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Saturday, November 7th, 2009
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darlin_sane
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DISCLAIMER:
Just a reminder to anyone reading this journal that it is indeed MY personal journal, and I am not forcing anybody to read it.
If you have a personal problem with anything I post, feel free to remove yourself from reading this because I'm not a member of Livejournal for your pleasure - I use this thing for me and me alone... that's the way it's always been and that's the way it's gonna stay.
If you have issues with nudity, vivid language, frank talk about sex, violent images, drugs, uncomfortable images, my pro-choice stance, my preference for satanic things, or anything along those lines, or if you're easily offended in general, either read at your own risk, or don't read at all. I don't care either way.
That is all.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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darlin_sane
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I participated in some edge play tonight at work.
( edited to add an lj cut for whiny, anonymous jerks... and other lj friends who may possibly have aversions to blood/incisions )
The guy who did it, Jim Beckett, was really great. He's part of a performance collective that held an event at the bar tonight. It was kind of neat, we sat on stage and he wore a cloak and a hooded executioner's mask, and everyone watched as he did the whole process on me. We chatted a bunch beforehand and afterward, about possibly continuing to do edge play together, and he might even do some play piercing on me, which I have wanted to do forever. He is also part of the Hamilton BDSM scene, so it was nice to make a connection with someone in that circle, since my only other connection to any BDSM society is in London.
"Sin Circus," the event, was really fun. There were burlesque dancers, bands, fire performers (my co-worker Carl does poi and fire-breathing), edge play scenes, blood-letting scenes, etc. I snapped a few photos over the course of the night, but not as many as I would have liked to since, of course, I DID have to do some work. The collective brought their own door person though so I was basically just keeping tracking of capacity in the bar and doing some bar-backing. But mostly I just chatted with people, smoked and watched the performances, ha.
I did make another good connection though, with this guy Ian who runs Hamilton Artists Inc. (the group putting on the event). I may start doing some official event photography for them, and possibly join their collective as an artist so that I can host photography shows in the future in their studios. I'll probably also do some volunteer work for them when I can.
( a few snaps of the night: )
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, November 6th, 2009
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/final-reminder-for-bookshops.html posted by Neil
A quick reminder (as I was just asked) that today is the day that the bookshop Graveyard Book party reports have to be in to Harper Collins. By 9 pm PST.
http://files.harpercollins.com/Mktg/HarperChildrens/PDF/GraveyardContest_rules.pdf are the rules and info for those who lost them.
Hi Mr. Gaiman,
I was disappointed today to read you won't be part of the judging for The Graveyard Book contests. My not-wealthy, middle-of-nowhere bookstore just sent in its entry, and something we're concerned about is the fairness of judging.
For example, independent bookstores like Powell's (I'm sure you know) easily have enough money and are in a convenient enough location to ask you to come at one time or another. Against stores like that, who were able to put more money into their parties, we stand little chance.
I don't think that it's a lost cause for us; we were very creative. I'm just nervous to know you won't be judging. Can you tell me whether you think the judges will take things like size and location of bookstores into account? It would make me sleep a little easier until the results are announced.
Tusen takk,
Allison
Well, per the rules, the judging is based on:
(i) Overall creativity of the Party, as demonstrated by the invitations, signage, decorations, activities, entertainment, and refreshments.
(ii) Customer attendance and response (i.e., enthusiasm, costumes, participation).
(iii) Ability to capture and represent the spirit of The Graveyard Book.
...specifically to reward creativity, and not the ability to outspend other shops. (That was also why the party had to actually be at the bookshop, and not at another location.)
I asked my editor, Elise Howard, and she said,
Gosh, yes. Here's what we think is happening. We are looking at all the entries. On Monday, we'll send you the best 11, from which you will choose the Grand Prize Winner. The rest will get the first-prize package. So the short answer is that you ARE helping to choose.
The longer answer is that we will be very fair and will consider creativity, which includes work done with available resources, along with pure execution. (Don't you think? We haven't done anything yet; still waiting for more entries to come in.)
...which means that
a) I was wrong and will be the ultimate judge, from the shortlist. (Damn.)
and
b) everyone's on a level playing field.
Does that help reassure you?
PS -- Widgett's Graveyard Book Dessert competition winners have been announced over at http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/11/06/graveyard-book-dessert-challenge-winners/.
This one had NOTHING to do with me at all. But lor' the winning desserts look tasty...
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trillian_stars
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So, it came to our attention that next Friday is, in fact, Friday the 13th... and since The Weir, which is exceedingly CREEPY, will have a performance that night, we should relish that fact and get the most out of it (particularly since ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kylecassidy was absent on Hallowe'en!)
So, come to that performance and then join us afterwards in our desperately Gothic and chillingly Creepy house where we shall be hosting scary Spanish movie night and a "let's chat about what we've just experienced and perhaps share scary stories of our own" party.
How exciting!
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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darlin_sane
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Alright, so post-New Orleans entry time.
Let's see. Well, oh, just BEFORE the trip, Jen and I went to Toronto to see some friends and celebrate our friend Matt's 30th birthday. It was kind of a weird night, because two of our guy friends, including Chris who is one of our best friends, have been having this crazy drama over this girl, and shit kind of escalated at the bar and hit an all-time crazy. Sheesh. Boys and their drama ;)
But still, it was really awesome to see Chris, and Kat and Matt... plus I saw this guy Dan who I used to be friends with (I guess we're still technically friends, it's just been a really long time since we've seen each other or even had any contact) and whom I haven't seen in probably like five years or maybe even six? That was great, he's such an awesome guy, I'm just really happy that we got to catch up and spend some time together. We snuck out of the bar for a little while and took a walk down Roncesvalles to smoke a joint together, and we got into a conversation about how we're both crazy and it was cool to talk to him about that stuff because we had a nice unspoken connection with each other. We exchanged numbers that night so hopefully we can hang out again soon when I'm back in Toronto.
Of course the Thursday after Jen and I got back from Nola my band had our show, which I think I already wrote about. I was really excited that Jen and Chris came out to see us, that was a really nice treat, but it also made me nervous because, you know... you want to impress your best friends, ha.
Devil's night me, Dave and Biff went to Absinthe to see Fog of Leprosy, which was kind of a dull night, other than Fog's set which was fucking thrashtastic, and some of the rad costumes people were wearing, like Darlene's boyfriend Robbie who went as fucking BALSAC!!!!!! I was so JEALOUS because that was my original plan for Halloween this year but I didn't have enough time to make the costume, and honestly, I don't feel super comfortable wearing a nude-coloured bodysuit at this point in time bahaha. But Robbie looked fucking terrific, and there was even another guy at the bar dress as Oderus, and they didn't even plan it! Oderus guy looked incredible, he had the exact Oderus mask and the big throbbing spiked dick and everything. Biff and Dave went as Darth Vader and Matlock. Or more specifically, Biff wore a shirt with the words "Darth Vador" (yes, Vador), and Dave wore one that said Matlock. Best costumes of the night. I didn't dress up that night. Nothing of note really happened. Meh.
( some photos from devil's night )
Halloween, same thing, pretty lame. I was supposed to go to Joe's big Halloween party in Vineland with Jen, but Dave and I were too apathetic about trying to actually get to Vineland, so we didn't bother. It would have been way to much of a hassle to sort out rides there and home and shit. Fuck I need a car. Anyway, we just went down the street to Casbah where Skull and Crux of Aux were playing in the lounge. Biff came over beforehand and the three of us got pretty drunk and watched a movie while I painted my face all Dia De Los Muertos-like. I actually looked pretty awesome if I do say so myself - and I do!
But it was a wasted effort, because some-fucking-how, I ended up getting completely obliterated like an hour after arriving at Casbah... I wound up on the floor in the bathroom yakking into a toilet, major spins and barely conscious. Eventually I managed to stand up and when I left the bathroom Dave was outside the door, wondering what happened to me and he took me home. I have not been that wasted in a long time... years probably. I have no idea what happened, seriously. That was not my plan. All I had to drink was a small mickey of vodka at home, a mix of citrus vodka and water as a traveler on the walk to the bar, and one drink at the bar that Dave got me. I should NOT have been that drunk, I don't know what happened, it was INSANE. Like I was On the Brink of Death Drunk. Dave thought maybe someone somehow slipped something into my drink at the bar, but I'm pretty sure I didn't set it down at all... I have no idea. It fucking sucked. Totally ruined my Halloween.
Oh well, womp womp.
