Just plain weird...

Spiderman must have morphed with Dubya, huh

And um, speaking of spiders...

You know, I don't believe in supernatural stuff and I'm no new age weirdo, but certain odd things have been happening to me lately which are really freaking me out. So I figured I'd share them.

First of all, I learned that the poem which Neil Gaiman read at Temple University, The Day the Saucers Came, is up at Spider Words. While I'm there reading early this morning, I see Spider Words is also featuring another poet, David Niall Wilson. I click on Wilson's work and really like his stuff. I make a mental note to myself: Check this guy out further later today.

Not even an hour later, I had an important errand to run, but obviously I have some strange form of cyber OCD because before I could walk out the door, I had to quickly click on my various online haunts first, and one of them is Susan Henderson's blog at Publishers Marketplace.

Imagine my shock to see that her featured writer of the day was David Niall Wilson. Before I could properly digest that information, I had to go out on said errand, came home around two hours later, and the AOL "You've got mail" thing was flashing.

I open the e-mail and literally gasped out loud. Can you guess why?

The e-mail was from David Niall Wilson!

I was reading your page at PM and thought I'd drop you a line. I wonder if you remember a group from the very early 70s and late sixties named Mind Garage? I'm currently working on a sort of pseudo-biographical book about the band and their years together. They performed what they called The Electric Liturgy and were on stage with Iron Butterfly and a few other big names -- came out on RCA. I'm looking for anyone with memories of them actually playing...and I'll be honest, even the band members don't have great memories about those days...I love the premise of your book, by the way....

David Niall Wilson
www.macabreink.com
"The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else he can blame it on."
- Robert Bloch

I mean, really. Who else could this happen to?

Do I have a higher power with a warped sense of humor or what? I know one thing, though. I really love that Robert Bloch quote.

But though I pride myself on my knowledge of music of that era, Mind Garage did not ring any bells. So I quickly went to their website and learned they had an encounter with my hero, John Lennon. Anyway, after having a thoroughly enjoyable time poking around, I wrote back to David with the news that I couldn't help him, but then of course because we're both music-obsessed writers and everyone knows writers love to e-mail, we started corresponding back and forth.

In the middle of all of this, I get a telephone call from Susan Henderson, who has never called me in the four years since I first met her -- I didn't even know she had my phone number.

We talked about David Niall Wilson among other things...but the best part of the conversation was that she calmed me down about my new book and gave me the tools I needed to focus (i.e., forget the word "agent" and just write..d'oh)

In the middle of all this -- David Niall Wilson sends me a PDF of his book, Deep Blue, because I told him all about my music connections and this book is about music and I told him I'd read it and promote it here.

I skimmed it briefly and got the chills. I can already tell it's going to be a fantastic read - I'll do a formal review in a day or two.

In the middle of all this -- I bought Susan Henderson's short story, Motorhead, off of Amazon shorts -- and oh my god, it's unbelievable. I have the Amazon link on the right hand side here as well -- buy it -- read it -- it'll be the best forty-nine cents you'll ever spend.

In the middle of all this, I get another email from David Niall Wilson, who tells me he has a new, unannounced "art" book, LOST AND FOUND, coming out later this year featuring work by Neil Gaiman and Lisa Snellings-Clark.

I never heard of Lisa Snellings-Clark until Saturday, when I learned I would be at something called Balticon.

And as readers of this blog know ad nauseam, I never heard of Neil Gaiman until I accidentally read his book four months ago and I've since met him and had some fun adventures as a result.

It turns out that Lisa and Neil are good friends -- he's even got her moving sculpture installed in his home.

Okay. So what does all this mean?

Damned if I know.

But if you ask me, I should be writing up a storm now, huh. I think these messages are just muses in disguise.

Though in the middle of all of this, I just got not one but two rejections for short stories I sent out. Oddly enough, both editors said "I really like this, but it's not right for us."

Oy.

Having heard that line repeatedly from agents and publishers over the past several years, I'm thinking of having it tattooed on my chest. The only line I've heard more times is "We love this but it's just not marketable in today's climate"...whatever the fuck that means.

Let's see. I write about sex, drugs, rock and roll...dysfunctional relationships...hmmm...I guess the majority of the population would rather read about...what???

Ah, I wish I could give up, but I can't. I'm obsessed, possessed, whatever, with writing and other than my kids, little else matters. Okay, music. And the dog. And good sushi. But other than that, my needs are basic.

Actually, and this is true, now that it's been confirmed I'm an official uberdork, I do believe I'm going to try my hand at science fiction.

Why the hell not.

Later...
xo