April 12, 2005

Been a Busy Few Days

I'm starting to piece things back together after a busy few days.

I attended I-Con on Friday and Saturday. I've been going to the con regularly for over twenty years now. This time out, part of what made it special was that Jewel Staite was there. Jewel, who Bill Mumy and I helped cast in "Space Cases" so that we coulc cunningly rip off Joss Whedon's casting her as an engineering genius on a space ship a mere eight years before he did. Her husband, Matt (sorry guys) was along with her. Also met Rockne O'Bannon, who astounded me by knowing who I was (which surprised the hell out of me.) It was also nice seeing Bob Greenberger, who must be getting well and truly sick of me since we saw each other at the Eisner Memorial.

Sunday I attended the World Horror Convention, mostly because it was a change to see Harlan and Susan. Saw someone unexpected as well: Rev. Al Sharpton coming out of the Sheraton Hotel, who walked right across my path. I told him I thought he'd done well on "Boston Legal." Got to the convention, went to the charity auction, and won the oppportunity to be brutally murdered in an upcoming fantasy novel by Christopher Golden and Amber Benson. So that should be fun. Went out in the evening with the Ellison, Cliff Meth and his wife, and Kathleen came into the city to join us.

Went today to Mets opening day. Everything was going fairly well until some seven year old boy running with his open bottle of Pepsi collided with me and spilled a measure of the contents all over the front of my pants. Thus it appeared as if the Mets come-from-behind win had caused me to lose bladder control. So that was great.

Then I go on line for the first time in a few days and discover that a spam bot unleashed on this website caused my mail account to be flooded out (thanks to my receiving an e-mail confirmation every time any posting is made on this site.) Wonderful.

PAD

Posted by Peter David at April 12, 2005 12:36 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commenting
Comments
Posted by: Kurt at April 12, 2005 01:09 AM

Sounds like a fun weekend, PAD, ballpark problems aside. I've always wanted to meet Amber Bensen, who happens to be my favorite Buffy girl.

Actually, I sent you an EMail a few days back that I'm now wondering if you ever received. Basically, I asked for some publishing tips, as I have recently completed a novel called "Reverse the Curse!" Taking place during the 2004 season, it focuses on a group of crazy Cubs fans who discover that the alleged Goat Curse is real, but was placed on Wrigley Field, not the Cubs. They concoct a plan to blow up Wrigley Field in late September of 2004, which would force the Cubs to play their post season games at the hated US Cellular Park, home of the White Sox.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions for finding a publisher or a lit agent, I'd love to hear them. So far, I've had zero luck.

Posted by: Randomus at April 12, 2005 02:21 AM

I've always wanted to win the chance to be brutally murdered. You're living the dream, man!

Posted by: TallestFanEver at April 12, 2005 03:01 AM

so does that mean every time I post, like this, you're getting an e-mail?

Posted by: TallestFanEver at April 12, 2005 03:02 AM

Or like this?

Ok, I'll stop now. 2 spam e-mails is cruel enough.

Posted by: Jeff Coney (www.hedgehoggames.com)) at April 12, 2005 03:13 AM

That sucks about your e-mail, but it does look like overall you had a fun time. So anyway, would you like to slash your debt, increase your penis size, loose those unwanted pounds, find a hot date that will do anything tonight, get your dream job, increase your bust size, lose that unwanted penis, find hot barely legal videos for less, or join a cult?

JAC

Posted by: Andrew W. Laubacher at April 12, 2005 09:31 AM

If you click over to Harlan Ellison's Webderland, on Unca' Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion, you can find Adam-Troy Castro's story about being trapped on an elevator with Harlan for over 40 minutes over the week-end and Harlan's response to same.

Posted by: a_wrath at April 12, 2005 09:57 AM

Apperently this year the mets winning is a cause for loss of bladder control, but its early yet

Posted by: Frank Schiavo at April 12, 2005 01:00 PM

I'm glad you had fun at ICon. One of these days I'm going to have to go up east for that and World Horror Convention [always been a dream of mine going to that convention] I also hope the Crescent City Con stuff I sent to you wasn't lost in the spam attack. I know I lose mail by the butt-loads when it happens to me [not too often TATG's]. Regardless, I would hate to lose contact via email that way.