Tonight was my first night back at work since I think October 22nd or so? I missed that place SO MUCH. I was so excited to go into work tonight and see everyone, especially Lou! Everyone seemed really glad I was back too. I love that I am so beloved at work, it makes me feel so SPESHUL, haha. God I'm a loser. But really, those people are like a family to me.
ANYWAY, tonight was the return of Sailboats Are White, who I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVVVVVE, so I was really pumped to see those guys. They were great, if a little rusty, but still awesome. This Yeah Yeah Yeahs rip-off band called Rattail played, decent enough music but kind of boring, and the singer was channeling Karen O a little too much for them to project any kind of originality. Teen Anger was fantastic, I adored them. I hope they play the bar again soon. But the BEST part of the night was that JEN magically showed up out of nowhere to hang out with me!!! I didn't know if I was going to see her again before she leaves for Norway on Saturday because I'm broke right now and without transportation, and she was having car troubles this week. But, apparently she got her car fixed and she decided to come surprise me at the bar! Yay! Totally made my whole night. I was really happy that we got to have one more besties hang-out before she goes home.
The only crummy part of the night - other than my weird antsyness that I was experiencing out of nowhere - was that somebody (and I think I know who) spilled some water on my blackberry, and it started wonking out on me! I tried shaking it out but that just resulted in water droplets ending up on the inside of my screen. So, intent on not making the mistake I made with my shitty old Motorola phone, I turned it off, took it apart, and put it on the radiator when I got home so it could dry out (I have no rice right now, so I couldn't do the rice trick). I hope it fixes itself because I was so happy that I had that phone for over a year now with virtually NO problems (praise Blackberry, seriously). Fingers crossed... I really don't want to have to buy a new phone. I definitely cannot afford that shit right now and I NEED my phone. Grumble grumble.
Jen came over for a bit after I was done work... we went and grabbed some grub at Harvest Burger and came back to my place for chit chat. And then she left, and I won't get to see her again until the summerrrrrrr! But, it's not that far away, and she's coming for a whole MONTH in July, yay!
***
Well, there's my little "what's been goin' on" recap. Other than day to day stuff, I've been pretty normal lately... which is good. Kind of weird, but very good.
I've been having some intense "what do I want to do" thoughts in the past few days though. Very stressful. You know, what do I want to do with my life, what is my plan for the next few years, etc. etc. etc. All of that fun stuff. I actually was kind of thinking last night about how I still have the desire to open my own higher quality adult store. It would be really neat to rent a cool little space on King near all of the shops and have that store I've been dreaming about in the back of my mind for a few years now. Even though I'm glad as HELL that I don't work at the fucking Stag Shop anymore, my passion for sexuality and sex toys/accessories hasn't really waned. I mean, it won't - it's something I am very interested in, and am very knowledgeable about. I don't know if this will amount to anything at all, it's just something I've been thinking about. Running my own business would be amazing, and PERFECT for me. But of course, there is a lot of start-up money involved, and I'd have to maybe take some business nightschool courses or something of the sort... talk to some people to figure out the ins and outs (HAHA), but that is actually something I was thinking about last night. I'm not so naive that I'm just like "Oh, I'll just open my own store and it will be all lollipops and vibrators, la la la!" Of course I know that there is A LOT to running a business, but I mean, I was mulling over what distributors and companies I'd like to work with (I have a pretty good knowledge of the industry leftover from my old job), what types of products I'd like to sell (middle-to-high end sex toys and sexual aids, vintage and indie-company lingerie, well-crafted bondage gear, BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS, possibly some porn vids but with porn vids you get into a whole other world of issues - legalities, dvd theft, alienating certain potential customers, attracting certain unwanted customers, etc...). I don't know. It's a lot to think about, but it kind of just... makes sense to me, to do it. I was thinking about sitting down with my mom and having a SEEREEUS talk with her about it, to see if maybe she'd want to go in with me on the business and provide financial backing, etc. plus she knows a lot about legal shit/accounting matters.
But anyway, I could probably write another huge separate entry about this stuff. I just kind of wanted to put my idea into words a little bit to make it seem a bit more concrete, and to help me clarify all of this for myself.
That's enough for now I think. It's time to surf the waves of sleep and catch a big ZZZ wave.
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darlin_sane
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Aww my friend Mikey from the band Priestess just found me on Facebook! Yay, I missed him. I used to have such a monster-sized crush on that guy, haha. I think they're actually playing in Hamilton in a couple of weeks, too. It's been a long time since I've seen any of though guys. Aw I'm so excited!
Well I guess it's about time for my New Orleans post. I don't know why I've been so fucking lazy about writing in here lately. Actually, I don't think it's writing in here, I think it's that the thought of writing a huge, sprawling entry to try and sum up my trip that is a bit daunting.
Anyway, here goes nothin'.
DAY ONE
Got my ass up at 2:30 am on Monday morning (the 26th), after only about three hours of sleep. Obviously I was in prime condition to be doing a ton of traveling.
We had a Cadillac Escalade from some limo company pick us up at 4 am (my mom hired them because she was reluctant to drive us to Buffalo at 4 in the morning, ha). Kick ass swanky ride. Picked up Jen in Grimsby around 4:30am, got to the Canadian/American border at around a quarter after five or so. We had to go inside and wait for a bit because our driver was not born in Canada, so they had to go through his stuff a little more thoroughly. Got out of there in about 15 minutes, and off we were to the Buffalo airport.
Got there, checked in, and man, that airport has some rude fucking employees. Ugh. And what the fuck is with this new $20 per suitcase fee?!? Jesus christ. It's like you go to check in and you get raped up the ass now.
Jen and I found a little breakfast place to eat at and hang out, because we had about two hours to kill until our plane boarded. Once we got on the plane, we had a good flight, and we landed in Charlotte, NC sometime around 11 am I think? Had another two hours or so to kill, so we wandered around the airport, went for lunch at this seafood place where the waiter had such a cute, heavy southern accent. Finally got on the plane heading for New Orleans. Jen and I both had little catnaps on the plane, something I thought I'd never do ha (I'm still scared to fly, so I like to be awake and aware at all times in case something happens and I need to be on my guard). We both kept going back and forth from hyper to tired all morning. In retrospect, I wish I had gone to bed a LOT earlier before trying to fly on two planes the next morning and kill time at airports.
Landing in NOLA was a really neat experience. I mean, prior to this trip, I had only been on a plane four times, so I didn't have the biggest frame of reference, but New Orleans from above looked like nothing I had ever seen before. We could see all the swamplands surrounding the city, and haha, we actually thought this GIANT, LONG bridge (that we actually had to drive over the next day - I'll get to that) was a levee. Oops!
Landed safe, had a long-awaited cigarette (I couldn't smoke in Charlotte because we had to stay inside the airport! argh!), caught a taxi and said "TAKE US TO THE HOLIDAY INN ON ROYAL ST., AND STEP ON IT!" Our hotel was smackdab in the middle of the French Quarter, a block from Bourbon St., two blocks from Canal St... it was insane! Jen couldn't have picked a better freaking location for us to stay at. Driving to the hotel was fun because we were so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and excited to see EVERYTHING. Pulling up to the hotel was so exciting, especially once we saw how close we were to all the action.
We got up to our room, relaxed for about 45 minutes, did some planning for our days, and unpacked a bit. There was a helpful, VERY southern concierge downstairs in the lobby that helped us figure out where to go for dinner. We decided on this place called Deanie's that we actually thought would be something different than what it actually was, but it was still good. Jen and I split half a bottle of red wine, she had the steak and I had this delicious Crab Au Gratin dish which was so chalk-full of crab meat that I died and went to shellfish heaven.
After dinner, we went back up to the room, got ready and headed to St. Peter St. for our Haunted History ghost tour. We got there pretty early so we had some time to kill and checked out this awesome bar called Pat O'Brien's, where there were all these different dark, atmospheric rooms you could hang out in, including one where there was a live piano player, and also a gorgeous alley patio with a huge fountain of water and fire! We wandered through there for a little bit and then decided to do a bit of shopping at Reverend Zombie's House of Voodoo prior to our tour. This place... was my fucking Valhalla. I wanted EVERYTHING. They had so many cool taxidermied things and crystals. Lo and behold, my eyes fell upon an adult-sized taxidermied COUGAR'S HEAD (with its mouth open like it was roaring) that I was SO PUMPED about, but it was totally out of my budget, which was so utterly disappointing. Also sitting next to the cougar were two large animal skulls, I'm assuming some kind of four-legged forest creature like deer or possibly wolf? Needless to say, I could have blown a pretty penny in that store if I had budgeted for it. I ended up buying an alligator paw necklace for me, and this satanic altar candle for Dave. I was actually also going to get him a bat heart (they had them in little packages for like $6); I'm really not sure why I didn't end up getting that for him, but now I kind of wish I had. Jen bought a little black voodoo doll and a book on the history of voodoo practices.
