National Geek Day

[oyceter]

I went and saw Neil Gaiman on Friday instead of seeing Serenity or MirrorMask. I've only been to one other author signing. This one was much, much larger, and in a church, which was rather funny, given that Gaiman was reading from Anansi Boys ("God is dead. Meet the kids."). (I feel rather awkward calling him Gaiman and even more awkward calling him Neil, so I guess the only answer is to squiggle in awkwardness when I write this.)

I also now have a horrendous and embarrassing author crush.

Gaiman seems like a nice person. He seemed like a nice person from his blog, and he seemed like a nice person from his reading and Q&A session, and it was a great relief. The other author signing I went to before was Orson Scott Card, and the less I say about how I feel about his politics, the better.

Anyhow, Gaiman looks just like his pictures, except maybe a little more worn around the edges, and he seemed very British, with a nice, unassuming but sly sense of humor. He's also really good at doing readings. Despite having the ARC of Anansi Boys on my shelf for a few months, I haven't been tempted to read it until hearing bits read out on Friday.

He also made brief mentions of Aziraphale/Crowley slash, MirrorMask (so glad it's playing nearby here!), National Geek Day and assorted other things.

Anyway, he just seemed really, really nice!

Stood in line for an endless three hours for the signing, and by the time I got there, I was falling asleep on my feet. I was also sort of trying to figure out if there was anything to say that wouldn't sound too obnoxious and rabid fangirly. And then I was trying to juggle my books, so of course the first thing that slipped out of my mouth when I got up there was, "Oooo, chocolate!"

There was chocolate there, at least, or else I would have looked like a complete idiot.

At which Gaiman nicely said I could have some (I resisted), or to try the nice tea biscuits there (which I didn't resist but should have), which were apparently tasty but dry. So I was standing there all confused with a biscuit in one hand and scrap paper I was desperately trying not to drop in the other, and he was signing my stuff really fast and getting it right back to me, except I wasn't sure what to do because I had no free hands. Stuff biscuit in mouth and look like chipmunk? Briefly hold biscuit in mouth and risk drool? Drop all papers and try to one-handedly gather books and pray I didn't drop everything and bonk my head on the table?

I ended up doing the latter and luckily not bonking my head on the table and exited the line in a flurry and probably forgot to thank him.

Stood by while the people I came with got their stuff signed and decided it was then safe to eat the biscuit, which was indeed very, very dry. I swear, the thing sucked all the saliva out of my mouth, so I stood there and tried really hard not to move my mouth for fear of spewing crumbs everywhere. Swallowed the giant lump of dry cracker and said, "Wow, that's very dry" a little too loudly, which caused some heads in the row (Gaiman's included) to swivel. "Er. The biscuit. Yeah. It's very dry," I explained to no one in particular.

After which, I promptly decided that I should really go away and shut up before I did anything even worse, like pitch forward onto the table and collapse, crumbs everywhere.

Comments

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I suffer from mixed jealousy and the certainy that I would have done something much, much worse than eat a proffered biscuit. This is why I quit going to signings for authors I actually *like* years ago -- I have a series of Embarassing Moments to recollect whenever I get down their books.

OTOH, I saw Garth Nix and Jonathan Stroud before I read their books, and was able to be cheery and well-composed. If I'd done it the other way round, I would have gone up there and babbled "ohmigod I luv Sabriel!!!" or something. *g*

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

My daughter and I are going to tonight's signing, also taking place in a church (ha!). I'm a bit nervous about the 3 hours in line part. Our "event" starts at 7:30 and it's a school night, and if there's a reading and Q&A before the signing, I expect it will be at least 8:30 before he even starts signing. Eek. I've heard another person say they stood in line for 4 hours. Given the kind of town I live in (full of geeky readers such as myself) I'm expecting a large turn out.

I guess the only way to find out how bad it will be is to go, but I'm REALLY not looking forward to breaking my daughter's heart and telling her we can't stay that late :(.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

Gaiman is very good in person. I missed him for Anansi Boys because I had to work late that night (boo) but I saw him back at Coraline, and got a little bit of an author crush myself. And he drew a little rat in my copy of Coraline!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Neil really is a cutie, even though every time I've ever seen him he's been totally exhausted. I think he's nice too. And a brilliant speaker/reader. I think my favorite part of the reading was when he imitated a really really cool person saying, "Heyyyy."

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

You're adorable.

Just thought I should mention it.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Neil Gaiman is so great. I wish book tours were inherently easier, because he's just been exhausted every time I've ever seen him on one. Studio 360 on NPR had an interview with him yesterday, but I only heard about half of it.

Oh, and have you heard the Coraline audio-book? Author crushes feed and grow strong on it.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Great that you persevered and got his signature. We were too tired to wait after an hour and a half, and went home. He talked about Geek Week in Berkeley, too--and we had a person dressed like Death who got up to ask a question, but giggled so much so much she couldn't talk. Kind of changed the image--Gaiman sort of laughed with her.

[actoplasm.livejournal.com]

I'll just do a reminder here for anyone interested: George R. R. Martin will be coming to Petaluma in November for the release of his fourth "Song of Fire and Ice" book. He's not quite as young and spry as Gaiman, but still pretty neat to be getting him for this long awaited book. Let me know if you want to see him and I'll give you more details when I get them.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Wow, amazing! We could have met there--but Thursday with Masq will be more fun.

What number did you have and how late did you stay? Or we can talk about all this soon IRL!