Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'll second the support for the audiobook.  Congrats on sale to
Hollywood.  

Re: Meeting heroes-- reminds me of the story Woody Allen tells about
meeting Groucho-- he said it was disappointing--kind of like meeting a
grumpy uncle.  When I met Ray Bradbury I was fairly disappointed as
well.

If you restrict hero, as I often do, to "great writer," I've met a
couple who haven't disappointed.  Via grad school I met Michael John
LaChiusa, whose work I worshipped, and he hasn't disappointed either--
in person he's a lot like the stuff he writes.  Same thing with Polly
Pen, who remains a personal hero.


The Gorey show  (I never met HIM, but I did see Robertson Davies read,
once, and they look a lot alike) is called The Gorey Details; I
haven't seen it, but it looks a bit like a rehash of a previous musical
revue called Amphigorey.  Rocky, please forgive me if I trod on your
toes.

Been using "The Gashleycrumb Tinies" to teach the alphabet-poem form
to my 6th graders... they like it.
 
  

    
Email from Jouni koponen:

Hi Neil and everybody

Hope everybody's happy with the year 2001 so far...

Neil- About Coraline... Well, audio books are not my thing, and I'm
heavily addicted to good books (especially illustrated ones...), but like
Michelle said, if it's out sooner that way, then go ahead.

Hmm... so Dave has done the illustrations to Coraline, right? And the book
is actually ready, right? And it won't be out until May 2002, right? Jeez,
that's cruel...

What's the situation with Wolves in the Walls, then?

Oh, and since I'm writing this thing, I might as well correct Lawrence's
name...(mentioned him in message #1485) he's Person (not Persons),
Lawrence Person.

PS. Finnish television is playing BBC's Gormenghast, seems cool so far...

Jouniac
  

    
I wish I'd had the Gashlycrumb Tinies in sixth grade!
  

    
Email from Mary Roane:

Neil--Congratulations!  Wonderful news about the film rights to Coraline.
 
Less wonderful news about the publishing of same.  I would rush right out
and buy the audio book.  I will then rush right out & purchase the book
when it comes out.  I will pretty much rush out and buy anything you write
(see previous post).  This can also be regarded as my response to meeting
heroes ;-)
 
Derek Jacobi is a peach, Eric Idle charming and Robert Aspirin delightful.  
The only person I've met who was a disappointment was an artist whose work
I greatly admired.  He was mad because I asked him to sign a book he had
illustrated instead of the very expensive proofs he was selling at a con.  
I never looked at his work the same way again.
 
                                                             Mary (reading
Brett Butler's autobiography)
  

    

I don't tend to think of people as my "heroes." I mean, as much of an effect
as some people may have had on me- Zelazny, perhaps, Heinlein when I was
young, Neil here- the word "hero" sets things up on a higher plane than I
like.
Part of it is that I've met too many musicians that I might at one time have
considered "heroes". I'm fortunate in that most of them were incredibly
nice- good examples are Steven Tyler and Ringo Starr, both of whom were
_way_ nicer than I had any reason to expect them to be.
Eh, just rambling. Not that I'm trying to degrade anyone else's use of the
word.
  

    
I can't see any reason for not going ahead with the audiobook unless of
course they don't let you.

Meeting people you knew through their work: dicey business.  It's hard to
know anyone through one or five or ten minutes, and when you're meeting them
in constrained conditions (viz fan to celebrity) that one or ten minutes is
even more of a crapshoot.  Perfectly nice people can be cranky, or have
their defenses up, or just having an exhausted, bad day.  Perfect jerks may
have a surface charm that serves them well in surface encounters, or you
just may have met them at a lucky moment.  I dunno, I just try to admire the
work and the man separately, give everyone I don't really know the benefit
of the doubt in the complexity of their lives, and bite my tongue on the Oh
yeah? when someone enthuses about a swell brief meeting with someone I
believe I know to be annoying!
  

