Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Jen -- where's Books & Co? (what city?)

Michelle -- you'll do just fine in the stalking dept, I have no
doubts. You always do.
  

    
Neil, 
Went to the local chain bookstore, and played something else then
annoying fangirl. It was tough let me tell you. :eg:
 However the manager is an old customer of mine from the comic days
and he's going to try his best for me. I had to promise him dinner if
he managed to come through for me. If not I'lll make the drive to
Boston, or maybe Rocky will be a dear and meet me for a day in NY
again? I might actually bring her figures I've had for a year

Jinxie who only hopes she can find someone to trade her a work day
  

    
Jinxie babe..it's always a pleasure to hang out with you! Gotta share
that fangrrrl vibe, ya know? Take over the City, yes? And when you get
here we'll visit Sugiyama's. Absolutely the best sushi next to Nobu.
Even better than Tomoe's where we went the last time you were here. So
you're on. 

Neil, sorry to hear you're at the mercy of the gods of marketing.
Malls make me hyperventilate. I can't imagine having to actually spend
time in one. Talk about your worst nightmare. How could they do that to
Clive?! The horror...

Anyway, I'll be tag-teaming both the B&N and the Virgin Megastores at
Union Square. Why not hedge my bet eh?  B&N would be preferable, but
it's better to start nag..um..requesting that they book you ASAP. 

And despite the crush from your last two book signings in NYC, it's
always wonderful to catch up with some of the regulars who have been
going to these events over the years. They are the nicest people. 
  

    
Booksmith is a good store, by the way.
  

    
Neil - It's near Dayton, OH in a town called Kettering.  I had a link
to some pictures from that signing but I can't seem to find it.  Found
em, yay Deja.  

http://www.dayton.net/~dwaine/ngphoto.htm

For anyone who cares, if you click on the second thumbnail and scroll
over I'm behind the plant and between the redhead and the guy with
short hair.  We all three look very different now, (I know they do, I
_hope_ I do...) I had a good laugh.  :-)

Neil, speaking of that signing, this may seem like an odd question
but... during it your cell phone/pager/slim black electronic thing went
off and played a song and it's been bugging me off and on for two
years that I know the damn song but can't think of the name.  If you
know what the hell I'm talking about could you pretty please enlighten
me?  thanks.  :-)

Jen.  Hmmm, also an action shot of me in the 1st thumbnail.  I hate
pictures of me.  Going to bed now...
  

    
Neil -- no chance that your publisher wants to put out a Chinese,
Japanese, or Korean translation and bring you on over here, is there? 
I know someday I will be in the right country to go to another signing.
Or I'll copy Mimi.  :)  

Oh yeah.  I got back several rolls of pictures of Fushimi Inari, and
am heading to the photo place to get reprints so I can send some to my
friends.... I unfortunately lack the technical contacts to put stuff up
on the web but I would be happy to order reprints and mail them out to
anyone who's interested.... nice lines of gates and a stone fox or
two.  Let me know.  
  

    
>Jinxie babe..it's always a pleasure to hang out with you!<

Rocky, you do a girl's soul good, getting me all excited about sushi
is a good thing as well,....but NO and I really mean it this time Sea
Urchin,.....:mutters something about baby poop:

Jinx who needs to get the troops calling the local B&N 
  

    

Neil, I'm afraid that Booksmith and Keppler's will have to be approached
by someone in the City or on the Peninsula respectively.  I'm working on
bringing you to the East Bay!
  

    
Martha -- yup, I like booksmiths. they do baseball cards of authors
who do signings there. I always take a dozen and then lose them.

Rocky -- I've been introduced to the children of people who met (and
for all I know, started to breed) in my signing lines.

Jen -- i remember that one. Nice store with that fun central area to
do the reading in. My memory (which is fuzzy) suggests that that store
gets a higher score on the whole signing thing as it's near some book
wholesaler, where they send authors to sign as much stock as possible
in an hour.

At the time I had my cellphone set for BADINERIE.

Emily -- I'd love to come and sign in East Asia. Fingers crossed that
all the japanese books will come out and find an audience.

