Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
The Dewey Decimal Classification for werewolves, btw, is 398.469. 
(Assuming that werewolves are fanciful creatures, not strange
phenomena, in which case they're in the 133's.)
  

    
Re D Names:  Shira, how about Delphine?  There is a well known DJ in
NYC called Delphine Blue, and she's just as cool as her name. 

Streak - Nada's story was the first Sandman comic I read, and at the
time I throughly convinced that it was an authentic piece of African
mythology adapted for the comic. Then Neil told me it was made up.
Breschau's story had that same authentic feeling. 

Len - Yes indeed, A&E really nailed it with Pride & Prejudice, hell, I
even fell in love with Colin Firth's Darcy!  

Also re Dune: Chani kept saying, "Tell me of the waters of your world
Muad'dib." Wasn't she supposed to say Usel? (sp)  

A cross between Sting & Bill Irwin eh?  Hmm..how about Sting and
Williem Defoe? 

Linda - How wonderful! I'm also a proud owner of a copy of the Dune
Encyclopedia and I've read it cover-to-cover. Obesssive?  Nah. ;)
  

    
This is sort of a non-sequitor, but I'm currently reading a wonderful
and very strange book called House of Leaves.  Has anybody else read it
out there?
  

    
e-mail from Daniel Loft:

Neil -- Just wondering if you've checked out J. Michael Staczynski's Midnight 
Nation.  Has a bit of a Neverwhere feel to it what with the main character 
doing a similar kind of falling through the cracks thing as Richard Mayhew.  
Even has a Hunter type character (read: badass senorita) as his guide.  
Anyhow, just wondering.

Daniel
  

    
Martha -- nope. Not a concept album -- there's no story there. It's
more plotting as in... um...  I don't really want to give anything
away. Other than to say it will be very wonderful, amazingly cool, and
very very very different, and you'll all find out what I'm talking
about in September.

Michelle -- you're very welcome.

Jade -- well you make such a statue by buying a cheap mock plaster
off-white angel lamp-stand, and then painting it, and then at the end
taking a very gloss red and painting it on for blood... I've done four
angels so far as presents for people, and each of them was very
different. Maddy's was prettiest (and the least disturbing). Holly's is
next and I think I may do an alien angel for her with black shiny
eyes.

Daniel -- JMS e-mailed me about this when he started, and fans had
sent him mail pointing out similarities. I told him I'd take it as a
compliment, and it's not the ideas but what you do with them that
counts, and that he should tell them I was unbothered by it.
  

    
Fly home tomorrow. Can't see the point of Florida right now. It's
warmer than Minneapolis airport will be tomorrow, but not by much...
brr....
  

    
e-mail from Scott Conner:

 Re #1472:  Surely you've seen The Young Ones, and know all about "Neil's
Heavy Concept Album" ?  ; )

 By the way, I have a copy of the Dune Encyclopedia as well.  That thing is
quite the collector's item these days.
  

    

Oh!  I'm excited to hear that it's a collector's item!!

I noticed that amazon.com couldn't find a listing for it.
  

    
Len -- I loved House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. If you have the
chance, get the CD version of it. Poe plays on it, and the whole thing
combines into a sexy and scary story.
  

    
e-mail from Jouni:

Please sir, I cannot tell a lie...

Received few days back two copies of NOVA Express (sci-fi zine from Texas).
It has part 2 of Neil Gaiman interview with illustrations by... well... me.
Lawrence Persons wrote some time ago to afn-g and asked if anybody had any
Neil-related fan art and would not mind seeing them published. So I thought
"Aw, what the hell!" and send him those pictures.

Regretably the pictures look a bit crappy printed (for some reason they were
rasterized althought I thought I changed them into bitmap format), but it
was fun doing them nevertheless. Especially Cain's hair and beard turned out
really well (atleast in the original picture).

It just made me think about this new technology. I mean, It takes same
effort (and time) to send stuff to the next room or to the other side of the
world... and I'm havin' this conversation with Neil and all of you... You
know, sometimes it just amazes me...

Oh, and thanks Neil, for mailing that link to the story about those homeless
children... It was amazing.

Jouni
  

    
e-mail from Vicky:

Hullo ppl :)

First of all, I hope you are all well and not too fed up with seasonal
cheer just yet :)

Secondly, could the fairy godfather please tell us how Natashya and
family are doing, does she look like her Mum or Dad, what colour are her
eyes and hair, and what does she want to be when she grows up ?:)? It's
so exciting, her first Christmas :) (BTW, Neil, nice to hear people with
money still make Christmas presents for family :))

And finally...Neil, I was wondering if yourself (and anyone else here
who has an opinion on the matter) could please give me your views on
this thought...

It is regarding writers' responsibilities, or rather my own, I suppose.
The problem is I am unable to pin things down as being right or wrong.
Murder, child abuse, mothers sending young children out to fight
soldiers with guns...many such issues...

