it.

So if there aren't any copies out there, you might just want to wait,
and some time within the next 6 months we'll get them back out there.

Randi -- Pinkwater's written some adult fiction (I loved The Afterlife
Diet, but I know people who didn't) and some indeterminate fiction
(The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death is rather wonderful) and
some smaller kids fiction (I recommend WEMPIRES, GUYS FROM SPACE, THE
GREAT ORANGE SPLOT and THE DEVIL IN THE DRAIN). Terry Pratchett and I
survived the 1990 Good Omens signing tour using FISH WHISTLE, his NPR
commentaries, although I no longer remember whether it was the audio
version or the book. I love them both equally.

And more happy birthdays to Rocky and to Margret (and if the Iceland
passage of American Gods doesn't survive to the second draft, I will
print it out for Margret if she reminds me)and to Michelle.
  

    
By the way, is the GL/Superman GREEN FLAME book on sale yet? I've got
my copy, but haven't heard anything.
  

    
Got a call from DC today "How about a Sandman Snow Globe?" I pointed
out that there were lots of Sandman objects, and that the character who
would love a snow globe was Delirium, especially if, instead of
filling the globe with snow, we filled it with cats and fish and
balloons and twinkles and bones and tuesdays and musical notes and
dancing.

So we'll see. It feels like I stopped being able to have much say in
products that came out of DC after the Vertigo Tarot. But you never
know. And I'd like a Delirium not-snow globe, especially if it played
little tunes. 
  

    
Sounds perfect.  Especially if the little tunes don't go together.
  

    
        Yeah, Dream and snow don't go side-by-side in my mind.  If the
Delirium thingies globe were to play tunes, I personally would like to
see the music-box mechanism designed such that every other time it's
wound, the tune will be played backwards.
        BTW, if DC's hard up for ideas, you could mention that I personally
will buy any piece of Hob Gadling crap they feel like making.  The Hob
Gadling inaction figure seems like a good idea.  Push a button on the
back and it doesn't do anything special apart from not dying.
  

    
Streak--  Ha!  An inaction figure :)

Sean, Neil, Martha-- It's so affirming to find other fans; I've done a
lot of spreading the word, but it's nice to know there are others out
there.  When I came across "Pinkwater" in The Kindly Ones, I nearly
choked!  (I'm all right now.)  I remember reading "Wempires" when it
had just been published as a short story in Omni Magazine.  More
recently, I felt its spirit in _The Wolves in the Walls._  

Hve any of you read _The Education of Robert Nifkin?_

While I can't imagine Dream in a snow globe, I can see him in a "gloom
globe."  It would be filled with grey rainwater, and there would be a
little figure of Dream after some recent breakup, standing on the
balcony while Lucien and Merv looked on.

On the other hand, I would pay good money for a snow globe filled with
tuesdays. 
  

    
>>There are two Pinkwater omnibuses (omnibi?).>>

I think it is omnibuses, but I'm not sure. 

Across the street from my apartment is a school bus parking lot. I've
always wondered about group names (a den of wolves, a murder of
ravens). Would you call this grouping a school of school buses? :-)

Neil, great idea on the Delirium globe. Have you ever seen those lamps
with the dinosaurs on the shade? The shade turns and the light casts
the dinosaurs onto the wall. I often thought that is how Delirium must
see the world, full of colors and moving shapes in places people forget
to look.

Finally, I saw in ZENtertainment that you will be writing and
directing The Confessions of William Henry Ireland? Is this true? And
can you share more background on the project? Light knows how you find
time to do it all.
  

    
Email from Ambar:

>if there are any stories or things people
>would like to hear, now is the time to vote.

Well, I'll be predictable and vote for "The Price". :-) And I believe the
poem you wrote for Martha deserves an airing, although on reflection it
might be better taken from the DATs of the readings (since then you get
the full effect of the audience howling and writhing around on the floor.)

Hmm.  A bit of _Stardust_?

Ambar
  

    
        Well, the I'll-rhyme-Soukup-because-I-can poem is, I understand, the
introduction to one of her books, and thus already out there, though
Neil's delivery was a kick and a half.
        Neil, as to requests, I'd be interested to see some of the stuff
related to the "Temps" shared-universe series you're credited with
"devising", whatever that means.  Did you do any actual stories for it?
(I own the first two volumes, but the second one is at the bottom of a
cardboard box somewhere and I can't check it.)  And I'll renew my
request for the "Writer's Prayer" piece because I'm a noodge. :-)
  

    
Ditto for Ambar's selections, with "Writer's Prayer" and
"Instructions" for good measure.  

Mind you, I'd gladly trade all those in for "Wolves in the Walls", but
I'm assuming the choices are what's already in print. So I'll wait
until Reading Rainbow discovers it.

Thanks for the Pinkwater info, all of you!  I'll hopefully be getting
_5 Novels_ soonish, thank Amazon. Sadly, _Fish Whistle_ is out of
print, although I have to wonder what _Hoboken Fish and Chicago
Whistle_ is like.

