On Tuesday night, my brother-in-law David invited me along to a reading and signing by one of our favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. It was a real thrill.
David was the one that introduced me to Gaiman’s work, giving me a copy of his first novel “Neverwhere” one year for Christmas. If you asked me for my three favorite novels, it would be an easy choice to be one of them. I have enjoyed everything else I have read of his work, and still have a few publications yet to read. Gaiman is originally from England but now makes his home in the Minneapolis area. He wrote “American Gods” which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for “Best Novel”, “Coraline” (soon to be a “animated” film ala “The Nightmare Before Christmas”) which also won both the Hugo and Nebula though for “Best Novella”, and “Stardust” and “Anansi Boys” (a sequel of sorts to “American Gods”) which both won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.
The reading was at Bryn Mawr College. There is an association between it and two other area colleges, one being where David works. It was a private affair for those either working for or attending either of the three. But you could bring a guest. (Thanks again David!)
Gaiman read a couple of poems to begin with, though they don’t read like your typical poems. They are both from his latest short story collection called “Fragile Things”. The first, “Instructions” are basically just that, instructions to those that find themselves in a fairy world. Below is a reading of “Instructions” from 2006.
The second was “The Day the Saucers Came” and was filled with typical Gaiman wit about events that could lead to the end of the world.
The next two items he read are both unpublished as of yet. The first was a short story called “Orange”. The story itself though is answers to questions, but you don’t know what the questions are. It tells a very interesting and funny story. It is going to be published as part of a fantasy anthology.
The second of the two unpublished items was the second chapter to the book he is currently writing, with the working title of “The Graveyard Book”. Each chapter in the book can be read as a short story, though reading the first chapter is necessary for background on the main character, a five year old boy named Bod, which is short for Nobody. It was very good, and also disgusting, because it was a first draft that he read us!
As a fan of his work, it was so incredibly thrilling to hear him read material that he had never read to anyone else before, and hadn’t been published either. He said he did this purposely to get an idea of how the story was working.
Gaiman keeps an online journal on his WEB SITE. You can read his ENTRY for the day where he wrote a few lines about the evening:
And I had great fun reading at Bryn Mawr - I subjected a very patient audience to the whole of the second chapter of The Graveyard Book in handwritten first draft (well, I read it to them, I didn’t force them to read it), and I got to learn where they laughed and what worked and what didn’t quite.
Then I signed a book for each of them and stumbled away.
I had my hardback edition of “Fragile Things” signed. And I don’t know why he drew a heart, so don’t ask.
The reading of his material lasted one hour and twenty minutes. I only expected him to read for thirty minutes at the most. Because of this, I think those of us attending felt very honored that he would devote so much time to his audience. After the reading he gave us an update on his movie deals, with “Stardust” leading the pack. It arrives in theaters on August 10th. Also, he mentioned that Terry Gilliam still owns the movie rights to his collaborative novel with Terry Pratchett “Good Omens”, but no one wants to give Gilliam $65 million to make it. He then mentioned that if we knew anyone that had $65 million to give Gilliam to please give him the necessary information and that he would see to it that Terry received it.
David and I were sitting in the first row of the second section which provided us with a pretty good view. We estimated that there were about 300 people present. Those seats seemed to work good for us when it came time for the signing. Given our spot it allowed us to position ourselves in the first 20 or so people in line leaving us with a very short wait for the signing.
The only drawback of the event was it being rather warm in the hall. Other then that, it turned out to be a truly amazing evening. My thanks also to Marcia for watching a rather cranky Nigel for a couple of hours while I attended this event.
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