Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
So will streak be getting one in the mail from DC?
  

    
        Please? :-)
  

    
Oh, that's neat, Streak!

wrt the Miami New Times article - wow.  Where did you find that
article, Neil?

No comprehension how children could turn a world as devoid of beauty
and full of violence as the streets of Miami into such poetry. Sad that
there's more hope in their folk tales than in the truth of their
lives.  

Do we all survive through storytelling?  

Did anyone here tell tales to themselves to explain what was happening
to them in their families or with their peers when they were kids?  

I used to think all children told their own myths, but I'm more I
interact with my mother's students, the more I doubt it.  Then again,
most of the kids she works with don't know fairy tales or even nursery
rhymes, so perhaps they could do so, but don't have the language.

Or do you believe that the ability to make up stories is inate?
-randi
  

    
Streak -- I doubt it. I find it hard enough to get the stuff out of
them I'm contactually meant to get... I'd sneak a  thank you onto the
packaging, but they don't let me near the packaging any more (not since
the very first Sandman statue, which has the short story on the side
of the box). In the meantime, take my personal thanks -- and keep your
fingers crossed that it's as good as we hope...

Randi -- I'm reminded of Iona and Peter Opie's studies of children's
games, where they'd go to schools and be told that there weren't any
kids games being played, by the teachers, then go out into the
playground and discover that the apparant chaos consisted of several
sets of games, all being played at the same time, some with rules that
went back hundreds of years.

I think storytelling is innate. Sometimes the stories tha are told are
to oneself.


...

Feeling bright about the second draft of AMERICAN GODS right now. It's
 shaping into a very good book, I think. And will be done very very
soon, and off to my publishers.
  

    
        I'll take the thanks and just shell out the bucks for the object
myself. :-)
        As to American Gods, I'm glad to hear it's going well, as I'm quite
excited to see it.  I enjoyed the excerpt you read enormously.
  

    
Happy Christmas Everyone!  

I am signing off for two weeks as I, my beloved, and our 16 yo car
head home to Queensland for Christmas!  (I have been told that
expecting a car of this age to survive the 21hr drive to get there and
then 21hrs to come back is being fool hardy,  I personally prefer to
think of it as optimism.)

I hope everyone enjoys a festive season filled with good cheer, good
will and a decent bottle of wine!


Ciao,
Ancient-booer
  

    

Here's one of two e-mails I found lurking in my mailbox.  First, from mary
Roane:

Quickly--blizzard here, being sent home from work (yippee!)
 
Be safe, all of you!
 
Neil--My friend Mark, whom you met at Humanities festival (he was sooo
excited about Ramayana)  says there's an animated version that was
released in India only.  He's never seen it, only heard about it from
friends who saw it there.  He's heard that it was done in anime style. 
He wanted me to let you know, in case you wanted to see it.
 
                                                           Mary (still
reading Anne Rice)
  

    

And second, from Daniel Loft:

Neil -- Any idea where I could get ahold of those studies by the Opies?  I 
enjoyed the article a lot and would like to read more along those lines.  And 
the snow globe sounds neeto.  Also glad to hear the book's working out well.  
Can't wait to read it.

Daniel
  

    
The Miami New Times article was quite powerful in a unexpected way. 
When I tried to write my response to it, I accidently started an essay.
 Where I grew up, Bloody Mary lives in a primeval bit of forest and
haunts our town with Chief Hole-In-The-Day, a local bit of history.  I
think it sits to prove that storytelling is really part of the
ecosystem of humanity.
  

    
Daniel -- I'm not sure what of the Opies is in print. You might want
to search the remainder book sites first... There's nothing they wrote
I've read that is without value.

...

My first CBLDF board meeting, today, on the phone. One thing that was
apparent was that the Texas case -- which we finally won -- was an
enormous money drain.

So...

if you want any Xmas stuff that the CBLDF sells, go and buy it.
(www.cbldf.org)

If you want to go on the cruise next year (with Scott mcCloud, Harlan
Ellison and all manner of exciting people)  go to
http://www.cbldf.org/pr/cruise/2001cruise.shtml

and sign up

If you aren't a member, go to

http://www.cbldf.org/membership.shtml

and join

-- and, most of all, spread the word. Get friends to buy memberships.
Get your rich friends to go on the cruise and take you with. Tell the
online communities you belong to.

(And feel free to copy this if you feel the urge.)
  

    
        Neil, another geeky Sandman question if it's all right.  I've always
been fond of Johanna Constantine, and I've always wondered why she's
buried on that nice little Greek island where Orpheus's head is. 
Rereading _Brief Lives_ (and noting that as of the latest edition, the
coloring error with Delirium's eyes being different colors the _one
time they're not supposed to be remains unfixed) it occurs to me that
she attempted to visit Orpheus's head in her old age and was killed by
the guards.  Is this the case?  If so, was it meant to be obvious and
I'm just slow on the uptake?
  

    

The library called last night and said that more of my Sandman's had made
it across the bridge!!  Can you believe how long it takes??

Gonna pick them up this weekend...
  

    
(begin rant) 
It's simply not fair that the year the cruise takes off from NEW
ORLEANS and has nifty people on it like Scott McCloud & Harlan Ellison
(and probably a lot of other interesting people whom I would love to
meet) would be the same year I'm trying to *save* my money so that I
can go to Australia, so I can't go. It's bad enough I've postponed
getting my new car because I bought a pretty knife... 

Simply not fair at all.

(end rant)

-squeaks, who needs to hurry up and get discovered or win the lotto or
something so she can do all the silly things she'd like to do in life.
  

