A Little Bit of Neil In My Life

Neil Gaiman was an absolutely fabulous reader. You can view each chapter over on his blog. He has been reading one chapter of The Graveyard Book at each of his appearances (I got to see chapter 4, it was awesome and long--about 50 pages!), has recorded them and has them available to watch.

I am not much of a fan. I don't drool over any celebrities or follow bands around hoping to get a body part signed. There is no actor that I would die to meet. Not saying I would say no to meeting one, it just seems like too much work. That said, I admire Joss Whedon from afar. And now Neil Gaiman.

Part of what I like about these two men is that they give a little of themselves to their fans. They don't act thankful, they act like a friend. They want to give us what we want, and it happens to be what they want as well. I was thinking this about Joss Whedon after watching the series Firefly and the movie Serenity, then watching some special features. I just got the warm fuzzies.

I got the same feeling during the two and a half hours that Neil Gaiman spent with his Seattle audience on Friday. As I said, he read 50 pages of his book to us, with feeling. The story itself made me want to jump into the book and experience the adventure myself. I have loved a storyteller that could do that ever since I was a little girl and had things I wanted to get away from. He showed us some clips from the new movie coming out, Coraline--based on the book. It looks like it is going to be great--I hope they add a picture to the IMDB page soon, because the imagry is fabulous. Stop Action Animation! (Done by the director Henry Selick, who also did Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.) Then he answered questions from the audience for the last 30 or 40 minutes.

He did not sign books, or rather, he did not sign them individually. Everyone that ordered a book got a signed one, so there were no personalized messages--but really, does that mean anything? I have some totally weird signings from Terry Brooks (like: "Brew a Little Magic of your Own."), very personal... And I guess that last time he did a signing in Seattle he was at the table until 2:30 am. Now that is dedication.