Woman in a Box

Today will be spent wrapping up the taxes and lying with my head in a cage inside a huge tin can full of electro-magnets while the gangs from The Warriors circle around it armed with baseball bats. (It's how it sounds anyway.)

In other news, Neil Gaiman is working on a script for that Good Omens movie we've always wanted. At the same time, I'm blinking back tears because...damn. In case you weren't aware, Sir Terry was and is a huge influence on me. Yeah. I know you probably don't see it because my work tends to be so dark, but it's true. He taught me more about creating tension with dialog than any other author. His work also featured pretty heavily in my early relationship with my husband. Dane spent the first year of our relationship attempting to foist Discworld on me. I was reluctant until he handed me a copy of Good Omens with the qualifier, "You like Neil Gaiman, don't you?" like a new mom with a spoonful of spinach making airplane noises in front of a toddler. Forty-one novels later...I'm so not sorry that happened. I'm forever thankful for meeting some of my favorite characters in literature: Granny Weatherwax, Commander Vimes, Tiffany Aching, the Patrician, Captain Carrot, and DEATH. Pratchett was brilliant. [sigh] There have since been other instances where Dane has attempted to gently spoon-feed me other greats: Preacher, V for Vendetta, Hellblazer, and The Watchmen for example. And then there are others that have missed the mark entirely ([cough]SouthPark[cough]), but that's an ongoing conversation he and I have been having for 20 years.[1]
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[1] In case you get the impression this has only been a one-way thing, I gave him Holly Black's Tithe, The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, The Lord of the Rings[2], C.J. Cherry's work, PN Elrod's Vampire Files...
[2] Trigger Alert: DnD STORY AHEAD: [wink] Once upon a time (years before the movies came out) I ran a Tolkien-based DnD campaign. (Set in the totally made up 5th Age. The books are set in the 3rd Age.) The PCs were sent into Mordor undercover to spy for the good guys. I had a great time creeping them out. And then we came to the dinner party with the Witch King of Angmar. I waited for everyone to start shitting their pants. No response. "I said, across the room is the famed Witch King of Angmar." No response. "Nazgul? Anyone? Anyone?" [confused players] "READ THE DAMN BOOKS, PEOPLE!" A couple of years later, the players start reading the books because the movies would be coming out soon. Dane and I are reading in bed one night and then that's when the fucking penny drops. I hear him choke. I ask him, "What's wrong?" He says, "OMFG! We had dinner with THAT?!" I just looked up at the ceiling and said, "THANK YOU, MR. JACKSON!"
[3] CORRECTION: there was one player who caught the reference because he'd read the books. ONE. His name is Thad Engling. (And yes, I named a priest character after him.) Moral of the story? Read books and maybe an author will name a character for you. ;)