Caine vs. Barra

**Gary Wassner** · July 21st, 2005, 04:41 PM

I know what you mean. I am reading Women In Love right now, as I too am in the middle of a book of my own. I can read things that aren't anything like what I write, but then again, writing is writing, and themes don't need to be similar for styles to seep through. That goes for music and life in general though and you can't keep yourself totally apart from influences.

I loved Scott's books. They were truly some of the best Epic Fantasy I have read in a long long while.

I will read Blade as well. I bought that too but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Are you going to Glasgow?

**MWStover** · July 22nd, 2005, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by Gary Wassner

Are you going to Glasgow?

Nay.

I am done with business travel. DONE WITH IT, I SAY! DONE FOREVER, THIS I VOW!

Well, at least till I finish this book. And get over my revulsion for airports.

The only con on my radar is World Fantasy in Madison, and that's because I can drive there.

**Gary Wassner** · July 22nd, 2005, 10:18 AM

I am going to Glasgow for two days and then on to London. I'm having dinner with James Barklay in Glasgow, so that will mitigate the negatives of going to this con. I feel like it's the right time to go to London after all the support that so many of my friends over there showed me here in nyc after 9/11.

I will definitely be in Wisconsin as well. I am going to do a reading and probably moderate a panel. We should get together for a drink. I have to leave on that Saturday for Las Vegas though for a party one of my relatives is throwing, so I am going to miss some of the convention.

These are the only two cons I ever go to. I kind of feel like the odd man out at these anyway. Too many industry people and too much sucking up. I tend to sit alone and get into odd arguments when i venture into the groups.

**saintjon** · July 22nd, 2005, 03:35 PM

There's a big fantasy con in wisconsin is there? Maybe I should get some time off and hit that, I've been driving out there every week for work and I've never been to a fantasy convention before. Coincidentally I've never seen a rumble thread that wasnt' a fight in a box before and I've REALLY never seen a rumble thread where the creator of the characters offered his input.

BTW if you don't mind me asking how did Star Wars ruin your health? Crazy schedule troubles or something?

**MWStover** · July 25th, 2005, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by saintjon

There's a big fantasy con in wisconsin is there? Maybe I should get some time off and hit that, I've been driving out there every week for work and I've never been to a fantasy convention before. Coincidentally I've never seen a rumble thread that wasnt' a fight in a box before and I've REALLY never seen a rumble thread where the creator of the characters offered his input.

BTW if you don't mind me asking how did Star Wars ruin your health? Crazy schedule troubles or something?

Well, the rumble part was easy, because they're both my characters (sort of -- though I wrote Barra, she was concieved by -- and based on, to fill in the gaps -- the woman who is now my beloved wife, the Fabulous Robyn Drake . . . and All Things Barra proceed only with her approval . . . probably why working in Star Wars wasn't such an alien experience . . . hmm . . .)

SW ruined my health just over the pressure of writing first SHATTERPOINT to a hard deadline I very nearly missed, then REVENGE OF THE SITH under the pressure of writing The Last Episode and Having to Get It Exactly Right . . . then having to go on bloody tour for a month . . . and I wasn't a really well guy to being with. But I'm better now.

Gary --

We should definitely try to meet up at WFC and spend a couple hours talking Nietzsche in a bar with Robyn -- she's the one who made me read him in the first place, instead of just read ABOUT him, as I'm sure you'll appreciate the distinction . . .

[EDIT:] Oh, and sj?

WFC is not a big fantasy con. It's a very small fantasy con -- membership is usually limited to around 800 or 1000, and it's nearly all pros and semi-pros (i.e. writers, editors, agents, booksellers, critics and 'zine publishers large 'n' small). No costumes. No tchotchkes. And no bloody****ing filking.

**Gary Wassner** · July 25th, 2005, 10:39 AM

I'd like that.

When I first began to read him, I had never even heard his name before. I was 16 and I discovered The Complete Works on a shelf in an attic at my friend's house. No one wanted it, so I took it. It really did change my life. Because of how fascinated I was with what he said and how he said it, I became a philosophy reader and eventually, a philosophy major in college. That then turned into a career for a while.