A snowglobe full of Tuesdays could be an awful lot of fun in some
circles :)

Michelle - it will go up, though FWIW I think you're doing just fine. 
And the easiest way to get people not to celebrate your birthday is to
mention it after the fact.

That's how I got through mine yesterday :)

-randi
who is very happy she wasn't completely successful, as the cards she
got were lovely.
  

    
Randi--  Pinkwater released two collections of bilgraphical essays--
culled, I think, from his NPR broadcasts.  The first was "Fish
Whistle," the second was "Chicago Days, Hoboken Nights;" they're both
hilarious. "Hoboken Fish and Chicago Whistle" is a combination of the
two.
  

    
Randi- Giggle @ tuesdays.

And I don't think they have *any* more copies of Warning: Contains
Language.  They don't have any copies in the back and I had to do a bit
of whimpering to scrounge up a copy for myself...(which they wouldn't
have sold anyways due to a 'defective case')  
  

    
Randi -- Happy Birthday. This really is a scorpio crowd, isn't it?

Boojum -- I liked Nifkin very much. And it's one of those few books
I've managed to share with Mike, my son, who has very different book
tastes to me.

Streak -- I like the idea of a Hob Gadling toy that doesn't die.
(Collect the set! Rich Hob, Poor Hob, Slaver Hob, Victorian Publisher
Hob...)

Jade -- the main way I'm doing WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND is by telling
them I won't even start the treatment until March.

Ambar -- The Price is on the CBLDF video. As are you. It's pretty
good: I wish that we'd actually spent the money on a make-up person,
though, considering it was being filmed. And that we'd spent the money
on lights for the video filming. As it is I look like a scary Berni
Wrightson drawing most of the time.

And I think I may do ALL of Stardust as a four (?) CD set.

Streak -- I wrote some of the funny stuff between chapters in the
first book. But mostly I just told Alex STewart, during a late night
conversation about Watchmen, that British Superheroes would work for
the government and be crap.

Randi -- I think I'll probably wait until WOLVES is in print. But it
might be fun to do a CD with Goldfish and Wolves on one day.

I suspect that Chicago...Whistle  is a collection of the previous two
books.

Sarah -- re WArning. Oh well.
  

    
And I'll toss in my votes for "One Life Furnished In Early Moorcock",
"Snow Glass Apples" and "When We Went to See the End of the World".  
  

    
Email from Daniel Loft:

Neil -- Thanks for the Dreamhaven info.  Looks like I'll probably have to
wait for the next one though.  I don't mind.  As for requests, I think I
might like to hear Nicholas Was, or Goldfish Pool, or even the Wedding
Present.  Don't know if you could swing it but something from Good Omens
would be great too, maybe you could wrangle Terry Pratchett in for a
cameo.  On the question front I was wondering if you had ever given any
thought to teaching, if time allowed?

Daniel
  

    
Neil - my votes would be for Snow Glass Apples and The Day I Swapped
My Dad For Two Goldfish, if I have to choose from things in print. If
you *do* make a set of Stardust, I'll be first in line to get it. And
I, for one, think that Tuesdays have been getting far too much
attention of late. Can't we fill the globe with Wednesdays?

Randi - Damn! I thought it was tomorrow. Happy belations. And thank
you. Tho' the last time I mentioned it after the fact, I was threatened
with a surprise party and had to threaten back. ;P 

Incidentally, the e-card was teddy bears and flowers and it nearly
made me cry. I luvs me mum...

-squeaks
who will now go out and celebrate properly by taking pictures of Devil
Bunny in Lafayette Cemetary. :)
  

    

You can be first in line only if some of the rest of us can be first in line
in other places. Sound good?
  

    
Okay. All votes counted. 

Went to Dreamhaven on my way to Haircut today... thanks Michelle for
the lovely card.
  

    
My vote would be for "Mr Punch" and it would be lovely to here all of
stardust on CD.

Re snow globe:  Delirium would be fantastic.  I especially like
streaks idea of the music playing backwards.  I suppose the thought of
Dream first for obvious reasons..that and the fact that we have already
seen what it would look like.  After all, what was the glass prison he
was in if not a giant snow globe?

Ancient-booer
...who is still running behind the rest of the world.
  

    
Oh, votes counted....um...just ignore me...maybe I should have
ingested that before posting..:P
  

    
Amanda -- oh, it's not an election. And the votes don't mean a lot,
and there's no real cut off. And I'm not even counting properly. And a
few people (Hello Dianna) saw the page and sent their requests in
e-mail -- sort of absentee ballots.

It's more of a rough idea for me of what would be good things to do on
the first few CDs.

I hadn't thought of doing Mr Punch. I wonder how well it would
translate to a single person reading.
  

    
        Actually, the naked and upset-looking Dream in his glass cell would
make a _lovely_ porcelain statue.  What's more, the price-and-fragility
factors that make those such fun collectibles would be doubled due to
the glass.
        I became irretrievably sold on that image by the Sandman Mystery
Theater issue where Wesley Dodds finds the _damnedest_ thing in
Roderick Burgess's basement...  It was just so nicely done.