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Thursday, September 22, 2005: The setting was in
an auditorium at North Central College in
Naperville, Illinois with a few hundred people in
attendance; but not a full house. The audience
was mostly comprised of twenty-somethings
(apparel somewhere between hippie chic and
bohemian), but I did see two couples in their 50s.
Before his reading, a book store rep asked those
in the crowd who had come the farthest to see him.
(Too bad for me they didn't ask who came the
least farthest.) There were some Michiganders.
One said he was from Kansas City. One guy said he
came from Phoenix. But the topper was a gal who
said she came from New Orleans, who got nice
applause. After the reading, before the signing,
Gaiman handed her a limited edition Sandman
statue.)
Neil came out looking like you'd think; black
shirt, black jacket. Since his new book, "The
Anansi Boys" had only been out for two days, he
provided the audience some background. Then he
read the dedication page:
"You know how it is. You pick up a book, flip to
the dedication, and find that, once again, the
author has dedicated a book to someone else and
not to you.
Not this time.
Because we haven't yet met/have only a glancing
acquaintance/are just crazy about each
other/haven't seen each other in much too long/are
in some way related/will never meet, but will I
trust, despite that, always think fondly of each
other . . .
This one's for you.
With you know what, and you probably know why."
Then he read Chapter two from the book and took
some questions. From the Q & A we learned . . .
- He hates vague reviews, like the one in USA
TODAY that misconveyed an incident from the story.
- On bad reviews, he relates to the thoughts of
another author who said, "I'll let a bad review
spoil my breakfast, but not my lunch." Two hours
is about the right time to stew in it.
- He's got a lot of stories yet to tell:
Neverwhere, Stardust, and a few Shadow stories.
- For Marvel, he'll be working on Eternals,
originally a Jack Kirby comic from the '70s.
- Progress is being made on a Death movie, as well
as Beowulf with Crispin Glover as Grenel.
He stopped taking questions precisely one hour
after he appeared onstage. I waited about two and
a half hours to get my book signed, but Neil
stayed another hour and a half beyond that, until
everyone there got a signature.
Thanks again, Neil . . . wherever you are.
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