Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Amazing coolness to <streak> and Neil regarding the Sandman globe.
Neil: do you know more of the rules to the Oldest Game than were revealed in
"A Hope In Hell"? Or did you just wing it? I suspect the latter, but I'm
just curious... I was considering including the Game in a D&D campaign I was
running (the Endless exist in this particular universe, as well... or at
least an interesting form of them), but decided there were a few things I
wasn't sure about, so I didn't.
  

    
Just watched entire Dune miniseries.  Thought how cool it would be if
Kenneth Branagh would do Henry IV parts I and II, then show them with
Henry V.  Now THAT would be a miniseries.  

(OK, not TECHNICALLY, but it would still be a pretty cool 7 straight
hours of viewing.)
  

    
In case this is not a known fact...

There's a new (I think) Japanese restaurant about a block away from
the Uptown Dreamhaven. It's called Fujiya, I believe.

-shira
  

    
Michelle - voted, good luck.  :-)

I can't remember if I read three or four of the Dune books.  I do know
that once I set them down I couldn't pick them back up again, and that
the cause of me setting them down was discovering Kratts Kreatures.  I
haven't seen the first movie but I think I'd like to watch the one
that was on recently.  Don't have cable though.

The only time I ever tried the Bloody Mary thing was back in junior
high.  Me and some other kids would hang out in the junior high locker
room which was underground and had no windows.  There was a huge mirror
so we could all fit around it after turning off the lights.  I think
we had to put a couple of fingers from each hand on the mirror while
chanting Bloody Mary.  We stopped after one girl screamed, ran out of
the room and stood shuddering uncontrollably in a corner while crying. 
I'm also reminded of the Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board game. 
You would gather around someone laying down, put two fingers from each
hand under them and close your eyes.  The person at their head would go
through this whole story/chant and at the end of it you realized you
were holding the person pretty far off the ground... at which point
they usually realized they were high up in the air and screamed causing
you to drop them.  Anyway, that was a very interesting article, have
sent it on to others.

Jen

Who would like to find some Endless skins for her Sims.
  

    
Totally forgot about those games. But then, Bloody Mary never worked
with me and so it got boring and forgettable. I think I just wanted to
block the Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board thing from my memory. I
was the lightest of the group, so I was the one that was picked up and
dropped the second someone got distracted. Incidentally, when playing
this game, make sure the person at your head is the LEAST distracted of
the group, or you'll wind up with the most painful headaches.

-squeaks, who had not wanted to remember hitting her head that many
times... but doesn't it explain a bit?
  

    
Shira-  I was *wondering* about that restuarant.  It just seems to
have appeared their overnight.  I don't even remember the building
being there before...

And speaking of parlor games...Im remembering hypnotism game where the
hypnotizer would tell the hypnotizee a story...I think the most common
one was being buried in beach-sand...and the sucessful end result
would be an inability to lift your legs until the hypnotizer snapped
their fingers.  Anyone remember that?  I remember being impressed
enough to make up at least three different variations of that sort of
hypnotizm...stories involving trains and rapidly dropping elevators and
rabbit holes.  
  

    

So, here's a very random question: is there a character named Barb in
American Gods?

(Why do I ask, you ask? Because I dreamed that there was... and she was in
a list with Mad Hettie and the Star (though upon waking I know that I meant
either the Witch Queen or Ditchwater Sal) of characters that used the phrase
"dearie duck.")
  

    
I'm trying to think of a new name for the main character of a story
I'm writing as my 'critiqued written piece' for my high school
application. As of now, her name is Jemme. She's a girl in the future
(not a sci-fi sort of future, just not now) who works trying to find
the secret to controlling one's dreams, and wears a lot of black. I
kind of want to call her something starting with a D, and the best I've
been able to come up with is Dorcas. Anyone have any ideas?

-shira
  

    
        I'm going to resist the obvious D-name references because by now poor
Neil's probably thinking "I have written one or two other things
besides Sandman, dammit..." :-)
        I like Delia, myself.
  

    
Well, the D-name thing was sort of because I hate Jemme as a name...
but I did think of the whole Endless thing, of course.

Right now, though, I'm more worried about re-writing the end of the
story that my ultimate jackass of a dad lost somehow.

-shira
  

    

I had a character in a D&D game named Delia once. She was directly modelled
on Larissa/Thessaly. Just a random comment. :>
  

    
God Emperor of Dune is still my favorite of the series, the scope of
it was simply breathtaking. Also watched the recent mini-series and
kept thinking it's too bad the actor who portrayed Paul Atreides didn't
have more charisma. Wasn't too disappointed by the overall
presentation, but I still prefer H.R. Giger's interpretation of Dune's
sandworms. And once again they completely glossed over the Bene
Gesserits who are perhaps the most intriguing characters in the whole
series. Maybe one day they'll get it right. Currently plodding through
the second prequel. The first one wasn't bad, but this one is boring me
silly. *sigh*
  

    
Michelle - I don't think I ever got up the courage to be the person
being lifted in Light as a Feather...  I've always been afraid of
heights and injury.  :-)

Sarah - I remember that game but I can't recall the name of it.  The
stories were always fun though.  I'm going to have to email some of the
people I used to play that with and see if they remember any of the
stories/rules to these games as I am finding blanks in my memory which
is disconcerting.  Those games were one of my few good memories of
school.  We also tried a couple of seances but other kids would always
come over and yell at us.  