So I read him before I read anything whatsoever about him, and I quickly became a fanatic. He was my guidebook. If he mentioned an author, I read that author - Schopenhauer, Goethe, Hegel, Kant etc. I remember so well the first time I went into a book store to ask for Faust by Goethe. I pronounced his name Go-ee-thee. They didn't know what I was talking about. So, once I figured out how dumb I was and how uneducated, I began to study German language as well.

I know very well what you mean. But isn't it easier just to read about people?

We are a vouyeristic culture and a lazy one. I actually hate reading about Nietzsche. I much prefer just to read him again if I feel the compulsion.

**saintjon** · July 25th, 2005, 11:44 AM

re costumes: none sounds good
re tchochke's: what are those?
re filking: again, clueless

so basically don't bother?

**Gary Wassner** · July 25th, 2005, 12:17 PM

Well SJ, if Matt was going to do a reading there, then it might be worthwhile, right?

I've read at the last four I went to. Amazingly, some of the most well known authors read to almost empty rooms. I had a big crowd of course

each time. I went to one reading by an author whose name I won't mention, and ther were four people there in addition to me. One was his wife and one was his editor.

Oh, and tchotchkes is a Yiddish word. It means inexpensive flashy novelty items. Cheap give-away stuff, in other words.

You got me on the filking too, Matt

**Shehzad** · July 25th, 2005, 03:08 PM

Y'know, Madison is just over 7 hrs drive away from here, but registration for the convention is already closed, and I have no clue as yet whether I'll have the weekend off.

I might just drop into town to meet people if I have time, though...

**MWStover** · July 25th, 2005, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by Gary Wassner

You got me on the filking too, Matt

You are blessed by your ignorance. May you never, ever learn.

Ever.

Shez? Dunno if it's worth the 7-hour drive or not (that's a long damn time in a car, for me) but there's gonna be several people there you know -- Scott & Jenn will be in attendance, and I think gabe's coming . . . I need to check the list. Gabe Mesa has made it to at least one of these, as has Bob Urell . . .

**saintjon** · July 25th, 2005, 04:12 PM

Seeing as the registration's closed can you still come at all?

Hehe I have to drive 7 hours just to get to Sault Ste. Marie and cross the border, then about another 10 hours to get to Madison probably, but the way I've been going to Wisconsin every week for the last month and a half for work it would be nice to go for fun. The old Taurus might not appreciate the idea though and that would be a pretty expensive weekend. I'll have to mull it over.

BTW sorry about the super-short post earlier. That's a bummer you had to stretch yourself out like that. Given the tight deadlines and the strict guideline on RoTS are you happy with how things turned out? I haven't read that one yet although I did get to read Shatterpoint last winter (and thought it was great). Often times when I feel I rushed something I'm not happy with how it turns out though, so I'm curious.

**MWStover** · July 25th, 2005, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by saintjon

Given the tight deadlines and the strict guideline on RoTS are you happy with how things turned out?

Given 10 weeks on the NYTimes Bestsellers List, I'd be an idiot to say I'm not.

And, overall, I'm very proud of that novel. There are some things the Powers That Be altered that I wish They would have have left alone, but that's the tie-in biz. When all is said and done, I'm not at all displeased that this is my most famous novel.

So far.

**Dominus** · July 25th, 2005, 06:40 PM

Matt, do you know your latest sales figures on HD and BoT? I was curious if there has been a significant rise in sales since your SW books came out.

**Shehzad** · July 26th, 2005, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by MWStover

Shez? Dunno if it's worth the 7-hour drive or not (that's a long damn time in a car, for me) but there's gonna be several people there you know -- Scott & Jenn will be in attendance, and I think gabe's coming . . . I need to check the list. Gabe Mesa has made it to at least one of these, as has Bob Urell . . .

It is a long time, indeed-- first the 5 hr drive to Chicago and then 2 hrs further to Madison, and it'll probably be a difficult solo drive. However, there'll be a whole lot of former-DCians there, so I'm waiting to see how my plans develop.