Linda - atagal. Actually I meant that I expected that Keppler's and
Booksmiths are probably faits accompli -- I always seem to do
booksmiths (and doing another signing or two in the Bay area stops
Booksmiths from getting dangerously crowded), and I think the keppler's
people were the single most enthusiastic store on the tour. And just
by mentioning Jon Singer I made someone fall off a chair.
  

    
I never manage to get any of the baseball cards.  I have one of Pat
Murphy's.  I wonder if anyone swaps them?
  

    
We might as well figure out the name of the new incarnation of this
topic soon enough.

I'm also going to have to start keeping an online journal soon at the
new novel.com so I suspect that my interaction here may drop
drastically for a while. (It certainly isn't going to drop to nothing.
But it may drop quite a lot.)

I also have some vague theories of putting together annotations for
the new book at its website. Stuff which, if I did notes at the end of
the book, would smack of cleverness (or in a number of cases, give away
plot details) might be fun on a web site for people who've read the
book -- and who might want to contribute their own information on
Czernobog or the Morrigan.

...

Martha -- I don't know. Author fans, maybe.
  

    
Booksmiths is very cool. And not just 'cause it's roomier than OCoH,
or because the only times I've ever been able to find parking on the
Haight is during Neil-signings. It's also near City Optix, which may be
buying a photo of me for an ad soon. Had one of the Neil cards, but
don't know where it went... which surprises me, in retrospect (thinking
it's being used as a bookmark in my V for Vendetta, which went missing
ages ago).

Rocky - I agree. You *do* meet the most interesting people in signing
lines. I like the confused looks on many faces when the 'ba-FOG' gang
shows up en masse - always a fun conversation starter.

Linda - I'm trying to do nothing but hit bookstores tomorrow. Since
I'm in Oakland, I'll start out at Jack London B&N, then hit Berkeley,
and *then* The City.

Neil - I vaguely remember the Kepplers signing. Though the falling off
the chair bit was funny, the part I remember most was the Harlan
impression. ;P

squeaks, who will be surprised if City Optix buys the picture, but it
would be neat if it were up during the signing! :-P
  

    
Jinx..fresh sea urchin is absolutely de-lish! Btw, someone recently
slipped me some dried squid at a Korean BBQ Restaurant. And not knowing
what it was, I asked for a second helping and was mortified to find
out exactly what I was eating. Thankfully, I managed not to leap into
anyone's lap this time. *grin*

Michelle - Yep, and I especially love meeting writers and artists who
have been inspired by Neil's work. Never a dull moment on those lines. 
  

    
Ok.... survived the weekend, two performances of Midsummer and a move
into a new apartment (right above my old one.)

Midsummer was great-- after a fairly disheartening dress rehearsal 
the kids seemed to have gotten a change of batteries.  Very pleased,
very proud-- got 11 year olds to know what they were doing in a
Shakespeare play.

Watching the audience, I got a kick out of how well the play actually
works-- almost 500 years old and it still gets laughs in all the right
places. And Bottom's dream soliloquy at the end-- such great stuff. It
took being out of the rehearsal process, I think, to actualy see the
play.

Missed logging on to this group for the w'end, but without a hooked-up
 computer at home (I'm at work,) it was impossible.

Ah well, back to the grind.  Been doing Maus in class... not an easy
book to teach.
  

    
Email from Vicky:

Hello

Neil is it worth me bugging the Blackpool branch of Waterstones or am I
dreaming?

Sorry about the almost pun (sp?)

Oh yeah and quick question...Do you get scared of finishing a story
sometimes?  Just because you had a feeling it wasn't finished, for example
although all the signs said it was.  Or any other reason?

Thanks again

Vicky
  

    
Vicky -- I'll be doing a UK tour pretty immediately after the US tour,
I expect.  (I kept pointing out that we couldn't do both at the same
time as there was only one of me.) 

Again, which bookshops I sign in will be up to Hodder-Headline, but
they'll apportion me out based on requests, I expect.

I was scared of finishing Sandman; that was like leaving home.

Len -- welcome back. What did the audience think?

Michelle -- is the city Opticks picture part of your girls in glasses
thing?
  

    
Well, don't know if we can get you out to the Southwest Neil but I'll
give it a shot.  Doubt there's much chance of you coming to Las Cruces
but I have a friend who works at a B&N up in Albuquerque so I'll give
him a holler about it.

Neil -- What's the "new novel.com"?