    
        Agreement on the gamble of meeting those one admires.  Douglas Adams,
it turns out, is pretty self-centered.  This saddened me.  Will
Eisner, on the other hand, is an incredibly nice old man.  So was Jack
Kirby.  The King chatted for hours and had to be dragged away by his
wife and a handler of some kind.
  

    
I still think you can't necessarily tell too much about someone from one
meeting.  Why, people who've only just met Neil think all sorts of things.
That he's English, or something.
  

    

He's doing better than Edward Gorey used to, when he was thought of as a)
English and b) dead.
Alas, the punchline is no longer as humorous in Gorey's case.
  

    
If it means not having to wait as long to get the story, then I am
definitely all for an audio book of Coraline.  

I've never really had any heroes.  (I just have to stop quick and say
I just impressed myself by typing the previous bits with no glasses on.
 A lens popped out and my roommate was fixing them, and I can't see
more than about four inches past my nose.)  Anyway... heroes.  Well, I
never really looked up to real people.  Growing up I tended to look up
to people like Princess Cimorene from the Enchanted Forest Chronicles
and Willy Wonka.  Okay, I looked up to my great uncle Mike who was a
priest and when I was little I thought that was the coolest thing.  He
eventually died down in Honduras doing missionary stuff.  I've always
realized though that meeting people you admire isn't always the
smartest thing and the only such person I ever decided to meet was Mr.
Neil here and basically because I'd heard such nice things about him. 
Wasn't disappointed at all.  Exact opposite thereof.  I'm rambling.

Oh, I finally got myself a hardback copy of Neverwhere yesterday. 
::does a happy dance::  Of course, now the Neil shelf has spilled over
into two shelves but I can't move all of the stuff to one longer shelf
because the shelf all of these things started off on is the only one I
have tall enough to accommodate stardust and mr. punch and such. Does
anyone else here have this problem?  I can't wait for my order from the
cbldf to get here, I ordered extra bumper stickers to give to random
people.  Anyway...

Jen, inundated with schoolwork.
  

    

I think shelf size issues dictate that my graphic novels and my books are
just going to have to live in different bookshelves. So it goes.
It helps that I tend to just get paperbacks.

I think it's time for me to start a serious hunt through Berkeley and SF
used book stores and comic book stores for the one Sandman graphic novel I
don't own yet- Season of Mists. I have the other 9 in their original cover,
and I'm damned if I'm going to get a copy of SoM that is of the new printing
cover.
It's things like this that are why I don't own _The Farthest Shore_ by
LeGuin- I have the same cover for the other two and it's gone through a LOT
of printings... heh.
  

    
Michelle, thanks for pushing the cruise. Electric blue hair sounds
like fun. I'm still embarassed about the time I didn't recognise you
with strange hair...

Jouni, Dave McKean is working on Wolves In the Walls as we speak. He
says he's painting it...

He hasn't done the illustrations for Coraline yet -- just one, which
he did as his 'audition piece' -- it was the invitation to his
daughter's birthday party, and showed Mr Bobo's Mouse Orchestra.

Mary -- when I was last on a signing tour I asked the nice ladies (and
occasional gents) who take authors around who the Very Worst Person
they'd ever had to take around. 

Brett Butler headed the list. (Jeffrey Archer was number two.)

Madman -- I think hero is a very flexible term, in this context.

Martha -- exactly. I was talking to someone recently who was very
dismissive of an author whose work I love and who I am personally very
fond of, and I had to explain that the person who goes to the
conventions (who is a cranky person on the whole) is not the same
person off-stage...

Streak -- Will Eisner is a wonder. I wish America declared people
National Treasures.

Martha -- I remember when I had an English accent (sigh).

jen -- I'm glad I wasn't a disappointment.

(We disappoint, we disappear, we die but we don't....)

Madman -- well, speaking as an author, I think you should buy a new
copy. Or two. But I hope you can find an original cover.
  

    
Oh, Neil, please don't worry: you're only a bit damp, not fully mid-Atlantic
yet.

I can think of an author whose work is brilliant, who can be very cranky at
conventions, and who has been nothing but avuncular to me.  Possibly you and
I are talking about the same person.

