Wednesday, July 20, 2005
I Met Mr Punch
Yesterday morning before I left for work I grabbed my copies of Good Omens (off the bookshelf near the door of my Den) and American Gods (from the stack of books against the opposite wall). Around 4pm, I vanished from work with my books and headded over to Gaslight Books. Why? Well, Neil Gaiman was doing a book signing, and I'd figured it would be interesting to go.
I'd heard from people who'd met him before that Neil was a really nice, cool guy. While I was standing in line, I could tell that they were right - he was taking the time to have a bit of a chat to everyone (it was probably a bit easier since it wasn't super busy). What really convinced me was what happened just before I got to the front of the line. There was a rule about how you could only get three things signed - fair enough, or else everyone would be there all day waiting for the guy who wants *everything* signed. The woman who I assume was Neil's minder/tour manager/geek shield ducked outside for a minute. The next guy in the line put his three things down, and Neil signed them, complete with little messages. And then he offered to quickly sign the other couple of books the guy was holding.
When it was my turn, I had a bit of a chat while he was signing my stuff. I complemented him on his blog and how it had been really interesting reading it as he got closer and closer on his tour. He told me that he really enjoyed keeping it, but had found that the problem with a blog is that when things start to get really interesting, you don't have time to blog about them. I smiled when he was signing Good Omens (read this) when he paused for a moment and then wrote "And burn this book" as if he'd just remembered it.
And you'll have to read through Neil's blog to work out the post title.
I'd heard from people who'd met him before that Neil was a really nice, cool guy. While I was standing in line, I could tell that they were right - he was taking the time to have a bit of a chat to everyone (it was probably a bit easier since it wasn't super busy). What really convinced me was what happened just before I got to the front of the line. There was a rule about how you could only get three things signed - fair enough, or else everyone would be there all day waiting for the guy who wants *everything* signed. The woman who I assume was Neil's minder/tour manager/geek shield ducked outside for a minute. The next guy in the line put his three things down, and Neil signed them, complete with little messages. And then he offered to quickly sign the other couple of books the guy was holding.
When it was my turn, I had a bit of a chat while he was signing my stuff. I complemented him on his blog and how it had been really interesting reading it as he got closer and closer on his tour. He told me that he really enjoyed keeping it, but had found that the problem with a blog is that when things start to get really interesting, you don't have time to blog about them. I smiled when he was signing Good Omens (read this) when he paused for a moment and then wrote "And burn this book" as if he'd just remembered it.
And you'll have to read through Neil's blog to work out the post title.
# posted by Simon Dugard @ 10:49 am 