Frank Schiavo in New Orleans....

Posted by: Bud at April 12, 2005 01:52 PM

"...it appeared as if the Mets come-from-behind win had caused me to lose bladder control..."

A likely story, Pad. A likely story. ;p

Posted by: Ravenwing263 at April 12, 2005 02:23 PM

Waitasecond. Christopher Golden + Amber Benson + fantasy + horrible murders = Ghosts of Albion? Maybe? If so, kick ass.

Posted by: Scott Iskow at April 12, 2005 02:34 PM

So when are they putting "Space Cases" on DVD? I can guarantee that at least one person will buy it!

Oh, and stop ripping off Joss! He is the original! He invented vampires! He invented blonde, British smokers in trench coats! He invented strong female characters that sacrifice themselves to save the world from some "crisis," only to come back from the dead! Original, I say! ORIGINAL!

Cutting off Aquaman's hand in a shocking move that redefined the character? Fiery wings sprouting from Supergirl's back? Captain Marvel going insane? Come on, genuine surprises and refreshing creativity are the sign of a hack! Now, maybe if you brought back Jason Todd...

Okay, am I going too far with the sarcasm?

Posted by: Ray Cornwall at April 12, 2005 02:35 PM

PAD, are you still using AOL as your primary mail account? You might want to use something like Fastmail's paid service (plug note- I know the owners, as I once consulted for a big company's real estate division, and had them submit a proposal for mail services). They're at fastmail.fm, and they have a big roomy 2 GB account for a cheap fee, with lots of extra services. Just a thought. (plug end- by the way, I make this plug only for your benefit- I make no money off of this.)

Posted by: Knuckles at April 12, 2005 02:43 PM

Peter: Take good care of Mike Cameron, will you plase? He may strike out like me at a singles bar, but damn can he play centerfield...

Posted by: JamesLynch at April 12, 2005 02:57 PM

Would the spam bot be taken out by an anti-spyware program? I got one (ZeroSpyware) when I found that the Norton AntiVirus did squat against spyware, and my computer's never been cleaner!

I also posted my I-CON review on the last thread here. If anyone wants to see it here, give a holler!

Posted by: Josh Bales at April 12, 2005 04:47 PM

Same damn thing happened to me. I went to bed one night and woke up the next day with 2500+ comment emails. Man, I was angry.

There is, however, apparently a security feature with MT where commenters have to type in a little five-digit code that ensures spam bots won't post. I'm gonna install it this weekend and see how it works.

JAB

Posted by: Will at April 12, 2005 05:00 PM

I know that both you and she are married, PAD but I'm just curious to know. How hot is Jewel Staite in person?

Posted by: Kathleen David at April 12, 2005 05:21 PM

Will,
Peter does think of Jewel more in the daughter sense than the hottie sense. They first worked together on Space Cases and she was 12. But given the head snap reaction I observed as she walked through the dealers room apparently she has a smoking factor that causes the males to look.
Kath

Posted by: Jerome Maida at April 12, 2005 07:24 PM

Scott Iskow,
"Okay, am I going too far with the sarcasm?"

Yes. Very much so. The only thing that annoys me (or amuses me - depends on my mood) more than people comparing PAD to Whedon is WHEN SOMEBODY HAS TO FIND IT NECESSARY TO MOCK OR BELITTLE ONE TO PROP UP THE OTHER.
They are both tremendously talented. Let's please just leave it at that.
P.S. I do HATE Jason Todd coming back:(

Posted by: Tim Lynch at April 12, 2005 07:58 PM

Peter does think of Jewel more in the daughter sense than the hottie sense.

That's what he WANTS you to think, anyway. :-)

TWL
who actually has no doubts about the above

Posted by: Mookie at April 12, 2005 08:53 PM

Hello there. Dunno if you remember me or not, but this is Mookie, from ICON.

It was a pleasure to meet you this past weekend, Mr. David, and an even greater pleasure to be on the same panel as you... even if we were on "opposing sides" for the "Web vs. Print" discussion. I've been gushing about it like a fanboy to my friends all week, and I think I finally got it all out of my system.