Daniel
  

    
Neil--  the audience, which consisted mainly of middle school kids--
was enthusiastic.  We sold out on Friday (500 tix) and almost sold out
on Sat (400.)  My network of spies in the room tells me that the kids
were wide awake, completely comprehending, and loudly appreciative of
the comedy.  "I am amazed..." even got a laugh, though Pyramus and
Thisby was particularly well received-- eleven-year-old boys in drag--
gets 'em every time.
  

    

Len, how very, very wonderful!!  And teaching Maus!  I'm impressed and
looking forward to hearing how it's received.

Michelle - Hooray!!  Let me know if you need me to help in any way.

I got an atagal!!

Now, this thing about Jon Singer.  I have no idea who this is, but he
seems to be at the center of some sort of Six Degrees of Separation.  I
have seen conversations here on the WELL in which the name is mentioned,
and all these people come along and say, "Oh!  You know Jon Singer?  I
know him, too!"  And now, along comes Neil, mentioning how mentioning Jon
Singer's name causes people to fall out of their chairs.
  

    
Rocky - That's why my mother rarely tells me what the mystery food is
until *after* I've tried it and passed my judgement. And I'll take
unagi over sea-urchins any day.

Len - Hooray for Midsummer successes! And kudos to presenting Maus in
a class. I miss my copy of it.

Neil - same photographer, different output. This stuff (if bought)
*might* end up on the internet again, or (even better) it could see
print in magazine ads or posters or brochures. All I know is that I'll
gladly be an endorsement slut if they actually pay me to have that much
fun (we even took Devil Bunny photos!).

Linda - I think i'll be able to hit a bunch today... once my laundry
is done. Besides, I have to head out to the Haight to sell stuff. East
bay is still harder to convince tho', so you might want to hit the JLS
B&N any way. Besides, parking is easier in Oak-town.

squeaks, who doesn't know Jon Singer... yet ;)
  

    
Email from Bill Williams:

I've gotten into the habit of listening to Public Radio stations on my
daily travels, and came across the very tail end of the Todd Mundt Show.
Here's a sneak peek at tomorrow's (2/7) topic:

Pictures and words are the most powerful tools of communication. Combined,
they should create a potent medium, right?  In theory, yes.  But this
"potent medium" - comics -- is used primarily for power fantasies - the
super hero genre. Scott McCloud says this is a waste of the art form, and
he'll tell us what comics COULD be...

So, you can tune in via streaming audio at www.michiganradio.org, and you
can click through to toddshow.org to see if it's actually broadcast in
your area. If you're tuning in online, the show starts at 1pm Eastern
Time. If I'm home, I may try to record it for those who miss it.

   -- Bill, who needs to hit up the local Borders/BN -- what are the odds
      of a Michigan tour stop? 
  

    
Linda - Okay, I need help. Please talk to the JLS B&N 'lady' for me. I
tried and instead of getting the "here's what I need to make this
happen" speech, I got the "well, I'm sure *you* think this person is
worthy of a signing at our fine establishment... but" speech. 

squeaks (fuming a bit), who now remembers why she always prefers all
those small bookstores.
  

    
Len -- well done! 

Linda -- there was article in the New Yorker a few years ago about
people who knew everyone -- it cited a lady in Chicago who, among other
things, made Lenny Bruce famous and introduced Heinlein to Asimov. Jon
Singer is one of those.

Michelle -- I know that Puck-Joe Fulgham has met Jon Singer, if that's
any consolation.

bill - cool! 

.....

Early valentine's present to the world (and you heard it here first):
Hot Topic will be doing a line of cool Sandman stuff, starting this
month. I think there are some clothes -- and I know there are some
candles... There should be stuff on the Hot topic website very soon...
  

    

Field trip Hot Topic. Who's with me?
  

    

Me!  I'll go.  I bought my parents some golf shirts at Hot Topic
once.  They had some lunatic golfer on them, I think.  Surprisingly
well-received.

Okay, Michelle - will do.  Should I call cold or do you have the name of
the alleged lady?  This is actually very cool.  A whole bunch of us should
call her.

Neil - I want to meet this Jon Singer guy.  Since he isn't currently in
the circle of people I know, just think of how many people will be added
to each circle once the two of us meet.