Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Well. Like Pratchett and Gaiman themselves, I'll believe it when I'm
sitting in the chair in the theatre. But I can hope...

re the little movie... I had to sit for a moment and wonder how they
did that. Did they film a normal landing first then film an empty
freeway (and where did they get an empty freeway in LA anyway?) and
merge them? Hm. Loved where he looks at his speedometer and it's off
the scale at the high end.
  

    
In Neil's blog he mentions people being "ducked into a pond".  Now,
I've heard of ducking into a nerby phone booth.  But everyone I know
gets "dunked into a pond."  Well, not everyone - some of them stay away
from ponds altogether.

Is this a regionalism, or was it just to support the language
discussion at the time? 
  

    
Ducking people in a pond at the end of a long board with a chair on
the end was once a means of determining if that person was a witch. If
they floated (water is pure and rejects unclean devil person) they were
a witch, and if they drowned, they were human and innocent and could
be buried in the consecrated part of the graveyard with the religious
guy there to congratulate the family. (In case you missed it - note
HEAVY sarcasm.)
  

    
i've heard of "ducking" before, it's like the transitive form of
"ducked my head down"
  

    
<78> -- Actually, I think the first page Neil linked to in that entry
made a distinction between the ducking-stool punishment and the
witch-finding trial by water, didn't it?  They were two different
things.  And IIRC, they didn't drown people using the ducking stool,
just humiliated them.

Weirdly, I just read the word "cack" for the very first time a few
days ago, on another board, by an Aussie.  I wonder where else it will
turn up this week?


And on another note, Maddy's getting to be as bad as her sister!  ;)
  

    
I've heard both used to mean the same thing, but I think I've heard
"duck" used as "dunk" more from the non-US English speakers. Don't have
a clue if that's coincidence, or because the 'Merkins tend to say
dunk, but that's what I've observed. 

I think cack is mostly an Aussie thing too. It's the only place I've
heard it used, other than since Neil posted about it in his blog.

-squeaks
Aussie at heart
  

    
Now that I think of it, I vaguely remember Laura Ingalls Wilder using
"ducked" -- though I suspect American English was closer to British
back then.  (I hear stuff on British TV shows that I haven't heard
since my older relatives used it!)

NP: The Lost Dogs -- _Mutt_
Trippin' out on my sweet Derri's voice...
And my sweet Hindy's percussion...
Mmmm....
  

    
Quoth Neil:
>I love language. It's such fun.

My sentiments exactly.  <g>
  

    
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/07/21-on-21st.asp

I was gonna say -- it's Mike's Golden Birthday!  (That's where your
age is the same as the day, and not, as I thought when I first heard of
it, your 50th birthday.)

Happy 21st Birthday, Mike!!  :D
  

    
Cute kid. Uh. Not kid any more. 

Happy birthday.
  

    
Question for those who know.

Is the paper version of Neil's Heliogabolus comic any more legible
than the scans at The Dreaming site?  Some of that stuff is written
really teeny.
  

    
It is a very clean scan... and it's making me think I should scan my
copy (thus being able to blow it up and read it more clearly).

-squeaks
(who seems to have misplaced an alphabet somewhere in the move last
year - eek!)
  

    
As posted to alt.fan.neil-gaiman:

Source: Variety
Friday, July 23, 2004

Variety has announced that New Line Cinema has picked up feature
rights to Neil Gaiman's graphic novel "Death: The High Cost of Living".
Gaiman is in talks to make his directorial debut on the film.

Gaiman wrote the script based on his own work. The project is
currently titled Death's Day.

The story involves a teenager named Sexton who's been contemplating
suicide. He is rescued by a mysterious teenager who claims she is
Death herself, spending one day every 100 years on earth to learn the
value of the lives she takes.

The film takes place over 24 hours as Sexton learns to love life by
spending a day with Death.
  

    
Oh I really hope Neil directs it!
  

    
If I recall correctly, Neil had inserted a clause in the contract that
allowed them to cheaply use the script if he directs, or pay him
millions of dollars (for the script) if they want a different director.
  

    
Smart lad.
  

    
And now it's been announced that Neverwhere will be a comic series by
one of my favourite comic writers (Mike Carey - currently writing
Lucifer). Yay!

And after reading the whole thing through, I'm seeing what you mean,
tinymonster, about Heliogabolous. A few of the scanned bits *are* kinda
blurred compared to my copy. Still, it's not by much. If you need help
reading some of it, just drop me a line and I'll see if I can
translate from my copy.
  

    
Well, Yay! to Neil and Congrats for his awards. Well deserved, as
usual.

The story about the guy who tried to get something signed and then,
when he had him right there willing to sign something, he didn't want
the signature because it had been for someone else. Don't you know that
when he talks to that someone else, they'er just going to be a trifle
upset. I mean. So funny. 

Can't wait to see Mirrormask. No wonder Neil's things make so much.
After talking and talking about them, by the time they come out, we're
all SO ready to see it. 
  

    
And here I thought it was because he told a good story. ;P

<ducks n' runs for cover>
  

    
Well. Yeah. <imagine a raspberry in your direction - which I can't,
actually, do, in real life>

But you know, that first flush of cash is us all standing in line with
our green in hand months in advance.  
  

    
And the amazing thing is, after all the hype, we're rarely
disappointed.

Seconding the congratulations on the Eisners.

And thanks, Michelle <92>.  I'll keep that in mind!

Very excited to read that I may get to see that panel after all: 
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=3993
  

    
Yeah. But, geez. January 2005. Sigh. A long wait. Great link. Wish
they'd have one here.
  

    
Not that long, if your year so far has gone as fast as mine has!


Really wishing a certain October NDC appearance would get firmed up
soon, though.
  

    
So, after too long discussing the options for replacing the medicine
cabinet mirror (the cabinet couldn't be replaced entirely, it being a
no-longer-standard size) we finally had a local shop cut and fit a
replacement last week, with the cabinet being reinstalled just before I
went off for three loooong sleep-deprived days, in a huge convention
center with ~90,000 people and an outrageously high sound-reflection
index, at the San Diego Comic-Con International to promote Fiddler's
Green. Came home on a redeye flight this morning, had a nap, managed
some errands, still viewing the world through a surrealistified
sleep-deprivation haze, and discovered on coming upstairs after supper
about an hour ago that the replacement mirror had emulated its
predecessor and was partially in the sink and the rest in shards of
varying sizes all over the bathroom counter and floor and out into the
hall. If I had the energy and two brain cells to rub together I'd be
hysterical. As it is, I'm just dazedly spooked. Have told Chip in the
flattest possible terms that we will _not_ have a replacement mirror
attached the same way a third time.

MirrorMask is, well, beyond my ability to describe in my present
state. Oh. My.

Christy, sorry, didn't get anywhere near enough for A Hug, or to Ben's
booth. I spent most of my time there at the CBLDF booth, or walkabout
scouting potential vendors, advertisers, and supporters for FG. Made
several good connections, and am a little awed by the quality of
respect I heard from various people I really respect, for what we're
trying to do with this convention.

Need more sleep.
  

    
Maybe you have a haunted rubber ducky? There was one on EBay that sold
for over $100. A yellow rubber ducky. Wow. Neil was right! Ducks.
Ducks.