We wandered up and down the block a bit, snapping photos and taking in the sights, which was especially cool because it was dark out, and then at 8pm our ghost tour started. Our tour guide was this crazy broad named Eugenia, who was so hilariously animated and maybe also a little bit drunk? The tour was a two-hour walking tour all over the French Quarter, which was cool not just because we got to see all of these haunted spots and hear the great history behind the stories, but also just because we got to see most of the gorgeous French Quarter at night. I mean, it was a long-time dream come true. I actually was taking so many photos and open-mouth gaping at so many places that I actually only half-heard some of the ghost tour stories. Ha.
Eugenia took us to probably about 10-12 different haunted locations, including the Blue Dog Art Gallery where some woman named Julie apparently died of exposure on the roof, some hotel that used to be a Civil War hospital where very primitive surgical techniques were employed out of necessity, and the LaLaurie Mansion where in the early 19th century, fire fighters found a brutal torture chamber with all of these mangled slaves with missing faces, broken and reset limbs, chained to walls and inside of tiny boxes, ripped open in unimaginable ways, plus a girl who was still miraculously alive and unharmed but who, upon being released by the fire fighters, ran straight out of the room and off the balcony to her death.
I really wanted to go inside the building and explore but alas, we didn't.
In the middle of the the tour, we stopped at a haunted bar (Jean Lafritte's) at the end of downtown Bourbon St. Jen and I watched this piano player (a handsome one at that!) play for like six people in a dark, dimly lit corner of the bar, which was totally surreal somehow. Everything in that city is so moody and atmospheric, it is the city of my dreams, no doubt. I am seriously considering spending an extended amount of time there in the future. All kinds of horse carriages roaming the streets, people and cars owning the streets in this chaotic harmony, dark history oozing out of every pore, every window, every brick... I can't even believe I finally got a chance to go there. I have dreamed of that place for so many years and there is just so much beauty and character to take in that it's almost overwhelming.
DAY TWO
Woke up around 6:30. Jen and I had a swamp tour scheduled for the morning, but after waiting for our shuttle and it not showing up, we discovered that because it had been raining and cold that morning, the tour had been canceled. So we rescheduled one for 12:30 that afternoon, and went out for breakfast. After breakfast we just kind of wandered around the French Quarter for a bit, checking out shops and sights. We walked down Royal St. and found Jackson Square. It looked a lot different during the day (we had been there the night before at the end of the ghost tour). Checked out some really beautiful old buildings including this AMAZINGLY EPIC cathedral right in Jackson Square, where we also came across this tarot reader who was setting up for the day with her son. I can't remember her name now, unfortunately, but she was a really rad lady... probably somewhere between 50-55, totally full of oldschool tattoos, white Ray-Bans, ha. Loved her. Jen got a reading, and she seemed pretty blown away by what the woman told her. I was pretty broke by this time already, so I didn't have enough to get my own reading, but the woman let me pull a card anyway, and what did I pull but the Four of Cups, which is the card of Mixed Happiness. Hahahaha. I couldn't have pulled a more fucking suitable card for myself. She told me that I have been having a major struggle figuring out what makes me happy in my life, but that I have a lot of good coming to me and that soon I'd receive an important offer. Hmmmm.
We made sure we got back to the hotel on time to catch our shuttle. Our driver picked us up on time, and there were only four other people in the shuttle with us. The driver's name was Darren. I thought he was cute, even though he looked like Daniel Baldwin. I think I just liked that he was a total New Orleans fella, plus he liked metal! Apparently he is also a city tour guide so because we didn't have a lot of pick-ups on the way to the swamp tour, he took a bit of a longer way and gave us a mini Hurricane Katrina tour as a little bonus. I actually kind of thought it was weird and depressing that they actually host Katrina tours there, because you know... profiting off of people's misery and misfortune seems pretty awful... but at the same time, I guess the tourism industry there is really helping that city get back on its feet. Anyway, Darren took us through some suburbs and areas that were hit pretty badly by Katrina, and the whole time we were driving through those areas I felt this immense heaviness on my shoulders (I pick up and get affected by vibes very intensely everywhere I go) and it was just very humbling. You can still see the watermarks on most of the houses, which in most cases would have put those homes about four feet deep in water. It was such a shock going from seeing downtown, party town French Quarter area, which they obviously must have cleaned up right away after the hurricane, and then seeing these desolate parts of the city that looked forgotten. I'm really glad our driver took us through those areas, it was nice to see that side of things and not just be naive to the horrible things that happened there. It really enriched my New Orleans experience. That whole city just has such a sad, miserable history, and I guess Hurricane Katrina was another page in their book. No wonder the people there have so much soul.
We arrived at Manchac Swamp/Bayou Manchac, which was about 45 minutes around the bend of Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans city center in a small town called Frenier. Our captain was named Coyote, which was so hilariously perfect. Honestly, we couldn't have asked for a more amazing tour guide. He was born and bred in that area, seemed like a total Cajun at heart. Coyote took us (all six of us from the shuttle plus another french couple) out on his swamp boat, the Cajun Lady. The next two hours were my favourite part of the whole trip. The swamp - Manchac Swamp on the Bayou Manchac - was so beautiful. Words can't even describe this place. It was like something out of a fucked up fairytale. It was like an oil painting, the air was heavy but light at the same time, everything was a swampy shade of grey, green, black, brown... From inside the boat, looking down the length of the long swamp, it looked like the entrance to some kind of beautiful, desolate hell. I'm getting chills just remembering the way it looked. The trees hung ominously over the banks in a welcoming yet warning fashion, there were even some that stuck out so far like overpasses - our boat had trouble traveling under a few of them because they hung so low. On the shore about a mile up the swamp from the entrance where we got on the boat, there was a small graveyard with a hopeless iron fence guarding... what? The three or four visible cross grave markers were haphazard and water-worn. There was an eerie silence the whole time. It was another world.
Once we had been in the water for a little while, we came upon a spot where Coyote knew there would be gators. He started hollering these strange yelps; apparently the gators have come to know his voice as being the source of marshmallows and chicken guts. And so they came out of hiding, big ones too. We had two or three large gators come up to the boat for feeding time. Seeing them in the wild like that was something else. I was so happy! They really love chicken guts I guess. After snapping a million photos, I volunteered to feed the gators, which was fun.
Coyote told us stories of the hurricane of 1915 that struck the town of Frenier, coinciding with a premonition a local "crazy woman" suspected of voodoo - Julia Brown - had made regarding her death. She would constantly sing about how she was going to "take them all with me" when she died. The day she died, the hurricane hit and wiped out the whole town. Manchac Swamp became a mass grave for the town of Frenier. Which is why Manchac Swamp is known as the "Ghost Swamp" and is rated as the "12th Creepiest Place in the World" by Yahoo.
We also learned a bunch of things about gators, like how to tell their size just by looking at their heads poking out of the water, all about their mating and birthing habits and rituals, and we also learned about some of the other swamp creatures, like the gar fish, and snapping turtles. Coyote actually had a live baby snapping turtle on board the boat (totally hideous and hilarious), and a baby alligator which we all got to hold and pet (he really liked having the back of his neck massaged). He was actually pretty long, I'd say about two and a half feet, including his tail.
So yeah, the swamp was totally surreal. A dream. I'm so glad we rescheduled the tour after our morning tour got canceled. Near the end of the tour there was this strange dilapidated shack on the shore, with an outhouse nearby and mongoose traps out front, and I thought to myself "I would love to live there, on this swamp". Ha. It's a nice thought, in theory. In practice, I think I might need a shack with a few more rooms. ;)
When we got back from the swamp tour, Jen and I fancied ourselves up a bit and cabbed down to the River Walk for our riverboat dinner tour on the Creole Queen. The riverboat was pretty. We sat down for a buffet dinner full of Creole cuisine, and there was a live ragtime band playing in the room with us, which was pretty great. We didn't really meet anyone interesting on the boat (except there were these two nerd-hot German dudes who were good eyeball candy), and there wasn't a whole lot to do once dinner was done, so we kind of just wandered around the boat, chatting, smoking, drinking. The thing about the riverboat tour is that... other than the area near where the boat docked, there wasn't a whole lot to see, especially at night. Ha. Although, it was pretty amazing knowing that we were sailin' on down the Ol' Mississip on a fucking riverboat. I'm glad we did it, but it definitely wasn't the highlight of the trip.
