Went to the Neil Gaiman book signing Sunday night at Borders, Baileys Crossroads, VA. That store brings in a lot of big-time writers, but since it's a pretty long drive for me, the only other time I'd been there was to see Orson Scott Card. But since I was already in DC (only 15 minutes away) and I wanted to see Gaiman, I decided it would be worth the effort to go. It was.
About an hour before the event, I bought the new Gaiman book Anansi Boys and visited with my good friend John, talking books, music...all the important stuff in life.
Gaiman finally came out – wearing all black, of course – gave a brief intro., then read the dedication of the new book. He said he'd already started the tour by reading portions of the book from the beginning, so we were treated to a scene from Chapter Two. With 300+ people in front of me, I couldn't see Gaiman too well, but I did see everyone around me, following along in their copies as Gaiman read. I don't know – it reminded me of watching the first day of classes as a college freshman or kids in catechism class or something. (Take that for what you will.)
I couldn't hear most of the questions during Q&A, but heard most of the answers. Gaiman's early influences were The Chronicles of Narnia and Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer. (And later Delany, Zelazny, Ellison) His school library had battered copies of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, but not The Return of the King. So when he finished the first two volumes, he read them again. Two years later when he won the school's English prize, the judges told him he could have any book he wanted. "The Return of the King!" he demanded.
John and I finally got to meet Gaiman at about 11:00 PM. He was visibly tired (The event started at 7:30.), but still very cordial and courteous. I handed him my copy of Anansi Boys to sign and also an advance reader's copy of Stardust. Gaiman took one look at the cover of the ARC and froze. "Just a moment," he said. "I've let this go on too long and I'm going to do something about it right now."
Oh crap, I thought. He's got something against signing ARCs. I'm in for it now.
He calls for his agent and she comes over in an instant. "Look at this," he says, pointing to the cover of the ARC. I'm looking for the nearest exit, figuring Gaiman is going to rip up/batter/put a blowtorch to my ARC, but I want to figure out how to grab my copy of Anansi Boys away from him so I can at least survive the experience with something.
"This cover," Gaiman says, "was never published except on the advance reader's copies. This is a lovely cover. Can we get this cover on the next edition that comes out?" The agent made a note of it and nodded vigorously.
Gaiman gave me a smile that seemed to say "I'm glad we got that settled." So was I. He signed and I exhaled.
He handed the books to me and I thanked him. "You're very welcome," he said.
2 comments:
How cool. . .do you ever write creative non-fiction? Seems like you'd have a knack for it, just from reading this post. Really makes the signing more real for all of us.
Anyway, sounds like a fun night. I haven't actually read any Gaiman. Maybe on the next trip to the library.
I haven't read any of his novels either. But you should definitely check out his short story collection "Smoke and Mirrors", uhm, unfamiliar dude who is wandering on Andy's blog.
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