Shira - I'm fancying the name Delphia today.  Losing the ending of the
story... ugh.  I know that pain.  Worse than splinters being shoved
under your fingernails, worse than getting shingles and feeling like
you are having a heart attack and being stabbed in the back with a
stiletto at the same time... worse than, well, lots of things.  Good
luck with the story.

Jen.
  

    
Re: games..

I've been lifted up in Light as a Feather and I don't think  I've ever
been dropped. One time, at a friend's birthday party a few years ago,
we lifted someone up to the (low) ceiling. That was cool.

And I'll be damned if that game wasn't called the Sandman. Of course,
I'm damned anyway. I'm not sure. I think it *was* the Sandman. It never
worked on me.

Re: D names..

I feel like an awful fangirl but I did put a teeny Death reference in
the story, and that's part of the reason I wanted a D name. It is
teeny, though! Also, I hated the name I had. I ended up calling the
main character Dreya.

Oh! And... I found the rest of the story. I am so relieved, because it
would have been so hard to finish the story if I hadn't.

-shira
  

    
        Okay, serious question for Neil: You are acknowledged by all as The
Man when it comes to referencing interesting, obscure folklore and
history.  I'm curious as to what some of your favorite sources for this
stuff are.  What are some of the books you've lifted the most stuff
from to incorporate into your work?  I mean, Breschau of freakin'
Livonia? (Assuming you didn't just making him up; I wouldn't know)
Where does Neil Gaiman go to dig up these things?
  

    
I thought Breschau *was* made up.

Shira-- is it too late to suggest Dasha?

Rocky--  I think being bored silly is part of the Dune experience. 
Chapterhouse Dune floored me with wave after wave of boredom.

Honestly, and despite all that has been said on the Dune discussion
group elsewhere on the Well, I though they did a great job with the
adaptation.  Easily the best miniseries I've seen on American TV--
though (testosterone..screaming...don't say it...!) I completely loved
Pride and Prejudice and thought Jennifer Ehle was the coolist thing
ever. (saw her later in B'way in the Real Thing.  Awesome.)

I even thought that Paul had charisma-- he looked like a cross between
Sting and Bill Irwin.  My wife adored it, and although she's read
Dune, she's not a screamin' Dune geek like me.  My one minor gripe--
they shortened the little anti-fear prayer thingy (Fear is the mind
killer...).  Kept throwing my rhythm off when I found myself saying it
along with the movie.
  

    

Well, since you are a screaming Dune freak, Len, I will admit to a very
modest accomplishment:  I wrote two of the entries in the Dune
Encyclopedia - the entry that describes Pundi Rice (I created an entire
ceremonial history for it, and described what it looks like - it's
tear-shaped) and I wrote the biographical entry for Feyd-Rautha, the
character that Sting played in the movie.  That's my entired publishing
claim to fame.

Now, don't ask "What is the Dune Encyclopedia?" for I shall be crushed if
you do.
  

    
Linda-

Kull wahad!  I have the Dune Encyclopedia on my shelf, next to the
Annotated Alice.  Wow... I perform ritual acts of self-abasement before
you in awe of your coolness.
  

    

Well, no need to go quite that far.  %^)
  

    
Have gone to see fairy goddaughter. Who is, I want you to know, the
cutest thing. Well, not THE cutest thing. That was maddy. but she's up
there. And she has a magnificently goofy smile.

Her mother and I are plotting the next album. Plot plot plot.

I also have a Dune encyclopedia and will post sensibly on all the
other things (Livonia was true, Breschau was made up -- that was the
point, after all, that he was unremembered -- but the name was a tip of
the hat to Coth of the Rocks. 

Mostly I try to get stuff from primary sources. Livonia came from a
wonderful book on Werewolves in History... although these days it's, I
believe, a real communist state again, which sort of spoils the fun.
  

    
Oddly enough, I was on a plane last week and the man in the seat next
to me said "that's a scifi channel bag you've got.. did you know I
comissioned DUNE there before they fired me, when i ran the scifi
channel?"  ... and he had done at that. 
  

    
You're planning a concept album?
  

    
Neil - Just to completely change the subject (because I'm tired and
should be in bed, and here I am on the computer!), I just ran into
Maria Alexander this evening at the Velvet Acid Christ show (someplace
I never would have imagined running into her). So I've learned that not
only is she rather an amazing l'il writer, but she's also altogether
very fun to hang out with. Thank you for introducing me to her! Had no
idea she was from around here... and am now working on getting her to
move back. ;-P

-squeaks, who really needs to sleep now if she's going to be awake for
Meg Lee Chin tomorrow night.
  

    
re: Games

I've also played all those parlor games: Light as a Feather, Ouiji,
Bloody Mary. BM was definitely the most memorable. I still can't look
in mirrors without getting incredibly nervous. Puddles in the road and
window reflections affect me too. As soon as I seem myself in them, I
look away. It's irrational and superstitious, but I always worry that
I'll somehow end up switching places with the image. Read too much Lois
Duncan as a child, I guess.

re: D Names

I really think the character should just tell you her name, but if
she's being stubborn...how about: Dacey, Danae, Delphine, Desiree, or
Devorah?

Neil -- Sorry to hear your writing sanctuary was vandalized. Still,
the story was priceless. I couldn't get the image of a bloodied angel
out of my head. How do you wrap such a statue?

-Jade
  

    
Idle thought:  Would a librarian shelve a book on Werewolves in
History in the Werewolf section or the History section?