When we got off the boat we ducked into Harrah's Casino for about two seconds so Jen could get her itch out and then we went back to the hotel, talking about pussy the whole time and probably either making our cab driver very uncomfortable or getting him all hot and bothered (the reason we were talking about pussy was because Jen was telling me how in Norway, their word for "pussy" is actually a harsh swear word, like "fuck").
Back at the hotel we had two bottles of wine waiting for us that we had purchased the previous night, so I, being the dork that I often am, went down to the lobby wearing a masquerade mask (I made Jen dare me, because I love dares) adorned with feathers that I had purchased on one of our shopping excursions, and had to ask one of the manly hotel staff members to open the bottles for us because our $2 corkscrew sucked the big one. Haha. Seriously, that thing sucked, neither Jen nor I could get it, but then when we got back upstairs we noticed that it came with another piece that we had overlooked, which made the whole process a lot easier. WHOOPS. Two dumb girls in New Orleans, la la la laaaaaaa!
Anyway, we had planned on hoofing it down to Bourbon St. to do some partying at around midnight (we got back from the riverboat dinner at around quarter after ten), but we ended up getting into this huge conversation where we pretty much renewed our friendship altogether. Mind you we were pretty drunk, but man... we laughed, we cried, literally... it was amazing. I think we really needed that, and it just reminded both of us of how close we still are and how we are the best of fweennnnds. :p
After our big emotional drunken friend times, not to mention some photos that we took, we realized, hey, we're in New Orleans and we're leaving tomorrow morning... we HAVE to go drinking on Bourbon St. By that time though, it was almost two, and here in Ontario, bars close at 2am. So we called the hotel operator and asked how late bars were open in New Orleans. The girl told Jen they were open 24/7. We were in total disbelief but decided to check for ourselves. So we walked down Bourbon St., and sure enough, people were still partying and walking around. There are A LOT of strip clubs on Bourbon St. Jesus. Hahaha. We ducked into one bar that we found that looked like a cool little hole-in-the-wall type place, but the bartender told us that they were closing (I guess even though bars are allowed to stay open 24/7, they can still close whenever they want to) but she recommended a bar on Toulouse St. called "Dungeon". It sounded like our kind of place, so we went to try and find it. It ended up being this cool little metal/goth-y bar, really dim and smoky and they were playing White Zombie, and a bunch of old silly nu metal that reminded me of my early teenage years so I instantly liked it because it was total nostalgia city. Jen and I ordered drinks from our rad bartender (who reminded me of a more hardcore version of Shannon), and then we scoured the jukebox for some better songs that we actually like NOW. The choice was pretty narrow-minded but we found some old Metallica, White Zombie and I think Jen picked a Pantera song too. When "Blackened" came on, we were drunk and thrashing a bit. The bartender informed us not long after that they were closing the back bar (where we were) but she said we were welcome to head to the front bar and that she'd be joining us in a bit. So we moseyed on up there and ordered some PBRs. The cool thing about New Orleans bars is that you can SMOKE inside them, so I was in heaven! There weren't many people in the front bar, but more than there were in the back bar. There was some weird vampire chick that kept coming around, showing guys her fangs, haha. Some Indian guy in pretty nice clothes was talking to us, and he had this hilarious toy shark that he called Sebastian. He was nice enough, but then he started trying to pick me up, haha. I told him straight off the bat that I wasn't going to sleep with him but that he seemed cool and that I didn't mind chatting just as long as he knew that was all he was going to get. That didn't stop him from telling me he was a neurosurgeon (he actually had proof, too, ha) and trying to convince me that I didn't love my boyfriend. Hilare. Anyway, once he finally realized that I wasn't there to fuck dudes, we were just making fun of the vampire chick and chatting about random shit. He was actually pretty cool because I felt like I could be really matter-of-fact with him, which is a nice change from the dudes at work that try to pick me up. The bartender there was actually SMOKING hot, he honestly looked like... well, if Morrisey and Nick Cave had a love child, somehow. I mean, he was a babe. I told him that's what he looked like, too, and he seemed pretty flattered. He's like "well, I get the Morrisey thing a lot, but Nick Cave, really?" I'm like "YES. TRUST ME." Whew.
I think we left the bar at around 4:30am and carefully walked back to our hotel... even though we were wasted we were very aware of the fact that we were two young girls walking alone at night in New Orleans (or at least, I was... I think Jen may have been obliterated past that point, hahaha). Got back to our hotel, totally fucking smammered, made some ridiculous drunk videos while rolling around on our beds with our feather masquerade masks on (I can't wait to see those!), and eventually fell asleep. Needless to say, I was hung like a dead horse the next morning, which was kind of a stupid move seeing as how I knew I'd be traveling alllll day. Womp womp, such is the stupidity of moi sometimes. I had a raging headache and I was puking a bit off and on during the morning (in the hotel room, at the airport), but it was totally worth it for such a FUN NIGHT.
So yeah! Blah blah blah, got a taxi to the airport, I napped on a bench for about an hour before we boarded for Charlotte, ND, had to wait around in the Charlotte airport again, got on a plane to Buffalo... actually the flight from New Orleans to Charlotte was probably the best flight I've ever had, I was SO relaxed and barely even thought about it at all, which is rare for me... and the flight from Charlotte to Buffalo was my very first night-time flight ever! I was pretty excited about that, too bad I didn't have a window seat, booooo. Maybe I could have done some star-gazing :D
Jen's parents picked us up in Buffalo and we headed home! And that's our trip!
In retrospect, it would have been awesome to spend at least one more day in the city because there were a few other things we would have liked to have done, like done a walking tour of one of the famous graveyards (preferably the one where Marie Laveau is buried), plus it would have been fun to have another night on Bourbon St. but this time around, it just wasn't feasible. But next time! I'd love to go again for a week or something maybe. I already told Dave that I want to have our honeymoon there, haha. I just really think he would have LOVED New Orleans and I'd love to experience it again with him. We're both into creepy shit big time.
Man. What an awesome little trip. And it was so cool to do it with my bestest fwend - I hope we travel more together in the future. We know each other so well that it was really easy to be together on a trip like that. We're in-tuned to each others' moods and stuff, like for example, when one of us was really tired on one of our flights, the other understood instantly and let us be, etc. That's a really nice thing to have with a travel buddy.
Congrats if you got through that whole thing! If you didn't, well then you're a PUSSY, ya pussy. Here are some of my favourite photos that I took on the trip:
( I left my heart in New Orleans. )
THE END.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/note-to-self-nights-are-for-sleeping.html posted by Neil
Still trying to get back onto a diurnal schedule. (And, I should add, failing.)
Maddy and I started watching the new season of Sarah Jane Adventures tonight, which seems back on form after a dodgy second season.
Many amazing things waiting for me when I got home -- I still haven't gone through them all yet -- but today's mail brought me a copy of the Fantagraphics Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons book. Three glorious volumes. I wrote the introduction to Volume 2, and thus got it for free. (If you're curious, there are many Gahan Wilson Playboy cartoons up at this website. There's a Gahan Wilson virtual museum over at http://www.gahanwilson.com
And, of course, although I posted it before, it bears repeating that you can watch the film that Steven-Charles Jaffe made of the "Dark and Silly Night" comic Gahan and I did for art spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's Little Lit at the New Yorker site, or here:
And if I'd been here for Hallowe'en I would have posted it here then. Which reminds me, The Graveyard Book party season is over. Over thirty independent bookshops had Graveyard Book parties (The ABA's Bookselling This Week reports on thirteen of the parties -- and the shops -- at http://news.bookweb.org/7149.html.) The very best one of all will get me in their shop doing a signing in December and, looking at these thirteen, I am very glad I am not any kind of a judge for the awards.
My only hope is that the shop that wins will be somewhere warm. But most of the places on the party map will be just as cold by December as my house. (Vague and only climate-based relief that HarperCollins said No to Alaska in the rules mingles with vague and selfish disappointment that they also said No to Hawaii.)
It looks like the CBS Sunday Morning profile on me is going out this Sunday, the 8th, 9:00-10:30 AM, ET. According to this website:
Correspondent Serena Altschul visits author Neil Gaiman -- the tender-hearted master of the macabre -- whose books, including Coraline and The Graveyard Book have topped best-seller lists for 25 years.
