Dancing About Architecture

An Evening With Neil Gaiman

Author and fellow blogger Neil Gaiman is out in Australia promoting his two books for younger readers, “M is for Magic” and “The Dangerous Alphabet”. He was at Books Kinokuniya in Sydney’s CBD this evening to do a talk, a Q&A session and book signing.

When I turned up 30 minutes before the start of the event, the bookstore was already packed out. I had entertained the notion of getting Neil to sign my copy of “Neverwhere”, but taking one look at the line that snaked its way throughout the store, I decided that I wanted to get home before midnight and headed to the viewing area that was set up about 5 meters away from the mini-stage. Neil really wasn’t kidding when he advised fans to bring a packed lunch to any of his signings.

There was a huge range of ages of fans at the store. The woman in front of me was about 70 years old and I spotted a group of teenagers who were no more than 13 years old. I think the bookstore was shocked at how many people had turned up.

Before allowing Neil to speak, the bookstore had some rules for the signing. Only two items each person, no personal photos to be taken with Neil and the only books that are allowed to have a personal dedication written in them were “M is for Magic” and “The Dangerous Alphabet”. During the last rule, Neil was shaking his head and after the intro Neil grabbed the microphone and said that he would write personal dedications on anything people asked him to. This draw a huge cheer from the crowd.

Neil read two scenes from his upcoming book, “The Graveyard Book” which he describes as like “The Jungle Book” but instead of the kid being raised by animals and taught animals things, the kid is raised by dead people and is taught about dead people things. The scenes he read (one from Chapter 1 and one from Chapter 7) were fantastic and I can’t wait until October when the book is released here.

Neil then did a Q&A session where the questions were written on pieces of paper that were then put in a large fish bowl. The most interesting tidbits of information that were revealed in this session were;

• Major film studios are interested in filming a movie version of “Neverwhere”.
• Film studios have also displayed interest in making a movie version of “The Graveyard Book”.
• His favourite cereal is porridge
• Neil revealed that he and Tori Amos are working on a collaboration that he describes as “a secret that will be revealed in the next four years or so”. My suspicion is that this might have something to do with Tori’s next album.

After the Q&A session, the signings began. Neil pledged to stay as long as it took for everyone to get something signed. He also held up the manuscript of “The Graveyard Book” he had been reading from earlier that had been illustrated by Dave Kearn and said that everyone was more than welcome to have a flip through it, but please do not steal it.

Next time, Neil Gaiman is in town, I am definitely going to turn up early and get a spot in that massive line. But this time around, I was more than happy just to be in the same room as him and having the pleasure of hearing him speak.

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