My friend Cory Doctorow gave me a 1950s booklet about being a better bowler
for a Christmas present.  "Will Eisner illustrated this?" I said when I
opened it.  "I dunno," he said.  The last time I picked up an unsigned item
and was sure it was Will Eisner (a--Romanian?--phrasebook for WWII
soldiers), I did some net research and was right, and I think I'm right this
time too.  National Treasure yes.  If he were a Brit they'd have to knight
him.
  

    

Hero is, indeed, a very flexible word. So it goes.

I think, speaking of heroes, that now that I've finished reading the Sandman
Compendium, I'll reread _A Book of Five Rings._

And after spending a good half an hour typing here about my short story, I'm
actually somewhat fired up to find my most recent draft and get back to it.
For this, I thank you all who are participating here.
  

    
Coraline -- Congratulations! *excited* And about the audio book, I
think the general consensus is, if it means we can get a hold of it
sooner, then by all means! Are you thinking about reading it, Neil? ^_-
Or maybe turn it into more of a drama CD... cast it! Don't necessarily
have to rewrite it as an audio script (unless you want to). Just do it
with the character voices cast and a narrator or something... 

Hidden message about meeting people... Got a bit long and rambling...
^_^;
  

    <hidden>
  

    
Jen - That's why you buy bookshelves with adjustable shelves :) That
way all the Neil stuff fits on one... very tall... shelf (unless you
start collecting multiple copies of each story, in which case you take
up more than one... very tall... shelf).

madman - Good grief, you're local? Best of luck finding originals. I
spent 2 months looking for an original Wake around here less than a
year ago and it never happened. Even so, I'll have my spy network get
right on it for you. :)

Neil - You're welcome. And which incarnation of strange hair didn't
you recognize me in? I don't even remember. (then again, I often don't
even remember what colour my hair is *supposed* to be)

Ooh, Mouse Orchestra? :D

And, wonderful, now you've got me singing ItW to myself ("They
disappoint in turn, I fear. Forgive, though, they won't").

Madman - Best of luck on the story.

squeaks, who won't pester Neil about any accents until he starts doing
those Minnesotan "O's"
  

    
Martha -- yes. Well spotted. And I bet it's an Eisner...

Madman -- oh good

Mimi -- I love your long rambling posts. You honestly don't have to
hide them just because you do a little on something.

I had a room with 200 people in it, and an hour to get through all of
them, without losing my voice (which happened in Chicago two days
earlier). I figure I did the best I could, and I'm sorry about the guy
next to you. I really wanted to talk more to you and your sister -- if
only considering how far you'd come, I figured you deserved special
attention.
  

    
Michelle -- I don't remember. I just remember asking your name at a
signing and getting a really funny look from you as you said "Neil...
it's Michell" and I got all flustered and pointed out that you hadn't
had purple/green/halibut-coloured hair the last time I;d seen you.
  

    
Oh... hmmm... must have forgiven you for that. :) So, what colour are
halibuts, any way?

-squeaks, sleep, precious sleeeeeeeeep...z-z-z-z-z-z.....
  

    
Neil -- Goodness, I think I've already gotten the special attention.
^_- Don't feel bad about it, please! I knew what the events were to be
like (not just in NYC), and it's always a wonderful experience to see
you. I think it would be unfair for anyone to monopolize too much of
your time, especially in those situations (it'll wear you out and
there's the rest of the room who all want to talk to you too). And
you've exceeded expectations every time, even if you only had a few
moments to spend with people, just by being the lovely, kind person
that you are. I bet a lot of people here can attest to that. ^_- Warm
fuzzy feeling after seeing Neil? I vote yes.

[And about the person, it wasn't in NYC, that was in Boston about... a
year ago? Year and a half ago? Not the one at MIT, but shortly after
that... I think it was a CBLDF reading. It was around the time when you
went around reading Stardust, I think... and he wasn't... darkly
disappointed, but more wistful? I certainly didn't put that there to
make you feel bad... :/ ]

What *are* halibuts anyway? ^_^;

-- Mimi, without a dictionary on hand
  

    

    .....some people dye their hair just for the halibut....
  