.. which left me wanting to go "I am NOT a tender-hearted master of the macabre, I am in fact VERY SCARY INDEED," but I suspect I would convince nobody.
Thrilled to see that Odd and the Frost Giants was listed as one of Amazon.com's Best Books of 2009. While I was in China The Graveyard Book was listed as one of the ALA's teens top ten for 2009 as well, an award voted on by over 11,000 teens. (And I made it onto the list with lots of other good people.)
Also, Fragile Things was awarded the French 2010 Les Grands Prix de l’Imaginaire Award for translated short fiction. My thanks to the judges, but mostly to the translator, who in this case is the incredibly talented Michel Pagel. If I ever look good, do well, sell books or am popular in a foreign country, it's because of the translators, and they never get enough thanks or acclaim. And I think I'll post the cover here, because I never have.  I am becoming hooked on http://curiousexpeditions.org. I was extremely disappointed by the news on the current status of Argleton in Lancashier, especially so since I was hoping to buy a house there. I was going to move to Chako Paul City in Sweden instead, but appear to be the wrong gender and orientation. So probably I'll stay home.
(Hmm. You know, posting that French book-cover reminds me that there are some really beautiful new covers out there right now, especially from Poland and Russia. I know for I have signed them for people. I'll try and get some nice clean examples to put up here.)
And finally, a link to Joanne Leow's blog. It was lovely to see her again, four years on, when I went to Singapore - it was a great interview, and you can watch us chatting about writing, what I'm currently up to, signings, and why I don't write the same sorts of things twice in a row, at the Primetime Morning site: here's part 1 and part 2.
...
Dear Mr. Gaiman,
I was wondering if you would be so kind as to mention an upcoming art auction on your blog. The art auction is “art for hearts”. It is an auction of artwork donated by children’s illustrators such as Korky Paul, Lynne Chapman and An Vrombaut. Most of the artwork is original although there are also some signed digital prints and screen prints too.
All proceeds from the auction will be donated to help fund research by the transplant team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Transplanted organs do not have the same life expectancy as non-transplanted organs and the transplant team is looking at finding ways to combat this.
Full details of the auction are available to view at http://art-for-hearts.blogspot.com
It will run on Ebay for a week starting on the 2nd of November. To locate the items people will need to type "art for heart" into the search area and choose "Art" or "books" for items.
Many thanks,
Kristine Stacey
You're welcome. I think this link has everything for sale in the auction: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/scrawldog/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, November 5th, 2009
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kylecassidy
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1) If you're in the Philadelphia area, I'm going to see trillian_stars's play The Weir tomorrow, that's Friday. If you'd like to come along, order a ticket, it may sell out. It will be awesome fun. Ghosts and beer. Seriously. Play's at 8. If you want to meetup beforehand, drop a note in the comments.
2) You awesome people donated more than $300 to City Kitties in our names -- thank you so much. Every dollar goes right to saving kittehz.
3) Our good buddy Vitalij Kuprij just joined The Freaking Trans Freaking Siberian Freaking Orchestra. I wasn't sure if it was Top Secret still but he's up there on the web page now. I said I'd never go see a concert in a stadium again, but SWEET BARKING CHEESE this is like the heavy metal Cirque de Sole!! Two shows at the Wachovia Center in Philly. (Bets on whether or not yagathai has fainted yet?)
4) Via silveringridd: Live near Fullerton California? Check out lunarmoths' photography show Nov 13th. chadruin is showing there too. At least check out the photos on her lj.
5) Every year in some fit of mad glee Mattel makes a Barbie to celebrate my birthday. A few years ago I started picking them up There are a lot of them visible in my post to Saucy Dwellings back in March. I don't know why I do it. But this year, since I was in Ohio on Halloween, it somehow slipped my mind. Well, just today a package showed up in the mail, addressed to trillian_stars "Oh," I said jokingly, "it must be the present you ordered for me." With a wink and a smile she said "It must be, why don't you open it up?"
Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2009 Kyle's Birthday Barbie!
How exciting.
( Roswell discovered that she couldn't eat it, but she did bat it around for a bit )
Add me as a friend on LiveJournal, Add me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter.
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Comments: Read 34 or Add Your Own.
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scribble
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I never thought I'd actually live this long (or at least keep shuffling along). Much less have to apply for jobs. B in his quiet hell. I in mine. Mark's writing me a letter.
Time to walk battlements with dog.
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/author-comes-home-and-displays-many.html posted by Neil
I went to XinjiangProvince in Western China to continue researching my Monkey/China book. This is the photo I took of a scenic building that, I discovered when the men came out to arrest us, turned out to be a police station. If you're in Kashgar do not take pictures of this building. Trust me on this.
This is what I was researching and working on. (As seen in a little town square, on the way to Yarkand):
... or discussion of the pomegranate crop, counted as politics. It made my journey even stranger than it might have been already.While I was there my camera started misbehaving: I hadn't even realised it had a motor in it, but the motor started vibrating gently, producing some very beautiful shots that weren't really what I wanted... Like this shot of a lady in Yarkand market selling peppers and tomatoes that seem to have turned into jewels.
After a great deal of reflection I decided not to buy a camel in the market in Kashgar. Here are two camels I didn't buy. In the Russian market in Urumqi I bought a new camera I don't like anywhere nearly as much as my old, sporadically-vibrating one.
I went from there to Jinan, Wuqiao and Beijing.
This photo, taken in Beijing was one of the highlights of my trip -- and was one the main reasons I went back to China. I wanted to talk to Liu Xiao Ling Tong (the stage name for Mr Zhang Jinlai), who played Monkey in the Chinese television version of Journey to the West. ( Here's his blog.) Then I went to Chengdu. I don't have photos on my camera of the Galaxy Award ceremony, or the speech I gave at Sechuan University, or the visit to the Earthquake Zone and the talk I gave to the kids there. (Science Fiction World and I are starting a library for them.) (If I can get some photos I'll put them up.)
And I was not able to take photos of the encounter with the fourth holiest Buddhist in China, because he is not to be photographed.
So instead here's a photo of Amanda Palmer, who joined me for my last few days in China, on the side of a mountain having been recognised by some happy Chinese tourists...
More photos of China and Singapore in my next post, I hope. In summary: Singapore was wonderful, but the visit was much much too short: we were there for about 50 hours altogether. Once again, the food was amazing and the people delightful.
...
Let's see. A quick handful of links...
....
Through most of this summer I was playing with a Lomography Camera. The kind with film in, where you have no idea what you took until it's developed. (The one I used was an LC-A+.) I'm starting to love the results, especially when everything comes in slightly oversaturated. They look like pictures of dreams.
 (Middle photo of the amazing bubble by Miss Holly Gaiman. Who is fundraising.)
(And you can, of course, click to embiggen the pictures.) ... And finally, people sometimes write in and point out that, when I return home, I post pictures of my dog, rapturously dashing somewhere or dancing or stick-wielding to welcome me home. "Why do you not ever post pictures of cats?" they ask.
Good point. Here is Coconut welcoming me rapturously home:  Here is Princess, doing her version of a rapturous welcome, glad that I have not forgotten the trick that she taught me to do, during my time away. The trick involves turning on the tap in the guest bathroom and letting her alternately drink and attack the water with her sharp teeth, until she gets bored: I'm sad to say that while I was away, Hermione died. She was the surviving member of the two mad cat sisters who live in the basement library and Do Not Mingle, and she was almost eighteen. You can see her in this Photosynth of my library downstairs (needs Silverlight). It feels strangely unbalanced to be in a house without Pod and Hermione in it.
There. Goodnight. |
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Comments: Read 15 or Add Your Own.
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element_43
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See icon.
So, just letting everyone know that I'm going to be out of commission for a while in every way whatsoever until I get my grades back up to above where they should be. I'm getting tutored in statistics and I'm working on my English paper, Great Books isn't a problem at the moment, and I'm basically re-writing everything zoology ever until my hands fall off.
Which means I won't be on MSN, or on LJ, DA, or even facebook. I might check up on facebook every few days and like some status-es but that's probably it. I've even cut my communities I'm watching in half on here.
If you want to be bothered to know how I'm doing with all this, I will still be updating my twitter from my cell phone, which you can find here. I do not have cell-updates turned on, so I will not receive a message if you reply to me or update /your/ twitter.
I will be studying Canada a little on the side if I ever have spare time yeah right haha but all I can do now is pray to the roleplay Gods that no one snatches him up in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) discedo before I come back to the online world.
tmpro will also be closed until I feel comfortable with my studies. Speaking of which, I leave the internets with a a little crack-tastic parting gift, to which I will still be replying to comments until they stop coming in, because not replying is rude. After that, it's shut-down for my Google Chrome, baby.
