'Neil Says "Hi" By The Way...'
Dec. 15th, 2009 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7So I met Neil Gaiman, last night.
He did a reading of Odd and the Frost Giants, which I Need, and of The Graveyard Book, and he answered many questions, in between. He told us of the inspiration for Coraline (Holly's spooky stories about herself, when she was a young girl), and for the The Graveyard Book (taking Mike to ride his tricycle, in the graveyard acroos from their home, so he didn't try to ride it down the many many stairs, and hurt himself). He also declined to provide the meaning of life. Dang.
We then waited for 2+ hours, as the line wound around the auditorium, and we read, and waited.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unknownbinaries drew, before the reading, and while we waited for the signing. See here: http://unknownbinaries.livejournal.com/1009621.html (He absolutely loved it. He looked in complete shock, when I told him that she drew it in the 30-40 minutes before the reading, and shaded it as we waited to come up to the signing).
When we finally got there, Neil signed my Hill House author's preferred edition of American Gods, with "Sweet Dreams," which he didn't know was so very appropriate, but made me smile.
He noticed my hoodie, and said that he couldn't think of anything more appropriate, than seeing that there. That made me smile, a great deal.
I subtlely indicated that we have acquaintances in common, by passing on Widgett's regards, and Neil sent his, in return.
This, you see, is my problem: When I have people in common with people, I want to enumerate those people, tell all the ways we've encountered each other before, overlapping paths. Because that's important to me. But it's not important to many others, especially famous people who don't know me, personally, so I have to restrain myself... So I did.
I mentioned Widge, but notgreygirlbeast, and not our encounter in 2000, and not Twitter, and on and on. Things I did not do. I was good.
And it was amazing. Wonderful night. Didn't sleep well, but it was totally, completely worth it.
That is all.
He did a reading of Odd and the Frost Giants, which I Need, and of The Graveyard Book, and he answered many questions, in between. He told us of the inspiration for Coraline (Holly's spooky stories about herself, when she was a young girl), and for the The Graveyard Book (taking Mike to ride his tricycle, in the graveyard acroos from their home, so he didn't try to ride it down the many many stairs, and hurt himself). He also declined to provide the meaning of life. Dang.
We then waited for 2+ hours, as the line wound around the auditorium, and we read, and waited.
unknownbinaries drew, before the reading, and while we waited for the signing. See here: http://unknownbinaries.livejournal.com/1009621.html (He absolutely loved it. He looked in complete shock, when I told him that she drew it in the 30-40 minutes before the reading, and shaded it as we waited to come up to the signing).When we finally got there, Neil signed my Hill House author's preferred edition of American Gods, with "Sweet Dreams," which he didn't know was so very appropriate, but made me smile.
He noticed my hoodie, and said that he couldn't think of anything more appropriate, than seeing that there. That made me smile, a great deal.
I subtlely indicated that we have acquaintances in common, by passing on Widgett's regards, and Neil sent his, in return.
This, you see, is my problem: When I have people in common with people, I want to enumerate those people, tell all the ways we've encountered each other before, overlapping paths. Because that's important to me. But it's not important to many others, especially famous people who don't know me, personally, so I have to restrain myself... So I did.
I mentioned Widge, but not
greygirlbeast, and not our encounter in 2000, and not Twitter, and on and on. Things I did not do. I was good.And it was amazing. Wonderful night. Didn't sleep well, but it was totally, completely worth it.
That is all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 05:47 am (UTC)back when i was a rock star
Date: 2009-12-16 07:09 am (UTC)Let me tell you, while his stuff isn't always to my taste, there are few things that would invoke performance anxiety like having your script emailed back with notes like: "This is really, really good".
Gah.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 06:18 am (UTC)Which was an amazing experience anyway, since I handed him our DreamCast for Good Omens. His response: "Who do you have for director?" Me: "Terry Gilliam." Neil: (pause) "I can neither confirm nor deny Terry Gilliam's involvement in the film." And he walked away.
And my jaw ricocheted off the floor.
Neil = hero.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 07:05 am (UTC)Yeah, he's not one of my favorite writers, but he's hands down a really awesome person.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 02:16 pm (UTC)I wanted to meet him!
Bastards!
Stupid final...
Glad things went well..