I declare this an open thread.
What that means is that you can post anything you want in the comments, including any questions for me. I will try to respond to questions (anything goes, I have very few secrets, and if you find one, I'll tell you it's a secret :-). And y'all should feel free to just chat, as well. Or be silly. Whatever works for you.
Happy Tuesday!
Is Woodworth’s Bookstore still down in Hyde Park?
Did you ever shop at Mr. G’s the world’s worst grocery store?
Is the Hyde Park Theater still there?
Did you ever eat at the Jackson Inn Chinese restaurant (the model for the restaurant at the end of A Christmas Story)?
Have you ever submitted to SH under a pen name just out of curiosity whether or not you could get into your own magazine?
I’m guessing the answer is no, but it was the only question that popped into my head.
Do you like “Kushiel’s Dart” by Jacqueline Carey?
Did you ever read Alas Babylon?
In order:
Don’t know.
Of course.
The building is there, but it appears to be closed.
Afraid not.
Heh — no, but Jed and I have joked about it. I remain convinced that of course they would recognize my genius and publish me.
I liked it, and read all three, but they were sort of a guilty pleasure, and I like Laurel K. Hamilton better, for the most part. They’re good airplane books, though.
Not yet, Jim, but it’s on the pile. 🙂
Seeing as how you’ve got this thing going with straddling at least three major genres of fiction (I count spec. fic., acad. lit., and erotica — is there another one hiding out?), what do you think each of them could best teach each of the other two? So, yeah, I’m asking six questions in one; it’s a lazy way to make you do a lot of talking.
And I’m curious, what are the Tamil words for “poet”, “light”, and “mother”??
marymary
I was looking at your June 12 entry again, and I am struck that that was a time that you were much more self revealing and emotionally vulnerable than you usually are in these pages. At the time I wanted to write something thoughtful (a sonnet, maybe) to thank you. But any words I put together seemed so trite that eventually I gave up. You always give us a window into your psyche/soul. That day, it was open much wider than usual, and I shall treasure it. I wish I could say this without sounding silly/sentimental/mushy/overdone. But I have decided to say it regardless. Thank you. And, if I did not say it before, congratulations.
Did you know that if you google “Mary Anne” your homepage is the first thing that pops up?
Cool Huh?
I love your story “How It Started” and for a long time I’ve wondered if that really happened to you. It might be rude to ask about it, even in an “open thread,” but anyway, it’s one of my happy fantasies to think that it was true…
Dan, that question’s too long. I kept thinking I’d write a journal entry about it, but I’m tired. So maybe next time. 🙂
Marymary, I’m afraid I don’t know the first two — ask me again in six months, and maybe I will. But mother is ‘amma’. Pretty typical. 🙂
Thanks, David! Nice to know that my fretting isn’t just boring…
Jim, I did know that, but I do still think it’s pretty darn cool. 🙂
Tom, are you sure you want to know the answer? It might shatter a happy fantasy…
Well, lovely Mary Anne of the dreams, I’d like to know, yes. But whatever the answer, I guess the main thing I was longing to convey to you was how HUGE you always are in my book. It’s not your characters who make me wild with excitement, but YOU, YOU, Mary Anne, and the mind behind your stories… YOUR mind. After all, the MIND is the primary sexual organ, isn’t it…? Anyway, thanks for the “open thread” so that I could tell
you how inflamed your incandescent mind makes me.
🙂 Well, then perhaps it won’t disappoint you to know that that story is pretty purely fictional. A few details stolen from people and places I know, but essentially I made that one up. Hope you continue to enjoy it anyway…
Well, I’m not a bit disappointed. If anything, more inflamed than ever. It came out of that fiery imagination of yours… leaves me breathless!