Also, my next semester is going to be awesome.
With all that said, I probably won't be answering my phone or text messages either. Sorry guys, you know I love you, but I love my future, too.
Wish me luck~!
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
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a_crude_wisdom
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A: Cats.
Maude wishes we would all die. Die in a fire.
Who does like Hallowe'en costumes? You tell me.
  
First: Danger Mouse... man I wish I had gone as Cee Lo. Second: I went as Swine Flu... man, that mask is creepy when you can see my eyes. Third: Oh, it is just a picture of my kitchen... I was sure Overbo was in there somewhere. Apparently not.
Above: the Blilies win for accuracy. I know Robyn put a ton of work into her amazingly accurate Kara Thrace outfit and I've got to say... Bryce kind of suits his Donnie Dumphy outfit. I think they should just wear them all the time.
Above; Rolland came as Charlie Brown ghost, but it got in the way of his drinking, it appears. Jokes came as a bad apple, but since she had a knife and a lace shawl and a beret, I kept mistaking her for an angry french woman.
I've become really bad at taking pictures, I need to do it more... Somehow, I failed to get pictures of Ben's "Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy", Noe's Jane Eyre, their friends (whose names I shamefully forget) who came as the Doctor and the Sexy TARDIS, Mark's Blind Referee, Amber's Lydia from Beetlejuice or Duffin's BRose-immediately-post-manhole.
This last one was confusing, since Duffin's costume involved looking like a badly injured bike courier. But he arrived on a bike with his very own injuries. And BRose arrived too, completely uninjured. It was all very muddled. Thanks to BRose, JRose, Hannah and Deric, who didn't come in costume, but graced us with their presence none the less.
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kylecassidy
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A reader writes:
Hi there!
I'm sure you get bugged about this sort of thing all the time, so I'll understand if you tell me to shoo :D
I write for a community on LJ called [redacted], and there are many of us interested in having the community work published in a book. However, we don't have any idea which publishers to approach. I was wondering if perhaps you knew a few that we could contact.
(snip snip)
Have a great day!
Kathy
I'm not sure what the most frequently asked question I get is, but this one is in the top ten -- how do I publish a book? The answer is, like most other things, based on three elements: luck, hard work,and talent. There's no magic mixture of them. You could be Kato Kalin, for example and get to write a book because you were (un)lucky enough to be staying in OJ Simpsons garage at the right time, or you could be John Kennedy O'Toole and have incredible talent but lousy luck and only get your book published posthumously. But rather than waiting for someone to get killed, you can really improve your chances by working hard.
Here's how it goes:
The way that you go about publishing a book isn't a secret. My experience has been that everything I've read, or heard an author say about publishing is true and the path from blank paper to bookstore shelf is pretty much written in stone. Occasionally you'll find someone who says "I just wrote the darn thing and a burglar broke into my house and stole the manuscript and when the cops were chasing him he dropped it on Stephen King's lawn and I got a call from his agent the next day and by Friday I was living in a solid gold house." (In fact, my book on network security came about when an editor from Macmillan/Que called me out of the blue after reading an article I'd written for Windows NT Systems magazine. But that's rare, as a rule you have to work for it. A lot.)
The way it works is this:
1) You get an idea.
2) You write a proposal.
3) You send this proposal to an acquisitions editor at a publishing house.
4) They reject it.
You rattle around steps three and four for a while and eventually
5) The acquisitions editor likes it!
6) The acquisitions editor has to sell the idea of your book to their editorial board, so s/he'll work with you to spruce up your proposal if necessary.
7) The acquisitions editor pitches your book to the ed board.
8) They reject it.
You spend some time again bouncing around between steps five and seven with various publishers before
9) The ed board accepts your book.
10) They publish your book.
11) You go on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, become a millionaire, buy a rocket car and a Roombah.
That's the short end of it and Writers Digest sells lots and lots of books and magazines with very detailed instructions and helpful advice. I got one years ago called "Manuscript Submission" which was really awesome.
Some things to keep in mind:
1) When you send your proposal to a publisher, you're basically asking them to spend a hundred thousand dollars on your idea. Make sure you've spent an appropriate amount of time on your proposal. You spell the editors name wrong and it's going in the trash un-opened.
2) Every editors desk has a stack of unsolicited manuscripts (called "slush") about three feet high on it. If you haven't wowed them on the first page, it's going in the trash.
3) The more work YOU do the less work the editor has to do and the more interested they'll be. They'll want to see a list of every book that's like your book, why your book is different, why your book is better, who the audience is, what the sales were for these other books. There's lots of good advice from Writers Digest on this. The proposal for Armed America was about fifteen pages. The proposal for Where I Write, which has had generous input from my agent, is about thirty, so it's a pretty substantial undertaking.
4) Publishers like to see that you have a large footprint -- so if you have a blog read by 600,000 people every day, that's a Very Good Thing and you should mention it. They also like things that have a built in audience, like iPod owners or baseball fans or something. An example that comes to mind is Renee and Zabet who run the Anticrafters website -- they've got a blog read by however many zillion people, and built in audience, the book was inevitable.
Figuring out who to send stuff to:
Go to the bookstore, pull out books that are like yours, see who published them and then find out who the editor was. Address your letter to that editor specifically. An editor's going to pay more attention to a proposal that starts out "Dear Ms. Jones, I loved what you did with Roswell's Grand Adventure which is truely one of the great books about tuxedo cats published in our lifetime." than they will to one that starts out "To Whom it May Concern".
This will take you a lot of time, but it is time well spent.
If you can, don't send your manuscript in right after NaNoWrMo because, according to my agent anyway, their mailboxes get stuffed then and they're feeling persecuted and in a very throw-outie kind of mood around that time.
Self Publishing:
Self publishing isn't always the same as vanity publishing, but most often it is. There are, however, times when taking matters into your own hand can work for you, particularly if you have a strangle hold over the audience. If you live in a small town in Iowa and write a history of the town, or a book of scenic bicycle tours, or you own a museum and want to make a souvenir publication of your exhibits for the gift shop, the market for your book is very direct and Random House isn't going to be able to sell more copies of it than you will on your own. But in order to make any money from it, you'll need to print a LOT. Printing discounts don't really kick in until you get in the 5,000 units range.
One-off printers:
Since we live in magical times, you can get books printed "on demand" with companies like lulu.com or blurb.com. This is useful if a) your market is very small and b) you just want something with your name on the spine. You can get books printed in quantities as small as one and not have to hassle with an editor or rejection slips. The downsides of doing this are twofold, first the overhead is INCREDIBLE, a 90 page hard bound photo book might cost $100 or more a copy. Single color paperbacks can be more affordable, but unless you're Wil Wheaton or Piers Anthony you're never going to sell enough copies to pay the rent. Secondly, if you mention that you've written a book to people published in the traditional (difficult) way and it turns out to be from a vanity press they might not laugh you out of the room, but they'll definitely make a face like someone's rubbed vinegar soaked roadkill on them.
My camera club does a blurb.com book at the end of every year and it's nice to see everyone's photos together and see what people are up to, which is a pretty good use for it because nobody outside of the club is liable to be much interested, but people in the club are very much so and I'm always overjoyed to see my photo in it with everybody elses.
*** EDIT ***
Scams
Sadly, there are lots and lots of people out there who want to take advantage of you. They'll say they want to publish your poem in an anthology, or represent your manuscript but inevitably the only thing they're after is your money. A legitimate literary agency or publisher will never ask you for a dime. Your agent will take a nice big cut of your royalty check when it comes in, but if they don't sell your work, they don't get anything. And they buy you lunch too. If you get a note from a literary agency or publisher check it with Writer Beware and make sure they're not villans.
That's my advice. Now go publish a book.
All you authors and editors who read this, feel free to RT, add your own comments/criticisms/advice/clarifications/experiences.
Add me as a friend on LiveJournal, Add me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter.
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Comments: Read 65 or Add Your Own.
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antiotter
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I have a massive update coming but in the meantime, I'd like to share this with you guys.
This is Ian Fisher. Starting at age 17, for 27 months, a photographer followed him around from the Army recruiter's office, a military entrance processing station, basic infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, to his assignment to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, to a deployment to Diwaniyah, Iraq.