    
Re: heroes-- everyone here is so freakin' smart and insightful that I
have nothing to add.

Re: Armenian phrasebooks.  My friend Chris once found-- I think at
that big used-book store at the Mpls public library (I don't know if
there's more than one such store; the one I'm thinking of is housed
next to a planetarium)-- a 90 year old Esperanto dictionary and
phrasebook that seemed based on the assumption that Esperanto was
already ubiquitous, and thus the phrases ranged from the utilitarian
("Do you speak Esperanto?") to the utterly bizarre ("The gear-changing
lever on my bicycle is bent" "Does your flounder come with a
butter-sauce?") Aside from providing many a useful phrase to fill a
lull in conversation, the book can be read as a kind of Ursula K.
LeGuin work of alternate universe anthropology.

Unfortunately, it's not illustrated by Will Eisner.

Sondheim thing-- apparently the DVD of Sunday in the Park with George
includes his commentary (& James Lapine's and Bernadette Peters's) on
an alternate audio track.  This rockets it, in my opinion, to Must
Have.

 
  

    
Madman - I not too long ago ended my own very long hunt for a Season
Of Mists in the original cover.  I had just given up when I found not
one, but two copies in the same week.  One of them an unused copy in a
store I'd been in not too long before that had most definitely not had
it then.  I'm wondering where they found it.  I've already given the
other one away, but if I somehow run across another one I'll let you
know.  And now that I've completed that set... I will probably slowly
collect the new covers now so that I have a set as a lending copy.  

Michelle - I can only afford cheap bookshelves that I force my
roommate to put together for me and then they don't come apart again. 
They're mostly all shorties too.  The next time I buy a six foot one
(which would be let's see, probably three large or five small books
from now) I will probably make all of the shelf space on it Tall Book
Space.  Good luck with your Stardust collection.  I've just got the
illustrated hardback.  Used to have one of the comics but I gave it to
a friend as a housewarming gift.  Anyway, off to school.

Jen, whose wallet is cursing at her in a most horrible way
  

    
Neil--somehow that does not surprise me at all.  I find it very sad.  I
admire her because she's a smart, talented, successful Southern woman
(there are so few--Leontyne Price, Eudora Welty, Oprah Winfrey...) but I
have heard that she's not a particularly nice person.  Someone gave me
"Knee Deep in Paradise" for Christmas, so I'm reading it.  It's not bad,
but it's not "Is That All There Is?" by Bob Geldof, either.  ( I loved
that book.)
 
I mentioned the people that I did because in most of those cases I met
them after a show when no one could have expected them to be gracious and
they were anyway.  I agree with Martha--I don't know these people.  My own
jaded opinion is that it takes years to get to know anyone (and I'm still
not sure how well you *can* know another person).  I just wanted to
mention that those people have at least enough kindness to be polite to
someone who just wanted to say "I enjoy your work.  Thank you."
 
I don't know if I actually have a "hero", unless it's my friend Denny,
who's a priest.  He's a pretty amazing guy.  I admire the *work* of
several actors & writers, but I am an actor, so I'm not surprised to find
out that we're egomaniacs ;-)
 
Jen--wow!  Your uncle sounds really cool.  How neat to have someone like
that in your family!
 
Mimi--I agree with Neil.  I love your "mind dumps".
 
Len--O.K., I'm laughing out loud *at work* over how to say "Does your
flounder come with a butter sauce?" in Esperanto.  Are you by any chance a
Red Dwarf fan?  Every time I think of Esperanto I think of Rimmer saying
"Charmante" over & over 'cause it's the only word he knows, but he keeps
telling people that he speaks Esperanto, so he'll look cool.  The halibut
joke was reprehensible.  Thank you for making it.  ;-)
 
                                                              Mary, on a
                                search for halibut colored hair dye