Neil:
Once we've done the reading, we'll do a question and answer, and then they will spirit me off and make me magically reappear downstairs and I will sign stuff until my hand falls off. (The crowd laughs.) You think I'm joking. (Laughter.)
Girl from the audience:
Was it surgically reapplied earlier today?
Neil:
Actually, it's still hanging in there just. But it's definitely got that sort of... hello-remember-me kind of feeling. (Laughter.) It doesn't sort of... it doesn't strike back, it knows that... it knows that.... actually what it really knows is that I'm going to keep doing this until the middle of July.(Laughter.)
--Before the reading at Cody's Books in Berkeley, California, 26 June
If you have any comments, pictures, stories, or just want to say hello, feel free to email me.
Right.
| * |
So. Why is this site here, you probably want to know. The original purpose was pretty simple, at least in my head anyway: I'd spent 5 days-- 24 June through 28 June 2001-- driving from Las Vegas up to the Bay Area and then to the Los Angeles area to meet Neil Gaiman on his signing tour for his novel American Gods. I'd collected so much stuff, made so many friends, and had a few stories to tell, that I figured what better place to have memories than online, where the rest of the world can see it too?
Basically, a lot of people had asked how my trip was. This place will be how my trip was, since I know people will get sick of me talking about it.
There are no counters, no guestbooks. I didn't make this site to make money, or to have it turn into a traditional fansite. I just wanted to share.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Saint Nightwalker convinced me to drive up to San Fransisco with him, when my original plan was to drive from Vegas to San Diego up to Pasadena then Hollywood. And you know what, Satan bless that man, I'm glad he did, because I had the best 5 days of my life on this trip.
There are some people who can't make it to signings, and only hear stories secondhand, so I think writing about my own trek can help some people live vicariously, and hopefully, one day, they'll get to a signing and meet Neil for themselves. I don't think there's anyone out there who can really describe how nice and gracious he is.
Personally, I'd never been to an author signing before. I'd seen Neil read 3 years ago, but never met him before. Walker wanted me to meet him. So I did. A lot. This place is my story.
What is on this site is both audio and visual, snippets of readings and random comments, newsgroup posts, pictures, and a journal-like narration from Monday through Friday night/Saturday morning. 1169 miles in California, about 1450 miles round trip.
And don't worry, it's very short.
Like Neil says, "Trust your story." But first, here is Michelle's introduction from the Berkeley reading at Cody's:
You learn a lot about authors not only by reading what they write, but also by their fan base, and Neil Gaiman is no exception. Neil's fans are about as varied as the words that he writes.
We are comic collectors who learned about him through his work with The Sandman, proof that literature can have pictures.
We are amime afficionados who became familiar with his English adapation of The Princess Mononoke.
We are SF fans who read Good Omens, because we are also Terry Pratchett fans.
We read Don't Panic, because we love Douglas Adams.
And I'm certain that none of us were all too disappointed when we found out he wrote a script for Babylon 5 for the episode "The Day of the Dead."
We are music lovers who are familiar with his associations with Tori Amos and the Flash Girls, or the Magnetic Fields... and a certain 80's pop band which shall remain nameless.
We are children. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish was selected as a Scholastic Book and is about to become an animated series.
We are children of all ages who read the faerie tale Stardust which has been released in many many editions both illustrated and in prose.
As fans we have traveled great distances. We've flown from Hong Kong to Chicago to say hello; flown from Melbourne, Australia, to Knoxville, Tennessee for the most tedious sushi in the world. Some of us have driven thousands of miles just for a photograph, often staying with people that we've met on Neil-related online communities. And living to tell the tale.
As fans we come from all walks of life. We are artists, starving or otherwise. Computer techies, computer junkies. Homemakers, students, all here today with a common purpose.
We all like a well told story.