It is an excellent warts-and-all portrait of kid in over his head. He barely graduates high school with a 2.0 GPA. He is not a good soldier. He gets busted down at least twice (he has PFC rank in Basic, but gets knocked down to the blank velcro of an E-1 Private, and even after two years, has only gotten back to PFC), goes AWOL, smokes pot, and is on his second marriage by age 20.
Ian Fisher: Portrait of an American Soldier.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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darlin_sane
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I just realized that my aunt Lesley is Jeri Blank.
Hahahahaha oh my god I'm dying.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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kylecassidy
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Four years ago, Kim (bagelofdeath) and Becca (beckara) created a fabulously funny web comic called Abe and Kroenen using photographs of action figures mostly from the Hellboy movies, but now also including a number of odd extras (like Arthur Dent, Elrond, and Patrick Bateman), Abe and Kroenen tells the story of Abe Sapien, a blue fish creature and his gay lover, undead SS officer, Karl Ruprect Kroenen, as they fight evil as part of the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs. (Really.)
It's funny. It's really funny. And perhaps not surprisingly, Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro reads it (and links to it from his website and not only that, but he invited Kim and Becca to the premiere of Hellboy II. (Dont believe me? here's a photo)
When trillian_stars and I went to Montreal for Worldcon in August I had the opportunity to be the Guest Photographer for an episode which we shot Film Noir style. It came out on mah birthday and prompted Hellboy creator Mike Mignola to say: "Wow. This thing looks so great--some of those photos are really amazing."
Fo shizzle.
I give you:
The film noir episode of Abe and Kroenen!!!
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
whafford was there in Montreal too and has posted BEHIND THE SCENES GOODIES! which involves me making tiny little snoots for tiny little lights for tiny little sets.
Read it, love it, comment on it, and share it with your friends.
(I think This might be my favorite episode. ( but I really like this one too.)
Alright, that's it, go and be awesome.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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chainsawfever
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the garbage on the street been tellin' you, 'you aint shit' and you almost believed it.
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scribble
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Writing endless letters to Meggy in my head.
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009
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scribble
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We used to have fun. But then one day, someone took it from us.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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bitemetechie
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The Boy and I are about to hit the road for Tuscaloosa. I'm so stoked that last night, I actually dreamed about the tearful reunion with my Captain. I may have woken up a little bit misty, as a matter of fact.
And now, I can't stop singing The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha in my head. This is vital for you to know, because...well, it's pretty much Captain's movie. I mean, you know how you associate people with their favorite things or stuff that makes you think of them at their very, very best? That's Man of La Mancha in relation to Mon Capitan.
I'M COMIN' CAP'N!
(And we're bringing Grog! And presents!)
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chainsawfever
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how i speak and how i feel do not necessarily correspond
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kylecassidy
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The Ohio trip is coming to a close. I have two, or possibly three more portraits today, then I'm back home to trillian_stars and Roswell (and Milla and Tatty and Safetypinn) - it feels like I've been gone ... forever ... so much has been packed in to this, so many people, so many experiences, so many things to bring home. I'm still torn about travel. I love to see other places, I love to meet people, but at the same time I really miss being home. I've no idea how Neil (and Amanda and all my other touring musician friends) can be away from home for months at a time. Everyone should have a sofa to call their own, something that welcomes them home.
In any event I'm going to save the awesome cool news for tomorrow so as not to dillute this.
I don't photograph weddings. Ever. Don't ask. Well, unless you're a famous novelist. Yesterday I broke down and photographed Cathrynne Valente's wedding. Wedding photography is a very particular thing which I don't think I'm very good at. (I always recommend Conrad Erb to people who ask, he's really good and loves what he's doing.)
Hopefully I rose to the occasion yesterday. Cat and Dimitri have been friends and inspirations and house guests for a long time and it was wonderful to see them come together in a really wonderful confluence.
Since I have No Idea how to photograph a wedding, I pretend everything's an album cover.
It wasn't just a wedding, but also a book release for her new novella Under in the Mere
I've packed up the car, am in a coffee shoppe having a muffin, there are some more adventures scheduled for today. I'm so grateful for them, and the ones leading up for it, and all the people I met and new friends. It really is a wonderful life. Go out and do something amazing today.
More good news tomorrow, which involves comic books.
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Comments: Read 36 or Add Your Own.
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systemtangent
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und dann
war ich wieder allein
ohne alles
was ich früher hätte
immer älter geworden
immer schwächer geworden
der Tod und der Schlaf
immer näher geworden
und ich
ich habe es zugelassen
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darlin_sane
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Hey guys.
I'll update about New Orleans and Halloween tomorrow probably... I'm too tired right now and I think I'm going to go sex Dave up.
For now, here is a video from the show my band played last Thursday. Mind my stiffness; I'm still pretty shy onstage. :/
Also, this weekend marked Dave's and my three year anniversary as a duo. Pretty fucking awesome. We celebrated tonight by ordering thin crust pizza, cuddling on the couch and watching The Omen.
I love that boy. I know I get crazy sometimes and want to run away, and believe me, it'll keep happening because that's just the way I am... but believe me when I say that Dave is the best human being that has ever happened to me and I look forward to my future with him so, so much. <3
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, November 1st, 2009
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cigarette_sting
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I had a lovely halloween.
A party. A line for some shit show party. A date of sorts.
And my tiara stayed in all night! Thanks Dominican salon around the corner.
My life is pretty good right now. I'm really really happy. Scared and confused and completely disoriented.. But so happy, man.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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kylecassidy
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Real quick because I must soon run off to photograph Cat Valente in the Starbucks that she wrote the Palempsest in and then off to the wedding.
I drove from Tobias Buckell's to the delightful home of gieves and darlox and found them celebrating my birthday by handing out large quantities of candy and terror to neighborhood kids. Darlox would sit in the yard, buried up to his neck in a pile of leaves wearing a pumpkin head and as kids would come to the door to grab candy from a coffin (theirs is better than mine as their coffin has a headless body in it and mine only has a bunch of sweaters, an atari 2600 and my gorilla suit -- (on second thought, mine's probably better)), Darlox would roar and leap from the leaves and the children would fall weeping to the ground crying out "Death! Take me away!"
I took this family portrait before we packed it all in:
We then awayed to the home of theferrett who was hosting Cat and Dimitri's batchelor/batchleorette party. In some Russian tradition, the bride was kidnapped by a group of the wedding party while she sat at a Starbucks sipping lattes and writing novels, bound, blindfolded, and thrown in the back of a van, she was taken to a number of different places where clues were left behind. Dimitri and the groomsmen had to race all around town, solving clues to find her. When they did find her (cleverly hidden at theferrett's, it wasn't over! No, he still had to perform feats of prowess!!!! these contests involved besting other members of the wedding party in things like a shirtless pose-off and, most entertainingly, singing. The challenger, tithenai, a musician and harp player, set the stage by singing a lovely, lilting sad song in Arabic -- the audience was cowed -- how could he ever top her? But he took a deep breath and belted the Russian national anthem in a booming baratone that stunned the room. The crowd exploded! The kidnappers admitted they had been bested in many feats of strenght and intellect. The bride had been won! The ropes were loosed and the party began.
There were many people there I knew by reputation alone, including one of the people who participated in my Hive photography project.
There was much drinking and eventually, a bona fide nerdzaster ocurred when some drunk smashed into a shelf holding about ten million of theferrett's carefully ordered Magic The Gathering cards, everyone in the room knew the gravity of the disaster. There was much comiseration until someone was heard in a quiet conversation in another room arguing that Star Wars episode II was worse that episode III and the room burst into a fierce battle that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.
Oh, and I have most excellet news that involves ... well, I'll write about it later. It's time for me to run.
be excellent today
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Comments: Read 38 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009
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scribble
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my lamictal is trying to kill me. but i know where it sleeps.
(soon you''ll be there too....
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bitemetechie
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I present SEVEN HORROR MOVIES YOU SHOULD SEE EVEN THOUGH YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF THEM, OH EM GEE.
7. Night of the Lepus
What this trailer doesn't tell you is that the unspeakable horror involved is...giant bunny rabbits.
Wait, wait, giant bunny rabbits versus Dr. McCoy. Not. Even. Kidding.
6. And Now the Screaming Starts!
A wannabe Hammer horror from the UK which has some very...Evil Deadness to it
5. The Lair of the White Worm
Oh my God you guys. Boobs.
4. The Wishing Stairs
This was outrageously chilling, really and it's one of my top three foreign films of all time (the others being Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and City of Lost Children)
3. Hell Comes to Frogtown
I really wish you all could have seen/heard the Boyfriend's reaction to the appearance of Roddy Piper. It was pretty epic. He may have squealed like a schoolgirl.