Anyway, keep up the fantastic work, as always. I can't wait for Hulk #81!

Posted by: Blaze Rocket at April 13, 2005 02:20 AM

I am also currious as to when we could expect to see Space Cases on DVD. It makes me happy to hear that Jewel Staite is doing well.

Posted by: Lis Riba at April 13, 2005 09:03 AM

Blaze stole my question. With Jewel's newfound fame in Firefly, any chance of a Space Cases DVD set? Maybe you can point to the growing popularity of Firefly on DVD, or see if they'd time it around the release of Serenity.

Posted by: Tom Galloway at April 13, 2005 04:07 PM

If Peter would like a new email account, I've got plenty of Gmail invites; 2 gig of space and growing, no fee.

Amusingly, a new co-worker started Monday who's a friend of Christopher Golden. So discovered due to some slightly more recent hires telling us that they thought she might be a major Buffy fan, so when I and her other co-mentor picked up after Orientation, I just dropped "Angel or Spike" into conversation and she ran with it.

Posted by: R. Maheras at April 13, 2005 04:42 PM

Kurt wrote: "They concoct a plan to blow up Wrigley Field in late September of 2004, which would force the Cubs to play their post season games at the hated US Cellular Park, home of the White Sox."


Well, if you ever sell it, I have a marketing idea you can use: A toy gallows with a cartoony goat hanging from it (crossed eyes and all). Another possibility is a t-shirt with a picture of a cartoon goat with a red circle and slash over it, titled "Goatbusters," of course (trademark problems could arise here, however)

Posted by: Kurt at April 13, 2005 05:28 PM

Ironically, I run a Cubs website called Goat Riders of the Apocalypse, featuring myself and three other writers who write daily articles about the team, and why we believe that the End is Nigh. Goatbusters might be a problem, but I think Goat Riders sounds better anyway!

And in case any of you are curious, the address is http://www.goatriders.org ... feel free to check us out. As Strongbad might say, we're slightly awesome!

Posted by: Jonathan (the other one) at April 13, 2005 07:24 PM

"Peter does think of Jewel more in the daughter sense than the hottie sense."

Which, of course, just reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Isaac Asimov -

"Treat me as your father, my dear - I incest."

Posted by: Russ at April 14, 2005 01:06 AM

Dear PAD,
I just just trying to hunt down some contact info on Jim Shooter when I came across your name listed on "http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopediaP/Pe/Peter_David.htm". (Cut to the chase) What is "The Tardis on Pooh Corner?"-- Being a both Doctor Who and PAD fan, I find the thought of you writing a Who related story in intriguing. Unfortunatley, the link on absolute astronomy's web site was broken, so I decieded to come here and ask you for some details. (Is it still in print, can I get a copy of it?)

Thanks,
--Russ W.

PS. While it would be cool to have PAD respond himself, I'll be grateful for the responce of anyone from the world of fandom who can answer my questions.

Posted by: Peter David at April 14, 2005 05:34 AM

"The Tardis at Pooh Corner" was a self-published fanzine I wrote decades ago. Written in the style of A.A.Milne, illustrated by my then-brother-in-law Alex Kasman, TAPC featured the adventures of Doctor Pooh, who lived in a house under a name that no one could pronounce, which was why they called him Doctor Pooh. Hurtling through time and space in his TARDIS, he went through such adventures as "Genesis of the Heffalumps" and "Terror of the Woozles." I printed a couple hundred of them and they actually sold in fairly short order.

PAD

Posted by: Jim Moore at April 14, 2005 08:29 AM

Actually, "The Tardis at Pooh Corner" is located in the archives, starting in May 2002.

Posted by: Will at April 16, 2005 12:20 PM

The nice thing about Jewel's hotness is that she's not Hollywood, fake, plastic surgeon hot. She just looks like a normal woman you'd see walking down the street.

BTW, is she anything like Kaylee on the show?

I know one thing. If I ever met her, I'd have to ask her if she could call me Cap'n. :)