I'm not saying I'm a psychopath (although it hasn't been ruled out :)),
as in RL, I am aware of such boundaries of what is acceptable within my
area of the world, however when I write, there are rarely such clear
lines between good and bad.  I find it fascinating to write from unusual
perspectives.  The dificulty comes with something like child abuse, when
I have been accused of making it more acceptable by even writing about
it at all.

So, really I wondered what your views on it were, is there a place for
every point of view and is it ok to write without rules?

Thanks for your time

Vicky :)
  

    
JAde-- thanks for the tip!

Thinking about material goods, I'm wondering-- open question--

Given a perfect world, what would you all be getting for
Xmas/Hannukah/Diwali/Kwaanza/Imbolc (I know, it's a little
early)/whathaveyew?
  

    
Howdy all.  Finally got me an account.  Thanks Linda.

Vicky -- In my opinion there aren't really topics that are off limits.
 There's different ways of approaching an issue that may be
distasteful to others but I don't think there's really a right or wrong
in that area.  Of course this won't stop people from lambasting you
that think you're approach to whatever it is is inappropriate but that
just comes with the territory.  This probably seems like a riding the
fence type of argument but I suppose that comes from having an
anthropology degree.  It tends to make one either overly sensitive to
the plight of the downtrodden, or makes one try to think far too much
through the minds of everybody at once.  I opted for the latter and let
me tell you it only makes the universe a very confusing and hard place
to fit into.  If that makes any sense.  And if not, well, ok.

As to writer responsibility I'm guessing you mean along the lines of
the whole violence in the media type argument.  I for tend think that
if blame must be placed for an action then it should go to the person
who did the thing, not Jerry Bruckheimer cause they watched some fake
violence he produced, or for that matter Andrew Vachhs because of some
violence he wrote about.  On the other hand it could be that these
sorts of things can push a mentally unbalanced sort of person over the
edge.  Then comes the argument that one maybe should police certain
media and keep it away from certain types of people.  And that I don't
agree.

So, the-after-the-rant-quick-answer, I think writer's should write
what they want to write about.  If the topic makes them uncomfortable,
maybe not.  But the limits set should only be self-imposed.

Neil -- Have you read Writers on Comic Scriptwriting?  I was thinking
bout picking it up but there's no release date listing on Amazon for
the paperback and the hardback is a bit expensive.  Just wondering what
you thought of it if you had read it.

Daniel
  

    
e-mail from Vicky:

Well I'd just like to add to the last post with some strange but true
news related to the question...

The story which I was recieving criticism for involved a child being
abused by her grandfather and was certainly one of the most grim tales I
have put on paper yet.  For some reason I showed it to my Mum (which I
make a point of never doing) and she read it and said 'It's Esmeralda
(name changed) isn't it?', to which I replied 'Huh?'

It transpired that my best friend at primary school was the girl in my
story, and I was the only person she told at the time.  I had no memory
of this at all.

Although I still believe firmly in writing from unusual perspectives,
irrespective of social boundaries, it makes this one a little more
unsettling knowing it is most likely based on a true story...

Just makes me wonder what else I forgot...

Thanks for listening :)

Vicky :)
  

    
Hi Daniel, WELLcome!
  

    
Vicky - IMHO, regardless of whether a subject is morally acceptable,
tasteful, gross, indecent, true, made-up, whatever, if you want to
write it, you should be able to. Let your own limits be your censor.
Hell, if every thing I disliked and thought shouldn't be open to the
public wasn't allowed to be out there, Howard Stern would be a very
poor man. It's how people interpret things that is the problem. If you
don't want certain responsibility for the way others may react to your
subject, that's your matter. No one else should be able to tell you
what you can and cant' do in life if you're willing to deal with the
consequences.

Len - Um, absolutely nothing. In my perfect world, people would give
when they feel like it, not when Hallmark tells them to. But when my
friends feel the need to be nice to me, I like personal and/or handmade
things: cards, crafts, a perfect kiss (yes, they do exist - and they
are ever so yummy!), the first hearing of a new-minted song, a hug, a
kept promise, an apology for something I'd already forgotten, something
sugary, a kind word, a warm fuzzy... that sort of thing. Best present
no one person in the world can give me: A week without personal chaos.
:P

Daniel - Hi!

-squeaks, who has decided that the only Gary Numan song she likes Gary
Numan to sing is "Dark".
  

    
Jouni -- how cool. Looking forward to seeing it...

Vicky - she looks like her dad, I think, but she has her mum's smile
and ears. Wonderful baby. Blue-grey eyes, brown hair that looks reddish
in some lights. Eats a lot.

I think, as a writer, it's wisest to go where your muse and impulse
takes you, as long as you do it responsibly, and with a point of view.
beyond that.... well, someone once tried to make it look like a copy of
Sandman was responsible for a suicide (the crime was in fact a murder,
but he thought he'd throw the police off by showing a 'satanic comic
book' had caused the guy to kill himself) and I had a long, strange
week of thinking it was my fault before I learned the truth. And at the
end of the day, I'll still write what has to be written.