    
N~ there are no geeky Sandman questions.  Johanna Constantine is one
of my all time favorite fictional women. And to give you a short answer
so you don't have to wait, she rescued Orpheus's head, and her burial
there is a place of honor.

Squeaks~ Tell me about it, this grown-up stuff is killing me, I lied
being broke better, I didn't ahve anything to save.

Neil, the Piece form the Miami New Times article, brought tears to my
eyes and a lot of joy and hope as well. To see the faith these children
have is amazing, thank you for passing it along, it was inspiring.

Jinxie 
  

    
        Well, I know she rescued the head, but I'm just curious as to whether
she actually managed to die of old age (seems unlikely for a
Constantine) and then had her corpse shipped from England to Greece in
1859, or whether for whatever reason she actually died on the spot. 
Given how her travels with la cabeza seemed to linger with her, it
wouldn't surprise me at all if she went back for a visit in her
twilight years.  Maybe she died quite happily listening to Orpheus
sing, but given that she's a Constantine my personal suspicion would be
that she was gunned down in the darkness.  I guess I just sweat the
details as to her honored burial. :-)
  

    
I had a mixed reaction to the article... I found it fascinating and,
in fact, printed it up and gave copies to some of my friends and fellow
teachers.  I do wonder, however, if the article is entirely on the
level.  Not that I think the journalist made up the stories, but the
article, to me, has a kind of manipulative tone, and because the
stories are undocumented until now, something feels unsubstantiated. 
Again, this is only a feeling-- and not a very strong one-- but there's
an orientalist tone to the piece that I find weird.

On the other hand, I find part of me believing in the Blue Lady now (I
wonder if she's a manifestation of the Blue Fairy who helped
Pinnochio)-- the stories have that same quality that Sandman has--
there's something true about them.
  

    
        Anywhere I could find this article online?
  

    
Streak -

Neil posted the link a bit earlier:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1997-06-05/feature.html/page1.html
  

    
        Wow, nice article indeed.  I remember the Bloody Mary legend myself,
though the version I got was both less religious and less martial.  I
never actually believed it per se, but I wrote it up with some
embellishments for an English class when I was 14, and succeeded in
giving myself a fear of mirrors in dark rooms.  Still have it, a little
bit.
  

    
Michele -- I'm biased here. And I've already been to Australia several
times, so am perhaps a little spoiled... but...


Australia will be around for a long time to come. So, I trust will
Tree & Reg (and Amanda and Dianna-the-ex-fairy and Eddie Campbell and
co.)

The cruise, on the other hand, has to make money this year, or it
won't happen again. (Last year's, the first, lost a little, which was
made up by the Summer auctions.)  

Harlan will be writing a story on board. You not only get to meet
Scott & Ivy McCloud, you get to play with my goddaughters, Winter and
Sky McCloud. (You may even meet Spinlo, Winter's imaginary friend, who
is also god.) Sergio Aragones will be there. Peter David is getting
married on board (I think). It's going to be memorable...

And the more people who sign up earlier, the better it will be for the
world. So please go.

There. End of cruise plug.

Spent last night signing the Xmas prints. 300 of them. Numbered the
first 16 and then said I don't have time.... so someone else will
number the others.

Spoke ot the groundskeeper at the log cabin apartments I go and write
at yesterday. Someone had tried -- very hard -- to break in to my
writing apartment. With a chisel or a crowbar. And failed.

He hammered the metal cover of the door back into place. Then he
offered his own theory as to the break in. "I think" he said " it was
one of your pals frum the university, having a lark, mebbe."

"I'm not at the university."

"You ain't?"

"No."

"Well, where do you work?"

"Here."

He looked at the piles of papers, the computers, the pens, the
half-painted bloody angel-lampstand I'm making for a present for
someone, and said "You're a writer?"

"Yes."

And he nodded, sympathetically. Half an hour later, he came back with
gifts of food, and I couldn't think of a nice way to say no. I wasn't
sure how I could have explained that there were starving writers and
the other kind, and I was one of the other kind.
  

    
How sweet.
  

    
e-mail from Daniel Loft:

I just finished reading DUNE for the first time and though it was a good read found it pretty deviod of humor.  That groundskeeper story was pretty durn funny though and dovetails nicely with the fact that I'm now reading Mort by Terry Pratchett and making frequent visits to the Onion website.  You don't hear about folks having a lark that much these days.

Also, Neil, thanks for the tip on the Opies.  I managed to pick up The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren from the university library and from the bit I've read so far it looks to be very interesting.

Daniel
  

    
Daniel -- I'm in the tiniest minority of people who like Dune Messiah
better. Mostly, I think, because I read it first, and had to fill in
Dune from inferences and comments... which made it a much stronger
stranger book for an 11 year old than the actual book. And it had the
BEST Bruce pennington cover painting.

Away for a few days to meet fairy goddaughter. Dunno if I'll be by
here or not, so chat away industriously in my absence. 

Remember to hit the CBLDF site for those hard-to-choose Xmas
presents...
  

    
Yes, well I have alternate reasons for going to Oz at that particular
time as well, and those events might *not* be repeated... but
considering how many hours I'll be getting at work (what with everyone
moving and getting fired next month - just found out today about one
more), I may make enough to do both - tho' with the Australia vacation,
Burning Man, AND a cruise, I don't imagine my boss will be very
pleased with my availability.

Anyone interested in increasing my fundage for the CBLDF cruise can go
to: http://www.girlswithglasses.com/ and place a vote for January
(that's me). If I win, I get money, probably. :)

-squeaks, who has been looking for a way to plug the site without
seeming too desperate, and gave up.
  

    
Neil, thanks for the postcard!!

Oh.. and isn't this weather lovely?

-shira