2. Theatre of Blood
Vincent Price kills people with Shakespeare. Yeah, it's kinda like that.
1. The Orphanage
Horror movies, as a general rule, aren't supposed to make you sob with hysterical grief for the characters. This one does. I'm kind of tearing up right now, actually, just remembering.
Happy Halloween, kiddies. -salute- Eat lots of candy, scare lots of children, get drunk and watch loads of scary movies.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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trillian_stars
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So, when we were in Montreal in August, we stayed with the super awesome Kim and her father in a beautiful home filled with art and sculpture and sunlight and flowers... and Kyle was the guest photographer on the Abe and Kroenen web comic. It is finally up for your consumption and is deliciously film noir. You will be much amused and amazed by the brilliance of all involved. I count myself very lucky for having been granted access to the Behind the Scenes view....
The Abe and Kroenen Film Noir Halloween Extravaganza!
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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kylecassidy
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It got dark, Justin played guitar for Sarah and I and then, later than we probably should, they took me down to the water to see the skyline. It was a still and magical moment, one of those times were you feel you are part of something grand, but you're relaxed and there is no weight pressing on you. My favorite part of the Lord of the Rings was always the Hobbits arrival at Frodo's new house in Buckland. They'd had an adventure! they'd survived, and now there was food and hot water and the future seemed so far away.
Leaving in the morning I headed up to John Scalzi's -- he lives like a feudal lord on the same amount of property that comprises a New York city block. "If we lived in New York," he told his daughter, Athena, "there would be ten thousand people living in our yard."
I had initially thought that Where I Write would be an easy project. I'd just go to New York and Los Angeles and I'd meet everybody and I'd be done. I didn't realize that when you write full time, there's no need to live in New York and you can take the money you'd use to buy your two bedroom in Soho and use it to buy a castle in the midwest with enough land that you can fearlessly fire arrows from your back porch and hit nothing but air. There's an appeal to that -- especially when you job involves not being bothered for eight or ten hours a day.
Scalzi's done a teriffic job of useing the Internet to shrink the world when he wants to, through his bizillion reader blog, Whatever and twitter (@scalzi) and a network of well connected friends.
In fact, while we were still in the office Tobias Buckell answered one of John's tweets to say "hi". And eventually I was off, through the corn, to the far north to meet Toby.
Tobias' office is clean and comfortable and, accompanied by his faithful collie Ginny (Jenny?) we made short work of the portrait and headed out to dinner with his charming wife, Emily, & then back to the house where there was scotch and conversation and playing of Halo (which he wrote a book about, incidentally.
Toby is not really as stern as he looks in this photo....
I crashed on the office floor on an air mattress so huge one could fill it with helium and hang a gondola from it. I slept soundly and woke up at ten, realizing that today I'm another year older and it seems like a good place to be on my birthday.
Now, under the watchfull eye of Ginger, I shall leave fully loaded for Cleveland, where the wonder begins all anew. I'm a bit sad to go, but there's so much ahead.
Be awesome today, do something special.
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Comments: Read 40 or Add Your Own.
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trillian_stars
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We opened last night to a wonderful audience that was with us every step of the way; it was really an incredible feeling, and I can't wait to get back to the theatre.
We're playing through November 20th. Thursdays at 7 and Fridays and Saturdays at 8 (no Saturday performance the final weekend.)
Today is my kylecassidy's birthday; he's a state away, in Ohio, so be sure to wish him a happy and delightfully haunted birthday!
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, October 30th, 2009
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/i-go-i-go-look-how-i-go.html posted by Dan Guy
Mr. G is too busy to use the internet, so I'm still here.
Item, the first :: CBS Sunday Morning has moved the segment on Mr. G from this Sunday, November 1 to (tentatively) Sunday, November 8. More as it develops.
Item, the second :: Thanks to reader Tony McFee and Audible.com's director of direct marketing, we have the NYC subway ad!
Item, the third :: Reader Aurora RuPert carved Death into a pumpkin:
And then there was the mailbag:
In honor of the many Graveyard Book Halloween parties being thrown this weekend, Emily P. submits her own goblin variation, journal as an algorithms problem set:
Between the hours of 11pm on Friday October 30th and 11pm Sunday November 1st, 15 bookstores will be hosting Graveyard Book Halloween parties. Mr. G would like to visit as many as he can in these four hours. Assume you can model these bookstores as a connected graph G(V,E) where each vertex v corresponds to a bookstore. Positive edge weights w(u,v) denote the time (in minutes) it takes to travel between bookstores u and v.
a. Give an algorithm to calculate the maximum number of bookstores Mr. G can visit in four hours by traveling along the edges of this graph.
b. Give the run time of this algorithm.
c. Assume each bookstore also has a weight B(v) which tells you how long you can stay at that bookstore. Mr. G does not want to play favorites so on a given path p of n bookstores, he will stay k minutes at each bookstore where k = min(B(v1),B(v2),...,B(vn)). Given this constraint, give an algorithm to determine how many bookstores Mr. G can visit in four hours.
If anyone manages to provide a suitable answer set, they shall have an imaginary cookie.
Brittany H. writes:
Hi Lorraine!
I just wanted to say thanks for the link to BDFAR in Durham! I've lived in the area my whole life, but somehow how I had never heard of it. I am G-mapping directions there as we speak and now have a fruitful occupation for my afternoon.
1.) I'm not Lorraine. (She's far more fabulous.)
2.) You're welcome! I hope you liked it. I picked up some incredible used books there over the years, as well as the comics and music.
Teresa J. writes:
Any chance of you posting a photo of yourself before you hand the reins back? I'm sure the ladies would appreciate seeing another staggeringly good-looking, funny, and smart gentleman over whom they can swoon. :)
I'm sure they would, but I thought you were asking for a picture of me? *rim shot*
I like my quasi-anonymity. The closest you're going to get is this:
This is Eben, my spirit animal.
Apropos of nothing, except that Mr. G has been known to mention his Android phones, I'm playing with the Motorola CLIQ this evening. It's fun and cute, but I don't think I'll be trading my (deliciously modified, optimized) G1 in for anything short of a significant upgrade in processor and RAM.
I am feeling serious gadget lust for both the Motorola Droid and the Nokia N900, but the former is only on Verizon (and possibly, next quarter, AT&T), and the latter has a great deal going for it (including, but not limited to, my love for my N810 and the superiority of Maemo judged purely on the bases of openness and linux-completeness), but I've become rather partial to Android and its Google apps. I can only hope that T-Mobile quickly gets on the ball and announces something on par with either. (Surely Google won't bring out an inferior ADP2, or switch carriers?)
National Novel Writing Month begins Sunday. I've been participating successfully since 2005, and recommend doing it at least once if you have any sort of writerly ambition. It's a good deal of fun, and completely mad.
I've received several queries about where else I may be found online. I'm willing to go as far as re-stating that I have a largely neglected livejournal.
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009
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bitemetechie
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"I can't believe we sang The Inquisition in the middle of a 7-11.................wait, yes, I can. It's me."
"And it's me."
"And it's you."
"And it's us."
"We're going to be arrested one day."
"God, yes."
In other news, seeing Nosferatu on the big screen with a live orchestra ('live orchestra' being two composers with a fuckload of serious musical pwnage skillz, yo) is an experience. What kind of experience, I am not yet quite certain; I think I need time to digest the movie and then discuss it at length with O Captain, My Captain. The Boyfriend is a great sounding board and everything, but at his core, he's just not the same brand of film geek that we are. I need to talk about silent film symbolism and...you know...stuff!
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Friday, October 30th, 2009
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a_crude_wisdom
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On paper, this song should be just terrible. Dopey folk-rock band doing a retro-wasn't-even-popular-back-when-people-disliked-this-style-the-first-time-around, the chick sings flat, god, this should be awful.
But I think it might be genius.
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kylecassidy
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I'm crashing here at indigodye's place, she makes makeup at Sweet Libertine and, in fact, she made the makeup trillian_stars wore at our wedding party. It made me realize that so many of you must be doing awesome stuff that other people should know about. So, while I take a shower and head off to John Scalzi's, tell us about your Etsy shop! (or wherever it is you sell whatever you do) -- find one another, buy stuff, make the world awesome.
I'm outta here.
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Comments: Read 83 or Add Your Own.
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scribble
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jesus wanted to be a painter like hitler wanted to be a painter
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accomplished.
disappointed, but determined.