Len -- in a perfect world i'd get ink, I think. Bottles of wonderful
brown and burgundy and cocoa-coloured ink. And time to use the ink in. 
I'd like about five years for 2001, please. And more Harry Steven
Keeler books.

Daniel -- I've not read the whole of it carefully, but it's a pretty
good book from what i've seen. I'd suggest the Eisner COMICS AND
SEQUENTIAL ART and Scott's UNDERSTANDING COMICS as the important texts
for someone who wants to write comics. 
  

    
e-mail from Mary Roane:

No time & so much to say!  So quickly--
 
Happy Chanukah!
 
Merry everything-else-that-is-occurring-in-the-next-week--whatever you
celebrate, may it be truly happy & safe.
 
Wonderful to hear about Miss Natashya.  Looking forward to the new album.
 
Len--thank you for the Dewey decimal system info.  Handy!  ;-)
 
More next week, maybe.   Happy Holidays!  
 
                                                                   Mary,
at maximum warp
 
  

    
Neil-- do you know about the Keeler e-text site?

http://xavier.xu.edu/~polt/etexts/index.html
  

    
As for my perfect world gifts, I'd have to ask Lucien for help:  the
"10 Years of Norb" collection, and a DVD of Martin Scorcese's film
adaptation of Winters Tale (Helprin, not Shakespeare.)  He was supposed
to make it, but I guess he's doing "Gangs of NY" instead.  Oh yeah--
and a DVD of Terry Gilliam's 5-hour film of Watchmen.

And a black truffle or two would be nice.  And a Tony Award.

Happy Hanukkah  (Chappy Channukkah?)
  

    
Thanks to a sappy friend and his stupid teary reminder (I dont' really
think it, or he, is stupid, but I'm simply running too late for work
to bumble about crying just now), you can add "make it so Howard Ashman
never died" to my list of perfect world desires...

-squeaks, who has been accused of stealing the mermaid's voice on
occasion...
  

    
The world would be a much finer place if Howard Ashman hadn't died.

<disneygeek>
The world would also be a much finer place if Disney would stop making
crappy movies like "The Emperor's New Groove" which was SUPPOSED to be a
drama called "Kingdom of the Sun" but somehow got wackified. Grrrr.
<I'm sorry, I can't turn off disneygeek. Too much pixie dust, you know.>
  

    
I'll third the request to bring back Ashman.  "Make way, here he
comes/ Ring bells, sound the drums..."
  

    
Perfect gift, hmmm. . .  complete student loan repayment I guess.  I
hate to be shackled.  And shelacked.  I hate that too.

Daniel
  

    


From: BatsNeedFriends@aol.com
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 02:00:38 EST
Subject: please post to Topic #73: Neil Gaiman-Sandman: The Dream Hunters--
Thanks!
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com

Big hugs to Neil and everyone else floating around here. Its been terribly
long since I posted anything...mid August I think. I've been reading over the
last few months of conversation and all the things I've missed like The other
Tori's (from what Neil's said adorable baby) *very happy for them all* and
Halloween--> it was umm kinda fun, I was a Bat (big surprise there) and I
crashed into a curb in my 1 year old car and got my first flat tire...very
scary experiance, as I didn't know WHAT I did to my precious car and drove on
this flat for a little while but it turned out to be OK (the rim wasn't
damaged just the tire) so as the U2 song goes: "Daddy's gonna pay for your
crashed car"  *sigh* Oh, yeah and between Classes and work my life was pretty
dull, but I made a new friend here in knoxville--> wow! now I have 2! *laugh*
she's a great girl, Norma, we met in our Figure Studi! ! ! ! ! es class...
its been a
wonderful friendship. and I got her into Neil's work...she's been borrowing
all my sandman stuff...she loves it~ I'm planning on getting her one of the
novles for christmas, although I am torn as to which I should get. any
suggestions? *smile*  I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays... I am even
though its kinda rough this year, silly me I didn't save any money from my
job and of course they laid me off so... its been dissapointing, as I like to
lavish my family and friends with presents.  regardless I am in good spirits,
and am very happy to be spending the holidays with my parents, the past year
and a half, have allowed me to spend a lot more time with them and I'm very
grateful for that, I've been feeling increasingly clingy to them...is that
odd? I mean I'm 21, going to college (still living at home, happily) while my
younger sister moved out about 2 years ago and really hasn't looked back. ! !
! ! !  I
don't understand her but thats another topic. *laugh* I'm sure everyone has
their own family-things....and are dealing with them all right now with
people visiting etc.  grr I should be asleep. its very late (or early
depending on how you look at it) ever since school ended (for now) I've been
staying up until 3am and waking up at like 11:30 and I can't seem to get back
on a normal sleep cycle. oh well, I enjoy my nocturnal-ness. *smile* at least
I've been reading a lot! ok, I'm wrapping up this (as always) much to long
post. *HUGS* Tori Bat!